Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire,
England, is the home to one of the largest silent stages in the world.Created to support the making of James Bond
films after the success of a temporary stage was built at the studio in 1966,
this permanent stage has priority for Bond films but it is rented out for other
film making between Bond films.A unique
feature of this stage is its large floor space and accompanying huge water
tank.Currently this stage is named
after Albert R. Broccoli who produced many James Bond films until his death so
it is known as the “Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage”.
In 1976, the first 007 Stage was completed
by building an enclosed stage around an existing 5,528 cubic meter water
tank.The enclosure was 52,275 cubic
meters.A fire in June 1984 completely burnt
the stage to the ground.After seven
months of work, it was resurrected in time to support the filming of A View to Kill.This second version of the stage remained in
service for nearly two decades until it collapsed from a fire due to gas
canisters exploding days after the completion of the filming for Casino Royal during July 2006.Extensive damage required the stage to be
completely demolished.This was not the
end for the stage but a new beginning as it was rebuilt.New improvements included increased floor
space at 5,500 square metres, enclosed stairwells, a vehicle ramp directly into
the tank and aircraft hanger’s doors to the floor area.The 2007 version of the stage is currently
the largest stage in Europe.
The 007 stage was constructed to allow
production designer Ken Adam to break new ground for the filming of A Spy Who Loved Me.Ken needed a large stage with the capacity to
allow rapid change and adaption to support water scenes.He designed a huge stage with the heavy crane
lift capability around a large water tank at Pinewood Studios.This set allowed the creation of a super
tanker interior which had the capacity to hold a three submarine bay to create
a real bigger than life Bond scene.The
usefulness of this stage resulted in its continuous use for a portion of nearly
every Bond film since its creation.
How do you know if you have seen the 007 stage
on film?That is the advantage of this
stage, you really do not know if you have seen it.Perhaps the only clue is that fact that it is
used to create bigger than life scenes.In the recent Bond films with Daniel Craig as Bond, the 007 stage showed
up as the realistic Venetian villa which crumbled into the Venetian Grand Canal
in Casino Royale.Next, in Quantum
of Solace, the interior of Perla De Las Dunas Hotel which was the setting
of Bond’s violent clash with Green was the 007 stage again.This violent clash required 50 real explosive
charges to be set off within the stage.Most recently in the movie Skyfall
, the 007 Stage was used to make a London underground train crash into a
service chamber.Two 15 ton full-size
London underground carriages were hung within the stage and brought up to speed
before dipping down into the set to create a thrilling one chance stunt to be
performed flawlessly.Most recently,
Disney has discovered the magic of the stage making scenes bigger than life and
used the stage extensively in the films Maleficent and Cinderella.The next time you see a larger than life
scene in a film you may have to thank the Bond films for creating the one of a
kind, 007 Stage which brought the audience amazing action scenes.
Casino Royale is the first book in the Bond
novel series, known as the darkest and most literary of the Ian Fleming
novels.The movie rights to this novel
were restricted until recently and the producers Michael Wilson and Barbara
Broccoli decided that they could take on the challenge of this novel’s complex
story line about a Soviet operative who squandered money and needed to win it
back desperately.To make a relevant movie for the 21st century
required an effective total reworking of the plot into the modern world of
terror networks and terroristic finances.The storyline also presented both the opportunity and the challenge of
showing how Bond became a 00 agent.The
amount of change occurring with the Bond character in this script made the
produces determine it was time to get a new actor to play James Bond.After a long four year gap in Bond films, the
result was a new film with a number of changes and a complete rebranding of
Bond.
The screenwriters wanted to have a single
film capturing the spirit of the novel while focusing on the story of how James
became James Bond, Agent 007.Martin
Campbell the director of Golden Eye
worked with screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and scriptwriter Paul
Haggis to create the filmmaker group for this complex film.This group decided on a global reaching cast selecting
English actor Daniel Craig as Bond, French actress Eva Green in the very
critical role of Vesper Lynd, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre,
Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini as Bond’s liaison, and African – American
actor Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter.The filmmakers also chose sets from around the world to also make this
film appealing to a worldwide audience.Finally the stakes for the critical poker game were raised by bringing
poker expert Thomas Sambrook to the set to teach the actors how to play
intricate Texas Hold’em Poker convincingly on the big screen which showed much
more tense strategy than the original Baccarat Poker game found in the novel.
