Kurt Hendricks

Kurt Hendricks
Name:	Kurt Hendricks
Status:	Deceased
Role:	Main Antagonist
Age:	52 (2011)
Date of birth:	c. 1959
Birthplace:	Sweden
Date of death:	2011
Place of death:	Mumbai, India
Cause of death:	Jumping to death
Nationality:	Russian; Swedish
Alias(es):	Cobalt
Affiliation:	Swedish Special Forces (formerly); Stockholm University (formerly); Russian Central Command (formerly); Kremlin
Profession:	Military officer (formerly); Professor (formerly); Level-One nuclear strategist; Terrorist
Rank:	Professor (formerly)
Expertise:	High intelligence; Genius-level intellect; Great physical strength; High durability; High speed level; Greats reflexes; Stamina; Marksmanship; Fighting skills; Evasion; Driving skills
Played by:	Michael Nyqvist; Samuli Edelmann (face mask)
First appearance:	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Last appearance:	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
First mentioned:	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Last mentioned:	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

“	How will the world finally end? It is my job to predict the unthinkable. To treat the deaths of billions as a game. After 20 years of this, I was numb. Until a new question crossed my mind. What happens after the end of the world? Every two or three million years, some natural catastrophe devastates all life on Earth. But life goes on. And what little remains is made stronger. Put simply, world destruction is an unpleasant but necessary part of evolution. What happens then, I wondered, when mankind faces the next end of the world. I looked to Hiroshima, Nagasaki... thriving cities rebuilt from the ashes, monuments to the unimaginable, dedicated to the concept of peace. It occured to me here that nuclear war might have a place in the natural order. But only if it could be controlled. Only if it touched every living soul equally.	”
–Kurt Hendricks, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Kurt Hendricks (born c. 1959 - 2011), also known by his codename Cobalt, was the main antagonist in the 2011 global blockbuster action/thriller film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and a mentioned character in its sequel, the 2015 film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. He was a Swedish-born Russian nuclear scientist and a terrorist who attempts to ignite a nuclear conflict between Russia and United States of America, hoping to strengthen the remnants of humanity that are surviving and ultimately serve humanity.

Biography

Background

Born in Sweden c. 1959, Kurt Hendricks served in the Swedish Special Forces in his youth. Hendricks also became the Professor of Physics at Stockholm University where he specialized in the minutiae of the nuclear endgame theory. He was regarded as a genius, with an IQ of 190. Despite this, he was forced to resign by the university due to his outlandish theories and claims of insanity. Following this, Hendricks was affiliated with the Russian Central Command during the Cold War, wherein his job was to "predict the unthinkable". After twenty years in his role as a nuclear strategist, Hendricks came up with the concept of nuclear war in the place of natural order after following the examples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hendricks then worked in the Kremlin as a nuclear strategist, where he formulated a plan to steal a briefcase with nuclear launch codes to facilitate his concept of world destruction.

Attacking the Kremlin

Hendricks' plan is to instigate a nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States. His strategy for this conflict is to ignite a global nuclear exchange and thus eliminate most of the world's population. With most of the world's people wiped out (and presumably their old conflicts and hatreds along with them), a new era of "peace" could be ushered in. Hendricks uses the code name; Cobalt, to prevent his true identity from surfacing. His activities as an extremist remains undetected, since he acts only under the code name. The Impossible Mission Force chases Cobalt without knowing his identity, and discovers that he was one of the top nuclear strategists in Russian Intelligence. To expose his true identity, IMF agent Ethan Hunt is sent to infiltrate the Kremlin and find Cobalt's high-security file. However, Hendricks secretly plans to arrange the destruction of the Kremlin in order to steal a nuclear launch control-device while ultimately placing the blame on the IMF and also in order to facilicate the conflit between Russia and United States.

After strangling a guard, Hendricks uses his radio to ask in English if the "teamleader" has already entered the archive. This gives the impression that the Kremlin has been infiltrated by enemy agents - which is true, after all - and so Cobalt can make sure that the alarm goes off and the guards rush in to check the archive. But Hendricks continues and "tells" his team leader that the detonation can occur at any time.

After Hendricks has the bomb armed, he makes his way outside. On the way he past Ethan Hunt, who is disguised as a Russian general, and greets him. Since Ethan does not recognize his true identity and thus his face, he does not feel suspicious and he greets him back. Hendricks later manages to get out in time, where Ethan sees him again on Red Square and realizes what has happened. However, at the same moment, the bomb explodes and destroys both the Kremlin and much of the square and the American gets injured in the explosion. He can not follow Cobalt thus, so that this escape succeeds.

Holding Lisenker Family hostage

Later, Ethan meets with the IMF's Secretary and chief analyst William Brandt in their SUV and Brandt confirms that the individual whom Ethan met at the Kremlin was indeed Kurt Hendricks. He explains that Hendricks is an intelligent, but deranged nuclear physicist and that he bombed the Kremlin in order to steal a nuclear launch-control device from the Russians undetected. Upon viewing archival footage of Hendricks during the Cold War, they realize that his plan is to start a nuclear war so as to usher in the next phase of human evolution. However, the secretary tells that the agency is officially disavowed because of the Kremlin bombing and his team is tasked with stopping Hendricks and bringing his conspiracy to light, or be hunted down as terrorists responsible for the bombing. When Leonid Lisenker, a nuclear code expert, attempts to leave Russia in the wake of the Kremlin bombing, Hendricks and his right-hand man Marius Wistrom kidnap his wife and his son, forcing him to grudgingly work alongside him.

