The Great Bond Geoguesser Game

NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
edited November 2022 in Trivia & Games Posts: 7,401
Hi all, I had an idea that this might be a fun game: the idea basically is you search for a location important in the Bond-verse, post a screengrab here, and everyone has to guess where the location is / why it's important to the Bond-verse.

Will it be too hard? Maybe we can also provide clues? I don't know. Let's see how it goes, and I'll kick things off:
314886798_465830092308640_6406522854449052724_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=fVsU0_n2Bq8AX8u-VnC&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfCqqXHSD_UBwWvt8cUqOxHtAl3zm6S2Xgq26u_1T4J4kg&oe=636F80DD


Some clues right off the bat maybe:
  1. Not an English speaking country.
  2. Important more to the novels than the films.
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Comments

  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    Hi, @NickTwentyTwo,

    sounds like a nice idea, but I'm afraid I don't see an image here...apart from the fact that I overlooked your post for almost a week.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    Oh damn, I’ll try to fix it today.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,401
    Updated Image:
    314886798_465830092308640_6406522854449052724_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=fVsU0_n2Bq8AX8u-VnC&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfCqqXHSD_UBwWvt8cUqOxHtAl3zm6S2Xgq26u_1T4J4kg&oe=636F80DD

    EDIT: If you are familiar enough with the correct novel, the clues in the image more or less spell the solution out for you.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    Looks like Paris to me. It's 136 Blvd. Haussmann, SPECTRE headquarters in the TB novel.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ Vauxhall Headquarters, London
    Posts: 2,134
    St. Regis hotel in Live And Let Die?
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 448
    Yeah definitely looks like Paris so either it's From a View to a Kill but you did say novel so I thinking it might be Boulevard Haussmann from Thunderball because that's the first appearance of Blofeld whereas in the films it's FRWL.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    Posts: 7,567
    Not trying to be overly assertive, but it is definitely 136 Boulevard Haussmann, as can be easily verified by Google Street View. (Disclaimer: SPECTRE HQ was shown in a different street in the TB movie. This is the "literary" address only.)

    @NickTwentyTwo, as a benevolent criticism, I think there was no need to mention it was not in an English-speaking country, and especially none for leaving the "Boulevard" marking on the street there (one can disable that on Google Maps)... which sort of gives something away. So I think it was too easy.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,401
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    Not trying to be overly assertive, but it is definitely 136 Boulevard Haussmann, as can be easily verified by Google Street View. (Disclaimer: SPECTRE HQ was shown in a different street in the TB movie. This is the "literary" address only.)

    @NickTwentyTwo, as a benevolent criticism, I think there was no need to mention it was not in an English-speaking country, and especially none for leaving the "Boulevard" marking on the street there (one can disable that on Google Maps)... which sort of gives something away. So I think it was too easy.

    Haha I was worried it would be too hard! But you're right of course, it's the address for SPECTRE in TB. I welcome the constructive criticism.

    Did you want to post one for us to guess?

    EDIT: If you want, you can DM me a location and I can get the image up in the thread for others to guess.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    Posts: 7,567
    Did you want to post one for us to guess?

    EDIT: If you want, you can DM me a location and I can get the image up in the thread for others to guess.

    Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really totally unprepared once I realised I was probably the first to post the right answer :-).

    I would just not restrict this to Street View, but suggest a satellite photo. The object shown plays a role in a literary work of the Bondverse, and in fact about two thirds of that work takes place in the immediate vicinity of it, but of course adjusted to the time it was written.
    Well, here it is:
    geoguessingsae1r.jpg

    I'll just wait if something comes up :-) and give further hints if the results are somewhat flaccid.


  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    Tough one... look like America to me; had a look at some locations from the novels but haven't turned up anything yet. The blue dome in the bottom right seems like it should be a good clue. Looking forward to seeing if anyone else has some insight.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    I must admit I never really noticed the "blue dome" on the right, but if I had enabled those descriptions, it wouldn't be a secret any more :-) My main intention when cutting out the screenshot was to portray the quite extensive building in the center of the picture.

    Edit: I invite those specialists on European history, say @DarthDimi and @Dragonpol, to take a look at this even if they don't feel like playing games.

    Further edit: I didn't mean to leave out @CommanderRoss on purpose
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    Of course, and it's quite distinct. Makes me think I don't know much about urban geography. :)) I'll keep thinking!
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    edited November 2022 Posts: 448
    Alright, this may not have been completely sporting but alternatively like a good spy I used all the available information at my disposal. My first thought was also America, CIA HQ specifically. But then I saw the .de extension on the webpage so I went to the German secret service building and just looked around the area so it was a bit of blind luck finding it.

    It's the German Finance Ministry building across the street from Checkpoint Charlie so that makes the Bond connection The Living Daylights?
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    Good job, @CharmianBond. Now could you elaborate on why the Federal Ministry of Finance is connected to The Living Daylights. The .de extension on the link is caused by the fact that I am using a German upload service, so it is not really an indication of where the building is located, but nevertheless you're right.

    PS: @NickTwentyTwo, the "blue dome" is in fact a hot-air balloon :-)
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,401
    Alright, this may not have been completely sporting but alternatively like a good spy I used all the available information at my disposal. My first thought was also America, CIA HQ specifically. But then I saw the .de extension on the webpage so I went to the German secret service building and just looked around the area so it was a bit of blind luck finding it.

    It's the German Finance Ministry building across the street from Checkpoint Charlie so that makes the Bond connection The Living Daylights?

