Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
MI6 Datastream
PropertyOfALady
Colders Federation CEO
For those who want the facts in the Blu-Ray without watching it, here they are!
1. Designer Maurice Binder created the original version of this image in 1962 by taking a photo down the barrel of a pistol. That original image was enhanced by designer Daniel Kleinman to create a more three dimensional gunbarrel for Goldeneye.
2. Die Another Day is the first film to feature Bond's bullet racing toward the camera.
3. These scenes were filmed off the north shore of Maui Hawaii on December 26 2001. Waves of this size rarely appear during any other time of year.
4. Surfers refer to these waves as "Jaws" because they can eat a surfer alive.
5. Ian Fleming once went surfing in Hawaii. Fleming, then in his fifties, found to the sporting more difficult and physically demanding then he had imagined. He wrote about it in his travel anthology Thrilling Cities.
6. To double as Pukch'ong Coast, the filmmakers chose Holywell Beach in Cornwall, England, although some parts of the scene were shot in Black Park near Pinewood Studios.
7. Veteran action director Arthur Wooster helmed some of the scenes shot on the Cornwall coast. Wooster has worked on all of the Bond films from 1981's For Your Eyes Only through Die Another Day.
8. Die Another Day is filled with homages and references to previous Bond films.
9. 007 has worn a suit beneath his underwater gear before, during the pre-credits sequence of GoldenEye. He's also worn disguises before, like Colonel Luis Toro in the pre-credits of Octopussy.
10. The United Nations Security Council passed a ban on the exportation of conflict diamonds from Angola in 1998.
11. A UN report in March 2000 criticized the world's largest diamond trader for continuing to allow Angolan conflict diamonds to reach the market. Within months, the firm - De Beers - promised to stop the trade in conflict diamonds.
12. Will Yun Lee, who plays Colonel Moon, was born in Arlington, Virginia to parents who had emigrated to America. His skill with martial arts won him a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley.
13. Rick Yune plays Colonel Zao. Yune was born in Washington DC after his parents emigrated from Korea in 1972. To raise money for school, he worked as a model for designers like Versace and Ralph Lauren. After college, he began working with an investment bank, but continued modelling. His agency asked him to meet with the director of Snow Falling on Cedars, resulting in him winning a role in the film. Yune appeared in The Fast and the Furious and The Fence before being cast in Die Another Day.
14. Bond is seen at Oxford in Tomorrow Never Dies. According to the novels, Bond attended school at Eton and Fettes. Fleming also attended Eton.
15. Sir Christopher Cockerell filed his first hovercraft patent in 1955. He worked for the British government to develop a hovercraft throughout the late 1950s. The project was classified as secret during this time. The first air-cushion vehicle was launched in 1959. Its name was SR.NI and it weighed 4 tons.
16. RPGs are "rocket propelled grenades" and are used against tanks and other light artillery. The most widely used RPGs are the Soviet-era RPG-7s which became famous when used by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. They were later used by the Afghan resistance against the Soviets in the 1980s. They proved effective not only against tanks, but also helicopters. It was an RPG-7 which shot down the US Blackhawk helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.
17. If the character name Colonel Moon seems oddly familiar to fans of the James Bond novels, it may be because there was once a Bond novel entitled Colonel Sun. Colonel Sun Liang-Tan is Chinese in the novel, which was written by Kingsley Amis. Amis penned the novel under the pseudonym of Robert Markham. He wrote two other Bond-related books. The first is The James Bond Dossier, which defends the Bond novels as important popular literature. The second is The Book Of Bond which is a tongue-in-cheek guide to living like 007. The first edition of The Book Of Bond has its own disguise. The dust jacket can be turned inside out, in which case the book appears to be titled The Bible Revised to be Read As Literature.
18. This scene required the destruction of a Porsche, a Ford GT40, and a Ferrari 360. The filmmakers used empty car shells that could be damaged by bullets and explosions without too great a cost.
19. To film this scene, the filmmakers didn't just use full-size hovercraft. They also used models and full-size mock-ups on a stage. Much of this scene was filmed at Eelmoor Driving Training Area in Aldershot, England. The sequence was largely directed by Vic Armstrong. He had trouble finding stunt drivers who knew how to handle a hovercraft. The filmmakers had to train drivers to control them. The location was near an airport. Pilots get nervous when they see columns of smoke and explosions near a runway. The filmmakers and the airport worked out a procedure and schedule so that filming would not disturb air traffic.
20. Many of the land mines shown in this scene are bounding mines. They're designed to fly up into the air before exploding. This allows the shrapnel to injure or kill more than just the person who triggers it.
21. This scene was filmed at the Chinnor Rugby Cement Works in South Oxfordshire. Crew members were advised to bring their Wellington boots to the muddy location.
22. General Moon is played by actor Kenneth Tsang. Fans of Hong Kong cinema will remember him from Peking Opera Blues (1986), The Killer (1989), and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), which also featured Michelle Yeoh, who later starred in Tomorrow Never Dies.
23. Pierce Brosnan discussed the idea of Bond being captured with the writers during the development of the script.
24. Scorpions were previously seen in Diamonds Are Forever. In 1998, U.S. Admiral Joseph Prueher, commander in chief of the Pacific Command, reportedly compared North Korea to a scorpion. The Emperor Scorpion is often used in movies because of its impressive size and relatively harmless venom. They are not native to Korea, but to Africa. Because they have been over-collected as pets, they are now listed as a threatened species.
25. Daniel Kleinman, the designer of these titles, is well-known in the U.K. for directing commercials. The Bond films are the only films for which he designs titles. Kleinman grew up as a fan of Binder's sequences. He has tried to create his titles in the spirit of Binder's work. He uses sophisticated computer graphics, whereas Binder did his work with film opticals and used multiple exposures to create his effects.
26. Lee Tamahori hails from New Zealand. He earned recognition for his work on Once We Were Warriors. The film dealt with the modern fate of the Maori. He himself is part Maori. Barbara Broccoli called the film "One of the greatest films made in the last 50 years". The film was the highest grossing picture ever released in New Zealand at the time out grossing The Piano and Jurassic Park. Tamahori is also a much sought-after commercial director, who has done over 100 commercials and won numerous awards.
27. Pierce Brosnan spent three hours in makeup before shooting these scenes. He didn't grow the long hair and beard. Instead, he relied on the skills of his makeup and hair team- Bron Roylance and Rick Provenzano.
28. This scene was filmed at the "bear pit", which isn't in Korea, but in Hawley, England. The bridge is a bayley bridge. The portable bridges were made famous by the British Army in World War II.
29. In the novel The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond has been brainwashed by the Soviets, and returns to London to assassinate M with a cyanide pistol. M's life is saved by a glass partition that springs up between him and Bond. Despite the breach of protocol, Bond regains his mental health and goes back to work.