The strategy of telling the Bond story
required perfection from both the sets and the actor.Daniel Craig undertook three months of
training to endure the physically challenging and grueling shots required to
tell the story while getting a look of a lean and dangerous man.Set designers at Pinewood’s 007 stage created
the most complex set ever built for a Bond film to replicate the interior of a
Venetian villa that crumbles into the Grand Canal by using both a full scale
set and a 1/3 size miniature on the set.Car chases in the film also involved the use of rare and expensive Aston
Martin DBS super cars performing world record stunts.All this action climaxed in the gut-wrenching
torture scene leading up to Bond losing his girl.The results was a colder Bond with a bitter
taste in his mouth regarding the death and betrayal of his girl which was
reflected in the new theme song “You Know My Name” presenting the essence of
the new Bond character.
After
creating a high stake film, Casino Royale
premiered with Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in attendance at the 60th
Royal Film Performance in November 2006.From a “royal” start, this film was accepted
by audiences around the globe to become the highest-grossing Bond film of its
time and the first Bond film to surpass $100 million at the box office.Daniel Craig was nominated for Best Actor and
he set the new standard for Bond as a harder and colder Bond in a more complex
world.
Moonraker was the title of the third novel
in the James Bond series by Ian Fleming.Although Ian provided the title, the eleventh James Bond film of 1979
was not like the 1955 book of the same title.At the time, the mid 1970’s was a period in the middle of a science
fiction craze promoted by the huge success of Star Wars.In addition, NASA
was also getting ready to launch the first space shuttle.Both the producer Albert R. Broccoli and
United Artists wanted to cash in on the science fiction trend by taking James
Bond into space with science facts mixed with science fiction fantasy.
This film was planned from the start as an
extravagant film with many expensive scenes and ideas.The total cost of the film was twice as much
as any other Bond film but the profits of the previous Bond film allowed
filming to proceed.The opening sequence
of the film showed a spectacular scene to captivate the audience where Bond was
pushed from a plane without a parachute.Cinematic technology was designed using experimental cameras and lenses
and the scene was filmed completely with live action.Now nearly three decades later, that mobile
film equipment such as the Go Pro cameras are still available at a reasonable
cost to get the same shot.Many other real
scenes were filmed around the globe in an endurance test to pack as much action
as possible into the film.Broccoli had
to film most of the live action studio scenes in Paris using every available
studio to allow the film to proceed with parallel production of movie sets
required for this complex film.The
French film industry actually stopped to allow the film production of a British
based Bond film to proceed.
Science fiction resulted in the need for
special effects and a huge amount of work making realistic miniatures at
Pinewood Studios.Derik Meddings who was
very skilled at miniature work brought his complete team to work on this
film.There were dozens of models created
from space shuttles to the space station and even customized space debris made
for individual film shots made up of many exposures.Basically the effects were being made in the
camera and not in the edit studio to create the realistic feeling of the film
being made in space.The technology in computer
processing power used many decades latter to create similar effects was not
available at the time.To make the
effects of items disintegrating in space very realistic, Derik obtained
permission to have a closed set at Pinewood so he could blow up the miniatures
with real shotguns explosions while filming.There was no room for error as there was only one chance to get the
image when the miniature set was being destroyed as it was being filmed.There was one take and one change with high
risk.The resulting effects in the film
worked so well that Derik earned an Oscar nomination for his work. With all the technical achievements and use
of extreme live action, this film proved to be popular to audiences
worldwide.Numerous box office records
were achieved by this Bond film during the summer of 1979.Roger More took James Bond to new heights
both literally in the film and in popularity.Even so this film depended once again on John Barry to score the
supporting film music to match the technology of the film.Barry created a masterpiece during the Venice
boat chase sequence using the original Bond theme for one last time during a
major film sequence.Due to the huge
cost and work of special effects, this was also the last Bond film to extensively
use science fiction fantasy. Many
technical ideas did not make it into the final cut of the film but many of the
ideas were saved and reworked to show up in subsequent Bond films shot throughout
the 1980s.
