Mission: Impossible

Corrected entry: In the scene where Ethan Hunt types the email for Max, he retypes it again in German, using letters like "ä", "ö", and "ü". However, these letters do not exist in the English alphabet, which is why the laptop he's using doesn't have keys on it with those letters, (and neither does Czech by the way, for anyone who would assume that he might have gotten the laptop in Prague). To be able to type the email in German as rapidly as he did, he would have needed a German laptop, produced and sold in German.

Incognito90

Correction: I took German classes years ago in high school. With practice, it is easy to quickly type the commands needed to input foreign characters. Being how he's a spy, it can be readily assumed that he has quite a bit of practice.

LorgSkyegon

Corrected entry: Ethan doesn't wear glasses so why did he choose to wear some when he was hanging in the room trying to get the NOC list?

Correction: The glasses have a built-in camera, which allows Luther to see what Ethan sees.

Corrected entry: The police boat in the opening scene has a Czech flag even though the scene is set in Kyiv, Ukraine. (00:24:15)

Correction: The opening takes place in Kiev. The embassy mission takes place in Prague, which is in the Czech Republic. Hence the Czech flag.

Corrected entry: When Ethan runs out of a restaurant after blowing the large water container with fishes with his chewing gum-bomb, you can see all the fishes fall to the floor as water rushes outside the restaurant. No even one fish moves. The explosion wouldn't have killed them because the tempered glass and the water have more density than air, so it would break the glass, but the blast would go the other way. They drop dead. (Fake ones for the activists, maybe.)

Correction: Are you kidding? Water is an excellent conductor of shockwaves - because it is incompressible it is better than air. Density has nothing to do with it, shockwaves expand in a spherical pattern unless they meet something they cannot penetrate, and they can certainly penetrate water. Every fish in that tank would have died instantly from the blast effect, and the scene is 100% accurate (though I doubt if they used live fish.).

Corrected entry: When Ethan is in the computer room, why doesn't the alarm trigger when he types on the keyboard?

Correction: What kind of alarm should go off? The keyboard has no alarm connected to it, the pressure alarm is only on the floor, the temperature one has nothing to do with the keyboard and Ethan did not make enough noise to trigger the noise one.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Ethan is in the NOC list room, when the camera changes to Krieger you can see a rat approaching. Krieger has noticed this rat. After you see Ethan come all the way back up and nearly into the hole the camera changes back to Krieger and there is a dead rat behind him. How did Krieger manage to kill that rat if both his hands were doing something?

Correction: He lets go of the rope to kill the rat, that's why Ethan falls so far.

Corrected entry: Luther asks for a laptop with an "AI RISC chip". This is nonsense - RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer and is a description of the number of registers used by the chip - nothing to do with AI, which is a broad range of analytical and non linear heuristic techniques to enable a computer to learn and make non-deterministic (ie. non programmed) decisions.

Correction: 1) He never said RISC means AI. A CPU can be both RISC and AI. 2) RISC doesn't mean the CPU has fewer registers. RISC means that each instruction preforms a simple task when compared to Complex instruction set computer or CISC.

Corrected entry: In the secure room, why didn't they just knock the guy out and tie him up? Then they wouldn't have had to worry about alarms at all! Claire wouldn't have even had to go inside and they wouldn't have needed all that computer technology. Ethan was hanging right over top of him and easily could have handled it.

Correction: They don't want to leave any trace that they were there, although the accidental (or deliberate?) knife drop ruined that plan.

swordfish

Corrected entry: During the Channel Tunnel helicopter chase sequence, the colour of the helicopter changes from red to black.

Correction: No, it most certainly does not.

Corrected entry: Why does the CIA go to all the trouble of putting lasers across the air vent into the secure room, wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to make the air ducts too small for anyone to squeeze through?

Correction: This is the submitter's own opinion. Granted, it may also be the opinion of every sensible thinking person on the planet, but that does not qualify as a mistake. Also, there are a thousand conceivable reasons why the vents may need to be that big, we just weren't told about it.

Corrected entry: During the scene where Ethan is hanging in the bank, he can't talk or he'll set off the sound-sensor; he can't touch the ground because of the weight sensor; and he can't cause the room to get too hot because he'll set off the heat sensor. If there were a vent, the temperature would most likely change. Why isn't there a motion detector?

Correction: For the same reason that there is no CCTV camera, because the film makers chose not to have one in the scene. If they had done, they would also have had the character's figure out a way of getting around it. This is not a mistake, just a matter of opinion whether there 'should' be one there or not.

Corrected entry: Why on earth would the NOC computer be left online while the operator is out of the room? A simple logon card on a chain around his neck could be used, like most government departments do. Why would such a sensitive computer have a CD burner attached?

Correction: The computer is not left online: while Ethan is hanging from the ceiling, the operator guy gets in the room, sets the computer online using his logon card and then rushes out to the WC room without turning off the computer. The CD burner is there in case they needed to transfer any data: remember that the mainframe has no connection with any other computer.

