100 Best Ethan Hunt Quotes

Ethan: I need... I need to ask you for something incredible.

[In the middle of a complicated operation, Ethan - disguised as Owen Davian and sitting in a car, makes a drop to Luther, underneath the car in a manhole]
Ethan: [Deadpan] What's up?
Luther: [Deadpan] Nothin'. What's up with you?
Ethan: [Deadpan] Nothin'.

Ethan: I can't protect you, that's why I need you to leave.
Benji: That's not your decision to MAKE, Ethan! I am a FIELD AGENT, I know the risks! More than that, I am your FRIEND, no matter what I tell the polygraph every week! Now you CALLED ME because you needed my help! And you still do! So I am STAYING! And that is all we are gonna say about that!

[from trailer]
Gabriel: His fate is written. Shall we write yours too?
Ethan: If anything happens to them, there's no place you and your God will be safe. There's no place that I won't go to kill you. That is written.

Ethan: Which way? Left or right?
The: It doesn't matter.
Ethan: What do you mean it doesn't matter? Where is she?
The: She's on her way to the Minich Bridge, where Gabriel is waiting. You will never get there in time. But you can, Ilsa. I know what matters most to you, Ethan.
Ethan: This isn't Benji.
The: No, it's not. But you are done.

Owen: ...Three...
Ethan: Please... I can get you the rabbit's foot... please... don't do it, don't fuckin' do it!
Owen: Four...

Ethan: [after climbing a wall, as a signal] Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Eugene: [Aquarium/Restaurant] I think we've lost enough agents for one night.
Ethan: You mean, *I've* lost enough agents for one night.
Eugene: You seem hell-bent on blaming yourself, Ethan.
Ethan: Who else is left?
Eugene: Yeah. I see your point.

Jane: You mind telling me what you were doing in a Russian prison?
Ethan: You mind telling me why you broke me out?
Jane: This wasn't a rescue mission?
Ethan: Let me put it this way. If the Secretary wanted me out of there, it must be pretty bad out here.

Ethan: Blow the car.
Zhen: Oh, it's such a nice car.
Ethan: And yet, do it.

Ethan: What are you doing here?
Ilsa: It's good to see you, too.

Ethan: The Syndicate is real. A rogue nation, trained to do what we do.
Benji: An anti-IMF.

Benji: [after Ethan hijacks a helicopter to chase Walker] Ethan, where are you?
Ethan: I'm in a helicopter going after Walker.
Benji: Hold on! How did you get in the helicopter?
Ilsa: What? You can fly a helicopter?
Luther: Did you say "helicopter"? What the hell are you doing in a helicopter?

Ethan: The Secretary is dead. The President has invoked Ghost Protocol. We're shut down. No satellite, safe house, support, or extraction. The four of us and the contents of this car are all that remains of the IMF.

Ethan: Julia... I'm sorry
Julia: There's no reason to be sorry
Ethan: I... I'm sorry for Everything... I
Julia: Look at me. Look at my life. I love what I do and I never would've found this if I hadn't met you. Everything that happened... it taught me who I am... it showed me what I'm capable of and I... I'm a survivor.
Ethan: But what happened here... it was my...
Julia: Nothing happened. Because You were here. And I sleep soundly at night knowing you always will be.
Ethan: You're Happy.
Julia: Very. I'm exactly where I should be. And so are you.

[last lines]
Ethan: Let's get lost.

Benji: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you okay to drive? A minute ago you were dead.
Ethan: What are you talking about?
Benji: This is not going to end well.

Ethan: [after crawling through the ventilation tunnel above the vault just before entering the vault] Krieger, from this point on... absolute silence!

Ethan: I have a way out. Interested?
Ilsa: Lead the way.

Ethan: European male. Fifties. About six-foot, 180 pounds.
[shows Brandt a drawing on his hand]
Ethan: Blue eyes. Who is he?
William: A crude drawing, but by your description, that could be Kurt Hendricks. 190 IQ. Served in Swedish Special Forces. Professor of physics, Stockholm University. Specialist in nuclear endgame theory. Asked to resign... well, because he's crazy.

Ethan: [about recruiting Nyah] I don't think I can get her to do it.
Mission: You mean it'll be difficult?
Ethan: Very.
Mission: Well, this is not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt, it's mission impossible. "Difficult" should be a walk in the park for you.

[last lines]
Benji: How close were we?
Ethan: The usual.
Ilsa: [incredulous] Usual?
Ethan: [chuckling] Please, don't make me laugh.

