Mission: Impossible 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Plane crash

Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija) had contacted the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) and asked for "Dmitri"(an alias of Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt) to escort him to Atlanta so that he could deliver the deadly virus and antidote to the CDC. But Hunt was on vacation, so the IMF sent agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), disguised as Hunt. On the flight, the pilot reported that the air pressure had dropped in the cabin and told passengers and crew to put on oxygen masks, but it turned out that the pilot was in cahoots with Ambrose, and the oxygen was actually a sleeping gas that knocked everyone out. Nekhorvich hadn't put on the mask, so Ambrose killed him by breaking his neck and took Nekhorvich's bag. Ambrose and his crew then parachuted from the plane before it crashed into the Rockies.

However Nekhorvich's bag only contained the antidote, Bellerophon, because Nekhorvich had actually injected the virus, Chimera, into himself before leaving Australia. So although Nekhorvich was killed by Ambrose, it appeared to the world that Nekhorvich had died in the plane crash.

Answer: Rock climbing

Not just rock climbing but free solo climbing! The opening credits sequence to the film showed Hunt scaling a vertical cliff in Dead Horse Point Park in Utah. When he reached the top, a helicopter appeared and fired a small rocket into the ground; the rocket contained a pair of sunglasses which, when Hunt put them on, confirmed his identity through a retinal scan and then shared the IMF mission with him. Most of the climbing scenes were actually filmed with Cruise; according to cameraman Earl Wiggins: "Tom did all of the climbing except the slip off the overhang - his main stunt double, Keith Campbell, did that stunt." Although it appeared that Cruise was free climbing, he actually was wearing cables and a harness, which were edited out of the film print, but there apparently wasn't a safety net. According to Wiggins, no real climbing routes were damaged during the filming: "We were not on a climbing route but at an area that other filming has taken place. Filming climbing and doing climbing are very different beasts. We try never to film at true climbing locations due to the [environmental] impact."

Answer: Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins appeared in only two scenes in the film and also provided the voice that read the mission message to Hunt at the beginning of the film. Hunt then met Swanbeck in Seville, Spain, to discuss the mission in person. During the meeting, Hopkins became the first actor in the "Mission: Impossible" series (TV or film) to actually say the phrase "mission impossible".

When Hunt said that the mission would be very difficult, Swanbeck responded, "Well this is not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt, it's mission impossible." Reportedly, director John Woo originally wanted Ian McKellen for the role, but he turned it down. McKellen said that he was only allowed to see the lines for his character, not the whole script, so he wasn't sure about the film.

It turned out to be a good decision for McKellen because he was offered the role of Magneto in "X-Men" the next day and Gandalf in "Lord of the Rings" shortly thereafter. Some sources list the potential role for McKellen as that of Dr. Nekhorvich or Sean Ambrose, although he would be a bit old to play Ambrose.

Another "X-Men" connection: Dougray Scott who portrayed Sean Ambrose was originally supposed to portray Wolverine but had to withdraw due to his commitments to this film.

Answer: Thief

Swanbeck had told Hunt that Nyah Nordoff-Hall was "a civilian and a highly capable professional thief", and when Hunt first encountered her, she was attempting to steal an expensive necklace from a safe in a bathtub. But Hunt later found out that Swanbeck wanted her on the team because she was bad-guy Sean Ambrose's ex-girlfriend. Hunt stated, "You made it sound as if I was recruiting her for her skills as a thief," to which Swanbeck replied, "Well then I misled you, or you made the wrong assumption. Either way, we are asking her to resume her prior relationship - not do anything she hasn't already done." Tom Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman had recommended Thandie Newton for a role in the film, even before it was written.

The two had performed together in the 1991 film "Flirting" - Newton's first film. Newton had also previously worked in a Tom Cruise film, 1994's "Interview with the Vampire" in which she played Yvette, the servant of Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt).

Answer: Through roof louvers over the atrium

The building had a large center atrium that received sunlight from louvers on the roof, but the louvers closed at sundown and if they were opened for more than 40 seconds at night, it would set off an alarm. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) was able to access the facility controls and open the louvers while Hunt was lowered down by cable from a helicopter piloted by Billy Baird (John Polson).

