Mission: Impossible 3 (2006): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

The plot of Mission Impossible 3 starts with Ethan Hunt out of the field, engaged to a nurse named Julia who believes he works a desk job. Ethan now trains new recruits for the Impossible Missions Force, and the quiet life ends when his IMF superior asks him to rescue Lindsey Farris, a former trainee who was captured while investigating the arms dealer Owen Davian.

Ethan puts together a small team and gets Lindsey out, but a device planted in her head goes off and she dies. The clues she leaves behind point to Davian's search for something called the Rabbit's Foot, and Ethan goes after him even with the agency pressing him to stand down. The rest of the story is in the spoiler summary below, and if you are working through the saga, the mission impossible movies in order page shows where this chapter sits.

The full plot of Mission: Impossible III turns on a hunt for the Rabbit's Foot and a betrayal inside the IMF. After Lindsey's death, Ethan marries Julia in a hurry and then leads an unauthorized raid to seize Davian at the Vatican. The raid works, but Davian is freed during an ambush on the road.

Davian answers by kidnapping Julia and demanding the Rabbit's Foot in exchange for her life. A senior IMF figure named Musgrave secretly helps Ethan escape custody so he can steal the item in Shanghai. Ethan gets it, but Davian plants an explosive in Ethan's head and appears to shoot Julia.

Julia turns out to be alive, and Musgrave is exposed as a traitor who worked with Davian. Ethan kills Davian by throwing him in front of a truck, then uses a makeshift defibrillator to stop the device in his head from killing him. Julia shoots Musgrave and revives Ethan, and the couple go off on their honeymoon.

Mission Impossible 3 premiered in Rome on the Monday night of April 24, 2006, and opened in US theaters on May 5, 2006. Tom Cruise attended the Rome event days after the birth of his daughter Suri. The UK and Australia got the film a day earlier than the US, on May 4, 2006, according to TMDB.

The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia. At 126 minutes it is longer than mission impossible 1996 at 111 minutes and 3 minutes longer than mission impossible 2 at 123 minutes.

As of November 3, 2026, the film streams in the US on Paramount+ (Premium and Essential tiers), free on Kanopy, and free with ads on Pluto TV and Tubi, based on JustWatch data via TMDB. It can be rented or bought on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango At Home. In the UK it is on Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Paramount Plus, and free on BBC iPlayer. In Australia it is on Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Foxtel Now and Stan. It is not listed on Netflix in any of those three markets. Streaming lines change often, so check where to watch mission impossible for the dated listings.

The ending of Mission Impossible 3 settles three things at once: Davian is dead, Musgrave is exposed and shot, and Ethan survives the explosive in his head. Ethan kills Davian by throwing him in front of a truck, and the improvised shock from his makeshift defibrillator stops the device from killing him. Julia, who seemed to have been shot, then kills Musgrave and revives Ethan, and the couple leave on their honeymoon with Ethan back on good terms with the agency.

In my opinion, the choice that matters most is what the film does with Julia. She ends up as an ally who knows what Ethan does for a living, and it could be argued that this keeps him from being a lone operator: the closing image is a honeymoon for two, not another solo exit. The film also plants that idea early, because the first act is built around a woman who believes her fiance has a desk job, so the payoff is the reveal she earns by surviving Davian's kidnapping.

Musgrave's betrayal is the other piece worth reading closely. A traitor inside the IMF echoes the mole story of mission impossible 1996, where Ethan sets out to clear his name and find the real mole, but this time the traitor is a senior figure who helps Ethan escape custody before turning out to work with Davian. That structure matters in the Shanghai stretch: Ethan steals the Rabbit's Foot believing he has an ally on the inside, and the reveal rewrites that whole sequence.

The finish is also quieter than the film around it. Davian's death comes at street level, with a truck and a thrown body, rather than as a large effects spectacle like the ILM built Shanghai or the Vatican raid. That being said, the ending is not the last word on Julia, since Monaghan returns in the role in mission impossible fallout.

Mission Impossible 3 was shot in Rome, Shanghai and Los Angeles, and parts of it are digital. Principal photography began in Rome in July 2005, the same city that hosted the world premiere.

Shanghai was filmed on location, but most of the backgrounds in the Shanghai sequence are a digital city built by ILM. The effects house built a virtual downtown, partly because of pollution and a 10 p.m. lights out rule on location. Cruise's night bungee jump in Shanghai was shot on a matching foreground set atop a car park at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, with the city added digitally, according to Computer Graphics World.

For a series later known for practical stunts, Shanghai is a useful contrast. The bungee jump here was a controlled studio set piece, while the stunt work of later entries such as mission impossible dead reckoning is covered on the mission impossible stunts page.

Mission Impossible 3 had a long road to the screen, and these facts come from its production history.

• David Fincher was first attached to direct, and Joe Carnahan replaced him before leaving in July 2004 over creative differences.
• J.J. Abrams made his feature directing debut on the film, but his Alias and Lost contracts kept him from starting until the following year.
• In August 2004, Tom Cruise postponed the shoot to make War of the Worlds with Steven Spielberg, and the film moved to summer 2005.
• Scarlett Johansson pulled out of the project because of the delays and script changes.
• Industrial Light & Magic made about 530 effects shots in under four months, with a core crew of about 100 that peaked at 180.
• ILM built a virtual downtown Shanghai, partly because of pollution and a 10 p.m. lights out rule on location.
• Cruise's night bungee jump in Shanghai was shot on a matching foreground set at Universal Studios, with the city added digitally.
• The Rome world premiere was on April 24, 2006, eleven days before the US release, and Cruise attended it days after the birth of his daughter Suri.

To see how the film compares with the rest of the saga, visit the mission impossible box office and mission impossible movies ranked pages, or return to the mission impossible movies hub.