The Best Episodes of Mission: Impossible

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
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   7.7/10(11 votes)

   #1 - Pilot

   S1:E19/17/1966

   IMF team leader Dan Briggs assembles his team for the first time. The mission: to recover two nuclear warheads belonging to General Rio Dominguez from a hotel vault in Santa Costa. Jim and Willy sneak safecracker Terry Targo into the vault, who figures out how to get out. The team then captures Dominguez but Targo's fingers are broken in the attempt. With no other alternative, Briggs has himself and Dominguez put into the vault, and Briggs threatens to enter a random combination if Alicio doesn't tell him the code. Dominguez breaks. With the bombs defused, Willy takes the warheads out of the vault. Briggs remains behind and uses the information Targo gathered earlier to get out during a fireworks distraction set off by Barney. Briggs and the rest of the team make a desperate race for safety and get onto a plane heading to safety seconds before the military can catch up to them.

   Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

   Writer:Bruce Geller

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   Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

   Writer:Bruce Geller
2. 

   7.7/10(3 votes)

   #2 - The Carriers

   S1:E1011/19/1966

   Enemy agent Janos Passik is preparing to train 200 foreign agents to infiltrate the U.S. and engage in some form of bacteriological warfare. The team figures out that Passik has created a replica of a ""typical American town"" so as to train his agents to learn how to blend into American society. Rollin, Cinnamon, Barney, and bacteriologist Rogr Lee replace the new group of recruits and must then find their way to the research lab. They soon realize that the American-trained agents will be infected with a highly contagious plague and then sent into American to kill millions. The group must not only destroy the plague samples but make sure that Passik and his superiors do not find out that the destruction was deliberate.

   Director:Sherman Marks

   Writers:Allan Balter, William Read Woodfield

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   Director:Sherman Marks

   Writers:Allan Balter, William Read Woodfield
3. 

   7.7/10(3 votes)

   #3 - Fakeout

   S1:E1212/3/1966

   Anastas Poltroni is the head of an international narcotics syndicate, and has taken refuge in a country with no extradition treaty. The IM Force is assigned to lure him out without kidnapping him (to avoid the publicity). Cinnamon woos Carson until Briggs, pretending to be her husband, interrupts. Carson refuses to bribe Briggs, while Barney plants some of Carson's heroin in his own hotel room and tip off the police. The IMF ambush Carson and steal the heroin, and Carson later escapes. He grabs Cinnamon and follows Briggs to a deserted lodge to retrieve his own heroin. The police are hot on his trail, and he flees with Cinnamon still in his grasp. Thanks to confusing road signs altered by Barney, Carson ends up over the border where he is arrested and the heroin is taken into custody.

   Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

   Writer:Leigh Chapman

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   Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

   Writer:Leigh Chapman
4. 

   7.7/10(3 votes)

   #4 - Blast

   S5:E181/30/1971

   Gregory Tolan leads an underground cell specializing in bank robberies with the money going to finance an American revolution. His mysterious sponsor is Jonathan Brace, who runs other such cells throughout the U.S. The IMF must find out Brace's identity and apprehend him. Phelps (as a demo expert) and Dana (as his insider at Tolan's next target) get recruited and has to make sure Tolan steals the money without the police knowing so he can lead them to Brace. When Jim stops Tolan from shooting Willy (disguised as a clerk), the police are alerted and Tolan's team takes refuge. Jim goes to get a (bugged) car since Brace won't come to them, Paris and IMF guest agent Grace play the homeowners, and Dana and Tolan exit with the money when Brace orders them to. Jim stops the hostages from getting killed and they follow Tolan to Brace and bring them both in.

   Director:Sutton Roley

   Writers:James L. Henderson, Samuel Roeca

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   Director:Sutton Roley

   Writers:James L. Henderson, Samuel Roeca
5. 

   7.5/10(4 votes)

   #5 - Operation Rogosh

   S1:E310/1/1966

   Imry Rogosh is a mass murderer who kills to forment political upheaval. He is targeting Los Angeles, so the IMF knock him out in a car accident. When Rogosh ""wakes up"" he is in a cell in a prison in his own country, three years later, and ready to be executed as an American agent. To "prove" his loyalty to the cause, Rogosh has to spill the information on his secret operation, but during the mock trial a slip-up cues him in on the ruse. Briggs has to act fast to get Rogosh to reveal the plan to kill the citizens of Los Angeles.

   Director:Leonard Horn

   Writer:Jerome Ross

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   Director:Leonard Horn

   Writer:Jerome Ross
6. 

