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Villain's Lair - then and now(?)

JR_747JR_747
edited January 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 192
We hear from Mr. Craig, he wants SF to be "Bond with a capital B" bringing back lots of classic elements of the franchise.
Whereas in QoS Dominic Green had to book himself into a hotel for having more amenities than his unpretentious warehouse had to offer, the villain's lair is a very classic element that featured in most of the serie's outings.

So let's talk lairs! Which is your favourite one? And do you expect the villain to have one in SF or any future Bond movies?
Do you think the concept would still work and if yes, what would todays lair be like, what are your ideas, what would you hope for?
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Comments

  • actonsteveactonsteve
    Posts: 1,492
    I think you will have trouble doing a classic villains lair launching rockets and in a geographical oddity due to Austin Powers. Dr Evil and his laser shooting sharks sent it so far up that Eon are reluctant to do it anymore.

    I am not sure you can go there anymore.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    Always like the hidden lair like Kananga's! If this Castle/Manor House is too be built and feature as the finale to Skyfall? There is certain scope to get creative underneath the building?

    The trick is not to push it too far, and make it unrealistic depending on the tone of the movie and how BOND they want to make it?
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    edited December 2012 Posts: 12,837
    The volcanoe lair has to be the best, but the ice palace from DAD is also great.

    I think they can still have a villian lair, especially if they want this to be a classic bond film. The scottish castle could've been a great lair, with a secret underground part.
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 2,341
    Stromberg had the best lair of all. His Atlantis even beats the Volcano in YOLT and Kanaga's in LALD.

    I doubt that we would see these again. Times have changed. Evil would be men like Donald Trump , Elliott Carver. Long gone are the classic lairs.
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    Posts: 3,262
    My favorites are the volcano base from YOLT and the space station from MR. They could still work today. It would be great if Ken Adam could return to the series. He knew exactly how to make them right.
  • Char35tChar35t
    Posts: 289
    Lair you ask? How about a whole decommissioned missile silo complex....
  • Whitaker1987Whitaker1987
    Posts: 172
    Of the meglomaniac villain lairs the volcano wins by a mile. All the sets in the series have had great appeal.

    I think Peter Lamont & Co have also done brilliant designs after Ken Adams FAB effort.

    The modern ones like Kamal's Palace, Kristato's Monastry & Whitaker's villa all had a lot of thought put into them. Nice locations & great surrounding scenary whats not to like?

    I think for Skyfall the old castle would have been nice but I'll wait a good few months & see what lavish estate, boat, island etc the baddie gets to brag about.

  • timmertimmer
    edited January 2012 Posts: 4,622
    All proper Bond-villain lairs are constructed around natural rock formations. Just a fact.

    A couple of exceptions though: Stromberg's Atlantis and Drax's space station. Although Drax did have a magnificent, proper Bond-villain lair, in the Amazon jungle.

    Natural rock formation Bond-villain lairs:

    Dr. No Crab Key complex.
    Blofeld's volcano lair.
    Piz Gloria; built around natural mountain rock formations
    Blofelds DAF pts lair.
    Kananga's San Monique underground lair.
    Scaramanga's island lair.
    Drax's Amazon Moonraker base/lair.
    Trevelyan's Cuban, underwater, natural rock formation,Goldeneye station.
    Grave's ice palace complex and fake diamond-mine, set amongst natural terrain formations.

    My favourite Bond lair is the Spectre volcano. Nothing will ever top that. That was the ultimate Bond-villain experience.

    Dr. No's Crab Key set-up is a close second.

    Kananga's underground complex takes third. Hard to argue with both mono-rails and sharks.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    timmer wrote:
    Natural rock-formation Bond-lairs.

    Dr. No Crab Key complex.
    Blofeld's volcano lair.
    Blofelds DAF pts lair.
    Kananga's San Monique underground lair.
    Scaramanga's island lair.
    Drax's Amazon Moonraker base.
    Trevelyans underwater Cuban, Goldeneye station.
    Grave's ice palace complex and fake diamond-mine, took adavantage of natural formations.

    Can I add Piz Gloria to this? Always been one of my favourite classic Bond lairs. I think it delivers on all counts and is suitably iconic while grounded in reality. You could get away with it now.