30. On Friday February 10, 1962, Francis Gary Powers was taken to the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, East Germany. As he walked across the bridge, he passed Rudolph Abel, a Soviet colonel convicted of espionage in the US in 1957. He operated as a spy for nearly 9 years before being arrested by the FBI. His false identity and unmasking by a double agent are echoed in Die Another Day. In this scene, Bond is treated to much the same distrust as Powers, who was exchanged for Abel.
31. Manipulation of one's own psychological processes through monitoring is called biofeedback. Biofeedback can help patients with migraines, intestinal cramps, high blood pressure, and even epileptic seizures. The writers conceived of Bond slowing his heart rate in order to survive his torture. Bond was to later use this technique to survive swimming in icy waters, but the idea was dropped.
32. The 1967 Bond spoof Our Man Flint featured American agent Derek Flint stopping his own heart. During the taping of a BBC special on Bond, Brosnan admitted he was a fan of the Flint films when growing up. Flint was played by James Coburn. He died November 18, 2002 - the date of the world premiere of Die Another Day.
33. Listen carefully and you can hear the first sounds from Dr. No in the background.
34. This scene was not shot in Hong Kong, but rather on “E” stage at Pinewood Studios near the end of the shooting schedule.
35. The shot of Bond climbing onto the quay was filmed the same day- July 8, 2002. Bond has visited Hong Kong before, in the beginning of You Only Live Twice and during much of The Man with the Golden Gun.
36. This hotel lobby is entirely constructed on a stage at Pinewood Studios. Production designer Peter Lamont has been associated with the Bond films since building the exterior of Fort Knox on the Pinewood backlot for Goldfinger.
37. For the tank chase in Goldeneye, Lamont and his skilled art department recreated the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia on two acres of the backlot of Leavesden Studios. After many years working as draftsman, set decorator, and art director, Lamont became production designer with For Your Eyes Only. He has served as production designer on every film since, except Tomorrow Never Dies
38. During development of the script, it was hoped that Michelle Yeoh would reprise her role of Chinese agent Wai Lin, but she was unavailable at the time of filming.
39. When the writers were looking for a name they found inspiration from the name of real Hong Kong masseuses in Thrilling Cities. Purvis and Wade used Fleming's names as inspiration to come up with Peaceful Fountains of Desire.
40. In Licence to Kill, Pam Bouvier also had a gun in a thigh holster. Mr Chang's presence behind the mirror is an homage to From Russia with Love.
41. Mr Chang is played by Ho Yi. Bond once fought Chang in Moonraker. Bond has visited Cuba before in the pre-credits of Octopussy, he is on a mission in a Caribbean country presumed to be Cuba. In Goldeneye he travels to Cuba with Natalya Simonova before his final confrontation with Alec Trevelyan.
42. Welcome to… Spain. These exteriors were filmed at El Malecon in Cadiz. The production filmed in Cadiz from April 4 to April 12, 2002. These interiors were not filmed in Spain, but in London at the end of January 2002.
43. Universal Exports is the cover organization for MI6 in many of the Ian Fleming novels. Later, this changes to Transworld Consortium. The films have always used Universal Exports.
44. Now we’re back in Cadiz. The actor playing Raoul is Emilio Echevarría. Echevarría helped found Arte y Sociedad, a forum for the arts and a venue for performances. He has appeared in 20 plays. More recently, he appeared in the acclaimed films Amores Perros , directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Y Tu Mamá También directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
45. “Sleeper” is spy terminology for an agent who assumes an ordinary life in another country until “awakened” by his controllers.
46. The real James Bond was a noted ornithologist from Philadelphia who earned a degree from Cambridge University, and made his first expedition in 1925, voyaging up the Amazon River. Fleming named Bond after the well-known bird expert, whose book Birds of the West Indies, Fleming used as a guide in Jamaica. Fleming thought the name was suitably flat and unromantic, so he pinched it for his hero. In 1964, Bond visited Fleming at Goldeneye. Fleming presented Bond with a copy of You Only Live Twice signed “To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity.”
47. Pierce Brosnan starred in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair which he also produced, and he worked with John le Carré to bring The Tailor of Panama to life. But he hasn’t shied away from less glamourous characters, playing an English environmentalist masquerading as a Native American in Grey Owl. Shortly after Die Another Day opened, he appeared in Evelyn as a man fighting to be reunited with his children. He received acclaim for his work on behalf of environmental charities, even receiving an award from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. James Bond received the Order of Lenin in A View to A Kill .
48. Halle Berry’s emergence from the sea mirrors Ursula Andress in Dr. No. Halle had to fly to Los Angeles in the middle of filming. She was joined by Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith, Toby Stephen’s mother. They were in attendance for the Academy Awards. Berry won the Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Monster’s Ball . She was the first African-American actress to win the award, and the first actress in a Bond film to take home the best actress Oscar. She wasn’t the only member of the unit to win. Chris Munro won best sound for Black Hawk Down .
49. Goldfinger was the first Bond film to win an Academy Award. It won for best sound effects, while Thunderball won for best special effects. Those two went to Norman Wanstall and John Stears.
50. Cubby Broccoli was awarded the Irving G Thalberg Award in 1982, for outstanding contributions to the film industry. No Bond films have been nominated for any Academy Awards since 1982.
51. The “Creep” is played by Ian Pirie.
52. This scene was filmed on “D” Stage at Pinewood on March 5, 2002, the same day as the scene with the Hong Kong masseuse, which was filmed on “F” Stage.
53. There is no real island called “Los Organos”. The location shots were filmed at San Sebastian Castle in Cadiz.
54. Die Another Day marked composer David Arnold’s third Bond score. Arnold came to the producer’s attention when he produced “Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project” which reached number 2 on the UK album charts.
55. Bond steals a grape as he evades capture in a health clinic, just as he did in Thunderball .
56. Sony cameras have featured prominently in other Bond films, such as The Man with the Golden Gun where Bond sees himself on a monitor in a window display, while waiting at the Bottoms Up Club in Hong Kong.
57. This passageway is reminiscent of the mirrors in Scaramanga’s fun house in The Man with the Golden Gun .
58. Halle Berry made her big-screen acting debut in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever . She previously acted in Living Dolls in 1989. She was well-honoured for her work in Monster’s Ball. In addition to her Oscar, she received a Screen Actors Guild Award and was named best actress by the National Board of Review for the film. Monster’s Ball wasn’t her only highly regarded performance. She’s earned an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and two NAACP image awards.
59. The process of altering the genetic information of a plant or animal has been used for many years to create new species. Genetic engineering has become more common as well as controversial. Doctors can manipulate DNA to produce insulin, HGH, and alpha interferon, among other important biochemicals. Critics fear the unintended consequences of gene manipulation. Others fear longer-term problems like triggering of diseases years after therapy.
60. Halle Berry prefers the more glamourous costumes instead of those designed for action sequences:
“The Army fatigues and combats were a bit difficult: you have to wear them believably and not look too uncomfortable…the gowns were the easy part.”
