Did You Know?

Carrie-Anne Moss was offered a role after Tom Cruise was impressed with her work in Suspect Zero, which Cruise produced. When Joe Carnahan left the project, and J.J. Abrams took the reins, her character was dropped from the film entirely.

David Fincher was first slated to direct the film but dropped out to produce Lords of Dogtown, which he also dropped out of directing. The basic storyline of the version he was working on dealt with black market trade of body parts in Africa.

Kenneth Branagh was cast as the villain, but because of shooting-delays he had to drop out to begin work on As You Like It.

At one point, Ricky Gervais was cast in the film as an ally to Ethan Hunt. But due to various production and casting changes, Gervais had to pull out of the film and was replaced by Simon Pegg.

The film's former director Joe Carnahan was offered the position of director after Tom Cruise was impressed by his work on Narc, which Cruise also executive produced. Carnahan stepped down from the position of director because of creative differences only a month before filming was originally due to begin in August of 2004. His departure delayed the film by a year, while a new director was being sought after. In this time, Cruise went on to film War of the Worlds which had its originally intended 2006 release fast-tracked by a whole year.

Rachel McAdams turned down Michelle Monaghan's role.

To promote the film, Paramount rigged 4,500 randomly selected Los Angeles Times vending boxes with digital audio players which would play the theme song when the door was opened. The audio players did not always stay concealed, however, and in many cases came loose and fell on top of the stack of newspapers in plain view, with the result that they were widely mistaken for bombs. Police bomb squads detonated a number of the vending boxes and even temporarily shut down a veterans' hospital in response to the apparent "threat". Despite these problems, Paramount and The LA Times opted to leave the audio players in the boxes until two days after the movie's opening.

Besides Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames) is the only character to appear in all three films.

The scenic rural Chinese village at the end of the film is not located in Shanghai as suggested but is actually the ancient town of Xitang in the Zhejiang Province, located approximately 90km away. The night scenes involving skyscrapers were actually shot in Shanghai, however.

This film marked Paramount's first foray into digital exhibition. They were the last studio to release a digital print to theaters.

After initially upsetting the Chinese government over its seemingly uncomplimentary depiction of life in Shanghai, the censors finally allowed the film to be shown in China.

The Caserta Palace, Italy doubled up for the Vatican's interiors.

The Lamborghini that was blown up had no engine.

During the credits, one of the organizations which the producers of the film wish to thank is the Hanso Foundation, a group tied to J.J. Abrams' television series, Lost.

Scarlett Johansson was cast in the film early on but pulled out of the project and her role eventually went to Keri Russell.

Visible body count: 26

The two main actresses, Michelle Monaghan and Keri Russell, share the birthday: 23 March 1976.

Katie Holmes, Lindsay Lohan, Elisha Cuthbert and Jessica Alba were considered for the role of Lindsey Ferris.

Tom Cruise's cousin, William Mapother, is also an actor and is best known for playing a character named Ethan. He plays Ethan Rom on Lost, which was created by J.J. Abrams, the director of this film.

Stuntman Steven Scott Wheatley sued Paramount and Tom Cruise's production company for gross negligence after the pyrotechnics in a stunt he was involved in went wrong and he was engulfed in a ball of flame. Wheatley suffered burns over 60% of his body.

Keri Russell trained for three months in preparation for her big action scenes.

It's coincidence that one of the disguises that Tom Cruise adopts in the film is that of a priest. In real life, Cruise briefly studied to become a priest before he got the acting bug.

One of the five percussionists in the orchestra which did the film's score was Emil Richards, who 30 years ago played bongos on the original Mission: Impossible theme.

Phil Alden Robinson was one of the finalists for the director's job.

The doctor hands extracting the capsule from Agent Farris' head at the IMF headquarters belong to director J.J. Abrams.

Maggie Q had to learn how to drive for the movie, she didn't know how to before. It is revealed in the DVD extras that while driving during the shoot, the heel of her shoe got stuck on the accelerator, leading her car to crash (lightly) into another parked car.

The interior of Ethan Hunt's house was based on 'JJ Abrams''s family's home.

J.J. Abrams approached original series star Martin Landau to make a cameo, but Landau declined, saying he was finished with the franchise.

Daniel Mindel:  The film's cinematographer appears as a doctor talking to Julia in the hospital.

Buster Reeves:  appears as the gunman who is shot out the window.

J.J. Abrams:  The director can be seen in the hospital when Ethan is looking for his wife.

When Ethan wakes up tied to the chair and Brownway shoots the charge up his nose, the hand seen holding the gun to Tom Cruise's nose is not Eddie Marsan's, but Cruise's own hand. The same goes later when Musgrave puts the phone to Ethan's ear, then Ethan bites Musgrave's hand. The hand that Cruise bit was not Billy Crudup's, but again was his own hand.