Mission: Impossible

Odds on Evil - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: When he's talking to the arms dealer, Barney's right hand is free and gesturing until the shot cuts: then he's suddenly holding his drink in that hand. (00:12:20)

Jean G

Wheels - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: When Briggs listens to the recording giving him his assignment, the tape isn't even threaded, so the machine shouldn't be playing anything. When he stops it, the tape is now threaded - but it's now a completely different tape reel on a completely different machine. (00:02:05)

Jean G

The Ransom - S1-E8

Continuity mistake: When the doctor tells the agent he has to step behind the shield while they take the pictures, you can see that Augie's chest strap has already been secured. The very next camera shot shows Cinnamin (as a nurse) just starting to secure his ankle area with the straps, and you can see the chest has not been secured yet. A second mistake in the same timeframe shows Augie's unconscious head turned to his left. When she starts to secure his ankles, you can see his chin pointing straight up.

dfish

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: When Briggs finishes listening to his assignment tape and gets up, the tape recorder is on the very front edge of the seat. Next shot, as he walks away, it's moved itself to the back of the seat. (00:03:00)

Jean G

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: During the mission briefing, Cinnamon's hair alternates from messy to neatly combed several times. In fact, her hairdo changes combing styles throughout the episode. (00:05:00)

Jean G

Fakeout - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: Throughout the car chase and the scenes leading up to it, Poltroni's rear-view mirror disappears and reappears repeatedly. (00:35:30 - 00:43:00)

Jean G

The Legacy - S1-E15

Continuity mistake: When Rollin is struck and falls onto the bed, he knocks over the table lamp and crushes the shade. When the shot cuts, not only is the lampshade in a different position, it's completely undamaged. (00:34:30)

Jean G

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

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.

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)

More mistakes in Mission: Impossible

Voice on Tape: Good morning Mister Phelps.

More quotes from Mission: Impossible

The Psychic - S1-E28

Trivia: Watch the drive-in theater marquis when Briggs drives in to pick up his assignment. It reads "Geller and Solow / Spend the Money" - an in-joke reference to producer Bruce Geller and Desilu executive Herb Solow.

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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