Genre: Action/Spy
Director: Jose Padilha
Writer: D.R. Cobb
Based on the video game series
Cast: Tom Cruise, Karen Gillan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Aidan Gillen, Jennifer Ehle, Gustaf Skarsgard, Michael Beach, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Elias Koteas, Mike O'Malley, Grace Van Patten
Plot: Sam Fisher (Tom Cruise), having left Third Echelon, is in a marketplace in Valletta, Malta when he is handed an envelope containing an earpiece. He puts the earpiece in his ear and is greeted by the familiar voice of former Third Echelon colleague Anna Grimsdottir (Karen Gillan). She warns him that a group of armed men have entered the marketplace and are looking for him. One of the men fires an RPG at a fountain in the middle of the marketplace, completely destroying the location. An SUV with more men drives up. After dispatching the men, Fisher walks away from the destroyed marketplace as sirens approach from a distance.
Grimsdottir sends Fisher to a lighthouse where he finds the leader of the men, Dmitri Gramkos (Elias Koteas). After killing Gramkos' bodyguards, Fisher interrogates Gramkos, who tells him that the man responsbile for Fisher's daughter Sarah's death is Andriy Kobin (Gustaf Skarsgard) and he can be found in an abandoned museum in the city. Grimsdottir remotely overloads the power grid, turning off all of the lights in the area so that Fisher can sneak past Kobin's numerous exterior guards and into the museum. Fisher sneaks up on Kobin, and holds a knife to his neck. Suddenly, several Third Echelon agents repel into the room through skylights. They tranquilize Fisher and he passes out trying to escape the room.
When Fisher awakens, he is at Price Airfield in Virginia. Grimsdottir is there and reveals that she is working with President Patricia Caldwell (Jennifer Ehle) as a mole inside of Third Echelon, and that she needs his help with investigating a private military company named Black Arrow. Fisher wants nothing to do with the mission, but relents after Grimsdottir infers that his daughter Sarah is actually still alive and offers to prove it to him during the course of the investigation. She facilitates his escape from the airfield by giving him a gun and access to her car. She tells Fisher to hit her to make it appear that he escaped by force and prevent her cover from being blown. After escaping the base, Fisher calls a former military comrade, Victor Coste (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), for assistance. Fisher meets up with Coste at a county fair near the Washington Monument. Coste tells him that White Box Technologies, a research and development company specializing in EMP technology, has hired Black Arrow for corporate security which Coste finds odd since it's not a usual service provided by Black Arrow.
Fisher heads to White Box Technologies and witnesses Third Echelon director Tom Reed (Aidan Gillen) murder a group of scientists alongside Black Arrow operatives. Fisher manages to save one of the scientists, who tells him that CEO Lucius Galliard (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) hired Black Arrow to provide security, and that Major Shawn Robertson (Michael Beach) has been collecting and disposing of experimental data with EMP couter measures. Fisher reaches Robertson's office and downloads the data for Grimdottir's analysts to study. Once the download is complete, Fisher triggers an EMP to prevent Black Arrow from tracing the download, protecting Grimdottir's cover.
Grimsdottir tells Fisher to head to the Lincoln Memorial to record a secret meeting between Reed and Galliard. After the meeting, Fisher intercepts Galliard and attempts to take him away from the location, but Galliard is killed by sniper fire from a van. Fisher chases after the van, but suddenly the van blows up from a car bomb. Third Echelon begin to converge on Fisher's location, but Secret Service agents run interference, allowing Fisher to escape.
Fisher infiltrates Third Echelon Headquarters to retrieve information from Reed's office. Instead of finding Reed, Fisher re-encounters Kobin. Fisher begins pummeling Kobin, demanding information. Kobin tells Fisher that Reed is working with an organization known as Megiddo to smuggle EMP technology into the U.S. and use it to facilitate the assassination of President Caldwell and having Vice President Calvin Sampson (Mike O'Malley) take over since he is in Megiddo's pocket. Reed would then be promoted within the higher ranks of the government. Fisher asks about his daughter, but Kobin reveals that he never knew anything about Sarah and only provided a false body to stage her death. He tells Fisher to ask Grimsdottir for the whole story.
Fisher makes his way to the rooftops of the complex to escape, where Coste contacts him to let him know he is inbound in a helicopter to pick him up. Reed, however, has sent out a helicopter of his own, which opens fire on Fisher. Fisher makes his way across the roof, avoiding the helicopter fire. He takes cover and manages to snipe the pilot, causing the helicopter to crash into the roof. After the crash, Third Echelon HQ is in flames. Fisher repels from the top of the building and down to the ground below where he is picked up by Coste's helicopter.
That night, Grimsdottir returns to her home to find Fisher waiting for her. He demands to know the truth about his daughter. He plays a video for Fisher that former Director Irving Lambert (Laurence Fishburne) recorded shortly before his death. Lambert addresses Fisher, saying that Sarah's death was staged as a car accident out of necessity after he learned that a mole within Third Echelon would use her as leverage against Fisher. Lambert concludes that he wasn't able to locate the mole and that his efforts may have been in vain, but that he would have been a piss poor director, and more importantly, friend, to Fisher if he didn't do everything in his power to protect his family from the enemy. Fisher is still furious with Grimsdottir for deceiving him. She tells him the information he downloaded contains information saying that there will be an EMP attack, and that Sarah's designated apartment is within the potential blast radius.
Fisher and Coste head to a hidden missile base on the shores of the Potomac River in order to disarm the EMP missile being prepped there. As they make their way to the base by boat, they are chased and fired upon by Black Arrow and Third Echelon agents in their own boats as well as in humvees on the shore. Coste takes on the enemy boats with an RPG, while Fisher swims into base and sneaks into the missile silo. Fisher begins to try to disarm the missile, but it's too late and the missile is launched. Fisher asks Coste to get his daughter to safety while he goes after Reed, who is set to meet with President Caldwell at the White House.
Fisher infiltrates the White House, confronting Black Arrow and Third Echelon assault units in the process. After taking them out, he regroups with Grimsdottir, who shoots Fisher in the shoulder so that he can get close to Reed by pretending to have been taken prisoner. They enter the Oval Office with Fisher posing as Grimdottir's prisoner, where Reed, President Caldwell and and number of Third Echelon agents are waiting. Reed prepares to execute Fisher and President Caldwell, revealing that Caldwell was going to shut down Third Echelon, leaving America vulnerable to future attacks. To prevent this, Reed planned to frame Fisher for assassinating the president, as proof that Third Echelon is necessary, and he would be the heroic civil servant who tracked down and defeated the assassin. Reed gets closer to Fisher to gloat, but Fisher quickly disarms Reed. Fisher and Grimsdottir then kill Reed's Third Echelon agents. U.S. Army soldiers extract President Caldwell, while Fisher begins interrogating Reed. Fisher then realizes that Reed was the mole Lambert was looking for. Fisher executes Reed. Fisher turns to leave, but Grimsdottir stops him and asks him to return to Third Echelon since he is the only one left she trusts.
Fisher walks out of the White House where he sees Coste with his daughter Sarah (Grace Van Patten). Fisher gives his daughter a hug, telling her he missed her. He thanks Coste for getting her out of harm's way. Fisher and Sarah walk away from the White House together.
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