61. The close-up of Jinx was filmed on a stage at Pinewood in May. The boat was not in the ocean, instead it in the water tank at Pinewood.
62. Fleming wrote two books concerning diamond smuggling: Diamonds Are Forever and The Diamond Smugglers .
63. Michael Madsen plays Falco, the NSA official. He gained fame for his work in Thelma and Louise . He worked with Lee Tamahori on Mulholland Falls .
64. Deborah Moore (Roger's daughter) appears as the stewardess who offers Bond his Martini, shaken not stirred due to turbulence.
65. “London Calling” by The Clash is one of the few “catalog” songs to appear in a Bond film. Goldeneye featured a short bit of “Stand By Your Man”, and A View to a Kill featured a version of the Beach Boys’s hit “California Girls”.
66. This scene pays homage to the opening of The Spy Who Loved Me where Bond skis off a mountain and opens a parachute with the Union Flag. It was filmed outside Buckingham Palace on Sunday, April 21, 2002.
67. Gustav Graves is played by Toby Stephens, son of Dame Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, a famed stage actor. He’s acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside Judi Dench in the play The Royal Family .
68. When Rosamund Pike got the role of Miranda Frost she said, “It was the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve ever had about getting a job.” She’s the only daughter of two professional opera singers.
69. The name of this club is Blades. The name comes from Fleming’s Moonraker
70. Madonna’s scenes were among the last to be filmed by the main unit on July 9, 2002, becoming the first actress in a Bond film to sing (and co-write) the title song.
71. Sword scenes were choreographed with the help of sword master Bob Anderson. He’s been active prior to the publishing of Casino Royale .
72. He performed as a sword master in The Master of Ballantrae in 1952, being in demand ever since.
73. Fleming modelled Blades after Boodles, a gentleman’s club where members play bridge. In Moonraker Bond catches Sir Hugo Drax cheating and forces him to lose. This scene is loosely based on it. It also is a reference to the Goldfinger golf match. The exterior scenes were actually a soundstage at Pinewood that was indoors. Justin Llewelyn is an extra.
74. Many of the club members in the background were stunt-people, including Wendy Leech, Vic Armstrong’s wife. She doubled for Michelle Yeoh in the motorcycle chase.
75. This scene was shot in the Reform Club on Sunday May 26, 2002.
76. This one was shot near the London Eye.
77. When asked about Bond’s legacy, Dench replied “I hope Bond goes on forever.” She received the Royal Honor of being named Dame of the British Empire for her work in theatre in 1988. She loves playing M. She won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and was nominated for Mrs. Brown , Chocolat and Iris . She stars in As Time Goes By with Geoffrey Palmer who also appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies . Her late husband, Michael Wilson, and daughter, Finty were very excited when she was cast as M.
“They said ‘Go for it, be a Bond girl!”
78. Die Another Day is the only the second time we see Bond’s office. The first was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Die Another Day marks Colin Salmon’s third time as Charles Robinson. He gained fame in Prime Suspect II .
79. John Cleese has said “I despise technology in all forms…I can never make things work.” Note the Monty Python reference with the flesh wound line. Cleese is known as one of the best comedic actors of our time. Aside from Monty Python and Fawlty Towers , Cleese starred in, and wrote, A Fish Called Wanda . He also appears in Silverado, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Jungle Book . In Goldfinger , Q tells Bond “I never joke about my work.”
80. Invisible cars are not as far-fetched as one may think. Maurice Langevin of Tracer Round Associates in Maryland, and his partner Philip Moynihan of Cal Tech came up with the idea of cameras hooked up to plasma screens to camouflage vehicles. Because it can meet changing conditions, it’s called “adaptive camouflage”. It is currently under development by the U.S. DoD.
81. Rosamund Pike studied English literature at Wadham College at Oxford University. James Bond visited here where he was seen taking private lessons in Danish (and sex) from a very attractive professor.
82. Over a quarter of the film is in Iceland, but Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, and Toby Stephens didn’t set foot there. Only the action and effects units did. For a while it looked like Alaska may have to stand-in for Iceland. The filmmakers were worried that the lake wouldn’t support the cars in the chase. Eventually, it thickened just enough.
83. There are no ice dragsters. They were designed and built for Die Another Day .
84. Production Designer Peter Lamont started work on the ice palace in August 2001. When Lee Tamahori saw the initial designs, he conceived more elaborate plans. He wanted the cars to race through it, which resulted in strengthening it. Ramps were also built to accommodate the cars. They also designed parts to sink in water.
85. The plot of Die Another Day echoes Diamonds Are Forever.
86. Icarus was to be called “Solaris” until the producers discovered a movie with that title was being produced.
87. Vlad is played by Micheal Gorevoy, a Moscow born actor. He’s appeared in 25 Russian films and has a great love for theatre and directing.
88. Part of the scene where Frost grabs Bond was re-shot. Die Another Day was written by Purvis and Wade. The World is Not Enough was written by them with Bruce Feirstein. Their first film was Let Him Have It , based on the true story of Bentley and Craig. They also wrote Plunkett & Macleane (Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming), The Italian Job (2003), Johnny English , and contributed to An American Werewolf in Paris .
89. Bond first had a laser cutter watch in Goldeneye . In both films, it’s an Omega Seamaster.
90. The lasers in this scene are supposedly used to cut diamonds.
91. Bond uses a similar rebreather in Thunderball.
92. These scenes were filmed at Qinetiq Ocean Basin Tank facility in Hampshire, England.
93. The water was approximately 18°C.
94. Jinx’s laser scene was a homage to Goldeneye.
95. Mr Kil is played by Lawrence Makoare. Born in New Zealand, he appeared in Xenia: Warrior Princess and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
96. George Aguilar was stunt coordinator in Die Another Day. Aguilar also worked on Finding Forrester , Ocean’s Eleven , Gangs of New York , Big Daddy , and Meet the Parents . He’s also acted in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Mann & Machine .
97. Mark Mottram was Pierce’s stunt double.
98. Lindy Hemming served as costume designer on Die Another Day. She won an Oscar for her work on Topsy-Turvy.
99. Hemming has done all Bond films through Die Another Day.
100. The line “Die Another Day” is from an AE Housman poem: The Day of Battle
"Far I hear the bugle blow
To call me where I would not go,
And the guns begin the song,
'Soldier, fly or stay for long.'"
"Comrade, if to turn and fly
Made a soldier never die,
Fly I would, for who would not?
'Tis sure no pleasure to be shot."
"But since the man that runs away
Lives to die another day,
And cowards' funerals, when they come
Are not wept so well at home."
"Therefore, though the best is bad,
Stand and do the best my lad;
Stand and fight and see your slain,
And take the bullet in your brain."
101. Ian Fleming’s father, Valentine, died in World War I. Winston Churchill wrote Fleming’s obituary for The Times of London . Fleming kept the obituary framed in his room, and considered Churchill a hero.
