Splinter Cell: BlacklistGenre: Action/Spy
Director: Tom Cruise
Writer: D.R. Cobb
Based on the video game series
Cast: Tom Cruise, Karen Gillan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Gustaf Skarsgard, Derek Luke, Thomas Middleditch, Jennifer Ehle, Navid Negahban, Marwan Kenzari, Dean Norris, Grace Van Patten
Plot: Sam Fisher (Tom Cruise) drops his daughter Sarah Fisher (Grace Van Patten) at college in Ithaca, New York. As he helps her bring her things up to her dorm, Sarah suggests her father find a hobby now that he's retired. He assures her that he'll find a way to stay busy and gives her a hug before leaving. Sam is mowing his front lawn in suburban Virginia when I car pulls up the driveway. Sam stops the lawn mower and instinctively reaches toward his belt for a gun that isn't there. He is then relieved to see Victor Coste (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) exit the car. Sam walks across the lawn to greet his old friend and ask him what brings him out to his suburban getaway. Victor asks Sam if he's enjoying retirement, and Sam shrugs, not really sure what to say about it. Victor says he comes bearing a job offer. Sam says he's retired, but asks what the job offer is. Coste says he has started his own private military corporation, Paladin Nine, and has a cushy government contract to perform some aerial reconnaissance at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and thought Sam might like a vacation in the South Pacific. Sam looks over at the lawn mower as he considers the offer.
Sam and Victor are airborne in a helicopter above Andersen Air Force Base when there's a large explosion on the base. Debris from the blast hits the helicopter and Victor does his best to land the helicopter without crashing. Sam arms himself as Victor tries to radio for help to no avail. Victor says something is jamming all outbound communication attempts and that something must be jamming the signal. The duo makes their way through the destruction of the base to the communications center. Sam shuts down the jammer, but on their way out of the building they find a wounded soldier. Suddenly the wounded soldier pulls the pin on a grenade. Victor reacts quickly and pushes Sam out the way. Victor is badly injured by the blast. Sam manages to call out for help. Helicopters and ambulances arrive shortly and Sam helps Victor into an ambulance.
Sam is on site assisting the US military forces resecure Andersen Air Force Base when Air Force One lands and President Patricia Caldwell (Jennifer Ehle) steps off. She thanks Sam for his help securing the base even though he's a civilian now. Sam demands to know what happened, and she tells him that a terrorist organization that calls itself The Engineers has claimed responsibility for the attack on the base. He asks Caldwell why she came to the base, and she says it was to introduce Sam to his new team. A large military aircraft, the C-147B Paladin, then lands on the base. Caldwell leads Sam on board and tells him that the Paladin is the official mobile headquarters of Fourth Echelon, and Sam is the unit's commander. Sam asks why him, and Caldwell says it's because she trusts him. Caldwell leads him further into the Paladin where the rest of the unit is waiting: former chief technical analyst of Third Echelon, Anna Grimsdottir (Karen Gillan); former CIA field operator, Isaac Briggs (Derek Luke); and Paladin Nine tech support Charlie Cole (Thomas Middleditch). Sam tells Caldwell that he doesn't want to work with anyone he doesn't trust, looking at Anna, but Caldwell tells him the team is final. Besides, Caldwell believes that Anna and Sam's previous vast experience working together is irreplaceable. Caldwell then leaves the Paladin after giving Sam the Fifth Freedom, a mandate to do what is necessary to protect the country.
Anna tells Sam that the first lead they have is the weapons used on the base were most likely sold by Andriy Kobin. Sam says that he should have killed Kobin when he had the chance. The Paladin takes off and Anna tells Sam that Kobin has been taken in Benghazi, Libya, by local CIA field agents. As the plane gets closer, Anna suggests that Briggs go in alone to contact Kobin, what with Sam's history with him. He tells her that he is the commander of the team and he will go extract Kobin with Briggs supporting as a sniper. Fisher and Briggs make their way toward the CIA safe house. Fisher finds the local CIA contact dead and a local militia dragging Andriy Kobin (Gustaf Skarsgard) away toward a police station down the street. Sam engages the militia and tells Briggs to start gunning them down. Sam and Briggs manage to kill the entire militia group, leaving Kobin hiding, curled up behind a car. Sam goes over to Kobin, who is even more scared of Sam Fisher than he was of the militia group. Kobin tells Sam that he was looking for CIA protection because he sold some weapons that went to the group known as The Engineers nd he doesn't want anything to do with them. Sam asks why the militia were dragging Kobin to the police station, but he doesn't know why. Sam, Briggs and Kobin go over to the police station and find it abandoned. They enter the holding cells and find a television screen playing a message. Over the video feed, Anna is able to identify the man speaking on the message as Majid Sadiq (Navid Negahban), the likely leader of The Engineers.
