We are very sad to hear that Shane Rimmer has passed away at the age of 89. Shane appeared in three Bond movies – You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever and The Spy Who Loved Me. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.
Focus Of The Week: Miranda Frost
The aloof, articulate and cold-hearted MI6 Agent Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) from Die Another Day (2002) is a Harvard educated, Olympic standard fencer and also the secret lover of Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) aka Colonel Moon. The pair first met and fell in love trying out for the fencing team for Harvard, before Moon returned to Korea. Years later, when Frost won the Olympic gold by default at Sydney, it was because Moon arranged for the true winner to overdose on steroids. This devious act sealed Frost’s allegiance to Moon, even when DNA replacement changed his appearance to become Graves.
Having spent three years in MI6’s cryptology department, Frost pretends to spy on Graves while working under the guise of his publicist but secretly passes on the Ministry’s secrets to her lover. She is instructed by M (Judi Dench) to work alongside Bond (Pierce Brosnan) but does not approve of his methods or reputation. She still helps Bond stay under cover by kissing him when 007 is caught by Mr Kil (Lawrence Makoare) and his minions. The pair spend the night together in Frost’s room to maintain the pretence they are lovers.
Bond awakes and goes in pursuit of Graves, Frost pleading with him not to go. When Bond finally confronts Graves it comes to light she is the traitor who betrayed him in North Korea, which led to 14 months of incarceration and torture by the North Koreans. Bond moves quickly to kill her, but realises that his weapon is empty — Frost had cannily taken the opportunity to empty his Walther P99. Under the aim of Frost’s gun, Bond deploys the sonic agitator ring, courtesy of Q dept., to shatter the glass platform that supports them. Frost and Bond fall into the jungle environment of Graves’ dome HQ, the villains escaping in an Antonov An-124 aircraft.
Bond, and his CIA counterpart Jinx (Halle Berry), track down Graves and Frost in Korea. Boarding Grave’s plane, Jinx is confronted by Frost at the controls of the aircraft. As the plane spirals out of control, they engage in a fencing duel, Frost slicing Jinx across the stomach and telling her she can read her opponent’s every move. Jinx manages to stab Frost in the chest. The wound is fatal and Frost falls backwards to her death.
Focus Of The Week: GoldenEye’s Cuban Climax
GoldenEye (1995) broke new ground for the series in many ways. It not only ushered in a new James Bond in the shape of Pierce Brosnan but also became the first 007 film to extensively utilise digital effects with 140 CGI shots alongside traditional special effects. This pioneering technology is prevalent in the film’s thrilling climax as Bond battles nemesis Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) atop the GoldenEye satellite dish in a battle to not only foil Trevelyan’s plot to rob the Bank of England by erasing its financial records but also to settle some keenly felt old scores.
For the exterior of the GoldenEye facility set in Cuba, the production found a suitably impressive satellite dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. On May 10 1995, the first unit started shooting scenes at the satellite centre before zeroing in on the showdown between Bond and Trevelyan. For the fight itself, director Martin Campbell drew inspiration from Bond’s fight with Red Grant on a train in From Russia With Love (1963). To achieve a similar level of intensity, Brosnan and Bean performed much of the action themselves.
“The fight scene goes on and on and on,” recalled Bean. “It’s a hell of a showdown. It’s not just about fighting. It’s seeing it in their eyes as much as anything — seeing the link between them and their having to fight to the death.”
Although the Arecibo Observatory was among the largest spherical radar-radio telescopes in the world, the script called for it to be submerged under a lake. Miniature effects supervisor Derek Meddings’ team built a 1/20th scale model of the dish but, because the real structure was so enormous, it still measured 50 feet across. The landscape model surrounding the miniature was about 100 feet across.
Digital-effects technology was also employed to augment the miniature work. The Arecibo dish was built out of very thin, perforated metal suspended on cables which meant it could not support actors. So the production recreated the structure against green screen at Leavesden Studios.