A security desk looked out onto the floor of the atrium, and when Hunt reached the floor, he had to avoid being seen, which delayed him releasing the cable.

He finally managed to release the cable and have it extracted just before the louvers shut.

Answer: Nyah injected it.

While in the facility, Ethan Hunt lost contact with Luther Stickell, who was monitoring activity in the facility from a van parked outside, so Hunt didn't know that Sean Ambrose and his team had entered the facility, bringing Nyah with them. Hunt destroyed all but one of the samples of the virus before Ambrose's team attacked, and the last sample, which was contained in an injection gun, ended up on the floor between them. Ambrose sent Nyah out to pick it up, but instead of bringing it to him, she injected herself with the virus. Ambrose had discovered that Nyah was working with Hunt, so she figured that he'd kill her once he had the virus.

She knew that he wouldn't shoot her if she injected the virus because he needed it alive.

Answer: Stock options

He didn't want cash or a jet, he wanted stock options which would make him the majority shareholder in the Biocyte Corporation. He figured that the stock price would take off due to demand for the antidote after the virus was released. Dr. Nekhorvich had stolen all of the antidote from Biocyte, and since Hunt had destroyed the remaining virus samples at Biocyte, CEO McCloy had offered to pay $30 million to get the virus and antidote back.

But Ambrose wanted the stock options, and when McCloy objected to giving up control of his company, Ambrose responded, "You'll be a billionaire.

It's better than being broke. And I have terrorists and other pharmaceutical companies waiting in line." Ambrose had a gun pointed at McCloy for extra motivation, and McCloy finally agreed to the transfer.

Answer: It was Stamp, disguised as Hunt, who was killed.

Masks and voice changer tape (tape attached to the throat that allowed the person to mimic another's voice) are standard "Mission: Impossible" gadgets. Hugh Stamp (Richard Roxburgh) had cornered Ethan Hunt, but Hunt detonated a grenade, destroying part of the bunker and knocking down both Stamp and Hunt. We then heard Stamp on the radio telling Ambrose that he had captured Hunt, and when Stamp brought Hunt into the room where Ambrose was meeting with Biocyte CEO McCloy, Ambrose kicked Hunt to the ground and shot him in the leg. Hunt was mumbling, and when Ambrose told him to stop it, Stamp said, "I'm afraid he has no choice. I believe I broke his jaw." Ambrose then repeatedly shot Hunt, killing him, but then Ambrose noticed a bandage on Hunt's finger; Ambrose had earlier chopped off the tip of Stamp's finger, and Stamp had been wearing a similar bandage on it. So Ambrose went over to the body and peeled off a mask, revealing that the dead person was actually Stamp, with duct tape over his mouth.

In the meantime, Hunt who had been disguised as Stamp, grabbed the containers of the virus and antidote and ran out of the room, removing the mask and voice changer tape as he ran.

Answer: Motorcycle

Hunt waived off the helicopter as a couple of guards on motorcycles came after him. He managed to kill the drivers and then took off on one of the motorcycles. Ambrose soon followed him on the other motorcycle, and the two embarked on a firefight while zipping around other vehicles, with Ambrose managing to put a hole in Hunt's fuel tank.

The two eventually ended up on an empty beach where they faced each other and played a game of chicken, speeding towards each other while doing wheelies. They jumped off their bikes in the air just before the bikes crashed together and exploded.

The fight then continued on the ground, with Ambrose at one point holding a knife just shy of Hunt's eyeball. That knife, by the way, was real and was connected by a cable to be just a quarter of an inch above Tom Cruise's eyeball.

Answer: On a cliff

The team had injected a tracking device on Nyah, but it took a while for them to locate her after Ambrose dropped her off in Sydney because the GPS on Luther Stickell's computer wasn't working. Ambrose planned to use her to set off the Chimera outbreak since she had infected herself with the virus.

She had decided to commit suicide rather than start an epidemic, but Billy Baird and Stickell found her in time and flew her to the location where Ethan Hunt and Ambrose were battling it out. After he finally killed Ambrose, Hunt was able to get the antidote to Stickell who used it to save Nyah.

When Hunt later had his after-action report with Mission Commander Swanbeck, we found out that Nyah was free from the virus.