All he needed to do was throw the briefcase down, thee was no need to jump with it.
The story is full of plot holes. When Hendricks found out Hunt was coming after him, why does he try to disable the network station etc, when all he has to do is smash the briefcase with the abort button?
He was willing to die for his beliefs. With him dead he thought that there was no possible way Ethan could abort the nuclear strike. Granted its a flimsy answer but the only one.
Haters gonna hate
It's literally the one and only thing I had a problem with- and this is one of those movies that you could find a million logic errors if your really wanted to find 'em.
The simple fact is- there was neither any logic nor believability in Hendrick's decision to jump. It was quite frankly, absolutely ludicrous. First off, the point was to get the case out of Hunt's reach. If he threw the case "100 yards" to the ground, that pretty much makes certain of that- and even if Hunt was ABLE to get to it in time, Hendrick's would be 100 yards away once Hunt ran down (or drove down haha) and retrieved it which argues directly against the response that he thought dying was the only way to make certain Hunt didn't get it and stop the missle.
Other that than, it was definitely enjoyable and well done.
After the fight, he was gravely injured and new he was going to die anyway. Not to mention that he knew if the I.M.F. knew it was him, so would the rest of the world. Suicide was better than jail or execution. And as the poster said, he was crazy enough to die for his beliefs.
shareI'd assume the case can't just be smashed. If you build something to launch nuclear missiles, you won't be buying parts from Ikea.
As for jumping with the case, he tried to throw it out of Ethan's reach again and again but somehow Ethan kept getting lucky and wouldn't quit. And like was said, the guy was a fanatic lunatic so he had no problem offing himself to make sure nuclear war was initiated. And of course, then you have the stunt of Ethan driving off the garage level in the BMW to retrieve it.
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"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to exit the doughnut!"---Nick Fury, Iron Man 2