Comments on: Mission: Impossible’s Villain Reveal Was a Major Mistake

By: Daniel Haynes

Daniel Haynes — Sat, 24 May 2025 22:35:58 +0000

I will never watch another tom crud movie. He(she/it) is a pussy. A real man would have told the writers that twist is unacceptable and walked away.

By: John B Trumbull

John B Trumbull — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 22:34:03 +0000

“As a very casual viewer of the original I liked it. I thought it injected a note of John Le Carre into the series, and the idea that after Phelps had been doing his thing for 23 years unseen by us he could have gone through some changes, even been turned, didn’t seem implausible or even unlikely.”

John A. Small came to a similar conclusion as you, Kevin. He wrote “The Phelps Dossier” to explain how and why Jim Phelps turned bad. He even cleverly incorporated the scripts for the unmade Mission: Impossible reunion movies planned in the early 1980s! You can read it here:

https://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Phelps.pdf

BTW, the original twist was even worse. The IMF team that was killed off in the opening mission was originally planned to be the team from television show.

By: Kevin Bicknell

Kevin Bicknell — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:44:44 +0000

As a very casual viewer of the original I liked it. I thought it injected a note of John Le Carre into the series, and the idea that after Phelps had been doing his thing for 23 years unseen by us he could have gone through some changes, even been turned, didn’t seem implausible or even unlikely.

By: Julie Y

Julie Y — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 04:49:14 +0000

Majere: Phelps mentioned that he had recently stayed at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 14:58:09 +0000

I love the first film’s twist, honestly. It’s an appropriate viking funeral to the nature of the original series, especially since the films have excelled in ultimately taking M:I into another realm entirely, one that has become vastly more successful.

By: James Lynch

James Lynch — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 08:52:45 +0000

In my mind, this takes place in the same continuity as the show, but this Jim Phelps isn’t the same one Peter Graves played. He’s some newer guy, trading on the reputation of the original. I’ve always kind of wanted to see a novel or comic book or something address this, maybe set after M:I2, and explaining Ethan Hunt’s clear break from reality (the man thought the world moved in slow motion, he could do kung-fu with motorcycles, and maybe he could control pigeons? He probably snapped after M:I1 and after he recovered, perhaps with the help of the original Jim Phelps, was able to come back as a trainer by the time of M:I3).

By: Mike Zinza

Mike Zinza — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 20:07:19 +0000

This twist so disgusted me that I’ve never seen any of the other movies. They could have made the traitor John Smith or anything else. This was so unnecessary and was a grave insult to the fan base of the TV show.

By: Majere

Majere — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 12:18:55 +0000

Excuse me, good sirs, I was always wondering how Hunt could figure out the true identity of Phelps in the movie. As far as I remember, when Hunt spotted a Bible from Drake Hotel (if I remember correctly) in Chicago, he grew suspicious. But frankly speaking, I really don’t understand what it is to do with the exposure of Phelps. Grateful if someone could explain to me. Thanks.

By: Allen Winstead

Allen Winstead — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:30:17 +0000

I wasn’t a big fan of this twist. It was too far removed from years of Jim Phelps proving himself to be a hero and a good guy. If he was at all like the portrayal in the first movie we would have seen cracks in the armor throughout the run of the series. It just didn’t make sense.

By: Troy D. Smith

Troy D. Smith — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 20:34:39 +0000

Yeah, this twist ticked me off so much I have refused to watch any if the subsequent films.