A master assassin, the man using the name "Matthew Drake" (one of a number of aliases) has avoided capture by typically relying on randomness. He will pick hotels, rendezvouses, code phrases, and even his method of murder in each instance on random choice..
Drake is hired by a crime lord known as "Scorpio" to first kill IMF leader David Copperfield when he gets too close to Scorpio. Scorpio then hires Drake to kill an American union boss in London on business. The IMF learns of Drake's activities and when he is arriving by plane. The IMF team led by Copperfield's protege, Jim Phelps, set up a hotel, intercept Drake at the airport, and learn where he plans to stay. They then make up the hotel to match the random choice that Drake has made, and bug the random room that he chooses. Once they stop Drake's assassination attempt, they make it appear that Scorpio has double-crossed Drake. Drake travels back to the States, kills Scorpio, and is himself stabbed by a letter opener. As Drake is taken away by the EMTs, he sees the IMF team and realizes that the entire thing was a setup.
Drake is an ideal assassin, who relies on guns, garrottes, explosives, crystalline hallucinogenic darts (which drive his victims to suicide) to kill. He is urbane in person, with an eye for the ladies, but completely ruthless.
