Question: At the end of the movie, why does Ethan appear so shocked when the flight attendant asks if he wants to watch a movie? I understand that this is probably another mission, but why does he react the way he does?
Tailkinker
25th Sep 2009
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Answer: Because he's resigned from the IMF. As such, he's more than a little surprised to be approached with another mission.
25th Oct 2006
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Answer: To attempt to provoke Ethan to come out of hiding.
9th May 2004
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Question: During the beginning of the film, why does Jim fake his death? Was it to frame Ethan?
Answer: Jim fakes his death so that the IMF won't come after him. Jim's aim is to give the impression of a blown mission, but to ultimately end up with the NOC list himself - something that he succeeds in doing. He's selling this to Max for a LOT of money, enough to set himself up for life, but he needs the IMF to think that he died in the blown mission. He leaves Ethan alive so that Ethan can tell the IMF that he 'saw' Jim die, so that they won't come looking for him. He frames Ethan so that Ethan won't come looking for answers.
Surely, they would need a body to confirm his death. Such an organisation would not trust any secondary source information.
Answer: In addendum, Jim actually had no clue that Ethan would not follow orders and abort mission, as planned. The girl Ethan was with had to die in the new, unplanned manner, because she followed the target. Seeing the other operative, she was caught off-guard, and he knifed her to death.
6th Feb 2004
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Question: How does discovering the Bible stamped with "The Drake Hotel" tip Ethan Hunt off that Jim Phelps is Job? And what alerts Ethan of Krieger's complicity, since he's the one who recruits Krieger to help him steal the NOC list?
Answer: Phelps told them earlier that he stayed in the Drake Hotel, so Ethan made the link that way - there's no reason for Phelps to have brought the bible with him unless he needed one, in this case for the biblical references required for the Job communications. He tumbles to Krieger's involvement because the knife used to kill Sarah during the blown mission was the same precise type as the one Krieger uses - which Ethan saw during the CIA infiltration when Krieger threatened to kill the security guard.
The problem is, Max specifically said that Job didn't make Bible references. So why did Jim have a Bible or ever take it from the Drake Hotel in the first place?
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Answer: In addendum, only the leader of the group receives communication in this method. He's baffled because he's never been approached in this fashion, hence his utter confusion. Naturally, he catches on quickly.