Exchange at Dubai

Hendricks later arranges a meeting with French professional hitwoman Sabine Moreau to acquire the launch codes for the missile that she stoled from late IMF agent Trevor Hanaway. In order not to attract attention, the extremist wears a latex mask and posing as Wistrom. The IMF decides not to stop "Wistrom" and to let him take them to Hendricks, unaware that he is there. He plans to deceive "Wistrom" by giving him false codes before he can stop him with Hendricks. The agency also wants to ensure that "Wistrom" does not meet the real Moreau and sends his only female agent, Jane Carter, meet "Wistrom" posing as Moreau.

When Hendricks arrives in Dubai whit Leonid Lisenker, the IMF team immediately realizes that their plan with the wrong codes will not work, because Lisenker will authenticate them immediately to "Wistrom". To save time, Benji Dunn slows the elevator by pirating. When Hendricks arrives on the right with Lisenker, they are already waiting for Jane, pretending to be Moreau. Hendricks claims to be a worshiper of her job, and after sitting down, Jane asks for payment. Hendricks responds that he wants to see the codes first. The conversation is interrupted as Benji, disguised as a waiter, enters the room with tea and Jane calm Hendricks, who jumped frantically. Nevertheless, Hendricks refuses tea.

Hendricks hands the diamonds to Jane and receives a suitcase, which is closed. When the Swedish denounces this boredom, Jane calls him the combination of numbers for the suitcase. Hendricks takes the codes inside and hands them over to Lisenker, who can confirm the authenticity. Immediately, Hendricks grabs the codes and walks out of the room with Lisenker without saying a word. In the hall, he calls for the true Wistrom and orders them to release Lisenker's family, as promised. However, he then takes out a silent pistol and shoots Lisenker with it. He then climbs into the elevator, which Benji slows down again to allow Ethan to catch up with Hendricks and pursue him.

But when Hendricks realizes that Ethan is following him, he fled into the streets of Dubai as a sandstorm approaches the city, decreasing visibility to a minimal level. The criminal manages to escape in this sandstorm and to distort company to Ethan with success. After stealing a car, however, he accidentally passes in front of Hunt, which keeps him on the roof of the car. Hendricks can get rid of his enemy, but the spy does not abandon the pursuit and steals a car himself, which he uses to drive Hendricks' car inside the car, destroying it. Hendricks survives, can go down and jump in the back of a van. As he moves away from Ethan, he removes the latex mask and reveals that Wistrom has always been Hendricks.

Attempting to provoke the war and Death

With the real Wistrom, Hendricks now travels to Mumbai, India, to access a purchased and private Russian military satellite and implement his plan, for which he now has everything he needs. When he enters the relay station from which he plans to launch the attacks, a security guard comes in and asks if he can help. Hendricks replies that this is probably not the case and Wistrom kills the man. At headquarters, the Russian activates the satellite and reconfigures it to its original military objectives.

Once the satellite is ready for weapons and attacks, Hendricks isolates the nuclear submarine, which is supposed to launch the rocket that targets New York. He activates the starting sequence and accepts the call of the Russian captain, who wants the order to be confirmed. After Hendricks has confirmed the launch order, the rocket is fired. However, as Hendricks and Wistrom stop the system, Ethan and Jane arrive and when Hendricks sees them, he orders Wistrom to close the relay station while he escapes himself with the control unit. He burst into the city to escape Ethan in the fray, but the secret agent can follow him to an automatic garage and engages him a brutal fight.

Meanwhile, Wistrom runs back into the broadcast center to take it offline, with Brandt, Jane and Benji in pursuit. Hendricks, after being beaten by Ethan, jumps from the top floor of the factory with the device in his arms, in an attempt to bring it outside Ethan's range and ensure the missile's detonation, mortally wounding himself in the process. However, Ethan manages to fall himself with one of the cars, survive the case and enter the cancel command in the control unit console. When that does not seem to work in the beginning, Hendricks smiles victoriously, but after Benji kills Wistrom, Brandt brings the broadcast station back online, enabling Ethan to use the launch control device to disable the missile and letting it crash harmlessly into the San Francisco Bay. When he realizes this, Hendricks, now defeated, closes his eyes and succombs to his injuries.

Characteristics

Personality

Hendricks believed that the "world destruction is an unpleasant but necessary part of evolution" and he wondered him what was going after the end of the humanity. Thus, he felt invested by a mission to provoke an armed conflict between Russia and the United States in order to destroy the world and to establish peace. This shows that Hendricks is a misanthropic man and extremely dangerous and ruthless because if his plans had been accomplished, he would have been responsible for millions of deaths and he did not care what it was all about. Like any great fictional villain, the terrorist was also determinate to achieve his goals. In addition to that, Hendricks was cruel even when it seemed pointless as demonstrated by the fact that he killed Leonid Lisenker in cold blood when he survived his usefulness.

Abilities

Being a former special forces soldier, Hendricks was trained in hand-to-hand combat as shown in the final scene where he had a fight with Ethan Hunt in the vehicle assembly factory before he committed suicide by jumping from the top floor while taking the launch device with him in order to make sure that Ethan would never get it on time until the latter found a way to reach it.

In addition to being trained in this ability, he also formed a strategy to ignite a nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States. He can arrange the Kremlin's destruction so Hendricks could steal the launch control device while placing the blame on the IMF.

Gallery

Promotional material

Screenshots

Behind the Scenes

Kurt Hendricks was portrayed by the late Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Appearances

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (First appearance)
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Mentioned)

Trivia

Hendricks' death was completely unnecessary; instead of letting himself fall with the device, he could have simply dropped it from the top floor and continued engaging Ethan.