The Shanghai Skyscraper - Broadgate Tower, London

In Skyfall Bond tracks down the assassin Patrice who has stolen the secret hard drive and escaped in Istanbul. In the film, very little is known about Patrice, but thanks to intelligence from the CIA, Mi6 learns that Patrice will turn up in Shanghai in two days time. Patrice is apparently going to carry out an assassination from a skyscraper in that city.

When Patrice arrives at the Shanghai Pudong Airport he takes a taxi downtown, followed by Bond dressed up as a private chauffeur. Even though some car scenes were filmed in Shanghai, none of the principal cast were ever on location in red China. Rather surprisingly, this location can be found in central London, namely 20 Primrose Street.

For the exterior shots of the Shanghai skyscraper, the filmmakers used Broadgate Tower, located in the main business district in the City of London. Next to Broadgate, two other skyscrapers were added digitally in the film to make it look more like the densely built city of Shanghai. With its 165 meters, Broadgate is the 12th tallest building in London. It was constructed between 2005 and 2009. The interior scenes from Shanghai airport were actually also filmed in England, at another old Bond location, namely the Royal Ascot racecourse which Bond visited in A View to a Kill. Skyfall is thereby the second film in the Bond series where a racecourse has doubled as an airport. In GoldenEye, the exterior of St Petersburg airport was filmed at Epsom Racecourse in Surrey.

Bond follows Patrice into the building and finds a dead guard after walking up some escalators. These escalators can also be found on location inside the building and are accessible from the lobby.

The elevator where Patrice enters and Bond "hangs on" was re-constructed by the filmmakers and cannot be found on location. The rest of the interior scenes in the skyscraper were also shot in studio.

Among the more notable tenants of Broadgate Tower you find reputable law firm Reed Smith LLP. Many thanks to my esteemed colleague on secondment at Reed Smith, senior associate Bità Pourmotamed, for valuable information and the pictures.

The Persuaders! - Bromma Airport, Stockholm

In the 19th episode of The Persuaders! called "The Morning After", Brett wakes up in his suite at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, covered earlier. He discovers that he has married a woman during what appears to have been a very wet previous night. When Brett takes a flight back to London, he leaves Stockholm from Bromma Airport, Stockholm's city airport.

Bromma Airport is located only 7 kilometers from the city centre and is closest to the city compared to all the other commercial airports in Stockholm. It was opened in 1936, by King Gustav V, when Stockholm urgently needed a proper airport and it was the first airport in Europe to have paved runways from the start. During World War II Swedish and British aircraft flew to the United Kingdom from Bromma Airport.

Bromma Airport around 1972

Bromma Airport in 2018

However the runway of Bromma was too short for the jet age and for intercontinental traffic in the 1960's (e.g. DC-8), and the capacity limit of Bromma could be foreseen. Therefore Stockholm Arlanda Airport was built. The flight between Stockholm and London in 1972, at the time of filming of The Persuaders! would most likely have taken off from Arlanda. Even though there are several international flights from Bromma today, there are no flights to London.

It is unlikely that any of the principle cast ever were in Stockholm for the filming, since neither Sir Roger nor Curtis are seen outdoors. The interior scenes in the episode were most likely shot in Pinewood with a back projection from various Stockholm locations. Interestingly enough, the back projection from the airport shows airplane hangars from Stockholm's largest airport, Arlanda instead of Bromma. A DC-9 airplane from Scandinavian Airlines is briefly seen in the background.

We do not learn which airline Lord Brett is using, although a billboard from SAS is visible in the terminal in one scene as well as the DC-9 from SAS.

The old terminal building in 2018

At present there is a political campaign run by the environmental party, presently in power, to close down the airport, although there is a strong resistance against it. Hopefully the airport will remain open for many many years to come, because where else would Lord Sinclair land the next time?

