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. 

Bond references in Spectre - part 3

In Spectre, almost all the previous Bond films are referenced in more or less conspicuous ways. The references to the first sixteen films have been covered in two previous posts, here and here, and below I list the references to the last seven films in the series, GoldenEye trough Skyfall.

GoldenEye

Pevsner Commerzbank, GmbH

In Spectre, Q is staying at a hotel called 'The Pevsner' in the Austrian alps. Bond and Dr Swan are meeting Q in room 12. The reference to Pevsner was previously made in GoldenEye when a bank called Pevsner Commerzbank was seen on one of Alec Trevelyan's computers. Pevsner is a name that is well connected to the Bond series. Tom Pevsner worked as an associate and then executive producer on every James Bond film from For Your Eyes Only to GoldenEye. He died in 2014.

Q is staying at The Pevsner, room 12

Further, in GoldenEye, Bond changes the timer from six minutes to three during the pre-title sequence when 006 is captured by the Russians. As a favor later in the film, Alec gives Bond three minutes to escape from the missile train before it explodes.

Just as in GoldenEye, Blofeld gives Bond three minutes in Spectre to find Dr Swan and escape from Mi6 before it explodes.

Tomorrow Never Dies 

I have not yet found any obvious references to Tomorrow in Spectre, other than the fact that Monica Belluci originally was considered for the role of Paris Carver, but was turned down by the producers, called "those fools", by Brosnan.

The World is Not Enough 

The Worlds is Not Enough is referenced on several occasions in Spectre, I list two below. 

When Bond is trying to kill Renard he is protected by bullet proof glass in the elevator in The World is Not Enough.  

In the same way, Bond is trying to shoot Blofeld but the bullet is stopped as Blofeld is hiding behind bullet proof glass.

A boat chase on the Thames, past the Houses of Parliament, is not something new to the Bond series either. Already in 1999, in The World is Not Enough, we saw Bond riding down the Thames in Q's boat in pursuit of the Cigar girl, similar to the scene in Spectre. 

Bond chasing the 'Cigar girl' in The World is Not Enough

Die Another Day

There are no obvious references to Die Another Day in Spectre other than the fact that Die Another Day, as the 40th anniversary film, also referenced the previous Bond films. 

Casino Royale 

Obviously, all the Craig Bond films are more or less referenced as Spectre shows that Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall are threaded more closely together than suspected. Images of familiar faces like Vepser Lynd, Silva and Le Chiffre pop up at Mi6. However, a few conspicuous references can also be spotted. 

In the pre-title sequence of Casino Royale Bond is waiting for the section chief in Prague, Dryden, to assassinate him as part of becoming a 00 agent. When Dryden tries to shoot Bond first, Bond has removed the clip from the gun. 

The bullet-removal bluff is repeated in Spectre when M is facing C. 

Another reference is the smart blood injected by Q in Bond's arm. This scene in Spectre is practically identical to the scene in Casino Royale where M has a microchip implanted in Bond's arm.

Quantum of Solace

Just as in Quantum of Solace, we find Bond in yet another boat chase in Spectre, this time also involving the leading lady who also is given the wheel. 

Skyfall

M's death in Skyfall is referenced in Spectre with her making a cameo from the grave, in a prerecorded message to Bond, giving him one final assignment - to kill Sciarra. Jack the bulldog, M's desk ornament which ultimately is left to Bond in M's will, also make a reappearance in Spectre when it is seen in Bond's living room on the table. This reference was known already before the release of the film as the first teaser picture released by the filmmakers was a picture of Jack and a movie clapper stating the shooting of the very first take in the film.

La Clinica Alvarez - part three

In Die Another Day, Bond infiltrates the Alvarez clinic on the Island of Los Organos in Cuba. Bond finds Zao inside the clinic but he escapes through Dr. Alvarez's office window just before Jinx's telephone bomb explodes and blocks the window for Bond to get after him.

La Clinica Alvarez was constructed at the old fort Castillo de San Sebastián which is located in Cádiz, in the most western part of Spain. "Alvarez's office" is located in the most north western corner of the fortress. This appeared to be an empty part of the fortress during the renovation in 2014.

The window is supposedly located in Dr. Alvarez' office although the interior naturally was shot in studio created by production designer Peter Lamont. In 2014 the fortress was undergoing some kind of large renovation with a few of the buildings closed or not in use. The big cannons located on the wall where jinx later dives into the water had been removed and the entire fortress is hopelessly changed and has been given a brush-up since 2002 and the filming of Die Another Day.

As Zao jumps out the window he lands on the courtyard and runs for the helicopter where, for some reason, his men are waiting. On the rooftops above Dr. Alvarez office, seen in the picture below, is the location where Jinx ultimately dives into the water in order to escape the Cuban guards.

The Castillo de San Sebastian is the least interesting location in the city of Cádiz, where all the Cuban scenes were filmed. Cádiz is however, a wonderful city and definitely a must visit for any Bond aficionado. 

The Gran Palacio beach bar - part 1

In Die Another Day Bond checks into El Grand Palacio Hotel on the fictitious island Los Organos. Bond, posing as an ornithologist, orders a Mojito as he observes Jink and La Clinica Alvarez. Through the bar you see a fort, Castillo de Santa Catalina, in the background. This is however not the same fort that served as La Clinica Alvarez, but both forts are located on either side of this beach and are visible from the bar. The bar was constructed for the film and is sadly, as non-existent as Bond's hotel (which is a maritime centre in reality).

Castillo de Santa Catalina

The bar was built in front of the maritime centre, Centro de Arqueología Subacuática de Andalucía covered earlier, that doubled for Bond's hotel in the film. La Castillo de Santa Catalina is a 16th century fort, situated on the right side of Playa La Caleta, the beach which is the location of Bond's hotel. This beach is located in the heart of Cádiz and packed with people during the weekends. If you want to visit this location in peace, it is a good idea to get there early (before 10 am) or late in the evening.

The dialogue between Bond and Jinx is extremely poor in this scene and sometimes even painful to watch. Halle Berry's acting is perhaps one of the bigger jokes, among quite a few, in this film. She clearly did not earn her Oscar for her portrayal of Jinx... With that said, the Cuban scenes, especially the scenes with Raoul, are among the highlights of the film, and Cádiz is spectacular as a Bond location.