Location Guide - Die Another Day

Pyongong Airbase, North Korea (fictional) Bond leads a squad of men on a mission to Korea. Surfing into the DPRK and intercepting a diamond smuggler's helicopter, 007 poses as the gem trader to meet the hostile Colonel Moon. But Bond is exposed by an insider and stages a daring escape over the DMZ via weaponised hovercraft. 007 is captured by General Moon and interrogated for 14 months. When the North Korean terrorist Zao is traded for 007, Robinson and Falco supervise.

Hong Kong, China Sedated and imprisoned in a floating hospital, Bond is subject to M's scorn but swears he isn't the source of a leak at MI6 to the North Koreans. Bond escapes his clinical cell and finds himself in the mist of Hong Kong harbour. Still unshaved after the 14 months and in the same slack dress, Bond wanders into the 5-star Rubyeon Royale Hotel where he is a regular guest. Showered and shaved, Bond is coaxed by the hotel manager who turns out to be Chinese Intelligence and 007 cuts him a deal for information on Zao.

Havana, Cuba Chinese Intelligence pinpoints the Korean in Havana - more specifically Isla Los Organos, an exclusive gene clinic. Bond poses as an ornithologist whilst he surveys the isle from a distance and sips mojitos with the alluring Jinx. The following day he boards a boat to the island and locates Zao undergoing gene replacement in order to change his appearance. He also encounters the able-bodied Jinx, making a scene.

London, UK Bond proves the connection between Gustav Graves - a wealthy industrialist - and Zao by presenting M with diamonds he had swiped from Zao. These diamonds were identical to African conflict diamonds, indicating Graves' Icelandic diamond mine was a fraud. M grows to trust 007 once more and allows him back in an official capacity to investigate Graves. Bond heads to Blades - a fencing club - where he has a showdown with the pompous Brit. Writing it off as 'sport' Graves invites 007 to his Iceland lodgings where he is making an impressive announcement.

Jökulsárlón, Iceland At his gigantic ice-palace, purpose built for the event, Graves is unavailing Icarus - a space satellite program that uses diamonds to radiate the sun's light and heat to places it normally does not reach. Digging a little deeper, Bond finds no evidence of a diamond mine, but unmasks Graves as the North Korean Colonel Moon, hellbent on uniting Korea by force. Graves demonstrates that his Icarus toy is also capable of destruction and reveals he plans to carve up South Korea and the DMZ with it.

US Military Bunker, South Korea Jinx and Bond rendezvous in an American military facility on the southern side of the DMZ. Here M is adamant on sending 007 in to stop Moon from carving up the demilitarized zone, but Falco is reluctant to allow Agent 'Jinx' Johnson to accompany him. Finally the two are cleared for an incursion mission and the assassination of the villain. What would be a simple marksman's job is turned into an airborne fiasco when Bond and Jinx have to board the plane to get to Moon.

Shooting Die Another Day
Prior to the commencement of principal photography, a skeleton crew were deployed to Peahi beach, off the island of Maui, Hawaii, USA to capture James Bond's pre-titles sequence surfing. The location was to double for the shores of North Korea. The crew shot this daring sequence under the guidance of pro-surfer Laird Hamilton on Christmas Day 2001.

Above: Bond is retrieved by Robinson from hostile North Korea and taken to Hong Kong for recovery and debriefing.

Lee Tamahori rolled cameras on the first unit of "Die Another Day" on 11th January 2002 at the historic Pinewood Studios, capturing interiors for the film, but it was not long before they were on the road for this production, with a plot that demanded locations from all corners of the globe. As it was neither realistic for the crew to shoot in Korea or Cuba, suitable substitutes had to be found. The former in the shape of Hawaii (for the surfing), Hampshire (for the airbase) and Cornwall (for the beach and helicopter sequence). The Welsh coast would serve the production in doubling for the final sequence of the film in which Jinx and 007 relax with the mission a success in remote temple on the coast of Korea.

Above: Bond seeks information on Zao from Hong Kong authorities and pursues the terrorist to Havana.

By mid-February Brosnan was shooting at the Army Driving Training Area in Aldershot, Hampshire to capture the beginnings of the pre-titles sequence hovercraft chase. Here Brosnan injured his knee which brought an abrupt halt to shooting whilst the star underwent surgery. Pickups for the hovercraft sequence were canned at Chinnor Cement Works in Oxfordshire before the crew returned to more sophisticated surroundings of the London's Reform Club.

Above: With new evidence to provide M with, 007 is UK bound again, where he will meet the infamous Gustav Graves.

Filming in May was staged at the Reform Club, 104 Pall Mall, London - doubling for the fictional Blades fencing club - where Bond and Graves engage in a quick and brutal sward fight. Another London location was the famed Buckingham Palace for which the crew sought and received permission to shoot in the entranceway to for a single morning. Crew were on location from the early hours of the morning setting up the required equipment and as soon as the light allowed, Tamahori was canning his sequence. The logistics people had even secured the rights for up to three men to parachute from a static helicopter hovering over the Palace, doubling for Gustav Graves' in a grand entrance to receive his knighthood. Another memorable London locale was the security booth at Westminster Bridge which doubles for the entrance to the abandoned Vauxhall tube station that MI6 has made its hideout.

Above: Bond and Jinx rendezvous in Iceland.

The first international stop for the crew would be La Caleta, Spain. Here the crew built their own mini-Caribbean, despite it being early spring. Halle Berry's emergence from the waves would be a true test of her devotion, with the Spanish coastal waters reportedly icy at that time of year.

The next stop was Höfn and Jökulsárlón, Iceland. Here the crew would have to make do without an ice palace or the gigantic domes as seen in the film. The domes are modeled on those of The Eden Project in Cornwall, England. Here the crew actually spent some time shooting the interiors which in the film (as with the real dome) were forest-like sanctuaries for rare plants.

Above: James Bond returns to Korea to take down Colonel Moon once again.

The biggest challenge facing the crew in Iceland was undoubtedly the filming of the Zao / Bond showdown. Both the Jaguar and the Aston Martin had had the attention of EON's Q-Branch in order to fit them out for ice-bound performance and many of the working gadgets as seen on screen. Additional scenes for this chase were filmed at Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway and RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.