In Australia, arms dealer and cattle rancher Douglas Matthews is
selling Mark II Stinger missiles to a terrorist. The terrorist refuses
to budge from his offer of 10% up front. As the two men negotiate, an
aboriginal hunter emerges from the woods and sees them. He runs off and
Matthews fires one of the missiles at the hunter, killing him, and
demands 20% from his client.
In San Francisco, Jim contacts a
tour boat hostess and picks up his briefing. Matthews runs arms and uses
the profits to finance his expensive habits and to pay for his cattle
ranch. He acquired a hundred stolen missiles and has sold half to
terrorists, and they'll pick up the shipment in three days. The IMF must
put Matthews out of business and recover the missiles.
At the
team briefing, Jim tells the team that Matthews has probably hidden the
missiles in caves somewhere on the huge tracts of land that he owns. The
land is sacred to the aborigine tribes and Jim plans to work with
Mulwarra, a Kudietchi medicine man. Matthews is a gambler and fancies
himself a ladies man with a superstitious streak. The team will play on
all three of those aspects. Grant will meet with Matthews in two days to
buy the remaining fifty missiles, and Nicholas has prepared a fake
magazine article featuring Jim as an American investor pursuing a
multimillion dollar land deal in Australia.
The team arrives at
the Gold Coast in Australia and Max follows Matthews by helicopter. Once
Matthews is in position, he contacts his teammates, who are based at a
warehouse outside of town. As Max joins them, Grant finishes working on a
piece of balcony railing and calls Matthews, posing as the buyer for a
terrorist group. He tells Matthews that they'll talk in a couple of
days, even though Matthews needs the money now to cover his debts. Once
Grant hang sup, Matthews plays with his lucky dice and notices the fake
magazine that the IMF planted in his apartment earlier. After reading
about Jim, Matthews calls a limo and goes to the racetrack, while the
IMF listen in on his tapped line. Jim provides Casey with a pair of
rigged dice and they set off.
At the track, Matthews is losing
and Jim makes small talk with him. The arms dealer recognizes Jim from
the magazine article and they start to talk business, but notice Max,
posing as a security guard, ordering Casey out of the track. He points
out that her winning streak is suspicious and Casey tries to stay,
saying she only has two days of luck left. Casey then hands Jim a large
wad of cash and he introduces her to Matthews as his "lucky lady." Jim
takes off and Matthews invites Casey to have a drink with him.
At
the warehouse, Grant rigs a section of balcony railing with gas jets
and air cylinders, while Nicholas and Max set up a collapsible tarp
structure.
Over drinks at racetrack bar, Casey tells Matthews
that Jim staked her wagers and Matthews offers to do the same and then
invites her to dinner.
That night, Nicholas, Grant, and Max go
into Matthews' apartment once he leaves for dinner. Meanwhile, Jim
drives to the outback and waits for the medicine man. A dozen aborigines
surround Jim, spears ready, but Mulwarra arrives and tells them that
Jim is a friend.
While Grant rigs the railing with the gas jets
and air cylinders, Max plants a projector above the balcony door and
Nicholas puts a surveillance camera in Matthews' bedroom. Once he's done
with the railing, Grant rigs the elevator to his remote control.
At
dinner, Matthews talks briefly about his lucky dice and asks about
Casey's luck. She explains that she's an anthropologist studying native
cultures, and met a Kudietchi who cast a spell for her. She refuses to
discuss the specifics but says that aboriginal magic is powerful. She
takes Matthews' dice, switches them for the rigged ones, and tosses out
7s repeatedly. Casey then switches them again and hands them back, and
tells Matthews that the price for her luck was too high.
Max
takes video footage of the city below the balcony while Grant finishes
rigging the elevator. He then tests his device, which lets him rig the
floor display to show whatever he wants.
Jim goes to the tribe's
village and Mulwarra promises him that Matthews will die for desecrating
their sacred lands and killing the tribesmen. The IMF leader asks him
to wait, explaining that they need Matthews alive so that they can stop
the shipment and disarm the terrorists, saving lives. Mulwarra agrees to
work with Jim and wait until the IMF team is ready.
The next
day, Grant meets Matthews on the beach. After the arms dealer checks to
make sure he's not wired, he demands $40,000 a missile for the remaining
fifty. Grant agrees but wants the entire lot of a hundred, offering to
outbid the terrorists and pay cash within 24 hours. When Matthews
refuses to sell out his other buyer, Grant refuses to buy any missiles,
tells Matthews that he needs a change in luck, and walks away.
