Range Rover - the car of choice for the villain

A View to a Kill 

First generation Range Rover - 1983 year model in A view to a kill

Range Rover has played a rather significant part in the later half of the Bond series. Bond has not only himself been seen behind the wheel of Range Rovers (in Octopussy, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) but Range Rover has been the car of choice for several of the villains in the series. Range Rovers have been useful to the villains' henchmen in not less than six films.

The tradition started with Max Zorin, played by Christopher Walken, in A View to a Kill 1985. After having disposed of Bond and his car in the lake near Zorin's chateau outside Paris, Zorin and May Day are picked up by Zorin's men. In the film, the Range Rover that was used is the first generation Range Rover from 1983. This first generation model was produced between 1970 and 1996.

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Tomorrow Never Dies



In Tomorrow, Carver sends his men after Bond and Wai Lin, after they both have jumped off his skyscraper in Saigon and escaped on a BMW motorcycle. The chase, with the spectacular motorcycle jump over Carver's helicopter in the finale, supposedly set in Vietnam was actually filmed in Bangkok.

Carver's Range Rover cars feature rather prominently in the film, and consequently this was the second time in the Bond series that the villain had purchased Range Rovers for his henchmen. The assassin in The Living Daylights, who is driving a Land Rover down the rock of Gibraltar does not count as that Land Rover is stolen from the British Army.

Second generation Range Rover - 1995 year model in Tomorrow Never Dies

The Range Rovers chase Bond and Wai Lin through the streets of Saigon crashing into almost everything. This second generation Range Rover was produced between 1994 and 2002 and was replaced by the model seen in Die Another Day.

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Die Another Day

Third generation Range Rover - model year 2002 in Die Another Day

When Gustav Graves is being knighted in Die Another Day he is being picked up by his men outside Buckingham Palace in two Range Rover cars of the third generation. The cars are only briefly seen in this scene and Graves is only seen driven off, supposedly through the gates of Buckingham, but the cars can also be seen parked in Iceland later in the film.

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Casino Royale
This model was seen again in Casino Royale when Le Chiffre's men are driving a Range Rover Series III from 2005 alongside the Jaguar in Montenegro, parked in the picture below.

Earlier in Casino Royale three Land Rover Defenders model 110 from 2005 are also used by Le Chiffre while he is in Mbale in Africa.

The third generation Range Rover was introduced in 2002 and was produced for ten years. This model was also driven by Bond in Bolivia in Quantum of Solace.

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Skyfall
Silva's henchmen in Skyfall have chosen a Range Rover Police car in London, before driving to the inquiry M is attending. The car is a 2011 Land Rover Discovery of the fourth generation. A Land Rover Defender Pick Up was also driven by Eve in the pre-title sequence.

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Spectre
In Spectre, Hinx and his henchmen are kidnapping Dr Swan in the Austrian alps. The henchmen are driving off in two Land Rover Defenders Big Foot and Hinx is riding in a Range Rover of the fourth generation. The model is a Range Rover Sport SVR from 2015. Both models have been customized for an alpine drive. Blofeld himself keeps two Mercedes-Benz AMG models in the Moroccan desert.

The fourth generation Range Rover was introduced in 2012 and is still being produced.

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Goldfinger

A bit off topic, but even Goldfinger had a Land Rover in Goldfinger 1964, as a 1958 Land Rover is seen parked on the premises of Goldfinger's factory in Switzerland. 

The James Bond references in Spectre - part 2

In Spectre, the previous Bond films are referenced in more or less conspicuous ways. The references to the first eight films were covered in a previous post and below I list the references to the next eight films: The Man With the Golden Gun trough Licence to Kill.

The Man With the Golden Gun
In the finale of Spectre, Blofeld has decorated the abandoned Mi6 building with pictures of people from Bond's past, such as Vesper, M and the villains Le Chiffre, Silva and Mr White. Blofeld lures Bond through the corridors of Mi6 and tricks him to shoot at flipping targets, similar to how Nick-Nack and Scaramanga lures Bond through Scaramanga's fun house in The Man With the Golden Gun.

The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974

Even the pattern of the dynamite wires that are covering the ceiling of the entire Mi6 building is slightly reminiscent of the interior design in Scaramanga's fun house. This of course might be a coincidence.

The dynamite wires stretched across Mi6 before the demolition

Scaramanga's fun house in 1974

However, the helicopter stunt from the pre-title sequence in Spectre resembles the famous car stunt from The Man With the Golden Gun, although this roll stunt has never been done with a helicopter in a Bond film before. 

