50 Fun Facts About Alias

Which Alias star did the real CIA enlist in 2003 to front a recruitment video shown at college campuses?

Jennifer Garner was chosen because, an officer said, she and Sydney Bristow reflected the qualities the agency wanted in new field officers.

Which future Oscar-nominated actor got his television break as reporter Will Tippin in Alias?

Bradley Cooper played Will for the first two seasons; frustrated by his shrinking screen time, he asked to be written out and briefly considered quitting acting.

Which film director guest-starred in Alias as McKenas Cole, the gunman who takes SD-6 hostage?

Quentin Tarantino played the vengeful former SD-6 agent in a two-part season 1 story, then returned in season 3 as a Covenant leader.

Which former James Bond actor guest-starred in Alias season 1 as Alliance leader Edward Poole?

Roger Moore played the head of SD-9, who talks Arvin Sloane into killing a fellow Alliance director to swing a vote.

Which creator of Alias also composed the show's opening theme music and directed the pilot himself?

J. J. Abrams wrote and directed both the first and the last episode of season 1, bookending the year himself.

The Alias episode Phase One, in which SD-6 is destroyed, aired straight after which 2003 sporting event?

The Super Bowl slot drew 17.4 million viewers, the biggest audience Alias ever had, though a 40-minute post-game show delayed its start.

Alias grew from its creator imagining the heroine of which college drama being recruited as a spy?

Felicity was the series he was writing when the idea struck: a student who finds hidden strength and cannot tell her friends about her secret job.

Which bank's building in downtown Los Angeles hides the headquarters of SD-6 in Alias?

Credit Dauphine also gave Sydney her cover story: she posed as a bank employee whose job kept sending her abroad.

What does Arvin Sloane gain from Rambaldi's work in the Alias finale, moments before being trapped forever?

Immortality becomes his punishment: a dying Jack Bristow sets off a bomb that seals Sloane inside Rambaldi's tomb for eternity.

In Alias, which foreign spy agency did Sydney's mother secretly serve while married to Jack Bristow?

The KGB sent her to America to seduce and marry Jack so that she could steal details of a secret project he was developing.

Which fiancé of Sydney Bristow is murdered by SD-6 in the Alias pilot after learning her secret?

Danny Hecht, a children's heart doctor, had just proposed; his killing turns Sydney against SD-6 for good.

In which Asian city does Sydney Bristow seize a Rambaldi prototype in the Alias pilot?

Taipei is where she grabs the device; handing it to Sloane wins back his trust and lets her begin life as a double agent.

What subject is Sydney Bristow studying as a graduate student in Los Angeles when Alias begins?

English ran in the family: her mother's cover while spying on Sydney's father was a job as a literature professor.

In Alias, how was Sydney Bristow told as a child that her mother Laura had died?

A car accident was staged when Sydney was six, letting her mother vanish just as the FBI began to investigate her.

Which crime boss's nickname hides Sydney Bristow's mother until the end of Alias season 1?

The Man was assumed by SD-6 to be a Paris nightclub owner named Khasinau, who proves to be only the second-in-command.

Which rival agent, played by Gina Torres, battles Sydney Bristow for Rambaldi relics in Alias?

Anna Espinosa, born in Cuba and raised in Russia, has Rambaldi's eye symbol tattooed on her hand as a mark of devotion.

Which rival outfit of former Eastern bloc spies competes with SD-6 in Alias season 1?

K-Directorate races SD-6 for Rambaldi's relics all season, until a crime boss destroys it and seizes its assets.

Which SD-6 tech genius builds the gadgets Sydney Bristow carries on her missions in Alias?

Marshall Flinkman loves needless visual aids in his briefings, once playing a full drum kit to make a point.

Which SD-6 field partner of Sydney Bristow in Alias has no idea the agency is not the real CIA?

Marcus Dixon, a former Recon Marine, doubts Sydney's loyalty during season 1 and only hears the truth from her in season 2.

Which CIA handler of Sydney Bristow in Alias learns that her mother killed his father?

Michael Vaughn's father was one of several CIA officers she killed, a trail that at first makes him suspect Jack Bristow.

Which Canadian actor earned three straight Emmy nominations as Jack Bristow, Sydney's father, in Alias?

Victor Garber's nationality rubbed off on the role: the official Alias magazine gives Jack Bristow a Canadian birthplace too.

Which Tony-winning actor played scheming SD-6 chief Arvin Sloane in every season of Alias?

Ron Rifkin won his Tony as Herr Schultz in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, three years before Alias began.

Which actor played Sydney Bristow's CIA handler and eventual husband in all five seasons of Alias?

Michael Vartan was born near Paris, and his character speaks French too, even working as a French teacher for a while.

Which Swedish actress joined Alias in season 2 as Sydney Bristow's long-lost mother?

Lena Olin made it her first American television role, and it brought her an Emmy nomination in 2003.

In Alias, CIA agent Eric Weiss is said to descend from which famous real-life magician?

Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss, so the agent's own name is the clue to his famous ancestor.

