The World of James Bond

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Did you expect me to talk? No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die! 007 never dies though. He keeps on perambulating the world and in the most incredible places

Location

United States
US

The Jag Niwas palace

Location

Udaipur
India
24° 34' 31.764" N, 73° 40' 48.324" E
IN

The Jag Niwas palace in the middle of the Pichola lake in Udaipur is a big beauty. This luxury lake palace was featured in the old Bond classic Octopussy in 1983.
In the movie, the palace island is the kingdom of mystical Octopussy. Octopussy (Maud Adams), is a wealthy woman who leads the Octopus cult and is the head of a circus troupe touring around the world. Bond uses clever crocodile camouflaged submarine to sneak in to the palace and finds out how the palace and the circus are used in a big smuggling operation. Priceless Soviet treasures are being replaced with replicas, and the real versions are smuggled to the West via Octopussy's circus troupe without her knowing.

Ko Khao Phing Kan/Ko Tapu

Location

Phang Nga Bay
Thailand
8° 16' 31.476" N, 98° 30' 1.944" E
TH

Before being chosen as location for the 1974 Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun Ko Khao Phing Kan was a rarely visited indigenous area. After the movie release it turned into a popular tourist destination and it is popularly called James Bond Island.

In the movie the islands were the hideouts for Bond's antagonist, Francisco Scaramanga. Koh Khao Phing Kan in Phang-Nga Bay was the bad guy’s base and cone-shaped Koh Tapu was where he hid what we would call today a ‘weapon of mass destruction’.

Schilthorn

Location

Mürren
Switzerland
46° 33' 25.92" N, 7° 50' 6.756" E
CH

This revolving panoramic restaurant, Piz Gloria, was the setting for many of the scenes in the 1969 James Bond 007 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Piz Gloria is located on top of Schilthorn, a 2,970 metre high summit in the Bernese Oberland. In the film the building was Blofeld's clinical research institute, and Bond spends some time there, eventually destroying the whole place. In real life though, the Bond production team actually helped financing the completion of the unique revolving restaurant and the helicopter landing platform.

Hotel Cipriani, Venice

Location

Venice
Italy
45° 25' 37.128" N, 12° 20' 28.464" E
IT

It’s not a wonder why one of the world’s most picturesque tourist destinations Venice has been chosen as the setting for several Bond films. Films such as Casino Royale, From Russia With Love, and Moonraker, had all major scenes shot in Venice.

During filming of Casino Royale Daniel Graig stayed in Hotel Cipriani in a private location on an island opposite St. Mark's Square. The hotel is also featured in the movie Casino Royale when Bond moors his yacht at Hotel Cipriani while making plans with Vespa to get supplies before their escape. A fast-paced chase leads the pair all through the city, into disused buildings and into the waters of Venice.

Cable Car to Sugar Loaf Mountain

Location

Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
22° 57' 1.692" S, 43° 9' 37.296" W
BR

In the film Moonraker Bond meets Dr. Holly Goodhead at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. As they travel down, Jaws stops the cables and takes the other cable car down to attack Bond. Bond battles it out with metal-mouth Jaws atop two cable-cars strung high above Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay. Bond then knocks out Jaws before sliding down the cable with astrophysicist Bond girl Holly Goodhead, played by Lois Chiles. Jaws recovers and tries to chase down Bond with the cable car but ends up destructively crashing to the station.

The cable car has been updated from the one displayed in the 1979 film however.

Metéora Monasteries

Location

Thessaly
Greece
39° 42' 47.7" N, 21° 38' 8.268" E
GR

Metéora consists of six monasteries, all built on sandstone rock pillars and it is one of the largest and most important monasteries in Greece. The monasteries are all built between the 14th and mid 16th century.

In the Bond movie “For your eyes only” the monastery acts as a hiding place for Kristatos who has disappeared with the A.T.A.C. transmitter to sell it to the Russians. Bonds friend Columbo takes Bond to the Greek mainland and this ''abandoned'' monastery called S:t Cyrils. Bond makes a dramatic climb up the cliff to get the transmitter and sends it back to Columbo in a basket.

Contra Dam

Location

Tocino
Switzerland
46° 11' 47.76" N, 8° 50' 53.556" E
CH

The spectacular opening of Goldeneye: James Bond jumps on a bungee cord along the wall of a giant dam. 7.5 seconds free fall, 220 altitude meters, parallel to the impressive dam. As he reaches the bottom he won’t bounce up but shoots an arrow to attach himself to the bottom to escape from the scene.

Jökulsárlón

Location

Hofn
Iceland
64° 4' 13.0008" N, 16° 12' 42.0012" W
IS

The picturesque scene of the Jökulsárlón lagoon and the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier have been part of the James Bond films A View to a Kill (1985) and Die Another Day (2002). In “Die Another Day” The frozen Jökulsárlón worked as a spectacular setting for the remarkable car chase between Bonds Aston Martin Vanquish V12, Zaos Jaguar XKR. Bond's gadget-tastic car first sped away from assassins on skidoos and then from Zaos Jaguar.