The WORST episodes of Mission: Impossible
Every episode of Mission: Impossible ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Mission: Impossible!
Elite special agents undertook top-secret assignments in crackerjack episodes, which kicked off with the team leader receiving instructions via a tape-recorded message that self-destructed in five seconds. What followed were usually breakneck spyjinks set to a pulsating Lalo Schifrin score. Martin Landau turned down the Spock role in 'Star Trek' to play IMFer Rollin Hand. When Landau left the series in 1969, his replacement was the man who built a career on Spock, Leonard Nimoy.
#1 - Zubrovnik's Ghost
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/26/1966
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.
#2 - The Killing
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/28/1968
Burt Gordon has set up a new version of Murder, Inc. for the Syndicate. The IMF need to get evidence of his actions. Jim and Cinnamon become Gordon's new neighbors, and their brother Rollin claims they are being haunted by the ghost of their long-dead sibling. Cinnamon seduces Gordon and wants him to kill her husband. A provoked Jim then attacks Gordon and is "killed" by Gordon's hitman, Connie and fake-disposed of in an incinerator. But then Jim's ghost comes back to haunt Gordon, "killing" Cinnamon. Gordon follows Jim's ghost-voice to his body and shoots it again...only to find out that the IMF disguised Connie as Jim. The police arrive and arrest Gordon for murder.
#3 - Nitro
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/23/1969
General Zek of Karak is opposed to a peace treaty between his country and Agir, and is working with a munitions maker named Ismir Najiid to start a war by destroying King Said during his announcement of the treaty. The IMF must stop Zek and Najiid for good. The two conspirators hire Aristo Skora, a terrorist, to plant the explosives and incriminate Agir. Barney as a systems analyst sets up Najiid's factory's alarm system so Rollin can sneak in and steal the nitro from Najiid with Willy's help while letting himself be seen. Meanwhile, Jim has identified Cinnamon to Zek as an ally of "Hakim", the Agirian terrorist Rollin is pretending to be. Rollin and Willy grab the real Skora and then Rollin-as-Skora tells Zek their plan won't work. The IMF let Zek follow Cinnamon to an unconscious "Hakim" (actually a drugged and masked Skora) who has the nitro and a radio-controlled truck so Zek takes over his plan which he believes is the Agirians. Meanwhile Najiid has been drugged during Said's spee
#4 - Fakeout
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/3/1966
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.
#5 - Homecoming
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1970
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.
#6 - Elena
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/10/1966
Double-agent Elena Del Barra is acting bizarrely, sending a microfilm of defense secrets from her own country. Rollin is sent into investigate, and return the microfilm without its theft ever being detected. Complicating matters is that an assassin, Callao, has been sent to kill her if Rollin can't figure things out in two days. Rollin convinces her to meet with teammate Dr. Enero, who hypnotizes her and learns she is suffering from a post-hypnotic suggestion to denounce the President, her good friend. With time running out, Rollin must return the microfilm, figure out the traitor, and save Elena.
#7 - Gitano (aka Toys)
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/1/1970
A 12-year-old king whose life is in danger is rescued by gypsies - Paris and Willie in disguise - and forced to dress up like a girl to fool his assassins.
#8 - Trial by Fury
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/10/1968
The head of a country's freedom party, Manuel Delgado, has been imprisoned by the dictatorship of his country. Cardoza, Delgado's assistant and liaison with the outside, has had himself arrested but is now believed to be an informer by the other convicts. The IMF must keep Cardoza from being killed by his fellow inmates and expose the real informer. Jim and Barney go in as prisoners, while Rollin goes in as a guard and Cinnamon as a Red Cross officer. Barney talks about his escape plan, and Rollin sees a guard recover a piece of foil with a message from one of the prisoners. Cardoza is beaten and humiliated by the convicts despite Jim and Barney's best efforts. Rollin smuggle the foil to Jim who uses it to clear Cardoza and find the real informer. Jim and Barney then use Rollin and Cinnamon as hostages to escape themselves.