The
name Walther is associated with a global leader in handgun innovation and
quality.A company with over a century
of operation by the time James Bond became a spy, the German heritage guns
produced came with a reputation of high quality craftsmanship and rugged
durability in the field.Carl Walther
started the company Walther Works in 1886.Almost every German officer during World War I carried one of the Walther
pocket pistols.Carl’s son Fritz
inherited his father’s company and passion for firearms.Fritz created the single/double action
trigger which became the famous Model PP and compact model PPK used by German
police officers and later the German military under Nazi rule.The Walther factory ended up totally
destroyed at the end of World War II.Fritz Walther had a few remaining design documents in his hands which
allowed Walther Guns to rise from the ashes into the global leader in
peacekeeping firearms that it is known today. James
Bond’s first choice for every day concealed firearm is the Walther PPK
7.65mm.He has used this gun in 21
missions to date.Bond started with a
Beretta in Dr. No but quickly changed
to a PPK after the Beretta jammed in the field.The weapon of choice for Bond quickly
spreads through both the spy and villain world. The PPK becomes known as his 00 license to
kill weapon of choice.Bond is not
afraid to use the PPK and it has been fired in nearly all his missions.Only in Moonraker is the PPK only shown and
not fired.There was a time where Bond
abandons his PPK for the newer P99 model but it was not long before he returned
to his beloved PPK in the latest two Bond films.
The
P99 is a semi-automatic, updated version of the PPK. The P99 is a large
capacity gun with ten to sixteen rounds verses the seven standard rounds of the
PPK but this increase in firepower comes with a larger size and harder ability
to conceal the weapon in the field.Bond
repeatedly asks Q for a P99 once it became available but he does not get one
until Tomorrow Never Dies where he is
seen using it with a silencer in an offensive role where more fire power is
needed.Q takes the P99 to a higher
level by adding a blinding flash mechanism in The World is Not Enough.The
larger size of the P99 is apparent when Q needs to hide the gun in a surfboard
saboteur kit in Die Another Day.The P99 gets Bond in trouble when he is
video taped shooting a terrorist with the gun.In Casino Royale, Bond finds
the P99 with a silencer that Q has provided in his Aston Martin DBS.In this film Bond carries the weapon in a
brown envelope but does not use the weapon.Perhaps at this time, Bond figures out that the P99 is too hard to
conceal in the field. Bond
has also used the Walther WA 2000 Rifle as his choice of an accurate sniper
grade firearm.This accurate firearm
uses the 0.300 Winchester magnum cartridges.This world class firearm is accurate to 1,000 metres. The accuracy of the rifle is used when Bond
shoots a rifle out of the hands of a female cellist forced to be a sniper by
the Soviet Government without ruining her ability to continue her chosen career
as a cellist.Recently, Walther has
formed a new company to supply the American Firearms market by grouping
together with Smith & Wesson.This
transformation of Walther may point to James Bond having more firearm choices
in future missions as he continues to use the PPK as his concealed weapon of
choice.
Bond came to film life out of the sixth
novel titled Dr. No,
after nearly a decade of Ian Fleming trying to get his novels made into
motion pictures.A Canadian producer,
Harry Saltzman, obtained the rights to make the novels into films.Even Harry had nearly given up until he found
American producer Albert R. Broccoli who was both interested and financed the
work through United Artists.Financing
was not great at only one million dollars but it was enough to get the film
made.Dr. No was not the producers first choice for a film, as Thunderball had more potential, but the
tropical location of Dr. No could
allow an action film to be made within the budget that was provided.
The greatest dilemma facing the producers
was who could play the role of James Bond, Bond’s girl, and the villain Dr.
No.Thoughts of Richard Burton or Cary
Grant were considered for the lead role.They decided to take a chance on Sean Connery, a new young actor with a
Scottish background.Terence Young, the
director, who was known for his style and elegance in film- making, quickly used
his skill to provide Connery a more sophisticated image.The role of Honey Ryder was quickly chosen as
Ursula Andress who was a Swiss Beauty.The villain turned out to be the hardest selection.Ian Fleming recommended his friend and
playwright Noel Coward but the answer from Noel was “Dr. No is No! No!
No!”A trained actor from New York was
chosen for the role, Joseph Wiseman.Once
selection of the cast was complete, filming began in Jamaica in January 1962
without delay.
