7 Mission: Impossible Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee (Five Are From the Same Scene)

After eight movies and over thirty years of Tom Cruise‘s life as a performer, the Mission: Impossible franchise has become a staple not only of the action genre but the relentlessness of the man at the center of it. Cruise has spent the entirety of his acting career since the franchise started by finding new ways to top himself as a death-defying acrobat, but also challenging himself as an artist by hiring distinct and unique filmmakers to work alongside him with each new chapter. Even though he’s worked with Christopher McQuarrie on the final four films, the pair have continued this trend of escalating the action and drama while also making sure the lore of the series remains intact.

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Despite the success and adoration, there are still errors to be found across the Mission: Impossible films. Though we don’t have time to dissect continuity mistakes in every chapter of the franchise right now, the first film offers us plenty of them to point out. The good news for Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible is that the film has such a brisk pace and an immediate investment from the audience that many of these happen so quickly you’ll never even notice them, the bad news is that five of our seven all happen in the same sequence, so that one may be ruined for you for the rest of time.

7) Ethan Walks Past Claire Twice in One Scene

After the mission has been at least somewhat compromised, and Ethan is trying to recover the disc with the NOC list on it, he walks through the streets of Prague to attempt to regain ground on the target holding the sensitive item. As he strolls down the road, though, he passes a silver 1991 BMW 3 that’s parked on the side. Normally, that wouldn’t be that abnormal of a detail until the next shot, where it’s revealed that Claire is actually sitting inside the BMW, and Ethan walks in front of the vehicle again. It’s a fleeting moment (seen below), but Ethan walks past the same car twice in the shot, and you’ll never be able to unsee it once you know it.

6) Max’s Email Is Absurd

Beyond it being absurd that Ethan is able to come up with the email for the arms dealer “Max” by simply piecing together the details that IMF director Kittridge fed to him, the email that he uses to send his message is one that should have everyone raising their eyebrows. “Max@Job 3:14” is about as far from an actual email as you can get; not only does it have a colon but also a space, and not to mention no domain to be seen. Considering this movie came out in 1996, it was something audiences almost certainly didn’t think about at the time. Now though? It’s hard to wrap your brain around it.

5) Lasers in the Vents, But a Rat Problem?

One of the key features at the CIA headquarters to prevent access into the black vault is the laser grid that surrounds the AC vent at the top of the room. This is a key measure of the room itself, as the temperature control is a major focal point of the room’s security. Now, normally, a laser grid security system wouldn’t be the kind of thing that makes the audience of a spy movie think twice, but it’s the little critter that shows up later in the scene that makes this one a head-scratcher.

Setting aside the gargantuan size of these airducts that Tom Cruise and Jean Reno are able to squeeze through with ease, did no one at the CIA consider that having a laser grid inside the vents while also having a rat problem might lead to a slew of false alarms? Perhaps even every day? No? Well, based on the coziness that the rat in the vent has, it seems like something that probably happens a lot.

4) How Do the Screws Go Back In?

As Ethan makes his way to the Black Vault, he uses an IMF gadget to go through the air vent grate and undo the metal screws holding it in place. It’s a deliberate step in the process, but one that, upon his exit, makes no sense. There’s no mechanism within the device to return the screws to their proper place and leave the vent as they found it, yet as Ethan makes his hasty departure, the vent is shown to be fully back in place and secured with all the screws attached. Make it make sense! You can’t!

3) The Floor Is Armed Again

Yet another key security feature for the Black Vault is the pressure-sensitive floor. Hunt notes that any increase in weight on the ground will trigger the alarm for the room, and its sensitivity is shown by a drop of condensation from a drink falling off a desk and triggering the alarm. A key detail is that when the floor is armed, it appears white, and when the floor alarm is not armed, it appears black.

In the scene, after Ethan has made his way into the Black Vault, he briefly has to slink back to the top of the room after Donloe briefly returns (prior to his exit for the bathroom). When Ethan goes back up, we see the floor change from white (indicating the alarm is active) to black (the alarm is inactive), but in the next shot, as Donloe enters the vault, the floor remains white. Blink and you’ll miss it, but this detail is one you can’t unsee.

2) The Sweat Drop Catch

The most dramatic moment in all of Mission: Impossible is one that requires the most willing suspension of disbelief by the audience. As they try to get the NOC list from the Black Vault, Ethan remains suspended in the air thanks to a pulley system held in place by Krieger. At one point though, he loses his grip thanks to a rat in the vent system, causing Ethan to slip and almost collide with the floor. Having established that the pressure floor alarms in the Black Vault are sensitive enough that a single drop can trigger them, this no doubt triggers the biggest gasp from the audience.

To make matters worse, a single bead of sweat begins to make its way down Ethan’s glasses and accumulates on the lens until it’s ready to fall. Naturally, Ethan is ready and swoops his left hand underneath the drop, catching it and preventing the alarm from going off. It’s a great scene, and one of the most iconic moments in the series that doesn’t involve an explosion, but when we compare the two shots, there should be no way that Ethan had room to catch that drop. Sorry to ruin it for you.

1) Claire’s Escape Outfit

At the conclusion of the break-in at Langley comes one more mistake that will make you do a double-take. As the crew exits in their fireman disguises, they lead Claire alongside them, still wearing the traditional office costume that she’s had on the entire sequence. In the next cut though, all four of them are driving away in the firetruck, only for Claire to now be wearing a fireman’s jacket. Sure, she could have put it on between the shots, but it’s a silly continuity error that really stands out.