Which actor played FBI man Kendall in Alias before starring as John Locke in Lost?

Terry O'Quinn first appears leading the FBI panel that interrogates Sydney over a Rambaldi prophecy in season 1.

Which notorious real-life hacker made a cameo in Alias season 1 as a CIA agent planting a computer worm?

Kevin Mitnick played Agent Burnett while on supervised release from prison, a term that at first barred him from most communications technology.

Which British comedy star guest-starred in Alias season 3 as the bomb-maker Daniel Ryan?

Ricky Gervais played it straight: his character sets off a bomb in Belfast to prove his devices cannot be disarmed.

Which composer scored Alias after the show's creator discovered him through his video game music?

Michael Giacchino had scored the Medal of Honor games, and he stayed with the same producer for Lost and Fringe.

Which production company, later behind Lost and Fringe, made Alias with Touchstone Television?

Bad Robot signs off its shows with a red robot running through a meadow, voiced by two of its founder's children.

Which number recurs throughout Alias, marking a key page of Rambaldi's journal and a vital Alliance server?

47 marks the journal page whose prophecy shows a woman resembling Sydney, and the master server whose data brings down the Alliance.

Which CIA programme designed by Jack Bristow in Alias trained children, Sydney among them, as future spies?

Project Christmas left Sydney with no memory of her training, yet it later made her immune to brainwashing by her captors.

Which Rambaldi machine in Alias drives the people of a Russian city to violent rage in season 4?

The Mueller device is named for Oskar Mueller, who built it to Rambaldi's design; Sydney destroys the giant version herself.

In Alias, the SD in SD-6 stands for which French phrase coined by the Alliance's founder?

Section Disparu literally means the section that has disappeared, apt for a cell hidden six levels beneath a bank.

Which illness is Arvin Sloane's wife Emily fighting in Alias season 1 when she admits knowing about SD-6?

Lymphoma buys her time: Sloane pleads that the disease will kill her anyway, then has to fake her death when she goes into remission.

Where does Sydney Bristow go undercover in Alias season 1 to reach Shepard, a programmed assassin?

A mental institution in Bucharest holds Shepard, who proves to have been brainwashed by SD-6 into killing her fiancé.

Which villain played by David Anders debuts in Alias season 1 as the envoy of a mysterious crime boss?

Julian Sark shifts loyalties whenever it keeps him alive, and inherits $800 million in gold from his Romanov-descended father.

What happens to Sydney Bristow's reporter friend Will Tippin at the start of Alias season 3?

He enters witness protection after surviving an attack by an impostor, returning only for occasional guest appearances.

The fictional prophet Milo Rambaldi of Alias was inspired by Nostradamus and which real Renaissance figure?

Leonardo da Vinci's way of recording his work is echoed directly in Rambaldi's artistic-looking, coded manuscripts.

What is the title of the Alias pilot, in which Sydney Bristow learns who really runs SD-6?

Truth Be Told is the exception to a house style: later episodes often hold their title credits back until well into the plot.

Which episode closes Alias season 1, with Will Tippin held hostage and a Rambaldi device to destroy?

Almost Thirty Years also sees Jack Bristow kill a CIA mole, a secret that an Alliance investigator turns against him in season 2.

Which CIA call sign does Sydney's father, Jack Bristow, answer to in Alias?

Raptor suits a father the show paints as exceptionally ruthless; his daughter answers to gentler names such as Bluebird and Mountaineer.

Which best friend and roommate of Sydney Bristow in Alias is murdered and replaced by a lookalike assassin?

Francie Calfo's actress, Merrin Dungey, secretly trained with a champion kickboxer to play the killer who takes her place.

In which city does Sydney Bristow wake at the end of Alias season 2, with two years of her life missing?

Hong Kong is where she learns that everyone believed her dead and that the agent she loves has married someone else.

Under which name did the Covenant try to brainwash Sydney Bristow into becoming an assassin in Alias?

Julia Thorne never fully took hold, and Sydney later chose to erase her own memory of those two years.

Which half-sister of Sydney Bristow in Alias is the daughter of Arvin Sloane and Sydney's mother?

Nadia Santos worked for Argentine intelligence before the story revealed her as the Passenger, a living link to Rambaldi.

Where is the headquarters of the black-ops unit APO hidden in Alias season 4?

In the subway system, behind a maintenance door marked Authorized Personnel Only: Sloane named the unit after the sign as an inside joke.

What name does Sydney Bristow give the daughter she delivers mid-mission in Alias season 5?

Isabelle is born during a mission at a Vancouver bank, under attack, with Sydney's own mother and father helping to deliver her.

Which NSC liaison marries Sydney Bristow's handler in Alias and proves to be a Covenant double agent?

Lauren Reed was planted to watch him in case Sydney made contact; he finally shoots her to save Sydney's life.

Which Oscar-winning actress guest-starred in Alias season 2 as Alliance investigator Ariana Kane?

Faye Dunaway's character arrives to probe the disappearance of Sloane's wife and ends up hunting a fugitive Jack Bristow.