102. Miranda Frost was originally called “Gala Brand”, a character from the novel Moonraker . They eventually decided that the character was developing in a different way.
103. Virtually every time a gun fires, the effect had to be set up and approved by Chris Corbould. He also had to make the floor shatter. Die Another Day is Chris’s tenth Bond film. His first was The Spy Who Loved Me . His responsibilities include everything from explosions to leaping cars. He also worked on Hudson Hawk , Far and Away , Interview with the Vampire , The Ghost and the Darkness , Firestorm , The Mummy , Tomb Raider and 102 Dalmatians . John Richardson was Chris’s predecessor. On Die Another Day, and the previous two films, Richardson was model effects supervisor.
104. A model of the ice palace was superimposed on the wide shot of the Aston Martin. Icarus is a model, too. Richardson is son of British special effects man Cliff Richardson. He brought John in to work on Exodus and Casino Royale (1967). John has also worked on Superman , A Bridge Too Far , The Omen , Willow , Starship Troopers , and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . He won an Academy Award for Aliens .
105. To supervise CGI, the Bond producers worked closely with Mara Bryan. She has done the visual effects for the last four Bond pictures. Mara’s background in visual effects and CGI work includes stints as head of production for two companies, and visual effects producer for another. She worked on Judge Dredd The Adventures of Pinocchio , and Dark City. Bryan had to turn to four companies to complete Die Another Day.
106. 1995’s Goldeneye was the first Bond film to use CGI.
107. David Tattersall was the Director of Photography for Die Another Day. One of the most sought-after cinematographers in Britain today, Tattersall is most famous for his work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and Star Wars Episodes I and II. Die Another Day is his first Bond film.
108. In the novel Goldfinger , Bond drove an Aston Martin DBIII. In the film, it was a Silver Birch DB5 equipped with front firing machine guns, bulletproof windscreen, rear bulletproof shield, tyre scythe, rotating number plates, front over-rider bumpers, homing tracking screen, and ejector seat. Bond has driven Aston Martins in 5 other films aside from Goldfinger . In Thunderball he drove the DB5 which was now was equipped with high-pressure water hoses. In The Living Daylights , he drove the V8 Vantage Volante, as well as a regular Vantage when it was “winterized” by Q. That film also featured a chase across a frozen lake. The DB5 returned in Goldeneye, and Tomorrow Never Dies . An Aston Martin DBS was viewed in Q’s lab in Diamonds Are Forever , and also in The World is Not Enough .
109. The ice palace set is a testament to the talent of Peter Lamont. Lamont’s brother Michael also works on the Bond films. He served as the model unit art director supervisor in Die Another Day. Peter’s sets and designs continue the tradition of grand scope and elegant settings for the Bond films.
110. The ice tyres and ejector seat are homages from Goldfinger and The Living Daylights
111. Many observers credit the strong women in the Bond universe to Barbara Broccoli. She studied film at Loyola University and began her Bond career with Octopussy . She also produced HBO’s Crime of the Century which was nominated for four Golden Globes.
112. This bunker was filmed at a Royal Air Force Base in Odiham, England. The interiors were filmed on “D” Stage at Pinewood. Michael Madsen has authored three books of poetry: Beer, Blood, and Ashes , Eat the Worm , and Burning in Paradise .
113. These scenes were created by marrying CGI with real footages. Alan Hewitt supervised Barry Maple, Victoria Holton, Julia Foxwell, and Ian Marshall who doubled Jinx and Bond.
114. The Strategic Air Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”), had met with limited success rates when Die Another Day came out.
115. The General calling for the South Korean troops to be mobilized is Michael G. Wilson. He has appeared in Goldfinger , The Spy Who Loved Me , in Moonraker as a NASA technician, in For Your Eyes Only as a Greek Orthodox Priest. In 1983, both he and his wife played tourists helping Bond into a boat in Octopussy . A View to a Kill , he was in the streetcar shot in Fisherman’s Wharf. In The Living Daylights , he is at Kara’s concert. In Licence to Kill he was a DEA official, as well as Bond’s hand double. He appears as a Russian official in Goldeneye , and as a minion of Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies , and a casino employee in The World is Not Enough . He became executive producer with Moonraker , and a producer with his stepfather Cubby 6 years later. Barbara Broccoli joined producing duties with Goldeneye . On the set, the crew refers to Michael as “Governor”. On the call sheets, he plays General Chandler. He’s listed as “General Chandler – Michael G. Wilson (Governor)”.
116. Graves’s jet is an Antonov An-225, the largest operating plane in the world. Its cargo bay is 21 feet wide, over 14 feet high, and 140 feet long.
117. The World is Not Enough featured the murder of the villain’s father. In Goldfinger , a bullet depressurizes a plane and sucks Goldfinger out of the window. A half-scale model was built of the Antonov and the general that gets sucked out. In both films the Bond girl must fly the wounded aircraft.
118. The visual effects crew filmed the background for these shots in April 2002 over English skies (Crosby-On-Eden in Cumbria).
119. Less than a month after the film’s release fencing clubs and manufacturers saw an uptick in membership and demand. The owner of Leon Paul, a fencing club was quoted by the BBC:
“Certainly for us, there’s a sense that the Bond film has resulted in more people being interested in fencing, ringing up and looking at our website."
120. The elaborate explosions took weeks to prepare.
121. The filmmakers shot footage of an An-225, but some of the exterior scenes were created with large models.
122. Bond films require a skilled editing team. Die Another Day relied on Christian Wagner. Wagner worked on Days of Thunder , The Last Boy Scout , True Romance , The Fan , Spy Game , Face/Off and MI:II .
123. Vic Armstrong was responsible for parts of this sequence, as well as the ice chase. His credits include The Four Feathers , Charlie’s Angels , The Avengers , Last Action Hero , Starship Troopers and Cutthroat Island . He also directed FX2, Double Impact and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .
124. In The Living Daylights , Bond escapes with the Bond girl from a plane with a Jeep. The shots of the actors were filmed with green screen and married with aerial footage.
125. Moneypenny having sex with Bond was filmed early in production. It was made at the last minute when other plans fell through. They were very surprised by the positive reaction.
126. Shots of Jinx and Bond weren’t filmed in Korea, but on Penbryn Beach, England.
127. Diamonds are Forever also ends with Bond discussing gems.
128. All of the previous films ended with “James Bond will return in…” followed by the next film’s title. During the 1980s they began to run out of Fleming titles. Now they just end with “James Bond will return.”
Videos:
Hovercraft over falls
Don't condone what they do
We've reached the end Bond
Firing Squad
M sees Bond in hospital
Jinx's entrance
Zao at clinic
No, thanks. I don't like cockfights.
Jinx's entrance to Ice Palace
Jinx, Bond, and Miranda at Ice Palace
Gustav's demonstration
Occupational hazard
All units report
Bunker scene
Graves meets his father
Graves shows off Icarus
Jinx and Frost fight.
