Die Another Day cars: Ford
Thunderbird, Aston Martin Vanquish, Jaguar . (Photo: Gunnar
Schäfer)
For a James Bond movie to succeed - and for 40 years, every one has - a
certain mix of ingredients is vital.
There must be an arch villain, accompanied always by evil henchmen or
alluring female accomplices as he pursues his nefarious scheme. There must be
beautiful women for Commander Bond to be smitten by. An arsenal of high-tech
gadgetry. Shaken but unstirred vodka martinis.
And fast cars. Whether played by Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan or any of the
other Bond actors, Secret Agent 007 always drives fast cars.
Sean
Connery and Aston Martin DB5.
Rides to Remember, But Do You? (answers below)
What colour was the Sunbeam Alpine roadster driven by
James Bond in Dr. No?
In The Spy Who Loved Me, did Agent 007's submarine start
life as a Lotus Elite, Lotus Esprit or Lotus Eclat model?
In which movie did the super sleuth drive a BMW Z3
roadster?
Bond babe Tracey Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) operated a Ford
Motor Company model in On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Name
its make and model.
In Thunderball, what type of weaponry was mounted on Fiona
Volpe's BSA Lightning motorcycle?
In The Man With the Golden Gun, the villain Scaramanga
escaped by converting this car into an airplane.
Name the make and model of the motorcycle that James Bond
jumped between buildings in Tomorrow Never Dies.
What vehicle did Agent 007 drive by remote control in The
World is not Enough?
In Goldfinger, how did the villain Auric Goldfinger
smuggle gold?
What exoticar did Xenia Onatopp drive in the race scene
near the beginning of GoldenEye?
Long-time moviegoers may still associate the suave super sleuth with the
ejection seat-equipped Aston Martin DB5 he steered in Goldfinger (1964). In Die
Another Day, Bond is back in an Aston Martin, this time a limited-edition
Vanquish model.
But there have been many other cars - and much stranger vehicles - in which
Bond has maintained his unflappable demeanour amid the wildest of chases.
In 1971's Diamonds are Forever, Bond, played by Sean Connery, calmly flipped
a '71 Ford Mustang Mach 1 up onto two wheels to squeeze it through a narrow Las
Vegas alley. In the same movie, he made an unexpected escape in a stolen
moonbuggy.
In 1973's Live And Let Die, Roger Moore made his first appearance as Agent
007 and jumped a Glastron speedboat over a Louisiana sheriff's patrol car. For
an encore, he used a low bridge to convert a double-decker London bus into a
single-decker during a lively chase sequence.
Perhaps inspired by his previous automotive antics, Bond used an unlikely
vehicle, an AMC Hornet, to perform an incredible 360-degree, barrel-roll jump
across a Bangkok canal in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974).
In The Spy Who Loved Me, 007 adopted a sleek Lotus that transformed itself
into a submarine at the touch of a button, a vehicle almost as famous as his
Goldfinger Aston Martin. In the same 1977 movie, Bond rode a Wetbike, the
conceptual forerunner of today's personal watercraft.
In the category of Most Unlikely Chase Vehicle, the winner must be the
Citroen 2 CV model used by 007 and Melina Havelock to career down a mountainside
in 1981's For Your Eyes Only. Equally amusing was the Renault taxi commandeered
by Bond in A View To A Kill, which somehow managed to continue driving after it
was cut in half. This 1985 instalment was Roger Moore's seventh appearance as
the secret agent.
The adaptable Bond (Timothy Dalton this time) had no trouble piloting a
Kenworth gasoline tanker in License To Kill (1989). In 1995 Pierce Brosnan
assumed the Bond role, driving a Russian tank in GoldenEye and jumping a
motorcycle between buildings two years later in Tomorrow Never Dies.
All in a day's work, really. From the beginning, automobiles in Bond's movies
have had an iconic status. According to Robert Thompson, a popular culture
expert and professor of media and culture at New York's Syracuse University,
this helped make them an early success.
"One of the reasons James Bond movies work so well for an American
audience, in spite of their international settings, is that James Bond has a
North American's relationship to his automobiles," says Prof. Thompson.
"They are an extension of his powerful and suave personality and often the
means by which he achieves his freedom."
Nick Nguyen is a master's graduate of Carleton University's Film Studies
program and a film conservator at the National Archives of Canada. He notes that
Bond's cars are an "integral part of his arsenal" and suggests Bond's
early use of an Aston Martin reinforced his "Britishness." His move to
other cars, including BMWs, in later films emphasized 007's multinational
appeal. On the consumer level, Mr. Nguyen says, Bond's cars help define a
"masculine ideal that reflects a sleek and sophisticated playboy
image."
The significance of the Bond-car phenomenon has not been lost on the
commercial world. In 1965, Corgi released its scale model of Bond's gadget-laden
DB5 from Goldfinger. Nearly four million copies were sold by 1968 and the DB5
remains Corgi's best-known model. Subsequent Bond vehicles are an important part
of Corgi's current line.