August: Is it true Lane gassed a village of 2000 people?
Ethan: Yes.
August: Is it true he brought down an entire passenger plane just to kill one man?
Ethan: Yes.
August: Is it true that he...
Ethan: Look, Walker, whatever you've heard, if it makes your skin crawl, it's probably true.
August: Holy shit. You're the guy that caught him, aren't you? How long do you think he's gonna keep that to himself?

William: We good?
Ethan: Things got a little out of hand.
Benji: [becomes conscious] Wow! look out!

Declan: Now that you've pissed off every Italian in Rome, go do what you've got to do.
Ethan: Don't forget the smoke.
[Declan turns on the smoke and continues yelling at the Italians as Ethan walks off]

Luther: Reach your folks?
[Ethan nods]
Luther: How do they feel?
Ethan: About what?
Luther: The apology from the Justice Department, VIP treatment. You know, the whole nine yards.
Ethan: Well, my mom was a little confused how the DEA could mistake her and Uncle Donald for a couple of dope smugglers in the Florida Keys.

Ethan: [to Jim as both of them hang from the helicopter's landing struts] RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT!

Luther: [inside a compartment on the TGV, referring to stealing the NOC list from CIA headquarters] You really think we can do this.
Ethan: We're going to do it.

Ethan: after saving her from the door she was hanging on from the cliff below, now his sitting in the car Don't you think we should wait a decent interval?
Nyah: [sitting on top of him] Who wants to be decent?

Ethan: [Ethan and Benji are in a car which is flying mid-air] You have your seatbelt on?
Benji: You're asking me that NOW?

Ethan: [As he rides a motorcycle higher up the mountain] When do I start going downhill?
Benji: [Knowing that "the jump" is coming] Won't be long.

Jim: We're being ambushed Ethan. Abort! That's an order.
Ethan: Negative. Golitsyn is on the move.
Jim: No, dammit, I said abort!
Ethan: Eye on the package. Jim, I'm Coming.

Ethan: Mission accomplished!

Record: We're about to close.
Ethan: I won't be long.
Record: Are you looking for anything in particular?
Ethan: Something rare.
Record: Let me guess... Classical?
Ethan: Jazz.
Record: Sax?
Ethan: Coltrane.
Record: Piano?
Ethan: Monk.
Record: Shadow Wilson on bass.
Ethan: Shadow Wilson played drums.
Record: Know why... they call him Shadow?
Ethan: Because he had a light touch.
Record: You're in luck. I have a first pressing.

Ethan: I don't agree with you.
Luther: Well then I'm smarter than you.
Declan: I agree with Luther; we can't have real relationships, but you see, I love that
[Ethan rolls his eyes]

Benji: What the fuck? She tried to shoot me!
Ethan: That doesn't make her a bad person.

Ethan: [stopping Krieger from killing a guard] Zero bodycount.
Franz: We'll see.

Luther: [holds Ethan back from attacking someone] Ethan, that's not who we are!
Ethan: Maybe we need to reconsider that.

Declan: [Ethan draws a sketch of the buildings on the window] Wait, so you're gonna swing... no, no, no, no! You could bounce right off the roof
Ethan: I could
Zhen: Even if you do make it you can't just walk out the lobby. What's your exit?
Ethan: Base jump off the top.
Zhen: Even at 162 you're pushing base jumping limits.
Declan: What are you gonna do? Land in the middle of Shanghai and hope no one notices?
Ethan: [muttering to himself] That's good...

Ethan: Can I ask you something, Kittridge? If you're dealing with a man who has crushed, shot, stabbed, and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated do you think you're gonna make him by hauling Mom and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse?

Benji: [explaining Ethan's gloves] Easy way to remember: blue is glue.
Ethan: And when it's red?
Benji: Dead.

Jim: [in a safe house in a Prague] Any questions?
Ethan: Yeah. Could we get a capuccino machine in here? 'Cause I don't know what you call this.
Jack: I call it cruel and unusual.
Claire: Hey, I made that coffee.
Ethan: Exactly.

Ethan: ...or the last thing that goes through your mind will be your kneecaps.

Ethan: I know you, Lane. Somewhere along the line you had a crisis of faith. Human life didn't matter anymore, or maybe it never really did. Either way, you killed too many innocent people without ever asking who was giving the orders or why. You blamed the system for what you are, instead of yourself. You wanted revenge, but Rome wasn't destroyed in a day. You needed help, you needed the money, a lot of it. And you'll stop at nothing to get it. That's how I know I'm going to put you in a box.

