You will find all the answers in the exhibition ‘Bond in Motion, originalcollection of James Bond Vehicles’. But make no mistake, the expo isn’t a Bondtrivia quiz that only the diehards get a kick out of. The expo is above all adazzling visual spectacle that takes you into the world of the British secretagent. You expect Daniel Craig to pop out of one of the many Aston Martins atany moment. Not so.
50 original full size vehicles, a variety of miniatures and scale models areon display. They all come from the archives of EON, the production companybehind the film series, and have all been used in the films. ‘We startedkeeping track of everything systematically after 1995. Not much was kept ofthe earlier films. I did find some old props in different corners and placesof the Pinewood studios,” says Meg Simmonds, EON’s chief archivist.
It is not the first time that cars and other vehicles from the 25 Bond filmsare shown in an exhibition, but Brussels has the first for the Europeanmainland. “It is the largest exhibition to date,” says Simmonds. It is dividedinto four sections: earth, water, air and fire. In other words: cars, boats,planes and explosions.
Cool, and dangerous
The fascinating thing about the exhibition is the combination between theobjects on display, images from the films and the additional information forthe spectator. In a few sentences you can learn a lot about how the films wereshot.
Full screen display
The crashed helicopter from ‘Spectre’. ©saskia vanderstichele
If you see Bond driving around in one car in the film, the reality was usuallydifferent. A key scene from the latest Bond film ‘No Time to Die’ takes placein Matera in Italy. The Aston Martin DB5 of 007 (Daniel Craig) comes underfire. In the exhibition, the shot-gunned specimen stands prominently in themiddle of one of the halls. However, in order to successfully complete therecordings, Aston Martin built six replicas.
Jaguar was also able to send nice invoices to EON Productions. In ‘Die AnotherDay’ (2002), Bond (Pierce Brosnan) battles the villainous Zao. On the ice theyfight an epic battle. Zao drives a state-of-the-art Jaguar XKR, loaded withguns and ammunition. Jaguar delivered nine copies for this. In the expo, theonly thing that has all the weapons on board is on display. Cool, anddangerous.
Full screen display
The heavily armed Jaguar XKR from ‘Die Another Day’. ©saskia vanderstichele
Even better was the Q Boat from ‘The World is Not Enough’ (1999). For aspectacular chase scene on the water, 15 copies of the 300 HP racing machinewere built. Two boats are on display at the expo. One has real weapons onboard, the other only served to film the scenes in the interior.
First space shuttle
Sometimes the films were ahead of reality, such as ‘Moonraker’ (1979), inwhich the acclaimed Roger Moore plays the role of Bond. The producers wantedto recreate Bond’s space shuttle as faithfully as possible and knocked onNASA’s door. At that time, the space agency was busy developing real spaceshuttles. Her project was delayed so that Bond became the first to fly throughspace on a space shuttle.
Airbus could not always keep up with 007 either. The producers hoped to use anAirbus 380 for ‘Casino Royale’ (2006). Unfortunately. The aircraft was notready in time, so a Boeing 747 was converted. A scale model of this can beadmired in the exhibition. This was also used in the film for a shot in whichthe entire aircraft came into view. The actors were later inserted into thescenes.
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James Bond is still attractive because he exudes a kind of escapism that manypeople crave. “
Chris Corbold
Special effects manager
With technological innovations, filming is becoming more and more computerwork. The Bond films also use special effects. “But in dribs and drabs,” saysChris Corbould, special effects manager on countless Bond films. “We want asmuch action on camera as possible. The Bond movies are loved for their realcar chases, their real explosions. Of course we also use special effects, butrather for support or if there is no other option. In ‘Skyfall’ there is a bigaction scene in the subway. We could have recorded it digitally, but wedidn’t. We recreated the subway in the studio. That seemed much better andmore real to us.’
Full screen display
The subway attack from ‘Skyfall’.
It is one of the most impressive recreated scenes in the expo, followedshortly by a beautiful scale model of the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin N2 from’Spectre’ (2015). This way you walk from one landmark to the other, all theway to bar 007. It’s just a movie, but it still seems real.