Graves tortures Bond
Moneypenny has sex with Bond
1. Designer Maurice Binder created the original version of this image in 1962 by taking a photo down the barrel of a pistol. That original image was enhanced by designer Daniel Kleinman to create a more three dimensional gunbarrel for Goldeneye.
2. Die Another Day is the first film to feature Bond's bullet racing toward the camera.
3. These scenes were filmed off the north shore of Maui Hawaii on December 26 2001. Waves of this size rarely appear during any other time of year.
4. Surfers refer to these waves as "Jaws" because they can eat a surfer alive.
5. Ian Fleming once went surfing in Hawaii. Fleming, then in his fifties, found to the sporting more difficult and physically demanding then he had imagined. He wrote about it in his travel anthology Thrilling Cities.
6. To double as Pukch'ong Coast, the filmmakers chose Holywell Beach in Cornwall, England, although some parts of the scene were shot in Black Park near Pinewood Studios.
7. Veteran action director Arthur Wooster helmed some of the scenes shot on the Cornwall coast. Wooster has worked on all of the Bond films from 1981's For Your Eyes Only through Die Another Day.
8. Die Another Day is filled with homages and references to previous Bond films.
9. 007 has worn a suit beneath his underwater gear before, during the pre-credits sequence of GoldenEye. He's also worn disguises before, like Colonel Luis Toro in the pre-credits of Octopussy.
10. The United Nations Security Council passed a ban on the exportation of conflict diamonds from Angola in 1998.
11. A UN report in March 2000 criticized the world's largest diamond trader for continuing to allow Angolan conflict diamonds to reach the market. Within months, the firm - De Beers - promised to stop the trade in conflict diamonds.
12. Will Yun Lee, who plays Colonel Moon, was born in Arlington, Virginia to parents who had emigrated to America. His skill with martial arts won him a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley.
13. Rick Yune plays Colonel Zao. Yune was born in Washington DC after his parents emigrated from Korea in 1972. To raise money for school, he worked as a model for designers like Versace and Ralph Lauren. After college, he began working with an investment bank, but continued modelling. His agency asked him to meet with the director of Snow Falling on Cedars, resulting in him winning a role in the film. Yune appeared in The Fast and the Furious and The Fence before being cast in Die Another Day.
14. Bond is seen at Oxford in Tomorrow Never Dies. According to the novels, Bond attended school at Eton and Fettes. Fleming also attended Eton.
15. Sir Christopher Cockerell filed his first hovercraft patent in 1955. He worked for the British government to develop a hovercraft throughout the late 1950s. The project was classified as secret during this time. The first air-cushion vehicle was launched in 1959. Its name was SR.NI and it weighed 4 tons.
16. RPGs are "rocket propelled grenades" and are used against tanks and other light artillery. The most widely used RPGs are the Soviet-era RPG-7s which became famous when used by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. They were later used by the Afghan resistance against the Soviets in the 1980s. They proved effective not only against tanks, but also helicopters. It was an RPG-7 which shot down the US Blackhawk helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.
17. If the character name Colonel Moon seems oddly familiar to fans of the James Bond novels, it may be because there was once a Bond novel entitled Colonel Sun. Colonel Sun Liang-Tan is Chinese in the novel, which was written by Kingsley Amis. Amis penned the novel under the pseudonym of Robert Markham. He wrote two other Bond-related books. The first is The James Bond Dossier, which defends the Bond novels as important popular literature. The second is The Book Of Bond which is a tongue-in-cheek guide to living like 007. The first edition of The Book Of Bond has its own disguise. The dust jacket can be turned inside out, in which case the book appears to be titled The Bible Revised to be Read As Literature.
18. This scene required the destruction of a Porsche, a Ford GT40, and a Ferrari 360. The filmmakers used empty car shells that could be damaged by bullets and explosions without too great a cost.
19. To film this scene, the filmmakers didn't just use full-size hovercraft. They also used models and full-size mock-ups on a stage. Much of this scene was filmed at Eelmoor Driving Training Area in Aldershot, England. The sequence was largely directed by Vic Armstrong. He had trouble finding stunt drivers who knew how to handle a hovercraft. The filmmakers had to train drivers to control them. The location was near an airport. Pilots get nervous when they see columns of smoke and explosions near a runway. The filmmakers and the airport worked out a procedure and schedule so that filming would not disturb air traffic.
20. Many of the land mines shown in this scene are bounding mines. They're designed to fly up into the air before exploding. This allows the shrapnel to injure or kill more than just the person who triggers it.
21. This scene was filmed at the Chinnor Rugby Cement Works in South Oxfordshire. Crew members were advised to bring their Wellington boots to the muddy location.
22. General Moon is played by actor Kenneth Tsang. Fans of Hong Kong cinema will remember him from Peking Opera Blues (1986), The Killer (1989), and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), which also featured Michelle Yeoh, who later starred in Tomorrow Never Dies.
23. Pierce Brosnan discussed the idea of Bond being captured with the writers during the development of the script.
24. Scorpions were previously seen in Diamonds Are Forever. In 1998, U.S. Admiral Joseph Prueher, commander in chief of the Pacific Command, reportedly compared North Korea to a scorpion. The Emperor Scorpion is often used in movies because of its impressive size and relatively harmless venom. They are not native to Korea, but to Africa. Because they have been over-collected as pets, they are now listed as a threatened species.
25. Daniel Kleinman, the designer of these titles, is well-known in the U.K. for directing commercials. The Bond films are the only films for which he designs titles. Kleinman grew up as a fan of Binder's sequences. He has tried to create his titles in the spirit of Binder's work. He uses sophisticated computer graphics, whereas Binder did his work with film opticals and used multiple exposures to create his effects.
26. Lee Tamahori hails from New Zealand. He earned recognition for his work on Once We Were Warriors. The film dealt with the modern fate of the Maori. He himself is part Maori. Barbara Broccoli called the film "One of the greatest films made in the last 50 years". The film was the highest grossing picture ever released in New Zealand at the time out grossing The Piano and Jurassic Park. Tamahori is also a much sought-after commercial director, who has done over 100 commercials and won numerous awards.
27. Pierce Brosnan spent three hours in makeup before shooting these scenes. He didn't grow the long hair and beard. Instead, he relied on the skills of his makeup and hair team- Bron Roylance and Rick Provenzano.
28. This scene was filmed at the "bear pit", which isn't in Korea, but in Hawley, England. The bridge is a bayley bridge. The portable bridges were made famous by the British Army in World War II.
29. In the novel The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond has been brainwashed by the Soviets, and returns to London to assassinate M with a cyanide pistol. M's life is saved by a glass partition that springs up between him and Bond. Despite the breach of protocol, Bond regains his mental health and goes back to work.
