Movie Smarts

Mission: Impossible Quiz: Accept the Assignment

Fifteen questions, four choices each. Give your movie memory a moment to shine.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Mission: Impossible (1996). Watch the trailer.

Mission: Impossible: The Briefing Left Out a Few Things

Ethan Hunt goes on a secret mission that falls apart so badly he ends up looking like the problem. With his own agency after him, he has to work out who set him up and which old friends he can trust. The plan involves sneaking into places that were built to keep him out. Expect clever disguises, very tense silence, and a strong argument against accepting mysterious job offers.

Your mission is fifteen questions. The screen should survive.

1. Who directed the first Mission: Impossible film?
- Brad Bird
- John Woo
- J.J. Abrams
- Brian De Palma
De Palma, the Hitchcock disciple behind Carrie and The Untouchables, staged the Langley break-in as a near-silent set piece and did not return for the sequels. John Woo took the second film, Abrams the third and Brad Bird Ghost Protocol.
2. Who plays Ethan Hunt?
- Keanu Reeves
- Tom Cruise
- Val Kilmer
- Brad Pitt
It was the first film Cruise produced as well as starred in, with his partner Paula Wagner. He did the hanging stunt himself, and kept tipping forward onto his face until he put coins in his shoes to balance the weight.
3. What does IMF stand for?
- Impossible Missions Force
- International Military Federation
- Internal Mission Framework
- Intelligence Monitoring Force
The Impossible Missions Force comes straight from the 1966 television series, along with the self-destructing tape and the theme. In the film the briefing is handed over on a plane, and the tape smokes itself out after the customary five seconds.
4. Where does the disastrous early mission take place?
- Berlin
- Budapest
- Vienna
- Prague
De Palma shot on location in the Czech capital, and the Charles Bridge is where Jim Phelps is apparently shot in front of Ethan. The team is picked off one by one during an embassy reception, leaving Ethan the only survivor and the obvious suspect.
5. What stolen list drives the plot?
- The Phoenix list
- The blacklist
- The Red Ledger
- The NOC list
NOC stands for non-official cover, and the list pairs every undercover agent's code name with a real name. The copy stolen in Prague turns out to be a useless half, so Ethan steals the full one from Langley to bait the buyer, an arms dealer called Max.
6. Who plays Jim Phelps?
- Jon Voight
- Donald Sutherland
- Anthony Hopkins
- Peter Graves
Peter Graves, who played Phelps in the television series, is the trap among the wrong answers, and the show's veterans were openly unhappy with what the film did to the character. Anthony Hopkins turns up in the sequel as Ethan's boss.
7. What ordinary-looking item does Ethan use as an explosive?
- A matchbook
- A fountain pen
- Chewing gum
- A wristwatch
The gum has a red half and a green half, harmless until they are mashed together, which gives about five seconds. Ethan uses it to blow out the huge aquarium wall of a Prague restaurant and escape his CIA handler in a wave of water and fish.
8. Which CIA official hunts Ethan after the Prague debacle?
- Krieger
- Donloe
- Kittridge
- Stickell
Kittridge, played by Henry Czerny, meets Ethan in the restaurant to tell him he is the prime suspect, then spends the film a step behind him. Czerny returned to the role for Dead Reckoning nearly thirty years later. Krieger and Stickell are Ethan's recruits.
9. How does Jack, the team's hacker, die in Prague?
- Stabbed on the embankment
- Blown up in his car
- Impaled in an elevator shaft
- Shot on the Charles Bridge
Jack is working the elevator from inside the shaft when the car is sent up and pins him on the spikes at the top. He is played, uncredited, by Emilio Estevez, Cruise's co-star in The Outsiders. The stabbing is Sarah's fate and the car bomb Hannah's.
10. What is Claire's relationship to Jim Phelps?
- She is his daughter
- She is his sister
- She is his handler
- She is his wife
Claire, played by Emmanuelle Béart, seems to die in Prague when her car explodes, then turns up alive at Ethan's safe house, which is where his doubts begin. Her closeness to Ethan during the Langley job does not go unnoticed by her husband.
11. Where is the secure computer room Ethan enters from above?
- The Pentagon
- CIA headquarters in Langley
- MI6 headquarters in London
- An embassy in Prague
The vault at Langley was built as a set, not borrowed from the CIA, and its alarms trip on a rise in temperature, a sound above a whisper or any weight on the floor. The analyst Donloe, whose room it is, is afterwards posted to a radar station in Alaska.
12. How does Ethan stay above the computer-room floor?
- He balances on pipes
- He hangs from a cable
- He floats on an air cushion
- He uses magnetic boots
Krieger lowers him through the ceiling vent and holds the cable while Luther, played by Ving Rhames, runs the hack from a van outside. Krieger also lets a knife slip, and it lands point-first in the desk, a lapse that later marks him as a man to distrust.
13. What code phrase points Ethan toward a Bible passage?
- Psalm 911
- Exodus 220
- Job 314
- Genesis 101
Job is the code name of the mole selling the list, and chapter and verse serve as Ethan's password when he poses as Job to the buyer. The Bible itself, a Gideon copy stamped by the Drake Hotel in Chicago, later gives the real Job away.
14. Which vehicle is involved in the film's tunnel finale?
- A helicopter
- A motorcycle
- A speedboat
- A fighter jet
Krieger flies the helicopter into the Channel Tunnel, which had opened only two years earlier, in pursuit of a high-speed train bound for Paris. Ethan sticks his last explosive to the windshield and rides the blast back onto the train's roof.
15. Who created the famous television theme used by the film?
- John Barry
- Lalo Schifrin
- Jerry Goldsmith
- Henry Mancini
Schifrin wrote it in 5/4 time, and the rhythm spells out M and I in Morse code: two dashes, then two dots. Danny Elfman's score builds on it, and Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton of U2 recorded the dance version that plays over the end credits.