Mission: [seeing and hearing his briefing through sunglasses and it's earpieces] Good morning, Mr. Hunt. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the recovery of a stolen item designated "Chimera." You may select any two team members, but it is essential that the third member of your team be Nyah Nordoff-Hall. She is a civilian, and a highly capable professional thief. You have forty-eight hours to recruit Miss Hall and meet me in Seville to receive your assignment. As always, should any member of your team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. And Mr. Hunt, the next time you go on holiday, please be good enough to let us know where you're going. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
Ethan: [5 seconds before he throws the sunglasses in front of him] I let you know where I'm going, I won't be on holiday.

Benji: If you're going to bring me all this way, you could at least give me something a bit more, you know, dramatic.
Ethan: Benji, we're trying to keep a low profile. You want drama, go to the opera.

Ethan: You're free now. Where will you go?
Ilsa: I don't know. I've done my part.
Ethan: Yeah.
Luther: Ethan, we got to go!
Ilsa: [Ethan and Ilsa embrace] You'd better hurry now.
Ethan: Good luck.
Ilsa: You know how to find me.
[drives away]

Ethan: [to Nyah, after looking at his watch hiding behind a metal container] We've got 19 hours and 57 minutes. I'll get Bellerophon into your system by then. Just stay alive. I'm not going to lose you.

Jim: Of course he knew. Just *when* he knew is something of a mystery. You mind telling me, Ethan? Was it before or after I showed up in London?
Ethan: Before London. But after you took the Bible from the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
Jim: They stamped it, didn't they? Those damn Gideons.

Owen: The Rabbit's Foot, where is it?
Ethan: I, gave it to you...?
Owen: Ethan, where's the Rabbit's Foot?

Ethan: I have the Rabbit's Foot, but I can't make it to the roof!
Declan: What the hell d'you mean you can't make it to the roof - where are you?
Ethan: Look up! Look up! Look up!

Ethan: [to Gabriel, in regards to Grace and Ilsa] If anything happens to them, there's no place on Earth where you or your God will be safe from me. There's no place where I won't go to kill you. THAT is written.

Ethan: [to Luther, after they learned how difficult and critical their mission will be] We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now lets see what chance it has.

Benji: We have to evacuate these people!
Ilsa: There's no time!
Ethan: This whole valley's gonna be incinerated in 15 minutes!
Ilsa: [the two helicopters take off] It's too late!
Ethan: No. I'm gonna get the detonator.
Ilsa: What? How?
Ethan: I'll figure it out. Find Lane and find the other bomb!
[gets out of the jeep and jumps onto the first helicopter]
Ilsa: What the hell is he doing?
Benji: I find it best not to look!

Billy: [spying on Ambrose through his binoculars] Ambrose is meeting some bloke in the bar. Big bloke. Ginger hair. They're into something.
Ethan: [looking at the man who Ambrose is meeting with] Who is this guy?
Luther: Checking now, Ethan.
[runs the man's face through facial recognition]
Luther: John McCloy, CEO Biocyte Pharmaceuticals. In 1989, acquired Biocyte in a hostile takeover.
Ethan: He was Nekhorvich's boss.
Luther: Right. He worked for them as a research scientist at Biocyte. Ambrose is showing something to McCloy on a digital camera.
Ethan: Whatever McCloy's looking at, he's not happy about it.
[McCloy gives the digital camera back to Ambrose and leaves]
Luther: Ambrose just pulled the camera's memory card and put it in into an envelope. Put it in his inner left jacket pocket.
Ethan: Confirm left jacket pocket.
Luther: [rewinds the footage and checks] Roger that.
Ethan: Nyah. Nyah, Ambrose is on his way back to you. There's an envelope inside...
Nyah: His left jacket pocket.
Ethan: That's right.
Nyah: Where do I meet you?
Ethan: Betting table 12, off the paddock. Are you sure you're up to this?
Nyah: I'll muddle through.

Ethan: [inside a luggage compartment on the TGV] You know, Claire was wrong about one thing, Jim.
Jim: Oh really? What's that?
[Ethan slowly puts on his camera glasses, Kittridge sees Phelps on his watch]
Eugene: Good morning, Mr. Phelps.
Ethan: I'm not the only one who's seen you alive.

Ethan: Phoenix, I have eye on the prize. Do you copy?
Declan: [starting the helicopter] Copy. Of course I copy. Please, when do I not copy? All I do is copy.

Declan: Ethan! Get in! They're coming!
Ethan: Who?
Declan: Building security and they're pissed!

Ethan: [talking in a safe house in Prague, referring to his previous mission he was in charge of] Ahh, we missed you, Jim.
Jim: Missed you too, Ethan.
Jack: Were you on one of your cushy recruiting assignments again?
Ethan: Yeah, where did they put you up this time? The Plaza?
Jim: Drake Hotel, Chicago.
[everybody "ooohs"]
Jack: Punishing. 24 hour room service?
Ethan: Chauffeured limos? Man's getting soft in his old age.

