2 April 2014
JAMES BOND was well known for his love of the exotic and the glamorous, and The James Bond movies are known for their fabulous locations, many of them in the Caribbean.
Over seven 007 movies were shot in the Bahamas alone, with others featuting scenes filmed in Jamiaca, Puerto Rico and Mexico In the remake of the first Bond film, Casino Royale, filmmakers made a return visit to the Bahamas (where scenes for Thunderball, For Your Eyes Only, and The World is Not Enough were filmed) to provide a tropical backdrop for Daniel Craig. Not only did Ian Fleming make his home in Jamaica at Goldeneye, but the first Bond actor Sean Connery has a home in the Bahamas, on the exclusive Lyford Cay.
Bahamas
The British Colonial Hilton in Nassau has the distinction of appearing in two Bond movies: Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. Thunderball also featured a junkanoo parade on Bay Street in Nassau, and the Cafe Martinique was the scene for Bond’s first meeting with movie bad guy Largo and “Bond Girl” Domino. (The original restaurant was demolished to make way for the Atlantis resort, but the cafe lives on at Atlantis’ Marina Village). Other scenes were shot in the Exumas, West Providence Island, and Paradise Island.
Both New Providence Island (where Nassau is located) and Paradise Island also play major roles in the 2006 remake of Casino Royale. Nassau’s Albany House plays the role of a beach villa owned by the villain Dimitrios and Bond’s future girlfriend, Solange.. Major scenes for Casino Royale also were shot at the Atlantis resort and the neighboring One&Only Ocean Club on Paradise Island.
Jamaica
Not only did Ian Fleming include Jamaica in the plotlines for books like Live and Let Die, Dr. No, Octopussy, and The Man with the Golden Gun, he also lived on the island. Fleming wrote all of his Bond books at his Goldeneye estate, which is now an exclusive clifftop resort in the village of Oracabessa, about 20 minutes drive from Ocho Rios. No surprise, then, that the first Bond film starring Sean Connery, “Dr. No,” was filmed partly in Jamaica (the working title of the movie was “Commander Jamaica.”) Scenes were filmed in Kingston, and the fictional “Crab Key” was where Bond famously meets Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) on the beach wearing a white bikini and a diver’s knife.
The iconic scene from the 1962 movie was filmed at Laughing Waters Beach in Ocho Rios and at an undeveloped Dunn’s River Falls (almost unrecognizable today). Other Dr. No scenes were filmed at Ocho Rios’ Bauxite terminal (familiar to anyone who has made a cruise-ship stop here), the Blue Mountains, and Montego Bay. The former Sans Souci hotel, appeared in the film as well, as did the Morgan’s Harbour Hotel in Port Royal. In 1973’s Live and Let Die, featuring Roger Moore, the Green Grotto caves in Runaway Bay was the setting for villain Mr. Kananga’s lair; a bungalow at the Half Moon Bay Club also appears as Bond’s hotel room in the fictional voodoo island of “San Monique.” The famous crocodile scene in the film was shot at Jamaica Safari Village, in Falmouth near Montego Bay and now known as Swaby’s Swamp Safari.
Cuba and Puerto Rico
Bond travels to Havana in the novel Die Another Day, and also goes to a secret satellite facility in Cuba in the book GoldenEye. In the movie GoldenEye, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico stands in for the aforementioned secret facility; 007 fans may recall the scene where Pierce Brosnan’s Bond fights with a rogue British agent over the facility’s huge satellite bowl.
Mexico
Timothy Dalton’s debut as Bond in the 1989 film ‘Licence to Kill’ – the 16th 007 movie - took him to various locations in Mexico including Cancun, although some scenes supposed to be Bimini, Bahamas were actually filmed in Key West.