Later,
Casey comes to see Matthews and gives him $300,000. She explains that
she invested in one of Jim's purchases, put down $50,000 for Matthews,
and made a 300% profit. When Matthews wonders why she has changed her
mind about dealing with him, Casey explains that once her luck runs out,
she hopes to set Matthews up with Mulwarra and have him give Matthews
the luck, and then she can benefit from it with him. When Matthews
assures her that he's not afraid of aborigines, Casey warns him to fear
the dead, not the living.
That night, Casey and Matthews visit
Mulwarra at his village. Mulwarra refuses to give Matthews luck and
explains that they used Casey so that she would bring Matthews to them.
The aborigines plans to see him suffer for his crimes against them, just
as Casey will suffer when her price comes due for her luck.
Grant,
Nicholas, and Max set up on the roof of Matthews' apartment and watch
via the hidden camera. They play aboriginal chants, waking him up, and
then Grant triggers the air cylinders on the railing, causing the
curtains to blow inward. The railing bursts into flame and Matthews
takes the elevator down to get the security guard. Once he's gone, the
IMF replace the burned-out balcony section with an undamaged piece and
Nicholas drugs the arms dealer's whiskey glass with a substance to keep
him from sleeping. They get out just as Matthews returns with the
security guard. When the guard finds nothing abnormal, he assumes that
Matthews had a nightmare and leaves, while the arms dealers pours
himself a drink.
The next morning, an exhausted Matthews goes to
see Casey. She warns him that his dreams have started and that he's
seeing things that aren't there. However, Matthews takes the
hallucinations as a good sign since he figures that if Mulwarra can do
that, he can give him luck. He tells Casey that she'll make the bets and
then he'll match them. Casey points out that she's been banned from all
of the tracks and casinos so Matthews tells her to have Jim front the
banks. The arms dealer then calls the bank to run a credit check. Grant
intercepts the call and Nicholas takes it, posing as a bank manager.
While he arranges for Matthews to meet him at the bank, Grant takes a
fake photo of policeman Max hauling Jim away and then hacks the bank
records.
Nicholas drives to the bank and calls away the real bank
manager, Carlton, with a phony call. He then goes in, posing as
Carlton, and moves into the manager's office. When Matthews comes in,
Nicholas gives him the fake records that Grant placed. He tells Matthews
that Jim has a big deal going on and needs immediate cash flow and
Matthews leaves with the information.
Later, Jim meets with
Matthews and Casey and the arms dealer reveals that he knows Jim needs
$10 million in cash. He offers to mortgage his cattle stations for $8
million and have Casey make up the difference from her winnings. In
return they get 50% of the profits. Jim agrees and Matthews assures him
that with Casey's luck, they can't fail.
That night, the IMF put
on another show for Matthews at his apartment. After waking Matthews up
with the chants and the blowing drapes, Grant projects an image of
Mulwarra outside the balcony. Matthews takes the elevator down, unaware
that Grant has routed him back to his own floor where Max and Nicholas
have set up the collapsible tarp in front of the elevator. When Matthews
steps out, he finds himself hovering over the city tanks to the
projected image that Max took earlier. The arms dealer tries again to
get to the ground floor but Grant keeps him place and projects an image
of a ghostly Mulwarra. Grant then sends him to the ground floor while
the team clears out the tarp and their projection equipment.
The
next morning, Max puts a fake newspaper in Matthews' mailbox. Nicholas
calls Matthews and tells him to check the paper, and the arms dealer
sees the photo of Jim being arrested as a swindler. He goes to Casey's
apartment and finds her dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. As he
goes to check the body, a dead bird on a rope drops from the roof.
Matthews runs off and Max comes in to check on Casey, who figures the
arms dealer only has one place left to turn.
Matthews sets up a
meeting with Grant, who offers him much less than the first time. The
arms dealer has no choice but to accept and sets up a meeting on his
property in the outback so that Grant can inspect the missiles and pay
immediately upon delivery.
At the warehouse, Grant rigs his SUV
with a rear-view mirror that shows a pre-recorded image. Meanwhile,
Nicholas puts hidden speakers inside the vehicle.
Matthews loads
the missiles into a truck and drives to the rendezvous. Grant exchanges a
duffel bag with the money for the missiles and Matthews trades
vehicles. As he drives away, Max begins the chants and plays the image
of Mulwarra in the rear-view mirror. Matthews loses control and crashes
the SUV.
Grant drives the truck to where the team are watching as
Matthews climbs out of the SUV. He realizes that the duffel bag is
filled with money- papers and runs off in terror. Jim tells his
teammates that Matthews now belongs to someone else. Mulwarra and his
tribe surround Matthews, who offers them their land and anything else
they want. Mulwarra waves to Jim in satisfaction and the team leaves.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 6, 2018