"Mission: Impossible"
Latest Reflections from the Guild
Jim Phelps and the IMF team travel to Prague to thwart the sale of a NOC list--a list which contains information on all the deep cover agents for the United States. The mission goes horribly wrong. Everyone on the team dies except Ethan Hunt and Phelps' much younger wife. (Sorry, can't remember her name.) Even worse, Hunt later learns that the mission was a fake, designed to flush out a mole in IMF. Hunt immediately comes under suspicion but manages to escape before the IMF authorities can take him into custody. Hunt then decides to steal the real NOC list to flush out the real conspirator (code named "Job"--as in the Bible). Hunt and Phelps' wife put together a team that does steal the NOC list and Hunt arranges to sell it to Job's original buyer--a female arms dealer named Max. About this time, Phelps appears having survived somehow despite being shot and falling off a bridge. The sale of the NOC list onboard a bullet train confirms Hunt's suspicions. Phelps is the mole and his wife was a co-conspiratory with him. Cornered, Phelps kills his wife and beats up Hunt before climbing out on the roof of the train to rendezvous with a helicopter. Hunt follows. In the ensuing struggle Hunt blows up the helocopter and the force of the blast throws him back onto the train and safety. (That's the scene you see in the previews.)
Brash Reflections
Just after most of the IMF team dies, Hunt meets with a supervisor. The supervisor expresses his suspicion that Hunt is the Mole. Hunt tosses an explosive onto the face of a large aquarium and makes his escape as the gallons and gallons of water gush through the restaurant. Two things: I've only seen the movie once but it seemed like there was an aweful lot of water coming out of that tank. Also, as Hunt ran into the night and the water chased after him filled with what appeared to be plastic imitation fish, I couldn't help but think: No fish were harmed during the production of this movie.
Hunt learns that the mole goes by the name of Job and communicates on the Internet. He logs onto the Internet and search Usenet groups for "Job". He finds none. He needs to get a better search engine. I popped onto the internet and search for newsgroup with "job" in the title and found 195!
Also, Hunt sends a message to Max using the address, "Max@Job 3:14". Correct me If I'm wrong but I don't think you can have spaces in an Internet address.
In order to steal the NOC list, Hunt and his team must break into Langely, into the headquarters of the CIA. The list is held in a room with a single terminal conntected to the isolated computer that holds these super-secret files. Whenever the operator leaves the room, three security systems comes on line: The floor becomes pressure sensitive, the room becomes heat sensitive and the walls react to the slightest sound. Oddly enough, no one in the entire CIA apparently figured out how to make this terminal even more secure. Namely CUT THE POWER to the terminal when the operator leaves! If the terminal isn't on, no one can access the data.
On the same subject, Hunt's team drugs the operator/analyst so he has to leave the room--thereby engaging the security systems. Wouldn't it be simpler to let the guy come into the room and then just knock him out? That way you don't have to content with security systems? Hunt never implied that he didn't want the CIA to know that he stole the list and they find out anyway so why not make it simple? (Answer: because it wouldn't be as dramatic!)
I gotta tell ya that I was laughing for the last fifteen minutes of the movie. That whole deal with the helocopter flying through the tunnel after the bullet train just kept getting more and more ludicrous. At one point the helocopter roters clang against the roof of the tunnel and the helocopter keeps flying! (That's a WHIRL boys and girls.) At another point, a second bullet train passes the first in the cramped tunnel and the helocopter manages to keep flying, even though the wind gusts should have slammed it into the train or the wall of the tunnel. Even though the overhead roter would be too wide for the helocopter to get directly behind the train it's chasing because the blades would chew into the wall. (My wife pointed this one out.)
All in all, I was disappointed. As I recall, Mission: Impossible was an intelligent show, driven by the characters understanding of human nature. It wasn't about exploding helocopters and big action stunts.
There's more but I'll leave it to you, fellow members of the Guild.
Phil
Reflections from the Guild
[Note from Phil: I have not verified these but they sounded good to me!]