After location filming was completed,
studio production moved back to England.Imaginative sets were produced and the result was a very polished film
elevated above the standard of thriller movies of the period.The final piece of the film remained in the
development of the music.The film was
lucky to have composer Monty Norman on site in Jamaica during the filming.Monty worked with Byron Lee to bring a real Caribbean
feel to the musical score.A discarded
song from the musical version of the novel The House of Mr. Biswas was transformed
into the James Bond Theme through the
use of a driving modern electric guitar version of the tune created by John
Barry.This theme song ended up being
used extensively by the film editor Peter Hunt to make the song integral to the
film.
Albert Broccoli had faith in the
film.He took a somewhat meager budget
and turned the Ian Fleming novel into a production of value on the screen with
high technical standards.Dr. No was
completed by October 1962 where it was released in England successfully under
the United Artist banner.In April 1963,
Bond was introduced to American theatres where it had an excellent run with the
new spy hero.Albert Broccoli started
with Dr.No to create high budget,
award winning Bond films for the next thirty three years until his
passing.Now his daughter Barbara
Broccoli, who was born just before the production of Dr. No, carries on the Bond film dynasty for her family.
M is the head of the British Secret
Service.Even though the service has
been known as MI7 and MI6, this service has importance for Britain on the world
stage.M has been developed as a leader
similar to Churchill but with naval efficiency and organization.M seems to fulfill the role of a stern parent
to Bond, almost acting as a replacement to Bond’s dead parents.M expects both his staff and agents to be
ready when duty calls.M may be tough
and rough on the outside but he has solid judgment.He understands Bond’s unique skills and
extreme talents but has to tolerate Bond’s unorthodox methods and worldly
lifestyle.M is very loyal to his 00
field agents and treats Bond as his top agent.
M’s novel character was developed by Ian
Fleming out of several figures from his past.M may have a tough exterior but he does have a softer side with a love
for painting.M is a pipe smoker and a
member of the British gentlemen clubs and remains a dedicated bachelor.M is a combination of Rear Admiral John H.
Godfrey who was Fleming’s own commanding officer in Naval Intelligence during WWII,
and Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming who was the head of the Secret Service.Sir Mansfield likes to sign documents with a
single letter.Mansfield used “C” for
himself so Fleming started addressing letters to his own mother with the letter
“M.”M’s real name was indicated in the
last Bond novel as Sir Miles Messervy KCMG.
The first eleven motion pictures kept M
very close to the vision of Ian Fleming.He mentions in Dr. No that he
has helped drop the number of 00 deaths in the field.Even though M is a male in the earlier films,
M becomes a female in Golden Eye which
has one of the best descriptions of Bond as a “sexist, dinosaur, a relic of the
Cold War” which indicates that she will be looking at transforming Bond.This new M is Oxford educated, married and
has older children.Just as M has
transformed, she helps to relaunch Bond into the 21st century.M is now a symbol of normality missing in
Bond’s life. She is the professional symbol of MI6 with the moto that “regret
is unprofessional.”
The female version of M ends her role
tragically in Skyfall.After so much work helping to guide Bond
into the new century, M finds herself in trouble after losing a hard drive with
all the names of Nato secret agents working inside global terrorist
organizations.M makes Eve Moneypenny
take a high risk shot, hitting and presumably killing Bond.Acting professional to the end, she is asked
to step down a few months later.After a
direct attack at MI6 headquarters, the healed Bond returns to M.M has to break the rules, looking the other
way to get Bond declared fit for active service.M and Bond return to Bond’s childhood home
of Skyfall to battle villain Silva to the end.During the battle, M uses Bond’s Walther PPK but misses the shot getting
wounded.She has a final one on one
dealing with Silva where she is fatally wounded in a chapel on the estate.Bond ends up killing Silva and has a chance
to hold M in his arms as she dies.The
final words of M were “at least I got one thing right.” This may refer to her
role in helping Bond’s transformation into an agent worthy of the new
century.After M’s tragic death, a new M arrives as a controlling (but also very supportive to
field agents) character named Gareth Mallory.Bond will always remember his mother M through her bequeath of her
repaired Royal Doulton Union Jack British Bulldog which always rested on her
desk when she was M.