The payoff has been even larger for automakers. For decades, they've
capitalized on the advertising value of placing their vehicles in television
shows and movies. Clearly, a vehicle's use by a character in a TV show has a
better promotional payoff than that achieved by simply sponsoring the show.
It was no accident that Miss Jane Hathaway drove a Dodge convertible in The
Beverly Hillbillies. Chrysler Corp. supplied all the unmodified cars used in the
series.
In the same manner, detective Jim sported a new Pontiac Firebird in each
season of The Rockford Files. How many Corvettes were sold because of the car's
prominent use in the 1960s TV series Route 66? How many buyers flocked to Alfa
Romeo showrooms after watching angst-ridden Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman)
drive a red Duetto Spider in The Graduate?
In the 1960s, Jaguar probably wondered how many Volvo P1800 sales were
stimulated when The Saint hit TV screens. Perhaps ill-advisedly, the leaping-cat
company declined a request from the series' producers for an XKE model for lead
character Simon Templar.
Aston
Martin Vanquish.
Now, in Die Another Day, Ford Motor Company has achieved a product-placement hat
trick. The movie's three star cars are all Ford products (Ford bought Aston
Martin and Jaguar in the late 1980s). Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish model is
fitted with the latest weaponry including machine-guns and missile launchers.
One of 500 hand-assembled but unarmed copies of this car can be yours, should
you have the $345,000 price of admission.
Bond's nemesis in Die Another Day, the evil Zao, flits about in another
prestigious British conveyance, a Jaguar XKR painted in the same green colour
used on Jaguar Racing's current Formula One race car.
Ford suggests potential customers will picture themselves as international
spies as soon as they jump into the driver's seat. Should you be planning to
emulate Zao's dastardly deeds, a 2002 Jaguar XKR, minus the firepower, will
drain your bank account to the tune of $104,500 (coupe) or $113,500
(convertible).
If you think the Aston Martin and Jaguar star cars seem unusually competent
in the winter-driving scenes in Die Another Day, you're right. To help keep them
on the straight and narrow, both vehicles were converted to accept the
four-wheel-drive system from the Ford Explorer.
In Die Another Day, the obligatory Bond babe is Jinx, a.k.a. actress Halle
Berry. Her vehicle of choice is a coral pink Thunderbird convertible. The movie
car has inspired Ford to offer 700 special 2003 Limited Edition 007 Ford
Thunderbirds. Each will feature coral paint, 21-spoke chrome wheels, white seats
and subtle 007 badges.
Not to be outdone, Revlon has announced the release of its all-new Limited
Edition 007 Colour Collection, a product line fronted by Halle Berry that will
be on cosmetic counters in time for Christmas gift giving.
Honourable mention for product placement in Die Another Day must go to Canada's
Bombardier Inc. Its MX Z-REV snowmobile is featured prominently in wintery
Icelandic action scenes. According to the movie's producers, this stock
Bombardier model answered the need for "a sophisticated snowmobile with a
high-tech edge." Not surprisingly, Bombardier is making a specially trimmed
"007 Special Edition" variant of this sled available, on a
one-per-dealer basis, at a suggested retail price of $11,249.
Bombardier snowmobiles have also appeared in the movies XXX and Santa Claus
II and the company's personal watercraft have been used in the Baywatch TV
series.
Nick Nguyen observes that the James Bond movies feature many brand-name
consumer items, in addition to cars. From a commercial perspective, he suggests,
product-placement fees are welcomed by film studios facing increasing costs to
produce such movies.
Bombardier Ski-Doo MX
Z-REV Snöskotern har en framträdande plats vid inspelningen på Island i
actionscener i Die Another Day 2002.
Enligt filmens producenter, besvarade Bombardier modell behovet av "en
sofistikerad skoter med en högteknologisk skärpa."
Bombardier gjorde en speciellt trimmat "007 Special Edition" variant
av denna släde med skenor, rekommenderat pris på $ 11,249.
Bombardier
designers kept special agent James Bond in mind when developing the look of this
special edition model - a black and silver body accented with red and chrome.
Bombardier designers förde särskilda agent James Bond i åtanke när de
utvecklar utseendet på denna specialutgåva modell - en svart och silver kropp
accentuerat med rött och krom.
The
actual snowmobile (which was yellow and black) used in the movie is now on
display in The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, UK, as a part of a special
exhibition on Bond Vehicles and Props. Den faktiska skoter (som var gul
och svart) som används i filmen finns nu att beskåda i National Motor Museum i
Beaulieu, Storbritannien, som en del i en särskild utställning om Bond Fordon
och rekvisita.
But 007's vehicles, he believes, have taken on a more crucial role than other
products in the movies' popular and financial success. "Bond's recent cars,
especially those driven by Pierce Brosnan, serve a commercial objective rather
than a narrative purpose," he explains. For moviegoers, "the whole
point of buying these cars is to exploit their specific association to the Bond
films, wherein the car becomes the ultimate commodification of the Bond
experience outside of the cinema and on the roads."
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