co-writers Michael G. Wilson and Richard
Maibaum to scribble down: “Bond flips the truck
onto its side, NBD.” The execution, however,
takes some serious executing.
Flipping a car onto two wheels is the sort of
thing they teach you on day two of stuntman
school. But a massive truck, with tanker still
attached, is a different kettle of petrol. “We built
all sorts of rigs, like little stabilising arms that
came out,” says Corbould. “But to be perfectly
honest, most of the time it was a little French
stunt driver who did this for a living.”
That was Rémy Julienne, a motocross
champion turned stunt driver, for whom no job
was too dangerous, no angle too obtuse. Artfully
hidden behind tinted glass, and shot from
a distance far enough to ensure that audience
members wouldn’t be able to spot that Dalton
had dramatically changed his appearance,
Julienne had no real difficulty in getting the
truck all diagonal. “He had a ramp, we would line
it up, off he would go, put it up the ramp and up
on its side,” explains Corbould.
The difficulty lay in keeping the truck on its
wheels. “He put it over quite a few times,” admits
Corbould, “but we had a crane standing by so
we just picked it up, dusted it down, and did it
again.” And they had to allow for the rocket as
well. Yes, the actual rocket. Nowadays, even
though Bond still values practical effects over
all others, the rocket would be added in post.
Not onLicence To Kill. “The rocket was on a wire
that went past the ramp,” says Corbould. “Once
the tractor unit was on its side, myself and
a colleague pulled the wire so it was taut and
then I chose the right moment to fire the rocket
along the wire. And then we got out the way!”
Not out of the way of the rocket — as a mere
stunt-rocket, it wasn’t primed to explode — but
of the ginormous tanker heading straight at
them. “It’s quite daunting when you see a 40-
foot-long long tanker on its side wheels coming
straight towards you,” laughs Corbould.•••
SO, WHAT OF Dalton in all of this? If Crane was
jumping onto planes ( but not from a crane), and
Rémy Julienne was making driving on five wheels
look as easy as slicing vegetables, what was the
star up to? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Craneremembers having to show him several stunts
first before stepping out to allow Dalton his
close-up, while Corbould recalls that he was
“very game. We had him on the front of tankers,
the backs of tankers. He was very hands on.”
Dalton may not have been allowed anywhere
near the really dangerous stuff in the tanker
chase, but there are still plenty of shots of him
clinging onto the tanker, and being dragged
around. “I had to jump from one moving tanker
to another,” he toldEmpireback in 2011. “I leap
across, climb this ladder while all these bullet
hits are going off...” At this point, Dalton did
his impression of bullet hits going off, which
basically meant yelling, “BAM! BAM! BAM!” in
Empire’s face. “And then the klaxon that means
‘Cut!’ goes off. I’m thrilled. I know I’ve done
a good job, but when I look around, everyone’s
pissing themselves. I look down and I’m in my
underpants. My trousers are hanging down off
my ankles. My very beautiful suit was in shreds!”
Unsurprisingly, that shot didn’t make the final
cut.Licence To Killmay not have been your typical
Bond movie, but the world just wasn’t ready for
007 fighting for his life in his tighty whiteys.Opposite
page:
One of artist
Roger Deer’s
original tanker
sequence
storyboards.
This page,
clockwise
from top left:
Bond double
Simon Crane
performs his
blink-and-
you’ll-miss-it
stunt; Franz
Sanchez
(Robert Davi)
feels the heat;
Shooting the
007 (Timothy
Dalton)/
Sanchez
(Robert Davi)
climax; Stunt
driver Rémy
Julienne shows
The Stig how
it’s done;
Stunt pilot
‘Corkey’ Fornof
zooms off after
the drop.FOR MANY MORE IMAGES FROM THE SETS OF BOND MOVIES,
GET TASCHEN’STHE JAMES BOND ARCHIVES, NOW UPDATED
WITH A CHAPTER ONNO TIME TO DIE