James Bond has only had one true love that
we know about.He met his true love
during the early part of his career.Bond found true love in the most complicated and emotionally devoted
girl who worked for the British Government.Her name was Vesper Lynd which could be a play on words for a “viper who
lied” which should have been a warning to Bond’s sense of danger.Vesper was initially put off by Bond’s
arrogance only to fall deeply in love with Bond after he was tortured by the
villain Le Chiffre.In the background
there remained many hidden past secrets in her relationship with Bond.Ultimately it will be her complex background
complete with blackmail and another lover’s life at stake which will result in
her own death.She may have died to end
the burden of her guilt from her complex life or perhaps it was out of true
love to protect Bond from haunts from her past life which she knew would never
go away.It is through tragic love that
Bond finds his inner sense of purpose in life to devote his life to MI6 and his
country as the greatest secret agent the world would ever know.
In the novels, Ian Fleming has Vesper
working for Section S of the British Secret Service which is devoted to the Soviet
Union.She has a lover from the Polish
Freedom Fighters but he has been in Soviet custody since the end of World War
II.She is blackmailed into providing
key intelligence to the Soviets to keep her long lost lover alive.It is her guilt about the death of her lover
and the suffering Bond has with Le Chiffre which results in a burden she cannot
handle and she kills herself with sleeping pills.Bond is heartbroken and he vows to go after
the threat behind the spies.
In the motion picture version, unlike the novel version, Vesper’s
character and Bond’s love of Vesper are developed only to end tragically.Vesper officially works for the British
government where she is an International Liaison Officer for the Financial
Action Task Force of Her Majesty’s Treasury.Her experience is with illicit banking practices and has been sent to
ensure that government funds used to finance Bond in a high-stakes poker game
with the Bond villain Le Chiffre are frugally used.She even denied funds to Bond when he over played
his hand and Bond’s long-time friend Felix Leiter had to come to Bond’s rescue
to provide the required funds to stay in the game.Vesper meets Bond at a point in her life
where she is venerable, still wearing an Algerian love known necklace which was
a gift from her French – Algerian lover.She is an orphan, just like Bond.However in her case, this tragedy was committed by her father killing
her mother and then himself in a murder/suicide.Unknown to Bond, Vesper has been blackmailed
and tricked into working for Mr. White for two reasons.She was led to believe that her lover was
kidnapped through Mr. White’s terrorist network that will only save her lover’s
life by her cooperation with Mr. White.Secondly, she made a deal to save Bond from death by Le Chiffre’s torture
by promising to return the winnings from the high stakes poker game to Mr.
White through his associate Gettler.Although Vesper never completes the blackmail transaction, she cannot
continue to live knowing what she almost did.Bond’s love for Vesper was so great that he resigned from his life-long
love: MI6 only to return after he discovers her deception and gets to watch her
die through self-inflicted drowning in a locked Venetian elevator cage in front
of Bond.In this version you can almost
personally feel the pain in Bond’s heart and understand why he represses love
into love of work.
As in any tragic love story, this story
ends with a purpose.Even though Bond
lost his one true love under very emotional and tense circumstances, he
recovered with an internal drive and sense of purpose.Bond is scared for life on the inside and his
heart which was opened but for a short time is now shut permanently.The sense of pain Bond felt is shown in his
famous quote to M that “the bitch is dead.”Bond now has the ability to rise to any challenge and take on any foe
with winning being the only outcome for Bond.Perhaps the greatest secret agent is still devoted to his only true love
and doesn’t care if he dies knowing that he will meet her again in heaven.
James Bond does not seem to have any
friends, just enemies, except for one person.That person is Felix Leiter who could be considered a true friend to
Bond.Felix is portrayed in the novels
as a man of about 35 years of age with boyish looks and straw coloured hair.Felix originally worked for the CIA until he
was discharged due to injuries he acquired though the actions of a villain.He was attacked by a shark and permanently
lost part of his arm and leg on one side of his body.He continued his role as a spy working for
Pinkerton’s Detective Agency for only a short time until he was called back to
work by the CIA Chief as both a DEA and CIA Field Agent.He is a true American, born in Texas and an
ex-member of the US Marines.Felix is known
for his love of jazz music and likes to go out with Bond for a “boys night out”
having a meal while barhopping.On one
occasion, Felix even left his own wedding to help Bond.Felix also is Bond’s most reliable and trusted
aid in the field showing up just when Bond needs a friend in the most dangerous
situations in order to stay alive.