The Spy Who Loved Me
Spectre references The Spy Who Loved Me during the plane/car chase in the Austrian alps. During the chase, Bond flies his plane alongside the car convoy and waves at Hinx travelling in the Range Rover with Madeleine Swan.

A similar scene occurs during the car chase in The Spy Who Loved me when Bond and Major Amasova are driving around in Sardinia. As Naomi chases Bond and agent triple X with a helicopter, she flies up alongside Bond's Lotus and at one point waves at him. Contrary to this film however, in Spectre, Bond is the one flying the aircraft and waves back at the henchman.

The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977

The big fight between Bond and Hinx aboard the Moroccan train could very well be a reference to the train fight between Bond and Donald Grant in From Russia With Love or the fight between Bond and TeeHee in Live and Let Die. But it might also be a reference to the fight between Bond and Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me. Some has suggested that the big barrels, which Bond kicks off the train and ultimately uses to throw Hinx off, might be a reference to the 1975 movie Jaws where big barrels are used to force the big shark up to the surface. Very far-fetched, but still funny.

The fight ends with Bond throwing Hinx off the train, by attaching him to some heavy barrels and kicking them overboard. In The Spy Who Loved Me, Jaws pretty much goes the same way, when Bond kicks him through the window.

Moonraker
The Dia de Muertos parade in Mexico city in the pre-title sequence of Spectre can be considered as an homage to the carnival in Rio, visited by Bond in Moonraker. It is of course also reminiscent of the Jankanoo parade in Thunderball and the Jazz funerals in Live and Let Die.

Mexico City 

Rio de Janeiro 1979

Blofeld's lair in the Moroccan desert is reminiscent of Drax's secret control room in Moonraker. 

During the car chase in Rome, Bond uses a new feature in his Aston Martin in order to escape from Hinx and not ending up in the river Tiber, namely an ejector seat with a parachute. Unlike the ejector seats installed in Bond's previous Aston Martins, this one is located in the driver seat. Bond ejects himself moments before the car crashes into the river and afterwords he lands on the adjacent street. Similarly during the boat chase in Moonraker Bond manages to escape from both Jaws and the largest waterfall in Brasil with a built-in para glider in Q's boat, before landing/crashing in the Brazilian jungle.

For Your Eyes Only 

In the pre-title sequence of both For Your Eyes Only and Spectre Bond is hanging outside of a helicopter, trying to get in control of the aircraft.

In addition, Blofeld's helicopters in both Spectre and For Your Eyes Only fly past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in a similar view.

Furthermore, another For Your Eyes Only reference is the name 'Hildebrand' that appears on the door to the Mi6 safe house in Spectre. Hildebrand is the cover name on a shop in London, selling "prints and rarities", but in reality functioning as a safe house. The title 'The Hildebrand Rarity' is a short story written by Ian Fleming that is included in the book 'For Your Eyes Only' which was published in 1960.

Octopussy
As far as I have made out, there are no obvious visual references to Octopussy (apart from the giant Octopus symbolising the organisation SPECTRE) but a few things from the plot can be considered as similar. For instance, the fathers of both Octopussy and Madeleine Swan kill themselves after a visit from 007.

Furthermore, Kamal Khan, just as several other villains before him, travels around in a Rolls Royce, which might be referenced through the fact that Blofeld also owns a Rolls, that picks up Bond from the desert.

Bond watches Kamal arrive in Octopussy

Bond and Swan arriving to Blofeld's lair in Spectre

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A View to a Kill

A View is one of the few films that has no obvious references. If anyone has found anything, please leave a comment below.

The Living Daylights
The fact that Bond visits Tangier in Spectre is a reference to The Living Daylights which also used Tangier as a location.

Tangier in 2015

Tangier in 1987

Furthermore, Bond's outfit in Spectre, a tan suede Jacket and a navy polo shirt is probably inspired by Bond's outfit from 1987, when he visited the city in the guise of Timothy Dalton. Dalton wore a beige blouson and chinos together with a dark blue knit shirt.

Licence to Kill

The reuse of locations from earlier films was also apparent in the pre-title sequence of Spectre when Bond and Estrella takes the elevator up to her hotel room, from where Bond later jumps out the window. This elevator was seen in Licence to Kill when it was located in Bond's hotel, 'Hotel El Presidente'. 

In Licence to Kill Bond and Pam takes the elevator up to Bond's suite where Q is waiting.

In the same film, Q is on vacation and turns up to assist Bond in the field. The same thing happens in Spectre when Q turns up at the Hoffler clinic in Austria.

James Bond Locations will return with the final references in Spectre.