#9 - Trek
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/17/1967
The country of Santales sold a collection of Incan gold artifacts to save its economy, which were stolen by Jack Cole. Cole's accomplices are killed and Colonel Cardoza of Santales is in charge of extracting the location of the artifacts from Cole. However, Cardoza is a tratiro who plans to take the artifacts and leave Santales in financial ruin. The IMF must both recover the treasure and expose Cardoza. Phelps goes in as Cardoza's fence, and plots with the Colonel to get Cole to reveal the treasure. Phelps is thrown in with Cole, and they manage to escape thanks to Cardoza's set-up with Jim. Jim "kills" Rollin (disguised as an Indian) for his horses, and the Rollin reports to Cardoza's superior, General Diaz, that Cardoza is the one looking for the trasure. Cole takes Phelps and Cardoza to the trasure, and Cardoza kills Cole. As Diaz's men close in, Jim leaves via a helicopter, leaving Cardoza to try and explain why he has the treasure and was working with Cole.
#10 - Illusion
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/13/1969
Skarbeck and Lom are rivals for the vacant post of Chief of Secret Police in the East European Peoples Republic. As they are both hardliners, the IMF must eliminate both of them and make sure Paul Trock becomes the new chief. Skarbeck killed his lover Carlotta years ago but never found the man she was sleeping with. Skarbeck framed her costar and killed him in a car crash before having a breakdown. The IMF plan to trigger another breakdown. Cinnamon recreates Carlotta's act and admits to Skarbeck that Lom is paying her to him. Meanwhile, Jim sets up Lom with a letter proving Skarbeck killed Carlotta. Lom plans to nail Skarbeck for Cinnamon's murder. The IMF slip Skarbeck a drug to hypnotize him into thinking of Cinnamon as he did Carlotta. The IMF then trick Skarbeck into thinking Rollin, Cinnamons cabaret comic/partner, is having an affair with her, and that he is actually the murdered Fritz Mueller. Rollin tells Skarbeck that Cinnamon is having an affair with Lom. Skarbeck tries to k
#11 - Nicole
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/30/1969
Jim is sent in to recover a list of Allied agents from the enemy's highest ranking intelligence minister, Anton Valdas. Nicole Vedette's, Valdas' secretary, is apparently on the IMF's side but Jim decides not to use her. Instead Jim and Rollin plansto break into Valdas' safe during a party. Jim and Nicole meet and have a romantic attraction. The effort goes awry and Jim is shot and captured while helping Rollin to escape. Nicole is imprisoned on suspicion but tells Jim that no one is looking for Rollin. Nicole also tells him that Rollin's contact is a double agent. Jim believes Valdas substituted a fake list that he wants them to take back. The two escape and Jim collapses from his wound in a barn. Nicole reveals she is the double agent and reports the success of their charade to Jim. But because of her attraction to him she blackmails Valdas into letting them escape for real. Jim realizes the deception and Nicole confesses, unaware that Valdas put a bug on her. They are caught by Vald
#12 - Lover's Knot
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/22/1970
While in London to break a spy ring, Paris develops feelings for the beautiful Lady Weston after he is cast as a jealous lover in a romantic triangle.
#13 - The Code
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/1969
In order to stop an invasion and shatter an alliance between two countries, the IMF team must photograph and break a code in a matter of minutes.
#14 - The Play
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1968
Milos Kuro, minister of culture has been using propaganda to discredit his premier, Leon Vados. Vados is a progressive trying to negotiate a nonagression pact with the U.S. When in the U.S. Kuro witnesses a play written by Cinnamon that undermines Vados and the U.S. He arranges to have it staged in his country. But Cinnamon and Rollin leak the play's existence to Vados. Vados attends a rehersal and is seated beneath a special radar disk that creates a sound envelope so that Vados hears only the special dialogue the IMF has created that makes Vados out to look like a fool. Vados has Kuro arrested.
