James Bond film locations that are licensed to thrill
As the latest James Bond film hits the big screen, walk in the footsteps of cinema’s favourite spy at these destinations.
1 Dr No (1962)
Let’s start with the first Bond movie, directed by Terence Young. It’s the swinging 60s and Sean Connery debuts as Bond, a choice that scandalised the character’s creator, Ian Fleming, who thought the Scotsman too unrefined to play a suave gentleman spy. Bond’s maiden mission takes him to Jamaica, where an MI6 agent has been murdered, a shadowy trail that eventually leads him to the hideout of Dr No, the first of many fabulously designed villain lairs in the Bond franchise. Young also gives us perhaps the most iconic scene in all the Bond movies, filmed at Laughing Waters in Ocho Rios. As Agent 007 watches from behind a tree, Honey Rider, the memorable bikini-clad Ursula Andress, steps from the sea and shakes the water from her golden hair. It’s one of the great Bond moments.
Stay Goldeneye, Orcabessa Bay, Jamaica.
2 From Russia With Love (1963)
Also directed by Terence Young and with Connery as Bond, the plot takes place largely in Istanbul, with the evil terrorist Spectre group determined to seek revenge on Bond for the death of Dr No. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul features early, and was also a location for Skyfall (2012), but the set piece happens aboard the luxury Orient-Express train as Bond attempts to protect Soviet sexpot Tatiana Romanova, played by 1960 Miss Universe runner-up Daniela Bianchi, who asks for Bond’s protection but may have shadowy motivations.
Stay Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Istanbul-Venice.
3 Diamonds are Forever (1971)
The bulk of the narrative concerns international diamond heists connected to Spectre’s plot to build a laser with the gems. Bond’s ladies include Jill St John as Tiffany Case, who gets into a number of teeny bikinis, and Lana Wood as the less crucial eye candy, Plenty O’Toole. The exotic locale is glitzy Las Vegas where filming taking place in eight hotels, including The Riviera and Tropicana Las Vegas. Full advantage is taken of the city’s iconic casinos throughout, with Bond and Tiffany Case meeting up in Circus Circus, where trapeze artists dangle over the heads of punters. Filming in Las Vegas at night had its advantages as apparently the neon from the casinos was so bright that no artificial lights were required.
Stay Bellagio Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas.
4 The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)
Roger Moore stars in this adventure and it’s one of the best in the series. The bad-guy drawcard is Francisco Scaramanga (played by Christopher Lee), the most expensive hitman in the world, and known for his signature golden gun. He’s got a great henchman named Nick Nack, played by Herve Villechaize of future Fantasy Island fame, and the menacing duo have a fantasy island lair of their own. Filming was around the limestone isles of Phang Nga Bay, northeast of Phuket, Thailand, one of several stunning Asiam backdrops, including Hong Kong and Macau. The Thai location is now known locally and marketed internationally as James Bond Island.
Stay Banyan Tree Phuket.
5 For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Roger Moore returns for his fifth go-round as 007 in For Your Eyes Only. This time Bond’s mission centres on a device that controls the British deadly Polaris submarines, stolen by shadowy forces from a shipwreck in the Aegean. It’s a throwback to the international intrigue plots of earlier films, complete with the requisite jet-setting that takes our hero from Spain to Italy to Greece, with a particularly stunning location shoot involving a mountainous monastery, hideout for the film’s villain Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover). The precipitously built mountaintop monastery is at Meteora, 2km north of Kalambaka in central Greece.
Stay Hotel Meteora Kastraki, Kalambaka.
6 A View To A Kill (1985)
When a murdered agent turns up in Siberia with a mysterious micro-chip on his body, Bond (still played by Moore), is sent to investigate the chip’s creator, government contractor and industrialist Max Zorin, with Christopher Walken in the role. His super-powerful henchwoman, May Day, is played by the intimidating Grace Jones. The locations are spectacular and real, as Bond roams from Siberia to Switzerland, then to Paris to witness a magnificent jump by Jones off the Eiffel Tower, and then to California for a remarkable fight atop San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Stay Hotel Lutetia, Paris.
7 The Living Daylights (1987)
The approach of the end of the 1980s heralded a new Bond for a more modern world. Enter Timothy Dalton, who only played the secret agent twice but took a grittier approach than Roger Moore. Bond is in Bratislava, Slovakia, then part of communist Czechoslovakia, so Vienna doubled as the plot’s locales, with many of the buildings recognisable to travellers, such as Schonbrunn Palace. Bond must help a Russian officer who wants to defect but while trying to aid his escape in a concert hall, they are attacked by an unlikely sniper – a cellist (played by Marayam d’Abo) on stage with the orchestra. This kicks off a journey of double and triple crosses, involving megalomaniac arms dealers and a hell of a lot of heroin. The mission is as international as always – other spots on the agenda include Morocco and Afghanistan.
Stay Hotel Sacher Wien, Vienna.
8 Golden Eye (1995)
The 17th Bond movie finally arrived in 1995, pulling the franchise into a new decade, now starring Pierce Brosnan. The plot, contending with the end of the Cold War, still found evil and intrigue in Moscow, where there’s a dastardly plan utilising a powerful satellite weapon known as Golden Eye. Bond infiltrates a Soviet base, visits the casino in Monaco, drives a tank through St Petersburg and gets lost in the Caribbean jungle. Location shooting featured Switzerland, St Petersburg, Puerto Rico and Monte Carlo, including scenes filmed close to the Vista Palace, at Casino de Monte-Carlo and Port Hercule yacht harbour.
Stay Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo.
9 Die Another Day (2002)
The swansong for Brosnan, this is the first post-9/11 Bond movie. As M grimly tells 007: “While you were away, the world changed.” So begins globetrotting on the trail of blood diamonds and world-destroying weapons, sweeping from Hong Kong to Cuba to London and, in grand Bond tradition, a villain’s ice palace. With much of the plot set in Cuba and off-limits for filming, a location was needed to stand in for Havana. The historic port town of Cadiz in southwest Spain fitted the bill perfectly.
Stay Hotel Boutique Convento, Cadiz.
10 Casino Royale (2006)
This 21st Bond movie (and the third screen adaptation of Fleming’s 1953 novel of the same name) introduces Daniel Craig as the sexy, tough and stylish secret agent, the master of spectacular stunts, and takes us on a helter-skelter tour of Venice, the Czech Republic, Villa del Balbianello by Italy’s Lake Como, and the Bahamas. And Bond finds time to drop into Miami, Madagascar and Montenegro. Most of the movie was shot in the Czech Republic (a relatively inexpensive option for film-makers) and primarily at Prague’s fabled Barrandov Studios, known as the “Hollywood of the East”. The plot revolves around the start of Bond’s career as an agent and he is earning the licence to kill, on assignment to bankrupt terrorist Mads Mikkelsen’s financier Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.
Stay Aman Sveti Stefan, Montenegro.
No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s fifth appearance as James Bond, opens November 11 at cinemas nationwide.