Crab Key, "Dr. No" (1962) -- Dr. No's compound was situated on the fictional island of Crab Key, off the coast of Jamaica. Its underground living quarters had ostentatious touches -- a glass wall with underwater views, Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington -- and all the home comforts to wine and dine Bond. But the island also contained a secret lab. It was from there that Dr. No, the SPECTRE agent with the metal hands, planned to use an atomic-powered radio beam to interfere with NASA rocket launches.
In real life Ocho Rios, Jamaica was used for the shoot, with novelist Ian Fleming's villa Goldeneye not far away. For the interiors, shot at Pinewood Studios outside London, production designer Ken Adam used back projection to imitate the sea and dressed the living quarters with some of his own antique furniture, according to Meg Simmonds, author of "Bond by Design: The Art of the James Bond Films."
In real life Ocho Rios, Jamaica was used for the shoot, with novelist Ian Fleming's villa Goldeneye not far away. For the interiors, shot at Pinewood Studios outside London, production designer Ken Adam used back projection to imitate the sea and dressed the living quarters with some of his own antique furniture, according to Meg Simmonds, author of "Bond by Design: The Art of the James Bond Films."
SPECTRE Island, "From Russia With Love" (1963) -- With no villain's lair per se in "From Russia With Love," SPECTRE Island was the closest we got to a nexus of dastardly deeds. SPECTRE's secretive agent training facility (location unknown) was in fact filmed at Heatherden Hall, a mansion within Pinewood. The opening sequence where a dummy Bond is chased through a maze and garroted by Robert Shaw's assassin Donald "Red" Grant was filmed at the adjoining formal gardens.
The Rumpus Room, "Goldfinger" (1964) -- The Rumpus Room at Auric Goldfinger's Kentucky stud farm owed a debt Frank Lloyd Wright with Adam's choice of straight lines and warm, polished wood alongside cold stone. (Incidentally, Goldfinger was supposedly named after modernist architect Erno Goldfinger, who Fleming reportedly took a dim view of.)
As a space, the Rumpus Room was villainy at its most ergonomic. A control panel beneath a pool table operated the room: A wall becomes a map of Fort Knox and a floor compartment contained a model of the facility and its grounds. More importantly, the room's large windows and huge fireplace could be sealed off turn the space into a gas chamber to off rival gangsters.
As a space, the Rumpus Room was villainy at its most ergonomic. A control panel beneath a pool table operated the room: A wall becomes a map of Fort Knox and a floor compartment contained a model of the facility and its grounds. More importantly, the room's large windows and huge fireplace could be sealed off turn the space into a gas chamber to off rival gangsters.
Palmyra, "Thunderball" (1965) -- Palmyra, the estate belonging to SPECTRE second-in-command Emilio Largo, was situated near Nassau in the Bahamas. Perhaps its most famous feature was a shark tank, used by Largo from executions and in which Bond ends up (and then, invariably, escapes from). Adam told The Guardian in 2005 he inserted a plexiglass corridor into the saltwater pool for Connery to swim through, but one of the sharks made it past the barrier. "(Connery) never got out of a pool faster in his life," Adam recalled.
The volcano, "You Only Live Twice" (1967) -- Few lairs are as audacious as Ernst Stavro Blofeld's cavernous facility in "You Only Live Twice." The base beneath the crater lake of an extinct volcano housed "Bird One," a SPECTRE spacecraft launched to intercept US astronauts and USSR cosmonauts and provoke war between the superpowers.
Production designer Ken Adam's magnum opus in the Bond universe (his War Room in "Dr. Strangelove" might be a career highpoint) was a departure from Fleming's novel. Mount Shinmoedake in southern Kyushu, Japan served as the exterior, while the interior was built on an outdoor lot at Pinewood. Adam's set was approximately 400 feet wide, he said, and contained a working monorail and a retractable roof allowing a helicopter to be flown into the space. It reportedly cost £350,000 (then $1 million) to create -- the same as the entire budget of "Dr. No."
Production designer Ken Adam's magnum opus in the Bond universe (his War Room in "Dr. Strangelove" might be a career highpoint) was a departure from Fleming's novel. Mount Shinmoedake in southern Kyushu, Japan served as the exterior, while the interior was built on an outdoor lot at Pinewood. Adam's set was approximately 400 feet wide, he said, and contained a working monorail and a retractable roof allowing a helicopter to be flown into the space. It reportedly cost £350,000 (then $1 million) to create -- the same as the entire budget of "Dr. No."