30. On Friday February 10, 1962, Francis Gary Powers was taken to the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, East Germany. As he walked across the bridge, he passed Rudolph Abel, a Soviet colonel convicted of espionage in the US in 1957. He operated as a spy for nearly 9 years before being arrested by the FBI. His false identity and unmasking by a double agent are echoed in Die Another Day. In this scene, Bond is treated to much the same distrust as Powers, who was exchanged for Abel.
31. Manipulation of one's own psychological processes through monitoring is called biofeedback. Biofeedback can help patients with migraines, intestinal cramps, high blood pressure, and even epileptic seizures. The writers conceived of Bond slowing his heart rate in order to survive his torture. Bond was to later use this technique to survive swimming in icy waters, but the idea was dropped.
32. The 1967 Bond spoof Our Man Flint featured American agent Derek Flint stopping his own heart. During the taping of a BBC special on Bond, Brosnan admitted he was a fan of the Flint films when growing up. Flint was played by James Coburn. He died November 18, 2002 - the date of the world premiere of Die Another Day.
33. Listen carefully and you can hear the first sounds from Dr. No in the background.
34. This scene was not shot in Hong Kong, but rather on “E” stage at Pinewood Studios near the end of the shooting schedule.
35. The shot of Bond climbing onto the quay was filmed the same day- July 8, 2002. Bond has visited Hong Kong before, in the beginning of You Only Live Twice and during much of The Man with the Golden Gun.
36. This hotel lobby is entirely constructed on a stage at Pinewood Studios. Production designer Peter Lamont has been associated with the Bond films since building the exterior of Fort Knox on the Pinewood backlot for Goldfinger.
37. For the tank chase in Goldeneye, Lamont and his skilled art department recreated the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia on two acres of the backlot of Leavesden Studios. After many years working as draftsman, set decorator, and art director, Lamont became production designer with For Your Eyes Only. He has served as production designer on every film since, except Tomorrow Never Dies
38. During development of the script, it was hoped that Michelle Yeoh would reprise her role of Chinese agent Wai Lin, but she was unavailable at the time of filming.
39. When the writers were looking for a name they found inspiration from the name of real Hong Kong masseuses in Thrilling Cities. Purvis and Wade used Fleming's names as inspiration to come up with Peaceful Fountains of Desire.
40. In Licence to Kill, Pam Bouvier also had a gun in a thigh holster. Mr Chang's presence behind the mirror is an homage to From Russia with Love.
41. Mr Chang is played by Ho Yi. Bond once fought Chang in Moonraker. Bond has visited Cuba before in the pre-credits of Octopussy, he is on a mission in a Caribbean country presumed to be Cuba. In Goldeneye he travels to Cuba with Natalya Simonova before his final confrontation with Alec Trevelyan.
42. Welcome to… Spain. These exteriors were filmed at El Malecon in Cadiz. The production filmed in Cadiz from April 4 to April 12, 2002. These interiors were not filmed in Spain, but in London at the end of January 2002.
43. Universal Exports is the cover organization for MI6 in many of the Ian Fleming novels. Later, this changes to Transworld Consortium. The films have always used Universal Exports.
44. Now we’re back in Cadiz. The actor playing Raoul is Emilio Echevarría. Echevarría helped found Arte y Sociedad, a forum for the arts and a venue for performances. He has appeared in 20 plays. More recently, he appeared in the acclaimed films Amores Perros , directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Y Tu Mamá También directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
45. “Sleeper” is spy terminology for an agent who assumes an ordinary life in another country until “awakened” by his controllers.
46. The real James Bond was a noted ornithologist from Philadelphia who earned a degree from Cambridge University, and made his first expedition in 1925, voyaging up the Amazon River. Fleming named Bond after the well-known bird expert, whose book Birds of the West Indies, Fleming used as a guide in Jamaica. Fleming thought the name was suitably flat and unromantic, so he pinched it for his hero. In 1964, Bond visited Fleming at Goldeneye. Fleming presented Bond with a copy of You Only Live Twice signed “To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity.”
47. Pierce Brosnan starred in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair which he also produced, and he worked with John le Carré to bring The Tailor of Panama to life. But he hasn’t shied away from less glamourous characters, playing an English environmentalist masquerading as a Native American in Grey Owl. Shortly after Die Another Day opened, he appeared in Evelyn as a man fighting to be reunited with his children. He received acclaim for his work on behalf of environmental charities, even receiving an award from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. James Bond received the Order of Lenin in A View to A Kill .
48. Halle Berry’s emergence from the sea mirrors Ursula Andress in Dr. No. Halle had to fly to Los Angeles in the middle of filming. She was joined by Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith, Toby Stephen’s mother. They were in attendance for the Academy Awards. Berry won the Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Monster’s Ball . She was the first African-American actress to win the award, and the first actress in a Bond film to take home the best actress Oscar. She wasn’t the only member of the unit to win. Chris Munro won best sound for Black Hawk Down .
49. Goldfinger was the first Bond film to win an Academy Award. It won for best sound effects, while Thunderball won for best special effects. Those two went to Norman Wanstall and John Stears.
50. Cubby Broccoli was awarded the Irving G Thalberg Award in 1982, for outstanding contributions to the film industry. No Bond films have been nominated for any Academy Awards since 1982.
51. The “Creep” is played by Ian Pirie.
52. This scene was filmed on “D” Stage at Pinewood on March 5, 2002, the same day as the scene with the Hong Kong masseuse, which was filmed on “F” Stage.
53. There is no real island called “Los Organos”. The location shots were filmed at San Sebastian Castle in Cadiz.
54. Die Another Day marked composer David Arnold’s third Bond score. Arnold came to the producer’s attention when he produced “Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project” which reached number 2 on the UK album charts.
55. Bond steals a grape as he evades capture in a health clinic, just as he did in Thunderball .
56. Sony cameras have featured prominently in other Bond films, such as The Man with the Golden Gun where Bond sees himself on a monitor in a window display, while waiting at the Bottoms Up Club in Hong Kong.
57. This passageway is reminiscent of the mirrors in Scaramanga’s fun house in The Man with the Golden Gun .
58. Halle Berry made her big-screen acting debut in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever . She previously acted in Living Dolls in 1989. She was well-honoured for her work in Monster’s Ball. In addition to her Oscar, she received a Screen Actors Guild Award and was named best actress by the National Board of Review for the film. Monster’s Ball wasn’t her only highly regarded performance. She’s earned an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and two NAACP image awards.
59. The process of altering the genetic information of a plant or animal has been used for many years to create new species. Genetic engineering has become more common as well as controversial. Doctors can manipulate DNA to produce insulin, HGH, and alpha interferon, among other important biochemicals. Critics fear the unintended consequences of gene manipulation. Others fear longer-term problems like triggering of diseases years after therapy.
60. Halle Berry prefers the more glamourous costumes instead of those designed for action sequences:
“The Army fatigues and combats were a bit difficult: you have to wear them believably and not look too uncomfortable…the gowns were the easy part.”
61. The close-up of Jinx was filmed on a stage at Pinewood in May. The boat was not in the ocean, instead it in the water tank at Pinewood.