“There is a danger that the traditional techniques which in many cases are sometimes equally appropriate or more cost effective will be ignored,” said visual effects coordinator Mara Bryan. “This was certainly not the case with GoldenEye, where special and visual effects employed almost every known technique old and new. It was very exciting to be a part of it.”
Focus Of The Week: Sylvia Trench
“Willowy, exquisitely gowned with a classic, deceptively cold beauty.” This is how the Dr. No (1962) screenplay describes Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson). Elegant and intelligent, Sylvia became the first woman to catch the cinematic James Bond (Sean Connery)’s attention. She also sets up one of the most iconic lines in cinema history.
Sylvia first meets Bond at the exclusive Le Cercle casino at Les Ambassadeurs club in London. Battling over a game of Chemin de fer, she introduces herself as “Trench, Sylvia Trench” and he responds in his now trademark manner (“Bond, James Bond”), playfully mimicking Trench’s own delivery.
Sylvia loses the game but finds herself intrigued by Bond. When Bond receives a call from a secret service operative and leaves the table, she follows suit. Bond suggests dinner and golfing the next day. Taking his card, she informs she will let him know in the morning. However, when Bond returns to his apartment that evening, he is greeted with Sylvia practicing her putting into a bowler hat sporting his pyjama top. The couple spend a passionate night together before Bond heads to Jamaica.
Sylvia reappears in the next 007 adventure From Russia With Love (1963), sharing a lazy picnic with Bond by the river. A call from Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), informing Bond to meet with M (Bernard Lee), interrupts their idyll sending him on a mission to retrieve a decoding machine from the Russians. It seems, when it comes to James Bond, Sylvia can never catch a break.
Focus Of The Week: Mollaka
Highly acrobatic, Casino Royale (2006)’s Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan) is a bomb maker and freelance terrorist whose physical prowess and agility increases his threat.
Mollaka is engaged by Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian), a middle man for terrorist banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), to destroy the Skyfleet S570, a prototype of the world’s largest airliner, at Miami International Airport. In Madagascar, Mollaka attends a cobra/mongoose fight unaware he is under surveillance from two MI6 agents to apprehend him, James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Carter (Joseph Millson).
Mollaka evades Carter, leaping through an empty swimming pool where the agent is bitten by the cobra and killed. With Bond in pursuit, Mollaka, heading for sanctuary in the Nambuto Embassy, charges headlong into a construction site. He sprints up the girders forming the skeleton of a building, assuming 007 will remain on the ground. Bond refuses to give up, pursuing the saboteur even when Mollaka scales a construction crane and then leaps down onto a rooftop.
Bond follows Mollaka into the Nambuto Embassy, determined not to let him get away. 007 captures Mollaka but is surrounded by the Embassy chief and guards. Held at gunpoint and ignoring orders to keep Mollaka alive, Bond shoots him in the head along with a nearby gas cylinder, the subsequent explosion allowing him to escape with Mollaka’s backpack and phone.
The explosion is captured on CCTV and becomes front page news in England. Yet Mollaka’s death does not neutralise the danger. Dimitrios hires a new bomber Carlos (Claudio Santamaria) calling 007 into a rendezvous with the Skyfleet S570.
Focus Of The Week: Thunderball’s Jet Pack
During the pre-credit sequence for Thunderball (1965), James Bond attends the funeral of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. operative Jacques Boitier (Bob Simmons, Rose Alba), connected with the murder of two MI6 agents. 007 discovers Boitier is still alive, disguised as his grieving window. Tracking Boitier to his chateau, Bond fights and kills him, then looks to make his escape across a rooftop. Chased by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. gunmen and with no way down, Bond utilises a Bell-Textron Jet Pack, a low power rocket propulsion device, to fly to his Aston Martin DB5 to make his escape.
