( Mission: Impossible 1980) This squad was soon replaced with another covert IMF formed by Phelps and Collier. (unproduced Mission: Impossible 1980) After his release from prison, he briefly formed a small squad with Hand, Carter, and Collier in order to take down rogue IMF agent John Victor. For refusing to testify before Congress on a number of charges, Phelps was sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary.
In 1974, with the eruption of the Watergate Scandal, the IMF was revealed as a public entity and Phelps was put on trial for its activities. The reliability of this section is extremely suspect, and indeed, as revealed below, information from the late 1980s missions directly contradicts it. ( Mission: Impossible-The 1960s And 1970s Missions)
Douglas Robert Lang, Melany "Mimi" Davis, and a female operative known simply as Tracey. Originally, his top squad included Rollin Hand, Cinnamon Carter, Barney Collier, and William "Willy" Armitage, the same four members of Daniel Briggs's most reliable mission team, "The Director's Own." In the years afterwards, he replaced Hand (with The Great Paris), Carter (with Dana Lambert and later Lisa Casey), and added other talents for occasional missions, such as Dr.
While Phelps could have a pick of many different agents for his missions, he usually picked a specific group.
( As Steven Hill had been dismissed from the series cast because his Orthodox Judaism conflicted with the shooting schedule too frequently, the reason for Daniel Briggs's departure remains unknown.) ( Colonel Briggs's military status and the IMF's military origins were both derived from early material for Mission: Impossible.)Įventually, Phelps took over from Briggs as not only IMF Director but also the field leader for the core, and most effective, IMF mission team, which was unofficially called "The Director's Own." (" The Widow") Daniel David Briggs, Ph.D., late of Army Intelligence(G-2). Navy - episode Homecoming S5E4) and worked (in an unknown job) for Pan American Airlines before entering government service.Īs a former government operative, Phelps helped to form the Impossible Missions Force from a former elite Special Forces squad led by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. He fought in the Korean War (at an unknown rank in the US This would seem to indicate that IMF training included the development of such expertise. Though this was never actually revealed in any of the Missions, Phelps could be assumed to have served in the Intelligence Unit of whichever branch of the United States armed forces could claim him as a veteran, as he was as familiar as Daniel Briggs was with grand-scale confidence games which his mission teams usually played on the mission targets. If anything failed to go according to plan during the mission, Phelps was quick enough to improvise so that the objective could still be obtained. As the IMF Director and mission-team captain, it was his job to plan out the missions that his team would accomplish, considering all known, suspected, or possible angles. "But, while the cars were still running, they weren't exactly purring anymore.James "Jim" Phelps was the Director of the Impossible Missions Force and the "captain" of its most reliable "mission team" for several years. "Much to BWMs credit, we couldn't kill their cars, no matter how man times we did the gag. The cars were still working at the end, but let's just say Cruise was not asking for them as a wrap-gift. One was needed for the camera mounts to show scenes with Cruise, the other for wider shots of the stunts. The stairs were added back in post-production.ĭirector Christopher McQuarrie still was wowed by the two BMW M3s used in the production. The entire stairs were temporarily transformed as ramp-like as possible making it a still-highly-bumpy ride - but survivable for the many takes required. The filmmakers got some serious help, as this video shows (part of Rogue Nation's current Blu-Ray release). Mission: Impossible, Rogue Nation star Tom Cruise put his BMW M3 through all kinds of mayhem in a chase scene in Rabat, Morocco, which included a jaunty romp down stairs outside the medina, naturally flanked by pursuing motorcycles.
Watch Video: Tom Cruise: Secrets to 'Mission: Impossible' car stunts