Bond Underwater

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Underwater sequences have long been a staple of the 007 series. From huge-scale battles to a thrilling set-piece of keelhauling to gut-wrenching emotional goodbyes, Bond’s adventures beneath the waves have delivered a wide range of drama and, in so doing, tested the filmmakers to the max. 

Thunderball (1965)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): The first and biggest 007 sub-aqua adventure. In the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by SPECTRE Operative Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), James Bond (Sean Connery) infiltrates a squad of SPECTRE divers sent to retrieve the missing missiles and plant them off the coast of Florida. Bond barely escapes an underwater skirmish and informs CIA agent Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) of the warheads’ whereabouts. Leiter calls in a crack unit of US Navy frogmen who, along with Bond, parachute into the water and engage in a massive battle with Largo’s men. Bond takes out numerous SPECTRE divers, be it through high-tech wizardry or his bare hands, before leaving to chase Largo’s hydrofoil, the Disco Volante. 

BTS (Behind The Scenes): Directed by Ricou Browning, there were 18 underwater sequences comprising 83 scenes. For the big battle, the good guys wore orange, and the bad guys wore black to help audiences make the distinction. To up the danger factor, Browning had many sharks captured for the film and included them at every opportunity.

You Only Live Twice (1967)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): During a mission in Hong Kong, Bond (Sean Connery) is gunned down by two assailants and left for dead. A funeral at sea is arranged, and the casket is ceremoniously slid into the water. When it reaches the seabed, MI6 agents in scuba gear retrieve the casket and take it to a submerged submarine. “Request permission to come aboard, sir”, says a very much alive 007 after he is released from the coffin. Bond later enters Japan without detection by being fired from the submarine’s torpedo tube.

BTS (Behind The Scenes): The burial at sea was shot by the second unit, directed by Peter Hunt, in Gibraltar on board HMS Tenby.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): Now played by Roger Moore, Bond returned to the deep blue sea a decade later. Investigating marine industrialist Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens), the trail leads to Sardinia, where 007 and Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) are chased by Stromberg’s men around winding roads until Bond’s Lotus Esprit drives off a jetty and into the sea, transforming into a submersible vehicle. Coming under attack from Stromberg’s men, Q Dept trickery such as depth charges, surface-to-air missiles and black dye (think octopus ink) sees off the attackers both above and below the surface.

BTS (Behind The Scenes): The special effects unit, led by Derek Meddings, started work in Nassau in August 1976. Shot by Lamar Boren, the miniature Lotus was manipulated around by ultrathin wires. For the moment the Lotus goes underwater, the model was simply let go by a diver and captured as it floated down. 

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): Bond’s mission this time is to find the missing ATAC (Automatic Targeting And Attack Communicator), a valuable offensive and defensive device desired by the Russians but hidden in the wreckage of the spy ship the St. George off the coast of Albania. 007 and companion Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) explore the ship wreck in a mini-submarine and, after some nifty bomb diffusing, retrieve the ATAC. 

The pair escape a run-in with a diver and a mini-sub but are captured on the surface by heroin smuggler Kristatos (Julian Glover) who takes the ATAC from them. The pair are towed behind Kristatos’ yacht, acting as bait for sharks and narrowly missing jagged coral. Bond is able to snap the line binding them, and they retreat to a scuba tank Melina left on the ocean floor. Kristatos exits, believing Bond and Melina to be dead.

BTS (Behind The Scenes): The underwater sequences were shot in the Bahamas by an underwater unit led by Al Giddings. For close-ups of the actors, Carole Bouquet had an inner ear problem and couldn’t spend any time in the water, so her reaction shots were shot through the glass of a fish tank, with a wind machine to make her hair float. Bubbles were added later. 

A View To A Kill (1985)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): Bond (Roger Moore) goes underwater in two very different circumstances in A View To A Kill. The first puts an unconscious Bond in the back of a Rolls-Royce that is pushed into a lake by May Day (Grace Jones). Waking up, Bond escapes from the sinking car and survives underwater by cleverly breathing air from one of the car’s Michelin tyres.

The second sees 007 using scuba gear to explore the underwater pumping system in the San Francisco Bay. As the pumps are turned on, Bond thinks quickly and jams it into the pump propeller to avoid being chopped up.

BTS (Behind The Scenes): Producer Cubby Broccoli’s Rolls-Royce was used on dry land, but it is a double that is rolled into the water.

Licence To Kill (1989)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): Underwater action features almost from the get-go in Timothy Dalton’s second 007 adventure. In a daring underwater rescue, divers free drug dealer Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) from an armoured van after it has been pushed off a bridge. The rest of the film is filled with sea-bound action, from Bond avoiding detection by swimming under a manta to a fight underwater with a quartet of divers, and 007 using a stolen speargun to grapple onto the pontoon of a seaplane. As it takes off, it pulls Bond to the surface, water-skiing without the skis. 

BTS (Behind The Scenes): The scenes involving Bond at sea were shot in Isla Mujeres, Cancún, directed by Ramón Bravo. The stunt of Bond water-skiing on the surface was performed by barefoot-skiing world champion Dave Reinhardt with close-ups of Timothy Dalton added later.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): After performing a death-defying HALO jump from a Fairchild C-123 aircraft high above Vietnamese waters, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) swims down to identify the sunken naval frigate, HMS Devonshire. 

Lighting a flare, he explores the flooded interior of the vessel, moving past dead sailors, and enters the missile room where he encounters Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). Soon, an underwater avalanche traps them in the sunken wreck and, removing their scuba gear, they swim through the torpedo tube to safety. 

BTS (Behind The Scenes): Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh filmed with the underwater unit at Pinewood’s 007 stage, the first time the stage was used for a Bond film since The Living Daylights.

Casino Royale (2006)

BTS (Beneath The Surface): After Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) betrays Bond (Daniel Craig) in Venice by keeping the winnings from Casino Royale, Bond tracks her down to a gutted Venetian villa undergoing restoration, supported by large flotation devices. Shooting at the men collecting the money, Bond ruptures the flotation bags, causing the building to sink. 

Meeting Bond’s eyes (“I’m sorry, James”), Vesper locks herself in the lift as it plummets into the water. 007 dives in and does his best to wrestle open the metal elevator gates. Vesper grabs his hands, and the couple spend a tender moment together. Bond forces his way in and brings her back to the surface, doing his best to resuscitate her — that she does not respond leaves Bond helpless and distraught.

BTS (Behind The Scenes): Once Daniel Craig took the mask off under the water and lost an air supply, the actor had no more than a minute to deliver the emotion of the scene. “You’re given a spot to look at,” recalled Craig. “You try and play love and anger but you might as well be acting to a brick wall.”

Hoyte van Hoytema on Shooting Spectre

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“It’s a very rich playground for a cinematographer to play around in,” says Spectre cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema about working in the 007 universe. “The producers are interested in creating something that is genuinely to be enjoyed on a big screen. It’s an adventure. You’re taken through different countries, through different environments. It’s very much art on a bigger palette.”

Van Hoytema had never worked with director Sam Mendes prior to Spectre. The pair formed an instant rapport.

“You start talking, you click, and feel that you can maybe do something interesting together,” he says. “If you look at all the films Sam did before, they were always amazingly shot which is not only thanks to hiring a great DP, but also having a very specific vision as a director plus an incredible sensitivity for visual language. So, when I started talking to him about Spectre, he was very much interested in talking about art, painting and light as an emotional vehicle to tell a story.”

A lifelong fan of the series, van Hoytema relished every moment of his 007 adventure. “Making a Bond film almost makes you feel like you’re in a Bond film,” he laughs. “You’re always energised. You get to a hotel, you go out to dinner somewhere, and then in the morning you’re out in the field. Your whole landscape has changed but it’s important because you’re also trying to give the audience that experience of the world.” 

Yet it wasn’t just stepping into Bond’s shoes that excited van Hoytema. It was also the freedom to experiment and create on the grandest scale, a remit that was passed down from the very top. “Michael and Barbara are two of my favourite producers of all time. They told me we’ll get you what you need, that is our job. But you have to come up with a spectacle. Very early on, we were instructed to not worry too much about the practical side of things. That is a very interesting place to start because Sam started to dream up these crazy shots. Very often you have producers that will ask you at a very early stage to be pragmatic because, if you’re not pragmatic, things might start to cost more. But Barbara and Michael’s assignment was very clear: dream it up, and then we figure out how we can do this.” And Spectre begins with perhaps the most ambitious, audacious opening to any 007 film ever….

MEXICO

Spectre opens with James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Estrella (Stephanie Sigman) strolling through the Day of the Dead parade, a riot of sound and colour held annually in Mexico City. The first five minutes of the sequence are portrayed as one continuous tracking shot.

“The idea to do it in one shot was very much Sam’s. He thought it’d be very interesting to get into the film in a real-time experience. You’re with Bond step by step. There’s no clever editing that moves things forwards or backwards but you are getting to experience this amazing atmosphere in real time. I think it became a very exciting one-shot take.” 

In reality, the shot was a series of four shots meticulously planned out and edited together by Lee Smith to look like one seamless camera move.

