Places that could be used as villain lair locations

CigaretteLeiter

What are some places that just reek of that "Blofeld's holed up somewhere in here" vibe, that could be used as filimg locations in future movies?

I'm a fan of the Mt. Washington weather observatory (in New Hampshire, USA), which, in addition to looking a bit like Piz Gloria, is also known for the near-fatal levels of windchill recorded in the area.


The No Man's Fort, off the coast of Solent, England seems like the perfect place for a modern SPECTRE island.



The Aqua Dome Hotel in Tirol, Austria, looks like there's a radio tower that connects to a weaponized satellite hidden in that cone.

CigaretteLeiter

The interior of the Aqua Dome looks like it's rife with potential pirahna feeding pools for you to toss an incompetent mook into!

00Agent

I've been advocading for Mont St. Michael for quite some time. It's on the northern french coast

Torgeirtrap

Tour de France had a stage once which took the cyclist along the coastline where Mont St. Michael is located. It looked fantastic!

M_Balje

https://froot.nl/posttype/froot/de-mysterieuze-plek-onder-de-grond-het-riool/



Gallery:
https://froot.nl/fotografie/urbex-hachijo-hotel-japan/?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s&gid=1&pid=1
Source/smaller pictures in row:
https://froot.nl/fotografie/urbex-hachijo-hotel-japan/?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

Torgeirtrap

M_Balje wrote: »

https://froot.nl/posttype/froot/de-mysterieuze-plek-onder-de-grond-het-riool/

This one made me think of the underground aqueducts in Istanbul/FRWL!

Agent_99

Observation tower of the UFO Bridge, Bratislava:

j_w_pepper

Schloss Marienburg ("the North German Neuschwanstein"), owned by Prince Ernst August of Hanover, jr. (the son of the guy who is the husband of Caroline of Monaco, Grace Kelly's daughter...to put it in film buff terms). Junior is trying to sell the 19th century castle to the state of Lower Saxony for one Euro because he can't finance the upkeep...while his father says he endowed his son with enough dough to do so. But perhaps a healthy contribution from film producers would be welcome to relieve the local taxpayers, which include myself.

Thunderball

Haydar Aliyev Culture Center, Baku, Azerbaijan.

M_Balje

Twine ;) house

Very No Time To Die style..

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/10/twine-house-twisting-concrete-concept-antony-gibbon/

This one have a bit of QOS hotel and Asian feeling.

https://www.dezeen.com/2020/10/23/engawa-house-santiago-valdivieso-stefano-chilerolla

Fact there be some people walking in front or on it give a realy Bond feeling.

goldenswissroyale

The twine house looks cool.
Good for a plot twist? (See what I did there?;)

GeneralGogol

Putin's palace has been in the news the last few days - it's an excellent lair, complete with an underground ice rink, vineyards, a hookah parlour, golden toilet brushes, and more!



https://rferl.org/a/photos-of-palace-allegedly-belonging-to-russian-president-vladimir-putin/31053780.html

jobo

GeneralGogol wrote: »

Putin's palace has been in the news the last few days - it's an excellent lair, complete with an underground ice rink, vineyards, a hookah parlour, golden toilet brushes, and more!



https://rferl.org/a/photos-of-palace-allegedly-belonging-to-russian-president-vladimir-putin/31053780.html

Should be plain sailing to convince Putin into letting EON film there... ;)

Gerard

The Red Sands Fort at the Thames Estuary. Already used in Doctor Who, and I think an episode of Danger Man :

__M__

Somewhere near Martha's Vineyard.

Denbigh

The abandoned Hotel Belvedere in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

RogueAgent

I love seeing abandoned places, creep but cool. We have a show in the UK called Abandoned Engineering. Pretty cool show if you like that sort of the thing. :-bd

Since62

GeneralGogol wrote: »

Putin's palace has been in the news the last few days - it's an excellent lair, complete with an underground ice rink, vineyards, a hookah parlour, golden toilet brushes, and more!



https://rferl.org/a/photos-of-palace-allegedly-belonging-to-russian-president-vladimir-putin/31053780.html

t even comes with a villain, to make things easy...

Mr_Beach

I would love to see a Bond villain lair somewhere in the exclusion zone on the island of Montserrat that was established after the volcano there erupted in the 90s, especially in the ghost town of Plymouth that used to be their capital city.

Seve

Gerard wrote: »

The Red Sands Fort at the Thames Estuary. Already used in Doctor Who, and I think an episode of Danger Man :

Lots of wonderful suggestions here and I was just thinking about that one myself, I saw it on "Dangerman"

Or how about this...







The house was completed in 1993 but its interior designer, John Vugrin, spent another few years with the finishing touches. It is an otherworldly space made of concrete, steel and glass, nestled into a rocky hillside in the Mojave Desert. The works began in 1988, two years after the couple met the architect for the first time.

