Sunday 2 August 2015

GOLDENEYE 20 - The Locations


Get your passports ready, Bond fans, because in August we're going to virtually travel to all the spots 007 visited twenty years ago in GOLDENEYE. Be sure to follow us in our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram  as well as the #goldeneye20 and #GElocations hashtag.

The production headquarters was based at the Leavesden studios in England, a place that formerly was a Rolls Royce factory. This location was used for many interiors like the Soviet nerve plant gas 006 and 007 infiltrate, as well as the MI6 office, the Severnaya Control Centre and Janus' base in Cuba.


The film's opening bungee jump was performed at the Verzasca Dam in Lorcano, Switzerland.


The Swiss Alps doubled for the cliff in Arkhangelsk where the secret agent risks his life catching a plane in mid air right after he jumps with his Cagiva bike, in a stunt performed by Jacques "Zoo" Malnuit and veteran B J Worth. 

Action then moved to Monte Carlo, where James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 races against Xenia Onatopp's Ferrari 355 trough the Corniche at les Grègolieres les Neiges and later arrives to the Casino de Monaco wearing his trademark Brioni tuxedo. The scene where he observes Xenia leaving with Admiral Farrel was shot at Monaco-Ville, also known as "Le Rocher" or "The Rock".



In GOLDENEYE, the real life British Secret Service headquarters were used as an exterior location for the first time in a 007 film. Located in Vauxhall Cross, London, the MI6 building was also featured in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DIE ANOTHER DAY, SKYFALL and the upcoming SPECTRE.

Somerset House in the central London doubled for some shots of St Petersbourg, Russia, where James Bond meets his CIA contact Jack Wade. The shot of 007 arriving to the city's airport was shot at the Epson Race Course, also located in the UK.



Welcoming a new era of "détente", GOLDENEYE was the first film to be shot in Russia. While many of the shots of the tank chase through St Petersbourg scene were recreated in Great Britain, the film's production was allowed to shoot part of the chase over the bridges crossing the Moika canal.




Nene Valley railway in Peterborough, where Roger Moore shot scenes for OCTOPUSSY twelve years later, served as a location for the shots of Trevelyan's Missle Train.


Puerto Rico was prominently featured in the film's climax: Los Tortugueros beach served as a location for Bond's romantic encounter with Natalya Simonova, while the Arecibo Radio Transmitter posed as the enormous Antenna used by Janus to control the GoldenEye satelites.

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