On quite a few occasions I have noticed contrails that appeared to be rising vertically from the horizon. At first I thought they might be fighter jets rising at very steep angles, but I figured out that this is how distant level-flying passenger planes often appear, due to the curvature of the Earth. Even when you know what is causing the effect, it is still a very convincing illusion.
You are more likely to see this if you drive along a highway beneath a common flight path, at a point where most flights are high enough to have contrails.
some would have looked a lot like a missile launch in a still pic of them. I have never once seen a contrail and thought to myself, even for a moment, "hmmmm, that looks like a missile!"
But you just said that some did look sort of like missiles.
Let's face it, there are going to be cases where a still pic or a very short, distant video will not be sufficient to tell these two things apart.
I said only in a still pic of it.