  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    -The Volcano Lair
    -Piz Gloria
    -Scaramanga's Island
    -Atlantis and Liparus
    -St. Cyril's
    -The Monsoon Palace
    -Trevelyan's Cuba Complex
    -Stealth Boat

    Those are my favorites, and yes, I would very much like to see this vital piece of Bondness included in SkyFall.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    I liked the Doctor No set up if I may, Crab Key etc. Also Piz Gloria deserves some recognition, definitely Scaramanga hideout in Asia, Kurt Jurgens water base, Kamal Khan residence, Alec Trevelyan's Cuban base too
  • timmertimmer
    Posts: 4,622
    RC7 wrote:
    Can I add Piz Gloria to this? Always been one of my favourite classic Bond lairs. I think it delivers on all counts and is suitably iconic while grounded in reality. You could get away with it now.
    My error. Yep, Piz Gloria was built around the mountain's natural rock formations. It's quite apparent in a couple of scenes.

  • JR_747JR_747
    edited January 2012 Posts: 192
    The best thing about Piz Gloria is of course, that it is one of the very few lairs that really do exist! I've been there several times. And you can imagine this "Blofeldish" feeling of residing up there on a small mountain peak in your revolving lair with little but thin air around you. And the world beneath you...
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Do you remember the samarai castle set in Inception? Brilliant - and I'd love something like that in a Bond film. I do like the ones mentioned above, too. I especially liked St. Cyril's.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    JR_747 wrote:
    The best thing about Piz Gloria is of course, that it is one of the very few lairs that really do exist! I've been there several times. And you can imagine this "Blofeldish" feeling of residing up there on a small mountain peak in your turning lair with little but thin air around you. And the world beneath you...

    Lucky you! Its certainly a place i would like to visit! Is it expensive to go? What was the food in the restaurant like?
  • JR_747JR_747
    edited January 2012 Posts: 192
    RogueAgent wrote:
    JR_747 wrote:
    The best thing about Piz Gloria is of course, that it is one of the very few lairs that really do exist! I've been there several times. And you can imagine this "Blofeldish" feeling of residing up there on a small mountain peak in your revolving lair with little but thin air around you. And the world beneath you...

    Lucky you! Its certainly a place i would like to visit! Is it expensive to go? What was the food in the restaurant like?

    You mean if it's expensive to eat there? No, not at all. I'm afraid you might have a wrong expectation: the restaurant is not posh at all! It's a skiers' restaurant where people go in there skiing outfits and boots before trying the black descent (on which Bond escaped in the movie ;-))
    The restaurant is a bit better than the ones you usually find at mountain top gondola stations, it's not self service e.g.
    The food is rustic and how you would expect it to be in a skiers restaurant, but really ok. And it's not expensive - if I remember correctly you can get a decent meal for about 8 or 10 quid, subject to the exchange rate, of course. I expected it to be more expensive as Switzerland in general is rather expensive and the place is special for sure! Not only for Bond fans!
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,350
    You asked for the menu:
    <a href="http://www.schilthorn.ch/en/schilthorn/our-offers/">Blofeld's lair menu</a>
    1 CHF/Siwss Frank = 1.09 US-Dollar
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    JR_747 wrote:
    RogueAgent wrote:
    JR_747 wrote:
    The best thing about Piz Gloria is of course, that it is one of the very few lairs that really do exist! I've been there several times. And you can imagine this "Blofeldish" feeling of residing up there on a small mountain peak in your revolving lair with little but thin air around you. And the world beneath you...

    Lucky you! Its certainly a place i would like to visit! Is it expensive to go? What was the food in the restaurant like?

