How ‘Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning’ Pulled Off that Epic Train Scene: ‘Getting All of the Paperwork Through Was Huge’

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s” infamous train scene was meant to take place aboard the Orient Express, as it roars through the Swiss Alps; which for production is a big request if you’re not shooting on location. “We scouted a few places and ended up in Norway,” says the film’s cinematographer Fraser Taggart who also worked on “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.” For practicality, Norway ended up being the perfect location.

Not only did Taggart have a good relationship with Norway after “we filmed ‘Fallout’ there, the train scene and location needed to work with the motorcycle jump, but we found a railway in Norway from where we were going to shoot the motorcycle jump, and it all worked out.” In the film, Tom Cruise performed a stunt that has been billed as the most death-defying one of his acting career thus far.

He rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and then parachutes to safety while in free fall. On top of that, there would be a fight atop the moving steam engine.

Taggart says the Norwegian government had questions. “No one wants you to go on a national railway and say, ‘We’re going to fight on top of a train while going through a mountainside.