London, England - When it comes to boys and their toys, there is little more desirable than a James Bond car - but that didn’t deter the makers of Spectre from blowing up a record £24 million (R502 million) worth of them in the latest 007 extravaganza.
During the filming of the most spectacular and expensive Bond movie ever, seven specially designed Aston Martin DB10 sports cars were destroyed.
In one heart-pounding car chase alone - in which the secret agent’s Aston Martin is pursued at high speed by a villain in a Jaguar C-X75 through the streets of Rome - millions of pounds worth of high-performance vehicles were written off.
The chase took place in the Vatican, the Colosseum and along the River Tiber, with producers having to weigh up the risk of a car skidding into the Vatican, which would have been ‘catastrophic’.
EYE-POPPING STUNTS
In another extraordinary scene, a full-size aeroplane piloted by Bond ploughs through an Alpine barn only to career into the villain’s Land Rover, reducing it to a flaming wreck. Inevitably, the imperturbable spy, played for the fourth time by Daniel Craig, walks away unscathed.
The eye-popping stunts in the £200 million (R4.2 billion) movie also include a mid-air struggle on a helicopter’s landing gear.
Chief stunt co-ordinator Gary Powell, said: “We set the record for smashing up cars on Spectre.
“In Rome, we wrecked millions of pounds worth. They were going into the Vatican at 175km/h. We shot one entire night for four seconds of film.”
Ten sleek Aston Martin DB10s, equipped with the famous ejector seat, were specially created for Spectre, 51 years after Sean Connery drove the iconic DB5 in Goldfinger.
UK viewers will be first to see Spectre, with a London premiere on 26 October. South African audiences will have to wait until 27 November to see Bond’s wrecking spree.
Mail On Sunday