Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Ethan walks into a Syndicate trap, a secret network of former agents from several countries, and gets out thanks to Ilsa Faust, an MI6 agent undercover in the group. Meanwhile, CIA director Alan Hunley convinces the Senate to dissolve the IMF, and Ethan becomes a fugitive. Six months later he lures Benji to Vienna, where they try to stop the assassination of Austria's chancellor. In Casablanca, the team steals a file naming every Syndicate operative. Their leader, former MI6 agent Solomon Lane, kidnaps Benji and demands the file. Ethan learns the Syndicate began as a project of MI6 chief Atlee, and that the file unlocks £2.4 billion. Ethan offers his life for Benji's, traps Lane in a glass cell, and Hunley brings the IMF back.

1. Behind the scenesEight takeoffs on the outside

   Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M more than 5,000 feet up, with no stunt double. The plane took off and landed eight times before they got the perfect shot.

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2. ReferenceTurandot at the Vienna Opera

   The opera sequence was shot at the Vienna State Opera during Puccini's Turandot. Composer Joe Kraemer worked the aria into three tracks of the score.

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3. Behind the scenesSix minutes without air

   The underwater scene was shot in one long take with no cuts. Cruise trained to hold his breath for three minutes; stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood says he held it for just over six.

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4. ReferenceIlsa, as in Casablanca

   Cruise saw a resemblance between Rebecca Ferguson and Ingrid Bergman. The name Ilsa Faust nods to Ilsa Lund, Bergman's character in Casablanca (1942), and the film itself stops in Casablanca.

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5. ReferenceThe Syndicate started on TV

   On the TV series, the Syndicate was a crime organization the IMF went after often in the later seasons.

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