While filming the famous scene where Tom Cruise drops from the ceiling and hovers inches above the ground, Cruise's head kept hitting the floor until he got the idea to put coins in his shoes for balance.

The trick with the disappearing/reappearing CD that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) does to fool Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) is not a camera trick or any other visual effect, but a genuine sleight-of-hand trick.

Not only is this the only film in the franchise where Ethan Hunt doesn't fire a gun, it is the only one to not have shoot-outs or gunfights.

Last motion picture from a major studio to be released for home video on Betamax video cassette format.

The producers cast Ving Rhames as Luther because they felt he was the opposite of what a hacker normally looks like.

Continuity

(at around 1h 9 mins) Ethan reaches out and catches a drop of sweat falling from his head while two inches from the floor in the CIA Terminal Room. There is not enough distance between him and the floor for his hand to stop the sweat the way it is shown.

(at around 1h 11 mins) When Krieger and Hunt usher Claire out of the CIA building following the fire alarm, she is dressed in her red office clothes, into which she changed when she ditched her yellow firefighter overalls after entering the building. When they are seen driving away in the firetruck, she is back dressed in the firefighter overalls, even though she was not carrying them with her when she left the building.

(at around 1h 30 mins) In the cargo car when Ethan pulls off the mask, his collar is too big for him. The next time he is seen, it is just the right size.

(at around 1h 3 mins) When Donloe the computer technician enters the vault after his unfortunate coffee break; he opens the door and steps onto a white floor. However, the next shot from above shows a shiny black floor, as it should look when countermeasures are off. (It's the same shot where Ethan's reflection is missing.)

(at around 1h 15 mins) Krieger throws a disk in the trash really hard and a piece can be seen to break off. When Ethan recovers it, it is good as new.



Factual errors

(at around 1h 8 mins) When Hunt falls in the computer room, the air pressure generated ahead of his body by the fall would set off the floor alarm if it were anywhere as sensitive as shown.

Secure government sites require all duct work greater than 96" square to have welded man-bars every 12 feet or at turns in the duct work. Ethan could not have entered the "secure" computer room through the duct work as he would have been interrupted by 5-6 sets of 1" diameter steel bars.

Ethan sends out an email to a domain containing a colon. Domain names cannot contain colons. This was let slide because at the time Internet use was not yet wildly popular and most viewers would not know the difference.

(at around 33 mins) When Ethan arrives back at the safe house, he steals a light bulb in the hallway and crushes it. The amount of glass he then spreads on the floor (as a warning device) is far more than the bulb would've provided.

The MD Helicopters 520N has a main rotor diameter of 8.3 meters or 27.4 feet. Each bore of the Channel Tunnel is 7.6 meters or 25 feet.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Although some would consider a computer room equipped with the three high-tech security systems, meant to prevent any intrusion, as missing the "most basic security measure" of video surveillance, video surveillance is often not permitted in highly classified areas where there is a risk that unauthorized personnel - such as the security personnel - may see the material. The security personnel may theoretically be cleared for that classification but they would not have a "need to know" the information contained within AND video surveillance visible in another area would defy the measures taken to keep the information in a secure room. However, a simple device to lock out the keyboard, of any other I/O devices or ports, when there was no authorized operator officially present, would be simple to implement, very efficient, and pose zero potential for information leakage.

The TGV is an electric train which draws its power from overhead wires. Yet, in the outside shots of the TGV, no overhead wires or pantographs are seen. However, until the High Speed section on the English side of the Channel Tunnel was opened in 2003, Eurostar operated on the old tracks which were powered by the third rail system using 750v which is common in England.

(at around 1h 13 mins) After obtaining the NOC list, Ethan Hunt sends a meeting request to Max at the address Job 315. The original Usenet group and email was Job 314. This is not a goof but merely an increment in the passage number to indicate a new job. Indeed, Hunt then quotes from Job 315 at the end of his message to Max.

The Eurostar train is an electric train (like most trains in Western Europe), which usually runs on 25'000 volt overhead lines. This makes the scene on top of the train, and a helicopter landing on the roof of the train, impossible. However, until the High Speed section on the English side of the Channel Tunnel was opened in 2003, Eurostar operated on the old tracks which were powered by the third rail system using 750v which is common in England.

The radius of a rail curve for the TGV is very constrained to accommodate the high speed of the train. However, there are several shots where the train is taking one fairly steep curve after another. With its actual speed, it would just go straight and derail immediately. However - the High Speed route in England only opened in 2003, before that date Eurostar operated on the existing tracks which only permitted speeds of up to 100 mph.



Revealing mistakes

(at around 2 mins) When Ethan gives Claire the injection, the needle is rounded and not sharp.

(at around 1h 29 mins) In the first shot of the of the train shows red, which means the brakes are fully applied. In normal operations, the indicator shows green, which indicates the brakes are fully released.

When Ethan gives the injection, the closeup shows the needle to be thick and with a flat end. This is a prop syringe in which the needle retracts into the body of the syringe which contains an opaque tube in the center. When injecting, the plunger pushes down a colored cylinder meant to look like blood or another liquid. It is a very cheap effect - cheaper than using a real syringe and a rubber arm.

When William Donloe wipes the bathroom sink (presumably of vomit residue), the sink is obviously sparkling clean.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Ethan is with Jim at Liverpool St. and recalling how his team really died, each death each death is shown. When Jim shoots himself and falls off the bridge, it is against the blue screen rather than the night time river shown earlier in the film when it actually happened.

The sound effects used for the helicopter is not of the NOTAR which is the one shown.



Errors in geography

The morning after the disastrous mole hunt, sun rise is shown over Prague castle in the distance, but in actuality the sun "sets" over Prague castle.

(at around 1h 40 mins) The Channel Tunnel has separate single-track tunnels for the two directions of travel.

Trains run on the left track, both in Great Britain and in France.

(at around 1h 19 mins) When Ethan makes the phone call from Liverpool Street Station the phone number being traced is a Knightsbridge number and not a Liverpool Street number.

(at around 1h 28 mins) When the ticket for the high speed train is produced, it claim wrongly to be for the TGV, which is actually called Eurostar (TGVs only travel within France and into Switzerland). However, Eurostar tickets are available which permit onward transit via SNCF TGV's and vice versa. It also purports to depart from the "London Terminus". There is no such station - at that time, Eurostar left from London Waterloo.



Plot holes

From 1:41:10 -there is not enough room in the tunnel for two trains and a helicopter.

The actual NOC List on the CIA vault computer is protected only by the pressure sensor, the temperature sensor, and the audio sensor. A computer with confidential information like that saved on it would almost definitely lock or shut off completely (and refuse to reboot) whenever the other counter-intrusive sensors were on. This would prevent an intruder (if they got past the sensors, as Ethan did) from even entering a password, let alone getting any information from the computer.

After his coffee break, Donloe should most likely see Ethan dangling from the ceiling in the shiny black floor of the vault, even from peripheral vision.



Character error

(at around 1h 26 mins) When Ethan Hunt provides Max with a Eurostar seat number to meet, he neglects to tell Max which particular coach that seat is in. As Eurostar trains consist of eighteen carriages, finding Max without knowing which coach would be no small task.

During the Langley Operation, Luther relays the password to the CIA computer system to Ethan, but does not use the NATO alphabet for the letters in the password "AW96B6". There is no way such advanced operators would fail to utilize this protocol. Over a mic, "B" sure sounds like "C", "D", "E", etc. Luther would have said "Alpha-Whisky-9-6-Bravo-6".

Hunt is at the laptop, messaging Job 3:14. He types the scripture, including the word 'palaces'. In the actual bible page shown on screen, the word is 'places'.