62. Fleming wrote two books concerning diamond smuggling: Diamonds Are Forever and The Diamond Smugglers .
63. Michael Madsen plays Falco, the NSA official. He gained fame for his work in Thelma and Louise . He worked with Lee Tamahori on Mulholland Falls .
64. Deborah Moore (Roger's daughter) appears as the stewardess who offers Bond his Martini, shaken not stirred due to turbulence.
65. “London Calling” by The Clash is one of the few “catalog” songs to appear in a Bond film. Goldeneye featured a short bit of “Stand By Your Man”, and A View to a Kill featured a version of the Beach Boys’s hit “California Girls”.
66. This scene pays homage to the opening of The Spy Who Loved Me where Bond skis off a mountain and opens a parachute with the Union Flag. It was filmed outside Buckingham Palace on Sunday, April 21, 2002.
67. Gustav Graves is played by Toby Stephens, son of Dame Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, a famed stage actor. He’s acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside Judi Dench in the play The Royal Family .
68. When Rosamund Pike got the role of Miranda Frost she said, “It was the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve ever had about getting a job.” She’s the only daughter of two professional opera singers.
69. The name of this club is Blades. The name comes from Fleming’s Moonraker
70. Madonna’s scenes were among the last to be filmed by the main unit on July 9, 2002, becoming the first actress in a Bond film to sing (and co-write) the title song.
71. Sword scenes were choreographed with the help of sword master Bob Anderson. He’s been active prior to the publishing of Casino Royale .
72. He performed as a sword master in The Master of Ballantrae in 1952, being in demand ever since.
73. Fleming modelled Blades after Boodles, a gentleman’s club where members play bridge. In Moonraker Bond catches Sir Hugo Drax cheating and forces him to lose. This scene is loosely based on it. It also is a reference to the Goldfinger golf match. The exterior scenes were actually a soundstage at Pinewood that was indoors. Justin Llewelyn is an extra.
74. Many of the club members in the background were stunt-people, including Wendy Leech, Vic Armstrong’s wife. She doubled for Michelle Yeoh in the motorcycle chase.
75. This scene was shot in the Reform Club on Sunday May 26, 2002.
76. This one was shot near the London Eye.
77. When asked about Bond’s legacy, Dench replied “I hope Bond goes on forever.” She received the Royal Honor of being named Dame of the British Empire for her work in theatre in 1988. She loves playing M. She won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and was nominated for Mrs. Brown , Chocolat and Iris . She stars in As Time Goes By with Geoffrey Palmer who also appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies . Her late husband, Michael Wilson, and daughter, Finty were very excited when she was cast as M.
“They said ‘Go for it, be a Bond girl!”
78. Die Another Day is the only the second time we see Bond’s office. The first was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Die Another Day marks Colin Salmon’s third time as Charles Robinson. He gained fame in Prime Suspect II .
79. John Cleese has said “I despise technology in all forms…I can never make things work.” Note the Monty Python reference with the flesh wound line. Cleese is known as one of the best comedic actors of our time. Aside from Monty Python and Fawlty Towers , Cleese starred in, and wrote, A Fish Called Wanda . He also appears in Silverado, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Jungle Book . In Goldfinger , Q tells Bond “I never joke about my work.”
80. Invisible cars are not as far-fetched as one may think. Maurice Langevin of Tracer Round Associates in Maryland, and his partner Philip Moynihan of Cal Tech came up with the idea of cameras hooked up to plasma screens to camouflage vehicles. Because it can meet changing conditions, it’s called “adaptive camouflage”. It is currently under development by the U.S. DoD.
81. Rosamund Pike studied English literature at Wadham College at Oxford University. James Bond visited here where he was seen taking private lessons in Danish (and sex) from a very attractive professor.
82. Over a quarter of the film is in Iceland, but Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, and Toby Stephens didn’t set foot there. Only the action and effects units did. For a while it looked like Alaska may have to stand-in for Iceland. The filmmakers were worried that the lake wouldn’t support the cars in the chase. Eventually, it thickened just enough.
83. There are no ice dragsters. They were designed and built for Die Another Day .
84. Production Designer Peter Lamont started work on the ice palace in August 2001. When Lee Tamahori saw the initial designs, he conceived more elaborate plans. He wanted the cars to race through it, which resulted in strengthening it. Ramps were also built to accommodate the cars. They also designed parts to sink in water.
85. The plot of Die Another Day echoes Diamonds Are Forever.
86. Icarus was to be called “Solaris” until the producers discovered a movie with that title was being produced.
87. Vlad is played by Micheal Gorevoy, a Moscow born actor. He’s appeared in 25 Russian films and has a great love for theatre and directing.
88. Part of the scene where Frost grabs Bond was re-shot. Die Another Day was written by Purvis and Wade. The World is Not Enough was written by them with Bruce Feirstein. Their first film was Let Him Have It , based on the true story of Bentley and Craig. They also wrote Plunkett & Macleane (Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming), The Italian Job (2003), Johnny English , and contributed to An American Werewolf in Paris .
89. Bond first had a laser cutter watch in Goldeneye . In both films, it’s an Omega Seamaster.
90. The lasers in this scene are supposedly used to cut diamonds.
91. Bond uses a similar rebreather in Thunderball.
92. These scenes were filmed at Qinetiq Ocean Basin Tank facility in Hampshire, England.
93. The water was approximately 18°C.
94. Jinx’s laser scene was a homage to Goldeneye.
95. Mr Kil is played by Lawrence Makoare. Born in New Zealand, he appeared in Xenia: Warrior Princess and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
96. George Aguilar was stunt coordinator in Die Another Day. Aguilar also worked on Finding Forrester , Ocean’s Eleven , Gangs of New York , Big Daddy , and Meet the Parents . He’s also acted in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Mann & Machine .
97. Mark Mottram was Pierce’s stunt double.
98. Lindy Hemming served as costume designer on Die Another Day. She won an Oscar for her work on Topsy-Turvy.
99. Hemming has done all Bond films through Die Another Day.
100. The line “Die Another Day” is from an AE Housman poem: The Day of Battle
"Far I hear the bugle blow
To call me where I would not go,
And the guns begin the song,
'Soldier, fly or stay for long.'"
"Comrade, if to turn and fly
Made a soldier never die,
Fly I would, for who would not?
'Tis sure no pleasure to be shot."
"But since the man that runs away
Lives to die another day,
And cowards' funerals, when they come
Are not wept so well at home."
"Therefore, though the best is bad,
Stand and do the best my lad;
Stand and fight and see your slain,
And take the bullet in your brain."
101. Ian Fleming’s father, Valentine, died in World War I. Winston Churchill wrote Fleming’s obituary for The Times of London . Fleming kept the obituary framed in his room, and considered Churchill a hero.
102. Miranda Frost was originally called “Gala Brand”, a character from the novel Moonraker . They eventually decided that the character was developing in a different way.
