FILM · 2011 · USA
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
- Directed by
- Brad Bird
- Runtime
- 133 min
- Studio
- Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot, TC Productions
88 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Ethan Hunt and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks, who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan…
Summary: TMDB
67 Interesting Facts About Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
- #002
Director Brad Bird specifically wanted every device in the film to break or malfunction.
- #004
According to Tom Cruise, he was happy when he heard they would use a subtitle in the film's title rather than a number, as the previous three films had. Because Cruise views each film as a standalone entry in the Mission: Impossible series, he was not a fan of some films that end with sequels set up.
- #005
The elaborate perspective-compensating moving screen used to hide someone behind another person in the Moscow Kremlin archives scene was similarly used in the television series Mission: Impossible (1966), season 4, episode 16, "The Falcon: Part 3" (1970).
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Bruce Springsteen shirt Ethan wears while leaving the Kremlin was costume designer Michael Kaplan's personal T-shirt. The production contacted Springsteen's representatives repeatedly to get permission for the shirt to appear in the film, but for some reason they kept refusing. Tom Cruise, who used to be Springsteen's neighbor, was baffled when he heard about it. He immediately took out his phone, called Springsteen, and was told that of course he could show the shirt.
- #007
The Burj Khalifa windows that were removed were carefully broken with hammers by two workers on the window-washing platform outside the building.
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
Jeremy Renner's character Brandt was created specifically to take over from Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt in case Cruise decided to leave the series.
- #009
Jeremy Renner said that working with Tom Cruise was a dream come true, because he had always idolized Tom Cruise as an actor. Renner mentioned that Cruise is a great actor but an even better man.
- #010
It was Brad Bird's first live-action directing effort.
- #011
Contains a major spoiler — show
Mission objectives typically end with the notification "This message will self destruct in 5 seconds." After Ethan receives his objective directly from the Secretary, the car is attacked 5 seconds later and the Secretary is killed.
- #012
Brandt's fan-favorite line, "Next time, I get to seduce the rich guy," was written by none other than the future writer/director of the rest of the series; Christopher McQuarrie, who was involved in the film's re-edit, scored a major success. He admitted that when he wrote the line, he thought "there was no way it would end up in the film."
- #013
Dermot Mulroney plays cello in this film's music orchestra. Better known as an actor (Longtime Companion (1989), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), About Schmidt (2002), etc.), Mulroney is also a classical cellist who occasionally plays on recording sessions for film scores.
- #014
FRANCHISE TRADEMARK (jump and hang): Jeremy Renner performs the signature jump-and-hang-in-midair move that Tom Cruise did in Mission: Impossible (1996).
- #018
The high-tech car Ethan Hunt drives near the end of the film is the Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car. It is a real prototype of the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid, which went into production in late 2013. The concept car is powered by a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder gasoline engine and two electric motors.
- #019
Ethan survives a 30-meter vertical fall in a car by deploying the airbags. Falling from that height means the car would have been moving at slightly less than 55 miles per hour at the moment of impact.
- #021
Ethan uses the call sign "Alpha 113" and "A113" appears on Hanaway's watch. A113 is a recurring joke and Easter egg in films produced by Pixar as well as in films made by California Institute of the Arts graduates, referring to one of the room numbers of the character animation BFA program. Director Brad Bird is both a CalArts graduate and a Pixar film director, and he has used an "A113" reference in all of his feature films as well as in his television work.
- #022
About seventeen minutes in, the code Ethan uses at the payphone to receive his final mission is Tom Cruise's birthday, 07362.
- #023
The sandstorm scene was shot on flat Super 35 mm rather than IMAX, because the motion blur of the flying sand made it invisible on film (even in IMAX), where it appeared only as a red haze. The enlarged grain of 35 mm film provided the "sand" when blown up to IMAX.
- #024
While Ethan is in the hospital after the Kremlin explosion, he reads the lips of two police officers talking outside his room. This continues the element from Mission: Impossible III (2006) that Ethan, as a highly trained spy, knows how to read lips. Tom Cruise came up with that idea for that film.
- #027
Contains a major spoiler — show
For a significant portion of the film's script and shooting, Julia was actually dead and gone. Christopher McQuarrie, the future writer/director of the rest of the franchise, was brought in to develop the script and ultimately decided to let his name be left off the film. One of the many things he changed was that Julia was in hiding and that Brandt became the person responsible for protecting her. Before that, Brandt had a similar backstory in which he lost two agents and resigned from his analyst position, but it was unrelated to Ethan's story and it felt as though Brandt was in his own film. Had this change not happened, the entirety of Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) would probably have been different, since it focuses on the villain who wants to kill Julia in order to destroy Ethan's world.
- #030
Prop master Kris Peck said that the prop that caused him and his team the most difficult moments during production was the glasses Tom Cruise wore during the Burj Khalifa climb and the sandstorm scene. The glasses were custom-made, the decision took some time to reach, and Peck had to meticulously modify them over several days so that they were perfectly lined to keep even the smallest grain of sand from getting inside during the sandstorm chase.
