✨Lifetree✨

I think I'm gonna cover this by the order they showed up in the film, so for the start we have: opera tickets.

(The nerd me would say that probably it would never be "Vienna Opera" on the flyer, if it had to be in English it should be Vienna State Opera. I wondered if it's because of license problems, but on the ticket there's clearly the logo and name. Who knows, maybe it looks nicer)

I did find a picture of a 2019 ticket that looks fairly the same.

And then the subway station! Here, it was actually a movie trickery because there are actually 2 subway stations involved here.

The first one is the Schottenring station, where the underground part of this sequence is filmed

It was really weird to go to this subway station and. not get on any train but just taking pictures everywhere.

I only realized this was the wrong side of the tunnel as I'm checking the photos now. Very sad but you get the idea

But the most iconic part of this station is probably these stunning X-shaped frames

Judging from the angle I think I was at the exact location where the camera rolls

Schottenring is an exchange station where Benji went from the purple-colored U2 line to the green-colored U4 line

This was also the wrong side of the platform. I am stupid

Which is actually very funny because he should be going the other way around! I mean, the trickery here is trying to make it look like he exited from this exact station, but if he'd just gone the other way around (from U4 to U2), it would actually be the correct way to go to the opera.

The station where Benji actually exited was the Karlsplatz station, you can see the reflection of the signs on the wall

Which is why I said if he'd gone the other way around, it would've made total sense because you can literally see he got out of the train that was actually heading for Karlsplatz XD

The actual underground part of Karlsplatz is a very cozy market sort of thing, so they probably want something more in line with the vibe of the film (like the super cool X frames

There was also a funny guide that roasted Benji for going straight across this very busy main road instead of taking the pedestrian crossing right next to this exit

And now... we are in(hacker voice

(If you are not a super spy, then there are two ways to get into the opera: either by having an opera ticket, or you can take a guided tour. You have more freedom to wander around in the building if you just get an opera ticket, and they have standing tickets every day for less than 20 euros. But the off-season is in the summer, so during that time only the guided tours are available)

And then the first thing I did was. Get to the Nice Tux™️corner.

There is one thing that isn't really obvious in the picture, and that is these two spots are SO CLOSE. The camera lenses make it look very far away but I think the direct distance can't be more than 10m. I'm pretty sure if Ethan just jumped from that place he could have landed on Benji

Also I've been telling my friends via this diagram that there's no way Ethan could escape Benji's notice unless he just hid behind this column. This will be my mental picture of this scene from now on

Another thing if you haven't noticed already... after 12 years it's still the same carpet

This staircase is slightly harder to find because it was not directly accessible from the ground floor. But very luckily, there was no trickery in filming the interior structure of the opera building (excluding everything involving the backstage), which means I was able to find this place by locating Ethan's booth first and walking backwards

This door actually leads to this booth which is not something often happens in movies

But I'm 80% sure this door Ethan went in later is actually the door to the toilet.

The lighting booth is supposed to be one floor higher; in the film it took over all of the best, most expensive central seats, where in real life the chancellor should be (which is also slightly funny if you think about it

The Ilsa corner, as I call it, is on the top floor

Which kind of explains why Ethan could find her so quick as his booth was also on the top of the building. And only now did I realize that there is some sense to the roof escape route; since his booth is on higher floors then it makes a lot of sense to go even higher up.

But as I've been there myself, I think the staircases are really a labyrinth. I think it's totally possible to escape by switching different stairs on different floors but what are you talking about this is mission impossible we are not using stairs unless we are in a car chase

I've exceeded the 30 pic limit, but another funny thing is that there's a cafe right next to the place where Ethan and Ilsa slide down. Imagine you are just having a lovely piece of Sachertorte and these two people just dropped in front of you Mary Poppins style then calmly walks away