103. Virtually every time a gun fires, the effect had to be set up and approved by Chris Corbould. He also had to make the floor shatter. Die Another Day is Chris’s tenth Bond film. His first was The Spy Who Loved Me . His responsibilities include everything from explosions to leaping cars. He also worked on Hudson Hawk , Far and Away , Interview with the Vampire , The Ghost and the Darkness , Firestorm , The Mummy , Tomb Raider and 102 Dalmatians . John Richardson was Chris’s predecessor. On Die Another Day, and the previous two films, Richardson was model effects supervisor.
104. A model of the ice palace was superimposed on the wide shot of the Aston Martin. Icarus is a model, too. Richardson is son of British special effects man Cliff Richardson. He brought John in to work on Exodus and Casino Royale (1967). John has also worked on Superman , A Bridge Too Far , The Omen , Willow , Starship Troopers , and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . He won an Academy Award for Aliens .
105. To supervise CGI, the Bond producers worked closely with Mara Bryan. She has done the visual effects for the last four Bond pictures. Mara’s background in visual effects and CGI work includes stints as head of production for two companies, and visual effects producer for another. She worked on Judge Dredd The Adventures of Pinocchio , and Dark City. Bryan had to turn to four companies to complete Die Another Day.
106. 1995’s Goldeneye was the first Bond film to use CGI.
107. David Tattersall was the Director of Photography for Die Another Day. One of the most sought-after cinematographers in Britain today, Tattersall is most famous for his work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and Star Wars Episodes I and II. Die Another Day is his first Bond film.
108. In the novel Goldfinger , Bond drove an Aston Martin DBIII. In the film, it was a Silver Birch DB5 equipped with front firing machine guns, bulletproof windscreen, rear bulletproof shield, tyre scythe, rotating number plates, front over-rider bumpers, homing tracking screen, and ejector seat. Bond has driven Aston Martins in 5 other films aside from Goldfinger . In Thunderball he drove the DB5 which was now was equipped with high-pressure water hoses. In The Living Daylights , he drove the V8 Vantage Volante, as well as a regular Vantage when it was “winterized” by Q. That film also featured a chase across a frozen lake. The DB5 returned in Goldeneye, and Tomorrow Never Dies . An Aston Martin DBS was viewed in Q’s lab in Diamonds Are Forever , and also in The World is Not Enough .
109. The ice palace set is a testament to the talent of Peter Lamont. Lamont’s brother Michael also works on the Bond films. He served as the model unit art director supervisor in Die Another Day. Peter’s sets and designs continue the tradition of grand scope and elegant settings for the Bond films.
110. The ice tyres and ejector seat are homages from Goldfinger and The Living Daylights
111. Many observers credit the strong women in the Bond universe to Barbara Broccoli. She studied film at Loyola University and began her Bond career with Octopussy . She also produced HBO’s Crime of the Century which was nominated for four Golden Globes.
112. This bunker was filmed at a Royal Air Force Base in Odiham, England. The interiors were filmed on “D” Stage at Pinewood. Michael Madsen has authored three books of poetry: Beer, Blood, and Ashes , Eat the Worm , and Burning in Paradise .
113. These scenes were created by marrying CGI with real footages. Alan Hewitt supervised Barry Maple, Victoria Holton, Julia Foxwell, and Ian Marshall who doubled Jinx and Bond.
114. The Strategic Air Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”), had met with limited success rates when Die Another Day came out.
115. The General calling for the South Korean troops to be mobilized is Michael G. Wilson. He has appeared in Goldfinger , The Spy Who Loved Me , in Moonraker as a NASA technician, in For Your Eyes Only as a Greek Orthodox Priest. In 1983, both he and his wife played tourists helping Bond into a boat in Octopussy . A View to a Kill , he was in the streetcar shot in Fisherman’s Wharf. In The Living Daylights , he is at Kara’s concert. In Licence to Kill he was a DEA official, as well as Bond’s hand double. He appears as a Russian official in Goldeneye , and as a minion of Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies , and a casino employee in The World is Not Enough . He became executive producer with Moonraker , and a producer with his stepfather Cubby 6 years later. Barbara Broccoli joined producing duties with Goldeneye . On the set, the crew refers to Michael as “Governor”. On the call sheets, he plays General Chandler. He’s listed as “General Chandler – Michael G. Wilson (Governor)”.
116. Graves’s jet is an Antonov An-225, the largest operating plane in the world. Its cargo bay is 21 feet wide, over 14 feet high, and 140 feet long.
117. The World is Not Enough featured the murder of the villain’s father. In Goldfinger , a bullet depressurizes a plane and sucks Goldfinger out of the window. A half-scale model was built of the Antonov and the general that gets sucked out. In both films the Bond girl must fly the wounded aircraft.
118. The visual effects crew filmed the background for these shots in April 2002 over English skies (Crosby-On-Eden in Cumbria).
119. Less than a month after the film’s release fencing clubs and manufacturers saw an uptick in membership and demand. The owner of Leon Paul, a fencing club was quoted by the BBC:
“Certainly for us, there’s a sense that the Bond film has resulted in more people being interested in fencing, ringing up and looking at our website."
120. The elaborate explosions took weeks to prepare.
121. The filmmakers shot footage of an An-225, but some of the exterior scenes were created with large models.
122. Bond films require a skilled editing team. Die Another Day relied on Christian Wagner. Wagner worked on Days of Thunder , The Last Boy Scout , True Romance , The Fan , Spy Game , Face/Off and MI:II .
123. Vic Armstrong was responsible for parts of this sequence, as well as the ice chase. His credits include The Four Feathers , Charlie’s Angels , The Avengers , Last Action Hero , Starship Troopers and Cutthroat Island . He also directed FX2, Double Impact and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .
124. In The Living Daylights , Bond escapes with the Bond girl from a plane with a Jeep. The shots of the actors were filmed with green screen and married with aerial footage.
125. Moneypenny having sex with Bond was filmed early in production. It was made at the last minute when other plans fell through. They were very surprised by the positive reaction.
126. Shots of Jinx and Bond weren’t filmed in Korea, but on Penbryn Beach, England.
127. Diamonds are Forever also ends with Bond discussing gems.
128. All of the previous films ended with “James Bond will return in…” followed by the next film’s title. During the 1980s they began to run out of Fleming titles. Now they just end with “James Bond will return.”
Videos:
Hovercraft over falls
Don't condone what they do
We've reached the end Bond
Firing Squad
M sees Bond in hospital
Jinx's entrance
Zao at clinic
No, thanks. I don't like cockfights.
Jinx's entrance to Ice Palace
Jinx, Bond, and Miranda at Ice Palace
Gustav's demonstration
Occupational hazard
All units report
Bunker scene
Graves meets his father
Graves shows off Icarus
Jinx and Frost fight.
Graves tortures Bond
Moneypenny has sex with Bond
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine