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The Impossible Missions Force (IMF) is a fictional independent espionage agency commonly employed by the U.S. government. It was introduced in the 1966-73 television series Mission: Impossible, and later in a revival series that ran from 1988 to 1990. Beginning in 1996, the IMF has been featured in three theatrical films starring Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible II, and Mission: Impossible III.

As depicted in the original series, IMF agents were mostly part-time operatives who kept regular day jobs. Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) was a performer and "The Man Of A Million Faces," Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain) was a fashion model, Barney Collier (Greg Morris) had founded an electronics company, and Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus) was a bodybuilder. Others included doctors, lawyers, and even circus acrobats. The only "full-time" member identified was the team leader, presumably with the title of Director. In the first season of the original series, this is Dan Briggs; starting in the second season and continuing into the revival series, the team leader is Jim Phelps. Phelps is also depicted as the leader of the IMF team in the first Mission: Impossible film; however, the movies do not keep continuity with the television series. In the second and third films, the team leader is Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise).

IMF agents are sent on covert missions to tackle the dangerous world of counterterrorism, espionage and international crime. They operate under non-official cover status, and if they are captured or killed, the U.S. government will disavow any knowledge of their actions. The two television series never directly specify which branch of the government oversees the IMF. In the secret tape messages issued to the team leaders, reference is made to a Secretary, but exactly which Secretary is never specified. The IMF team leader is also given the option to reject a mission with which he does not feel comfortable or if he believes it truly is impossible to accomplish. This has not yet been shown to happen in either television series or any of the movies.

In the television series, the IMF operates primarily by playing con games with its mission targets. In that manner, its agents are able to deceive their mission targets into cooperating with them without realizing that they had been set up till after it is already too late; by that time, the IMF has already vanished from the scene.

In the 1980s revival series, the IMF is implied to be an independent agency, with multiple IMF teams as well as specialized divisions.

In the 1996 film Mission: Impossible the IMF is actually a black ops division of the Central Intelligence Agency. In Mission: Impossible II, it's not clear to whom IMF answers if anyone, though it is implied it is connected to a larger worldwide network, and all three films include agents of various nationalities other than American. In Mission: Impossible III, IMF is indeed identified as the independent agency (whose majority of agents front as Virginia Department of Transportation employees) of the television series, but is referred to by Hunt as the 'Impossible Mission Force'.

• Patrick J. White, The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier. New York: Avon Books, 1991.

• MSNBC article on the Impossible Missions Force