Gibraltar car chase - Charles V Wall

During the car chase in the pre-title sequence of The Living Daylights, an assassin escapes in a Land Rover. While driving down the rock of Gibraltar, the car passes a few famous Gibraltar locations. Early on in the chase, the Land Rover drives through an opening in Charles V Wall. Charles V Wall is a defensive wall built in the 16th century that extends from the South Bastion (lover part of the rock) to the top of the rock, right in the middle between the north and the south top.

The Land Rover is coming down Charles Vth's Road when it drives through the opening in the wall. This road runs just below Queen's Road and intersects with Signal Station Road further down the rock.  

One of the British guards opens fire on the Land Rover and a crate with explosives catches fire. It falls off the car just before it explodes. The box explodes right by another part of Charles V's Wall, this time at the top of the rock. This scene was filmed closed to Douglas Path.

This part of the defensive wall can be found along St Michael Road, near the southern top and is today a feeding place for the apes. It was being renovated at the time of our visit but the location is unmistakable. If you walk in the southern direction from here you will end up at Douglas Path which ultimately leads to the Moorish Outpost, covered earlier.

The entire car chase is cleverly edited to make it seem like it is going down the rock, but in reality, the car is filmed in both upper and lover parts of the rock, as well as on the north and the south top. The part where the ammunition crate explodes is filmed very close to the southern top.

This wall was was actually built in 1540 and strengthened in 1552 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and is a well known tourist location in Gibraltar.

The Persuaders! - Rome

As we are getting ready to finally see Rome as a new Bond location in Spectre, it has naturally been used rather extensively as a filming location throughout the decades. Rome was for instance the location for Lord Sinclair and Danny Wilde in an episode of The Persuaders!. In the 17th episode, called 'Five Miles to Midnight', Danny and Brett are sent to Rome to help judge Fulton to smuggle an American mobster out of Italy. As per usual, most of the scenes were shot in Pinewood, but a few establishing shots over Rome were filmed on location.

The episode starts off with a panoramic view over Piazza del Popolo, a large oval square in the northern part of central Rome. You have the best view over the square from one of the viewpoints in the garden of Villa Borghese, for instance near Piazza Bucarest. Piazza del Popolo is an odd choice for an establishing shot, since it is perhaps not the most characteristic place in Rome, even though St. Peter's Church is visible in the far background.

After the title sequence Brett is driving his Aston Martin around town and few famous sights are featured.

Brett makes his entrance in the episode in front of Altare della Patria, (Altar of the fatherland), also known as the national monument to Victor Emmanuel II. He arrives on the Via dei fori Imperiali and drives across Piazza Venezia, which is the big square right in front of the monument and Rome's answer to Trafalgar Square. Built in honour of Victor Emmanuel who was the first king of unified Italy, the monument was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1925.

Very briefly seen in the background behind Lord Sinclair is the imposing Palazzo Venezia which also faces the big square. This is a Renaissance palace built in the 15th century by Pope Paul II. The palace is perhaps most known for being the place from where Mussolini harangued the Italian masses during the fascist era. Il Duce declared war against Britain and France on 10 June 1940 from the stone balcony seen in the two pictures below. The balcony connects with the Mussolini’s old office.

Having the most British of all Lords driving his Aston Martin past the balcony where Italy, 30 years earlier, had declared war on England was perhaps a cheeky hint to Il Duce. The palazzo today houses a museum.

Funeral in Rome - SPECTRE teaser trailer

The principal filming of Spectre started on 8 December 2014 and in February the cast and crew went to Rome. From the teaser trailer we learn that Bond will attend a funeral in the Italian capital. Bond will also drive his Aston through the streets of Rome and the city will feature a car chase close to the Vatican and along the river Tiber. A few shots from the funeral were released in the teaser trailer featuring Bond observing the mysterious Lucia Sciarra, played by Monica Bellucci.