“Once we were doing it, the solutions we came up with might look crazy or ridiculous, but step by step, we figured it out. There are some sneaky stitches (edits) in there. It was a total technical puzzle. It’s a sequence that is shot in Mexico City, but also in London. The camera starts in Mexico City, goes into a hotel lobby, then into an elevator and then we are Pinewood Studios. We go through Pinewood Studios, and then out into Mexico City again when Bond walks across the roof, and back into Pinewood at the end (for the exploding hotel). It required a lot of ingenious thinking from my grips. They came up with these incredible installations and ways to shoot it. My camera operator Lucas Bieland was pivotal in making this all work, so there were a lot of minds, a lot of thoughts and a lot of enthusiasm to bring this to life.”

ROME

After Mexico, Bond heads to Rome, Italy and infiltrates a clandestine conference of a terrorist organisation run by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), later revealed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. To heighten the mystery, van Hoytema cast the meeting in sinister shadow.

“It was very much part of the way we envisioned the classicism of Rome. The colours, the contrast, the darkness. But we also have that whole idea about Bond seeing Blofeld and Blofeld seeing Bond. It needed to be a somewhat theatrical reveal. He turns into the light and looks at him and Bond sees him for the first time. It’s a very important story point. So in order to get away with a reveal like that, you’re already pushed into a darker environment, a more sort of secretive meeting. It needed to feel like a cult.

After Bond and Blofeld lock eyes, 007 flees in his modified Aston Martin DB10 and is pursued by Blofeld’s lead assassin Hinx (Dave Bautista) driving a Jaguar C-X75 through the nighttime streets of the Eternal City.

“We wanted Rome to be lush and golden. I remembered Rome from much earlier. I remember it as the streets looked so painterly, and those sodium lights made everything look orange and monochromatic. In a way, it’s a colour that’s very close to candlelight. Of course, when we came to Rome, the whole city is modernised, and there are these white LEDs everywhere. But we wanted to bring those streets a little bit back towards that sort of more orangey, more romantic feel I remembered. So, it gave it this painterly golden glow.”

“The car chase was a very difficult assignment because it was all over the city. Of course, it needs to feel like the Rome we had figured out. I had a second unit director of photography on that, Jalio Faber, who did an incredible job pushing through that look we needed out of it. I think the car chase, in spite of all the action, still has that full golden glow over it. That was a nice touch.”

AUSTRIA

Bond’s mission takes him to Austria, where he joins forces with psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) who works at the exclusive medical center The Hoffler Klinik. The exteriors of the clinic were shot on location at the ICE-Q restaurant at the top of the 3000-metre Gaislachkogl mountain in Sölden while the interior was created on The Richard Attenborough Stage at Pinewood Studios and posed a major challenge for van Hoytema. 

“It was one of the easiest and most difficult lighting setups ever for me. It’s a glass cubicle but Barbara again allowed us to dream big, so we figured out a way to make it look real. We didn’t want a blue screen, so we literally hung a mountainscape from the ceiling all the way down. We lit it from the back. It was a crazy big rig like a rock concert. But it meant we could film 360 degrees into a very credible environment, minimising the post-production we had to do. Sometimes you want to be on the set and figure out where to go, what to do. You want to play around and this really allowed us to find the right sort of perspectives through the building. I always believe the more realism you infuse on the spot where you shoot, the less people need to imagine and the more energy they can spend in adapting to the atmosphere and move around in it freely.” 

When the clinic comes under attack from Hinx and his crew, Madeleine is kidnapped and driven away. Bond gives chase in a plane, forcing the convoy to crash and spiriting Madeleine away to Tangier. The epic pursuit was captured mostly by the action unit, led by director Alexander Witt, but this didn’t stop van Hoytema from wishing he was in on the action.

“We always shoot parts of the big action sequences. In Austria, we had the second unit stay behind, this gigantic team of incredible people. Sometimes you can only do three shots a day because the shots are so complicated. If you have a plane on a wire coming down a very thin line of trees, three or four cars and explosions going off, you prep this for days and then you get one crack at the shots and then you decide if you reset or not. But that’s pretty much what you’ve been doing that shooting day. While on the first unit, you’ve got six pages of dialogue to get through on the actors’ clocks. There’s a whole different dynamic to that. I always feel there’s a missed chance with second unit. I always feel like, ‘Oh I want to stay and I want to do it’ but, unfortunately, that’s not the reality of the time you have to actually make a film.”

EN ROUTE TO TANGIER

On a train bound for Morocco, Bond and Madeleine get to know each other over dinner, an intimate moment interrupted by Hinx who engages Bond in a brutal fistfight through different carriages.

“This was very laborious. The problem was in the beginning of shooting the scene, Daniel got hurt and that meant he couldn’t do the things he would normally do. So that changes your way of thinking a little bit. You start working with doubles, but it restricts your freedom and in order to make it feel organic, it becomes laborious. We also didn’t want to compromise the scene in any way because of what happened to Daniel. It just was a lot more work than we anticipated. This was one of these scenes where first unit and second unit became very closely integrated. I was doing first unit in London and we were shooting, shooting and shooting. Then after 12 hours of shooting, Sam and I would go to the second unit and be there for another six hours. There was a lot of that towards the end. We were getting tired.”

THE SAHARA

Bond and Madeleine arrive at Oberhauser’s base in the Sahara. Oberhauser quickly reveals his true colours (and identity), subjecting Bond to neurological torture, before 007 uses the Q-Dept explosive wristwatch to break free. Unlike the torture scene in Casino Royale which takes place in a dark, dank abandoned barge, this Spectre interrogation happens in a brightly lit, hazy, almost surgical room.

“I remember there was a difficult one because it’s an airy, light hospital room in the middle of a desert. It was important for the interiors to feel the Moroccan desert seeping through into that white room. [Production designer] Dennis Gassner conceptualised that room. I still wanted that feeling of scorching sun in there, almost blinding, almost a little dreamy. I just felt the interiors have to feel like the exterior deserts. Bond is awakening there and you really want to feel that you’re really in a different environment.”

While the interiors of SPECTRE HQ were shot at Pinewood, the exteriors were created at Gara Medouar, a horseshoe-shaped geological formation near Sijilmasa in the Sahara desert.

“The exterior of the base was for the most part non-existent because it was CGI. We were basically shooting on paths that led to nowhere. All the time, we had to envision, ‘Okay, the headquarters will be here’. It requires lot of imagination in order to make that work in your head. We ended up building a lot inside Pinewood Studios.” 

In true 007 fashion, Bond escapes and destroys Blofeld’s lair in a huge explosion — special effects supervisor Chris Corbould employed 2,223 gallons of kerosene to fuel the huge blast. 

“The explosion was very interesting, because it was huge. It was the biggest explosion I’ve ever filmed. It actually made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. It was fricking exciting to do it. It was our last thing we did in Morocco, and it was like we went out with a bang.”

LONDON

Bond returns to London to thwart Blofeld’s planned global surveillance system Nine Eyes. The climax involves Bond chasing Blofeld’s helicopter in a speedboat down the Thames, bringing the aircraft crashing down on Westminster Bridge. The production shut down a section of the river from Lambeth Bridge to Hungerford Bridge, giving van Hoytema the daunting technical prospect of lighting a huge area at night.

“I was very scared that we wouldn’t see the helicopter. It’s so much about this interaction between Bond and the helicopter at night. I was just so panicky that it would become a CG helicopter and then it would be illuminated with some sort of light that came from nowhere. And then, of course, we’re in London, the home base, and the city is laid out around you, so you want to see that. I started lighting the sh*t out of that whole area.

“I have an incredible gaffer, Dave Smith, who helped me conceptualise it. We started prepping that scene very early. We began by exploring the access to buildings and light sources. It’s interesting because, compared to Rome, London is portrayed as a much more modern city where the street lights are more neutral. It’s important in a sequence like that to feel the space around you, to feel the magnitude, and in order to feel that magnitude, you have to light it in order to make it exist. 

“There is one instance that I will never forget. Dave Smith and I went out in the centre of the Thames at magic hour and we sped all the way up to the front of Parliament. We had a dimmer board operator with an iPad with us, and we’re just floating in the middle of the Thames, and the sun is setting, getting darker. We had control over the lights around us in the city and, on some very pivotal buildings, we had some powerful lights on the roof that would just light up the night sky, so the helicopter would catch some sort of exposure there. And then we did it. It was one of the most exciting set-ups I’ve ever done.”

A DREAM UNLOCKED

Van Hoytema had grown up watching 007 movies (“It was always a big event, the music, the anticipation”) and was delighted that shooting Spectre lived up to his sky-high expectations.

“A James Bond film is a thing you want to have on your CV and once it’s on there, it will always be there. To me, it’s a beautiful memory, but it’s not only because it’s a nostalgic thing. I also love the idea that in this world, there are people out there like Michael and Barbara who believe in this old-school idea about what cinema could be and could mean to people. Every film is supposed to give people an experience that they take with them. To be part of that is absolutely a dream come true for me.”