Piz Gloria, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) -- Blofeld's mountain-top brainwashing facility is a strange intermingling of life and art. Location scout Hubert Fröhlich discovered an in-construction restaurant nearly 3,000 meters up Mount Schilthorn, Switzerland with spectacular 360-degree views and adaptable circular shape. The producers were so taken by it they helped finance the completion of the building to make it usable, including interior fixtures and fittings, and constructed a heliport. Crew descended on nearby town Mürren, and at one point reportedly had to helicopter in snow from a nearby glacier to cover the unseasonably bare mountain peak. Once filming completed the restaurant opened, but retained Fleming's name for Blofeld's retreat, Piz Gloria, along with many of the film set's fittings.
Willard Whyte's retreat, "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) -- Ken Adam returned along with Connery for "Diamonds Are Forever." However, one of its most impressive sets wasn't fabricated at all. Elrod House in Palm Springs was designed by architect James Lautner and built in 1968. Wrought of curved concrete and glass with distinctive triangular skylights in its domed living area, it looked straight out of the pages of science fiction. "This is as though I designed it," Adam is reported to have said. "I don't have to do anything."
In the film, Elrod House was the summer retreat of missing American billionaire Willard Whyte (owner of The Whyte House hotel in Las Vegas, no less). The house's living room was ideal for Bond's battering by gymnastic duo Bambi and Thumper before fates are reversed and he, er, water tortures them in the infinity pool.
In the film, Elrod House was the summer retreat of missing American billionaire Willard Whyte (owner of The Whyte House hotel in Las Vegas, no less). The house's living room was ideal for Bond's battering by gymnastic duo Bambi and Thumper before fates are reversed and he, er, water tortures them in the infinity pool.
Kanaga's underground lair, "Live And Let Die" (1973) -- Dr. Kanaga, otherwise known as Mr Big, was head of the government of fictional Caribbean island San Monique in Roger Moore's first outing as Bond. Kanaga's lair beneath a church cemetery sees the return of the shark-filled pool, which Bond and Kanaga wrestle in before Bond forces him to swallow a carbon dioxide cartridge, causing the drug trafficker to inflate up and out of the pool before exploding.
The Green Grotto Caves of Runaway Bay, Jamaica -- a popular tourist site -- were used for some shots, while the interiors of the lair (including the pool) were built at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
The Green Grotto Caves of Runaway Bay, Jamaica -- a popular tourist site -- were used for some shots, while the interiors of the lair (including the pool) were built at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
Scramanga's island, "The Man With The Golden Gun" (1974) -- Among the most evocative settings in the series, assassin Francisco Scaramanga's lair off the coast of China was filmed amid the limestone pillars of Phang Nga Bay, Thailand. Production designer Peter Murton suggested the location after seeing a travel poster, according to Simmonds.
Murton's interiors painted Scaramanga as a worldly man, with curios littering a living quarter dominated by a central chandelier. The lair had a more playful and sadistic side too. At the flip of a switch it became Scaramanga's Fun House, with perspective-warping doorways, hidden glass walls and a hall of mirrors (reminiscent of "Enter the Dragon" a year earlier) throwing off Bond in his pursuit of the assassin. But by mimicking one of Scaramanga's animatronic figures, Bond is able to get his man.
Murton's interiors painted Scaramanga as a worldly man, with curios littering a living quarter dominated by a central chandelier. The lair had a more playful and sadistic side too. At the flip of a switch it became Scaramanga's Fun House, with perspective-warping doorways, hidden glass walls and a hall of mirrors (reminiscent of "Enter the Dragon" a year earlier) throwing off Bond in his pursuit of the assassin. But by mimicking one of Scaramanga's animatronic figures, Bond is able to get his man.
Liparus, "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) -- Shipping magnate Karl Stromberg had villainous plans straight out of a Saturday serial: cause World War III, destroy civilization and resurrect it in the form of his own underwater kingdom. As you would expect, "The Spy Who Loved Me" spent a lot of time on or in water. Stromberg's supertanker Liparus hunted nuclear submarines and captured them in an enormous hanger. The interior space required was so large Adam convinced Eon Productions to build a new, gigantic hangar, what became The Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, at Pinewood Studios at a cost of $1.8 million.
Adam's imagination ran wilder still with Stromberg's floating retreat and laboratory Atlantis. With its curved form and four protruding limbs, it looked like a metallic sea creature or the fighting machines from "The War of the Worlds." A large-scale miniature was built for exterior shots, while interiors back at Pinewood featuring circular doors and corridors, with an underwater dining room made out like an Italian palazzo serving as an aesthetic counterpoint.
