# "Mission: Impossible" movie and TV show (open spoilers!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591 "2005-09-14T14:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/1 "2005-09-14T14:00:59Z")
Just saw the first MI movie last night again, and liked it all over again, despite the gi-normous suspension of disbelief required. I didn’t like MI-2 all that much. I understand MI-3 is now being filmed - Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames are back, with Keri Russell as the babe du jour, and Val Kilmer (!) as Cruise’s boss. Hmmm. I guess I’ll hope for the best. Some questions: 1. Did the original TV show ever have “disavowed” agents come back and/or help out Phelps and his team? 2. When you first saw the movie, how long did it take you to figure out (if you did, before it was revealed) that Phelps was the bad guy? 3. What were the prong-thingies that stuck out and impaled the Emilio Estevez character at the top of the embassy’s elevator shaft? Are those a common feature on elevators, or is it pure Hollywood? 4. I seem to recall that Peter Graves, who played Phelps on the TV show, refused to make a cameo appearance in the movie when he heard that his old character would turn out to be the bad guy. Can anyone add any more details? 5. I suspect that Ethan Hunt (Cruise’s character) slept with Claire, Phelps’s wife, when he returned from meeting with Phelps in the coffee shop. By that time, he’d figured out that Phelps was evil, and that would be the perfect revenge (plus, she was 'way hot 🆒 ) 6. I had the sense that Hunt and Kittridge (the top CIA guy) really were at sword’s point through most of the movie, but by the time they were both on the fast French train, they were working together… or at least, had the same goals (recovery of the NOC list; trapping Max; stopping Phelps). 7. Why would Phelps shoot Claire in the baggage compartment, but not Hunt? (I know, I know, it would ruin the movie for Hunt to be killed and Phelps to get away. Give me your best explanation, consistent with the rest of the movie, please). Any other MI observations welcomed. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/2 "2005-09-14T14:32:22Z")
> [@William V.](#): > > 1. Did the original TV show ever have “disavowed” agents come back and/or help out Phelps and his team? No. No agents were ever “disavowed” on the TV show. Cinnamon Carter was captured once, but, of course, the IMF did a mission to release her. Also, I’m convinced that the TV show–unlike the movies–was self-parody. (I watched it every night at midnight during high school, and quickly came to that conclusion.) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/3 "2005-09-14T14:58:10Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Also, I’m convinced that the TV show–unlike the movies–was self-parody. I recall Spider Robinson’s comment that he kept waiting for the team to blow the whistle on their bosses using taped copies of the silly self-destructing tapes. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/4 "2005-09-14T15:46:15Z")
Phelps? Who is this Phelps? Everyone knows the head of the original IMF was Dan Briggs. The show jumped the shark once he left. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/5 "2005-09-14T19:45:16Z")
> [@William V.](#): > > with Keri Russell as the babe du jour I’m there. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/6 "2005-09-14T20:44:33Z")
> [@William V.](#): > > 1. Did the original TV show ever have “disavowed” agents come back and/or help out Phelps and his team? The original didn’t, but the _M:I_ from the 80s (w/Graves as Phelps and a younger cast) did, IIRC, include an episode where an agent was killed and subsequently disavowed. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/7 "2005-09-14T21:13:01Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > I recall Spider Robinson’s comment that he kept waiting for the team to blow the whistle on their bosses using taped copies of the silly self-destructing tapes. I don’t recall Spidar Robinson (from the movies?), but I can say that one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen is Jim Phelps riding a go-kart to get out of a ridiculous Iron Curtain country by going under those things that normally tell you a train is passing. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/8 "2005-09-14T21:46:14Z")
> [@William V.](#): > > 1. When you first saw the movie, how long did it take you to figure out (if you did, before it was revealed) that Phelps was the bad guy? It was pretty obvious when he first showed up; there was no other reason why he didn’t report in to IMF (after all, _he_ wasn’t the one set up to take the fall as the mole) and there wasn’t anyone else left to be the suspect. > [@William V.](#): > > 1. I suspect that Ethan Hunt (Cruise’s character) slept with Claire, Phelps’s wife, when he returned from meeting with Phelps in the coffee shop. By that time, he’d figured out that Phelps was evil, and that would be the perfect revenge (plus, she was 'way hot 🆒 ) Actually, we know that he did (Phelps acknowledges it) and it was all part of the plan to misdirect him. > [@William V.](#): > > 1. Why would Phelps shoot Claire in the baggage compartment, but not Hunt? (I know, I know, it would ruin the movie for Hunt to be killed and Phelps to get away. Give me your best explanation, consistent with the rest of the movie, please). To leave Hunt to take the fall, I guess. Why you’d trap yourself on a high-speed, non-stop train with a most absurd avenue of escape (helicopter pickup?) Is a better question. > [@William V.](#): > > Any other MI observations welcomed. Well, for one, I want to know what the point of having this “NOC list” (apparently unencrypted) on an isolated terminal in the middle of Darth Vader’s Impenetrable Chamber of Meditation, when the analyst who works on it can waltz in and out at will for a cup of coffee without so much as a cursory security check? For all anyone cares, it seems that he could print out a two hundred page stack of beyond die-after-reading hyperclassified material and walk right out the front door with it. The whole situation seems to exist entirely for the purpose of having Tom Cruise suspended from acrobatic apperatus, which was really quite silly; I mean, with the indistinguishable facial imitation technology they had, all Tom Cruise needed to do was find and kill the analyst and rip his eyes out to bypass the security system. Didn’t he see _Minority Report_? And what HVAC engineer keeps building these ventilation systems that are large enough to walk around in? Two cool scenes/lines however: the “escape from the aquarium/cafe” was a very nicely done gadget scene (“red light–green light”), and I liked the line, “Those damn Gideons! They stamped it, didn’t they?” when Phelps figures out how Hunt figured out the plot. And Vanessa Redgrave plays the best Bond villian in decades…it’s a pity she was in the wrong movie. They could have used her in _Tomorrow Never Dies_. Just another one of Brian de Palma’s misses, though certainly far from his worst. The less said about the Cruise-mugging sequels, the better. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/9 "2005-09-15T00:00:17Z")
The _Mission: Impossible_ movies never existed. Jim Phelps would never betray his team. 'nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-movie-and-tv-show-open-spoilers/321591/10 "2005-09-15T00:29:18Z")
You know, the TV series was one of my favorites growing up, but I wouldn’t have objected to employing Phelps as a traitor if it were done in an exceptionally clever, well-written way. But the movie is an absolute clunker, with stupidities mounting at every turn, overripe acting, meaningless “bravura” sequences, and twists and double-crosses strewn randomly. _MI2_ is a loud, ugly, empty-headed movie and still manages to be better than the original. I’m not sure I can think of a franchise I dislike more (mostly because of all the obvious talented so clearly wasted).