James Bond: Sports Star

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Among his many attributes James Bond is a master sportsman. Whether it is based on physical prowess, hand-eye coordination, instinct, strategic nous or teamwork, 007 has proved his mastery in a diverse range of disciplines. Below is a survey of his unique sporting escapades. Surely an Olympic gold is only a matter of time. 

 

Golf

As seen in Goldfinger (1964)

Bond travels to Royal St. George’s Golf Course to continue his investigation into German businessman and gold lover Auric Goldfinger. Posing as an old club member, 007 is paired with Goldfinger, who has encountered Bond previously in Miami. The stakes between Bond and Goldfinger start small — “Shall we make it a shilling a hole?” suggests Bond — but soon escalate when 007 drops a bar of lost Nazi gold on to the green, designed to pique Goldfinger’s curiosity.

Supposedly playing by the “strict rules of golf”, what follows is perhaps the most underhanded golf game in sports history. Tied with two holes to play, there is cheating on both sides — when Goldfinger’s ball goes missing, his caddy Oddjob drops a ball from his trouser leg; Bond stands on his opponent’s ball in the rough —until Bond cheekily triumphs by switching Slazenger balls so that his opponent has putted the wrong ball and must therefore forfeit the game.

Stock Car Racing

As seen in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Escaping SPECTRE henchmen on skis, Bond (George Lazenby) takes refuge in the Swiss village of Stechelberg during the winter festival. He encounters his lover, Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), who is in Switzerland searching for him.

Fleeing in her Mercury Cougar XCR7, Tracy (behind the wheel) and Bond evade the SPECTRE operatives by driving into a hazardous stock car race taking place on an ice-track, bumping into cars like dodgems at a fairground. “Looks like we’ve hit rush hour,” quips Bond. 

Karate

As seen in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

During his hunt for world-class assassin Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), Bond (Roger Moore) is captured and taken to the martial arts academy of Hai Fat (Richard Loo), a cohort of Scaramanga. Wearing a pale blue karate suit, Bond watches two students fight to the death and is implored to fight a skilled student. As is martial arts tradition, the pair bow at the start of the fight, Bond kicking his opponent unceremoniously in the face, knocking him unconscious.

The master of the school then instructs Chula (Chan Yiu Lam) to take on 007. After a very tentative bow, the fight begins, the pair matching each other blow for blow. Punching Chula out, Bond delivers a cursory bow and dives headfirst through a window to make his escape.

 

Shooting

As seen in Moonraker (1979)

Bond (Roger Moore) is on his way to the airport, but is invited to join a pheasant hunt by billionaire Hugo Drax (Michel Lonsdale) on his estate in California. “It’s a pity you leave us,” says Drax. “Such good sport.”  

During the shoot, Drax, a crack shot with a rifle, places a marksman hidden in a nearby tree to take out 007. Bond goes along with the ruse, and when a bird flies across his eyeline, Bond fires his shotgun, missing the pheasant but killing the sniper. “You missed, Mr Bond,” remarks Drax, to which Bond responds, “Did I? As you said… such good sport.”

Rock Climbing

As seen in For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Bond has tracked heroin smuggler Kristatos (Julian Glover) to St. Cyril’s, a monastery in the northern mountains of Greece. Only accessible from the ground by a cabled basket, Bond realises he must scale the cliff to lower the basket down for the rest of his crew. 

Bond’s painstaking ascent is disrupted by a bird flying out of a nook, causing him to momentarily lose his grip, but he soon makes it to the top — only for henchman Apostis (Jack Klaff) to deliver a swift kick, sending 007 back over the edge and dangling from a great height. With classic 007 ingenuity, Bond uses his boot laces to help lever himself up, only for Apostis to start dislodging the carabiner hooks holding the ropes suspending Bond. Just as Apostis loosens the final hook, Bond manages to kill him by throwing a spike, sending him plummeting to the ground.

 

Tennis

As seen in: Octopussy (1983)

Investigating suave Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan), Bond (Roger Moore) teams up with British secret service intelligence operative Vijay (played by professional tennis player Vijay Amritraj). Vijay works as a professional tennis coach at Khan’s sports club, a talent that comes in handy when he is called on to help 007 escape Khan’s henchman in a motorised rickshaw.

During a chase down a bust street, Vijay fends off the heavies by swiping at them with his tennis racquet, the crowd enraptured by his handiwork like a centre court final.

 

Horse Racing

As seen in: A View To A Kill (1985)

Roger Moore’s final 007 adventure is rooted in the world of horse racing. Discovering Bond’s true identity, industrialist and horse owner Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) compels the secret agent to take part in a steeplechase to the death. 

As Bond sets off, Zorin plays dirty by booby trapping the course, be it raising the fences or having his goons whip 007 with riding crops. With Bond in the lead, Zorin activates steroids inside 007’s ride, forcing the horse off course. Bond sees salvation in his assistant, Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee), driving his Rolls-Royce, only to discover his manservant has been killed by deadly assassin, May Day (Grace Jones).

Skiing

As seen in The World Is Not Enough (1999)

From On Her Majesty’s Secret Service to The Spy Who Loved Me to For Your Eyes Only, Bond has proved himself to be a championship skier. Assigned to protect M (Judi Dench)’s family friend Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in Azerbaijan, 007 (Pierce Brosnan) accompanies King to survey her oil pipeline, the pair enjoying a joyous ski down the Caucasus mountains (“You ski very well, Mr Bond,” King tells him).

Out of the clear blue sky, assassins piloting four parahawks — skidoos suspended from parachutes — circle for the kill. Sending Elektra down a gully, Bond leads them into the trees — but not before the killers start dropping grenades. After one of the vehicles gets caught in the trees, two parahawks land, disengage their parachutes, and chase 007 on the slopes, the first being caught in the blast of a grenade, the second flying off a cliff after Bond does an emergency skid, quipping, “See you back at the lodge.” 

To 007’s surprise and chagrin, the parahawk sprouts another parachute and re-enters the fight. Bond thinks quickly and, during a death-defying leap, punctures the parahawk with his ski pole, causing the vehicle to go out of control and crash into the remaining parahawk. 

Fencing 

As seen in: Die Another Day (2002)

Returning to the UK from Cuba, Bond picks up the trail of diamond magnate Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) at an exclusive fencing academy in London. He banters with fencing instructor Verity (Madonna), who introduces him to Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), Graves’ publicist and Verity’s protégé, “the finest blade in the club”. They soon join Graves, who challenges Bond to a wager: a duel at £1000 a point.  At this point, Verity steps away: “No thanks, I don’t like cock fights.”

After Graves wins the initial best-of-three hits, Bond increases the stakes by introducing one of Graves’ blood diamonds into the wager. After Bond cuts Graves’ hand, the latter ups the ante by swapping fencing swords for cutlasses, the winner being the first to draw blood from the torso. What follows is a ferocious fight, both men swapping weapons, as they destroy the beautiful décor of the stately club. Moving outdoors, Bond cuts Graves in the stomach, throwing him into a fountain. As Graves gets up to retaliate, Miranda intervenes, and the two men reluctantly shake hands. 

Meet Madeleine Swann

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Madeleine Swann, perfectly played by Léa Seydoux, is perhaps the most complex, compelling and longest-lasting love in Bond’s life. The daughter of high-ranking SPECTRE operative Mr White (Jesper Christensen), Madeleine renounced her father and his lifestyle, going into hiding, working for Médecins Sans Frontières and then as a psychiatrist at the Hoffler Klinik near Sölden in the Austrian Alps. A traumatic event in her childhood — being attacked by terrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), who murdered her mother — gave her a lifetime fear and hatred of violence and weapons. A strong, rebellious, resourceful woman, she is initially a safe and useful ally for Bond but soon becomes so much more.  

“Is this really what you want? Living in the shadows? Hunting, being hunted? Always alone?”

Spectre (2015)

Madeleine first encounters Bond at the snowbound Hoffler Klinik following the suicide of Mr White. She is captured by SPECTRE assassin Mr Hinx (Dave Bautista), but is immediately freed by 007, who flies his plane into Hinx’s convoy. Making their escape, Madeleine leads Bond to the hotel L’Americain in Morocco — she steadfastly warns Bond against making any romantic advances — where her father has left a bundle of info that leads them to the nerve centre SPECTRE. On the train journey to the SPECTRE hideout (“You shouldn’t stare,” Madeleine tells Bond. “Well, you shouldn’t look like that,” he replies), the pair are ambushed by Hinx. Madeleine, despite her loathing of weaponry, fires several rounds from Bond’s gun. She misses, but it’s enough for Bond to gain the upper hand, allowing him to attach barrels to Hinx via rope and see him dragged off the train. She subsequently stays the night with Bond in his cabin.

Arriving at a deserted railway station, Bond and Madeleine are transported by Rolls-Royce to SPECTRE’s clandestine facility in the Sahara Desert. The pair are greeted by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), the man who looked after Bond just after he’d been orphaned. Torturing Bond in a neurosurgical chair, Oberhauser reveals he now goes by the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld, changing his name from one in his mother’s bloodline after faking his death three decades previously. With the help of an exploding watch, Bond and Madeleine escape, destroying SPECTRE HQ and head to London. 

