- A mercenary army in Central Africa led by Krim is destabilizing the region, and stockpiling stolen gold. Phelps and the IMF capitalize on Krim's greed, and manipulate him into arranging the theft of his own gold bullion stored in a seemingly impenetrable vault.—em
- The Impossible Mission Force is tasked with trying to steal a large amount of gold bullion held by a mercenary force in a foreign country. The leader of the mercenaries, Colonel Hans Krim (Pernell Roberts) is going to use the gold to finance a revolution. IMF team leader Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) makes contact with Krim posing as a gun runner, accompanied by the team's femme fatale, Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), and magician/impressionist Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) is sent in undercover as a mercenary recruit. While Jim negotiates an arms purchase, Cinamon flirts with Krim, where she is 'caught' by Jim, giving him a chance to switch blank cartridges into Krim's handgun.
Rollin allows himself to be caught by Karl (Bo Svenson), one of the mercenaries, and lightly tortured, before 'revealing' to Krim and Karl that he has found another stash of gold, ostensibly left by an earlier expeditionary force. Krim, despite his constant reassurance to his men of "one for all and all for one", determines to keep the gold for himself, hiding it from the rest of the force led by the smart and loyal Major Gruner (Skip Homeier). Krim therefore cuts a deal with Jim to secretly take the gold to Tangiers.
Meanwhile, IMF technical expert Barney Collier (Greg Morris) and muscle man Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus) carry out an elaborate plan to steal the mercenaries' gold. They drill up from a cave below into the vault where the gold is being held and use a complicated device to heat the vault to 2400 degrees, melting the gold and draining it through the floor, where they re-mold it back into ingots. After all the gold is sucked from the vault, the contraption seals the hole and repaints the floor, covering all traces of the theft. Barney and Willy quickly drive the gold out to an abandoned camp and bury it under a fireplace, getting out seconds before Rollin leads Krim and Karl to the 'other' gold. Krim then shoots Rollin, who pretends to die, and after Karl loads the gold into a false bottom in Jim's truck and sends him off, Krim kills Karl too.
Back at the group's HQ, Krim calls the guard post and tells Sergeant Gorte (Vic Tayback) to let Jim's truck through without searching it, which surprises Gruner. Barney, who has been tapping the phone line, then cuts communications to the guard post. All seems to be going well for the IMF until Krim surprises Jim by insisting on keeping Cinnamon with him in the camp until Jim proves that the gold has been delivered. Rollin, hiding in camp after his supposed 'death', sees this, and, imitating Gorte's voice, calls Gruner and tells him that they searched the truck and found gold hidden in a false floor. Gruner tells "Gorte" to hold the truck, and then charges in on Krim and Cinnamon, demanding to know what's going on. Cinnamon pleads ignorance, but tells Gruner that Krim and Jim had spent a lot of time alone in the HQ office with the gold the previous night. Krim hotly denies this, and insists on taking Gruner and his men over to the vault to show them that the gold is still there, leaving Cinnamon under guard.
When Krim and Gruner get to the vault, the gold is obviously not there, and Gruner, enraged at Krim's betrayal of his men, stabs him to death. Meanwhile, Rollin rescues Cinnamon from the soldier guarding her, under the pretense of bringing her to Krim, and Rollin and Cinnamon race out to road, where they're picked up by Jim in the truck carrying the gold, which had previously also picked up Barney and Willy. As they get to the gate, Gorte (not having received any contradicting orders) waves them through, and the closing credits and MI theme music come on screen as the truck carrying the IMF and the gold heads out of the country.
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