#15 - The Reluctant Dragon
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/14/1967
Dr. Cherlotov, a scientist of an enemy power, failed to defect to the West when his wife did. Now that he has developed a cheap, effective anti-ballistic system, the IMF are ordered to get him out. Unfortunately, they find out that Cherlotov doesn't want to defect: he merely wants to convince his superiors he is loyal and live out his life. The IMF smuggle in his wife Karen. Meanwhile, Rollin convinces Cherlotov's watcher and the security commissioner, Jankowski, to put Cherlotov under jail for suspicion. When Cherlotov realizes what his country does to other dissidents he agrees to defect, but Jankowski sees through Rollin's cover and tries to arrest them all.
#16 - The Widow
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1967
Alex Cresnic and his partner Walters have bought out an entire nation's heroin crop and are smuggling it into Marseilles for a sale - the IMF needs to put them out of business. Barney and Jim fake an elevator crash and "blind" Walters. In the hospital, Rollins impersonates Cresnic's voice and gives Walters specific instructions. Meanwhile, Cresnic believes Walters to be dead and meets Walters' widow, played by Cinnamon. She blackmails Cresnic into taking her on as his new partner, and then leads him to a rival competitor, played by Rollin. Jim is the chemist in the set-up, and Cresnic "kills" Willy and takes Jim to work for him. Jim has a jacket that lets him switch Cresnic's heroin for powdered milk. Cresnic makes the sale but the IMF has put an opening in the bottom of his desk where he stores the money. Rollin breaks in and tells the buyers to check their merchandise, after setting up Walters to go to the basement and check the money. The buyers discover the heroin is fake, and they
#17 - Wheels
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1966
In the country of Valeria, the IMF must assure that the corrupt Nationalist party's rigged voting machine doesn't give them the election.
#18 - The Elixir
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/24/1968
Riva Santel is the recent widow of the President of San Cordova. Deputy Premier Avilla plans to announce free elections but Riva will declare herself dictator in a coup. The IMF must stop her. Pretending to be a film crew, the IMF team gets in. Hostess Cinnamon fakes a collapse and the guys comment on her age. Rollin as a plastic surgeon comes in and Riva finds out Cinnamon is actually seventy years old. She insists on surgery for herself. Since the surgery can only be done on the night of the speech, she has herself taped by her own camera crew. Barney and Willy get hold of the tape footage, reedit it, and switch the IMF tape for Riva's. Riva is sedated during the speech and so her men use the tape. When she awakens, her face in bandages, she is shocked to hear "herself" announcing her retirement. While Cinnamon disguised as old-Riva conspicuously leaves the country, Riva takes off the bandages to find she has her wish: she is now a younger woman...with a totally different face.
#19 - The Freeze
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/23/1968
Albert Jenkins, who robbed an armored car five years ago, double-crossed his associates and hid the $10 million. He then managed to get himself arrested as "Raymond Barret" on a burglary charge he did not commit. In this way he can outwait the statute of limitations on the armored car robbery from the safety of his cell. The IMF must bring him to justice. To do so, IMF ally Dr. Bowman tells Barret he has a fatal disease and gets him released early. Rollin as a doctor confirms the diagnosis and reveals that Jim, pretending to be a cryogenic doctor, can put him in stasis. Barret/Jenkins "wakes up" 12 years later in a futurstic IMF set and a graying Rollin tells him currency is no longer of value and the police want to question him. Barret escapes only to discover that it's a scam...but in the scam-within-a-scam, he thinks it's one day after the statue of limitations expires. He goes to the cemetary where he hid the money, along with his partners thanks to an IMF ploy, and all of them are
#20 - The Condemned
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/28/1968
In Spain, David Webster, a friend of Jim's, is framed for murder by his girlfriend. Acting on Jim's personal behalf, the team goes into action. Rollin and Willy, disguised as priests, hide Webster in his own cell thanks to a collapsible wall. The murdered man, Corley, had apparently stolen a Greek crown worth ten million dollars. Constantine, the financier for the theft, hires Jim to get the crown back. Rollin, disguised as Wsbter, confronts the girlfriend and she flees to her accomplice, who is killed in a fall. The accomplice is actually the dead man Corley, disguised with plastic surgery. The dead man, rendered unrecognizable due to a shotgun blast to the face, was a plant. They find the crown but must clear Webster. Rollin disguises himself as Corley and fakes an escape from the police which ends in a rigged car crash. The police, having it confirmed that Corley was guilty all along, recover the crown from where the IMF planted it in the car and go back to Webster's cell to find hi
#21 - The Contender (1)
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1968
Charles Buckman is attempting to gain a stranglehold on all professional and amateur sports. If successful, the U.S. will be discredited in the world athletic community. Buckman is working with Syndicate man Dan Whelan. The IMF must eliminate them. Barney takes a crash course in boxing and impersonates Richy Lamoine. Barney-as-Richy announces a comeback, and Buckman forces manager-Rollin to sign with him. Meanwhile, Jim gets a job with Whelan. But as he sneaks through an access tunnel to get to Whelan's office, Whelan and his men come down the tunnel...