Ethan: [Entire conversation is on the phone] The list is in the open.
Eugene: Calm down Ethan, look some and see me.
Ethan: Wait, you're in Prague?

Dr. Nekhorvich: Well, I've heard...
[takes off mask of Dr. Nekhorvich to reveal Ethan]
Ethan: ...all I need to hear.

[from trailer]
Ilsa: You don't understand what you're involved in.
Ethan: You need to walk away.
Ilsa: Please don't make me go through you.

Ethan: Is our truck in place?
Ethan: Weapons good to go?
Luther: Yeah. You?
Ethan: Yeah.
Luther: You know I got your six.
Ethan: Hey, man. That's your job.

Luther: [after getting off the helicopter and steps in sheep droppings] Shit.
Ethan: Yes it is

Ethan: [to Luther,inside a compartment on the TGV referring to CIA headquarters] This is the Mount Everest of hacks.

Alan: I believe I've been given a choice to protect you or the IMF, which is why I'm bringing you in.
Ethan: And if I refuse?
Alan: [referring to Walker] What do you think he's here for? You think he's some observer? He's an assassin! Erika Sloane's number one plumber. You go rogue, he's authorized to hunt you down and kill you.
August: It's the job. No hard feelings.
Alan: Accept it, Ethan. You've lost this one. What's done is done.
Ethan: No, sir. No.
Alan: I am not asking you, I am giving you a direct order. This mission is terminated. Now!

Ethan: I don't have a signal! I don't have a signal!
Declan: I'm on it! I'm on it! I'm on it!

Benji: Let me guess. Presumed dead?
Ethan: Well tonight, I just made it official.

IMF: The President has initiated Ghost Protocol. The entire IMF has been disavowed.
Ethan: So what happens now?
IMF: Now, I've been ordered to take you back to Washington, where the DOD will label you as a rogue extremist and hang the Kremlin bombing on you and your team. Unless, you were to escape somewhere between here and the airport, having assaulted Mr. Brandt and me.
Brandt: Sir?
IMF: You would then illegally scrounge whatever material you could from a backup supply cache that I've overlooked. The same cache where your team are waiting for further orders.
Brandt: Sir, you may want to...
IMF: You will then disappear, and this conversation never having taken place, your intentions would be unclear. But if any one of your team is caught or killed, they will be branded terrorists, out to incite global nuclear war.
[handing Ethan a USB drive]
IMF: Your mission, should you choose to accept it.

Ethan: [Ethan, Ilsa, Benji, Luther and Brandt have captured Lane in a glass box] Gentlemen, this is Solomon Lane. Mr. Lane, meet the IMF.

Mission: [during a breifing in Sevile, Spain] Ms. Hall and Ambrose had a relationship which he took very seriously... she walked away and he's been wanting her back ever since. We believe she's our surest and quickest way of locating him.
Ethan: And then what?
Mission: Make sure she continues to see him, gets him to confide in her, and report to you.
Ethan: You made it sound as if I was recruiting her for her skills as a thief.
Mission: 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... voluntarily, I might add.
Ethan: No. She's got no training for this kind of thing.
Mission: What? To go to bed with a man and lie to him? She's a woman - she's got all the training she needs.

[from trailer]
Luther: Ethan, what's your objective? What's your ultimate objective?
Ethan: Your life will always matter more to me than my own.
Luther: None of our lives can matter more than this mission.
Ethan: I don't accept that.

Ethan: So the key to crushing Lane is sitting in a computer, just waiting for someone to take it.
Benji: So, why hasn't Lane just sent someone to steal it?
Ilsa: Oh, he has. He sent me. And I can tell you... it's impossible.

Lane: [Ethan's phone rings twice] I have a job for you, Ethan, and for the sake of your friend you will do it.
Ethan: I'm listening.
Lane: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring me the unlocked disk by midnight tonight. Now say the words, please.
Ethan: I accept.
Lane: Yes, I knew you would.

[from trailer]
Ethan: [shouting] You will never get what you want!
Owen: [shouting] You don't think I'll do it?

Luther: Was there something more going on between you two?
Ethan: Lindsey was like my little sister.
Luther: And you never... slept with your little sister, right?

India: What is the oath?
Ethan: We live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close, and for those we never meet.

Ethan: Waste not, want not.

[repeated line]
Ethan: Desperate times, desperate measures.

