47 Fun Facts About Mission Impossible

Ethan Hunt works for the IMF. What do the letters stand for?

The name comes straight from the 1966 TV series, whose taped briefings warned that 'the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions'.

Who created the original 1966 Mission: Impossible television series?

Bruce Geller created Mission: Impossible, which ran on CBS for seven seasons from 1966 to 1973 and won the Emmy for Outstanding Dramatic Series in 1967 and 1968.

Who composed the famous Mission: Impossible theme?

Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin wrote the theme for the 1966 CBS series, and it won him two Grammy Awards in 1968.

The Mission: Impossible theme is written in which unusual time signature?

The theme is in 5/4 time, five beats to a bar; Schifrin built its rhythm on the Morse code for the letters M and I, two dashes and two dots.

Who directed the first Mission: Impossible film in 1996?

Brian De Palma directed the 1996 film, which was Tom Cruise's first credit as a producer and was shot partly on location in Prague.

Which veteran actor plays Ethan's IMF mentor, revealed as the mole, in the 1996 film?

Jon Voight plays Jim Phelps, who turns out to be the traitor; Peter Graves, the TV Phelps, declined to reprise the role once he learned the character would be the villain.

In the 1996 film, what is the IMF team in Prague trying to stop being stolen?

The list reveals the identities of every undercover CIA agent in Europe; the real one is later lifted from Langley in the famous wire-drop heist.

In the 1996 climax, a helicopter is dragged behind a TGV into which famous underground passage?

The train is bound for Paris through the Channel Tunnel; Krieger's helicopter, tethered to the train, is dragged inside, where Ethan destroys it with a stick of exploding gum.

Two members of which band recorded the hit dance version of the theme for the 1996 film?

U2's rhythm section, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., recorded the dance version, which reached the US top ten and earned a Grammy nomination.

Which composer's score for the 1996 film was rejected and replaced by Danny Elfman's at short notice?

Alan Silvestri's completed score was thrown out late in post-production, and Danny Elfman wrote the replacement in a few weeks, weaving in Schifrin's original themes.

Which uncredited actor plays IMF tech Jack Harmon, killed early in the 1996 film?

Emilio Estevez, Cruise's co-star from The Outsiders, plays Jack Harmon uncredited; Harmon is impaled at the top of a lift shaft during the Prague embassy job.

Who directed Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)?

John Woo directed the 2000 sequel, bringing his trademark slow-motion doves and two-gun shootouts; it was the highest-grossing film worldwide of 2000.

In Mission: Impossible 2, what is the name of the engineered virus, and its cure?

In Greek myth Bellerophon slew the Chimera; the virus has a 20-hour dormant window in which the cure works.

Which actor lost the role of Wolverine in X-Men partly because Mission: Impossible 2 overran?

Dougray Scott, who plays villain Sean Ambrose, had been cast as Wolverine, but MI2's overrunning schedule forced him out and the role went to Hugh Jackman.

Where was Tom Cruise's free-solo climbing entrance in Mission: Impossible 2 filmed?

The opening climb was shot at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah, with Cruise climbing himself on a thin safety cable that was removed digitally.

Which knighted actor makes an uncredited cameo as Mission Commander Swanbeck in Mission: Impossible 2?

Anthony Hopkins plays Mission Commander Swanbeck uncredited, briefing Ethan in Seville and ordering him to recruit the thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall.

Which nu-metal band recorded 'Take a Look Around', a version of the theme, for Mission: Impossible 2?

Limp Bizkit's 'Take a Look Around' put Fred Durst's vocals over Schifrin's theme; Metallica contributed 'I Disappear' to the same soundtrack, and Hans Zimmer wrote the score.

Mission: Impossible III was the feature-film directing debut of which TV creator?

Cruise hired him after binge-watching Alias; the delay while Abrams finished Alias and Lost cost the film Kenneth Branagh, Carrie-Anne Moss and Scarlett Johansson.

Who plays arms dealer Owen Davian, the villain of Mission: Impossible III?

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Owen Davian, whose calm threat to count to ten is one of the series' most chilling scenes; the 'Rabbit's Foot' he wants is never explained.

Which Simon Pegg character debuts as a desk-bound IMF technician in Mission: Impossible III?

Benji Dunn becomes a field agent from Ghost Protocol onward, one of the few characters besides Ethan to recur across most of the series.

Which of the first seven Mission: Impossible films had the lowest worldwide gross?

Mission: Impossible III made about $398 million worldwide, below the first film's $457 million and MI2's $546 million, despite positive reviews.

Ghost Protocol was the live-action directing debut of which animation director?

Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, made Ghost Protocol his first live-action film; composer Michael Giacchino came with him from both Pixar films.

In Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Ethan Hunt scales the outside of which skyscraper with malfunctioning sticky gloves?

Cruise was attached to the Burj Khalifa by cables the whole time; Industrial Light & Magic painted them out.

In Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the IMF is disavowed after being framed for bombing which landmark?

The Kremlin bombing gives the film its title: 'Ghost Protocol' is the order shutting the agency down.

