The whole plot of the latest Mission: Impossible film, subtitled Rogue Nation, and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote
the screenplay and is involved in one way or another in just about everything
Tom Cruise stars in these days, hinges on the usual MacGuffin device. In this
case it’s a cache of data that will give financial support to an international
crime organization known as The Syndicate. They are essentially the
anti-Impossible Mission force, comprised of agents from all over the world who
disappeared, presumed dead, over the last several years. The thing is, the data
can be accessed using fingerprint and voice ID of only one person – the Prime
Minister of Britain! I mean, there’s security and then there’s just plain
stupid and ineffective. What happens if the PM suddenly dies? What if he
resigns? What if he’s revealed to be greater than Nixon levels of corrupt?
Anyway, this is just a minor logical inconvenience o the way to a
cleverly-crafted sequence that results in the kidnapping of the Prime Minister.
And clever set pieces are the stock in trade of the Mission: Impossible series.