Felix is a character in six of the original
Ian Fleming novels but has gone beyond the novels and has appeared in eight of
the motion pictures.He changes
appearance quite drastically from picture to picture with only a few exceptions
of appearing looking the same with the same Bond actor in the most recent films.Felix has been played by various well known
actors over the years starting with Jack Lord, Cec Linder, Rik Van Nutter,
Norman Burton, David Heison, John Terry, and most recently Jeffrey Wright.Felix is an agent who will likely continue to
show up in future Bond films.
Felix lives at the highest level of danger
in the world of spies.He has lost part
of his right arm and leg to sharks through a confrontation with villains not
once but twice always being found by Bond wrapped up in a sheet with a note
attached to his chest which reads, “He disagreed with something that ate him.”This handicap may have allowed Felix to leave
the spy world but he continued to stay in the world he knew best.Felix was the one who injured Scaramanga in
Jamaica to allow Bond enough advantage to terminate this deadly assassin. Felix even arrived once with the Marines to
rescue Bond.Whenever Bond is in America,
Felix is the one who watches over him and ensures that transportation is
waiting. In fact, Felix was even called
upon to get Bond to the President of the United States for a personal thank
you.
In the latest Bond films, Felix has
developed into a more complex role with more information being provided about
why they are such close friends.At
their first meeting in Casino Royale,
Felix is the one who gave Bond the $5 million needed to stay in the poker game
after Bond’s own treasury officer refused to provide the required funds.As true friends care for each other, Bond
allowed the CIA to apprehend the villain Le Chiffre once Bond was finished
cleaning the villain out of cash to allow Felix to look good as a field
agent.In Quantum of Solace, a handicapped more mature version of Felix
appears working under CIA South American Section Chief Gregory Beam.At this point, Leiter challenged the CIA’s
involvement with the villain Dominic Greene.Beam was involved with Leiter in
a trap to kill Bond, but the sign of their true long friendship was shown as
Leiter tipped off Bond to what was happening at great risk to his own life and career
going against his Section Chief’s government orders.Leiter disappeared at this point and Bond
only finds out through M that his friend lived to become a CIA Section Chief of
South America replacing the corrupt Beam who was removed from office.Leiter now is positioned in an even more
powerful position to help his friend in the future.
The Aston Martin DB5 was the most popular and
famous of all of Bond’s movie cars.It strongly
identified and was visually associated with Bond. The car’s battleship grey colour complemented
the elegant style, futuristic sleek design and innovative gadgets that made it
special.As part of Bond’s cover, the
Aston Martin DB5 provided Bond with an image of a young adventurous man with
good taste for fast things and success in life. It was a rare car during its limited
production run of 1,023 vehicles from 1963 to 1965.This secret agent’s car was made to perfectly
fit the needs of James Bond.
The Aston Martin DB5 was originally going
to belong to Q, who was Bond’s gadget man, as he needed a replacement car for
his aging Bentley.The car was filled
with gadgetry which Q was famous for designing.There were about seventeen known gadgets initially installed in the car
and three more were added later on.Some
features included extending front and rear ramming bumpers for safety.A secret drawer was also installed under the
driver’s seat which was a one man arsenal containing a 7.63 mm Mauser, Armalite
rifle, silencers and telescopic sights, a throwing knife and a hand
grenade.In addition, the front driver’s
door contained a radio telephone.An
unseen homer receiver with a range of 150 miles based on radar technology was
contained in the racing mirror so Q could track the location of the car at all
times.There was a moving map system
behind the radio speaker grill which foreshadowed what is known as GPS maps
today.All the windows were bullet proof
and there was a heavier armament screen that could be deployed behind the rear
window for extra protection.Even the
license plates revolved to allow registration in Britain, France or Switzerland.A caltrop dispenser was located behind the
driver’s rear lights and this made it possible to damage the tires of enemy
vehicles following too closely.The
passenger rear wheel hub also had an extendable tire knife.Another feature was that smoke could be
ejected from the tailpipe to create a smoke screen.The passenger side rear lights contained an
oil dispenser to make the road slick behind the vehicle on demand.Wing machine guns were mounted behind the
indicator lights at the front.The Aston
Martin DB5 was the first car fitted with a passenger ejection seat.Later modifications included water cannons, a
Champaign cooler, and a home office printer/fax/communicator which was
installed as part of the upgraded CD radio. Bond discovered the car by chance during a
visit to Q’s lab and talked Q into letting him use the car.Even with all the offense weapons, Q added many
protective and safety features to the car making it a unique secret agent car for
Bond.
