CIA Boss Says Some ‘Mission: Impossible’ Tech Is Real

Much of the razzle-dazzle in the Mission: Impossible movies, including the new Final Reckoning, defies gravity and logic – but the CIA’s former disguise chief is ripping the veil off what the franchise gets right in the world of high-stakes spycraft, Knewz.com can reveal. Jonna Mendez, 80, said the famous M:I “mask reveals” – where star Tom Cruise and sometimes other actors rip utterly lifelike masks off their faces – have roots in real-life spying techniques: “The idea of a mask that you could quickly put on, quickly take off, was very real,” she said. “We used it with some discretion, but we used it when we needed it and got great results.”

Mendez, an international agent who spent 27 years undercover and went on to become the CIA’s chief of disguise, even fooled then-President George H.W. Bush and a roomful of high-ranking government bigwigs by attending a White House meeting where no one was the wiser – until she tore away a hyperrealistic mask that had concealed her age, skin color and expression. “No one had any idea until I took it off,” she said, adding that although the CIA masks were not built to last long, an agent could easily put one on in as little as 10 seconds, even “in a parking garage without a mirror in the dark.” In the M:I movies, Cruise – who performs many of his own daredevil stunts as agent Ethan Hunt – has numerous scenes in which he passes for someone else so well that not even the most sharp-eyed fan sees the “peel-off” coming.

Mendez says it lines up with her experiences in espionage, including with masks designed to change gender and ethnicity. “You would not notice unless you told a really hysterical joke and the person couldn’t laugh hysterically,” she said, noting that the masks weren’t mobile enough for a broad smile. The spy expert is iffy, however, when it comes to the M:I self-destructing messages: “I don’t know that we’ve tried that,” she said cagily, adding, “There are many ways to convey a message. The exploding machine is only one.”