Jason Liu: "I noticed that you are planning to upload nits on Mission:Impossible. I saw it yesterday and thought this would be a great opportunity to vent my anger. Don't get me wrong, as a movie is was entertaining, and I was at the edge of my seat at some points, but it wasn't Mission: Impossible! It was more a bad James Bond. But _really_ has been gnawing at me is the fact that they made Jim Phelps evil!!! HE CANNOT BE A TRAITOR!!!! I'm in a state of denial!!! Phelps (and Peter Graves) has been_ Mission: Impossible for 30 years! Are you telling me that after 40 years with IMF, after all the great work and devotion he demonstrated in the series, he's going to turn around, sabotage the IMF, kill his team, frame his protogee, kill his wife, and betray every single U. S. agent in the world! I think NOT! Jim Phelps was not like that! No wonder Peter Graves wasn't in it...he probably read the script and said, "What the @$%# is this? I'm not doing this!" The movie really made him evil! In less than two hours, they destroyed Mission: Impossible forever! Sorry...I guess I got carried away there. I do have to mention that most of the people I talked to felt the same way. On to other nitpicks..."
"First of all, throughout the series, there was no mention of Phelps being married. I guess it's possible, but there was no sign whatsoever in the TV series. And to a woman who is 30 years younger than him? I guess there's another nit - how can being married to whats-her-name be a 'lousy marriage'? :)
"OK, since when did IMF teams use a 'pointman.' It used to always be a team effort with Phelps the leader and everyone else equally crucial to the mission. If you ask me, they didn't need Ethan Hunt at all in that mission. All he did was bring in that pair of glasses!"
"Just four words...the CIA needs security."
"Wow, for being 60, Jim Phelps still can fight. He took down a man half his age with no trouble. (Then again, I guess if Kirk and Picard can do it, Jim Phelps can too.)"
"In the end, train-helicopter sequence, I love how the explosion kinda, blew Hunt onto the train instead of engulfing him like it should have."
Owen Fralic: "A couple other things about the secured room with the computer terminal: you'd think with all the high tech security measures they took, they'd also have one of the most basic security devices, a surveilance camera! Their security devices didn't exactly look cheap, so I'm sure they could afford to pay a guard or two to sit and watch T.V. all day."
"Also, just how common are rats in these vents (I'm fighting off a big urge to call it a Jefferies' Tube)? With those laser alarm systems, well, I can see it now: 'What, another rat?! That's the 13th false alarm since lunch. Somebody call the Piper. Just remember to pay him this time.'"
Kevin Loughlin: "I've got a glaring nit for Mission: Impossible. The fact that two trains pass in the EuroTunnel is pure fallacy! It consists of two wide tunnels, each with one track, separated by a narrower service tunnel. This three-tunnel layout continues right across the Channel."
John Latchem: "Let's see. Secret Agent's friend and colleague turns out to be the bad guy behind the plot because the cold war is over and he needs the money. Does this sound like 'Goldeneye' to anyone else?"
"The first message Hunt sends is to Max@Job 3:14. Later he quotes a different scripture and then sends the message to Max@Job 3:15. Wouldn't this be a different server? God thing the computer knows where he wants to send the message."
"The idea that Jim Phelps was the bad guy irked me too. I've never seen the old TV show and all I knew was that Jim Phelps was the good guy."
Jason Liu: "You're remarks about the aquarium-restaurant scene made me think of something. While talking to Kietrich, Hunt asks him why there was another IMF team at the embassy, noticing that the people in the restaurant were also there. OK, this makes sense, since the IMF thinks that they've caught their mole, so one would assume the restaurant is chock full of IMF agents. Now, according to a friend, Hunt points out that the waiter was at the embassy, meaning that he was an IMF agent. If so, why does he stupidly stare at the wad of explosive 'chewing gum' before it explodes? Shouldn't he realize what it is (or might be) and duck? Especially when Kietrich and Hunt are taking cover? Was he a rookie? Did he decide he would protect everyone else by taking the brunt of the explosion?"
"Also, with that same scene, you would think that the IMF would have placed some agents outside in case Hunt tried to escape. But Hunt just runs off into the night, unpursued. Now does it make sense, from a national security standpoint, to put the entire list of all the U. S. undercover agents in the world on a desktop computer sitting in an embassy on foreign soil?"
"Back to the failed mission. If there was another IMF team in place to observe Phelps' team, shouldn't they have been observing the parking lot? Then they might have noticed Claire Phelps leaving the car, walking to a nearby alley and detonating the car bomb. But I guess that would have been too easy."
Troy N. Diggs: "Jason Liu commented about how he didn't like what happened to Jim Phelps in the movie... I might just add that on fX Sunday, Peter Graves himself said that he hated what happened to his character in the movie, and that he wished they would have just called the character something else. (On a side note, he gave the impression that he never was asked to be part of the movie itself.)" (Note from Phil: Actually, I believe he was asked but he declined.)