All the answers

1. Who directed the first Mission: Impossible film?

Brian De Palma

De Palma, the Hitchcock disciple behind Carrie and The Untouchables, staged the Langley break-in as a near-silent set piece and did not return for the sequels. John Woo took the second film, Abrams the third and Brad Bird Ghost Protocol.
2. Who plays Ethan Hunt?

Tom Cruise

It was the first film Cruise produced as well as starred in, with his partner Paula Wagner. He did the hanging stunt himself, and kept tipping forward onto his face until he put coins in his shoes to balance the weight.
3. What does IMF stand for?

Impossible Missions Force

The Impossible Missions Force comes straight from the 1966 television series, along with the self-destructing tape and the theme. In the film the briefing is handed over on a plane, and the tape smokes itself out after the customary five seconds.
4. Where does the disastrous early mission take place?

Prague

De Palma shot on location in the Czech capital, and the Charles Bridge is where Jim Phelps is apparently shot in front of Ethan. The team is picked off one by one during an embassy reception, leaving Ethan the only survivor and the obvious suspect.
5. What stolen list drives the plot?

The NOC list

NOC stands for non-official cover, and the list pairs every undercover agent's code name with a real name. The copy stolen in Prague turns out to be a useless half, so Ethan steals the full one from Langley to bait the buyer, an arms dealer called Max.
6. Who plays Jim Phelps?

Jon Voight

Peter Graves, who played Phelps in the television series, is the trap among the wrong answers, and the show's veterans were openly unhappy with what the film did to the character. Anthony Hopkins turns up in the sequel as Ethan's boss.
7. What ordinary-looking item does Ethan use as an explosive?

Chewing gum

The gum has a red half and a green half, harmless until they are mashed together, which gives about five seconds. Ethan uses it to blow out the huge aquarium wall of a Prague restaurant and escape his CIA handler in a wave of water and fish.
8. Which CIA official hunts Ethan after the Prague debacle?

Kittridge

Kittridge, played by Henry Czerny, meets Ethan in the restaurant to tell him he is the prime suspect, then spends the film a step behind him. Czerny returned to the role for Dead Reckoning nearly thirty years later. Krieger and Stickell are Ethan's recruits.
9. How does Jack, the team's hacker, die in Prague?

Impaled in an elevator shaft

Jack is working the elevator from inside the shaft when the car is sent up and pins him on the spikes at the top. He is played, uncredited, by Emilio Estevez, Cruise's co-star in The Outsiders. The stabbing is Sarah's fate and the car bomb Hannah's.
10. What is Claire's relationship to Jim Phelps?

She is his wife

Claire, played by Emmanuelle Béart, seems to die in Prague when her car explodes, then turns up alive at Ethan's safe house, which is where his doubts begin. Her closeness to Ethan during the Langley job does not go unnoticed by her husband.
11. Where is the secure computer room Ethan enters from above?

CIA headquarters in Langley

The vault at Langley was built as a set, not borrowed from the CIA, and its alarms trip on a rise in temperature, a sound above a whisper or any weight on the floor. The analyst Donloe, whose room it is, is afterwards posted to a radar station in Alaska.
12. How does Ethan stay above the computer-room floor?

He hangs from a cable

Krieger lowers him through the ceiling vent and holds the cable while Luther, played by Ving Rhames, runs the hack from a van outside. Krieger also lets a knife slip, and it lands point-first in the desk, a lapse that later marks him as a man to distrust.
13. What code phrase points Ethan toward a Bible passage?

Job 314

Job is the code name of the mole selling the list, and chapter and verse serve as Ethan's password when he poses as Job to the buyer. The Bible itself, a Gideon copy stamped by the Drake Hotel in Chicago, later gives the real Job away.
14. Which vehicle is involved in the film's tunnel finale?

A helicopter

Krieger flies the helicopter into the Channel Tunnel, which had opened only two years earlier, in pursuit of a high-speed train bound for Paris. Ethan sticks his last explosive to the windshield and rides the blast back onto the train's roof.
15. Who created the famous television theme used by the film?

Lalo Schifrin

Schifrin wrote it in 5/4 time, and the rhythm spells out M and I in Morse code: two dashes, then two dots. Danny Elfman's score builds on it, and Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton of U2 recorded the dance version that plays over the end credits.