FAQ

Ethan Hunt's (Tom Cruise) mission, should he choose to accept it, is to retrieve and destroy the supply of a genetically-created disease called "Chimera", which was developed by his old friend, Russian scientist Dr. Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija). Ethan's MI team consists of computer genius Luther Stickell, helicopter pilot Billy Baird (John Polson), and international thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton), ex-girlfriend of former IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who has already murdered Nekhorvich in order to obtain Bellerophon, the antidote, but he also needs Chimera because a cure without a disease is worthless.

Mission: Impossible II is a sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996), which was based on a TV series also titled Mission: Impossible (1966) that ran from 1966 to 1973 and was created and initially produced by American screenwriter Bruce Geller. Writing credits for MI-2 are credited to Robert Towne, Ronald Moore, and Brannan Braga. MI-2 was followed by four more sequels: Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018).

MI is set in 1996, evidenced by the timecode on the screen of the opening shot. MI-2 is set in 1999, evidenced on the newspaper used to blackmail the pharmaceutical company, Thus, it's a three-year gap.

No. If you have just a smidgeon of knowledge about the workings of the IMF, based either on the TV series or on the previous movie, you will have no problem following MI-2. Both movies are missions unto themselves. In a way, it is advisable to watch the first episodes of the old television series before watching any of the films.

Nekhorvich felt that this was the most viable way of getting the virus to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, i.e. providing it with its optimum environment (in the human body), lessening the chances of losing or breaking a vial, contaminating others, and perhaps the virus being discovered in his baggage by customs agents. He also brought Bellerophon, the antidote, with him so that he could demonstrate to the CDC the effectiveness of the cure. Unfortunately, this is where Ambrose erred. He stole the briefcase containing the antidote, believing that it also held the virus.

Although no explanation is given in the movie, most viewers assume that "Dimitri" was a codename that Ethan used on a past mission involving Nekhorvich.

Ambrose buys 480,000 call option contracts, each giving him the right to buy 100 shares of Biocyte from the contract writer at specified price of $31 per share on or before a specified date. Thus he owns call options on 48 million (viz. 100 × 480,000) shares of Biocyte, having paid a total of $30 million for these options. This payment (for the right to buy a stock at a predetermined price) is called a call premium. So the call premium per share works out to $0.625 (viz. $30 ÷ 48). When the stock price of Biocyte is supposed to hit $200 as per his expectation, he plans to exercise his options, walking away with a profit of $8.082 billion, as calculated through... ($200 − $31 − $0.625) × 48,000,000 ...and a profit margin of 84% (viz. 8,082 ÷ 200 ÷ 48 × 100%); i.e. (regarding the concept of margin) whereby a 0% margin would represent breaking even, a 50% margin would represent doubling, and a 100% margin would represent a zero-amount purchase or an infinite-amount sale, negative margins representing a loss rather than profit.

No. Despite being rated 15 (for no persons admitted under 15 years old), the version shown on the UK DVD does not contain either the sound of neck breaks, the shot of Hunt being kneecapped, the kick to the head, and other violence cut to appease the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It is the same as the PG-13 version shown in the US.