Anon: "I saw the movie with a friend who was not as familiar with the series as I, and it took the two of us three days afterward to figure out the significance of the bible from the Drake Hotel. That was juts one of many confusing scenes." (Note from Phil: Yeah, I had to explain that one to my wife as well. Though, it did make sense to me the moment I saw the stamp in the Bible Guess it's just that writer's brain at work!)
"I remember thay did a remake of the show awhile back, and my father commented that he liked the old series better because they used thier barins and cunning instead of computer gadgets. Sad but true."
"I also want to say that in every movie involving technology where someone checks e-mail, it's that graphic with the flying envelope opening up. I asked my borther the computer expert if he's ever seen that program, he said no. So if anyone knows where I can find one of those that everyone in movie land but no one in real life has...."
Heather B. Smith: Just a small nit about the clock in the vault room at CIA headquarters. When the operator/analyst/computer geek first leaves the room to go on his coffee break, the clock next to the door reads 10:01. When he returns and leaves again to 'throw up' (for lack of a better term), the clock reads 9:57. When he returns again to find that someone's been there, the clock reads 10:01 again!" (Note from Phil: Those clocks will get you every time!)
Troy N. Diggs: "Actually, I was right. According to CNN..."
"'But when Tom Cruise put 'Mission:Impossible' together for the big screen, the actor-cum-producer left Graves and the other original actors out of the picture.'"
"I don't know about you, but to me, this means that none of 'em were ever asked to do the movie (later on in the article, Graves indicates that he would have liked to appear in a scene at the top of the movie to tell the other IMF folk goodbye, get on with it, etc. rather than what happened to Jim Phelps.) Peter Lupus expresses the same 'I wish WE were in it' sentiments in this week's TV Guide where he praises the movie."
"On the other hand, Greg Morris said on fX's 'Backchat' (when asked what he thought of the movie) 'I saw the movie', and in the CNN article, says 'I left early.'" The URL for this article is: http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9605/29/imposssibles/index.html.
Ryan Hunter: "At the end of the movie, Ethan is in the baggage car, wearing a Jim mask, waiting for Jim's wife. I assume he is wearing the Jim mask to be 100% certain that Jim and his wife are in kahoots (or maybe just cause the writers felt like it!). The question is this: where did the Jim mask come from? Does Ethan usually carry around masks of his team? He's still working against the government at this point so he couldn't have gotten it from them. Maybe he's just very handy with an exacto knife."
Wesley Neal: "I must agree with everyone about Jim Phelps. He should not have been made the bad guy! I also agree with the CIA break-in stuff, although I have got to tell you, I really enjoyed the heck out of this movie, unlike a lot of you guys! Maybe it wasn't totally true to the 'Mission Impossible' legend, but I thought it brought up a lot of stuff I've always wanted to see. For example: Seeing different 'teams'. Seeing a member of an IM force actually get killed instead of miraculously fooling everybody and getting away scott free. I also have to admit that even though Phelps was revealed as a traitor, I thought it took hutzpah to do that. I mean, I think it it honestly surprised everyone here who hadn't been forewarned(including myself). Gaurded kudos to the producers for this risky move despite my nit. Finally, this was the first movie in a while that I've been to where the audience reacted to each scene so beautifully. When that drop of sweat is about to fall, or that rat comes out, or whatever, the audience would gasp in anxiety and you could feel it. When a movie grabs an audience like that, you know it's goodie, despite our nits. I recommend this movie highly."
Christopher Brand of Natick MA: "When Ethan Hunt(Tom Cruise) is explaining his plan to break in to CIA Headquarters I think they did the old flip the film on us. The black gentleman's button hole is on his right lapel. I guess it is possible but I asked around and no one has heard of a jacket of that type."
Orion Bawdon of Bellingham, WA: "The scene where Ethan logs onto the Internet is absolutely *ludicrous!* Let's see, where shall I begin? He does a Usenet search for the words 'job,' 'max,' and 'max.com,' and gets *no hits* for any of these! I did similar searches and got 41,157 hits, 4041 hits, and 85 hits, respectively. I think it's time for the IMF to switch search engines!"
"Doesn't anyone else find it odd that the Powerbook Ethan was using was running Netscape 1.0? (You can tell by the 'throbbing N' in the corner, rather than the newer, and much cooler, logo with the meteor falling behind the N) The current version is 2.0; you would think that the IMF would keep up-to-date on their computer software, no?"
"I won't even get into the e-mail situation, since most of that has already been mentioned, except to say that the writers of that scene obviously don't have a clue about how Internet e-mail works :)"
"And I'm sure I'm not the only one that's noticed that whenever there's a computer in one of these action thrillers, it almost *never* uses an operating system that anyone has seen before in their life, except in other action movies! It sure does look cool, though."