Adam's imagination ran wilder still with Stromberg's floating retreat and laboratory Atlantis. With its curved form and four protruding limbs, it looked like a metallic sea creature or the fighting machines from "The War of the Worlds." A large-scale miniature was built for exterior shots, while interiors back at Pinewood featuring circular doors and corridors, with an underwater dining room made out like an Italian palazzo serving as an aesthetic counterpoint.
Drax's jungle hideout, "Moonraker" (1979) -- No Bond film has quite stretched audiences' credulity like "Moonraker." Hugo Drax, aerospace tycoon and aesthete Noah, plans global eugenics by wiping out billions with chemical agents while harboring the start of a "perfect" (read: good looking) civilization aboard his space station.
The production brought in former NASA illustrator Harry Lange as space art director, while Adam, in his final foray in the Bond series, went all out. Exteriors for Drax's hideout in the Brazilian Amazon were filmed in Guatemala at Tikal, the ruins of an ancient Mayan city. (The UNESCO World Heritage Site also featured in "Star Wars.") Ambitious interiors included a vaulted control room coordinating Drax's Moonraker shuttles, a board room in the shuttle exhaust chamber, and a great reception chamber combining angular stone walls and natural rock, foliage and a waterfall. The last set, constructed in Paris, utilized fiberglass for the rocks and a giant chandelier centerpiece, commissioned from Venetian artisans Venini Glass Works, according to Simmonds.
Sets only became more ambitious once Bond was in space, where Lange, alongside Adam, flexed the same muscles he'd used to great effect in "2001: A Space Odyssey" in designing Drax's space station.
The production brought in former NASA illustrator Harry Lange as space art director, while Adam, in his final foray in the Bond series, went all out. Exteriors for Drax's hideout in the Brazilian Amazon were filmed in Guatemala at Tikal, the ruins of an ancient Mayan city. (The UNESCO World Heritage Site also featured in "Star Wars.") Ambitious interiors included a vaulted control room coordinating Drax's Moonraker shuttles, a board room in the shuttle exhaust chamber, and a great reception chamber combining angular stone walls and natural rock, foliage and a waterfall. The last set, constructed in Paris, utilized fiberglass for the rocks and a giant chandelier centerpiece, commissioned from Venetian artisans Venini Glass Works, according to Simmonds.
Sets only became more ambitious once Bond was in space, where Lange, alongside Adam, flexed the same muscles he'd used to great effect in "2001: A Space Odyssey" in designing Drax's space station.
St. Cyril's Monastry, "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) -- After saving the planet and a bit of zero gravity lovemaking, Bond -- and the franchise -- came back down to earth in "For Your Eyes Only." A smaller budget, fewer outlandish sets and a hard-boiled Cold War plot saw Greek smuggler and Soviet spy Aristotle Kristatos attempting to sell a missile command system.
Kristatos' eagle's nest of a lair, St. Cyril's, an abandoned monastery in Greece, was perched on top of an outcrop over 1,000 feet high and accessible via a basket on a cable. Wide shots were filmed at 14th Century monastery Agia Triada at Meteora in Greece, while soundstages at Pinewood were used for interiors. A monastery set was also built on another rock for tighter shots, after a well-publicized spat between the production and local monks led to the latter protesting by hanging signs and laundry over the monastery, write John Cork and Bruce Scivally in "James Bond: The Legacy."
Kristatos' eagle's nest of a lair, St. Cyril's, an abandoned monastery in Greece, was perched on top of an outcrop over 1,000 feet high and accessible via a basket on a cable. Wide shots were filmed at 14th Century monastery Agia Triada at Meteora in Greece, while soundstages at Pinewood were used for interiors. A monastery set was also built on another rock for tighter shots, after a well-publicized spat between the production and local monks led to the latter protesting by hanging signs and laundry over the monastery, write John Cork and Bruce Scivally in "James Bond: The Legacy."
Khan's palace, "Octopussy" (1983) -- India's debut into the Bond series was spectacular, utilizing architectural gems in Udaipur, including the Shiv Niwas Palace Hotel as Octopussy's island palace. Looming over the same city in Rajasthan state is the Monsoon Palace, built in 1884 and once a royal hunting lodge with panoramic views from its jharokha balconies. In "Octopussy," the marble palace became the hilltop retreat of Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince with Soviet ties, expensive tastes and plans for a nuclear attack on Europe. Production designer Peter Lamont's equally detailed palace interiors were constructed back at Pinewood.
