Factual error: In the scene where Tom Cruise is going to defibrillate Keri Russell to disarm the bomb in her head, no defibrillator takes 30 seconds to charge to 150 joules. Most go to 360 joules and if they are not charged in 10 seconds the batteries are depleted enough that they won't charge at all.

Deliberate "mistake": Bare shoulders are forbidden in the Vatican premises, so the sexy dresses in the party are not likely to be allowed.

Continuity: When the sewer lid is removed, it is pushed to the right (compared to the location of the car) but when it is pulled back, it lies behind the hole (again compared to the location of the car).

Revealing: In the helicopter chase Ethan and Linsey (and the defibrillator) are just sitting on the floor of the helicopter while it is doing very radical moves. They would have been thrown around.

Continuity: When Ethan is running through the Shanghai streets, he passes a man holding a vase. In the immediately following wide angle the man has vanished.

Continuity: When Ethan and the team are being attacked on the bridge, Ethan's back left jean pocket is ripped. However, when Ethan is recovering from almost falling off of the bridge, his pocket is intact.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film, after Tom has been electrocuted to destroy the bomb implanted into his skull, we see the female lead trying to restart his heart, each time they show his eyes, they are closed or open in different shots, and if they are closed, you can see his eyeball moving underneath the eyelid.

Continuity: In the scene in Berlin, the female member of the IMF team starts with no special glasses/goggles, then has them up on her head, then, just before the shooting begins, she puts them over her eyes, but later, while the shooting is still going on, they are back up on top of her head. Then they completely disappear.

Continuity: After the fight on the bridge Ethan drives away in the Mercedes. But the road was blocked by the yellow truck. And if the Mercedes had been in front of the yellow truck in the first place, its driver would probably have driven away instead of leaving his car.

Visible crew/equipment: There is a camera operator visible in the reflection of Ethan's sunglasses in the funeral scene.

Continuity: In the scene where Ethan Hunt has replaced Damion's character, in the bathroom, the white handkerchief in his hand disappears and reappears in sequential shots, as he points two fingers to his bodyguard.

Visible crew/equipment: During scene when Ethan is running across the bridge in Shanghai one of his harness wires is clearly visible.

Continuity: When Ethan - after getting the rabbit's foot - calls Musgrave, his location is shown on a map. He is in the northern part of Shanghai, quite some distance from Pudong, the area south of the river, where the high rise buildings are. However in the next clip, he drives down the on-ramp to The Bund, which is the street right next to the river, opposite Pudong. So he's been driving in circles - and extremely fast.

Continuity: When in the Vatican, by the DHL truck, Declan's fringe keeps changing in each angle.

Factual error: When Ethan hangs Davian from the plane's floor hatch, Davian's head is already all the way out of the plane with the air outside blowing at him. Yet when Ethan pulls him up we find that Davian overheard Ethan's name. With the fast wind blowing at his ears he could never hear anything but a deafening roar, making Ving Rhames voice inaudible even if he were screaming.

Continuity: During the bridge scene, soldiers approach the armoured vehicle to spray it with orange gel. As they approach, the vehicle has a triangular reflector on the rear side. In the shot five seconds later showing the orange gel being sprayed, the rear reflector is circular.

Visible crew/equipment: When Zhen arrives at the courtyard in the Vatican, a gentleman opens the car door. A cameraman and crew member are visible reflected in the door.

Factual error: The walls of the Vatican are guarded by humans not cameras.

Visible crew/equipment: Just after Ethan is run over by the truck in Shanghai, he chases the rabbit's foot down the street. There is a high angle street scene of Ethan running across the road. A cameraman is visible on the footpath following Ethan. Also, the traffic is going against the road markings.

Continuity: When Ethan is offered the task and refuses, he is told that just in case he has a change of heart, that the team will be "wheels up at sunrise". When he arrives the next day, the sun is much more in the position of late morning.