    You mean if it's expensive to eat there? No, not at all. I'm afraid you might have a wrong expectation: the restaurant is not posh at all! It's a skiers' restaurant where people go in there skiing outfits and boots before trying the black descent (on which Bond escaped in the movie ;-))
    The restaurant is a bit better than the ones you usually find at mountain top gondola stations, it's not self service e.g.
    The food is rustic and how you would expect it to be in a skiers restaurant, but really ok. And it's not expensive - if I remember correctly you can get a decent meal for about 8 or 10 quid, subject to the exchange rate, of course. I expected it to be more expensive as Switzerland in general is rather expensive and the place is special for sure! Not only for Bond fans!
    zebrafish wrote:
    You asked for the menu:
    <a href="http://www.schilthorn.ch/en/schilthorn/our-offers/">Blofeld's lair menu</a>
    1 CHF/Siwss Frank = 1.09 US-Dollar
    zebrafish wrote:
    You asked for the menu:
    <a href="http://www.schilthorn.ch/en/schilthorn/our-offers/">Blofeld's lair menu</a>
    1 CHF/Siwss Frank = 1.09 US-Dollar

    Wow thats pretty good value really! I thought it would be much more expensive than that! Thank you for the info.
  • JR_747JR_747
    Posts: 192
    The more expensive part will be getting up there! If you have a ski pass for the Mürren area it's included, but if you just want to get up and down again as a pedestrian it's 95 CHF!
  • timmertimmer
    edited January 2012 Posts: 4,622
    JR_747 wrote:
    The more expensive part will be getting up there! If you have a ski pass for the Mürren area it's included, but if you just want to get up and down again as a pedestrian it's 95 CHF!
    Are the Bond movie-set reference points still apparent? Can we walk about and experience some of the movie spots?

  • Arsenal02071Arsenal02071
    Posts: 162
    Atlantis is the all time classic lair in my opinion. It would be a little cheesy these days however. I also like the lair next to the ocean in TWINE where they keep M.
  • Arsenal02071Arsenal02071
    Posts: 162
    I also like the mountain top monastery in FYEO.
  • JR_747JR_747
    edited January 2012 Posts: 192
    timmer wrote:
    JR_747 wrote:
    The more expensive part will be getting up there! If you have a ski pass for the Mürren area it's included, but if you just want to get up and down again as a pedestrian it's 95 CHF!
    Are the Bond movie-set reference points still apparent? Can we walk about and experience some of the movie spots?

    Sure! Of course much of the place looks different now. E.g. the main foyer where you arrive by gondola with Blofelds family emblem is now where all the racks are to put your ski. But you can still find Blofelds emblem, but they moved it to a different hallway.

    That's the fun part to walk about the place and figure out which are the places from the film and recognise details that still look the same - or If not, what they look now. E.g. the outside stairs leading from the heli pad to the lower parts of the building are gone, but you will find that the 60s style decorations at the stairs leading up to the revolving restaurant are still the same, etc. etc...
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    i have so got to do this at somepoint soon! A genuine working iconic Bond set that still exists is pretty rare indeed! Will be worth the expense just to see it and experience the atmosphere!
  • JR_747JR_747
    Posts: 192
    You really should, it's worth it! Best in winter of course.
    Is it very far for you?
  • RisicoRisico
    Posts: 97
    As long as any future lair looks like it was designed by Ken Adam, I'll be happy!
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    JR_747 wrote:
    You really should, it's worth it! Best in winter of course.
    Is it very far for you?

    i'm in the UK so not too bad. Could make it a part of a tour? But would take some planning! But i appreciate all the info you have given me! Thank you.
  • JR_747JR_747
    Posts: 192
    Somewhat related to this lair topic: here you vote for your most favourite Bond locations from all the films.
    http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/vote_movie_locations.php3
  • JR_747JR_747
    Posts: 192

    RogueAgent wrote:
    i'm in the UK so not too bad. Could make it a part of a tour? But would take some planning! But i appreciate all the info you have given me! Thank you.

    Pleasure!
    When you arrive in Lauterbrunnen down in the valley make sure to visit the train station: it's where Bond arrived. Still the same building, with the same newsstand where Campbell observed from behind a newspaper.
    As probably no Irma Bunt will be awaiting you with her sledge, take the gondola opposite the street. It will take you just up on the edge of the cliffy valley Lauterbrunnen is located in. There you change on a train that takes you along the edge of the valley to Mürren, a car-free village in the middle of the skiing district.
    From there take the gondola up to the "Birg" middle station. Get on the restaurant's terrace from where you can get a first glance at Piz Gloria up ahead. Just like Campbell did.
    When you have finally arrived at Piz Gloria, enjoy!

    And if you do ski, make your "escape" Bond style, of course!


  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    Cheers JR_747! That's brilliant! Cannot ski as well as Bond sadly! :))
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