[last lines]
Flight: Excuse me. Mr. Hunt? Would you like to watch a movie?
Ethan: Oh, uh, no thank you.
Flight: Would you consider the cinema of the Caribbean? Aruba, perhaps?
[Ethan gives a suspicious look]

Grace: Are you Okay?
Ethan: Are YOU Okay?
Grace: The key! Tell me you have the key!
Ethan: Where is the key?

Ethan: I have a charge in my head, I'm gonna die unless you kill me.
Julia: What?

Ethan: Getting Davian is good, but getting his buyers is even better.
Declan: I don't understand what you're saying. No matter how we grab Davian, his clients are gonna know he's been taken
Ethan: No, they won't. Access point is here. It's a one way street adjacent to the Vatican wall. We'll need thirty second and I'll need a truck.

Ethan: [tied to a chair inside an apartment own by one of Max's friends] The disk Job sold you is worthless. Bait. Part of an internal mole hunt.
Max: And how would you know? Are you another company man?
Max: Like Job?
Max: We're asking about you
Ethan: I'm NOC, Was. Now, disavowed.
Max: Why, may I ask?
Ethan: That's the question I want to ask Job.

[first lines]
Solomon: Do you, Ethan Hunt, take Julia as your lawful wedded wife?
Ethan: I do.
Solomon: To have, to hold, to love, cherish, honor, and protect?
Ethan: I do.
Solomon: To shield from terrors known and unknown, to lie, to deceive...
Ethan: [confused] What?
Solomon: ...to lead a double life, to fail to prevent her abduction, erase her identity, force her into hiding, take away all she has known...
Ethan: [turns to the priest] Stop.
Solomon: ...in a selfish, futile, fleeting attempt...
Ethan: Stop.
Solomon: ...to escape your own true self?
Ethan: Please, stop!
Solomon: And, Julia, do you choose to accept?
Ethan: [turns to Julia] Don't.
Julia: I do.
Ethan: No!
[turns back to the priest, who is revealed to be Solomon Lane]
Solomon: You should have killed me, Ethan.
[a nuclear explosion suddenly occurs, vaporizing Ethan, Julia, and Lane]

Ethan: [to Claire] Wake up, Claire! Jim's dead! He's dead! They're all dead!

Ethan: Did you jump?
William: [hovering over a giant fan] Should I not have jumped? Cause I jumped!

Senator: We were living in a democracy the last time I checked.

[repeated line]
Ethan: I'm working on it!

Benji: Love the jet.
Ethan: Wait till you see the car.

Ethan: [Ethan confronts Walker in the elevator after Walker is revealed to be John Lark, and Walker holds Ethan at gunpoint] You can't do it, can you? Not until you get your plutonium.
August: No, he still has plans for you. You're gonna turn yourself in and admit you're John Lark, then watch the old world implode from your dark little cell.
Ethan: And if I don't?
August: [Walker takes out a picture of Julia with her new husband Erik, Ethan gasps in horror upon seeing the picture] I'm her guardian angel, Hunt. If I see you again, she dies. If you try to warn her, she dies. Know when you're beat.

Luther: [convincing him not to get married, like a broken record] Don't do it, Ethan.
Ethan: Luther? Julia and I got married two days ago.
Luther: Well, congratulations!

Benji: Well, how long will it take to free swim from the intake to the service hatch?
Ilsa: Two minutes, with the current at full power.
Benji: Then you just have to hold your breath for two minutes.
Ethan: What about installing the security profile?
Benji: Well, that's gonna be, like, a minute, tops.
Ethan: So I have to hold my breath for *three* minutes.
Benji: [cavalierly] You can do that.
Ilsa: What I think you're overlooking is the physical exertion. The more you exert yourself, the faster you consume oxygen.
Benji: Don't worry about him, all right? All he has to do is install the fake profile before I get to the gait analysis. You said it yourself, it's the only way.
[chuckles]
Benji: That doesn't sound "impossible".

Lane: [while Benji is strapped to a bomb and Lane demands the ledger] Where is the disc?
Benji: Where is the disc?
Ethan: You're looking at it. I am the disc.

Ethan: Saved your ass again, Jack.
Jack: Give me a break, Pops.
Sarah: Such a nice ass.
Jack: And a lonely ass.

William: 22 minutes to door knock.
Ethan: The countdown is not helping.
William: I'm just saying.

Ethan: [as he sees the bible on a shelf in the safe house] Job 3:14...

Ethan: What's done is done when we say it's done.

Solomon: [after Ethan runs over Ilsa on her motorcycle] That was Ilsa.
Ethan: Shut up.
Solomon: Very interesting. It's good to see you again, Ethan.

Ethan: Failure to a terrorist is just a rehearsal for success!