Factual error: Towards the end of the film, Solomon is trapped in a small Plexiglas box and fires his gun into the bulletproof sides numerous times, but the bullets don't ricochet or get embedded in the glass.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson
Revealing mistake: When Benji imagines putting on a mask of an agent he plans to impersonate, when the camera pans around to first show the mirror, the mirror Benji's hands are further up on his face than the reflection, and the mirror Benji's hands move down his face slightly before the reflection starts to move them. Also, the mole that Ethan has on his left cheek isn't reversed in the mirror image. The "mirror" was actually a hole in the wall between two identical sets (one mirrored), with Simon Pegg and a Tom Cruise double in the foreground, and the mask actor and Tom Cruise in the background "mirror" set. (00:57:20)
Continuity mistake: After reviving Ethan after escaping from the water tank, IIsa's bra strap is visible under her tank top. When she changes later, the bra disappears. (01:10:00)
Trivia: Tom Cruise was injured six times during the filming.
Trivia: When Luther is trying to find Ilsa Faust on his laptop, the date of birth on her MI6 file is October 19, 1983. This is the same date of birth as the actress, Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Ilsa in the movie. (01:00:52)
Trivia: When Tom Cruise is talking to the young lady in the record store, the camera shows bad guy Lane (Sean Harris) occupying one of the listening booths.
Benji Dunn: Let me guess. Presumed dead?
Ethan Hunt: Well tonight, I just made it official.
Ethan Hunt: The Syndicate is real. A rogue nation, trained to do what we do.
Benji Dunn: An anti-IMF.
Benji Dunn: Join the IMF and see the world. On a screen. From a closet.
Question: When Ilsa presents Ethan with his supposed 3 options, she says she's proof the Syndicate exists, but I'm not sure how exactly. She also says the CIA wouldn't believe them right afterwards. They all assume at this point the disc is a ledger though, so why wouldn't that definitively prove the Syndicate is real? I know of course that since it's encrypted they can't open it, but Ilsa doesn't know that! I don't see how she could come to the conclusion that the CIA won't believe them.
Question: Why does Benji have to enter the facility at the same time Ethan is switching the security profile? It's more dramatic that way, but couldn't Benji have waited to enter until after he knew the profiles were switched?
Question: How long has it been since the last movie? It is said in the fake mission briefing in the beginning that Ethan has been tracking the Syndicate for "the past year", a mission he received at the end of the last movie. Yet I've also heard that the movies are set in the years they come out (2011, 2015, etc) In either case I find it hard to believe that the IMF has not received a new secretary yet if it has been well over a year since the last one died. At the end of Ghost Protocol the IMF is already up and running again. Why haven't they appointed a new head? And who is giving orders/missions in the absence of one? Who gave Hunt the mission to investigate the Syndicate at the end of GP for example?
Answer: The M:I films seem very careful not to show any specific dates (covering up Benji's opera tickets for example). The only thing I could see in this film was the newspaper Atlee has when he meets Ilsa was an actual Evening Standard issue from 16 June 2014. Regarding the IMF Secretary, there could have been one or more appointed since Ghost Protocol, we don't know, there just isn't one at the time of the hearing. Even if there hadn't been one since the Secretary died in Moscow, IMF would have had enough of a command structure to have acting or deputy directors assigning missions.
Answer: He most likely could have waited, but as you pointed out, it's more dramatic that way. This is a movie and the action is choreographed for maximum dramatic and visual effect, timing, tension, continuity, audience attention, and character interaction. We're not supposed to overthink it.
raywest ★
They would want Benji to enter as soon as possible, as the security may notice eventually that there is something amiss. Still going in without bothering about confirmation seems unnecessarily risky.