History Trivia / MissionImpossible

* ActorAllusion: Ethan seems familiar with the [[Film/RiskyBusiness Drake Hotel in Chicago]].

* GenderFlip: Max was originally a man before Creator/VanessaRedgrave was cast.

* PromotedFanboy: Creator/TomCruise was an avid fan of the TV series.

* ActorAllusion: Ethan seems familiar with the [[RiskyBusiness Drake Hotel in Chicago]].

** When Leonard Nimoy replaced Martin Landau as the disguise expert, he played his regular role of Paris and the BigBad in "The Choice," and Paris, a double of a deceased premier and said premier (in pictures), plus the "Robot" of the title. There were also several times when he played minor roles in disguise and the audience had no idea it was him.

** In "Gunslinger", Jim Phelps remarks that he used to be pretty good with a sixshooter and does a few GunTwirling tricks to the admiration of his teammates. The filming makes it obvious that actor Peter Graves (who cut his acting teeth in westerns in the 1950s) is doing his own twirling.

** [[Music/U2 Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton]] were fans of the series and did their own version of the theme song.

** Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/AlPacnio and Creator/RobertRedford were considered for Jim Phelps.

* CastingGag: The 80's sequel series starred Greg Morris's son (Phil Morris, perhaps best known as [[{{Seinfeld}} Jackie Chiles]]) as Barney Collier's son.

* DisownedAdaptation: Fans and cast members of the original TV series strongly disliked the first film because it made [[spoiler:Jim Phelps]] the villain. [[spoiler:''Creator/PeterGraves'' was offered the part of Phelps in the movie, but turned it down in disgust.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: Ethan's [[Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa voice actor]] in Japanese is [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Kyosuke]] [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Nanbu]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: ''Mission: Impossible'' had pretty much every working character actor of the era as a guest star at some point, not to mention the working cast itself. Plus, the IM Force includes among its ranks [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Hikaru Sulu, Spock]], [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment Lucille Bluth]] (or [[{{Archer}} Mallory Archer]], for a bit of ActorAllusion), and [[PoliceAcademy Eric Lassard]].
** In one episode, the team has to save young King [[TheBradyBunch Greg]]; in another, [[TheBradyBunch his dad Mike]] is an evil D.A.!
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]] plays a villain in two episodes (both ''after'' Spock left the show, unfortunately).
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Khan Noonien Singh]] also played a villain in one episode, before Spock joined the show.
** In one episode, [[Series/HappyDays Mrs. C]] is [[spoiler: a housekeeper who turns out to be a spy.]]. Her husband turns up in another episode [[spoiler: as a Government agent undercover in the Mob - sorry, the ''Syndicate'']].
** In "The Rebel," the IMF team works with an idealistic young priest, better known to us as TheMostInterestingManInTheWorld.
** In "Homecoming," someone's strangling beautiful young women in Jim's hometown. And that someone is [[spoiler: [[Series/{{MASH}} Hot Lips]]!]]
** The agent that aids the IMF crew in the pilot of the TV series up until his hands are injured, forcing him to stay on the sidelines for the rest of the mission? Wally Cox, aka WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}.
** [[Series/{{Bewitched}} Larry Tate]] is an enemy agent in "Two Thousand."
** [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q]] kills Jim Phelps' replacement in the first episode of the revival.
** Fans of Australian TV and film can also play this game when viewing the 1980s revival, which primarily made use of Australian guest actors.
** [[Film/TheMatrix Morpheus]], [[{{Felicity}} Felicity Porter]], [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Shaun]], and [[Series/BreakingBad Jesse Pinkman]] as supporting characters in the third film.
** The fourth has [[Series/{{Lost}} Sawyer]], [[Film/BatmanBegins Carmine Falcone]], [[TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo Mikael "Kalle" Blomkvist]], [[TheHurtLocker Sergeant James]] (but you may know him with his other codename, [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Hawkeye]]), and [[Film/SlumdogMillionaire Prem]] (or alternatively [[Series/TwentyFour President Hassan]]). And [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Shaun]] is back.
* HeyItsThatVoice: The Telephone guy is [[ActorAllusion the Chatter Telephone]] from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' and the "Hold Still" Message ("Match: Mr. Incredible.") and the newsreel presenter from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''.

** The fourth has [[Series/{{Lost}} Sawyer]], [[Film/BatmanBegins Carmine Falcone]], [[TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo Mikael "Kalle" Blomkvist]], [[TheHurtLocker Sergeant James]] (but you may know him with his other codename, [[Film/TheAvengers Hawkeye]]), and [[Film/SlumdogMillionaire Prem]] (or alternatively [[Series/TwentyFour President Hassan]]). And [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Shaun]] is back.