Back in London, Madeleine tells Bond she no longer wants to be part of his life but is drawn into his auspices after she is kidnapped by SPECTRE. She is kidnapped by Blofeld’s men and taken to the derelict MI6 building, destroyed by Silva (Javier Bardem), and held captive. With the building rigged to explode, Bond locates her, the pair escaping by speedboat, then taking down Blofeld in a helicopter, who is arrested.

The following morning, Bond and Madeleine leave in 007’s Aston Martin for a new life.

“We Have All The Time In The World”

No Time To Die (2021)

Bond and Madeleine are travelling through Matera, Spain, on a day when the town is letting go of their secrets by writing them down and burning them. Bond quizzes Madeleine on her secrets. “I’ll tell you mine when you visit Vesper’s grave.” Bond visits his former lover’s grave and is nearly blown up by SPECTRE. Evading his assailants, Bond returns to his hotel and accuses Madeleine of setting him up. After the pair come under attack, making their getaway, he sends her away by train, saying he will never see her again — unaware she is carrying his child. 

Swann comes back into 007’s orbit five years later. Under the orders of Safin, she is instructed to kill Blofeld by wearing nanotech biological Heracles while he is imprisoned at Belmarsh prison. While she initially refuses to shake Bond’s hand, she inadvertently touches Bond, transferring the virus to 007, who kills Blofeld by strangling him, but not before the agent learns Madeleine didn’t betray him in Matera.

Bond tracks Madeleine to her home in Norway — the site of her childhood encounter with Safin — and the pair begin to open up (Madeleine: “I understand you’re not built to trust people”; Bond: “Neither are you.”). As they move in for a kiss, they are interrupted by Swann’s five-year-old daughter, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet), Madeleine steadfastly denying the child is Bond’s (despite the strong resemblance). The makeshift family unit is interrupted by Safin’s henchman. After a furious car chase, Bond hides Madeleine and Mathilde in a bunker, where, despite killing several of Safin’s henchmen, she is captured.

Madeleine and Mathilde are taken to Safin’s hideout on Poison Island, where Madeleine repeatedly implores Mathilde not to touch the toxic plants. Ordered to drink a tainted cup of tea that will make her blind, she throws the drink into Safin’s henchman Primo (Dali Benssalah)’s eye and makes her escape. Catching up with Bond, who is mounting a rescue mission, she and Mathilde escape in a lifeboat — but not before she shares a passionate kiss with James, who promises to join her soon.

Bond kills Safin and opens the island’s missile silos, allowing the warship HMS Dragon to destroy the island. In a heartbreaking farewell, Bond radios Madeleine, who has been escorted off the island by Nomi (Lashana Lynch), to say goodbye and declare his love for her and Mathilde. Madeleine admits that, with Safin dead, her problems are behind her and she can now live a happy life. Madeleine bids Bond a tearful farewell and confirms that Mathilde is his daughter, Bond admitting he knew all along. 

Later, Madeleine drives Mathilde to Matera, telling her daughter. “I’m going to tell you a story about a man. His name was Bond, James Bond.”

Inside The Living Daylights

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Following the departure of Roger Moore as James Bond after A View To A Kill, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson decided to ally the search for a new Bond with a new direction for the series. Looking to imbue the character and film with a tougher, harder edge, The Living Daylights, directed by John Glen, took inspiration from the real-life story of a KGB officer who defected to the CIA for a short time in 1985, then re-defected to the Soviet Union, rooting the drama in real-life geopolitics while still delivering on classic 007 action and adventure. This is the behind-the-scenes story of the 15th Bond film.

 

  1. A NEW DIRECTION 

The first idea for Bond 15 was an origin story exploring the character’s roots. The story started in 1972 with Bond as a young lieutenant in the Navy who, to avoid a court martial, undertakes a mission in Singapore for MI6 to kill warlord General Kwang. It was ultimately decided that the series shouldn’t look backwards, and the next treatment was inspired by the 1962 Ian Fleming short story The Living Daylights, with Bond sent to protect a defecting army officer and refusing to shoot the cellist sniper (Maryam d’Abo’s Kara Milovy in the finished film). “We then had to make a two-hour movie of this,” said screenwriter Richard Maibaum.

  1. DALTON. TIMOTHY DALTON

Casting for the new Bond began in earnest in January 1986. After actors including New Zealander Sam Neill, Brits Michael Praed and Mark Greenstreet, Australian James Healey, Frenchman Lambert Wilson, and Irishman Pierce Brosnan (his time would come) were tested, the team went back to an actor who had been considered 20 years previously. The RADA-trained Timothy Dalton had been approached in the late sixties following The Lion In Winter, but the actor turned the role down, believing he was too young. Dalton refused the role again when it looked like Moore would leave following Moonraker, but when Broccoli came calling for The Living Daylights, the actor was more in sync with the role.

“When we met Timothy in 1986, we saw during the intervening years he had added poise, experience and self-assurance,” said Cubby Broccoli. “He was excited by the idea. He saw Bond as being more serious, just as ballsy as Connery’s 007, but carrying his own personal imprint. He wanted to play the character closer to the way Fleming wrote it — which suited me.”

After signing on the dotted line, Dalton re-read all the Fleming novels to immerse himself deeply in the character.

“For me, he clearly lives in the moment,” said Dalton about Bond. “He’s always on the edge of his own death, everything is heightened.”

 

  1. ROCKING GIBRALTAR

The Living Daylights opens with Bond on manoeuvres in Gibraltar, a training exercise that goes wrong when an assassin kills a 00 agent. The sequence was Dalton’s induction into the world of 007 spectacle, but the filmmakers felt confident in his ability to be physical. “Tim’s very good at action,” said Glen. “He was a good mover, and he was very keen to do as much of his own stunt work as possible.” The pre-credit sequence culminates with Bond jumping on the killer’s Landrover speeding around narrow roads. Dalton flew in to do close-ups on top of the moving Jeep, so Broccoli sent second unit director Arthur Wooster a message: don’t damage him!

“He was keen and threw himself around,” laughed Wooster. “My old heart was going crazy and I couldn’t get rid of him quick enough — I was terrified.”

 

  1. THE RETURN OF AN OLD FAVOURITE

Bond teams up with Kara in Bratislava, and the pair flees to Vienna. For a car chase around a frozen lake in Czechoslovakia, The Living Daylights saw the return of an old favourite — the Aston Martin, here upgraded to the Volante model, kitted out with an array of Q dept gadgets including laser beam cutters, automatic missiles, rockets, studded tyres and skis for driving on ice. Shooting in Weissensee, Austria, the unit used three real cars and a number of doubles for moments it flies through the air, leaps over a dam and falls down a snowbank.

“It was a dangerous chase because when we first arrived, the lake was just freezing over,” said stunt coordinator Paul Weston. “When we walked out on it, you could see the fish beneath you, as it hadn’t gone white yet. It was like standing on a sheet of glass.” 

  1. SAY CELLO WAVE GOODBYE

After Bond is forced to destroy the Aston Martin, he finds a more unorthodox mode of transport — Kara’s cello case. The idea came from Glen during a writing session at MGM. 

“I said to Cubby, Dick and Michael, ‘I’ve got this idea to use the cello case as an escape vehicle where Maryam can sit on one side and Tim can sit on the other side, and go down the mountain,” said Glen. “Cubby pulled a face and Dick thought it was the worst idea he’d ever heard. I borrowed a cello case to demonstrate it was possible. Then they were convinced.”

The cello case was made out of fibreglass and was fitted with skis underneath and handles on the side, allowing Dalton to control the direction. While stunt performers Herman Sporer and Ida Huber doubled as Bond and Kara in long shots, Dalton and d’Abo spent three days shooting the sequence, which was not without its challenges.

“On one side was the ravine and down at the bottom was the camera crew,” recalled d’Abo. “Timothy weighed more than I did, so it was off balance and they put firecrackers underneath the snow to look as though we were being shot at — which I had a real phobia about.”

For the sequence’s finale, Bond throws Kara’s cello over the barrier at the checkpoint. Glen tried the moment with stuntmen, and it didn’t look right. “Tim said he wanted to have a go at it,” recalled Glen. “He tried and did it perfectly it one take.”

  1. MAGIC CARPET RIDE

Bond travels to Morocco to kill the power-hungry General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) taking him to where he is hiding with arms/drug dealer Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) and his hired killer, Necros (Andreas Wisniewski). After 007 assassinates Pushkin, he is chased across the rooftops by the Moroccan police. Timothy Dalton arrived in Tangier in October 1986 to shoot the sequence that included a nifty gag in which Bond evades his pursuers via a ‘magic carpet ride’. 

“We had planned to have Bond escaping across the rooftops, grabbing a carpet, throwing it over some wires that he sits on as it slides down like a magic carpet,” recalled Glen. “And it worked reasonably well, in fact, but the scene got a little over-long, and it was one of the tough decisions we made during the edit.”

