Much of the third act of Dead Reckoning, Part One takes place in and around the speeding Orient Express train, including a sequence that features a bridge explosion causing the runaway train to plummet into the river below.
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Feature Film Sequence
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One: Train/Bridge Sequence
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)
The scene was shot using partial train carriage set pieces that allowed the actors to believably perform the stunts. The replica Orient Express carriages used for shooting were often either extended or replaced with high-detail CG carriages for both interior and exterior shots. The environments are fully digital, and highly detailed stone and ballast FX simulations were developed for the bridge crumbling.
Our digital environment artists provided both extremely close-up and full terrain replacement builds to match the beautiful, forested Norwegian valley. Complex array FX elements were required for the bridge demolition with the team splitting the bridge into individual bricks and providing full-scale fluid and rigid body destruction simulations.
Inside the bar carriage, FX artists simulated a wide away of falling furniture, dishes, dangling curtains, and other carriage contents which collected at the bottom end of the hanging carriage. A full destruction simulation was needed for when a grand piano finally falls and crashes through the bottom of the carriage sending all the contents splashing into the digital river far below.
Destruction, trains, dust simulation and bridge were all rendered together to push realism. Finishing touches such as flare, element breakup, and volumetric light rays in dust were carefully catered to emulate photorealism and match to the set of lenses used by the director of photography.
Crew
David Dally (VFX Supervisor), Arwen Munro (Producer), Matt Middleton (CG Supervisor), Dan Breckwoldt (2D Supervisor), Nic Caillier (2D Supervisor), Kiki Teo (Lead Digital Artists), Phillip Welle (Layout Supervisors), Kolby Krook (Lead Digital Artists), Jacob Santamaria (FX Supervisors), Matt Ebb (Lead Digital Artists), Norberto Ritter (Generalist Supervisors), Vivian David (Lead Digital Artists), Naren Naidoo (Digital Paint & Roto Supervisors), Kai Hsin Chin (Lead Digital Artists)
Software
Zeno (ILM Proprietary), Maya, Houdini, Katana, RenderMan, Nuke, Avid