20 years ago today...

got_the_feelingot_the_feelin Posts: 13MI6 Agent
in The James Bond Films
20 years ago today. Filming started on the on-land section of the River Thames boat chase in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH.

Luckily I was there to witness the action at the Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent. It had been chosen to double for the London Docklands.

A teenage Bond fan's dream come true!

Photo: © 1999 Andrew Lamb

1999-04-25-twine-chatham-dockyard-cropped.jpg

Comments

  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    -{ must have be great to watch some of the filming. Congratulations
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,998MI6 Agent
    It wasn't twenty years ago..? Blimey. I saw some of that too, around the bridges of the waterways leading onto the Thames.

    What you never quite got from the film was the extraordinary noise of Bond's boat- in the movie it just sort of whooshes and whizzes- in real life it was powered by a Chevy V8 engine so sounded more like a completely unsilenced muscle car! Very loud!
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Nice picture. I'm sure that it was great to have been there. 20 years really isn't very long passing by when you think about it. :o
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • JTMJTM Posts: 3,027MI6 Agent
    Silhouette Man wrote:
    20 years really isn't very long passing by when you think about it. :o

    It it to me...geez I wasn't even in primary/junior/elementary school then :))
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    JTM wrote:
    Silhouette Man wrote:
    20 years really isn't very long passing by when you think about it. :o

    It it to me...geez I wasn't even in primary/junior/elementary school then :))

    Well, of course it all comes down to when you were born. I was 15 by the time TWINE came out. I know I can't speak for all the members here. I forget there is so much youth out there! :D
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,484MI6 Agent
    I lived in Kennington nearby then, and would walk into Victoria, with the sun beating down on the Thames so it was a lovely shade of blue. I thought it would make a great boat chase. But the week they filmed it, it was uncharacteristically overcast. Shame.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • got_the_feelingot_the_feelin Posts: 13MI6 Agent
    Thanks for the responses guys! Yes, it was an amazing couple of days. I wasn't even supposed to be there or take photos and got thrown out the day before Pierce Brosnan arrived! So it felt like my own little spy mission B-) I was there on the Monday and Tuesday, he arrived on the Wednesday. I'm not 100% sure but I think filming wrapped on the Friday. However, they were also there a few weeks before making sets. You couldn't actually tell what was real and wasn't until you looked closely. The restaurant Bond crashes though was made of wood and polystyrene painted to look like brick!
    emtiem wrote:
    What you never quite got from the film was the extraordinary noise of Bond's boat- in the movie it just sort of whooshes and whizzes- in real life it was powered by a Chevy V8 engine so sounded more like a completely unsilenced muscle car! Very loud!

    I will have to check the deleted scene from Chatham on the DVD how the boat sounded. I can't remember exactly, but I think they used a different motor for the on-land boat. What I found confusing in the film is that the boat actually had wheels to steer, yet the transformation isn't shown. You're just lead to believe that it's working off the power of the jet flames; but how did he turn? Physics operates differently in Bond's world!

    I will be writing a blog post about my couple of days there if there's enough interested. I manged to take a reel of film, so have plenty of photos.

    It's been 20 years and so much has happened in my life, yet looking back now it does seem like yesterday!
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,998MI6 Agent
    got_the_feelin wrote:
    emtiem wrote:
    What you never quite got from the film was the extraordinary noise of Bond's boat- in the movie it just sort of whooshes and whizzes- in real life it was powered by a Chevy V8 engine so sounded more like a completely unsilenced muscle car! Very loud!

    I will have to check the deleted scene from Chatham on the DVD how the boat sounded. I can't remember exactly, but I think they used a different motor for the on-land boat. What I found confusing in the film is that the boat actually had wheels to steer, yet the transformation isn't shown. You're just lead to believe that it's working off the power of the jet flames; but how did he turn? Physics operates differently in Bond's world!

    Oh yes; I'm sure the land boat probably did have a different motor- it wouldn't need a V8 for that.
    It is odd how they didn't show some features- like the roof was supposed to eject off when he jumped out, but that wasn't shown properly either.
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