    Nice detective work! Even if finding it was a bit of blind luck, as per the Sergeant. The "two thirds of the story" clue confounded me a bit, but did make me think of the short stories. Didn't make the connection to TLD though. Well done.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    OK, just to wrap this up for everyone involved, with a bit of history education:

    "The Living Daylights" (the short story or novella) is about Bond attempting to shoot a Soviet sniper to allow an eastern defector to cross the border that ran along Zimmerstrasse in Berlin (before the wall was built along the same line). Bond stayed in an old apartment building at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Kochstrasse (south of Zimmerstrasse, but in the Western sector), overlooking a bombed-out area where basically nothing was left standing. The next structure worth mentioning was the GDR's Haus der Ministerien (House of Ministries), where he ultimately detected the sniper who morphed into Kara Milovy for the TLD movie.

    The "Haus der Ministerien" was originally built in 1935 as Göring's Ministry of Aviation, with the usual pomp, grandeur and excess typical for that era. It surprisingly survived WWII and ended up in the Soviet sector and was later used for several ministries of the GDR (hence the name in the TLD story). After the fall of the wall, it was used as the seat of the so-called Treuhandanstalt (literally, Trust Agency) that was commissioned to privatise GDR enterprises that were deemed viable...not very many, and there was much resentment to the work of the Treuhand. Its head at the time, Detlev Rohwedder, was killed by a sniper (how fitting in connection with the TLD story!) from the RAF (not Royal Air Force, but Red Army Faction) in 1991. It has since been renamed the Detlev Rohwedder Building and now houses the Federal Finance Ministry.

    By the way, Fleming describes it as an ugly square building. But I do think it has a certain style of esthetics (and has doubtless been landmark-protected for ages; check it on Wikipedia or whereever). My theory goes anyway that the Nazis knew very well what was esthetically pleasing and used it for their purpose (not just here), with lots of symmetry and Greek-classical allusions. It's just where they went overly gigantic with their designs that people (justifiably) balked. A lot of what the Nazis built is ugly because of that megalomania, but nothing is ugly just because the Nazis built it. They knew how to influence people by giving them what was actually pleasing to the eye...albeit to further their own purpose.

    PS: Anyway to @CharmianBond, I guess it's your turn.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,401
    Thanks for the info! All extremely interesting. Would love to have a round from you CharmianBond. Again, if you want a hand with images, let me know.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 448
    Very interesting stuff @j_w_pepper. I've actually not read TLD yet I was just basing it off what little I knew, so I do love a happy little accident.

    Right, I've gone back to Street View. Hopefully this one shouldn't be too difficult but let's see how we get on.

    EF7tF0B.png
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    Seems like we're dangerously close to a few LALD locations...
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    I'm more thinking along the lines of 1200 Avenue of the Americas -> Rockefeller Center -> one of Bond's first kills in Casino Royale-the-novel ("‘Well, in the last few years I’ve killed two villains. The first was in New York — a Japanese cipher expert cracking our codes on the thirtysixth floor of the RCA building in the Rockefeller centre, where the Japs had their consulate.") ->or even William Stephenson, codename "Intrepid", a possible model for Fleming's Bond.

    Whatever, it's too late for me by now. Talk to you tomorrow.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    That makes sense, considering also that we've only really been covering literary Bond (to my preference, personally). Glad I made the thread; learning (and relearning) a lot.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 448
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    Posts: 7,567
    That makes sense, considering also that we've only really been covering literary Bond (to my preference, personally). Glad I made the thread; learning (and relearning) a lot.
    That's what I think this thread should be about. And we've only just started. Still: [yawns]
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    Posts: 7,567
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?

    Oops, sorry @CharmianBond, this sort of coincided, but I'll think about it tomorrow.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 448
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    I'm really glad too @NickTwentyTwo, thank you for coming up with the idea, it's a great little game.

    You're bang on @j_w_pepper it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it. Does anyone want to take a guess before they return?

    Oops, sorry @CharmianBond, this sort of coincided, but I'll think about it tomorrow.

    No worries, get some rest 🙂

    I also agree though that the game should stick mainly to literary Bond, but I wouldn't mind sprinkling a few film ones in too. I think it'll be interesting to see as we get settled into the game how it'll work with non-Fleming books.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    For sure; for now I think it makes sense to stick to Fleming Literary Bond.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    ...it is the Avenue of the Americas but there is a more direct reason I chose it.

    I guess it is the House of Diamonds then (its address is actually 50 West 47th, around the corner). In the DAF novel, Bond is informed by M that the Spang Bros. bought control of a "House of Diamonds" and also meets "Shady" Tree there, though we can only guess if the one in your picture is really the same enterprise as the one in the novel. It's a rather generic name in a "Diamond District" anyway, and Fleming places it on West 46th Street.

    (And no, I didn't remember all that but was tempted to look it up. Good opportunity to re-read at least bits and pieces of Fleming, so thank you for making me do it.)
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 448
    It is Diamonds Are Forever, but more simply it's the street on which Bond reunites with Felix. On the right the 'DIA' is for a jewellery store called 'DIAMOND CENTER' and the coincidence amused me so I thought would be a nice little clue.

    'He went on and turned right into the Avenue of the Americas, stopping in the first doorway, the entrance to a women's underwear store where a man in a tan suit with his back to him was examining the black lace pants on a particularly realistic dummy.'
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper By the powers *in*vested in me by this parish, I hereby do commandeer this message board
    edited November 2022 Posts: 7,567
    Ah, yes, I haven't got to that part again so far. It's in the next chapter. Page 077.

    PS: @CharmianBond and @NickTwentyTwo: Whose turn is it? Just to avoid killing this thread before it really got going.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,401
    I think it's yours, given that you guessed Charmian's?
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