Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (1966)

80 mistakes - chronological order

(2 votes)

The Legacy - S1-E15

Continuity mistake: Toward the end of the episode, Rollin gets into a fight. His mouth gets bloody on the right side, which swaps to the left, then back.

The Reluctant Dragon - S1-E16

Continuity mistake: The 8-track tape Briggs listens to is in shadow when he inserts it in the car's player. A few shots later, though, it's brightly illuminated so that we can see the tape spinning inside. (00:02:00)

Jean G

The Reluctant Dragon - S1-E16

Continuity mistake: After the gun goes off during his fight with Yankovski, blood appears on the right side of Rollin's mouth: it wasn't there a moment before. And a few shots later, the blood is on the left, then changes back to the right. (One shot in the sequence was, for some reason, flipped.) (00:48:00)

Jean G

The Reluctant Dragon - S1-E16

Continuity mistake: After Rollin is in a fist fight he has blood on the left side of his mouth. After a quick scene switch to another person when it goes back to him the blood is on the right side. Another quick switch and back to him, the blood is back to his left side.

The Diamond - S1-E19

Continuity mistake: Rollin strikes the duplicate diamond with a hammer and chisel, and it breaks cleanly into several pieces that fly out of the dish entirely. In the next shot, however, all the pieces are not only back in the dish, they're crushed into a fine powder. (00:35:30)

Jean G

The Diamond - S1-E19

Character mistake: Durvard has just flown Briggs' group to his compound, yet somehow fails to notice that Cinnamon wasn't on the plane. He tells Briggs he has accommodations for her and seems surprised when Rollin says she's not there. (00:39:10)

Jean G

Snowball in Hell - S1-E21

Continuity mistake: When the prison commander sees that Barney has been flogged from marks on his back, after he leaves, Barney and Rollin move and we can see that there is nothing on Barney's back. (00:16:00 - 00:16:45)

Scorpion99

The Confession - S1-E22

Continuity mistake: When Rollin and another prisoner escape, Willie picks them up and they get into the back seat. Later when Willie is driving in at least two shots they're missing from the back seat.

A Cube of Sugar - S1-E26

Continuity mistake: During the prison corridor scene, Cinnamon is crying over her "dead" husband, and her hair changes from frazzled to neatly combed and back as the angles shift between full shot and close-up. (00:39:15)

Jean G

The Traitor - S1-E27

Continuity mistake: Tina demonstrates her contortionist abilities by crawling through the cubicle shelves in Briggs' apartment. A large orange cat figurine on the upper left shelf is brightly lit when she's doing her demo. The moment she finishes, though, the cat is in shadow and its orange tones are muted to brown. (00:05:00)

Jean G

Trek - S2-E2

Visible crew/equipment: During the prison escape, as Phelps and Cole are stealing the car, a microphone can be seen above them, hanging more than a foot into the shot. (00:18:20)

Jean G

The Survivors - S2-E3

Continuity mistake: At the end, Rollin holds a rifle pointed straight at Stavak. When the shot cuts to a different angle, he's instantly holding the gun lengthwise and at a lower level. (00:46:35)

Jean G

The Bank - S2-E4

Character mistake: The 'perfect' German postcard Rollin has written is full of mistakes: 1) The 'sie' must have a capital 'S' because it's a personal pronoun; 2) The only sentence stops in the middle and makes no sense; 3) The word 'Besten' has to be written without a capital because it's not a noun; 4) In Germany the house number stands after the street name, not before; 5) The streetname makes no sense. Too many mistakes for a so-called 'perfect' card. (00:04:40)

The Bank - S2-E4

Continuity mistake: Cinnamon watches The Bank secretary get up and walk to the manager's door. After a cut, the woman is once again seated at her desk, stands and again approaches the door. (00:32:15)

Jean G

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

Season 1 generally

Trivia: Throughout season one, the stack of photographs Briggs peruses in selecting his mission team includes one of a man in black-rimmed glasses. It's a shot of the show's creator/producer, Bruce Geller.

Jean G

More trivia for Mission: Impossible

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.

More questions & answers from Mission: Impossible

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