"Some other thoughts -- when Ethan meets with the supervisor in the restaurant, he plays with the explosive gum in his hand before smashing the two colors together and throwing it on the aquarium glass... but he does it in plain sight! Wouldn't the other IMF team be watching him closely enough to see this and act to prevent him from using it?"
"How were they able to get the password to the top-secret CIA guy's account? There are password systems available even to us lowly civilians that are virtually unbreakable (UNIX, for one), and you would think that one of the largest intelligence agencies in the world would have something quite a bit more sophisicated than that, especially on a computer containing a file as important as the NOC list!"
"OK, I can understand why it was necessary to steal the NOC list (so that the bad guys would know it was the real NOC list and not another fake) but was it really necessary to *bring* the list onto the train? They could have just as easily brought a phony, and things would have turned out much as they did in the first place, except that there would have been no danger of the list getting out. That would have been a much better strategy IMHO, and it seems to me that it would not have be very difficult to just change the names on the list (for example) so it looked like the real thing." (Note from Phil: I guess Ethan Hunt just likes to live dangerously!)
Juan Carlos Fernandez: "I don't remeber any of the fish flopping around on the ground when Hunt runs away from the aquarium restaurant. Were they already dead?" (Note from Phil: No fish were harmed during the filming of . . ." See above.)
"But my real question is: What killed the rat in the air duct, anyway? First it's there, the guy drops Hunt, then the rat is shown lying on its side (presumably dead)." (Note from Phil: Maybe the guy in the airduct stabbed it.)
Jenifer Gordon: "Thanks for taking nits on the movie. I loved the old series. First of all, I don't think that the foley people matched the copter and the sound. They used the wrong helicopter sound for that model of helicopter. The copter was a hughes and the sound was an aerospatiale. yes, they sound different! As a pilot, this is a common nit. Secondly, the transition from digital effects to non-digital offects as the train is going into the chunnel is visible.(train gets sharper, and background gets sharper). Also, that helicopter would have never fit into that tunnel -- thay needed to use a different one ( maybe an R22 or R44, but that wouldn't work for distance travel.). And, Jim Phelps could have been married. In the first season they implied a flirtation between Cinnamon and Rollin a couple of times. (Old man out for example). And, it would have been much more credible if they have made Claire (Phelp's wife) the villian. Making Phelps the villian killed off the old series."
Even though I sent in a bunch of nits, I still TREMENDOUSLY enjoyed this movie."
Craig Mason: "The whole ending sequence with the train and helicopter was too much! Over the top! I thought the idea of a helicopter chasing the train into the tunnel was very unlikely and unbelievable. I almost laughed hysterically at the absurdity while watching it."
"A friend said to me that he could see how the chopper could follow the train into the tunnel, since the chopper blades were a set horizontal length and the tunnel roof curved. So, how could the chopper fly inside without hitting the tunnel with it's blades? Even one little small glance would have caused a crash. I did notice that the tunnel was wide enough for two trains to run in, one in each direction. O'kay that allows for blade room. However, the chopper was flying slightly above the train, it's skids nearly touching the roof of the train. Absurd! I'm not sure what kind of a budget would have been involved in creating this tunnel (and I do believe this is intended to be the new one that runs below the English channel), but I'm sure the budget would not have allowed cathedral ceilings. the ceiling would be at the most only a foot or two higher than the train roof itself, not unlike a subway tunnel."
David D. Porter: "The helo in MI flying after hitting the tunnel isn't just a WHIRL - it's a DIETS. If you've never seen rotor shrapnel, well, it's a truly ugly scene."
Troy N. Diggs: "1) Well, at least SOMEBODY destroyed that giant fish tank from the Chevy Chase show..."
"2) I have a problem with Hunt's recrution of a disavowed IMF agent (at least, if I remember right, one of 'em was disavowed, but I can't be sure). The ONLY way the IMF could guarantee that this person wouldn't go off and talk to a foreign government about the IMF would be to basically kill him/her. That may be why the IMF is so good at what they do, however, if they've been disavowed, how could the IMF REALLY guarantee their secrecy?"
"3) Here in the real world, corporations try to get shameless plugs in during movies; that's called "product placement" (oooh!). If Apple Computer was SO intent on having their Powerbooks plugged during the movie (as is demonsrated by COUNTLESS ads and plugs and whatnot), does it make sense for them to show a totally different OS? I know this was mentioned before, but let's look at it from a corporate standpoint: let's say that consumer KC saw the movie and saw the cool OS used on the Powerbooks. Consumer KC calls up MacWarehouse, orders a Powerbook, and when he gets it, finds out that System 7.5 is nothing like the OS in the movie. Sure, this is a reach, but my point is this: is Apple so ashamed of their OS that they can't get the producers to show it along with the computer?"