Much of the gadgetry of this car ended up
becoming standard equipment on today’s production cars.For example, the moving map system found on
Bond’s DB5, has evolved three decades later in our vehicles, as the commercial
GPS system we use in cars today. The
internal cooler for a wine bottle now shows up as available fridges in many
CUV’s.The radio telephone found in the
driver’s door is now the Blue Tooth radio link to driver cell phones for hands
free communication.Many of the safety
features of the car were actually more advanced than safety features of that
time in cars of the 1960’s.Improvement
in safety features to resemble Bond’s car became standard on new cars within a
decade.Perhaps the other features of
this car have made it to the cars of secret services around the world.
This car showed up in seven Bond films
during 48 years.Sadly, the Aston Martin
DB5 ended up being destroyed along with Bond’s childhood home in the movie
Skyfall in 2012, but not before using its front firing machine gun to save
Bond’s life by taking out a number of men trying to kill Bond.The remaining models of this car are now the
most well-known and sought after Aston Martin ever made.This car defines the Aston Martin brand.Even Ford, who once owned Aston Martin,
adopted the front grill look in the current Ford Fusion to help sell this model
of car. The Aston Martin itself has
become just as famous as its owner James Bond.
The sky almost fell on a nearly completed
Skyfall film before it was completed.The twenty-third Bond film was written by screenwriters Neal Purvis,
Robert Wade, and Peter Morgan in November 2009.Faced with bankruptcy the film was stalled, not from lack of popularity
but from lack of funding support because MGM Studios which was the co-owner of
the franchise was on the brink of bankruptcy.Sony Pictures came to the rescue in 2010 as MGM emerged from bankruptcy.Support from Sony Pictures allowed the film
to bring on Sam Mendes as the director.Sam decided that the script needed to be rewritten and invited John Logan
to revise the script as an opportunity to make major changes.Moneypenny was reintroduced as a field agent
with a larger part in the plot and her name “Eve” was introduced.Q was reintroduced as a young and more
technology advanced inventor who was up to date and current with the
information age.The villain was also
reintroduced into the character of Raoul Sousa seeking direct revenge on Bond
for betraying him years earlier.This
film would provide the ultimate climax at Bond’s Scottish ancestral home named
Skyfall which fit well into the fiftieth anniversary of the film series.
The location of this film was at Pinewood
Studios in London.The pre-titles
sequence was performed by the lead actors Daniel Craig and Ola Rapace who were
performing many of the stunts in a fast action sequence filmed on location in
Turkey on a moving train above a 300 foot drop.Both Pinewood’s Paddock Tank and 007’s stage were used for the variety
of scenes from the waterfront Macau Casino, the “Dead City”, to the London
underground.Even the film’s climax was
produced at Pinewood and Longcross studios with background provided by Hankley
Common.Emotions ran very high on the
sets at the studio during M’s death scene as Judi Dench climaxed her role of
acting in seven Bond films over 17 years.This film truly proved that a major motion picture could still be produced
within a studio setting where time and money constraints of the project could
be controlled to keep the nervous backers at Sony pictures happy.
Sam Mendes brought 25 years of directing
theatre and film experience to the Bond film.This Bond film was in good hands with a very experienced director.Mendes brought in Thomas Newman to write the
musical score.Daniel Craig was assigned
the role of Bond without question, back for his third film, with a desire to
make a “Bond film with a capital B.”This picture required a title song and Mendes asked Adele to be the
artist to create the song.Singer-songwriter Adele and producer Paul Epworth worked together and
introduced the title song “Skyfall” to the world on James Bond Day, celebrating
the golden anniversary of the Bond films.This title song went on to win Best Original Song at the 85th
Academy Awards.Director Sam Mendes put
his full set of skills into producing an extended two and a half hour Bond film
which was nominated for many awards, taking many prizes in the cinematography
and music categories.
