Exotic Bond Locations - Openings, Etc. Quiz

Answer: Jaws

Chief Brody was the protagonist of the movie "Jaws". Bond (Roger Moore) and KGB agent Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) aka Triple X followed Jaws after he killed Max Kalba and stole the microfilm. Jaws drove off into the desert with Bond and Amasova in the back of his truck. In the temple complex Jaws lost them so he could set a trap. He almost killed Bond but Amasova saved Bond's life. The two escaped with the microfilm after taking it from Jaws at gun point.

Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens) was the villain in the movie who planned to use stolen British and Soviet submarines to launch nuclear weapons at New York and Moscow. The result would be global nuclear war. Bond and Amasova worked together to stop him.

The Karnak Temple Complex lies in upper Egypt in the Luxor Governorate. The complex is divided into several precincts - the Precinct of Amun-Re, the Precinct of Mut, and the Precinct of Montu. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is also an open-air museum where visitors can walk among the ruins.

Answer: Gibraltar

The three Double 0 agents parachuted onto Gibraltar in a war games exercise with the SAS assigned to stop them. One of the Double 0 agents was killed by a KGB assassin and Bond (Timothy Dalton) then chased him down the Rock. The sequence was the first introduction of Dalton as Bond to audiences. "The Living Daylights" followed Bond as he attempted to unravel a supposed KGB plot to kill British spies.

The Rock of Gibraltar was quite well-known to Ian Fleming and had been a hotbed of spying, sabotage, and intrigue during WWII. He was privy to all of this because of his work with British naval intelligence. Because of its location at the mouth of the Mediterranean, Gibraltar was very important to the British and as such a target of the Axis powers. There was even a plan to seal six men into a hidden tunnel network on Gibraltar if the colony fell to the Germans. They would have enough food for seven years and could report from the secret location. Since the colony never fell, the plan was scrapped. Events on Gibraltar also inspired the "Thunderball" storyline. The Italians outfitted a partially sunk oil tanker with underwater doors from which they could send out human controlled torpedoes. Fleming used this in "Thunderball". The inspiration for the "Bond" girls also existed on Gibraltar during the war. She was a British double agent who looked and acted just like future "Bond" girls would in the movies.

Answer: Tiger Tanaka's Ninja Training Center

Tanaka was the head of the Japanese Secret Service and he helped Bond (Sean Connery). Bond was in Japan seeking to find out what happened to a US spacecraft that went missing. He soon discovered Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE were behind the operation. Tanaka's ninjas helped Bond storm Blofeld's volcano hideout.

The Himeji Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The current castle dates from 1346 with major renovation taking place in 1581, 1601-1609, and 1617-1618. It is called both the White Egret Castle and White Heron Castle because of its beautiful white exterior.

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

"Moonraker" pitted Bond (Roger Moore) against Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) who was intent on destroying the population of earth so he could start over again with his hand selected super humans. Drax had a cloaked space station orbiting Earth from which he would launch his attack and that had his people waiting to repopulate earth.

Bond took a leave from the British Secret Service after the debacle in Venice and told M he would go to Rio on vacation. While in Rio, he headed to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain to get a look at the airport. There he met Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) again who was doing the same thing. As Bond and Goodhead were headed down the cable car from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, Jaws (Richard Kiel) headed up and met them halfway. He jumped from his car over to Bond's and they fought. Bond and Dr. Goodhead escaped by sliding down the cable with Jaws hot on their heels in the cable car. Bond and Goodhead jumped to safety while Jaws crashed into the cable car station at the bottom.

Sugarloaf Mountain rises 396 meters (1,299 ft) above the harbor in Guanabara Bay in Rio. It was named in the 16th century during the height of the sugar industry in Brazil. The sugar was placed in conical molds to be loaded onto ships. The molds made the sugar look like the mountain, hence the name. The mountain is a major tourist attraction in Rio. The cable cars to the top launched in 1912.

Answer: Fort Knox Gold Depository

In "Goldfinger", Bond (Sean Connery) stopped Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) when he attempted to irradiate the US gold supply at the Fort Knox Bullion Depository rendering it polluted and unusable. If successful Goldfinger's gold would have increased in value markedly. Fort Knox is and was a functioning military base and home to the US Army Armor School from 1940 to 2010. In the movie, Goldfinger claimed the base had 41,000 troops stationed there.

The film crew actually gained permission to film at Fort Knox thanks to Cubby Broccoli's relationship with Lt. Colonel Charles Russhon. They were given permission to fly no lower than 3000 ft but director Guy Hamilton ordered them to violate this and to fly at 500 ft for the scenes of the gassing of the troops. According to his account the military went nuts when they did this. They were allowed to film scenes of the exterior of the Depository but none of the interiors, so all of the interior scenes were sets built back in England.