Thunderball director Terence Young wanted to ensure 007’s gadgetry did not become a series of gags so the production searched for existing equipment to fold into Bond’s technological arsenal (the Skyhook that whisks Bond and Domino to safety at the end of the film is also based on real life tech). In 1959, the US army issued a contract to Bell Aerospace to develop a Rocket Belt. Shortly after Bell unveiled the flying machine, the Army deemed it too dangerous for use. The filmmakers believed that Q Department might disagree, seeing a use for the technology to help agents escape from a tight corner.
“Charlie Russhon (Technical Advisor) contacted Bell-Textron and had them demonstrate it to us,” recalled Production Designer Ken Adam. “It actually worked, and was very dangerous because you could only fly for 20 seconds, Then, you ran out of fuel and you had nothing. You had better land it before you ran out of fuel.”
The scene was shot on February 19 1965 at Chateau d’Anet west of Paris. The flight sequence combined close-ups of Sean Connery shot against a rear projection screen with long shots of a stuntman piloting the Jet Pack. To help Bond appear more debonair, the scene was envisaged with 007 not wearing a helmet. However, when stuntman Bill Suitor refused to perform the stunt without safety headgear, shots of Connery sporting a helmet were inserted later.
A beloved piece of James Bond gadgetry the Jet Pack makes a cameo in Die Another Day (2002) in Q’s storeroom in an abandoned London Underground facility.
See the Bell-Textron Jet Pack at the Bond In Motion exhibition at the London Film Museum. For more details, head to http://londonfilmmuseum.com
Albert Finney (1936 – 2019)
We are very sad to hear that the legendary Albert Finney has passed away at the age of 82. Albert, who was a five-time Oscar nominee, won two BAFTA awards and received the British Academy Fellowship in 2001, played gameskeeper Kincade in Skyfall (2012). Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said: “We are heartbroken at the loss of Albert Finney. It was a privilege to work with him and an honour to have had him as part of our Bond family.”
Focus Of The Week: Zao
A North Korean assassin and terrorist, Die Another Day’s Zao (Rick Yune) is in league with Colonel Moon (Kenneth Tsang), trading conflict diamonds and illicit weapons. A skirmish with Bond radically alters his appearance but his sense of sadism and determination remain constant.
At Moon’s North Korean HQ, Zao takes a photo of Bond who is impersonating diamond trader Van Bierk and sends it to an MI6 double agent who quickly identifies Van Bierk as 007. With his cover blown, Bond sets off an explosion that embeds diamonds in Zao’s face. Bond kills Moon (or so it seems) before being taken prisoner.
14 months later, Bond is exchanged for Zao in a tense handover. “Your time will come,” Bond tells him. “Not as soon as yours,” replies Zao. M (Judi Dench) tells Bond that Zao was captured after trying to blow up a summit meeting between China and North Korea, killing three Chinese agents. The MI6 mole provided the North Koreans with the identity of the top US agent in North Korea’s High Command. The spy is executed, leading US and British Secret Services to believe Bond has cracked under torture and spilled the information. Zao’s release back to North Korea was unavoidable. Bond breaks ranks to track him and the double agent down.
Zao travels to a Cuban medical clinic for DNA replacement therapy, which will morph him into a Caucasian European. While Zao is unconscious, listening to tapes that will help him assume his new identity, Bond disturbs him with the intention to find out who is paying for his physical alterations believing it is the same person who set him up in North Korea. Zao manages to escape in a helicopter, his face still blemished with diamonds, his body chalk white from the failed transformation. Bond retains a phial from Zao’s neck that contains Sierra Leone blood diamonds — the engravings put him on the trail of diamond magnate Gustav Graves.
Zao arrives in Iceland and joins Graves, who turns out to be Colonel Moon transformed by the gene replacement therapy. Bond is captured and goads Zao into punching him in the stomach, allowing 007 to fall to the ground and utilise a special ring from Q department to cut through a glass panel and fall to a lower floor. Bond escapes in his Aston Martin Vanquish so Zao gives chase in a Jaguar XKR, the pair launching missiles at each other across a frozen lake. Inside Graves’ Ice Palace, Bond tricks Zao into crashing his car over the edge of a balcony. As Zao gets out of the car, 007 fires a single shot that severs a cable holding a giant ice chandelier which crashes down to impale and kill the terrorist.
