Mission: Impossible

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: When Briggs finishes listening to his assignment tape and gets up, the tape recorder is on the very front edge of the seat. Next shot, as he walks away, it's moved itself to the back of the seat. (00:03:00)

Jean G

The Legacy - S1-E15

Continuity mistake: When Rollin is struck and falls onto the bed, he knocks over the table lamp and crushes the shade. When the shot cuts, not only is the lampshade in a different position, it's completely undamaged. (00:34:30)

Jean G

Wheels - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: When Briggs listens to the recording giving him his assignment, the tape isn't even threaded, so the machine shouldn't be playing anything. When he stops it, the tape is now threaded - but it's now a completely different tape reel on a completely different machine. (00:02:05)

Jean G

The Reluctant Dragon - S1-E16

Continuity mistake: After Rollin is in a fist fight he has blood on the left side of his mouth. After a quick scene switch to another person when it goes back to him the blood is on the right side. Another quick switch and back to him, the blood is back to his left side.

The Party - S5-E22

Continuity mistake: The tape recorder giving Phelps his assignment has a clear plastic lid/cover that disappears and reappears repeatedly. The amount of tape on the reels also changes several times. (00:04:10)

Jean G

The Seal - S2-E9

Continuity mistake: When the episode starts, Mr Phelps put a black cassette to listen, during the mission announcement, we can see that the cassette color is white and even the cassette player is different.

Scorpion99

Snowball in Hell - S1-E21

Continuity mistake: When the prison commander sees that Barney has been flogged from marks on his back, after he leaves, Barney and Rollin move and we can see that there is nothing on Barney's back. (00:16:00 - 00:16:45)

Scorpion99

The Survivors - S2-E3

Continuity mistake: At the end, Rollin holds a rifle pointed straight at Stavak. When the shot cuts to a different angle, he's instantly holding the gun lengthwise and at a lower level. (00:46:35)

Jean G

Wheels - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: Using a thin wire, Briggs loosens the lower half of the circular seal on the voting machine. But when they open the machine, The Seal is loose from the top. (00:43:25)

Jean G

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Mistakes

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Quotes

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

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Trivia

The Psychic - S1-E28

Trivia: Watch the drive-in theater marquis when Briggs drives in to pick up his assignment. It reads "Geller and Solow / Spend the Money" - an in-joke reference to producer Bruce Geller and Desilu executive Herb Solow.

Jean G

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Questions

Show generally

Question: At the start of each episode of Mission Impossible Briggs or Phelps received details of the mission from a tape recording that was 'hidden in plain sight', say a telephone booth displaying a poster saying 'Telephone Out Of Order. Do Not Use'. So, what would happen if somebody went into the kiosk before Briggs or Phelps, picked up the telephone and got the secret message ahead of the Mission Impossible team?

Rob Halliday

Answer: We don't know what would happen because the show never addressed this issue. Any answer would be speculation. This is a TV show, and the plot is structured so that only IMF team will retrieve the secret message.

raywest ★

Answer: This is not really a serious question. When I posted this question I was fully aware that Mission Impossible is only a television programme. Like many espionage thrillers (Man From Uncle, The Avengers, James Bond) it is meant to entertain, it is never meant to be taken literally seriously. It was essential to the story that Briggs or Phelps received a secret message, which would give them a mission to accomplish. If they did not receive the message you would not have had the story. When I used to watch Mission Impossible it just used to amuse me to wonder what might have happened had somebody picked up the phone containing the secret message ahead of Briggs or Phelps. I even considered writing to a comedian and suggesting that they devise a comedy sketch in which this happened. My question was only meant to be a joke, that I posted to amuse people.

Rob Halliday

The Lucy Show or Here's Lucy did an episode of exactly this scenario.

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