- #031
Contains a major spoiler — show
Only Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames appear in all six Mission: Impossible films, while Simon Pegg and Michelle Monaghan are the only actors (besides Cruise and Rhames) to reprise their roles from the previous third film, Mission: Impossible III (2006). Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner were actually set to reprise their roles in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), and Pegg continued the role of Benji in the sixth film as well.
- #032
Contains a major spoiler — show
This is the only film in the entire series in which Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) is not part of Ethan's mission. In the end, he appears where he meets Ethan at a bar. He is reunited with Benji (Simon Pegg) and, before leaving, meets Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Carter (Paula Patton) and tells Ethan that he will see him on the next mission. He would be part of the team again in the next three installments.
- #033
When Brad Bird agreed to direct the film, he asked J. J. Abrams, who was reluctant to show him the script and said that Bird would have too much freedom while doing the scenes. After Bird finally received a real offer from Abrams for the script, the producer admitted that they had several drafts but nothing definitive at that point, and that Bird should use the opportunity to contribute as much as he wanted. According to Bird, the script underwent major changes even after production began. For example, in the scene in the van after Ethan's prison escape, the team was initially unaware of the situation and unsure how to proceed; Bird blamed the fact that even he did not have an overview of the plot. This was later reshot once the direction of the plot became clear. The original scene can be seen as a deleted scene on the Blu-Ray release.
- #034
Twenty-five minutes of the film were shot in IMAX 70mm.
- #035
Contains a major spoiler — show
In India, the intense downtown chase scene at night, as well as the close scene in which Ethan (Tom Cruise) and his "still-alive" wife make eye contact, were shot in Vancouver, British Columbia. The former was around the convention center downtown, and the latter at "Granville Market." The scene in Moscow in which Ethan is briefed about his mission and team was also shot in Vancouver.
- #036
Contains a major spoiler — show
At twenty-three minutes in, in the shot immediately after Benji looks at the Russian guard and says that "Yegorov" belongs to Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) and Simon Pegg (Benji) walking down the corridor, you briefly see Michael Nyqvist (Hendricks) walking a few meters ahead of them, apparently waiting for them and most likely picking up radio frequencies. His plan depended on IMF infiltrating the Kremlin during the explosion, which explained how he was able to detect their communication frequencies.
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
At about one hour and fifty-five minutes in, the building the warhead grazes is the Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco's signature skyscraper. Its windowless top section is covered with aluminum panels and is purely decorative, containing no office space.
- #039
The Indian palace scene was shot at Zabeel Saray Palm Jumeirah (Dubai). During the three-day shoot, the hotel was still in its pre-opening stage.
- #040
The Burj Khalifa Hotel mentioned in the film is the Armani Hotel Dubai, the first hotel designed and developed by Giorgio Armani.
- #042
Contains a major spoiler — show
This is the only Mission: Impossible film that does not feature any hero wearing a full mask. Ethan wears a bit of makeup in the Kremlin scene, and later in the film the villain wears a full mask.
- #044
The enclosed water fountains at the Indian Palace use special laminar flow nozzles to produce turbulence-free streams of water. Special valves are used to "cut" the water into separate segments. Similar fountain technology is used at the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Las Vegas.
- #046
One of the film's milestones is that it presents the first Russian text written without a single grammatical error in an American film (the Russian text shown on screen at the beginning of the film).
- #047
It was initially targeted for release in mid-May 2011 with J. J. Abrams directing. However, pre-production delays and rewrites of the script pushed the film back; Abrams was also busy working on Super 8 (2011), which led him to step down from directing but remain on as producer.
- #049
Contains a major spoiler — show
(About one hour and twenty-three minutes in) Ethan Hunt arranges a meeting by phone with a Russian arms dealer, using his Dunhill lighter as a signal. This may be a hint that the meeting is not what it first appears, just as Jim Phelps used a Dunhill lighter in Mission: Impossible (1996). In fact, after the climax the audience learns that Hunt wanted the arms dealer to inform on him to the Russians so that they would believe the real conspiracy.
- #051
Contains a major spoiler — show
As seen in the final shot of the second theatrical trailer, a large missile flies over San Francisco and appears to head toward the Emeryville area, where Pixar's headquarters is located.
- #053
Contains a major spoiler — show
Body count: forty-two.
- #055
This is the first film in the series to be released in IMAX.
- #056
Because of the 70 mm IMAX interaction, the film played without any previews except for the six-minute prologue to The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
- #057
Anthony Mackie, Christopher Egan, Kevin Zegers, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy were considered to play Brandt.
- #058
The film's opening was originally a very elaborate snow chase. Costume Designer Michael Kaplan has a photo of Paula Patton during a costume fitting for this sequence, but that photo is all that remains of the idea.
