Mission: Impossible

Continuity mistake: Besides the fact that during the final action sequence it is impossible for two trains to occupy the same tunnel, how is it that the blades of the helicopter attached to the first train don't strike the second? Tight fit.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Ethan is in the NOC list room Krieger starts to drop him and Ethan is hanging there for a little while. Suddenly some sweat starts to drip down his glasses and he catches the drop with his hand. If you look at how close he is to the floor this move would be impossible.

Continuity mistake: The train is electric, supplied by overhead cables, which do not appear to be present at any time. If it was a Eurostar then it could use 3rd rail pick-up but it wouldn't be going so fast, but that's academic; its not a Eurostar and no 3rd rail is visible either.

Continuity mistake: When Tom goes to the restaurant to meet with Henry Czerny, the plants in the aquarium are noticeably different after he goes inside.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, Ethan drops his mask. His hair looks flat and wet. At the next shot it's dry and up. (01:34:20)

Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when Ethan and Luther are sitting at the pub, just after the cheers/here's to you speech, Luther said "Hey, I'm flavour of the month" and brings his glass up to his lips for a drink. In a split second cut to a wide shot facing Luther his glass is on the table, and there are only two glasses on the table as established in a wide shot where Ethan says, "I'd better go catch my flight."

Continuity mistake: As the firefighters are entering Langley they mention they need to shutdown the air conditioning. The guard states that the aircon is in sector 21 that has no alarm. Luther 'helps' by triggering the alarm in that sector. A while later when Kittridge is talking to his people in the ops room you can see that the alarm is active in the 3 sectors as the guard mentioned but now sector 21 is missing. (00:57:30)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jim, Claire and Ethan are in the baggage car of the train Claire takes the money off of Ethan, the money is not folded in any way. However, in the next shot where she passes the money to Jim it is suddenly folded conveniently to fit into Jim's pouch.

Continuity mistake: When the "firemen" (Ethan Hunt, Claire Phelps, Luther Stickell and Franz Krieger) leave Langley, Claire is in a red coat and red dress. As we see all four drive off in a fire truck, Claire is in a fireman's costume. Firstly, when did she have the time to change and secondly, why change? (01:08:00 - 01:10:00)

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Continuity mistake: During the Job 3:14 scene, Ethan places the Bible parallel to the laptop and the gun. In the close-up angle it always appears that way, but in wider angles the laptop is slightly slanted. (00:34:15)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Claire finds Ethan disguised as Jim, he has his normal hands. However, in all previous scenes of him in disguise, he has fake hands as well, that are wrinkled like Jim's.

Continuity mistake: At the end, Ethan is drinking a pint and leaves a little left in the glass. This little bit of drink then vanishes is subsequent shots. (01:40:30)

Ssiscool

Factual error: The vents that Hunt and his sidekick crawl down at CIA Headquarters are standard galvanized steel box vents; they are very common in the building trade. Try walking or crawling down one - you'll make a noise like the sky is falling down. People will be able to hear you for miles. Every person in that building would know somebody crawling about in the vent system. (This error applies to dozens of films, not only this one).

More mistakes in Mission: Impossible

Jim Phelps: Of course he knew. Just when he knew is something of a mystery. You mind telling me, Ethan? Was it before or after I showed up in London?
Ethan Hunt: Before London. But after you took the Bible from the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
Jim Phelps: They stamped it, didn't they? Those damn Gideons.

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

Trivia: An early draft of the script was set to feature several characters from the original series all being killed off to raise the stakes for the new characters. The producers wanted to bring back as many of the original actors as possible. All declined, as they felt it was disrespectful to the original series. As a result, only the character of Jim Phelps was brought back, albeit as a surprise villain and not a hero.

More trivia for Mission: Impossible

Question: Why did Claire return to Ethan? Jim must have sent her but why? Ethan had been framed, why send Claire to potentially expose herself to IMF if found? Is it because: Max receives mail from Ethan, immediately contacts Job to say "What the hell man someone claims you sold me junk!" Now Job/Jim knows he didn't deliver the actual list so he already plans to have Ethan steal the real one for him. Or is that too far fetched?

Answer: Jim has not been paid (at least in full) yet. This is revealed in the conversation Ethan has with Max in the car. Payment was conditional on the disk passing all her safety checks, which she had not done yet (she had not even looked at it yet). There is no way Jim knew the NOC list was junk at this point in time. However, since Jim has not been paid yet for the NOC list, he might have been trying to play it safe, and have Claire just keep tabs. If things don't go as planned, he might have left Claire as she was expendable to him. Also it is unlikely Max contacted Jim (Job) to ask about the email from Ethan (pretending to be Job). Max at this point believes the two are the same person. She simply invites Job to come in and discuss further.

Answer: Sending Claire back to Ethan was a daring ploy to get on the inside of Ethan's confidence. It made no sense and was the least likely thing Claire would do if she was part of Jim's plan. Ethan could have killed her, but the ploy worked and Ethan was confused enough to let her live.

Charles Austin Miller

But why? Jim sells the list to Max and rides off into the sunset with Claire, or so he intends to. What does he gain from having someone on the inside initially? Ethan is screwed, Jim doesn't need to get all the juicy details of how he goes down. Later on it's beneficial for him to have Claire in place there, but initially it makes no sense. Before Ethan formulates any plan and before Max finds out the list is bad.

Jim knew the first NOC list was bad but used the failed raid as an opportunity to kill off a number of IMF agents who might otherwise thwart his plans. Jim still needed Ethan to procure the real NOC list, but this time using a reduced team that contained 2 moles (Claire and Franz). Jim knew that Ethan was the most capable agent, but wanted him under close scrutiny by Claire and Franz.

Charles Austin Miller

He knew it was bad? Then why did he give it to Max anyway? If Ethan hadn't warned her she might have been caught by Kittrdige. Are you saying Jim foresaw everything, I mean everything that Ethan would do? He went through with the embassy raid knowing it was a mole hunt in advance, knowing Ethan would later get the real one for him? What if Ethan had gone with Kittridge in the restaurant? I mean it's unlikely, but this whole scenario sees Jim leaving sooo much to chance. I find it more plausible that he did think he was getting the list in Prague and then adapted to the situation to use Ethan to get the real one. I mean if he really knew the list wasn't in Praque he could have saved himself the trouble and just hire a couple of disavowed agents to do the Langley job himself, just like Ethan did. He had Claire, Krieger and Luther. Yeah no Ethan, but I mean I'm sure he could have found someone else who is capable.

More questions & answers from Mission: Impossible

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