Corrected entry: The only place in London with that much grass around Tower Bridge is the Tower of London itself. I don't think whoever runs it would be happy to have a chopper within its walls.

Correction: The area where they landed the chopper was on the south side, opposite the Tower of London (on the north side). It was a patch of waste ground for years but is now the site of the offices of the Mayor of London in his swanky new building.

christian467

Corrected entry: When Krieger drops the knife into the room William Donloe is just about to come in. When he does he looks up and the vent is back to normal screws and all. They would never have enough time to take the laser stoppers off, put the vent on, and screw it back in. Also if they did do it that quick how did they not make one sound?

ShooterMcGavin34

Correction: That is exactly what they have been trained to do! i think it is fair to assume that these agents will be capable of covering their tracks fairly rapidly and quietly.

Corrected entry: When Ethan is being lowered into the room with the NOC List, he has the digital temperature gauge. As Ethan is going down, the gauge is right side up so you can read it normally. However, Ethan is upside down, and therefore so are the camera glasses he is wearing. Now when we see the computer screen that Ving Rhames is using, the gauge is right side up there, but it should actually be upside down.

Correction: Ving Rhames' character is a computer expert... He flipped the image, not a difficult thing to do.

Corrected entry: When Ethan Hunt is in the computer room dangling just above the floor (right before his sweat starts dripping down the glasses) and he is moving around trying to keep his balance, the edge of his shirt touches the pressure sensitive floor. (Granted, this was only for a second but the alarm should have gone off.)

Correction: His shirt never actually touches the floor. if you look at his reflection it shows that the closest he gets to the floor is about an inch or two.

Aaron Wilson

Corrected entry: At the beginning when Jim Phelps is being briefed about the mission, the recording tells him that his "usual" team will be used, and then goes on to tell him who they all are and what their skills are. If they are his usual team, surely he would know this already? I know it tells the audience who the characters are but it makes no sense to tell Phelps that Jack can hack into any security system when he was most likely recruited for that very reason.

Correction: The IMF is just covering all their bases. It doesn't hurt Ethan to hear this information again; and if, for any reason, he should neglect to use a specific talent possessed by one of his team members resulting in a mission failure, IMF will be exempt from any responsibility for that critical error. Since when has the government *not* included exhaustive details in all of their correspondence?

Phixius

Corrected entry: In the scene where they go to the mainframe to get the NOC list, there is, of course, an extremely secure computer. However, with all these security precautions, somehow, it allows logins when the security system knows that no-one can be in the room.

Correction: That is because the two are not connected. The computer is a stand alone unit that is not part of any network. If it were, then a man of Luther's talents would be able to hack into the security network, and then into the computer from there, without the need for an elaborate break-in.

Corrected entry: Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas) is killed at the gate by a knife in the back at the gate near the embassy. Later she shows up with the CIA farm boys when they try to catch someone using the bogus NOC list.

Karl Junker

Correction: That wasn't Sarah, it was just some other female agent.

Corrected entry: In the scene on top of the train, Jim Phelps is opening the clip on his harness by unscrewing it. But the cable attached to the helicopter is a clip that doesn't need an opening.

Correction: He is using a locking carabiner. There is a spring-loaded gate that swings open like a normal "D-ring" but it also has a locking nut at the end of the gate. He needs to unscrew it in order to open the gate on the "D-ring" and operate the clip normally.

Mobrien316

Factual error: The vents that Hunt and his sidekick crawl down at CIA Headquarters are standard galvanized steel box vents; they are very common in the building trade. Try walking or crawling down one - you'll make a noise like the sky is falling down. People will be able to hear you for miles. Every person in that building would know somebody crawling about in the vent system. (This error applies to dozens of films, not only this one).

More mistakes in Mission: Impossible

Senator John Waltzer: We were living in a democracy the last time I checked.

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

Trivia: An early draft of the script was set to feature several characters from the original series all being killed off to raise the stakes for the new characters. The producers wanted to bring back as many of the original actors as possible. All declined, as they felt it was disrespectful to the original series. As a result, only the character of Jim Phelps was brought back, albeit as a surprise villain and not a hero.

More trivia for Mission: Impossible

Question: Did Ethan actually know it was a mole hunt to trap Jim, or was he oblivious until he worked it out at the train station?

Answer: Ethan never thought it was a mole hunt to trap Jim. He found out from Kittridge at the restaurant that it was a mole hunt, but Kittridge believes that Ethan is the mole (the money his parents mysteriously receive). At the station Ethan realises that Jim must be the mole since it is too convenient both he and his wife survived. However, the hunt to catch the mole was never directed at Jim - Kittridge never suspected him until at the end when he sees Jim alive.

swordfish

Actually had suspicions before Jim showed up. Ethan found the Bible that was stamped from the Drake Hotel. Where Jim had literally just come back from before the mission. It made no sense otherwise why that would be in Jim's possession.

More questions & answers from Mission: Impossible

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