100 pieces of James Bond trivia

Posted Filed under

To celebrate the release of the 24th official James Bond film, Spectre, here are 100 things you might not know about the world’s longest-running movie franchise…

 

76. During the making of Tomorrow Never Dies, fifteen BMW 750’s were destroyed.

77. The Bond producers considered launching a film series based on the Tomorrow Never Dies character Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh.

78. Much of the interior filming of Tomorrow Never Dies was shot in a converted Asda warehouse, as the producers couldn’t find studio space.

79. “The World Is Not Enough”, “Orbis non sufficit” in Latin, was revealed as the motto of the Bond family in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

80. The World Is Not Enough‘s opening boat chase sequence took seven weeks to shoot, using 35 boats.

81. In the Scottish MI6 Headquarters castle in The World Is Not Enough, a portrait of original M actor Bernard Lee can be seen hanging behind the current M’s desk.

82. In Zukovsky’s operations room in The World Is Not Enough, the girlie pictures seen on the walls are actually of former Bond girls.

Tomorrow Never Dies Michelle Yeoh

83. The scene in The World Is Not Enough where Zukovsky falls into a pool of caviar was filmed on actor Robbie Coltrane’s birthday.

84. The World Is Not Enough is the first Bond movie where the main villain is a woman.

85. Die Another Day is the first Bond movie in which Bond has a beard.

86. A sequel to Die Another Day was planned, featuring Halle Berry’s character Jinx, but the film was never made.

87. Die Another Day set a new record for merchandising, with $120 million worth product placement and tie-ins deals.

88. Casino Royale is the third Bond movie in which James Bond resigns.

89. Daniel Craig is the first actor to play James Bond who is younger than the series itself.

90. The Casino Royale scene at the Body Worlds exhibit is the first time that actual corpses are shown on screen in a Bond movie.

91. Casino Royale‘s car barrel-roll stunt by the Aston Martin DBS broke the world record for the most barrel rolls assisted by a cannon, completing seven full rolls.

Casino Royale James Bond Daniel Craig

92. In the Casino Royale novel, Vesper commits suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.

93. Casino Royale‘s Le Chiffre is the first major Bond villain to be killed by his own people.

94. A stuntman driving Bond’s Aston Martin to the Quantum Of Solace set lost control of the car and ended up in Northern Italy’s Lago di Garda, totaling the £120,000 car.

95. The theme song for Quantum Of Solace is the first Bond theme to be sung as a duet. ‘Another Way To Die’ is sung by Jack White and Alicia Keys.

96. M’s house in Skyfall is the former home of Bond composer John Barry.

97. 85 copies of Bond’s Tom Ford suit were made available to Daniel Craig for the opening sequence of Skyfall.

98. Judi Dench in on screen for longer in Skyfall alone than Desmond Llewelyn was on screen for in all 17 of his films as Q.

99. Ian Flemming got the name James Bond from the author of a book, ‘Birds Of The West Indies’.

100. The first ever actor to play James Bond on screen was actually an American, Barry Nelson, in a 1954 TV version of Casino Royale.

 

> Buy the complete James Bond collection on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Which Bond movie is your favourite? Let us know below…