 

  1. UP IN THE AIR

The climax of The Living Daylights takes place high above Afghanistan as Bond and Necros fight on a cargo net full of packages of heroin hanging from the back of a Hercules aircraft. Shot during the rainy season, meaning the sequence had to be captured in short snatches, the fight, doubled by stuntmen B.J. Worth as Bond and Jake Lombard as Necros, was made more difficult by the winds buffeting the cargo net, slamming it against the fuselage.

“After I had kicked Jake off the net, I started to crawl up the net but now with very little weight on it, the net started to go wild, flopping about very violently,” recalled Worth. “I wasn’t sure what to do as it was so unexpected. Eventually, I just had to let go, jump off the net, and use my hidden parachute – which was a first for me.”

The sequence was completed by close-ups of Dalton and Wisniewski captured against a painted backdrop at Pinewood, augmented by miniature mountaintops. The effect recreated action at 15,000 feet with the actors being just six feet off the ground. 

 

  1. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

By the time filming had finished on February 13, Glen had shot around 389,530 feet of film. With a theme composed by Norwegian band a-ha and John Barry (who, for his last Bond film, fittingly has a cameo in the film as a conductor), The Living Daylights opened in the UK on June 30 and a month later in the US on July 31. The film earned $51,185, 000 at the US box office and $191,200,000, firmly establishing Timothy Dalton as the right choice for 007.

“I think Timothy was wonderful in The Living Daylights,” said John Glen. “The script suited him, he portrayed all the smouldering qualities we were trying to introduce at that time, and he was equally good in the love and action scenes. I thought it was a remarkable debut considering he was thrown in the deep end.” 

45 Years of For Your Eyes Only

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45 years ago today, For Your Eyes Only premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, hosting its American premiere two days later. The film grossed $195.3 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing Bond film after its predecessor, Moonraker.

Following on from Moonraker (1979), producers Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson brought Bond back to Earth, closer to the spirit of Ian Fleming’s novels for his 12thouting. Or as Cubby Broccoli put it, “the more human values that worked so well in From Russia With Love (1963).”

For the screenplay, Broccoli brought back veteran 007 writer Richard Maibaum who worked on the script in collaboration with Wilson. The resulting story sees Bond (Roger Moore) ordered to retrieve the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), a device used to co-ordinate submarines, housed in a sunken spy ship St. Georges. Sir Timothy Havelock (Jack Hedley), a marine archaeologist secretly helping the British locate the ship, is murdered by hired assassin Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha). Bond travels to Spain to investigate who is behind the hit but Gonzales is killed by Havelock’s vengeful daughter Melina (Carole Bouquet). In Italy Bond and Melina seek the counsel of crime lord Columbo (Topol) through businessman Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover). Columbo reveals Kristatos is responsible for Havelock’s murder and is colluding with the KGB to purloin the ATAC. With Columbo’s help, Bond leads an assault on Kristatos’ mountain hideout and destroys the ATAC so neither East or West can obtain it.

To direct For Your Eyes Only, Broccoli promoted editor and second unit director John Glen. The casting was typically international in flavour with French actress Carole Bouquet for the revenge-seeking Melina Havelock and Cubby Broccoli’s wife Dana suggested Israeli born actor Topol for pistachio-chewing scoundrel Columbo. American ice-skating champion and actress Lynn-Holly Johnson took the role of Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl and, having once been considered for 007 himself, British actor Julian Glover signed on to play Greek smuggler Kristatos.

For Your Eyes Only began filming on September 13 1980 at the Villa Sylva at Kanoni above Corfu town. The production was informed by the ethos of Bond going back to its smaller scale roots. Stunt arranger Rémy Julienne and 2nd unit director Arthur Wooster created a thrilling chase involving Melina Havelock’s 2CV with Bond surviving on his wits rather than any gadgetry.

Within the return to realism, For Your Eyes Only does not skimp on spectacular sequences. Bond’s assault on Kristatos’ monastery hideout was shot in the Meteora Region of Greece. Although local monks tried to disrupt filming by hanging their laundry out of the window, climber Rick Sylvester performed a breath-taking 300ft fall from the mountain. Special effects supervisor Derek Meddings built a 30ft trough filled with sandbags to ease the impact on his body as the rope pulled taut.

Back in London, Glen filmed a thrilling pre-credit sequence at Becton Gas Works involving Bond trapped on a remote controlled helicopter — the scene was inspired by Glen noticing a technician’s son playing with a remote control car at Pinewood.  When the crew arrived in the Alpine resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, they discovered the town and mountains in the midst of a snow drought. 25 truckloads of fresh snow had to be brought in to dress street scenes.  Ski champion and cameraman Willy Bogner returned for his third Bond film, employing special skis that facilitated him skiing backwards and forwards to capture the stunning action.

Bill Conti composed the score and recorded the title song with Scottish pop star Sheena Easton, who became the only singer to date to appear in the main titles. The song proved a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic and garnered an Academy Award nomination. The film premiered on June 24 1981 and proved a huge success worldwide during the summer.

Bond In Summer

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From singing the calypso classic ‘Underneath The Mango Tree’ on a beach in Jamaica during Dr. No to driving through the ancient hills of Matera in No Time To Die, James Bond knows how to make the most of the summer. Be it misbehaving beside the pool, exploring landmarks, or just enjoying the jet-set lifestyle, here are ten ways 007 enjoyed the holiday season to the full.

  1. ARRIVING IN STYLE

As seen in: Casino Royale (2006)

On the hunt for the source of a mysterious phone call to terrorist Mollaka (Sébastian Foucan), Bond (Daniel Craig) journeys to Nassau in the Bahamas to pick up the trail. Coming into land in a small, exclusive seaplane, Bond steps off the plane in a light grey, single-breasted suit, a white short-sleeved shirt, and brown suede shoes. After having flown some 4,060 miles from London to the Bahamas, only 007 could look this cool and refreshed.

  1. CHECKING IN THE 007 METHOD 

As seen in: Dr. No (1962)

Investigating the disappearance of agent Strangways (Timothy Moxon), Bond (Sean Connery) travels to Kingston, Jamaica, and takes special care to spy-proof his hotel room, setting little traps to check if anyone has entered. He sprinkles talcum powder on his suitcase as a guide to whether it has been tampered with. He then plucks a hair from his head and places it between a crack in the door to highlight if it’s been breached. When he returns, his ruses have been sprung — later that night, he finds himself in bed with a huge tarantula.

  1. HANGING OUT IN THE HOTEL

As seen in: Goldfinger (1964)

Poolside at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel, Bond (Sean Connery) decides to have fun and games with billionaire industrialist Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). Suspecting Goldfinger is cheating at his daily card game, steals into his hotel and catches Goldfinger’s assistant Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) reading his opponents’ cards through binoculars. Without Jill’s assistance, Goldfinger loses immediately, much to Bond’s delight. By the way, 007’s fetching blue towelling onesie is essential summer wear.

HIT THE TOURIST HOT SPOTS

As seen in: Moonraker (1979)

Visiting Venice, you have to experience the canals and piazzas, and 007 (Roger Moore) is no exception. Yet when Bond, gently travelling down the canal, is chased by speedboats, he goes into overdrive by starting his gondola’s engine and outpacing his assailants. He later transforms the Q dept Gondola into a hovercraft traversing St. Mark’s Square to the sounds of Johann Strauss. Even the pigeon had to look twice.

  1. A SUMMER ROMANCE 

As seen in: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

“I was always taught that mistakes should be remedied,” says James Bond (George Lazenby) to Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). “Especially between friends…or lovers”. As Louis Armstrong’s ‘We Have All The Time In The World’ begins, we are launched into a whirlwind courtship: horseback riding, a walk through beautiful gardens, window shopping for rings, and frolicking on an empty beach. Every holiday romance should be so idyllic.

A DAY AT THE BEACH

As seen in: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

Bond (Roger Moore) and high-class professional assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) duel on the beach of Scaramanga’s private, secluded island. Before the pistols-at-dawn style face-off begins, Scaramanga shoots the cork off a bottle of champagne brought by his mischievous manservant Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize), and then the game is afoot.

  1. DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

“May I cut in?” says SPECTRE agent Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) to 007 (Sean Connery) on a crowded dancefloor at a beach front nightclub during the local Junkanoo celebrations. “Do you come here often?” deadpans Bond as the couple shimmy, all the while watched by menacing SPECTRE agents. As the drumming builds to a fever pitch, Bond spots a gun peeking through the curtain and, as it fires, he moves Volpe’s body into the firing line, the agent dying in his arms. “Mind if my friend sits this one out?” he says to the assembled guests as he lowers Volpe onto a chair. “She’s just dead.”

A DAY TRIP

As seen in: Die Another Day (2002)

Every holiday needs a day trip, but perhaps not as eventful as 007’s. Looking to infiltrate the Clínica Álvarez, a facility capable of DNA modifying to transform appearances, on the Isla de Los Organos, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) knocks a boorish tourist unconscious and employs him as a fake wheelchair-bound patient to gain access to the island. Following a short ferry trip, Bond enters the facility and fights with Zao (Rick Yune), while the building begins to explode following the handiwork of CIA agent Jinx (Halle Berry). It’s a form of relaxation, but not for everyone.