Back on the Paladin, Anna tells the team that all available intel is pointing to Dallas, Texas, as the next target of what they are calling the "Blacklist" attacks. Charlie voices his concern that the intel is probably a decoy. Anna asks if he has any evidence to back up his concern and Charlie displays a video of a group of suspicious looking men arriving in Chicago, Illinois. Sam suggests they head toward the middle of the US while the intel continues to roll in before they make a decision. Not long later, they find out there is a hostage situation at Chicago's Navy Pier. Sam orders the Paladin heads toward Chicago. Anna says they should wait for backup, but Sam disregards her suggestion and heads toward the Pier. Once he gets there, Sam recognizes the men there as members of the Engineers. They have strapped hostages with explosives and run off. Sam leaves the hostages to be rescued by a SWAT bomb squad and gives chase. He eventually catches up with one the Engineers and manages to beat the codes to deactivate the explosives out of him. Sam demands to know what their plan is. The Engineer says they are poisoning the city's water supply. The hostages were just a distraction. Sam knocks the terrorist unconscious and rushes over to the nearby water infiltration plant where the Engineers already deployed their weaponized plague bacteria into the water. Sam destroys the devices pumping the poison into the water and manages to shut off the outflow valve keeping the contaminated water from leaving the facility.
Back in the Paladin, Sam tells the team that they need to go on the offensive rather than wait for the Engineers to hit their next target. Anna says that she can send out a fake email in which she states Kobin turned into an informant. This information causes the most activity with the name Reza Nouri. Kobin tells the Fourth Echelon team that Nouri is an old associate he with on the black market. The Paladin takes Sam to Paraguay where Nouri operates out of. Sam easily infiltrates Nouri's private estate, but sets off an alarm in the process. Reza Nouri (Marwan Kenzari) hears the alarm and locks himself in his panic room. Sam incapacitates Nouri's guards, but finds himself unable to break into the panic room. Charlie gets on the ear piece and walks Sam through the process of overwriting the panic room's locking mechanism. When the door opens, Nouri tries to attack Sam, but is easily overpowered. The estate is suddenly attacked by a group of special forces. Sam drags Nouri to a boat and they escape the forces team on the open ocean. Nouri thanks Sam for inadvertently saving his life and gives Sam a list of men he supplied to Sadiq. Sam then lets Nouri go free on a life raft. Back on the Paladin, Anna tells Sam that Nouri could be an Engineer operative and that letting him go was a bad idea. Sam tells her to calm down. He put a tracker in his phone will allow them to bug his calls and see any activity.
Following intelligence gained from Nouri, the team travels to London to uncover Engineer sleeper cell activity. Briggs is again assigned to provide sniper fire while Sam infiltrates an abandoned mill on the outskirts of the city. He reaches a garage where he finds guards loading cargo. Sam opens up a crate to put in a tracker and finds out the cargo is a disperse system bomb for a variant of VX nerve gas. Sam begins to feel the affects of the poisonous gasses and passes out. When he wakes up he is tied up in front of Majid Sadiq. Just as Sadiq begins to interrogate Sam, Briggs comes in, guns blazing, to rescue Sam. Briggs says they need to get to the extraction point, but Sam orders Briggs to chase after Sadiq. Sam then passes out again. Instead of giving chase, Briggs carries Sam to the extraction point. Back on the Paladin, Sam yells at Briggs for not following his orders. Briggs apologizes, but says that without Sam he doesn't think they can stop the Engineers' plans. Anna gets involved in the argument and tells Sam that he has forgotten the value of a team.