* HilariousInHindsight: In "Encore," William Shatner plays a 60-year-old gangster who's de-aged by the IMF for several hours. The show's idea of an old William Shatner is a bit at odds with how he really turned out...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to Martin Landau, in an earlier treatment for the first film the original plan was to bring back the entire original cast of the TV series '''[[BackForTheDead just to kill them all off in the first act]]'''. Considering how may fans reacted negatively to the change regarding [[spoiler: Phelps]] in the first movie, one can only imagine how they would have responded had this plot happened.

* DisownedAdaptation: Fans and cast members of the original TV series strongly disliked the first film because it made [[spoiler:Jim Phelps]] the villain. [[spoiler:PeterGraves was offered the part of Phelps in the movie, but turned it down in disgust.]]

* DisownedAdaptation: Fans and cast members of the original TV series strongly disliked the first film because it made [[spoiler:Jim Phelps]] the villain.

* YouLookFamiliar: Guest stars and actors were [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060009/fullcredits#cast recycled constantly]].
** Sid Haig, for example, was in the show no fewer than nine times, ranging from "Driver #1" to TheDragon to the BigBad.
** Lee Meriwether guest starred as a kidnap victim in a Season 3 episode, then was one of the ''femme fatale'' team members in Season 4.
** Since ''M:I'' shared the Desilu/Creator/{{Paramount}} soundstages and some production personel with ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'', it should come as no surprise that Creator/WilliamShatner guest starred twice as a BigBad ("Encore" and "Cocaine" - sadly for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans, both came after Creator/LeonardNimoy's tenure as an IMF agent... although the latter episode did reunite him with Barbara Anderson, alias Lenore Karidian from "The Conscience Of The King") and Creator/GeorgeTakei as an IMF member ("The Carriers"). Creator/LeonardNimoy became an SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute of Martin Landau's character -- four years after Landau had turned down the role of Mr Spock for ''[[Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}} Star Trek]]'''s first pilot "The Cage" in 1965. Herb Solow was production manager for both shows. Ricardo Montalban (Khan Noonien Singh) played a season one BigBad, who was one of the only villains to be directly killed by the IMF team.
*** Going in the other direction, Robert Johnson, the mysterious voice on the MI tapes, provided uncredited voice work on at least two ''Star Trek'' episodes -the unaired pilot "The Cage" and the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion". On the latter episode he provided the voice of "Provider #3", a disembodied brain in a container which engaged in an often quoted/parodied discussion about betting on the survival of Kirk & Company at hand to hand combat ("I'll bet 2,000 quatloos on the newcomers!") Johnson also voiced a few aliens on ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963''.
*** In at least one case, some alien artwork featured in an episode of ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' was actually the discarded protective styrofoam piece that housed an ''M:I'' prop tape recorder spraypainted orange and green.
*** One of ''Star Trek's'' infamous gag reels makes use of the ''Mission: Impossible'' theme music.
** In Universe Example: Rollin Hand shows up in in a few photos with different names.
** Barbara Luna is one of the few people to appear in the original (twice, as the title character in "Elena" and as an IMF agent in "Time Bomb") ''and'' the revival ("The Fortune," as a dictator's evil wife [[spoiler: and killer of Casey Randall]]).

* HollywoodHomely: "Homecoming" features a mystery concerning the murders of young, beautiful women. [[spoiler: It turns out that the killer is a local barmaid, ostensibly unattractive, who is jealous of how much attention the pretty women get from a man she is in love with. The homely barmaid is played by [[Series/{{MASH}} Loretta Swit]].]]

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This movie obviously intended to be a "Mission Impossible about the new digital era", with its emphasis on computers, hacking, sensitive digital information and constant references to modems. Instead, the movie ironically traps itself in the 90s, with shots of Usenet, floppy disks, and massive laptops, things that the internet and computer technology left behind at almost light speed (plus that weirdly dated moment where a group of agents attempt to determine whether a disk had a tracking device in it or not by putting a digital thermometer on top of the exterior disk drive reading it).

** The agent that aids the IMF crew in the pilot of the TV series up until his hands are injured, forcing him to stay on the sidelines for the rest of the mission? Wally Cox, aka {{Underdog}}.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Ethan's [[Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa voice actor]] in Japanese is [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Kyosuke Nanbu]].