"4) Wes Neal mentioned that he's never seen an IMFer get killed. I remember an IMF agent actually getting killed in the late 80's revival (which was actually my first exposure to M:I). Of course, the secretary probably disavowed any knowledge of her actions; if we hold theory to #1 above, her death just made it a lot easier. (rimshot)
"5) While I'm sure the producers/writers never thought about it, I'm sure it would have made a lot of M:I fans happy to have Dan Briggs be the traitor instead of Jim Phelps (remember him? He was the leader for only one season, and nobody liked him anyway... =^D)"
Lara Little of Charlotte, NC: "Not a nit, just an amusing observation by my husband: All the good guys use Apple Powerbooks, the bad guys use IBMs!"
Marion Martin of Athens, Georgia: "If anybody is wondering how the guy killed the rat in the tunnel, he used his TEETH! His TEETH! How gross is that? I knew then that he was a bad guy, because anyone who would let small, furry rodents crawl into or near their mouths cannot be trusted!"
Jon A. Christopher: "This is in reference to a previous nits, namely the deplorable lack of security at the CIA. Has anyone at CIA ever heard of motion detectors? That would certainly have done the job of stopping the attack."
David Frazer: "Here's a rather conspicuous nit for the train sequence -- there is no power source for the (electric) TGV train. We see neither overhead wires nor a third rail (which, for a TGV, would be fantasy anyway). I think that your correspondent Jenifer Gordon is imagining the change from non-digital to digital effects because of this, and because the credits state that the background was filmed in Scotland. Therefore, the train is *entirely* computer graphics, courtesy of ILM, and even the helicopter may not be real. About Netscape, I believe that the film was shot in summer to autumn 1995, before version 2.0 was released. I too am surprised that Apple did not insist on the MacOS being represented in screen graphics -- I think that the same graphics people worked on `Hackers', which reproduced the Mac reasonable faithfully. Incidently,Max's notebook has the most Mac-like user interface of all the computers in M:I, and it's an IBM. "
"PS: Writing this message, I can see what Netscape's email window *really* looks like. No flying envelopes, alas."
Donald Carlson: "The exploding gum was a neat trick - squish Part A to Part B and within five seconds... BOOM! But both parts are ON THE SAME STICK! What happens at the middle, where both parts touch? There was no barrier strip between the two parts that I saw." (Note from Phil: Maybe there's some kind of chemical barrier?!)
Ciaran Ryan: "The only thing which struck me as odd about it (not really a nit as such) was that as Krieger is flying the helicopter through the channel tunnel at the end, he is dead calm and there isn't any sign of panic on his face at all...If I was flying a helicopter through a channel tunnel and risked blowing myself to pieces at any minute I would show some kind of emotion..."
Ian Martin: "On the whole I enjoyed the film, it was a good bit of escapism and was well worth the trip to the cinema. However, it is one of those unfortunate films that doesn't stand up to close inspection. For example, the Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel not TGVs. Well, this is according to the leaflets I have read planning my summer holiday. "
Jeff Burns: "In the CIA vault, the added weight of Ethan's fingers on the key board seem to have no effect on the weight sensors, nor does the absence of the disk from the computer when he takes it out."
Bill Kurinko: "I see your readers already caught the absurdity of having all these rubber masks on hand for just the right occasion. I recently rode the EuroStar from London to Paris and the tunnel is just like the London Underground - dark and nearly touching the train on all sides. Another bit of fluff is the VCR aboard British Airways smoking at the end of the tape. C'mon people! Fire hazard? I'm sure the airline maintenance crew really enjoy replacing tape drives with burned up media in them."
Francis Rogers: "Yeah, I know it didn't bear much resemblance to the TV series, and it could have been better; still, having Jim Phelps be the bad guy threw me for a loop (I thought the culprit was Hawk's superior), which is rather enjoyable. Also, in spite of your pointing out the absurdity of the helicopter in the Chunnel, it was still quite enjoyable....a refreshing change from seeing the helicopters crash (as they usually do) into the side of the mountain under these circumstances."
