In the 1996 film “Mission: Impossible,” Ethan Hunt is sent to retrieve the NOC list.
“NOC” means “non-official cover,” referring to undercover intelligence agents whose identities are protected. The list contains the names of CIA agents operating covertly in Europe, making it one of the most sensitive pieces of intelligence in the film.
The Prague mission initially appears to be an operation against rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn, who is supposedly trying to steal the list. The mission collapses when Ethan’s team is killed and the list disappears, leaving Ethan as the apparent survivor—and a suspect in the eyes of IMF director Eugene Kittridge.
Ethan later recruits hacker Luther Stickell and pilot Franz Krieger to infiltrate CIA headquarters at Langley and steal the authentic list. A common mix-up is “Ghost Protocol,” which is the title and a separate concept from the fourth film in the franchise. “Syndicate” belongs to later “Mission: Impossible” stories; it is not the confidential file in the 1996 original.