Ethan and his team are too late to stop Hendricks from launching a nuclear missile heading toward San Francisco, so their plan is to deactivate it from the football (a briefcase with the missile controls inside). As Ethan chases after Hendricks who has the football, Brandt, Benji, and Jane try to restore power to a TV station where the launch signal originated from. No power at the station, no shutting down the missile. Hendricks commits suicide by plummeting off a high level parking garage with the football in tow. Ethan drives a car down there and tries to shut off the missile, but to no avail. Wistrom tries to stop Brandt from reactivating the power, but Benji bursts in and kills Wistrom. Brandt restores the power in the nick of time for Ethan to shut down the missile. IMF is cleared in the bombing of the Kremlin and Ethan gives his team iPhones with their new missions on them. At first, Brandt refuses his, revealing his role in Julia's death to which Ethan replies "Are you sure she's really dead?"
Factual error: The cars in the car park scene are left hand drive (specially the ones involving the main action scenes), but the sequence is set in India, where the cars are right hand drive.
Trivia: The number A113 (which appeared in Brad Bird's previous films The Incredibles and Ratatouille) makes two appearances here. The first is on the side of Hanaway's ring in the flashback sequence, and the second is verbally as Ethan's agent ID that he recites through the phone after he escapes from the hospital.(00:14:40)
Answer:As a way to prevent Ethan from quickly stopping the countdown. It's a big distance Ethan would have to drop in quick amount of time in order to stop the detonation. He was most likely going to die, so he takes his own life in order to (unsuccessfully) prevent Ethan from stopping the detonation.
Yes, but it's the same whether he 'accompanies' the briefcase or not. He rather wants to die now than be captured by very pissed-off people and experience a nuclear war.
Answer: Knowing he was trapped, he may not have wanted to be taken alive, preferring death over capture.
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