Mission: Impossible

Stupidity: Why, in the most secure computer room you could find, with all those detection devices, did they not install video cameras? There is no risk of a security breach as they could be locked into a position that would not show the computer screen or keyboard but would show that an intruder had entered the room.

Stupidity: You would think if the security systems in the computer vault have to be off in order for a technician to access the computer then the computer itself wouldn't be accessible if the security systems were on.

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Mistakes

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 was crawling about in the vent system. (This error applies to dozens of films, not only this one.)

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Suggested correction: "People will be able to hear you for miles. Every person in that building would know somebody crawling about in the vent system." No, they won't. The sound from someone crawling through a vent would carry for metres but not miles. CIA Headquarters are quite large, so it's unlikely that the sound would carry to every part of it. And even if it did, there's no reason to believe that every person in the building would know that the sound was somebody crawling about in the vent system.

The galvanised steel the box vents are made out of makes a very distinctive booming sound when it distorts under pressure, and it is loud. Unless they are deaf, the people in the room through which the vent runs would know perfectly well that there was someone in there.

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Quotes

Ethan Hunt: Can I ask you something, Kittridge? If you're dealing with a man who has crushed, shot, stabbed, and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated do you think you're gonna make him by hauling Mom and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse?

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Trivia

Trivia: The last major Hollywood film to be released on the Betamax video-tape format.

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Questions

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.

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