Jeff Burns: " Ethan must steal the real NOC list in order to flush out Phelps. Now think about this, who does Ethan give the list to? Max. Namely, A BAD GUY (GIRL)! I mean, what if something goes wrong? They would have just killed all the agents on the list! You would think the CIA would have taken the time to make up a fake NOC list just in case, in which case, all Ethan has to do is steal the the fake one (although the CIA might get confused as to why their 'mole' is stealing the wrong list)."
A Person Identified Only As The Jabberwock: As for Mission:Impossible thoughts, I'm of the belief that a M:I movie sequel will begin:"
"[The scene: Peter Graves walks down an alley, opens a recycling can lid, removes a CD, and listens]"
"'Good morning, Jim. The man you are looking at has been impersonating you...'"
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS: "Just a small nit: I originally thought there were many IMF teams, with many IMF leaders. That is, until I read the book. The book says that Jim Phelps is the one and only leader of the IM team, and that he founded it, and pitched the idea to the CIA which, in turn, accepted it. Because of this, I have a nit to submit about the SERIES rather than the MOVIE. If we are to accept the book's explanation, then how do we explain Dan Briggs, the original leader of the IMF during the first season? I actually wrote to Paramount about this, and have yet to recieve a response. But I only sent it yesterday, so I guess I should be patient. (An impossible mission for me!) I guess since I got this all from solely from the book, it can't be considered an offiacial nit, so I'd like to officially change this to an OBSERVATION, rather than risk getting thrown out of the guild. (if that ever happened, I'd self-destruct in 5 seconds!)"
"Also, to all those nitpickers out there here refuse to believe that Jim Phelps can be a bad guy, I was wondering if the creators wanted to us believe that this was the same Jim Phelps that we saw in the series years ago, or if it exists in some sort of parallel quantum universe (as described in the STNG episode "Parallels") aside the the other M:I. Keep in mind that Mr. Phelps was played by a different actor (i.e. he looked different). I've included this questioin in my letter to Paramount, so we'll find out soon enough!"
"I also noticed that you posted a nit on the subject of the amount of water coming out of the fish tank after it exploded. I just gotta say, maybe there was so much water coming out because the water in the tanks on the floor above came pooring down too. Of course maybe you already knew that, and still thought there was too much water, in which case nevermind." (Note from Phil: Actually, I missed the fact there was an upper fish tank. That's what you get when you only see it once and do a Brash Reflection!)
Urac Sigma: "Actually, it's possible for Ethan to have the Jim mask - the impression I got when he put on the glasses and the 'real' IMF guys saw Phelps was that Ethan had actually gone and grassed Phelps up before the scene, and the IMF could have given him a mask."
"Also, can anyone imagine if a IMF operator was really dense:"
'Can I interest you in a movie, Ms McCrabb?'
'Um? No.'
'Well, we do have...the cinema of Brazil...'
'No, no thanks, sorry.'
[Impatience] 'The *cinema* of *Brazil*.'
'No! Go away! I don't like Brazilian films! I can't even speak the language!' etc., etc.
Shelley Spisak: "In response to a couple of nits: They knew the password to the CIA computer because Hunt saw it typed in. Remember he was hanging above the terminal when the guy entered, typed in his password, and then got sick. Hunt saw the letters he typed, and so did his accomplice in the fire engire, who was watching through Hunt's glasses. That saved them the trouble of trying to break the code. Also, the fish didn't flop because they were stunned by the explosion. I believe the guy in the air shaft killed the rat by smashing it with his head, but the editing was a little too fast there. As for the helicopter scene, of course it's ridiculous, but 9/10ths of the stunts in James Bond movies (such as diving off a cliff and catching a plane) are ridiculous too." (Note from Phil: True. But then Mission: Impossible was never James Bondian as I recall. It was just a shock for me to go to a movie expecting to enjoy one genre and then have it turn into another.)
Jeff Burns: "In the e-mail message that Ethan sends to Max, he says something like 'Fate will be that of kings and counselors who built for themselves palaces now lying in ruins.' Note that he said '...PALACES now lying in ruins.' If I recall corectly, it is not 'PALACES now lying in ruins', but 'PLACES now lying in ruins."
"When Kreiger has been involuntarilary tethered to the bullet train, why not just lean the helicopter forward, and use the blades to cut the cable?"
"I noticed that some people have said that the apple powerbooks used in 'MISSION' are nothing like powerbooks in real life. I just hafta ask how you know that. The only things that were shown on the computers were scenes where they were hooked up to the internet." (Note from Phil: All Machintosh applications have a standard look and feel--at least they are supposed to. So, no matter what the Mac is doing, it should look like a Mac!)