- #059
Contains a major spoiler — show
The closing scene in which Ethan sees Julia was shot at the Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver, BC. The scene in the Mumbai parking garage was shot at the Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver.
- #060
Paula Patton's character in this film, Carter, is likely a tribute to Barbara Bain, who played Cinnamon Carter in the television series.
- #061
Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Josh Holloway are left-handed.
- #063
This is the first Mission: Impossible film that Paula Wagner did not co-produce.
- #064
While the team prepares for the mission in Dubai, Tom Cruise briefly wears a pair of glasses seen on the train. The same glasses are used while scaling the hotel; they are Oakley Split Jackets, modified, of course. Standard models come with clear frames, a special wind gasket and an elastic strap, but unfortunately the glasses featured in the film are one of a kind and not available to the public.
- #065
Contains a major spoiler — show
The producers initially wanted Gene Hackman to play the IMF Secretary, so much so that when they made the previsualization of the scene in which the Secretary's car falls from the bridge, a figure resembling Hackman was used for the character.
- #066
The IMF team makes use of several Apple products, including multiple iPhones, iPads and MacBook Airs. Producer J. J. Abrams is a strong supporter of Apple products.
- #067
Kristin Kreuk and Lauren German were considered to play Jane Carter.
- #068
The cars visible in the moving camera shot of the valet parking area in Mumbai, in counter-clockwise order starting from the lower left, are: Ferrari Enzo, Mercedes Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series, Bugatti Veyron 16.4, Ferrari F430, Aston Martin Vantage, Aston Martin DB9, BMW M6 and three white Rolls Royce Phantoms.
- #069
Tom Cruise bouncing the object off the cell wall is an obvious homage to Steve McQueen bouncing a baseball off the cell wall in The Great Escape (1963).
- #070
(About fourteen minutes in) The class ring Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway) uses to calm the courier is a Jostens Magnum class ring with a sapphire stone.
- #071
Contains a major spoiler — show
After the Kremlin explodes, Ethan is taken to a hospital and eventually removes a paper clip from a hospital map to pick the handcuffs he is in. After his escape, Anatoly examines the bed Ethan was in and there is a brief shot of the paper clip bent into the keyhole of one of the handcuffs. This is accurate to real life: paper clips can in fact be used to pick handcuff locks.
- #072
This is Jeremy Renner's highest-grossing film outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- #073
(About forty-four minutes in) As Russian investigators examine the files of two prisoners who escaped from jail on the day the Kremlin was bombed, it is revealed that Ethan Hunt's false identity is Sergei Ivanov. In real life, Sergei Ivanov is a senior Russian official and statesman.
- #074
With this film, the Mission: Impossible series' worldwide box office gross passed 2 billion dollars.
- #075
The number 47 appears or is mentioned several times, notably as the number of the train car Ethan and Brandt chase and of the pier where the team gathers after the mission. The frequent inclusion of the number 47 is a common occurrence in science fiction film and television, especially in the many Star Trek series. Simon Pegg appears in the Star Trek (2009) film series.
- #076
Although Mission: Impossible III (2006) is the only film in the series that clearly breaks the fourth wall, this film has a moment that comes very close. After Ethan interfaces with the server and runs along the side of the Burj Khalifa, there is a shot in which the camera is mounted on a window and looks at him. When Tom Cruise runs down the wall and reaches the camera's position, he clearly jumps over it and keeps running.
- #077
In the Italian version of the film, Ethan introduces Luther to the rest of the team as Stickler instead of Stickell.
- #078
About an hour and twenty-five minutes in, the pipe a man is seen smoking on the dock is a tobacco mixture popular in the United Arab Emirates called "Medwakh" or "Dokha."
- #079
In the opening scene, Josh Holloway walks toward Léa Seydoux in an alley, but she shoots him. This strongly recalls a scene in The Sting (1973) in which Robert Redford's character walks toward a female assassin in an alley without realizing she is about to shoot him. In The Sting, however, the assassin is killed before she can shoot Redford.
- #080
It is Brad Bird's only film rated PG-13 by the MPAA. All of his other films were rated G or PG.
- #081
Contains a major spoiler — show
The idea that Ethan Hunt receives his mission instructions by phone came from the Mission: Impossible (1966) episode in which Jim Phelps also receives his mission instructions by phone.
- #082
Similarly, the mission instructions scene in A Game of Chess (1968) takes place in a payphone booth, as it does in this film.
- #084
Josh Holloway and Keith Dallas appeared in a television series called INTELLIGENCE, but the two series merely share the same title and are in no way connected.
- #085
It is the first Mission: Impossible film to carry Paramount Pictures' current logo.
- #086
It is the only Mission: Impossible film not released in the summer.
- #087
The second Mission: Impossible film came out the same year as a Fast & Furious film; this film and Fast Five (2011) were both released in 2011. This had previously happened in 2006 with Mission: Impossible III (2006) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). The trend would later continue in 2015 with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) and Furious 7 (2015), and in 2023 with Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and Fast X (2023).
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