When it comes to stunts in the films of EON Productions, there’s plenty to choose from, but the one that really sticks out in the trailer for Not Time to Die is the motorcycle jump in Matera.
Former professional motorcycle enduro racer Paul Edmondson performed the jump, in collaboration with stunt coordinator Lee Morrison.
The idea originated with Craig wanting to do a motorcycle sequence, which led the team to craft a sequence that could be shot in Matera and feel organic to the story in this case, Bond trying to get back to Madeleine as fast as possible.
The shot itself took three days in total to film, with the landing complicated by wind conditions that wound up ruining several of Edmondson’s jumps during rehearsals.
But hey — professionals still be professionals, and we wound up with yet another in a long line of great Bond stunts.
Then there’s the bungee jump in GoldenEye… To capture the full grandeur of the jump, production used multiple camera angles to show both the massive scope and to cut in for the little moments that really sell the sequence, like Bond pulling out a gun at the end of the fall — which Michaels managed just before passing out.
As he says “The loading on the ropes is extreme and the body is traveling at such a high rate of speed that it puts a great deal of strain on you.
You’re trying desperately to hit a pocket of air that will take you away from the wall, and the winds that are whipping around the bowl of the dam toss you like a leaf.
At the end of the jump, I only had milliseconds to pull out a gun to complete the scene, and there was nothing that was going to stop me from getting that damn gun out.”
With that Bondian attitude along for the ride, the jump itself was done in just one take — after a whole heap of testing and a couple weeks of waiting for the weather to cooperate.
There are plenty more, some of which we even talk about in this video. So, you know… maybe watch that thing.
Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
0:26 Motorcycle Jump (No Time to Die)
1:23 Construction Sequence (Casino Royale)
2:46 Opening Bungee Jump (Goldeneye)
4:10 Union Jack Parachute Jump (The Spy Who Loved Me)
4:57 No Parachute (Moonraker)
6:34 Plane Fight (Octopussy)
7:12 Speedboat Jump & Croc Hop (Live and Let Die)
8:28 Barrel Roll (The Man With the Golden Gun)