section_path: Plot
section_name: Plot
paragraph_text: Plot
  
  Two months after retrieving the key to the source code for the malevolent artificial intelligence known as the Entity, Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt receives a message from US President Erika Sloane. She informs Ethan that the Entity continues to seize control of global nuclear systems, aided by an undercover doomsday cult. Ethan is ordered to surrender the key, but he refuses and continues pursuing Gabriel, the Entity's former proxy.
  
  In London, Gabriel captures Ethan and fellow IMF agent Grace. Gabriel coerces Ethan into retrieving the "Podkova" module, developed from the " Rabbit's Foot ", from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol, which would give Gabriel control over the Entity. Aided by IMF agent Benji Dunn, Ethan and Grace escape. They recruit Gabriel's former lieutenant Paris and intelligence agent Jasper Briggs's subordinate Theo Degas. Contacting the Entity, Ethan is shown visions of a coming nuclear apocalypse, and the Entity demands access to a digital bunker in South Africa to ensure its survival.
  
  Ethan tasks his team with getting the Sevastopol ' s coordinates and retrieving him after the dive. He races to save Luther Stickell, who recently finished the "Poison Pill" malware that targets the Entity. However, Gabriel steals the Poison Pill and traps Luther with a time bomb. Luther sacrifices himself to minimize the blast, and Ethan is brought to Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. With four days until the Entity takes over the remaining nuclear weapon control facilities and launches nuclear armageddon, Ethan convinces Sloane to let him locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge 's objections.
  
  Grace, Benji, Paris and Degas travel to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War –era naval sonar array that detected the Sevastopol ' s sinking. They meet former CIA analyst William Donloe, who was exiled to the island after Ethan's break-in at CIA headquarters, and memorized the Sevastopol ' s coordinates. Captured by Russian special forces seeking the coordinates, Grace and Donloe's wife Tapeesa escape by dog sled, and the others fight off the soldiers as Donloe transmits the coordinates to Ethan.
  
  Ethan joins the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the North Pacific Ocean, and later boards the submarine USS Ohio. After receiving the coordinate and barely surviving a doomsday assassin that infiltrated the Ohio, Ethan uses an experimental diving suit to reach the Sevastopol and retrieve the Podkova, as the wreck slides down the continental shelf. Narrowly escaping without his diving suit, Ethan is revived from decompression sickness by Grace using a portable decompression chamber. Reunited with his team, Ethan plans to plug the Poison Pill into the Podkova, fooling the Entity into entering a physical drive instead of the bunker mainframe.
  
  At the bunker, Gabriel ambushes the team with another timed nuclear device. He demands the Podkova, but the handover is interrupted by Kittridge, who wants control of the Entity. In the ensuing gunfight, the bomb is activated and Benji is shot. Gabriel flees with the Poison Pill, pursued by Ethan carrying the Podkova. Donloe, Tapeesa and Degas defuse the bomb, while Paris, Grace and Benji prepare the bunker mainframe to trap the Entity.
  
  Sloane chooses not to sacrifice millions of lives with a preemptive nuclear strike, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is fatally wounded protecting her from a doomsday assassin. The Entity gains total control of the world's nuclear weapons. Ethan chases Gabriel in a biplane and climbs onto Gabriel's plane mid-air, breaking his arm and recovering the Poison Pill. An enraged but gloating Gabriel attempts to parachute to safety, but recklessly gets himself killed as he hits the plane's rudder. Ethan finds a second parachute and plugs the Poison Pill into the Podkova in midair, allowing Grace to trap the Entity within a tenth of a second before all nuclear weapons are launched.
  
  Luther leaves a farewell message to Ethan in the Poison Pill, which destroys the Podkova after it finishes. Ethan hands the destroyed Podkova to Kittridge, and Jasper Briggs—revealed to be the son of Ethan's original team leader Jim Phelps —makes peace with Ethan for exposing his father as a traitor. Reuniting in London, Grace gives Ethan the drive containing the Entity, and the IMF team go their separate ways.
  
