Mission: Impossible III

Mission: Impossible III

2006
Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian, an international broker of arms and information, who's as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear – including the woman Hunt loves.
Ratings:
Brad Score: 6.0/10
Internet Score: 6.8/10
Director:
J.J. Abrams
Cast:
Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Eddie Marsan
Genres:
Thriller Action Adventure

My notes

Annual viewing

This one's also very of the time. But also the one where the template for future movies really starts to take hold. Best villain perhaps wasted on the weakest film.

The plot is, again, a straight forward one almost repeating the plot beats from the first. Ethan finds a bad guy. Doesn't know who to trust. Gets manipulated into doing the bad guy's bidding and depending on his ability to outsmart in the end.

Two items of note:
1. Despite the villain in MI:2 using Ethan's predictability against him, he does the same thing in MI:3
2. If Ethan hadn't listened to Luther and instead had dumped the Villain out of the plane, the rest of the movie would have been avoided.

Still, the film introduces several of MI's recurring characters and further hardens the idea that Hunt won't betray his team members no matter the cost of his loyalty.

Watched May 17, 2025 via UHD — rated 6.0/10