Nick Finlayson
We are very sad to learn that Nick Finlayson has passed away. The Special Effects Technician worked on 10 Bond films – A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence To Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Th World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum Of Solace and Skyfall. Special Effects Supervisor John Richardson said, “He first worked with me on A View To A Kill and together we completed two more Bond films and at least seven other films, including Aliens and the last two of the Harry Potter series. A very clever and talented technician he was an important and valued member of my team. He deservedly earned himself the title of ‘The Real Q’ building many of the iconic Bond gadgets. He had a great sense of humour and he would often devote his time helping and mentoring younger members of the Effects department. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him and worked with him.”
While Chris Corbould, who worked with Finlayson on all of his 10 Bond films, said: “The film industry has lost one of the true gentlemen in Nick Finlayson. His infectious laugh and beaming smile brightened everybody’s day no matter what else was going on. I worked alongside Nick over many, many years where his ingenuity and expertise created many of the greatest moments in Special Effects history whether it be James Bond, Batman or Lara Croft. I feel privileged to have known and worked with Nick but his legacy will live on through the many technicians he has mentored over the years.”
Our thoughts are with Nick’s friends and family.
Focus Of The Week: Mr. White
Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) is a key, influential figure in Quantum, a shadowy organisation connected to the highest centres of political, business and financial power around the world. Also a high-ranking member in crime syndicate Spectre, White is intelligent but quick to betray, undergoing a transformation from Bond’s antagonist to anti-hero.
In Casino Royale (2006), Mr. White brokers a deal between warlord Steven Obanno (Isaach De Bankolé) and Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), private banker to the world’s terrorists. Le Chiffre loses Obanno’s money and enters a high stakes poker game at Casino Royale in an attempt to regain the missing funds.
Although Le Chiffre loses the poker game to Bond, Quantum weave an elaborate plan involving Financial Task Force liaison officer Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) to guarantee the winnings end up in their hands. Kidnapped and tortured by Le Chiffre, Bond’s life is saved by White who shoots Le Chiffre just as he is about to execute 007. This is seemingly part of a deal with Lynd to save Bond’s life to secure the casino winnings: White appears to be Lynd’s key contact for Quantum, leading her to believe that her French-Algerian lover Yusef Kabira will be killed should she fail to co-operate.
In Venice, Bond thwarts the plan for Lynd to hand the money to another Quantum operative. Lynd drowns in a sinking Venetian house but not before she has left White’s mobile/cell phone number for Bond to find. 007 tracks White down to an idyllic Italian lakeside villa, calls his mobile and then shoots him in the leg — his introduction (“The name’s Bond. James Bond”) is a calling card to the entire Quantum organisation.
In Quantum Of Solace (2008) Bond drives Mr. White to an MI6 safe house in Siena. White threatens Bond and M that his organisation has people everywhere, including M’s bodyguard Mitchell (Glenn Foster). He escapes and later reappears at a secret Quantum meeting during a performance of Tosca at the opera house in Bregenz, Austria. When Bond makes his presence known, White’s fellow members leave the opera letting 007 take photographs to identify them. White stays in his seat and remains incognito.
Years later (Spectre, 2015), Bond discovers an older, frailer Mr. White during an investigation of SPECTRE — White is dying of thallium poisoning, with only a few weeks to live. On the hunt for a SPECTRE target known only as ‘The Pale King’, Bond identifies White as the designated victim. He tracks him down to Altaussee in the Austrian Alps, provocatively putting down a ring baring the SPECTRE insignia belonging to deceased assassin Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) who was due to kill White.