  Two months after retrieving the key to the source code for the malevolent artificial intelligence known as the Entity, Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt receives a message from US President Erika Sloane. She informs Ethan that the Entity continues to seize control of global nuclear systems, aided by an undercover doomsday cult. Ethan is ordered to surrender the key, but he refuses and continues pursuing Gabriel, the Entity's former proxy.
  
  In London, Gabriel captures Ethan and fellow IMF agent Grace. Gabriel coerces Ethan into retrieving the "Podkova" module, developed from the " Rabbit's Foot ", from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol, which would give Gabriel control over the Entity. Aided by IMF agent Benji Dunn, Ethan and Grace escape. They recruit Gabriel's former lieutenant Paris and intelligence agent Jasper Briggs's subordinate Theo Degas. Contacting the Entity, Ethan is shown visions of a coming nuclear apocalypse, and the Entity demands access to a digital bunker in South Africa to ensure its survival.
  
  Ethan tasks his team with getting the Sevastopol ' s coordinates and retrieving him after the dive. He races to save Luther Stickell, who recently finished the "Poison Pill" malware that targets the Entity. However, Gabriel steals the Poison Pill and traps Luther with a time bomb. Luther sacrifices himself to minimize the blast, and Ethan is brought to Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. With four days until the Entity takes over the remaining nuclear weapon control facilities and launches nuclear armageddon, Ethan convinces Sloane to let him locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge 's objections.
  
  Grace, Benji, Paris and Degas travel to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War –era naval sonar array that detected the Sevastopol ' s sinking. They meet former CIA analyst William Donloe, who was exiled to the island after Ethan's break-in at CIA headquarters, and memorized the Sevastopol ' s coordinates. Captured by Russian special forces seeking the coordinates, Grace and Donloe's wife Tapeesa escape by dog sled, and the others fight off the soldiers as Donloe transmits the coordinates to Ethan.
  
  Ethan joins the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the North Pacific Ocean, and later boards the submarine USS Ohio. After receiving the coordinate and barely surviving a doomsday assassin that infiltrated the Ohio, Ethan uses an experimental diving suit to reach the Sevastopol and retrieve the Podkova, as the wreck slides down the continental shelf. Narrowly escaping without his diving suit, Ethan is revived from decompression sickness by Grace using a portable decompression chamber. Reunited with his team, Ethan plans to plug the Poison Pill into the Podkova, fooling the Entity into entering a physical drive instead of the bunker mainframe.
  
  At the bunker, Gabriel ambushes the team with another timed nuclear device. He demands the Podkova, but the handover is interrupted by Kittridge, who wants control of the Entity. In the ensuing gunfight, the bomb is activated and Benji is shot. Gabriel flees with the Poison Pill, pursued by Ethan carrying the Podkova. Donloe, Tapeesa and Degas defuse the bomb, while Paris, Grace and Benji prepare the bunker mainframe to trap the Entity.
  
  Sloane chooses not to sacrifice millions of lives with a preemptive nuclear strike, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is fatally wounded protecting her from a doomsday assassin. The Entity gains total control of the world's nuclear weapons. Ethan chases Gabriel in a biplane and climbs onto Gabriel's plane mid-air, breaking his arm and recovering the Poison Pill. An enraged but gloating Gabriel attempts to parachute to safety, but recklessly gets himself killed as he hits the plane's rudder. Ethan finds a second parachute and plugs the Poison Pill into the Podkova in midair, allowing Grace to trap the Entity within a tenth of a second before all nuclear weapons are launched.
  
  Luther leaves a farewell message to Ethan in the Poison Pill, which destroys the Podkova after it finishes. Ethan hands the destroyed Podkova to Kittridge, and Jasper Briggs—revealed to be the son of Ethan's original team leader Jim Phelps —makes peace with Ethan for exposing his father as a traitor. Reuniting in London, Grace gives Ethan the drive containing the Entity, and the IMF team go their separate ways.