Thanks to the tracker Sam placed in London, Fourth Echelon locates the target of the third Blacklist attack: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Engineers hold hostages on a metro train and plan to bomb the outside of the subway terminals and spread the nerve gas into the city streets by trains. Charlie comments that the plan is needlessly elaborate, but that seems to be a trend with the Engineers. Sam and Briggs make peace and hit the ground together. They have to split up and disarm all four nerve gas bombs before the detonate. Sam and Briggs succeed in stopping all four bombs just in the nick of time. Because of another failed attack, the Engineers post a video online announcing that they will be moving up the next Blacklist attacks.
Fourth Echelon receives information that Nouri has been brought to Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility for questioning about Iran's potential role in the Blacklist attacks. Anna suggests that Nouri could be trying to cause a war between Iran and the US to increase his weapons sales. Sam decides to infiltrate Gitmo to learn what Nouri has to say. With Briggs' help, Sam gets into Guantanamo Bay disguised as a detainee. Briggs, dressed as a guard, takes Sam to Nouri's room. Sam interrogates Nouri, who explains he is just a distraction and that Sadiq already knows everything about Fourth Echelon, despite President Caldwell's attempts to keep it top secret.
Sam and Briggs rendezvous with the Paladin in Yucatan, Mexico. Anna tells them that the airport staff evacuated five minutes ago without any word. They are immediately under attack by unknown forces. They surmise that they must the Engineers or mercs hired by them. While the rest of the team provides suppressive fire, Sam flanks the enemies. Sam manages to kill several of the merc and reboards the Paladin, which is now ready for takeoff. Once the Paladin is in the air, they discover that the plane's system has been taken over by a computer virus that has shut down their engines. Kobin announces that he can help. Sam begrudgingly frees Kobin who takes over the controls of the plane. Kobin tells them to dump some cargo and to restart the system. Sam and Briggs begin dumping millions of dollars in high-tech equipment from the plane's cargo hold. Anna shuts down power to the systems to allow a reboot. This allows them to regain control of the plane again. Once the system recovers, the team learns that the fourth Blacklist attack already happened. The Engineers blew up a natural gas facility in Louisiana. Sam orders Anna to get President Caldwell on the phone. She tells the team that she has evacuated to Site F and that everything is under control. She orders Fourth Echelon to stand down. The US government has decided to meet the Engineers' demands. The team then hears Sadiq order Caldwell to end the call.
Sam tells the team that they are going to directly disobey the orders of the President of the United States, and anyone who isn't willing to do so may opt out now. Briggs, Anna and Charlie all say they're in. As does Kobin, until Charlie reminds him he isn't part of the team. The Paladin flies toward Site F, a secret bunker in the Rocky Mountains where top officials of the US are hidden due to the most recent Blacklist attack. Anna surmises that the Engineers were counting on that happening and must have had sleeper agents inside Site F. The regular pilot refuses to fly there, so Sam officially replaces him with Kobin, who promptly lands the plane at the nearest airport.
Briggs infiltrates the bunker through the ventilation system and sabotages its security systems with a retofitted version of the Engineers' virus courtesy of Charlie. Briggs sees Sadiq torturing Secretary of Defense Lester Gollancz (Dean Norris) for access to America's top secret information. Briggs surrenders himself to stop the torturing. Gollancz starts giving the Engineers information to stop them from hurting him, but Briggs knocks Gollancz out to get him to stop. Sadiq and his men move the hostages out planning to steal the Paladin as their getaway vehicle. Sam has managed to disguise himself as one of the hostages and walks onto the plane with the rest of the group. Sam gives Briggs a nod. Sam then attacks the guards while Briggs tackles Sadiq. Briggs tries to take Sadiq's gun, but is shot in the process. Sam wants to help Briggs, but Briggs tells him that he needs to stop Sadiq. Sam chases after Sadiq and quickly captures him. Sadiq tells Sam that if he dies twelve nations will rise and if captured he will reveal any secret he knows. Sam exercises the Fifth Freedom to capture him, but in all official capacities Sadiq will be proclaimed dead.
Back home during Christmas time, Sam tells his daughter Sarah that he's going to take a vacation to Guam. She thinks that's a great idea and is happy he is looking for things to enjoy ni retirement. Sam walks through the newly rebuilt Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, into a new warehouse. Inside the warehouse, Victor Coste has recovered from his injuries and is preparing to interrogate Sadiq. Sam says it's good to see Victor back on his feet. Victor asks Sam if he'd like a chance to talk to Sadiq, but Sam declines, saying he's retired.