WATER SPORTS

As seen in: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Trapped on board a US submarine, Bond (Roger Moore) needs a quick way to get to Atlantis, the underwater lair of Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens), to save Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) before the facility is destroyed. He deploys a Q dept wet bike, a prototype jet ski, to skim across the waves and arrives to rescue Anya before the sub can fire its torpedoes. Fleeing in an escape pod as Atlantis sinks, Bond and Anya take a slow journey home — until they are rudely interrupted by their British and Russian superiors.

  1. TAKING IT EASY

As seen in: No Time To Die (2021)

Having retired from the secret service, Bond (Daniel Craig) is enjoying the easy life, lying low in Jamaica, sailing on his yacht The Happenstance, and catching huge fish for his supper. It’s a lazy way to spend the summer, but given Bond’s history, you know it won’t last.

Ten Unforgettable Desmond Llewelyn Moments

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As portrayed by the inimitable Desmond Llewelyn, Q is a treasured part of the 007 universe. Over the years, he has performed a number of roles for Bond: armourer, supplier of high-tech gadgetry, provider of valuable intel, a useful accomplice in the field and an unofficial father figure. Starting with From Russia With Love in 1963 to The World Is Not Enough in 1999, Llewelyn appeared in 17 Bond films (Q is mentioned in Live And Let Die but never appears), starring opposite five Bonds: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and finally Pierce Brosnan. A famous technophobe, Llewelyn invested the character with charm, warmth and wit; his relationship with 007 was always a highlight of each 007 adventure. Here are ten of his greatest moments.

  • THE INTRODUCTION

From Russia With Love (1963)

When actor Peter Burton proved unavailable to reprise his role as Major Boothroyd in Dr. No, Llewelyn took over the character, now known as Q. In M (Bernard Lee)’s office, Q gives Bond (Sean Connery) a run-through of a standard MI6 attaché case kitted out with a throwing-knife, anti-tampering mechanism with a magnetised tear-gas cartridge (disguised as a tin of talcum powder), fifty concealed gold sovereigns and an Armalite AR-7 Survival Rifle. A legend is born.

  • THE CAR

Goldfinger (1964)

The third 007 film is the first time we see Q in his natural habitat — the laboratory. Walking past a parking meter spewing toxic gas and a test for a bulletproof raincoat, Bond enquires about the location of his beloved Bentley. On M’s orders, Q introduces him to his new ride, an “Aston Martin DB5 with modifications”; bulletproof windscreen and windows, revolving number plates (“valid in all countries”), smokescreen, oil slick, rear bulletproof screen and front wing machine guns. When Q informs Bond that the Aston Martin has an ejector seat, the secret agent suggests he must be joking. “I never joke about my work, 007.”

OUT IN THE FIELD

Thunderball (1965)

Thunderball is Q’s first foray into the field, travelling to the Bahamas to personally furnish Bond (Sean Connery) with his often life-saving apparatus: a modified Geiger Counter Wristwatch, an Underwater Camera, an Underwater Propulsion Unit, a miniaturised Flare Gun, a Radioactive Homing Pill and a miniature Rebreather, gifting 007 four extra minutes of breathing underwater.  Q arrives in a blue Hawaiian shirt dotted with pineapples — while his fashion sense might miss the mark, his gadgetry is always on point. 

  • WORDS OF ADVICE

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Q attends Bond (George Lazenby)’s wedding to Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). He congratulates Bond on his nuptials and, rather than berating 007, offers him some rare praise by admitting, while he thought him previously irresponsible, he now has nothing to complain about — for once. Patting him on the back, Q offers some assistance that is far more meaningful than a gadget.

Q: Look, James, I know that we haven’t always exactly seen… Well, don’t forget, if there´s anything you need…”

Bond: “Thank you, but this time I have the gadgets, and I know how to use them.”

As Bond walks off into married life, Q moves to console a tearful Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), who has caught the hat flung by a departing 007. Q observes that Bond “never had any respect for Government property.”

CASINO ROYALTY

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Q arrives in Las Vegas to gift 007 (Sean Connery) a Voice Algorithm Recorder for mimicking the voice of Bert Saxby (Bruce Cabot), Blofeld (Charles Gray)’s casino manager — Q reveals he had created a similar gizmo as a plaything for his children the previous Christmas. Yet the Quartermaster’s real triumph comes from using an electromagnetic RPM Controller Ring to manipulate a payout on every slot machine in a Vegas casino. Ker-ching. 

  • THE BOY FROM BRAZIL

Moonraker (1979)

Operating in a Brazilian monastery in Moonraker, Q walks Bond (Roger Moore) around his workshop of gadgets that run the full gamut, from exploding bolas (“Balls, Q?” deadpans 007) to a sleeping man gun turret to a Laser rifle being tested. But Q also shows off the depths of his knowledge, informing Bond that the toxin he found in Venice comes from a rare orchid found only in the Amazon, keeping the mission on track.

HOT AIR BALLOON

Octopussy (1983)

The climax of Octopussy once again puts Q in the thick of the action. He helps Bond infiltrate Kamal Khan’s palace compound by expertly piloting a hot air balloon (decorated with a Union Jack), allowing Bond to crash through a window and give chase to Kamal. But Q isn’t finished there. He navigates the balloon into the compound where Octopussy’s (Maud Adams) all female team are fighting Kamal’s henchmen, bumping into a killer, causing him to miss his shot — an act of heroism that later sees him covered in kisses by the grateful women.

  • DEEP UNDERCOVER

Licence To Kill (1989)

This represents Desmond Llewelyn’s Q’s most extensive mission in the field. 007 (Timothy Dalton) has gone rogue after having his licence to kill revoked, so Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss) insists Q go to Isthmus to support Bond. Under the pretence of being Bond’s uncle, Q arrives at the Hotel El Presidente. showing 007 a range of nifty gadgets: a plastic explosive disguised as toothpaste, a camera that assembles into a signature rifle and a Polaroid camera that unleashes a laser. 

Q spends the night in Bond’s room (“I hope you don’t snore,” quips 007) and proves invaluable assistance, driving Bond to Sanchez’s office and providing him with a detonator (disguised as a cigarette packet) to blow the glass. 

Q also goes deep undercover as a Mexican gardener at Sanchez’s drug factory, using a radio transmitter hidden in a rake to communicate to agent Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) Bond’s whereabouts. Job done, he casually tosses the rake away. 

CAST AWAY

GoldenEye (1995)

The GoldenEye laboratory scene showcases Q’s showmanship and ingenuity to the max. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) enters the lab and discovers Q in a wheelchair with a plaster cast. “Morning, Q. Sorry about the leg. Skiing?” asks Bond. Q fires a rocket from the cast into a wall and cheekily replies, “Hunting”. 

He introduces Bond to his new gadget-laden car, BMW Z3 (“Need I remind you 007, you have a licence to kill, not to break the traffic laws”), a rappelling cord hidden in a leather belt, an x-ray document scanner and an exploding pen that destroys a mannequin (“The writing’s on the wall,” quips Bond after a demonstration to which Q replies “Along with the rest of him”). 

Bond picks up a baguette, wondering what hidden tech it contains. “Don’t touch that,” says Q. “That’s my lunch!” 

  • A FOND FAREWELL

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

At an MI6 retreat in Scotland, Q introduces Bond to his successor (John Cleese), immediately dubbed R by 007. After R briefs Bond on the BMW Z8, his incompetence at using a ski jacket inflates a sealed sphere, leaving the secret agent and quartermaster alone for the last time.

Bond: “You’re not retiring any time soon, are you?”

Q: “Now pay attention, 007. I’ve always tried to teach you two things: first, never let them see you bleed.”

Bond: “And the second?”
Q: “Always have an escape plan…”

As Q, lowered on a platform, disappears out of sight, it’s a touching goodbye to an unforgettable performer.

Spectre: Limited Edition 2-CD Release

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Introducing the remastered and expanded 2-CD re-issue of composer Thomas Newman’s original motion picture score to Spectre. Part of a limited edition of just 5,000, and exclusive with La-La Records, the James Bond Spectre Soundtrack Double CD Set – 10th Anniversary Expanded Remastered Edition showcases the film’s music with improved sound and never-before-released material. 

Available to pre-order here, shipping late June.

007 First Light Game Launches Globally

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James Bond makes his long-awaited return to gaming in a reimagined origin story, featuring an original theme by Lana Del Rey and David Arnold, an all-star ensemble cast, and cinematic espionage action

007 First Light launches with widespread acclaim, receiving an 89 OpenCritic rating, and an 88 Metacritic rating

IO Interactive, the independent video game developer and publisher behind the HITMAN franchise, and Amazon MGM Studios proudly announce the worldwide launch of 007 First Light. One of 2026’s most anticipated releases, 007 First Light invites players into an original, reimagined origin story of a young James Bond as he earns his place within MI6’s elite training program. 007 First Light is available now on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, on Amazon.com, as well as for PC on Steam and Epic Games Store.

