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.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Ending / spoiler
Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton
Genres: Action
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?"
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More mistakes in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Ethan Hunt: The countdown isn't helping.
Brandt: I'm just saying.
Trivia: At one point in time, this was going to be the final entry in the series to star Tom Cruise. As originally intended, Cruise (Ethan Hunt) would have retired from field work at the end of the film and become the new head of IMF, while Jeremy Renner would become the new series lead. This was reportedly in part due to several infamous incidents involving Cruise in the mid-2000's, including his notorious Oprah Winfrey interview. These events caused issues during the promotion of "Mission: Impossible III," and the studio was still nervous about them years later. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed, and Cruise was thankfully allowed to stay with the series.
Question: In the automated car garage, why did Hendricks jump to his death holding the briefcase rather than just dropping it down?
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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