Ethan Hunt is back in this action packed film, Mission Impossible III. In this latest offering of IM movies, Tom Cruise reprises his role as the IMF super-spy. He has retired and is now living a quiet life with his girlfriend Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Julia knows nothing of his past, she believes that Ethan works in transportation; in fact he is now a trainer for the Impossible Mission Force. When Ethan learns that one of the agents he trained (Keri Russell) was been captured while on a surveillance mission, his old friend Musgrave (Billy Crudup) persuades him to accept one more assignment. Hunt and his team Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames), Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (Maggie Q) set out to save the young agent, Lindsey, from torture and sure death. They come up against Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a cold and deadly man who provides information and weapons to anyone and any country who can meet his price. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar in 2006 for his brilliant and realistic portrayal of author Truman Capote in the movie "Capote."

IMF director Brassel (Laurence Fishbourne) has given another mission to Ethan; he must locate a weapon called "Rabbit Foot". His team remains with him and together they seek out the deadly weapon, look for the mole with in the IMF organization and rescue Julia who has been kidnapped to weight the odds against Hunts success in finding "Rabbit Foot. We follow Ethan as he goes on high-speed chases, has outrageous shoot-outs, and leaps from very tall buildings. You have not seen anything until you see Ethan running at the speed of a locomotive.

Mission Impossible III is directed by J.J. Abrams. Abrams is the creator of the popular television series "Alias" and one of the creators of the equally popular television series "Lost". Rated PG-13

Some IMF background:

In Mission Impossible II (2000) Ving Rhames returns as Luther Stickel. This time Ethan is in a race to locate and destroy a serum that has been created to infect and obliterate mankind. Those infected die a quick and horrible death. Directed by John Woo.

The first IM movie (1996) was directed by Brian DePalma and starred Cruise, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickel and Jon Voight as Jim Phelps, in the original television series Phelps was a key character. However, he only appears in the first IM movie. Ethan has to prove that he is not the IMF mole; he can only do that by discovering who the real mole is and stop him before he steals IMF information and passes it on to the enemy.

MI was brought back to television from a couple of seasons, 1988 to 1990. The original and possibly the best Impossible Mission to date are the 1966 to 1973 one hour weekly episodes. The IM television cast did change, but every one of Bruce Geller’s (creator of MI) characters were memorable:

Steven Hill as Daniel Briggs pre-dated Mr. Phelps:
Peter Graves (James Phelps)
Barbara Bain (Cinnamon Carter)
Martin Landau (Rollin Hand) an audience favorite
Greg Morris (Barney Collier)
Peter Lupus (Willy Armitage)
Leonard Nimoy (Paris) before Dr. Spock fame.
Sam Elliott (Doug Robert)
Lesley Ann Warren (Dana Lambert)
Lynda Day George (Lisa Casey))
Barbara Anderson (Mimi Davis)

Landau and Bain were husband and wife in real life. Greg Morris's son, Phil Morris was cast as Grant Collier in the 1988 series. The DVD of the original television series is not yet offered. However you can ask Amazon to alert you when Mission Impossible (1966-television) becomes available.

Will there be a MI-IV? Could be. Here is the dialogue at the end of the Mission Impossible III. Ethan thinks it is time to tell Julia who he is and what he really does. Ethan: "I'm part of an agency... called the IMF." Julia: "What's that stand for?" Ethan: "Impossible Mission Force." Julia laughing "Yeh, right!"