From the near bankruptcy, Skyfall became
the highest-grossing film in the UK in 2012 and the highest-grossing film for
Sony Pictures.This film continued its
legacy with Bond working for the British Crown under MI5.There was even a segment shot with Daniel
Craig and Queen Elizabeth II for the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in
London providing a grand entrance for the monarch celebrating her diamond
jubilee year during the Olympics as well as advertizing to the world the
upcoming release of the film.Skyfall
also earned a Royal Premiere at Royal Albert Hall on October 23, 2012.This film also introduced a Bond non-Imax film
to the large Imax theatre screens as the film series looked forward to a
continued future with the support of Sony Pictures.Perhaps this was an indication that the next
Bond film will be funded for the more expensive Imax production.
The
Lotus car company made two significant appearances in the Bond films.
Lotus cars represent excellence of British hand built cars from Hethel,
UK. Starting up as a small automotive manufacturer after World War II,
Lotus continued to produce a product of passion, individuality,
fun, and gritty determination to a small segment of the market on a
continuous basis for eight generations. The company moto is “simplify,
then add lightness” as quoted from the company founder Colin Chapman
from his “lightweight laboratory” at the heart of the business. Lotus
cars have the least amount of parts designed into them so they are as
light as possible to make them fast everywhere, not just in thought but
practice. Lotus is also Q’s choice of car company to work along side.
Lotus cars are perfect for the type of work Bond requires his vehicles
to perform in when tense situations arise.
Bond
appeared with a supercar in the wedge shaped Esprit S1. On its own,
this was one of the greatest small cars ever built. Q took the car and
modified it to carry an arsenal of weapons. He continued to provide a
full underwater conversion system to make the car into the first
“subphibian” which allowed the car to be a submarine. All of Q’s
invented gadgetry did not take away from the Esprit’s super car
performance. In the film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the Lotus Esprit
appears on the island of Sardinia in Bond’s joint mission with Major
Anya Amasova of the KGB as they investigate the shipping tycoon Karl
Stomberg. This car was built under strict security at the Q branch, yet
Amasova knew all the abilities of the car as she had stolen the plans a
few years earlier. This supercar car was used successfully in Bond
missions.
Many
new gadgets were added to the Lotus car. The first gadget to appear
was the cement sprayer concealed under the rear license plate to obscure
the pursuing car’s windshield. The next new invention was converting
the car into a submarine when needed. For example, in one film the car
drove into the sea because it was trying to avoid a helicopter shooting
at it, the car converted into a submarine. The submarine conversion
included tires folding and exchanging for rudders and fins emerging to
fill the wheel wells and propellers deploying from the rear bumper.
Louvers descended over the windows to cut glare from the surface of the
water while a periscope rose from the roof to complete the
transformation from underwater car to full submarine. Video cameras and
digital readouts were part of the dashboard. There was even a
targeting screen on the centre console and the gearshift was redeployed
to aim and fire sea-to-air missiles. The steering wheel’s controls were
used to fire front mounted torpedoes. The headlight switch was used to
deploy an ink cloud from the rear of the car to hide its existence just
as an octopus would. There was even an underwater mine which could be
released with the hazard light switch. Even after obtaining damage
during an underwater battle, the car was able to emerge from the water
and safely deliver its occupants onto a beach. Q really outdid himself
with this conversion of a super car which is now on exhibition at the
Design Centre in London.
The awesome Esprit Turbo was launched in
tremendous style at London’s Royal Albert Hall.This car was to become even more famous as the second Lotus to be
featured in a Bond film.This was a
super car for a super spy as the car’s performance took it straight into the
supercar league with the ability to go faster than 150 mph in 15 seconds while
still having the ability to perform a 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds all with a 2.2
litre Lotus engine.The audience never
got to see the gadgets in this car in “For Your Eyes Only” as it
self-destructed in huge explosion after a thug smashed one of the windows.Thankfully, a second car was used to show the
ability of the turbo on the road.Perhaps
in the future, another Lotus will appear as it was very well received as a car
suitable for Bond and meeting the standards of Q.