Watch the launch trailer HERE

In 007 First Light, players step into the shoes of 26-year-old James Bond, a promising yet sometimes reckless Royal Navy air crewman recruited into MI6’s rigorous training program for the once revered and newly resurrected, elite 00-Programme. For the first time in video games, fans will be able to experience Bond’s ascent at MI6 from a recruit into a fully-fledged spy, as his sharp instincts, resourcefulness, and heroism propel him through the ranks and into the world of high-stakes covert operations.

Blending IO Interactive’s signature fluid, creative approach to missions with a globe-trotting espionage thriller, players will navigate each mission through infiltration, investigation, and the art of the bluff. Players will be able to choose how to overcome obstacles and challenges through brute force, cunning strategy, or disarming wit. Armed with Q-Branch’s finest gadgets, Bond will travel across breathtaking and dangerous exotic set pieces that capture the elegance, danger, and spectacle synonymous with Bond, ensuring every mission feels like a blockbuster adventure.

“With 007 First Light, we set out to honor the incredible legacy of 007 while creating a Bond gaming experience like no other,” said Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive. “This is a Bond still finding his footing, one players can grow with on his journey shaped by instincts, intelligence, and the resolve that ultimately build the character’s lasting impact.”

Star-Studded Ensemble Cast

To bring this original narrative to life, IO Interactive has assembled a standout cast. Rising star Patrick Gibson portrays James Bond in this reimagined origin story. He is joined by Priyanga Burford as the formidable M and Lennie James as Bond’s mentor John Greenway, alongside Alastair McKenzie as MI6’s tech wizard Q, Kiera Lester as Miss Moneypenny, and Noemie Nakai as the enigmatic Miss Roth. The ensemble cast also includes acclaimed actress Gemma Chan as the brilliant Dr. Selina Tan and Grammy Award winner Lenny Kravitz as the charismatic and unpredictable Pirate King Bawma. Further enriching the world of 007 First Light are special cameo appearances from Khaby Lame, the globally recognized creator and cultural sensation, alongside beloved British entertainer Jacksepticeye and legendary American streamer Shroud. 

Iconic Sound

No James Bond experience is complete without a signature musical identity. Grammy-nominated artist Lana Del Rey, with legendary Bond film composer David Arnold, co-wrote and performed the game’s official theme song, “First Light“. In a blend of Del Rey’s signature vocals with Arnold’s sweeping orchestration, the track serves as the perfect atmospheric backdrop for Bond’s entry into a world defined by allure, danger, and consequence. The Flight, the UK duo, serves as the composers for 007 First Light’s score, delivering a bold soundtrack honoring the timeless legacy of the franchise’s sound, underscoring the game’s tension, elegance, and momentum. The game’s musical world is further expanded by cameo appearances from Superstar DJ Dimitri Vegas and drum and bass duo Chase & Status, who bring contemporary electronic energy to key in-game moments, with a high-voltage club sequence featuring original music from Chase & Status.

Time-Honored Partnerships

The game will feature the Aston Martin Valhalla supercar, heavily modified with Q-Branch’s latest advancements, for assistance in high-stakes encounters across global locations, alongside a selection of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles and a special Triumph motorcycle that help shape Bond’s journeys on land. Field operations are elevated with Leica’s camera, putting cutting-edge optics in the hands of the world’s most famous spy. In the game, Bond is equipped with OMEGA’s brand new Seamaster Diver 300M Chronograph 007 First Light, a gadget-loaded essential that serves as a critical component on his adventure. Completing the look and lifestyle, 007 First Light partners with Orlebar Brown clothing, Coca-Cola, and Herman Miller, bringing the realism and immersiveness of these brands into the experience.

Cutting-Edge Technology

To achieve a new benchmark in visual fidelity, IO Interactive’s proprietary Glacier engine has been supercharged in partnership with NVIDIA. 007 First Light incorporates DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, maximizing frame rates on GeForce RTX PCs and laptops. Path Tracing and DLSS Ray Reconstruction will also be coming to 007 First Light later this summer.

007 First Light is available today on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, on Amazon.com, as well as for PC on Steam and Epic Games Store. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will follow later this Summer 2026. 007 First Light is available in Standard, Deluxe, Collector’s, and Legacy Editions. More details can be found at https://ioi.dk/007firstlightgame.

For more information, please visit the official website: 007FirstLightGame.com or follow IO Interactive on X, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, Threads, Reddit, Bluesky, and YouTube. Those interested in additional news can subscribe to IO Interactive’s press page: https://ioi.dk/press and to an IOI Account.  

ABOUT IO Interactive 

IO Interactive is an independent video game developer and publisher with studios in Copenhagen, Malmö, Barcelona, Istanbul, and Brighton. As the creative force behind some of the most talked-about multiplatform video games in the last two decades, IOI is dedicated to creating unforgettable characters and experiences using their award-winning proprietary Glacier technology.

 IO Interactive developed and published a reimagined James Bond origin story with 007 First Light, available now, and is currently developing a new IP under the codename Project Fantasy. For more information, visit: https://ioi.dk.

 ABOUT Amazon MGM Studios

Amazon MGM Studios is a leading entertainment company focused on the production and global distribution of film and television content. Original series premiere on Prime Video, which is available to watch on hundreds of compatible devices in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Original films are produced and acquired by the studio for theatrical release and exclusively for Prime Video. Amazon MGM Studios also produces content for MGM+, the premium pay television network.

© 2026 IO Interactive A/S. IO Interactive, IOI, HITMAN are registered trademarks of IO Interactive A/S. 007 FIRST LIGHT (source code and other software and certain audiovisuals only) © 2026 IOI. 007 FIRST LIGHT (audiovisuals), 007 FIRST LIGHT, JAMES BOND, 007 and related James Bond copyrights and trademarks authorized for use by IOI under license from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., exclusive licensee of London Operations LLC. © 2026 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. Developed in association with Delphi Interactive LLC. “PlayStation” and “PS5 logo” are registered trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment ©Inc. XBOX and Xbox logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license. © 2026 Nintendo Switch is a trademark of Nintendo.

All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

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The Scaramanga Files

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“He has a powerful weapon. He charges a million a shot. An assassin that is second to none,” Lulu’s theme for 1974’s The Man With The Golden Gun — music by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black — provided the perfect introduction to Francisco Scaramanga. Played with elegant menace by Christopher Lee, Scaramanga is a world-class hit man who is defined by his deadly custom-made pistol and his facility as a marksman, which is at least the equal of 007. Here’s the lowdown on one of Bond’s greatest adversaries.

Background: Scaramanga was born into a travelling circus, his Cuban father the ringmaster, his English mother a snake charmer. By the age of 10, the boy was a spectacular trick artist and, as a teenager, became a gunman in the Rio underworld. He was recruited by the KGB and was trained in his deadly trade in Europe. Yet, becoming an “overworked, underpaid” assassin, Scaramanga quit the KGB and became an independent operative in the late ‘50s. As Bond puts it, his current price is “$1 million a hit.”

The High Life: Scaramanga lives the life of a world-class assassin, building an extravagant home on his private island off the coast of southeastern China (part of a deal struck with the Chinese government to carry out assassinations in return). His island includes a solar power plant and a funhouse, which he uses to taunt and tease his various adversaries.

Accomplice: Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) is Scaramanga’s mischievous manservant. Nick Nack has multiple roles in Scaramanga’s employ. He is a butler, chief, assailant, and the arranger of various hitmen to come to Scaramanga’s island and kill him, as a way of keeping his boss sharp. Nick Nack also plays a pivotal role in stealing the Solex Agitator (a device that harnesses the sun’s power), a vital component in Scaramanga’s plot to auction off the world’s first solar energy system. As Bond arrives on Scaramanga’s island for a duel to the death, Nick Nack greets 007 with a bottle of champagne — in a moment of bravura, the assassin shoots off the cork — and then officiates over the deadly game.

Love Interest: Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) is Scaramanga’s mistress, but, in reality, is playing a deceitful double cross, sending Bond the golden bullet engraved with 007 to lure him into coming to kill Scaramanga to free her from a life she loathes — 007 takes the bait. Anders helps Bond, firstly by helping him get close to Scaramanga — directing him to the Bottoms Up club — and then by stealing the Solex Agitator. Scaramanga discovers her deception and kills her for betraying him.

Distinguishing features:  A third nipple. 

Weapons: Scaramanga’s weapon of choice is a gold-plated pistol that comprises four seemingly innocent objects: a pen, a lighter, a cigarette case and a cufflink. The single-shot firearm uses a custom-made 4.2-millimetre (.165 calibre) 23K golden dum-dum bullet with traces of nickel. Scaramanga has used the gun to kill gangster Rodney (Marc Lawrence), a British scientist Gibson (Gordon Everett), his own employer Hai Fat (Richard Loo) and even Bill Fairbanks, a 00 agent who was fatally wounded by a bullet in the neck.

Scaramanga’s home also plays host to a solar-powered laser cannon that the killer demonstrates to Bond by destroying the plane 007 arrived in. 