#22 - Action!
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/4/1967
Miklos Klaar, an Iron Curtain filmmaker, has film of American soldiers and plans to edit it into an atrocity movie to discredit the U.S. He has recreated the jungle as a set from the one print of the film he has. Disguised as a Ministry of Propaganda officer, Rollin destroys the print and Barney floods the negative vault, forcing Klaar to reshoot the American footage as well. Cameraman and IMFer David Day is snuck in and films Klaar recreating the American footage. On the day the press is assembled, David and Willy manage to bypass Klaar's guards and air the footage of Klaar rehearsing his cast and crew and congratulating themselves on the phony massacre.
#23 - The Contender (2)
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1968
Jim manages to avoid Whelan by hiding in the tunnel pipes overhead. He gets access to a list of Whelan's bookies. Meanwhile, Barney-as-Richy fights his way through a series of matches, helped by a concealed gas emitter in the ring beneath his opponents' corner. Finally Barney faces Buckman's champ Staczek, with orders to take a dive. He knocks out Staczek against Buckman's orders, leaving Buckman to be bankrupted covering the bets.
#24 - The Counterfeiter
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/4/1968
Raymond Halder is the owner of a chain of clinics and runs a drug counterfeiting ring. Gant Pharamaceuticals released a drug that helps against primary vascular disease, but the drug is being withdrawn since Halder flooded the market with potentially fatal counterfeits. Gant plans to resissue the drug and the IMF must stop Halder from counterfeiting the new version. The IMF as Federal agents put pressure on Halder, but he escapes. Cinnamon pretends to be a Gant employee in charge of protecting against counterfeits. Gang bribes Rollin the Federal Agent to frame Cinnamon to force her to give him Gant's anticounterfeiting strategy. However, the team use an ultarsonic laser to make Halder think he is suffering from primary vascular disease, and he ends up at one of his own clinics where Barney-as-a-doctor prescribes one of Gant's counterfeits. Terrified for his life, Halder confesses so that he won't get a dose of his own medicine.
#25 - Echo of Yesterday
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/10/1967
Neo-nazi Colonel Marcus von Frank is planning a resurgence of the Party with the aid of Otto Kelmann, munitions magnate. With Kelmann's financial base, von Frank plans to become a second Hitler. Jim infiltrates their meeting as an American Nazi leader, while Cinnamon gets close to Kellman, aided by her resemblence to his dead wife, murdered by Hitler in '32. Jim goads the paranoid von Frank into distrusting Cinnamon, who is convinced that she will destroy him. The IMF drugs Kelmann and sets up an elaborate "hallucination" of Rollin-as-Hitler murdering Cinnamon-as-Kelmann's wife back in '32. When von Frank burts in and shoots Cinnamon because of his own paranoid suspicions, Kelmann shoots him.