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 Diamond - S1-E19

Character mistake: Durvard has just flown Briggs' group to his compound, yet somehow fails to notice that Cinnamon wasn't on the plane. He tells Briggs he has accommodations for her and seems surprised when Rollin says she's not there. (00:39:10)

Jean G

The Legacy - S1-E15

Factual error: Reel-to-reel tape recorders were threaded left-to-right and pulled the tape in a L-R direction. The machine playing Briggs' assignment in the opening sequence, however, is running backwards. It also changes to a different reel and a different machine when he removes the finished tape from the wrong side of the recorder. (00:02:00)

Jean G

The Legacy - S1-E15

Factual error: For supposedly being Hitler's heirs, the three conspirators are pretty lousy Nazis. None of them notices that on their copy of their idol's book, Mein Kampf, Der Fuhrer's name is prominently misspelled "Adolph" instead of "Adolf." (00:13:00)

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

Old Man Out (1) - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: The circus act supposedly begins at 7 p.m. every evening. But the shadows reveal that the sun is directly overhead and that it's midday, not evening. (00:30:00)

Jean G

Old Man Out (1) - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: The Cardinal is being held in an Eastern European prison, yet the nearby carnival spectators all wear very American clothing. In fact, the same people wearing the exact same clothes are there watching for all four days of the circus' performances. (00:28:15)

Jean G

Echo of Yesterday - S2-E14

Plot hole: The fake Hitler yells at the woman - in English. Nobody can be fooled by an English-speaking Hitler - and the whole plan would crumble. (00:42:20)

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

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

Leona - S7-E4

Trivia: Apollo rewinds a reel-to-reel tape recorder that has just recorded him admitting to illegal activities. As he does, it makes the expected chipmunk noise. When slowed and reversed, the tape is of a speech given in episode #4 from the 3rd season. You can hear these recordings at: http://www.litb.com/recording1.mp3 and http://www.litb.com/recording2.mp3.

MarcusTee

More trivia for Mission: Impossible

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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