From Russia with Love - Station T | Hagia Sophia
Sapristi45
Posts: 2MI6 Agent
Hi there! 
I'm new here and for my first post I'd like to share some theory about the least known level of one of the least known James Bond game ever
(yes I've got plenty of time to waste)
In the movie From Russia with Love, Station T is the name given to the Turkish branch of the British Secret Services headed by Ali Kerim Bey who has an office at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, in the game though, Kerim and the other agents of Station T work in a building named after the organization, a building that isn't seen or even mentioned in the movie.
Somehow in the events of the game, the Soviet army managed to overrun the diplomatic building and plant bombs there, taking three hostages on the way (assuming the other people inside were killed), for some reason when Bond and Kerim arrive at Station T, only the main door explodes, the whole level seems to be inspired by the scene in the movie in which a bomb in one of the wall of Kerim’s office explodes.
Now here are some concept arts of the level that the creators of the game nicely added as an extra in the game (that is for the xbox version at least)
The first picture is a screenshot from the game showing Station T when James and Kerim are arriving (they're in the car by the way) and the second one is one of the concept arts for the level. As you can see there are lots of differences, the fountain’s smaller on the drawing, the number of windows, the fact that they’re not the same, the addition of palm trees and black cars, the fact that Bond’s car’s on the other side of the roundabout (where’s Kerim by the way ? Maybe he wasn't initially supposed to first appear at Istanbul’s airport, after all, in the movie, Bond first meets Kerim in his office.).
The pink sky on the concept art might imply that the event was supposed to take place in the morning or in the evening instead of the afternoon. Now let’s talk about the interior of the building.
This concept art seems to depict what the main hall (or the “big room”) was supposed to look like, the overall design is similar but the layout is completely different, in the game there are no staircases, and there are only two floors (while it seems there are three on this image), also notice the missing columns and the … bridge? Now I could talk about all the differences for hours but I won’t because that's not the point.
This room looks nothing like any of the rooms in the actual level, but here’s the most similar one I could find, notice that the windows, the celling, the lamps, and the carpet look the same as on the drawing.
And now at last let's get into the main topic ...
As you can see if you’ve played the game, this is nothing like Station T, but this reminds me of a place that actually appears in the movie …
I'm not 100% sure but it seems that at some point, Hagia Sophia was meant to be a level, that was eventually changed to Station T, in the movie, that’s where Tania gives the plans of the Consulate to James but this scene is absent in the final game. If you take a quick look you’ll see a lot of similarities between the concept art and the picture of Hagia Sophia above. It seems that the helicopter that appears at Station T had already been planned to be a boss (even though it has a different design). Apparently Bond was going to be able to use his grapnel to go from one side of the building to the other, there are lots of things to say about this concept art but I'm just going to let you analyze it by yourself.
Again, what seems to be Hagia Sophia (I’m 99,99% sure it is! ^_^) from another angle, if you look on the right side, you’ll see that the destroyed door was already present! And that Bond was going to be forced to jump over a wall and use a door on the right wing to enter in the building like he is at Station T (Now why and how would the Russian army invade and destroy a Turkish historical monument ? I don’t know but if they managed to send tanks and helicopters in Istanbul to block the roads and shoot on buildings…). By the way, you can see on this concept art and the previous one that the ending point “END” was near the front door, while at Station T the level ends when the Helicopter’s destroyed.
Once again I could spend hours speaking of this kind of stuff but I won’t, and at last, a little pointless bonus.
As you can see, during mission 4, behind these walls are trees, but when leaving the place in mission 5, they’re gone, there are buildings instead.
sources :
Screenshots and concept arts : the game itself
The picture of Hagia Sophia : http://whenonearth.net/travel-like-007-the-10-james-bond-locations-you-should-visit/
I'm new here and for my first post I'd like to share some theory about the least known level of one of the least known James Bond game ever
(yes I've got plenty of time to waste)In the movie From Russia with Love, Station T is the name given to the Turkish branch of the British Secret Services headed by Ali Kerim Bey who has an office at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, in the game though, Kerim and the other agents of Station T work in a building named after the organization, a building that isn't seen or even mentioned in the movie.
Somehow in the events of the game, the Soviet army managed to overrun the diplomatic building and plant bombs there, taking three hostages on the way (assuming the other people inside were killed), for some reason when Bond and Kerim arrive at Station T, only the main door explodes, the whole level seems to be inspired by the scene in the movie in which a bomb in one of the wall of Kerim’s office explodes.
Now here are some concept arts of the level that the creators of the game nicely added as an extra in the game
(that is for the xbox version at least)The first picture is a screenshot from the game showing Station T when James and Kerim are arriving (they're in the car by the way) and the second one is one of the concept arts for the level. As you can see there are lots of differences, the fountain’s smaller on the drawing, the number of windows, the fact that they’re not the same, the addition of palm trees and black cars, the fact that Bond’s car’s on the other side of the roundabout (where’s Kerim by the way ? Maybe he wasn't initially supposed to first appear at Istanbul’s airport, after all, in the movie, Bond first meets Kerim in his office.).
The pink sky on the concept art might imply that the event was supposed to take place in the morning or in the evening instead of the afternoon. Now let’s talk about the interior of the building.
This concept art seems to depict what the main hall (or the “big room”) was supposed to look like, the overall design is similar but the layout is completely different, in the game there are no staircases, and there are only two floors (while it seems there are three on this image), also notice the missing columns and the … bridge? Now I could talk about all the differences for hours but I won’t because that's not the point.
This room looks nothing like any of the rooms in the actual level, but here’s the most similar one I could find, notice that the windows, the celling, the lamps, and the carpet look the same as on the drawing.
And now at last let's get into the main topic ...
As you can see if you’ve played the game, this is nothing like Station T, but this reminds me of a place that actually appears in the movie …
I'm not 100% sure but it seems that at some point, Hagia Sophia was meant to be a level, that was eventually changed to Station T, in the movie, that’s where Tania gives the plans of the Consulate to James but this scene is absent in the final game. If you take a quick look you’ll see a lot of similarities between the concept art and the picture of Hagia Sophia above. It seems that the helicopter that appears at Station T had already been planned to be a boss (even though it has a different design). Apparently Bond was going to be able to use his grapnel to go from one side of the building to the other, there are lots of things to say about this concept art but I'm just going to let you analyze it by yourself.
Again, what seems to be Hagia Sophia (I’m 99,99% sure it is! ^_^) from another angle, if you look on the right side, you’ll see that the destroyed door was already present! And that Bond was going to be forced to jump over a wall and use a door on the right wing to enter in the building like he is at Station T (Now why and how would the Russian army invade and destroy a Turkish historical monument ? I don’t know but if they managed to send tanks and helicopters in Istanbul to block the roads and shoot on buildings…). By the way, you can see on this concept art and the previous one that the ending point “END” was near the front door, while at Station T the level ends when the Helicopter’s destroyed.
Once again I could spend hours speaking of this kind of stuff but I won’t, and at last, a little pointless bonus.
As you can see, during mission 4, behind these walls are trees, but when leaving the place in mission 5, they’re gone, there are buildings instead.
sources :
Screenshots and concept arts : the game itself
The picture of Hagia Sophia : http://whenonearth.net/travel-like-007-the-10-james-bond-locations-you-should-visit/
Comments
big fan indeed