Zorin's blimp, "A View To A Kill" (1985) -- A product of Nazi death camp experiments, Max Zorin was literally an evil genius, bent on causing an earthquake along the San Andreas fault and flooding Silicon Valley. His airship conjured memories of the Hindenburg in all its hubris, with "Zorin Industries" emblazoned meters high on its side. The Skyship 500 blimp used in the production had been part of the 1984 Olympic Games opening ceremony in Los Angeles, according to author Damien Buckland, while Cork and Scivally write the green, red and white color scheme was used with permission of the Fuji Corporation so long shots of the real FujiFilm blimp flying over San Francisco could be used.
The ship's unflashy and frankly larger than life boardroom was built at Pinewood. Lamont's sets included a staircase that became an ejector slide at the flip of a switch -- an efficient way for Grace Jones' May Day to dispose of naysayers.
The ship's unflashy and frankly larger than life boardroom was built at Pinewood. Lamont's sets included a staircase that became an ejector slide at the flip of a switch -- an efficient way for Grace Jones' May Day to dispose of naysayers.
Brad Whitaker's Moroccan villa, "The Living Daylights" (1987) -- "Quirky" doesn't begin to cover arms dealer Brad Whitaker. Exteriors for his villa were filmed at the then Forbes Museum in Tangier, Morocco, founded by magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes and containing some 60,000 toy soldiers big and small in its heyday (the collection was partly broken up in the 1990s). "The Living Daylights" shot the interiors back at Pinewood, but Lamont brought some of the museum's soul back to the UK, constructing a historical wargames room and filling out a hallway with waxworks of military commanders including Hitler, Genghis Khan and Julius Caesar, who all, curiously, had Whitaker's face. But all that military history turns out to be war-loving Brad's downfall. Bond sets off an explosive, crushing Whittaker between a bust and a glass display case. "He met his Waterloo," indeed.
Sanchez's cocaine factory, "Licence to Kill" (1989) -- Drug lord Franz Sanchez liked to keep work and business separate with both a villa and the obligatory underground lair. The beachfront house used in the film was Villa Arabesque, the extravagant Acapulco home which belonged to Enrico di Portanova, grandson of Texas oil tycoon Hugh Roy Cullen. With a helipad, guard tower and underwater-themed Poseidon Discotheque (capacity: 200), there was little need to embellish this white-stuccoed party palace.
On a more imposing note, Sanchez's lair dwelt below the Olympatec Meditation Institute, a televangelist cult and front for Sanchez's cocaine processing hub. Doubling as the institute was the monumental Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya, Mexico, established in 1980 as a place for the Otomi indigenous people to continue cultural practises. The real center may be covered in religious sculpture and iconography, but Bond doesn't seem to care: once his cover in blown, 007 torches the institute along with the drug stash.
On a more imposing note, Sanchez's lair dwelt below the Olympatec Meditation Institute, a televangelist cult and front for Sanchez's cocaine processing hub. Doubling as the institute was the monumental Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya, Mexico, established in 1980 as a place for the Otomi indigenous people to continue cultural practises. The real center may be covered in religious sculpture and iconography, but Bond doesn't seem to care: once his cover in blown, 007 torches the institute along with the drug stash.
Alec Trevelyan's Cuban satellite facility, "Goldeneye" (1995) -- The dawn of the Pierce Brosnan era kicked off in spectacular fashion, with Bond stuntman Wayne Michaels bungee jumping off the 720-foot Contra Dam in Switzerland in the pre-credits sequence. Bookending the film was another mega-structure in the form of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, standing in for villain Alec Trevelyan's Cuban satellite facility. We'd already seen one of Trevelyan's abodes in the form of his armored train (in reality, an old British Railways locomotive dressed up by Peter Lamont) but Arecibo was the real star. The 1,000 foot-wide, 167 foot-deep dish was completed in 1963, and before its demise in 2020 was covered with some 40,000 aluminum panels, helping it listen to outer space. Or if you're Bond, it's a hard surface to drop Trevelyan on to from a great height.
Carver's stealth ship, "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) -- A media mogul who got into the menacing superyacht game long before Logan Roy and the "Solandge," Elliot Carver's stealth ship was as angular as it was undetectable, and could launch a torpedo capable of chewing through other boats. Sketches by concept illustrator Dominic Lavery show the evolution of the ship from a recognizable, albeit highly contemporary yacht towards a vessel that looked a lot like the Sea Shadow (IX-529), a US DARPA prototype from the 1980s. One major difference was size: Carver's vessel was much bigger. A large-scale miniature was used for exterior shots, while production designer Allan Cameron created a full-scale interior set on the 007 Stage at Pinewood, with all the gangways and staircases a third-act shootout could possibly hope for.