Even as the world debates the making of the perfect Bond, ever wonder what it is that goes into the making of the perfect Bond stunt?
And while we have Daniel Craig chasing after a villain at the beginning of Skyfall, Roger Moore rattling down the steps of an old structure in a tuk-tuk in Octopussy, Pierce Brosnan hunting down Colonel Ourumov in a tank on the streets of St Petersburg—some of the most memorable and characteristically Bond stunts have come in 007’s vehicle of choice: an Aston Martin. Recently, the luxury British marque brought out their DB12 Goldfinger edition to commemorate 60 years of their partnership with the brand.
Aston Martin, which made its first appearance in a Bond film in Goldfinger (1964), has featured in some of its most striking grand tourer and coupe avatars in the films, starring in some of the most thrilling stunts that were seen on screen in all these decades.
In order to realise the perilous action sequences that Bond is known to have an affinity for, the cars have been driven from rooftop pods, souped up (yes, that too), retrofitted with devices and ramps built into. The marque has played quite a part in cementing Double-oh Seven’s typically suave machismo. But what made these death-defying and often ridiculously dizzying moments so special? We break it down.
Hinx drives Bond up the wall in Spectre, literally
Two speed brutes vying for supremacy on a cold winter night in a windblown ancient European city? Sì, signore, bring it on. Pursued hungrily by Hinx (Dave Bautista) in a Jaguar C-X75 through the streets of Rome, Bond (Daniel Craig) performs wince-inducing last-minute swerves out of other motorists’ way, cuts dangerously sharp turns into tight streets and even careens dangerously down the concrete stairs leading to the banks of the Tiber in his DB10. Finally, evading a pile of debris by the bank, he ascends the wall by the bank before . There’s something about the way the exaggeration of a Bond stunt like that offsets the solemn self-importance of a historic city deep in slumber.
Up against an Alfa in Quantum of Solace
Thumps, thuds, windshields shattering, trucks crashing and heavy machine gun fire punctuating the echoing yowling and growling of impatient vehicles—all inside a long tunnel that’s just 28 feet wide. You will need a superlative for claustrophobia after you’ve seen the Quantum of Solace tunnel scrimmage that took seven Aston Martins (DBS V12s) and eight Alfa Romeo 159s to shoot. Opening over the tranquil waters of Lake Garda in Italy, the camera pans to the action, as the POV shifts from one camera to another, delivering a headspin that scarcely any other chase has been able to deliver in a Bond film. The latter half has 007 emerging from the tunnel and taking the chase to unpaved roads flanking a quarry, as the pursuers fall to their end one after another.
Time for a doughnut roll in No Time to Die
As with most stunts in the franchise, the No Time to Die chase—Cyclops and his men going after 007 and his wife Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) in the cramped, cobblestoned streets of Matera, Italy—was performed almost entirely without CGI. To cut the hazardous slipperiness of the cobblestone, the crew sprayed the streets down with sugary soda (32 thousand litres of it). Historic structures in the old city were padded up with concrete barriers before stunt driver Mark Higgins set about giving it the spin. The scene in question also benefits from a brief but emotionally charged exchange between the couple, even as the enemy launches a hail of bullets at the shiny Aston Martin, cracks spreading wider on its windshields. Once Bond receives an answer from Madeleine, he pushes a button and the headlamps drop to reveal the car’s own brace of mini machine guns—all while performing a head-spinning doughnut manoeuvre in a piazza. Having scattered the thugs, he blows a smokescreen from the exhaust, and escapes.
Bond rolls into the woods in Casino Royale
One of the standout moments in Daniel Craig’s debut as Bond was the seven barrel rolls Bond’s Aston Martin undertakes in an attempt to avoid running over Vesper (Eva Green), who is tied up and left in the middle of the road. Chasing after Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) once he has won the poker game, 007 is supposed to immediately take evasive action and roll over into the woods. But when during the filming, the Aston Martin didn’t flip, the crew attempted a number of manoeuvres, eventually fitting the bottom of the car with an air cannon that fired pressurised nitrogen into the ground, throwing the DBS sideways. This time, the DBS (with Adam Kirley driving it) flipped and completed seven rolls—a world record until The Fall Guy (with eight) broke it earlier this year.
Race to the finish in GoldenEye
As far as duels on the road go, there’s hardly another as whimsical and surreal as the one in Duel (1971). But we’ll take Pierce Brosnan in a DB5 up against Famke Janssen in a Ferrari F355 any day. Speeding on a mountain road in Southern France (Gréolières), 007 and the femme fatale engage in a series of come-ons around miss-and-fall-to-your-death hairpin bends. French stunt performer Rémy Julienne and his team drove both cars for the hormonal race that fans still recall as one of the most charged sequences in the franchise’s history.