   7.5/10(3 votes)

   #6 - Odds on Evil

   S1:E610/22/1966

   Prince Iben Kostas plans to use his money to finance a war. Infiltrating his casino, the IMF team goes to work: IMFer Andre (pretending to be Cinammon's husband) breaks the bank at roulette thanks to a not-so-portable computer worn by Willie underneath his tux. Andre then loses the money to Rollin as another gambler. Kostas tries to get the money back by playing against Rollin and cheating by using marked cards and tinted contact lens. However, Rollin has a similar pair of lens and also deals bad hands to Kostas. Finally Kostas antes up the 1.5 million in war funds, thinking he can't lose. Rollins tricks him, and the team must make a desperate escape.

   Director:Charles R. Rondeau

   Writers:Allan Balter, William Read Woodfield

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   Director:Charles R. Rondeau

   Writers:Allan Balter, William Read Woodfield
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7. 

   7.5/10(2 votes)

   #7 - Wheels

   S1:E710/29/1966

   In the country of Valeria, the IMF must assure that the corrupt Nationalist party's rigged voting machine doesn't give them the election.

   Director:Tom Gries

   Writer:Laurence Heath

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   Director:Tom Gries

   Writer:Laurence Heath
8. 

   7.5/10(2 votes)

   #8 - The Ransom

   S1:E811/5/1966

   Mobster Frank Egan kidnaps the daughter of Dan's friend and uses her as a hostage to force Dan and the team to break out a key witness, Augie Gorman, against him. After several failed ploys, Barney manages to contaminate Gorman's water supply inside the hotel safehouse where the police are keeping him. The team has taken over the hospital room and use a rotating examination table to switch Gorman for IMF member Steve (who resembles him). At the exchange, Egan tries to double-cross Dan, but the IMF team leader has a trick or two of his own to make sure things go smoothly and Gorman gets what's coming to him.

   Director:Harry Harris

   Writer:Allan Balter

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   Director:Harry Harris

   Writer:Allan Balter
9. 

   7.5/10(2 votes)

   #9 - Zubrovnik's Ghost

   S1:E1111/26/1966

   The wife of a deceased scientist, Kurt Zubrovnik, is being pressured by Eastern forces to work for them. They are using a phony psychic to convince the wife her dead husband wants to defect! Accompanied by IMF ""psychic consultant"" Ariana Domi, Rollin and Barney try to disrupt the fraud and convince her to return to working for the U.S. The psychic, Poljac, is torturing the husband for information to use to convince his wife Poljac's powers are real. Ariana senses a real ghost present. In the end, Rollin sets up a final seance and Barney prepares to use a technological projection of Zubrovnik to decry Poljac. However, a blackout causes his equipment to fail, and Ariana's alleged powers, plus some ghostly phenomena, allow them to complete their mission.

   Director:Leonard Horn

   Writer:Robert Lewin

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   Director:Leonard Horn

   Writer:Robert Lewin
10. 

    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #10 - Memory

    S1:E29/24/1966

    The IMF must undermine ""the Butcher of the Balkans"", Janos Karq, by having his head of security capture an agent, Sparrow, who will then incriminate Karq. To pull off the ruse, they need a memory expert, Baresh, who can memorize the necessary information in the short time allowed and pretend to be Sparrow. Baresh will later be traded back. However, during a faked ""rescue"" to make Sparrow look more convincing, Baresh gets a look at Soska's master list of agents, and the team must rescue him from the prison immediately to get the information.

    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Robert Lewin

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    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Robert Lewin
11. 

    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #11 - Old Man Out (2)

    S1:E510/15/1966

    Rollin manages to avoid the guards and escape, but Vossek is moved to a new cell in solitary confinement. Briggs comes up with a new plan and manages to relay it to the imprisoned Rollin. They manage to do so, and manage to rescue Vossek from the prison. With Barney providing distraction as a clown, the team manages to get Vossek over the border before Vossek's captors can catch up to them.

    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Ellis Marcus

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    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Ellis Marcus
12. 

    7.0/10(4 votes)

    #12 - Old Man Out (1)

    S1:E410/8/1966

    The IMF team goes in as a circus team to rescue Anton Cardinal Vossek, who is being held in the impregnable Seravno Prison. Vossek is the leader of the country's freedom movement, in rebellion against Colonel Scutari, and is awaiting a fake trial before execution. With the aid of circus acrobat Crystal Walker, the team must get Vossek out. To do so, Rollin fakes being a pickpocket so as to be arrested. Once inside Servano, he has to sneak through the prison and get Vossek out of his cell as a test run for the next day...only for the guards to interrupt at an inopportune moment.

    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Ellis Marcus

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    Director:Charles R. Rondeau

    Writer:Ellis Marcus
13. 

