Pierce Brosnan’s favourite James Bond scene: “playing that role, you will get hurt”
Everyone has their favourite iteration of James Bond. Maybe you like the old-school suaveness of Sean Connery or Roger Moore’s arch, borderline camp characterisation. Perhaps you like the gritty, downbeat turn that Timothy Dalton took or the impeccably dressed action hero brought to us by Pierce Brosnan.
Whichever version of 007 you like the most, chances are, a sizeable proportion of your calculation comes down to the action sequences. There would be no franchise without the death-defying stunts. Sure, there is a delicate balance in the Bond formula that involves multiple parts. The movie needs a great villain, a stunning location or two, a handful of unlikely gadgets, and at least three jaw-dropping action set-pieces.
When it comes to this latter part of the equation, the Brosnan era was up to the task. In GoldenEye, his first tango as 007, Brosnan bungee jumped off the 220-metre (720-foot) Contra Dam in Switzerland by way of introduction. For many, this film is, unfortunately, the peak of his tenure in the character, but for Brosnan himself, that came four years later in his third Bond caper, The World is Not Enough. During an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, the actor revealed that it was that film that contains his favourite scene.
“I think going down the Thames in the bullet boat was pretty impressive,” he said. The sequence takes place at the opening of the movie when Bond is chasing an assassin who attempts to escape in a hot air balloon after reaching the Millennium Dome. Brosnan did his own stunt work for the sequence and spent two weeks blasting around a small lake in the boat, but he said that it didn’t prepare him for the anxiety and thrill of doing the scene in the Thames.
When he arrived on set to shoot it, there was an oxygen tank on either side of him in case the boat capsized, and he was strapped in as if he were about to do a space launch. The crew told him that if he flipped, he’d have to be taken to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. In the end, he did get injured doing the scene, but not because of the boat overturning.
It’s James Bond, so the boat couldn’t just be a watercraft. At one point, it crashes onto dry land and turns out to be a car as well. Just before hitting the water again, 007 barrels through a restaurant, splintering the walls and overturning tables.
“Some wood just sort of sliced my face open,” Brosnan said. “So, went off to the hospital, got stitched up. But playing that role, you will get hurt, there’s no question about it. You’ve got to have stamina.”
That particular scene also required stamina from the audience. It is, to date, the second-longest pre-title sequence in a Bond film behind 2021’s No Time to Die. However, it does not outstay its welcome. It might not be quite as hair-raising as that bungee jumping introduction in GoldenEye, but it has suspense, a souped-up vehicle, and Bond looking ridiculously dapper given the circumstances. What more could you ask for?
