All the Mission Impossible tech that actually exists

Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is out on yet another adventure filled with death-defying stunts, drool-worthy cars, and yes, futuristic technologies. We’ve come a long way from Cruise infiltrating a CIA vault suspended from a wire in the first Mission Impossible movie. And with every new installment, the makers have introduced gadgets and technology that border on science fiction. 

As we know it, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part 1 doesn’t entirely venture into the realm of science fiction. With AI as the antagonist, Mission Impossible 7 could well be near future than science fiction. That being said, sci-fi films have always served as inspirations to real inventions. Think of the translating ‘Babelfish’ from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or the tablet computer from the 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mission Impossible is no exception, and over time, some of the franchise’s tech has indeed come to life. 

Hacking facial recognition

In MI7, intelligence services use facial recognition tech to track down Cruise at the Abu Dhabi Airport. But every time they think that they’ve found him, it turns out to be someone else. This is thanks to a nifty trick pulled off by Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames).   

ALSO READ: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – 4DX or IMAX?

While facial recognition is now being used by most security services worldwide, hacking a real-time feed is still borderline sci-fi. That said, with the advent of deepfake (something Tom Cruise knows too well) it is possible to alter or blur out someone’s face in CCTV records.

Using masks as disguise

If there was a tech synonymous with the MI series, it is the actors using a hyper-realistic mask to impersonate someone. We saw it in the TV series preceding the movies, and it has continued to improve with every new MI movie.  

Thanks to the efforts of makeup experts, latex masks in reality have reached a level that borders on realism. A quick scan online shows up instances of people using masks successfully disguise themselves for some time, before being found out. Back in 2010, a man wearing an old man’s mask managed to board a flight to Canada. But, he was eventually caught when someone noticed his ‘young hands’.

Altering one’s voice

The spies of the MI universe can further disguise themselves by impersonating someone’s voice. But in reality, it is not as easy sticking a circuitry-embedded strip over one’s throat. We are a few years away from altering our own voice in real-time, but using Artificial Intelligence it is now possible to digitally use someone’s voice.  

Take for instance, DJ David Guetta using AI to generate Eminem’s voice and lyrics for his track. AI has also been used to create ‘one last Beatles song’, which is set to release later this year. The makers are using AI to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo for this record.

Smart contact lenses

An interesting piece of tech seen in Ghost Protocol was contact lenses capable of performing facial recognition. We get to see the IMF agents scan crowds and identify faces, as well as capture images of nuclear launch codes and send them to a briefcase printer. Convenient, aren’t they? But are they real? 

In reality, facial recognition via a wearable is possible with Google Glass. Though the company doesn’t officially support it due to it being a privacy nightmare. Google is also said to have invented smart contact lenses that could help someone with visual impairments ‘see’, and also in theory, perform facial recognition. Even companies like Sony and Samsung own patents for smart contact lenses.

Surface computers with touchscreens

It may not be the most alien piece of tech in this list, but in Ghost Protocol, we see Cruise use a touchscreen computer-table. Such large touchscreen computers are available today in the form of Microsoft PixelSense or even the original Microsoft Surface. This device is basically a multitouch computing surface that is capable of recognising various hand gestures and even certain types of objects kept on the surface.

Gecko climbing gear

It’s hard not to feel a tingle down your spine when watching Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa with nothing but a pair of electronically-powered gloves in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Though we are unlikely to see adventure seekers climb tall structures wearing a pair of gloves anytime soon, the so-called gecko gloves are theoretically possible.  

In fact, NASA has developed a robotic gecko gripper, which was tested on the International Space Station (ISS). The gripper grasps to surfaces using an adhesive that is inspired by the pads of a gecko’s feet. 

Image sources: Skydance, NASA