Memory - Recap

Dan picks up his briefing on a business card from a street photographer. The card says that Lubjanka Military Prison, headquarters of Dimitri Soska, is their target and they should begin plan X59.

Dan assembles the standard team minus Rollin, and brings in memory expert Joseph Baresh. Baresh is a down-and-out alcoholic who can memorize large chunks of information at a glance. Dan briefs the team, informing them that they have to eliminate a warmonger, Janos Karq. They’re not authorized to kill him themselves so the plan is to frame him with his superiors. They plan to set up Baresh as an enemy agent, code-name Sparrow, that security chief Soska has been trying to capture for years. Baresh is the only one who can memorize the Sparrow dossier in the short time required. Baresh will let himself be captured and then will eventually “break” under Soska’s interrogation, giving him Karq’s name as his superior. The IMF will stage a phony rescue attempt to convince Soska that Baresh is the real deal. Dan works with Baresh both to make sure he memorizes his cover and to convincingly hold out just long enough to make it convincing.

The IMF arrives in Soska’s country and Dan lets himself get spotted. Chased by enemy agents, he meets briefly with Barseh and then escapes. The agents capture Baresh and Soska takes him to the prison for interrogation. The team paint a Volkswagen fire-engine red and sneak up to the prison, where Barney bypasses the electric fence and sneaks a smoke bomb into the ventilator system. Cinnamon goes to a fire station as a model with Dan and Willy as her photographers. Meanwhile, Soska interrogates Baresh and realizes he is an alcoholic, and uses booze to tempt him. Baresh finally “confesses” that Karq is his superior but Soska doesn’t believe him.

Barney sets off the smoke bomb and Willy steals fire engine uniforms. They then drive behind the fire engine trucks in their Volkswagen and get into the prison. Soska goes to investigate the commotion and Baresh grabs the alcohol… and sees Soska’s list of enemy agents. He is taken to his cell, which is monitored by a security camera, and in the confusion, Dan and Willy hack at his cell door a few times. Baresh tells them that he has the list and now they have to get him out. Unprepared to conduct a real escape, Dan and Willy leave and the team escapes back to their temporary headquarters. Soska now believes Baresh and orders Karq’s execution. He prepares to execute Baresh in a few hours come the dawn.

Dan puts a new plan into action: he brings in Rollin to impersonate Baresh and they make a mock-up of Baresh’s cell. They then film Rollin-as-Baresh, pausing only to knock out a pair of inquisitive policemen. Rollin leaves and they return to the prison where Willy impersonates a guard and Barney fire a projectile into Baresh’s cell with instructions, a small projector, and thermite strips.

Baresh follows the instructions and throws a sheet over the camera. He then rigs up the projector to show the film of Rollin-as-Baresh acting normally so Baresh can use the thermite to burn through the cell doors. He is interrupted briefly when Soska arrives to give him his last request: a bottle of brandy. Baresh manages to keep him out of the cell and then finishes cutting through the bars and drops to the ground below.

Willy “arrests” Dan and Barney and takes them to the guard tower, where they knock out the soldiers. Barney cuts the wires on the electrical fence again and Dan goes over and gets Baresh up into the watch tower and then down an extendible ladder. Soska visits the guard watching the security camera, who confirms that according to what he saw Baresh never got the brandy or talked to Soska earlier. Soska realizes something is up and sounds the alarm. Willy and Barney gun down the first few guards and the team escapes in a truck. The soldiers close in on them but only Cinnamon and Dan are driving. The men search the back and find nothing and let them go. Barney, Baresh, and Willy are in a hidden compartment and the team abandons the truck and makes a run for the nearby coastline to escape.

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