Everything we learned from our James Bond set visit

Lodged in the heart of Pinewood Studios’ hallowed Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, sitting not-so-quietly just an hour out of London, we found Cuba. Well, a hybrid, custom-built, fictional Cuban street, laden with buzzing neon signs, colourful bar facades, and Daniel Craig casually firing bullets at henchmen appearing from balconies, from side streets, from everywhere.

No Time to Die, the 25th film in the Bond franchise is set to hit cinemas in April, 57 years after the first film, Doctor No, premiered in 1962. It’s Craig’s fifth film as 007, following Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre, and will mark the actor’s final run as the British agent.

Like every Bond film lead-up, there’s been a flurry of rumour and speculation about the fate of 007 in director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s installment. So, when we visited the set late last year, we got a few clues.

Here’s what we learned. Indulge us a few educated guesses too, as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael J. Wilson are pretty good at keeping things under lock and key. 

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM

We’re going to kick off with a huge action sequence in Cuba

That incredible Cuban street we’re standing on in England? It’s here one of No Time to Die’s big, early action sequences will go down, and it involves Bond firing at enemies all around. Why’s he there? It’s all down to his ol’ CIA buddy Felix Leiter.

Leiter, played in the Craig films by Jeffrey Wright, has been an ally whose popped up in the franchise for decades, and has featured somewhat in the last four films — from hitting the big game with Bond in Casino Royale to being mentioned in passing in Spectre.

In a sequence set to be early in the film, Bond is sent on a mission by Leiter to go to Cuba.

“OK, so Bond is retired from the Service,” describes Broccoli. “He’s living in Jamaica. Not so sure how happy he is. I mean, on the surface, he’s pretty happy. He’s living in a great place. But not entirely sure he’s as happy as he could be. Felix Leiter, his buddy from the CIA shows up and asks him to do a favour — because Felix was with the CIA, he can’t go into Cuba. Bond is British and he’s not with the Service anymore. [Felix] asks him to do him a favour and that is to go and collect a package in Cuba, which is not far, it’s 100 nautical miles from Jamaica. So Bond, wanting to be a good friend, and slightly suspicious of what’s going on, mention of Spectre out there, he decides to fulfill the request. He goes to Cuba, and then…”

“And then it turns out he falls right into the hands of Spectre!” Wilson adds. “And he has to get out of the clutches and bring the package, which is a person, out.”

Bond does this with the help of Ana De Armas’ character, Paloma, only described so far by Broccoli as “a Cuban agent that is a friend of Felix Leiter.” But, Broccoli adds that during the course of the event, he comes across a suspicious woman who he had seen in Jamaica. 

And that’s Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch. 

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM

Lashana Lynch’s character is a pilot and British agent

One of the most anticipated new characters in the franchise, the role of Nomi has generated more than a few rumours about possibly replacing “007”, taking on the moniker within the British Secret Service. This hasn’t been confirmed at all, so you’re going to have to park your opinion on that. But what we do know is that Nomi is somewhat of an ally to Bond, if not a competitor, who Bond first spies while he’s living in Jamaica. And if you’ve seen the trailer, you might have spied Nomi driving a cheeky Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. 

“Not giving you too much detail, there’s been a lot of speculation about it,” said Broccoli of Nomi’s character. “She comes from a military background and she’s highly qualified and gives Bond a run for his money.”

Played by Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch, Nomi is also a pilot, something Broccoli confirmed onset and that had a brief moment in the trailer dropped during the Super Bowl — “You ever flown one of these things before?” Bond asks of a tiny plane about to be dropped out of a huge plane. “Nope,” she responds, then proceeds to fly the crap outta that thing. 

“It’s been a long intensive training program for both [Lynch and Ana de Armas]. I mean, Lashana’s throughout the movie, so hers was much longer, it started earlier,” said Broccoli. “She had also trained a lot when she did Captain Marvel, when she was training as a pilot. Some of that came in handy for this too, because she’s a pilot.” 

One thing to note, as costume designer Suttirat Larlarb showed us as part of a collection of the film’s looks at Pinewood, is that Nomi will don her own Tom Ford jacket in the film — yep, that’s the same suit designer as Bond. Same sorta suit, same sorta car…

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM

The narrative brings Daniel Craig’s Bond story to a close

No Time to Die will wrap up Daniel Craig’s character arc as James Bond, leaving the door open for the next actor to step into that highly coveted suit. But you’re going to want to watch all four other Craig films before the final — Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre — to get the full impact of No Time to Die.

“The story is really an accumulation of the past four films and this one, so the sort of five-film cycle,” said Broccoli. “I think the arc of his character, particularly the emotional arc of his character is really kind of completed. We feel it’s very satisfying conclusion to his films, so hopefully the audiences will too. Obviously we care about each one of these films, but I think the fact that it is Daniel’s last has just given us all that extra bit of push to make it the best ever. I think he is really extraordinary. He’s never been better.”

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM. 