Its heavy walls and rib-like structure make it look like a robust shelter during desert storms. It is a 4,643 square foot space with 26 columns that fan out of its rooflines like wings. Its sturdiness was successfully tested back in 1992, during the Landers earthquake.

During the construction, the Doolittles lived in a nearby home and finally took up residence in the early 2000s. Today, the couple hopes to downsize and live a simpler life, which is why have decided to sell the property. The gorgeous Doolittle home is one of many luxury properties currently on the market of the Coachella Valley area.

jobo

@Seve
That looks incredible!

NeverSayNever

The Doolittle home is almost too beautiful to be a villain lair, but it looks very 1960s Bond, especially the inside!

Trying to think of a building that would be (1) utilitarian if not futuristic, or failing that, relatively ugly and (2) at a remote/scenic location, my top candidate would be the building on top of Monte San Salvatore above Lugano:



There is also this one on Monte Bre directly opposite, but IMO it is too small and pretty:


...or, for a spot of gambling, there is the truly horrible casino on the same lake:


There is also this abominable eyesore of a hotel above Lake Como (so long as the swimming pool can be covered up), but the lake just featured in CR so it may be repetitive:


...and at the risk of retreading OHMSS territory, there are any number of mountain huts/refuges that are above the vegetation line that could do quite well, such as these:
Simonyhutte (Austria)


Rifugio Vajolet (Italy)


Jungfraujoch (Switzerland, close to Piz Gloria where OHMSS was filmed)


Kulmhotel Gornergrat (Switzerland)


or the nearby Matterhorn Glacier Paradise


or Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi (Italy/Switzerland border, also near Mt Matterhorn)


...any of the latter three can be combined with a chase/fight on the Europaweg bridge (not exactly walking distance from these, but who will know?):



All these are small-scale lairs, but I guess for a bigger one to remain unnoticed, it would have to be built underground... As an alternative, there are a number of reservoirs in the Alps (at least in Spain, Italy and France) that have flooded villages at the bottom. Perhaps an underwater lair can be concealed in one of these villages. It might be neat to then drain the reservoir and have it emerge, but that would be too similar to the satellite dish reveal in GE.

Since62 wrote: »

GeneralGogol wrote: »

Putin's palace has been in the news the last few days - it's an excellent lair, complete with an underground ice rink, vineyards, a hookah parlour, golden toilet brushes, and more!



https://rferl.org/a/photos-of-palace-allegedly-belonging-to-russian-president-vladimir-putin/31053780.html

It even comes with a villain, to make things easy...

:)) :)) :))

Since62

Those snowy peaks are quite intimidating, and difficult to reach ! How's this for an alternative - with apologies to anyone who may already have written it, as I confess I've not read all through this topic and all its posts - but a deliberately public place ? It occurred for the purposes of a Conference in QOS, but I mean as a lair. Why ? Crowded and public, so that Bond and his pals would not just bomb the daylights out of the place at some point. For example, an airport. The baddies use communications, can all see what each other sees for pictures and plans, and can even meet in person and hand off documents or objects either surreptitiously or sneak it. They need not be there, all the folks, all the time, but it could be their HQ. (Of course, decentralized, coordinated work has become ever more accepted lately, and that can be done for another film, certainly) Perhaps have a scene where the baddies get their Big Gotcha ! Surprise ! by having all the thought-they-were-random-public-visitors-and-airport-workers just stop, get quiet, and then turn around and look at the Big Baddie, and close in on the villain and their minions.

JamesStock

This is a tad off track, as I'm not speaking specifically about villain liars, but one thing that I kinda miss from the older films is highlighting/incorporating landmarks into the movie. Nowadays if a well known landmark makes it in, it is given a cameo treatment. I can understand not wanting to force a landmark into the plot for the sake of doing it, but it just feels wasted. Part of adding well known places allows people to associate themselves with the film if they've visited or are from there.

I mean when's the last time we've had action incorporated with a famous landmark (or some kind of genuine interaction)?

Denbigh

Moonhole, Bequia

Since62

Moonhole - wow !

Since62

Moonhole is in Bequia, which is in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Caribbean, Bond likes the Caribbean. Check ! The name is Moonhole, so close enough to Moonraker. Check ! Bond puts in Grenadine in his drink in Moonraker - oh, no, sorry. That was Benzedrine...close enough ! Check !

Thunderfinger

The Flatiron Building. New York.


or maybe Slinky? Not sure where this is, but it could fit a really weird villain.

NickTwentyTwo

Thunderfinger wrote: »

The Flatiron Building. New York.


or maybe Slinky? Not sure where this is, but it could fit a really weird villain.

Mathilde becomes a villain and is inspired by a childhood toy…

Denbigh

NickTwentyTwo wrote: »

Thunderfinger wrote: »

The Flatiron Building. New York.


or maybe Slinky? Not sure where this is, but it could fit a really weird villain.

Mathilde becomes a villain and is inspired by a childhood toy…

Her scheme is to make the building into a giant killer slinky.

j_w_pepper

The ultimate villain lair, at least for the time being.