"In the QuickTime video clip that they used to watch a part of the Mclaghlin Group, with Senator Waltzer on it, there's not one jump, one skip, one pause, one anything. In fact, the clip is perfect. Now come on, have you ever downloaded a QuickTime video clip on your computer? If you have, then you know that the chances of viewing a perfect clip are very, very remote."
"Last one; in the mission debriefing scene right before the mission in Prague, there's a wide shot of the group with their backs to the camera, and with Phelps facing us. In this shot, Jack's arms are folded on the table in front of his laptop (or on top of his laptop, I can't quite remember). In the next shot, with the group facing us, his arms are not folded."
Dave Simmons of Derby, England: "Not so much a nit,as an observation....The Chunnel train-driver was played by one of the 'Friday Night Armistice' team,a UK comedy show by Armando Ianucci, renkwoned for its Hilariously blatant Satire....he seems such an odd choice of actor for a 'serious' action film.His face popping up in the cabin was the grand finale to a brilliant comedy scene for both myself and my brother....We were rolling in the aisles!"
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS: "When Ethan runs away from Kittridge, he logs onto the internet to look for Max. But all he has to do is type in 'INTERNET ACCESS', and that's it! The CIA is keeping more from us than we thought, they know how to log onto the internet without using phone lines!" (Note from Phil: Built-in cellphone maybe?)
"Ethan says that the temperature in the computer vault in CIA HQ is controlled by the air conditioning vent on the ceiling. How much sound do you think travels through the air conditioning vents throughout the CIA? I mean, what if some sound travels through the vents, and into the vault when the intruder countermeasures are turned OFF? Wouldn't that set off the alarm?"
"When the drop of sweat falls from Ethan's glasses in the computer vault, he catches it in his hand at the last possible second. But as the shot just a couple of seconds ago shows us, Ethan's too close to the ground to have as much space between his hand and the floor as he does, and too close to the ground to have as much space between his hand and his face. (My eight-year-old little brother Mason actually pointed this one out to me.)"
Andrew Chua: "Why is it that Phelps needed to bring the Bible from Drake Hotel? Max said that Phelps didn't quote scripture. If all he had to remember was just the phrase 'Job 3:14', surely an IMF agent could have done that without needing the Bible with him. If he had been operating as Job for a while, surely he would have had his own Bible (or access to one through the Internet)."
Jeff Burns: "In the train scene, right after Ethan hooks the chopper to the bullet train, Jim Phelps whips a punch to Ethan's face. Then Ethan slides to the side of the train, and falls over the edge. But with wind that fierce, he should have slid just a few inches, and then been blown off the end. Now this was bad enough, but when the helicopter explosion blew him back to the train, instead of enveloping him like it should have, well, that clinched it. (Don't you just love how the laws of physics change so that the good guy always win?)
Daniel B. Case: "Elizabeth and I saw this at a second-run theater yesterday and we have some nits not reported by other people. Most of them concern the computer-room scene (admittedly, the only good sequence in the movie):
1) Elizabeth wondered why no one hears Ethan and Kreiger clomping around the air ducts.
2) ... and isn't it convenient that no one finds the guard they cold-cocked during the fire alarm, and that he stays unconscious during that whole time?
3) Also, I wondered about the computer security setup for that room (as have other people). First, why does only one person have access to that computer? What happens if he's incapacitated somehow and they need some of the information? Second, why have the receptionist in the anteroom? Since only one person works in the secure room, what does she have to do all day? He doesn't seem to get that many phone calls (No wonder the CIA security in this movie stinks! They care more about meaningless perks than sesnible security).
The Chunnel entrance as shown in the movie (yes, I know they used footage of Scottish countryside rather than Kent) is also wrong. Anyone who's traveled between London and Paris by land knows that you pass Dover cliffs right before you get to the channel. The Chunnel entrance seems to be right next to the shore, with little downslope into it. The cliffs of Dover are very high. The entrance would be a lot farther away from the shore, and dug much more deeply into the earth.
Daniel Case: BTW, the reason Dan Briggs couldn't be the traitor as someone suggested is that he changed his name to Adam Schiff and is currently the Manhattan D.A. (a Law & Order in-joke)
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS: At one point, while on top of the train, Phelps whips a punch to Ethan's face, and sends him flying over the edge. Later, inside the tunnel, we find that Ethan has not fallen to his doom, but is hanging onto the side (surprise, surprise). And while on the side, Ethan looked foward, only to see the other train speeding toward him. But think about it. He looks foward. Right into the 150 mile-per-hour wind! Have you ever put your eyes in front of those air blowing thingies in a pool? If you have, you know you can't keep looking directly into it. And think of the speed of the wind that he was battling. Despite all of this, he still mannages to keep looking foward, directly into the wind.
