Mission: Impossible (1996)
Plot summary
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Jon Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Cruise, Vanessa Redgrave, Ving Rhames
Jim Phelps (Voight) and his team charged with stopping a traitor from stealing and selling classified material. Everything was going well until the man they are following and all of the team are inexplicably killed except for Ethan Hunt (Cruise). Ethan then calls the Director and goes to meet him when he discovers that the whole mission was to ferret a mole that they have been suspicious of for some time. The Director shows evidence that hints that Ethan's the one they have been looking for but Ethan knows that he is not, so he escapes. Ethan then arranges to meet the buyer and whom he warns against using the material he has and when they meet he offers to get what he paid for in exchange for telling whom the mole is. Ethan, along with Phelps' wife Claire (Beart) recruits two disavowed agents to help him which won't be easy.
Factual error: CIA headquarters in Langley has its own firefighting unit and never, ever calls for outside help.
Trivia: Director Brian De Palma reportedly had creative difficulties with Tom Cruise, who was also a producer and thus had final say in the decisions made during production. While this has been disputed, many have noted the fact that De Palma did very little press for the film (including "politely excusing" himself from scheduled media interviews at the last moment) and never took up an offer to record an audio commentary for the film as evidence.
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?
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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