Vehicles: Scaramanga drives a 1974 AMC Matador X Coupé that comes into its own when intelligence officer Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) is bundled into the boot by Nick Nack and taken hostage. Bond, driving a commandeered AMC Hornet, gives chase through the busy Bangkok traffic. The chase concludes when the Matador pulls into an aircraft hangar and emerges as fit for flying via a wing attachment and jet engine. With an instrument panel replacing the car dashboard, the Matador soars into the skies — Goodnight gets a shock when she opens the boot to discover she is mid-air. 

Scaramanga also owns a Junk, the ramshackle exterior masking a high-tech interior. Bond steals it to make his escape as Scaramanga’s island is exploding. 

Dress sense: His signature look is a white suit, and he wears a ring with a huge stone on the little fingers of each of his hands. Scaramanga has also been known to wear a black suit, a royal blue tracksuit, and a short-sleeved, light blue shirt, blue flared trousers and white loafers.

Personality: Scaramanga is eccentric, arrogant, ruthless and sadistic. A self-professed gentleman who, like Bond, enjoys the finer things, including his own cordon bleu chef and an expensive wine cellar. He also seems to enjoy oysters served with Guinness and tabasco sauce. The assassin also boasts a sardonic sense of humour, such as following his murder of Hai Fat: “He always did like that mausoleum. Put him in it.”

Killer lines: (On inviting Bond to dinner) “Ours is the loneliest profession, Mr. Bond …So let us spend a few pleasant hours together”. (On killing Andrea Anders) “A mistress cannot serve two masters” (On the profession of murder) “Now, come, come, Mr. Bond. You disappoint me. You get as much fulfilment out of killing as I do, so why don’t you admit it?” (On revealing his lifetime’s ambition) “You see, Mr Bond, like every great artist, I want to create an indisputable masterpiece, once in my lifetime: the death of 007.”

The Final Showdown: Bond takes on Scaramanga on the latter’s private island. It’s a battle between Scaramanga’s Golden Gun and Bond’s Walther PPK, with the former so confident he brags about needing just one bullet compared to Bond’s six. Beginning back-to-back like a classic pistols-at-dawn duel (“it remains the only true test for gentlemen,” says Scaramanga), the two men walk 20 paces, Scaramanga cheating by stealing into the labyrinthine maze of the funhouse. The two men stalk each other until Bond, posing as his own mannequin, kills Scaramanga with a single shot, the famous golden gun dropping from his side.

Location, Location, Location

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In his four-film tenure, Pierce Brosnan’s Bond visited iconic global locations, covering all terrains and temperatures. From sun-kissed beaches to freezing cold snowscapes, the beating heart of an urban metropolis to rugged mountain ranges, Brosnan’s 007 films have used impeccably researched locations to add touches of drama, glamour, romance and danger. Here are some of the best spots the fifth James Bond visited.

GoldenEye (1995)

Switzerland 

The mission: Bond and fellow MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) infiltrate a top-secret Soviet nerve gas facility in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Bond swallow-dives 640ft on a bungee, firing a piton gun into the facility’s roof and hauling himself down the remaining way. 

The Location: The scene was captured on March 11, 1995, at Verzasca Dam near Locarno, Switzerland, standing in for Russia. The record-breaking 640ft jump was performed by stuntman Wayne Michaels, who bruised his back and legs as winds pushed him into the concrete wall. 

Cuba

The mission: Bond and Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) travel to Cuba in search of the Goldeneye satellite dish. The pair discover the dish, which is submerged in a lake in the middle of a jungle to avoid detection from spy satellites and aerial reconnaissance. Bond begins to set remote charges, getting captured and brought before a gloating Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) to buy Natalya time to reprogram the satellites with new codes. 

The Location: The set-piece was shot at the Arecibo observatory (aka National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center) in Puerto Rico. The dish, which is over 1000 metres across, has produced maps of Venus and, in 1974, beamed the Arecibo message, an interstellar radio message conveying information about humanity and Earth into space. Unsurprisingly, the radar radio telescope could not submerge underwater, so Derek Meddings’ model unit created a miniature replica on the backlot of Leavesden studios. 

 

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Russia

The Mission: A terrorist arms bazaar somewhere on the Russian border. Bond has infiltrated the sale to identify arms dealers and terrorists. Against M’s objections, the Royal Navy launch a missile strike, unaware that the terrorists have a military jet packed with two nuclear torpedoes. To avert environmental disaster, Bond steals the Russian plane and escapes, flying through the explosion after the missile impacts.

The Location: On January 20, the crew convened at Peyragude at Balcons de Peyresourde in the French Pyrenees to create the pre-credit sequence involving the arms sale. Chris Corbould’s crew blew up a missile launcher, a helicopter, a truck and a jeep. The cruise missile explosion consisted of 30 smaller explosions to make one big fireball. 

Saigon

The Mission: Bond and Chinese agent Wai-Lin (Michelle Yeoh) are captured and taken to media mogul Elliott Carver’s HQ in Ho Chi Minh City. But, before Carver’s henchman Stamper can torture them, the pair escape by jumping through a window and sliding down a huge banner of Carver. A furious chase begins with Bond and Wai-Lin escaping on a motorbike — at one point, Bond performs a death-defying leap over a helicopter to evade his pursuers. 

The Location: Both the first and second units travelled to Thailand to create Bond and Wai-Lin’s bike chase through Saigon. Action unit director Vic Armstrong opted for a heavy-duty BMW R1 200 C Cruiser to perform the jumps and stunts to add further jeopardy. The unit captured Bond and Wai-Lin’s death-defying leap forty-three stories up the Sinn Sathorn Tower, the jump performed by Mark Southworth and Wendy Leech. 

 

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

London

The Mission: Bond returns the ransom money for Elektra King to her father, Sir Robert King, at MI6 in London. The metallic strip in one of the notes sparks a huge explosion that blows a hole in the wall of MI6 HQ. Spotting an assassin on a boat taking aim at him, 007 jumps into an experimental Q Dept jet-powered boat and gives chase down the Thames, taking shortcuts down narrow streets and through a restaurant, destroying the boat near the Millennium Dome. Escaping in a hot air balloon, the killer escapes in a hot air balloon but decides on self-destruction rather than Bond’s offer of protection.

The Location: This 14-minute set-piece was the longest pre-credit sequence at the time. With the pull of the 007 franchise opening up doors to stage a full-on boat chase in front of the Houses of Parliament,  the action was staged over five weeks from March 29 to May 7 — on the first day, a burst of gunfire provoked a member of the public to call the police, not aware that the police were already present. 

Azerbaijan 

The Mission: Bond meets Elektra King in Baku, Azerbaijan, offering his services of protection. In the Caucasus Mountains, Elektra shows Bond her pipeline, but the pair come under attack from a crew of armed assassins piloting parahawks. Bond sees off the aggressor, sending the parahawks colliding into each other, causing an explosion that initiates an avalanche. 007 saves the day as Bond deploys a rapid-inflating sphere.   

The Location: The second unit shot the parahawks sequence in Chamonix, France. The Parahawks, skidoos suspended from parachutes, were part of the Russian Special  Services Atomic Energy Anti-Terrorist Unit. It was so cold that the cameras were tested in the fridges at Heathrow airport, and the weather disrupted the schedule via overcast skies, avalanche warnings, and diesel freezing in the trucks. 

 

Die Another Day (2002)

Cuba

The Mission: Bond heads to Cuba on the trail of General Zao (Rick Yune), who has been spotted as a patient at the Clinica Alvarez, a clinic that uses DNA-modifying technology that can modify a person’s physical appearance to create a brand new identity. Posing as a bird watcher on a beach, Bond meets Jinx, a tourist who banters with Bond, and the pair spends the night together. The next day, Bond gains access to Alvarez’s clinics and discovers Zao. The pair fight, but Zao escapes, and the clinic catches fire following sabotage by Jinx, who is revealed as a CIA agent.

The Location: With the script demanding sunny climes, the crew headed to Cadiz in Spain as a proxy for Cuba, expecting high temperatures. Instead, they were greeted with rain, wind and cloud cover. Pierce Brosnan hammed it up, sporting a pink hot water bottle, which he described.

Iceland

The Mission: On the invitation of Gustav Graves, Bond goes to Iceland to witness the unveiling of the Icarus project – a diamond-powered satellite with enough power to illuminate half the planet – at Graves’ spectacular ice palace. Reuniting with Jinx, the pair join forces — 007 saves her life from laser torture — as the real purpose of Graves’ satellite is revealed: a huge orbital space weapon transforms solar light into a huge destructive ray. Bond flees the powerful beam in Graves’ ice dragster. Bond returns in his Aston Martin in invisibility mode, taking on Zao in an epic car chase over icy wastes and into Graves’ fortress, the palace melting from the power of the heat ray.

The Location: To shoot the ballet between Bond’s V12 and Zao’s Jaguar XKR, the production found a spectacular lagoon near Vatnajökull, which not only freezes over but is also surrounded by icebergs. Unfortunately, Iceland went through unprecedented warm conditions, causing the lagoon to thaw. The unit looked at alternative locations in Alaska, but the cost was prohibitively high. Then the Iceland location experienced its coldest February for 60 years, and the ice froze to a depth that could host a hot pursuit. Still, the camera car was fitted with floatation devices in case the surface cracked.