The history of Fort Knox actually dates back to the Civil War when Fort Duffield was built nearby. The current Fort Knox was constructed in 1918 in response to WWI. It was named after the Continental Army's chief of artillery during the Revolutionary War, Henry Knox. It became the gold depository in 1937.

Answer: Saint Sophia Mosque

Bond (Sean Connery) used the Saint Sophia Mosque as a drop point for Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) to leave him the plans for the Russian embassy. Romanova believed she was helping Bond under orders from the KGB when in fact it was SPECTRE who was using both Bond and her to steal a Russian Lektor cryptographic device. Throughout the movie it was SPECTRE pulling the strings and manipulating the British and Russian spy agencies. Together Bond and Romanova thwarted SPECTRE's plans.

The Saint Sophia Mosque, or Saint Sophia as the guide calls it, is today more commonly known as Hagia Sophia. It is one of the most important surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. It has influenced architecture in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Muslim worlds. It was the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from its construction in 537 to 1453 when it was an Eastern Orthodox cathedral. For a brief period (1204 to 1261) it was a Roman Catholic cathedral. It was a mosque from 1453 to 1931. Modern Turkey's first president, Atatürk, made it a museum in 1935.

Answer: Milos Columbo

In "For Your Eyes Only", Bond (Roger Moore) was teamed with Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) as they battled Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) who planned to sell a stolen British Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC) to the Russians. The movie climaxed at this monastery where Kristatos was scheduled to meet with KGB General Gogol. Columbo (Topol) and Kristatos were friends in the resistance against the Nazis but parted ways after the war when Kristatos sided with the communists. Saint Cyril's used to be their hideout.

The photo is of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Meteora Greece that became Saint Cyril's in the movie. The region of Meteora actually has six monasteries throughout the area built on natural sandstone rock pillars with Monastery of the Holy Trinity being one of the most famous primarily because of "For Your Eyes Only". The Eastern Orthodox monasteries were built during the 1300s. There used to be many more. Filming in the Meteora was not well received by the monks and they did everything in their power to disrupt the filming.

Answer: Helicopter

The first scenes shown when Bond (Roger Moore) went to India were his helicopter flying past this most iconic structure in India. The helicopter was a pontoon helicopter that could land on water. In "Octopussy", Bond joined forces with Octopussy (Maud Adams) to thwart a rogue Russian General Orlov's (Steven Berkoff) plans to explode an atomic bomb on a US base in West Germany. The resulting disarmament would leave Western Europe vulnerable to Soviet invasion.

The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is recognized as the crown jewel of Muslim art in India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Interestingly, The Taj Mahal is located in Agra but the movie made it seem like it was near Lake Pichola which is in Udaipur. But alas, "Bond" movies are not known for their geographical accuracy.

Answer: Piz Gloria

The movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), featured George Lazenby as Bond, the only time he would play the role. In a side story Bond fell in love with Countess Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). Bond's nemesis in the movie was Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the leader of SPECTRE. He had a plan to destroy the world's agriculture by using ten brainwashed young women to release bacteriological warfare throughout the world. Piz Gloria was Blofeld's institute in the Swiss Alps and featured prominently in the movie. At the end of the movie Tracy and Bond get married but she gets killed by Blofled in a drive by shooting as she and Bond travelled on their honeymoon.

Bond was taken to Piz Gloria by helicopter and told by Irma Blunt (Ilse Steppat) that it was the Bleuchamp Institute for Allergy Research. Bleuchamp was the French translation of Blofeld. When Bond's colleague, Shaun Campbell (Bernard Horsfall), was caught by Bleuchamp's men, Bleuchamp informed him he was at Piz Gloria and Piz Gloria could be seen in the background on the building.

The Piz Gloria restaurant actually got its name from Ian Fleming's novel "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" which was released in 1963. In the book, Ernst Stavro Blofeld's hideout was called Piz Gloria. The film crew found the restaurant under construction and in need of funds so they funded the construction in return for exclusive filming rights. The restaurant kept the name after the filming was complete and has a "James Bond" exhibition on the lower floor to acknowledge the role the film played in its construction.

Answer: May Day

In "A View to a Kill", Bond (Roger Moore) faced off against Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). Zorin planned to destroy Silicon Valley in an attempt to corner the microchip market. Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) joined Bond in stopping Zorin.

May Day raced from the restaurant to the top of the tower and jumped. A hidden parachute opened and she floated away. Bond raced down from the top and grabbed a taxi in order to try to follow May Day as she floated across Paris. The filming of the actual jump only took one take with B.J. Worth making the jump. Backup jumper Don Caldvedt was hoping to make the jump also but he was not needed. Still, he returned the next day and made the jump without permission. The incensed French authorities threatened to shut down production of any more shooting in Paris because of the unauthorized jump. Caldvedt was fired and after intense negotiations shooting was allowed to continue.