Looking for ideas for a Mission Impossible Party for adults or teens? Well, you have come to the right place!  Our son wanted a party for his 18th birthday that would be unique and challenging. So, we came up with this spy-themed Mission Impossible party. It was fun to plan and everyone had a great time. They especially loved all the training missions.

Mission Impossible Party

Invitation

We made a simple invitation on Canva telling people to meet at our house at a specific time and to come in disguise.  We emphasized that this was not an open house (like many parties). They actually needed to be on time or they would get left behind. It looked something like this:

Welcome

Once the guests arrived, we divided them into teams. Each team needed to be able to fit in one vehicle, so our teams had 5-6 people in each.  We explained the rules to the entire group before we began.  Whenever they accomplished a task throughout the night, they were to leave the scene exactly as they found it, only taking envelopes with their team marker on them.  We gave them the time they should return and a phone number they could call if they got stumped.  Then, we gave them each a letter and a bag of supplies, and the race began!

Opening Letter

The TV show of “Mission Impossible” always began with a recording that would then self destruct. That would be fun if you can manage it, but we just gave our groups this letter.

Good evening, Mr. Hunt. I hope you’re feeling well-rested because tonight’s assignment is quite arduous. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to collect six pieces of a puzzle that will lead to the identity of an incredibly dangerous double-agent.

Because of the severity of this threat, we have several IMF teams working on the case tonight. In addition to solving the case, you also need to complete as many training missions as possible. Success in these tasks will distinguish your team as the best and brightest. (See list on the reverse side of this sheet.)

As every spy knows, good spy work takes time. There are no bonus points for finishing early. However, there is a deadline. You must return to home base in 90 minutes.

As always, should any member of your team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions.

Good luck.

——————-

Our letter included a scorecard for keeping track of the team’s points. On the reverse side, we printed all the training missions.  Click here for a PDF of our documents: Mission Impossible Clues.    The goal was two-fold:

1. Find six puzzle pieces by following the clues and collecting the envelopes marked with your team’s color.
2.  Get as many bonus points as you can by completing training missions (listed on the reverse side of the letter).

Training Missions

I’m going to start by listing the training missions we used. These were really fun and you could add more if you want your event to last longer.  You could even simplify the party by only using these challenges and not doing the treasure hunt for puzzle pieces at all.

1. Video of a 30-second chase scene on foot.
2. Video of a stranger humming or singing the “Mission Impossible” theme song.
3. Go to the home of a person on another team and steal a framed photo of  them from their house. Bring photo back to headquarters after mission. (This was especially hilarious.)
4. Photo of your team in an elevator
5. Secretly take a photo of another team. They cannot know you took the photo.
6. Video of your team all doing a handstand at the same time. (One person can be the photographer.)
7. Photos of Motorcycles (2 points for each one)
8. Photo/Video of a member of your team with any kind of fire or explosion.
9. Leave ransom in brown paper bag (re: Fluffy) on doorstep of a friend, ring the doorbell and run.
10. Film your team frantically running through a  parking lot.
11. Video your team in a 30-second fake fist fight or mixed martial arts battle. No injuries or you lose your points!
12. Photo of team in front of a police department or patrol car.
13. Kidnap the mom, dad, or grandparent of someone on another team. Drive them around the block and return them to their home. Make sure you take a photo or video with them.
14. Detonate a Mentos bomb in a safe place. Video it.
15. Photo of team in front of graffiti art

I assigned points to each training mission based on difficulty. If they needed supplies to complete a mission, we included all those things in a bag we gave them at the beginning of the event.

Treasure Hunt

The other part of our Mission Impossible challenge is a treasure hunt. This involves figuring out a clue which leads you to another clue and then to another until you find  the treasure.  At each location, teams would find a package with an envelope marked for each team. The envelopes contained clues for the treasure hunt and puzzle pieces that they would combine with other pieces at the end of the night to solve the case. Our clues took our Mission Impossible agents to a cemetery, park, bookstore, bike shop, statue in the park, and our backyard. Here are the different clues and challenges we used.

Target Practice

We taped several boxes to a board that, when hit with a rock, fell backward and revealed a letter. Our spies had to use sling shots to knock enough boxes over to decipher the clue. Our boxes spelled WHEELBARROW. They then looked around the yard for a wheelbarrow where they found a box that contained the envelopes with the next clue.

Digging for Treasure

One envelope contained a map of a nearby forest/field. The spies had to followed the map and found a shovel and a pile of dirt. They dug until they hit a box. Everyone thought this was pretty funny.  They pulled their envelope out of the box and then reburied the box.  Here’s our map:  Mission Impossible Map

Quiz

We put a quiz in one of the envelopes. Once completed, the next clue was revealed.  Here’s our quiz:  Movie and Book Quiz

You’ll see that the answer to our quiz was “Chief Wasatch”. This is a statue in one of our city parks.  If a team didn’t know the name of the statue, I knew that it was easily searchable online.

Photo of a Landmark

One of your clues can be a simple photo of a landmark in your city. If you can, make it obscure enough to be a challenge but searchable online with the right description. We used this photo of a grave shaped like a bed in our local cemetery.

Book Cipher

Have you heard of an Arnold Cipher? To write one, you only need a book. This is a fun cipher to hide in a library or a book store.  You then list the page number, line number, word number, and letter number. Here is the clue we gave:

The Giver

Lois Lowry

B&N

Arnold Cipher

33.8.7.1

33.2.2.2

33.4.2.2

33.4.8.4

33.1.1.5

33.1.10

With this information, the teams went to Barnes and Noble, found a copy of “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, deciphered the letters spelling JERKS and BICYCLE.  This led them to a local bike shop.

Hidden Message

At the bike shop, we wrote a phone number in chalk on the sidewalk. It took a bit of searching to find it. We probably made ours too hard, so make sure it’s possible to find. They called this number for their next clue, which was the address of our home (location of the backyard shooting range.)  This completed the circle of clues. Each team started with a different clue so they weren’t all traveling the same route.

Final Notes

A huge thank you to Janssen for her post with Mission Impossible party ideas on everyday-reading.com. We got some great ideas, including the ransom note for Fluffy, from her post.

I apologize for not having more photos. We were having too much fun to take pictures. And I forgot to ask the teams to share them with me after they returned to the house. Oh, well! Hopefully I’ve given you enough information to create a great event with your family or friends. Good luck completing your own impossible mission!