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Bond Villains exhibit to open at Spy Museum in Washington DC
As "Skyfall", the latest in the James Bond film series, opens in theaters this November, the International Spy Museum will mount a major new exhibit featuring the most memorable villains who have appeared since 007 first hit the screen in DR. NO in 1962.
The interactive exhibit, "Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains," will feature James Bond's chief adversaries, their henchmen, lairs, and weapons. Over 100 artifacts from the films will be on display including Zao's Jaguar XKR from DIE ANOTHER DAY, the satellite from GOLDENEYE, Jaws' teeth from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and Dr. No's tarantula from DR. NO. Visitors can also swim with sharks, become a villain, and create their own personal lair as part of the exhibit's many interactive displays.
"We are thrilled to see James Bond's villains come to life in an exhibit that will mark 50 years of 007 defeating his cunning and brutal adversaries," said Peter Earnest, the Museum's executive director and a former CIA covert operations officer. "Throughout the exhibit, visitors will hear real stories from real spies who will share their 'Bond moments' and describe connections between the James Bond films and actual world events and espionage tradecraft."
In addition to comments from members of the intelligence community, the exhibit will feature: immersive environments, exciting interactive opportunities, psychological profiles of the villains, and classic film and audio clips. For the first time ever, the villains will be placed in historical context, enabling guests to explore how the evildoers and their plots have changed to reflect the times and inviting guests to explore the connection between fact and fiction.
Fans of the Museum should check the International Spy Museum's website ( www.spymuseum.org ) for updates on the exhibit.
The interactive exhibit, "Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains," will feature James Bond's chief adversaries, their henchmen, lairs, and weapons. Over 100 artifacts from the films will be on display including Zao's Jaguar XKR from DIE ANOTHER DAY, the satellite from GOLDENEYE, Jaws' teeth from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and Dr. No's tarantula from DR. NO. Visitors can also swim with sharks, become a villain, and create their own personal lair as part of the exhibit's many interactive displays.
"We are thrilled to see James Bond's villains come to life in an exhibit that will mark 50 years of 007 defeating his cunning and brutal adversaries," said Peter Earnest, the Museum's executive director and a former CIA covert operations officer. "Throughout the exhibit, visitors will hear real stories from real spies who will share their 'Bond moments' and describe connections between the James Bond films and actual world events and espionage tradecraft."
In addition to comments from members of the intelligence community, the exhibit will feature: immersive environments, exciting interactive opportunities, psychological profiles of the villains, and classic film and audio clips. For the first time ever, the villains will be placed in historical context, enabling guests to explore how the evildoers and their plots have changed to reflect the times and inviting guests to explore the connection between fact and fiction.
Fans of the Museum should check the International Spy Museum's website ( www.spymuseum.org ) for updates on the exhibit.
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Comments
Absolutely agree! Was there last year and loved Washington DC! Would love to visit this exhibit as sounds good fun! Alas life will not let me! :(( So hopefully someone stateside will visit and post some pics for the rest of us?
I am heading to DC next weekend for the first time and fearing a prolonged and continued shutdown the Spy museum may be my only option to check out! I was going to enjoy all of the free stuff to do like the Smithsonian museums, but that's looking bleak at the moment...
Hopefully the two parties will get their acts together soon and sort out their issues! If you should go then do please post some pics if possible? I am sure their are alot of other people on here who would love to see them! Me included! :D :-bd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24357415
Good luck with your visit; I'd love to see some photos if possible.
Good luck with your assignment! ;)
We pre-booked our tickets for doors opening at 10am on Sunday to avoid any potential queues. Even at 10am, it was pretty busy - a knock-on effect from the shutdown no doubt. Ticket price is $20.00 which is fair. The outside of the museum has a large logo advertising the 'Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains' exhibit and the windows are adorned with famous villains of the franchise. Looks cool even before you go in!
As you enter the museum, you are immediately presented with Bond paraphernalia everywhere, from Silva's police uniform in SF, to the sea-drill used in TND and Zao's green Jaguar XKR from DAD. There is a screen showing clips of the car in action behind it (Thankfully no Jinx to be seen as this is all about the villains. Phew). You wait for the lift and head up to start the exhibition.
Now the first half of the museum is non-Bond except for the Aston Martin DB5 which suddenly appears like a shining beacon in the distance. Although stationary, you can see the car's gadgets in action during a 1-minute sequence where the car 'comes to life'. Quite a neat little effect. The cool part here is that you have the opportunity to take a photo of yourself with the car using the museum camera expertly placed pointing towards you. Just pose, let the machine take the photo and then e-mail it to yourself.
The spy museum is very well presented and there are lots of things to keep you entertained. The real fun begins once you get to the second half of the museum: the Bond Villain exhibit. Let's face it - this is what I really came for. You descend the stairs to the lower level bypassing walls of Bond movie posters from around the world and then you come to a giant wall with the words "Time to die Mr Bond..." scrawled on it for eerie effect. Time to step into the world of the Bond villain...
I can't go through each and every thing to see here, but I must say that it is detailed and organised beautifully. Villains are separated by their motives ie/ the megalomaniacs like Zorin and Carver are paired together in one area, baddies like Drax and Stromberg are put together as they both share the ideology of global genocide and the birth of a new world, druglords like Kananga and Franz Sanchez have their own area...I can go on. What I'm saying is that a lot of thought has gone into the exhibition and I applaud that. Blofeld has his own area which represents his volcano lair - one minor gripe I had is that one wall display noted Blofeld appearing in FYEO, however that as we know is not actually 'official'
Each area is crammed full of facts and figures from the Bond world, display cabinets full of props, costumes, memorabilia (Jaws' teeth, Tracy Bond's FYEO headstone, Kananga's inflatable bullet 'pill', Gustav Graves' dream-mask, Scaramanga's golden gun and linen suit...) - the list goes on and on. There are lots of interactive displays too which kids (and adults!) will love. Whether it be a 'hang-tough' competition (how long can you hold on to a metal bar for when the elements are against you?), a race-against time bomb disarmament task (which plays Rule Britannia if you're successful!) or an code-breaking exercise where you crawl through Zorin Industries crates to retrieve information, there is something for all ages here.
After whiling away a good hour in the Bond section alone, it concludes with the Bond villain du jour, Silva, and the threat of technological cyber crime. A couple of Silva's laptops used in SF are here along with a mould of some of his ghastly teeth - before they decided to CGI the sequence.
After the exhibit ends you end up (where else?) but in the gift-shop. As expected, there are Bond goodies everywhere and I did pick up a cool new 007 t-shirt (only $20.00) along with a magnet and some other stuff. Exiting the museum, we felt that our money was well spent and were warm and fuzzy inside with what we had experienced. It was a lot of fun and for a Bond geek like myself, I strongly recommend it to others. If you're in the DC area, then check it out - shutdown or no shutdown!
I do have many photos, so will upload in this thread at a later date