Spectre will be the first film to feature Rome as a Bond location. Bond is nonetheless well acquainted with Italy since he previously has been sunbathing in Sardinia and Talamone, done some skiing in Cortina, driven his Aston Martin on the roads along lake Como as well as in the city of Sienna and he has visited Mr White's palazzo by the Garda lake. Bond has also been to Venice on three different occasions, which makes Venice together with Istanbul, the most visited city by Bond (excluding London of course). However, although Bond has yet to visit the Italian capital, there is a reference to Rome in the beginning of Live and Let Die. M congratulates Bond on the way he had handled the "Rome affair" on which the Italians were very pleased. Thus, Bond will probably know his way around town.

The funeral scene was filmed around the Museum of Roman Civilization (Museo della civiltà Romana) in EUR, south of the city centre of Rome. The funeral was staged in between the columns that connects the two large wings which houses the museum. The film team were actually supposed to film the funeral scene at the Verano cemetery, which is a famous early 19th century cemetery in the central part of Rome, close to the Termini Station. It boasts the graves of several Italian cultural icons. However, the film team was refused to film there by an ancient Christian confraternity, namely the Arciconfraternita di Carità verso i Trapassati. Thus the team had to relocate to the EUR district and use the museum to recreate a mausoleum. The cemetery is reminiscent of the Slumber cemetery in Diamonds are Forever.

The film crew converted the area to a cemetery with fake head stones between the columns before filming took place on and around 19 February this year.

The museum itself consists of 59 sections which illustrate the history of Roman civilization but it is currently closed for renovations, which apparently made it an ideal choice. On the back, there is an open patio that faces a row of trees that also can be seen in the bottom picture.

EUR is a residential and business district that was planned and chosen by Mussolini to hold the World Fair in 1942. The fair would celebrate 20 years of fascism but due to the war, the project was never finished. However, the usefulness of a business district outside the city centre was soon recognized after the war, and in the 1950's and 1960's the fascist era buildings were completed and new, more contemporary buildings were constructed. Two monstrous wings extend from the columns and create a big square, mainly used as a parking lot today.

                                             "-I was at a meeting recently and your name came up.
                                                        -I'm flattered London is still talking about me.
                                              -It wasn't Mi6..."
                                                                   - Bond to Mr White - 

This is not the first time that the Bond team has been refused to use a religious location for filming. In For Your Eyes Only, the monks at S:t Cyril's tried to sabotage filming by putting sheets and blankets on the roofs of their houses when they had not been sufficiently compensated by the Greek municipality as they had been promised. The film team then had to recreate the S:t Cyril monastery on an adjacent rock.

Skyfall motorbike chase - Grand Bazaar

After killing agent Ronson and stealing the valuable hard drive, Patrice escapes and is chased by Bond through Istanbul. After crashing his car and picking up a police motorbike in the big square in front of Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and the spice market, down in the Eminönü district, Bond chases Patrice to the Grand Bazaar.

Bond and Patrice drives through an entrance called Büyuk Valide Han, located in the periphery of the Grand Bazaar. Bond and Patrice are driving through the house, across a square and up some stairs in order to get up on the rooftop. The square can be found if you walk through this house but the chase has been edited so that Bond and Patrice are driving in from the other side of the square, actually driving back towards the entrance. When walking through Büyuk Valide Han, you will find the stairs where Bond and Patrice drive up on your left hand, inside the house. The stairs and the second floor where they come out with the motorbikes are making this location worth visiting.

Patrice and Bond drive up a staircase and come out on the second floor. Then, with some clever film editing as always, Bond and Patrice drive through an opening in the wall and come out on the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar, which will be covered later.

However, there is in reality no way out once you have come up the stairs and it would be impossible to drive anywhere, least of all up on the rooftops. Hence, Patrice could have been captured here already. What a pity for Bond...

It is probably not worth trying to explain in detail how to find this location, first because I don't remember, and secondly because the Grand Bazaar is a maze and directions are a bit useless. The easiest way is probably to ask about the way from one of the many guards patrolling the bazaar. But the entrance is located in the north-western part. The street where Bond is driving down before driving into Büyuk Valide Han can be found where you expect it to be, right in front of the entrance, so no editing here.