    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #13 - A Spool There Was

    S1:E911/12/1966

    Rollin and Cinnamon go it alone to recover a reel of recording wire containing information on a chemical warfare project aimed at the U.S. The courier carrying it was killed by the enemy, and the wire is missing. The two fake a lovers' reunion and then Rollin slips out during a pre-recorded conversation. To duplicate the circumstances of the courier's demise as closely as possible, Rollin lets himself be discovered and then chased along the same route. He finds the wire, hidden in plain sight as part of a fence. He and Cinnamon plan to recover and smuggle out the wire the same way, but it is taken by a young boy looking for fishing wire. Rollin manages to recover it, and they send the wire out disguised as the wire on a balloon.

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

    Writer:Ellis Marcus

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    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski

    Writer:Ellis Marcus
14. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #14 - Death Squad

    S4:E243/15/1970

    Barney kills a man in self-defense and is marked for execution by the victim's brother, a chief of police who heads a death squad.

    Director:Barry Crane

    Writer:Laurence Heath

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    Director:Barry Crane

    Writer:Laurence Heath
15. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #15 - The Martyr

    S4:E263/29/1970

    As a duplicitous dictator courts the young people of his country, Paris poses as the son of his predecessor, a martyred youth leader.

    Director:Virgil W. Vogel

    Writer:Ken Pettus

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    Director:Virgil W. Vogel

    Writer:Ken Pettus
16. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #16 - Homecoming

    S5:E410/10/1970

    When Jim returns to his hometown of Norville to donate family property to the community, he finds it plagued by a serial killer. Jim secretly brings in Barney to help investigate. A disturbed Vietnam vet is the suspected killer but Jim and Barney figure out he's innocent and get him out of jail one step ahead of a mob, then call in the rest of the IMF team to find the real killer.

    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Laurence Heath

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    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Laurence Heath
17. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #17 - Decoy

    S5:E811/7/1970

    Anna Kerkoska plans to defect with a list of American agents given to her by her father, the late Premier. Her brother Alexi also plans to defect, but it's actually a plan to grab the list, turn it over to Police Chief Petrovitch, and sell out his sister. Jim and Dana pretend to be a publisher brother-and-sister team and Paris kidnaps Dana to fake-force Jim to kidnap Anna for the Americans. Petrovitch and Alexi let the plan go ahead, while Jim becomes romantically involved with Anna. The bad guys overhear Jim "confess" how he is going to smuggle Anna out of the country, unaware its a ploy to draw them away from the real means of escape via a mini-race car in the back of the hearse - Jim and Anna use it to bypass the mined security gate and exit the country.

    Director:Seymour Robbie

    Writer:John D.F. Black

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    Director:Seymour Robbie

    Writer:John D.F. Black
18. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #18 - Squeeze Play (aka Sicily)

    S5:E1212/12/1970

    Albert Zembra, head of the Mediterranean branch of the Syndicate, is dying of cancer and plans on passing his list of opium farms to his chosen successor. He plans on turning power over to Carlos Empori, engaged to his granddaughter. Paris poses as a mobster and old friend of Eve's and "renews" his friendship with her, while Phelps, as Zembra's rival, warns Carlos that Paris plans to take over. Barney stages a fake assassination on Zembra, thwarting Carlos' security and making him look incompetent, then Paris and Paris-as-Zembra stage a conversation to make Carlos believe Zembra will give power to Paris. Carlos helps Jim kidnap Eve, but the plan goes awry when Eve reveals she knows Paris is a fake. Paris puts his life on the line by counting on her silence to complete the plot. Eve stays silent, Carlos is set up as a traitor to Zembra, and the dying mobster turns the information over to Paris.

    Director:Virgil W. Vogel

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Virgil W. Vogel

    Writer:Unknown
19. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #19 - The Field

    S5:E171/23/1971

    An enemy power has launched a satellite containing a thermonuclear bomb and the IMF must destroy it. The control center on an island in the Adriatic Sea is surrounded by an impenetrable minefield designed by an American defector, Norris. Barney secretly sets off some of the mines - without an explanation, the facility security call in Norris, whom they haven't seen. Paris takes Norris' place and using plans that Jim stole earlier, shuts down part of the field, and Barney gets in to program the system to drop the satellite out of orbit. Unfortunately, on the mainland the real Norris kills his girlfriend, a government spy, and Paris-as-Norris is arrested for the murder! This also leaves Barney trapped in the middle of the minefield. Jim and Doug manage to extract a confession and the location of the murder weapon from Norris before Inspector Koder (who knows the real Norris) can spot Paris. Dana comes in and manages to covertly slip Paris the information they've set up to make it look li

    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Unknown
20. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #20 - Kitara (aka The Bigot)

    S5:E202/20/1971

    John Darcy, codename 'Kitara', leads a liberation movement in the African country of Bocamo and has been inadvertently captured by the ruthless Colonel Kohler. Kohler plans to torture Kitara, who if he confesses his true identity will result in the destruction of the entire movement. Kohler is after a truckful of government gold bullion Kitara stole. Jim and Doug play agents while Barney is captured and gets the location of the bullion from Kitara and gets it to Jim. Doug warns Kohler about ""lamposa hycondra"", a disease that causes blacks to turn white. After Kohler takes a IMF-rigged shower he wakes up the next morning to find himself black! Dana as a reporter introduces Kohler to shopkeeper Paris, who has ""proof"" that Kohler's grandfather was black. Kohler goes on the run and Paris hides him out at the gold's location. The authorities find Kohler there and believe he is Kitara and have him arrested, then hand the gold over to Jim to deliver it to headquarters.

