- Barney and Phelps use an optical illusion to help them free Stephan from his cell. But, everything goes haywire when an assassination attempt against Sabattini fails and unmasks Paris in the process. Sabattini and his men begin to figure out the plan. Phelps must stay one step ahead if he's to get everyone out alive.—EEM
- For the mission parameters and the details of the rest of the action, see the synopses for Parts One and Two.
Part Three finds Paris (Leonard Nimoy), who is pretending to be King (or Prince Regent) Nicolai (Noel Harrison), the titular head of an unnamed and impoverished country, in a spot of trouble. He has broken into the wall safe of Chief of Staff General Ramon Sabattini (John Vernon) and is trying to plant evidence that Sabattini is planning to eliminate several officers who might pose a threat to him. One of them, Colonel Manuel Vargas (Logan Ramsey), is on his way to Sabattini's room to check out a rumor that IMF agent Tracey (Lee Meriwether), portraying a psychic named "Madame Vinsky," has planted in his head about just such a proscription list.
When Vargas and "Mme. Vinsky" arrive at the room, Paris has made himself scarce. Vargas opens the safe, using the combination that Tracey has provided, and finds the list. Furious, Vargas goes to his friend Captain Buccaro (Jack Donner) and says, in effect, "We have to eliminate Sabattini."
By this time, Ramon Sabattini's plans have gone thoroughly awry. He wanted to marry Princess Francesca (Diane Baker), in order to get legitimacy for a bid for the throne. But Francesca brought a gun to the wedding and used it on herself. Or so Sabattini thinks. He does not know that the US Impossible Missions Force, commanded by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), has come to that country with a mission to rescue its royal family, including Prince (actually, lawful King) Stephan (Joseph Reale) and Prince Regent Nicolai (Noel Harrison). As part of that plan, Francesca's tomb is empty, though Sabattini does not know it yet.
To make matters worse, Sabattini cannot count on raising money by selling off the crown jewels. The reason: all of them are paste fakes. That's another IMF trick: Barney Collier (Greg Morris) swapped out the real crown jewels for fakes, and gave Jim a diamond that he could use to show Sabattini that he somehow "knew something" about what happened to the jewels. Sabattini is now convinced that Stephan, before Sabattini could kidnap him and stage a fatal auto crash, stole the crown jewels and hid them away.
Sabattini has taken Jim to Angrim Prison, where he is holding Stephan, and agreed to let Jim interrogate Stephan to find out where the jewels went to. Of course, Barney and Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus), now posing as employees of the country's national water supplier, have other ideas. They infiltrate Angrim Prison, with a plan to break Stephan out. And they will do it right under Sabattini's nose, by setting up an optical illusion involving a rearward projector. This will show Jim grilling Stephan and pretending to pump him full of truth serum, while Barney cuts a hole in the wall to get Stephan out.
But that's only one part of the plan. The other was to induce Vargas and Buccaro to assassinate Sabattini.
That part of the plan fails. Vargas' plan is to deliver to "Nicolai" a clock with a bomb inside (Nicolai is known to fritter away his time with clockmaking; see Part One), and then summon Sabattini to Nicolai's room. Tracey, as "Madame Vinsky," takes alarm and says that Nicolai must not die. Too late: Captain Buccaro blows the bomb when Sabattini and "Nicolai" are inside.
But neither man dies. Sabattini is very badly wounded, but alive. Then the guards realize that the burned skin of "Nicolai's" face is not skin at all, but a mask. They rip it off, and expose Nicolai as Zastro the Magician. (See Part Two.) Or so they think: actually, they have Paris in custody now, and arrest Tracey as well.
Jim somehow gets word that things have not gone according to plan. So he signals Willy to cut all telephone lines to Angrim Prison. This he does.
Sabattini's men check out Francesca's tomb, find it empty, and tell Sabattini. Now Sabattini has figured out this much: "Zastro" substituted himself for Nicolai, and he and "Mme. Vinsky" somehow "killed" Francesca and "resurrected" her. That much he knows or suspects. What he wants to know is what they hoped to gain, if Stephan was dead. Then he realizes that the confederates of "Zastro" will try to break Stephan out of prison. He demands that someone call the prison, and is further horrified that no one can get through.
Leaving Paris and Tracey behind, he has himself driven to the prison. Paris, using a hand-held device that somehow the guards were not able to relieve him of (well, he is a prestidigitator), summons his pet falcon, Lucifer (See Part One). The bird flies in and creates enough diversion for Paris to get himself and Tracey out of that room and eventually out of the palace. (In the absence of Sabattini, and after the summary executions of Vargas and Buccaro, after the failed assassination attempt, command in the palace security service has completely broken down, for reasons that the writer never makes clear.) Sabattini arrives at the prison, walks up to Stephan's cell, draws his automatic, and fires. Again. And again. But Stephan and his "interrogator" take no notice whatsoever. Then one of his bullets goes into the briefcase that Jim brought with him. Now Sabattini sees a white translucent screen. He crashes through it and sees the real walls of the cell--and no Stephan. In utter and complete despair, Sabattini sinks to the stone floor of the cell, where his wounds catch up to him, and he dies.
Jim, Barney, and Willy manage to get Stephan out of the prison and into their waiting truck, where they reunite with Francesca and Nicolai. Not long after that, they encouter Paris and Tracey, who have stolen a car to get out of the palace. Stephan thanks Jim for this extraordinary service to him and his country, as Barney and Willy keep driving down the road.
With that, the story ends, with Stephan presumably ready to resume his throne and marry Francesca, and with Sabattini, Vargas, and Buccaro dead.
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