History WMG / MissionImpossible1996

* This changes the conversation at the aquarium restaurant to Hunt and Kittridge speaking in coded language to further throw off moles. For example, "The mole's deep inside, and like you said, you survived." means "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to expose the mole." The whole drama about Hunt wiring dirty money to his family is just that, drama to feed any moles fake info. The one liner about Ethan shaking hands with the devil was more SpySpeak, possibly referring to Ethan's assignment to do business with Max and stage stealing the NOC list from Langley, which ''may'' be another fake even.

* This changes the conversation at the aquarium restaurant to Hunt and Kittridge speaking in coded language to further throw off moles. For example, "The mole's deep inside, and like you said, you survived." means "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to expose the mole." The whole drama about Hunt wiring dirty money to his family is just that, drama to feed any moles fake info.

* Unlikely, given the real-life age difference between Peter Graves and Don Voight is a mere 12 years, and there's no reason to assume that Voight's Jim Phelps is significantly younger than he looks. Voight-Phelps being Graves-Phelps' younger brother, or cousin, or even nephew, might be a lot more feasible, chronologically speaking.

* Consider how during the scene at the aquarium restaurant, nobody in the room makes any effort to notice or prevent Ethan from unwrapping his explosive gum. It seems out of character for IMF agents to have this lack of observation skill, but it's unlikely they'd let him pull this sleight of hand if they really were trying to apprehend a mole. The gum exploding gum is shown later in the film to be survivable so the waiter who was BlownAcrossTheRoom probably survived. Oddly, nobody even slightly attempts to chase after Ethan after he ruptures the aquarium and flees the water flooding the place.

** Consider how during the scene at the aquarium restaurant, nobody in the room makes any effort to notice or prevent Ethan from unwrapping his explosive gum. It seems out of character for IMF agents to have this lack of observation skill, but it's unlikely they'd let him pull this sleight of hand if they really were trying to apprehend a mole. The gum exploding gum is shown later in the film to be survivable so the waiter who was BlownAcrossTheRoom probably survived.

Given Voight looks middle aged in contrast to Graves around the time being a senior and how Voight during in his acting was around his twenties and too young to serve in the Korean War which Graves' Phelps has. There could be a lot more to the film's Phelps choosing to betray the IMF and of why he was disillusioned. Voight's Phelps Junior could be TheVietnamVet during the timeframe of the television when his father the Jim Phelps portrayed by Graves was doing missions, initially a WellDoneSonGuy wanting to follow his footsteps of his father by first serving in Vietnam just like how Graves' Phelps started out by serving in Korea prior to joining the IMF. However, unlike Graves' Phelps who kept his idealism and patriotism throughout the series, Voight's Phelps may have being planted with cynicism upon seeing unmentionable WarIsHell horrors committed by both sides and eventually how the conflict itself resulted in America losing the war and Voight's character being seen and treated as a figure of hate for his service to begin with, turned him into a ShellShockedVeteran who would gradually undergo SanitySlippage that would eventually serve as the true catalyst for his villainy in the first film. Voight's Phelps would join the IMF as a means to exorcise his traumatic demons by living up to his father and upholding operations elsewhere outside of Graves' Phelps' missions shown in episodes of both the original and the 1988 series, but likely developed a InferioritySuperiorityComplex for being in the shadow of Graves' Phelps and may have started to resent the IMF for favoring his father over him even during service. It's only after feeling disillusioned with his efforts it has exacerbated his cynical 'Nam-dated mindset, his insecurity of his inability to truly measure up to his legendary father and warped traumatized mentality he goes totally insane and pulls a FaceHeelTurn as "Job," becoming an EvilCounterpart to Graves'Phelps and an AntagonisticOffspring determined to destroyed his own father's legacy out of blaming his celebrated experience and unwittingly putting him permanently under his shadow for make him feel worthless that exacerbated his choice to go bad.

[[WMG:The entire first movie is the mole hunt.]]