Amazing SPECTRE Set Photos Reveal Bond’s Stunt Driver

Ever wondered how James Bond is able to perform incredible car stunts with a movie camera pointed right in his face?

New photos taken on the set of the new James Bond film ‘SPECTRE’ in Rome have revealed 007’s dirty little secret – he doesn’t actually do the driving himself.

As the candid snaps show, for shots in the film where Daniel Craig appears behind the wheel, the filmmakers actually use a specially rigged Aston Martin DB10 that allows a trained stuntman to drive the car from a cage on top of the vehicle.

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Director Sam Mendes then fixes his movie camera on the bonnet of the car, pointing in towards the driver, allowing the audience to get much closer to the action than ever before. It’s a common technique on action films and has been used before on each of Daniel Craig’s three other Bond films.

Above: A scene from ‘Skyfall’ that utilised the same technique

To achieve this shot in the old days, the filmmakers would have used rear projection or green screen to composite the actors into the scene, but this gloriously lo-fi technique allows Bond to really participate in the action.

One of the stunt drivers on the film is former racing driver Ben Collins, the man unmasked as The Stig on ‘Top Gear’ back in 2010. He told the Huffington Post in 2012 that Daniel Craig is a proficient driver who likes to do as much of the driving in the Bond films as he can.

“He is good, he will always get stuck in with the stunts, but if he could jump behind the wheel and do what I can do, then I’d be out of a job.”

The Aston Martin DB10 used in the film is a one-off design created by the British car firm specially for ‘SPECTRE’, and it’s been billed as “the ultimate car for the world’s most famous spy.”

It’s in Rome to take part in a high-speed chase with an orange Jaguar C-X75, but Top Gear magazine claims that the Italian capital’s roads have so many potholes, the stunt drivers weren’t able to reach the top speeds desired, so we could have to make do with the first 40mph Bond car chase in ‘SPECTRE’.

‘SPECTRE’ is coming to cinemas in November.

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Image credits: Splash News