Jean Guerin of Montreal, Quebec: Tom Cruise doesn't know the meaning of the word "DISAVOWED". It means "No knowledge at all!". So why does the IMF have a "Disavowed List" where he recruits help once he is himself disavowed. (And why didn't they take his Powerbook with all the sensitive information away?)
I actually got to ask this to Brian DePalma himself last month. He wasn't too thrilled.
Also, Ving Rhames's character gets "Off the disavowed list" at the end of the film.
Sorry pal! Disavowment is not a suspension. It means your cover is blown and that you are a political casualty which makes you useless as an undercover agent." The Tom Berenger film "The Substitute" at least got that right. Even if you are not the reason the mission went sour you are history. You either go to work as a merc or get a teaching job.
Andy Carroll: What ever happened to the buddy system? I thought that sensitive information like the CIA Mainframe would require 2 people, ie nobody can take info w/o someone else seeing. There would at least be a little bit of human intellegence.
IBM and MAC compatable? I don't think so. Wasn't the computer at the embassy a IBM?
Why don't these people notice the glasses? I mean you know that they have cameras in them, and nobody ever notices them.
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS: Right after Ethan and Sarah jump below the elevator car at the embassy, we see Ethan rip off his Senator Waltzer mask. If you look closely, you'll see that a fake ear is attached to the mask. Since when did the IMF put fake ears on their masks? (Note from Phil: New design?)
Carl Gomberg, San Diego, CA: Right before Cruise throws the gum at the aquarium, he takes it out of the wrapper and folds it in his hand. Try folding a piece of gum in half and throwing it at a glass window. Does it stick? Didn't think so. Maybe if you chewed it first, but with Tom's gum, there might be some heavy dental work needed if anything went wrong. (Also, exploding gum has been used before in the movie "If Looks Could Kill", another unbelievable Bondian rip-off, but at least it was chewed first to make it sticky)
There are two individual train tracks in the tunnel (which by now we've determined was NOT to be THE Chunnel), but there was only one track leading in. Is there a switchtrack inside the tunnel? Considering that the train never slowed down, it would either have to be one darn long switch, or it just wasn't there. Besides, could you imagine the casualties if it failed and two trains collided head-on inside the tunnel?
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS: In the CIA Headquarters scene, we see the guard escort Ethan and Kreiger into the air-condintioning room. Now, lets think about this, how does air-conditioning work? Basically, it's a bunch of vents that lead all over the building! And if you look closely, when they walk into air-condintioning, you can see that it is right beside the computer vault. Jeez! The Central Intelligence Agency is about as secure as, oh, I don't know, an alien mother ship?
Richard Sliwa of London, England: A lot of people have talked about the Tunnel and what went on inside it. I'm not sure where the doubt arose that the tunnel in question might not be the one between England and France, but everything would indicate that to be the case (including the English entrance to the tunnel, which *does* look like that).
The point I want to make is that we're shown a TGV train going into the tunnel. For me this was the most glaring nit of the movie, as TGV trains are French and designed to run on special track. They are incapable of running on English track. *ALL* trains that go into the Tunnel are *EXCLUSIVELY* designed for the purpose and bear the "EuroStar" mark. They also look different to TGV trains. It's a mistake the productions shouldn't have made, and I'm sure that EuroTunnel (the company that run the tunnel & the EuroStar train service) would have been more than happy to have the crew film one of their trains, rather than a French TGV.
All the above from someone who's done the London-Paris run on many occasions, both EuroStar and the old English train/ferry/TGV combination.
Mike Hanks: I have a nit that nobody seems to have picked up on, regarding the
break-in at the CIA:
The CIA HQ compound has its own fire-control team. If the CIA HQ were to catch on fire, they would NOT bring in firefighters from the surrounding countryside precisely because of the potential security risk
shown in the movie.
Also: The movie points out that the CIA has invested a fortune in computer security to keep various and sundry ne'er-do-wells from making off with important CIA computer documents. Others have pointed out the basic flaws in the CIA security (lack of motion detectors, rats in the vents, and so forth), but nobody seems to have wondered why the CIA couldn't spend any money on basic fire detection. All the CIA folks
seems to be able to tell from their security system is that a fire alarm has gone off somewhere. Can't the CIA afford sprinklers?
If you would like to add some comments,
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Copyright 1996 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.