    Director:Murray Golden

    Writer:Mann Rubin

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    Director:Murray Golden

    Writer:Mann Rubin
21. 

    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #21 - A Ghost Story

    S5:E212/27/1971

    Howard Bainbridge, a chemical warfare expert who defected to East, was contaminated by his own experiments and then returned back to the U.S. and his family manor, where his father (a paranoid arch-conservative) had him killed and the body buried. Since Howard destroyed the records before defecting, the IMF must recover the body to get a sample of the chemicals. The elder Bainbridge, Justin, is unaware that his head of security is an enemy agent also trying to find Howard' sbody. The IMF gain access to a air-raid shelter on the grounds and start ""haunting"" Justin with a secretly-implanted microphone and holographic projectors. Plagued by visions only he can see of his son and his dead wife Janette (played by Dana), Justin calls in physician Paris, who recommends he assauge his guilt conscience and Justin ends up digging up his son's body, which the IMF take.

    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Ed Adamson

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    Director:Reza Badiyi

    Writer:Ed Adamson
22. 

    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #22 - The Deal

    S7:E39/30/1972

    The Syndicate plans to finance the head of the army's takeover of his country in return for the right to operate the country's vices. The IMF team must intercept the safe deposit key before it reaches the general. Willy replaces a crewman aboard the yacht, but can't find the key and is discovered. He is forced overboard, almost drowns, but escapes and helps warn the team. Jim, Barney and Mimi craft an elaborate plot to convince the bad guys' courier to reveal the location of the key.

    Director:Leslie H. Martinson

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Leslie H. Martinson

    Writer:Unknown
23. 

    6.5/10(2 votes)

    #23 - The Legend

    S1:E202/11/1967

    An imprisoned member of the Nazi party, Herbert Raynor, is released from prison and is being flown (along with his daughter) to Puerto Huberra in South America, along with other Nazis. All of them are being flown there by an unknown benefactor. Briggs and Cinnamon take the Raynors' place.They and the others are introduced to Martin Bormann, now a bedridden invalid. Borman's secretary, Rudd, informs them that Bormann will lead the Third Reich to new glories. Dan ducks a murder attempt, breaks into Bormann's room, and finds that he is a mannequin with a voice provided by Rudd. Rudd has recorded tapes duplicating Bormann's voice, and the last tape will turn leadership of the party over to him. To stymie Rudd, Rollin dresses up as Bormann and is suddenly not so bedridden. Of course, Rudd knows Rollin is an imposter but can't reveal it without exposing his own ploy. "Bormann" gives orders that eliminate Rudd once and for all and end the threat posed by the Nazis.

    Director:Richard Benedict

    Writer:Mann Rubin

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    Director:Richard Benedict

    Writer:Mann Rubin
24. 

    6.5/10(2 votes)

    #24 - Shock

    S1:E253/25/1967

    Enemy operative Kiri has kidnapped U.S. envoy Carl Wilson and has an imposter, Gort, who is impersonating him to discredit a U.S. trade agreement. The team have to rescue Wilson and foil the impersonation before Kiri kills Wilson. Cinnamon impersonates Wilson's niece while Willy kidnaps Gort and Briggs-as-Wilson takes Gort's place, pretending to be Gort. The team put Gort in an asylum and give him electro-shock to scramble his memories, then claim he is is a delusional accountant. Under the threat of more electro-shock, Gort tells them the full details of his delusion: that he's to kill an American official and leave Wilson to take the blame. Barney and Willy replace the unconscious Wilson at the reception with a drugged Gort set to look like a suicide, then Briggs-as-Gort-as-Wilson takes a shot at the official. Briggs returns and reveals that "Wilson" is actually Gort, who was in Keri's employ.

    Director:Lee H. Katzin

    Writer:Laurence Heath

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    Director:Lee H. Katzin

    Writer:Laurence Heath
25. 

    6.5/10(2 votes)

    #25 - The Controllers (2)

    S4:E410/19/1969

    As Barney taints the water system with a mind-numbing drug, Jim is captured and put on trial, where he must discredit an enemy scientist.

    Director:Paul Krasny

    Writer:Laurence Heath

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    Director:Paul Krasny

    Writer:Laurence Heath