Jim Phelps

Jim Phelps
Jim Phelps in 2014
Some attributes
First	Born March 12th, 1932 (82 years old)
Second	IMF Field Team Leader
Third
Other attributes
Fourth	Unnamed parents Claire Williams-Phelps (wife, deceased) Ethan Hunt (protege/enemy)

James "Jim" Phelps was the Director of the Impossible Missions Force and the "captain" of its most reliable "mission team" for several years. As the IMF leader, it was his job to plan out the missions that his team would accomplish, considering all known, suspected, or possible angles. If anything failed to go according to plan during the mission, Phelps was quick enough to improvise so that the objective could still be obtained. The original protagonist of the series, Phelps is the hidden main antagonist.

Biography

Early Life

James Phelps was born on Mrach 12th, 1932. Joining the USA army in 1953 at the age of twenty-one, he fought in the Korean War for Pan American Airlines before entering goverment service.

Phelps joined the Impossible Missions Force in 1959 at the age of twenty-seven. In 1963 during the Cold War, Phelps was sent by Daniel "Dan" Briggs to infiltrate the terrorist organization the Black Arms on a cargo ship. During the mission, Briggs was murdered. After defeating the Black Arms, Jim was appointed as the IMF team leader.

By 1973, Phelps and his team battled against a terroist organization called The Syndicate. Phelps also became an associate to Theodore Brassel and Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich. He also befriended Franz Kreiger.

By this time, he has married a much younger woman named Claire Williams, and has been given an entirely new team.

Apparent Betrayal

In 1994, Jim was captured by The Syndicate. He was replaced with a Syndicate member Roderick Quinn who used reconstructive surgery to get Jim's appearance. By 1996, Quinn portrayed a Phelps who became disillusioned as he believes he is no longer necessary, despite having served his country for over four decades.

Finally snapping, "Phelps" convinces Claire to go along with his plan to sell sensitive IMF information to an arms dealer, Max, for a large sum of money. He is almost caught, but manages to kill off his team during a Prague mission to stop the theft of a non-official cover (NOC) list of the IMF (which is later revealed to be a mole hunt) and frame rookie team member Ethan Hunt, who looks up to Phelps as a father figure.

For the job, Quinn hires Phelps' old friend Franz Krieger to help carry out the murders. In the end, "Phelps", Claire, and Krieger successfully kill off three of their teammates as well as their target. During this, Phelps manages to fake his own death by getting shot and falling off a bridge.

Phelps then has Claire return to use her charms on Ethan, who has been successfully framed for the murders, as well as being the mole. Ethan concocts a plan to avenge the rest of the team and clear his own name by catching the real mole and stopping him, as well as Max. As the NOC list the team recovered in Prague was a fake, Hunt decides to steal the real list in order to draw the mole out of hiding. After making a deal with Max in exchange for some money, Ethan hires a couple disavowed agents for his mission. He chooses computer expert Luther Stickell, while Claire "suggests" Krieger.

After Ethan's plan succeeds, the IMF has his family framed for drug trafficking. After Hunt uses a payphone to alert the IMF of where he is (London), Phelps reveals himself to Ethan, claiming he survived getting shot. He then names IMF Director Kittridge as the mole. However, Phelps had underestimated Ethan, who is able to quickly determine that Phelps himself is the mole, and that he hired Krieger to pull off the murders, though he remains unsure if Claire was involved. When Hunt asks why "Kittridge" would do such a thing, Phelps uses his own reason: that he had believed he was becoming "a worthless piece of hardware not worth upgrading" due to the end of the Cold War. Hunt returns to the hotel his team is using for a temporary base of operations and, clearly distressed over what he has learned, lets Claire seduce him.

The next day, aboard a high-speed train, Phelps, realizing Ethan likely figured him out, hides as he watches Hunt reveal that Claire was in fact in on the treason. By this time, Hunt has given Max the real NOC list and is having Stickell use a jamming device to prevent Max from uploading it. After a tense standoff in one of the rear luggage cars (during which Phelps takes the money from Ethan), Claire reveals she feels guilty about what she has done and tries to prevent Phelps from killing Hunt, causing Phelps to kill her instead. An enraged Ethan then gives chase to Phelps, who is using suction cups to make his way along the top of the train to the end, where Krieger is flying a helicopter to make their escape.

During the fight, Ethan manages to hook the tether of the helicopter to the train, forcing Krieger to pilot the copter into the Channel tunnel. After freeing the tether, "Phelps" motions for Krieger to simply pick him up with the bottom of the copter. However, Ethan hops onto the copter as well, and plants a piece of exploding chewing gum (a relic of the Prague mission) onto the copter, before jumping back onto the train. The gum causing an explosion which kills Krieger, and causes the copter to fall onto "Phelps", crushing him.

Return

Soon after taking Solomon Lane to custody, Ethan vists Nyah Nordoff-Hall's grave. Ethan hears a familiar voice to Jim saying, "It's been a long time, Ethan." Ethan turns around only to see a surprisingly alive Phelps; the Jim Phelps that Ethan killed 18 years ago was not the real Phelps, it was Roderick Quinn disguised as Phelps, and the real Phelps had been a good person all along. That is why the Syndicate wanted to eliminate the IMF. Ethan is surprised by this.

Skills

Phelps is a skilled IMF spy. Due to his experience in the Korean War, Phelps is able sneak behind enemy lines. Phelps is a master of disguises, stealth and tactical espionage action. Phelps is well trained in martial arts, havning been taught in Eskrima, Karate and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.

The Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP pistol, Jim's sidearm

Phelps is shown a handcase in using weapons, but his weapon of choice is the Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol, which he hold it since 1963.