“Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” like the other films in this franchise starring Tom Cruise, weaves a handful of complex action set pieces into its narrative. But one with a significant number of moving parts takes place at the Vienna opera house and involves action in the rafters, high above the stage. In this video, and in an interview, the film’s writer and director, Christopher McQuarrie, discussed elements of the scene.

Would you consider the opera scene the most complicated to shoot for this film?

Every action sequence in “Rogue Nation” was complicated for its own special reasons. The opera was probably the most complicated in terms of the sheer amount of time that it took to shoot.

Was it mostly shot at the actual location?

We were only allowed to use the Vienna opera house for a short period of time. And so the only way for us to complete the sequence was actually to build the stage and the backstage at a sound stage in London. All of the sets were constructed by us and are not a part of the opera house.

Tell me about the cast performing in the opera.

Every one of the people we cast in the opera itself had experience singing opera. They were all aspiring opera singers. They had to be able to look as though they really were singing opera. They also had to have the right physicality.