White reveals how he increasingly became disillusioned by SPECTRE’s methods and dropped out of the organisation. In retaliation, SPECTRE planted thalium poisoning on his phone, which White grew resistant to so Sciarra was dispatched to murder him. He admits to Bond that he has a daughter, Madeleine (Léa Seydoux), and agrees to give Bond crucial information in return for her safety. Understanding the dangers of going up against SPECTRE, he tells 007, “you’re a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond” before shooting himself with 007’s Walther PPK.
Focus Of The Week: Natalya Simonova
Resourceful and loyal, GoldenEye’s Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) is a tier 2 computer programmer for the Russian military in Siberia. Working at the Severnaya Space Weapons Research Centre — which the rest of the world believes is an abandoned radar station — her key role is programming the guidance system for satellites. She has an older sister-younger brother relationship with her colleague Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming), whose childish behaviour consistently irritates her.
When the villainous General Ourumov (Gottfried John) and Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) attack the Severnaya station in a stolen helicopter, Natalya manages to escape through a mixture of good luck and thriving on her wits. The only other survivor is Boris who slips away with Ourumov and Onatopp, all three in league with Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) who is plotting to set off the electromagnetic pulse space weapon GoldenEye to erase any record of a transfer of billions of pounds from the Bank of England.
Natalya travels to St. Petersburg determined to find out who is behind the massacre. As the last known survivor she is on the radar of both Russian Intelligence and Trevelyan’s crime syndicate Janus. Natalya meets Boris in a cathedral, believing him to be innocent but he turns her over to Ourumov.
MI6 dispatch James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to find her. He saves her life on numerous occasions, first from being trapped in a stolen helicopter thenfrom an exploding armoured train. Using her considerable computer skills, Natalya traces Boris to Cuba, on the journey there the pair become lovers, Natalya pressing on Bond about his cold demeanour. “It’s what keeps me alive,” he says. “No it’s what keeps you alone,” she retorts.
Natalya infiltrates Janus’ secret command centre alongside Bond and reprograms the guidance of Mischa, the second GoldenEye satellite. Boris discovers her hacking and tries to crack the code of her password but to no avail. Mischa burns up the atmosphere, foiling Trevelyan’s plan. Not resting on her laurels, Natalya hijacks a helicopter and rescues Bond, who has killed Trevelyan. The couple land in a field, where they are picked up by marines.
Focus of the Week: Gobinda
Commanding, extremely loyal and well versed in deadly antique weapons, Gobinda (Kabir Bedi) is a fearsome opponent for James Bond (Roger Moore) in Octopussy (1983). He is in the employment of amoral exiled prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), addressing his boss as “Your excellency”. Saying very little but with an intimidating presence, Gobinda is completely dedicated to eliminating any problem in Kamal Khan’s way.
Gobinda makes his mark on his first meeting with Bond by crushing the dice 007 uses to defeat Khan at backgammon with his bare hands. He subsequently tries to kill Bond on numerous occasions; by firing a blunderbuss at him from a tuk-tuk taxi, by shooting at him during a tiger hunt and attempting to cut him in half with a sword on top of Octopussy (Maud Adams)’s train.
Not to be deterred, Khan and Gobinda hire thugs, led by the nefarious Mufti (Tony Arjuna) to assassinate Bond. Under Gobinda’s directive, the hired hands kill Bond’s Indian contact Vijay (Vijay Amritraj) using a yo-yo saw. Later they employ snorkels disguised as lily pads to cross the lake surrounding Octopussy’s floating palace. Sneaking inside, they try to kill Bond in bed until he notices water dripping from the saw’s blade and evades the attack just in time. In the ensuing fist fight, Bond pulls the assassin over the balcony using the weapon’s cord. The brawl continues in the lake outside the palace until the killer is mauled by a crocodile.
In the final showdown with Kamal Khan on board a Beech 18 aircraft in mid-air, the prince sends Gobinda out of the plane to tackle Bond who is hanging onto the fuselage. During the struggle, 007 pulls back the antenna and whips it into Gobinda’s face. The sting forces the usually implacable henchman to lose his grip and plummet to his death.
