More than almost any other franchise, the Mission: Impossible series thrives on stringing together action set pieces that have the ability to leave an audience simultaneously thrilled and awestruck. Some cause you to hold your breath while others leave you gasping for it, and if you ask me that is what makes the series so much fun to watch.
Like its predecessors Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation features several such set pieces, even stringing together three in a row at one point, and each is so unique and impressively crafted that it could be difficult to pick a true favorite.
But for my money there isn’t a single sequence in the movie better than the one that takes place at the State Opera House in Vienna, during which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) stalks quietly through the rafters high above the opera stage and tries to foil an assassination plot without disturbing the environment below. The scene combines heights, spatial geography, character silence and action in a way that harkens back to Brian De Palma‘s first Mission film and namely its famous Langley break-in scene — often considered among the franchise’s best set pieces.
In the video below from The New York Times, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie narrates the Vienna sequence, explaining what went into shooting the scene itself, how it informs the story of Rogue Nation and how he hoped it would play for audiences once they saw it on the big screen.
Additionally, Jeff Goldsmith had both Cruise and McQuarrie on his “Q&A Podcast” to discuss the movie and all its big set pieces, including the Vienna State Opera scene, and you can check that out here if you so choose. It’s almost two hours long but extremely informative and well worth listening to, especially if you enjoyed Rogue Nation.
