Introduction
7
Ebola Virus: Mission Impossible
If the world wants to understand the scourge of the Ebola virus, then the movie Mission Impossible 2 is important to certain primary questions arising from the rampage the disease is causing. A year 2000 movie, produced by the duo of Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, the movie is principally starred by Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) and Thandie Newton (Nyah Nordoff-Hall), while having other appearances such as Dougary Scott (Sean Ambrose) and Brendan Gleeson (John C. McCloy). John Woo directed the movie.
A Russian bio-chemical expert is forced by Biocyte Pharmaceuticals, in Sydney, Australia, to develop a synthetic virus, Chimera, and its cure, Bellerophon. Both virus and cure are then to be delivered to IMF (Impossible Mission Force) in the US by its developer. An IMF operator, Ambrose, turns rogue and crashes the plane carrying the biochemical expert and his cargo. Ambrose then turns his attention back to the headquarters of Biocyte Pharmaceuticals in Sydney, knowing that the facility contains the sample of Chimera. Ethan Hunt, another operator of the IMF, is detailed to get Ambrose, before he unleashes any catastrophe. Ethan is to use an international female thief, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Ambrose's ex-girlfriend).
The final scene is in Sydney, where Ambrose had gone back blackmailing Biocyte's CEO, John C. McCloy into selling the Chimera sample for £37 million, while promising to return the cure. Ambrose now gets hold of Nyah, who had come in with Ethan Hunt, and then she is infected with Chimera. The virus has a 20-hour dormant period before it begins destroying the victims red blood cells and then causes death in not more than 34 hours from time of infection. Bellerophon, the cure, is only relevant and effective in the victim if used within the first 20 hours of infection.
Armed with the infected Nyah and Belerophon, Ambrose asks John C. McCloy to hand over to him the controlling shares of Biocyte Pharmaceuticals, otherwise he threatens to release the infected Nyah onto the streets of Sydney in order to cause a pandemic that will kill some 17 million people in Australia alone. Ambrose thinks he will make a great fortune out of this when the stock of Biocyte Pharmaceuticals skyrockets due to the demand for Bellerophon.
Purely, the plot of Mission Impossible II reveals the heartless workings of a megalomaniac, determined to make money and power through the sufferings of humanbeings. Now, can we divorce the present Ebola scourge from the workings of megalomaniacs and rogue capitalists exposed in Mission Impossible II? Suppose Tom Cruise and his team stumbled on an actual script and decided to wisely, and quietly too, warn the world of some impending danger. We will revisit this issue in future. For now, the situation remains Mission Impossible.
Plucking The Entrails