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

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: During the mission briefing, Cinnamon's hair alternates from messy to neatly combed several times. In fact, her hairdo changes combing styles throughout the episode. (00:05:00)

Jean G

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: Throughout the car chase and the scenes leading up to it, Poltroni's rear-view mirror disappears and reappears repeatedly. (00:35:30 - 00:43:00)

Jean G

The Bank - S2-E4

Character mistake: The 'perfect' German postcard Rollin has written is full of mistakes: 1) The 'sie' must have a capital 'S' because it's a personal pronoun; 2) The only sentence stops in the middle and makes no sense; 3) The word 'Besten' has to be written without a capital because it's not a noun; 4) In Germany the house number stands after the street name, not before; 5) The streetname makes no sense. Too many mistakes for a so-called 'perfect' card. (00:04:40)

More mistakes in Mission: Impossible

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

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Season 1 generally

Trivia: Throughout season one, the stack of photographs Briggs peruses in selecting his mission team includes one of a man in black-rimmed glasses. It's a shot of the show's creator/producer, Bruce Geller.

Jean G

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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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