Ana de Armas’ character is a Cuban agent 

As previously mentioned, Cuban actor Ana De Armas’ character, Paloma, has so far only been described as a Cuban agent that assists Bond when he gets into a bit of strife at the beginning of the film. But whether she remains an ally or not remains to be revealed, but she sure wields some firepower. “With Ana, she has one sequence which she uses all the firearms and she’s got to be very agile,” said Broccoli. 

Broccoli met de Armas a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, she’d worked with Craig already on Rian Johnson’s Knives Out. Paloma’s scenes were developed by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, requested by Craig to join the project.

“When I also got the phone call, this character didn’t exist in the script. They were thinking about it and they wrote it in for me and I was like, ‘Excuse me what?’” said de Armas. “And then on top of that, you have writers like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is on fire right now and is so brilliant, who actually developed or wrote my scenes.”

Rami Malek’s villain promises to be formidable 

If anything’s been kept under lock and key, it’s the nature of Rami Malek’s Bond villain, Safin. We got a few sneak peeks into this shady character at the Pinewood set thanks to costume designer Larlarb, including the expressionless mask he’ll (maybe) be wearing, and the cream hooded snowsuit he’ll (maybe) don during scenes filmed in Norway. It’s all very hint-hint at this point, no one would say either way whether Malek wears the mask we’ve seen in the trailers, or how Safin is connected to SPECTRE, if he is at all.

“Bond always has to, you know, fight some deadly force,” said Broccoli. “So we certainly have that with Rami Malek, who’s an exceptional villain. But he also has a very, very profound emotional journey in this movie, which is as epic, I think, as the villain he’s fighting.”

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM

Larlarb also mentioned a character called Primo, who appears to be on the villain’s side, or at least against Bond (but those details were scarce). You’ll spot him wearing a Paul Smith anorak blending into a scene set in a big Jamaican nightclub. 

The plot might have something to do with biological warfare

So, here’s where we get a little Sherlock. This is all based on some of the props we were allowed to have a gander at, so hear me out. Props designer Ben Wilkinson showed us what appears to be a container for toxin vials within a keyboard-clad suitcase, with hundreds of the vials to be later used in the film. We also got a look at some kind of magnetic bomb, covered in the vials. Just saying, we could be looking at a massive biological threat here, unless this is a red herring. We did spy some SPECTRE rings though…

Cuba’s not the only location, of course. This is a Bond film.

The cinematic equivalent of a smug postcard from everywhere you’re not, Bond films always jump all over the globe to coveted locations. The crew also filmed in Norway, Scotland, London, and Jamaica itself, where Ian Fleming’s famous Goldeneye estate resides, and where the very first Bond film, Doctor No, was set in 1962 — both in Kingston and the fictional island of Crab Key.

“We very specifically wanted to go to Jamaica because it’s where the Bond films were written by Ian Fleming, so we always call it the spiritual home of Bond,” said Broccoli. “We felt like it was time to come back.”

There’s also going to be a huge sequence in Matera, Italy, which the team physically built their own cemetery for, and you can prepare for some sweet, sweet Aston Martin action.

Image: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM

The Aston Martin DB5 is back, and it’s well-stocked

If you haven’t noticed within the last four Bond films, Q Branch has had a little bit of a Marie Kondo-level minimalist makeover in terms of consumer-size gadgets. 

“With Daniel, we cut back on the gadgets, because now everybody has a telephone and most of the gadgets we used to have,” said Wilson. “So there’s only been certain things that we have that are special — a special car, we have a special glider plane, things like that, but not so much those things out of your pocket.”

That said, Broccoli said the quintessential Bond car, the Aston Martin DB5, has been reconstituted and decked out with special gadgets, ready for a huge sequence orchestrated by British SFX supervisor Chris Corbould — he’s got 11 Bond films under his belt and took us through quite the garage of vehicles at Pinewood.

An impressive 10 DB5s were used in the film (a truly incredible sight sitting snugly all together in one garage), two with fully operational gadgets, two made for rally car drivers and other variations for filming. As for gadgets? In homage to the changing numberplate seen in 1965’s Goldfinger, there’ll be an LED screen numberplate, and a minigun behind each headlight. Expect a seriously powerful smokescreen, upgraded tire spikes, and explosives that can be dropped from the back of the car. 

Corbould said there’d be two big car chases to look forward to — one in Mattera, the other in Norway — using various different vehicles. 

We’re going to visit Q at home

Speaking of Q Branch, the provider of Bond’s gadgetry, when Larlarb gave us a peek at the costumes that Bond, his allies and enemies will be wearing, we nabbed a delightful clue into Q’s home wardrobe. Returning to the role of Bond’s ever-frustrated, long-suffering gadget wizard is Ben Wishaw, who’ll don a costume featuring a delightful pink and navy striped sweater and apron. Why we’re storming into Q’s house, we don’t know. But we did get a look at some kind of portable minilab of Q’s too, which produces a mini scanner gadget to be used by Nomi. 

The plot thickens. 

No Time to Die hits theaters April, 3, 2020.