Mission: Impossible

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).

Factual error: CIA headquarters in Langley has its own firefighting unit and never, ever calls for outside help. In fact it is official CIA policy that they would rather have a building and its contents burn to the ground than allow unauthorised access by firefighters they know nothing about.

Factual error: When the helicopter blows up, the train stops dead in its tracks almost instantly. A high-speed train like the TGV needs more then two miles to come to a complete stop from its top speed, or at least from the speed it's traveling at. And a Little Bird attached to it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference.

Friso94

Factual error: The train is a French TGV, these do not operate in the UK (not to date anyway) The Channel Tunnel passenger train is the Eurostar.

Factual error: In the scene where the helicopter is being flown into the tunnel, sparks can be seen on the far tunnel wall, where the rotors have hit it. No helicopter can keep flying in a straight line after the rotors have collided with a solid object in this way.

Factual error: When Ethan is lowered into the computer room at Langley, he is dropped and nearly lands on the pressure-sensitive floor. When an object moves through the air, it pushes the air in front of the object. As the floor sensors were set so high that a drop of water was sufficient to set an alarm off, the air displaced during Ethan's fall would have triggered them too.

Factual error: The Channel Tunnel tracks run through separate tunnels, one going to France, one going to Britain, so trains don't pass in the tunnel as they do in the film.

Factual error: Liverpool Street Station is shown as more or less deserted in the hours of daylight. The only way this could be achieved in real life is by phoning in a bomb threat.

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Suggested correction: It's night. After Ethan sees that his parents have been arrested, he walks out in the streets, and it's dark outside. Several shots later the big clock in the station is shown, and you can see that it's about 11pm.

This validates the entry rather than correcting it. If it is 11.00 pm the pubs have just closed and Liverpool Street Station would be heaving. This is true of any mainline station in London - as well as the fast food restaurants associated with them. Any Londoner knows that.

Factual error: The train is running on the right-hand track, but in the UK and France trains run on the left-hand side.

Factual error: In the scene of the eurotunnel train the ticket collector is wearing a 70s British Rail uniform This was the national railway company for Great Britain but is now defunct due to privatisation in the 90s.

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Suggested correction: At the time of filming, British Rail would still have existed as it was only being dismantled in the mid 90s. However, I think Eurostar would provide their staff with different uniforms.

Andy Benham

Factual error: The TGV (and also Eurostar) trains are powered by an overhead power transfer, so an escape from the train with a helicopter would indeed be a Mission Impossible.

Factual error: In the scene in the aquarium restaurant where Kitridge reveals to Ethan that the operation was a mole hunt Ethan uses the chewing gum explosive to smash the glass and make his escape. However, the explosion also causes a man within the aquarium restaurant to go flying through the air and through the window. It is physically impossible for a chemically composed explosive of that size, that is not enclosed, to create enough force to move him in that way, add to the fact that he is seemingly the only person or object (besides the aquarium glass) affected by it, all these combine in making this scene physically impossible.

Factual error: CIA headquarters in Langley has its own firefighting unit and never, ever calls for outside help. In fact it is official CIA policy that they would rather have a building and its contents burn to the ground than allow unauthorised access by firefighters they know nothing about.

More mistakes in Mission: Impossible

Ethan Hunt: Can I ask you something, Kittridge? If you're dealing with a man who has crushed, shot, stabbed, and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated do you think you're gonna make him by hauling Mom and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse?

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

Trivia: The last major Hollywood film to be released on the Betamax video-tape format.

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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