Which Bollywood star plays Mumbai media tycoon Brij Nath in Ghost Protocol?

Anil Kapoor plays the playboy tycoon Brij Nath; Paula Patton's Agent Jane Carter seduces and then overpowers him to get the override codes for his satellite.

Who is the first director to helm more than one Mission: Impossible film?

Christopher McQuarrie directed Rogue Nation and Fallout, then Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, after doing uncredited rewrites on Ghost Protocol.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opens with Ethan Hunt clinging to the outside of what?

An A400 cargo plane taking off, with Cruise really strapped to the fuselage; the sequence was shot for real rather than faked.

Which opera is playing at the Vienna State Opera during Rogue Nation's assassination attempt?

The assassination attempt unfolds during Puccini's Turandot, the shot timed to the climax of 'Nessun dorma'; the film itself premiered at the Vienna State Opera in July 2015.

Who plays Ilsa Faust, the MI6 agent who first appears in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation?

Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa was killed off in Dead Reckoning Part One, in Venice, at the hands of Gabriel.

What is the name of the rogue organisation of ex-spies led by Solomon Lane in Rogue Nation?

Solomon Lane's Syndicate is a network of presumed-dead agents drawn from intelligence services worldwide; in Fallout its remnants regroup as the Apostles, a terror-for-hire outfit.

Which actor plays CIA chief Alan Hunley in Rogue Nation and Fallout?

Alec Baldwin plays Alan Hunley, who tries to dissolve the IMF in Rogue Nation, becomes its Secretary, and is killed by August Walker in Fallout.

Henry Cavill's moustache in Fallout caused a famous problem with which other film's reshoots?

Paramount would not let Cavill shave during Fallout, so Warner Bros. digitally erased the moustache for Justice League's 2017 reshoots, with notoriously uncanny results.

Which bone did Tom Cruise break during a rooftop jump stunt on Fallout, halting production for months?

Cruise broke his right ankle when he slammed into a wall during a rooftop jump in London; he finished the take by limping out of frame, and filming shut down for around two months.

Ethan and August Walker's HALO jump in Fallout lands them in which city?

The HALO jump drops Ethan and Walker into Paris, landing on the glass roof of the Grand Palais, where 'John Lark' is due to meet the White Widow over the plutonium.

Fallout's climactic cliff-top fight was filmed at which Norwegian landmark, standing in for Kashmir?

The fight was shot on Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), a 600-metre cliff above Norway's Lysefjord, doubling for Kashmir; Cruise hung from the real edge with the drop below him.

What does the rogue AI at the heart of Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning call itself?

It first goes rogue by tricking the crew of the Russian submarine Sevastopol into torpedoing themselves.

Which sunken Russian submarine holds the AI's source code?

Ethan finally dives to the wreck in an experimental suit in The Final Reckoning as it slides down the continental shelf.

Who plays Grace, the thief who steals half of the key in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One?

Hayley Atwell's Grace was called a 'destructive force of nature' by director McQuarrie; she ends the film asking to join the IMF.

Dead Reckoning Part One earned the series' first Oscar nominations, in which two categories?

Dead Reckoning Part One was nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, the franchise's first Oscar nominations; it won neither.

Which 1996 character returns in The Final Reckoning after 30 years exiled to a Bering Sea island?

William Donloe, played by Rolf Saxon, was the CIA analyst whose Langley vault Ethan raided in 1996; exiled to a Bering Sea island, he has memorised the coordinates of the sunken Sevastopol.

Jasper Briggs, who hunts Ethan in Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, is whose son?

Briggs reveals himself as the son of Jim Phelps, the IMF chief Ethan exposed as a traitor in 1996, and makes peace with Ethan at the end of The Final Reckoning.

The Final Reckoning's climactic aerial duel takes place aboard what kind of aircraft?

The duel is fought between two Boeing Stearman biplanes over South Africa, with Cruise really clinging to the wing; Gabriel dies when he bails out and strikes the plane's tail.

Which long-running IMF team member sacrifices himself in The Final Reckoning?

Luther Stickell dies disarming a bomb in London; Ving Rhames's hacker had appeared in every film since 1996, the only cast member besides Cruise to do so.

Who plays Julia Meade, the nurse Ethan Hunt marries in Mission: Impossible III?

Michelle Monaghan plays Julia Meade, Ethan's wife in Mission: Impossible III; she returns in Ghost Protocol's closing scene and in Fallout, working at a medical camp in Kashmir.

Who led the IMF team in the first season of the original 1966 Mission: Impossible TV series, before Jim Phelps took over?

Dan Briggs was played by Steven Hill, an Orthodox Jew who had to leave the set on Fridays before sundown; Peter Graves replaced him without explanation.

Whose hand lit the fuse in the original series' title sequence?

Creator Bruce Geller's own hand struck the match and lit the fuse in the original title sequence, which then ran over quick-cut clips from that week's episode.

Which two actors stayed with the original series for its entire seven-season run?

Greg Morris (Barney Collier) and Peter Lupus (strongman Willy Armitage) appeared in all seven seasons; in the 1988 revival Morris's real-life son Phil played Barney's son Grant.