Mission: Impossible

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

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Mistakes

The System - S3-E15

Continuity mistake: Phelps takes the tape from the recorder's right-hand spindle. When he opens the acid vat, we can see the tape he just removed back on the recorder - but on the left spindle. The tape he then drops into the acid doesn't remotely resemble the one he pulled, and when he drops it, the recorder's left spindle, where the full tape was in the last shot and where the empty reel should be, now has nothing on it at all. (00:02:50)

Jean G

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Quotes

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

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Trivia

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

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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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