Ever Wondered How Special Effects In Bond Movies Are Filmed? These Pictures Reveal It All

007 Spectre scenes

The New James Bond film Spectre had some amazing visual effects to its credit and it was part of the reason it was one of the highest grossing movies of 2015. It was Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as the iconic British 007 agent and he will definitely go down in history as one of the best James Bond portrayers ever. Here we take you back to some of the most amazing visual effects of these Bond movies and tell you how they were filmed.

This Seven-Storey building collapsing under Bond isn’t all effects. The real scene took place in a mockup in Pinewood studio and took an astonishingly three months to build, film and edit into this great scene that graced our screens.

Spectre (2015) - TOP: a building collapses around Daniel Craig as he falls floor-by-floor to the ground in a scene created to look like Mexico City BOTTOM: Actually a scaffold-supported structure built at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire created the illusion.

The MI6 building in London goes up in flames. But what did the visual artist have to work with in real life? Just a small model building to superimpose the graphics on. The building was later superimposed in the backdrop.

Skyfall (2012) - In now a famous James Bond legendary scene the MI6 building on London's Thameside building is scene expoding - however (TOP) the real explosion took place safely some 25 miles away on a scaffold construction at Pinewood Studios before 'layered' on digitally to film of the real headquarters

The Aston Martin DB5 is Bond’s famous car used in many of the films. Here it is all in flames. Did the studio blow up an actual Aston Martin to show it? Of course not, they used an old model of a BMW and layered a one-third scale miniature of DB5 over the car. Smart, huh?

Skyfall (2012) - Too valuable a car to really destroy James Bond's prized Aston Martin DB5 is seen destroyed in the film (below) however as seen in top photo the car was a scale model

Steve Begg - Special Effects designer - with 3rd scale miniature Aston Martin DB5 and TOP the same model exploded for Skyfall (2012) - as the film sees an explosion destroy James Bond's prized Aston Martin DB5

In Spectre, the evil lair of Blofeld is destroyed in the end thanks to efforts of James Bond. The nice dome and everything! How much of it was real? Well, this scene shows all as a track for the actors and some stage marks were the only things that were real. So what blew up in the sky then? Probably a miniature or just pixels.

Spectre (2015) - James Bond (Right) with Bond girl Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) approach Blofeld's desert lair. Filmed in Erfoud , Morocco Special Effects and computer graphics provide the entire domed roof of Blofeld's Observatory

Give me some adrenaline! This stunt was slated to be performed in reality but authorities banned it and eventually it was filmed in an aerodrome. However, the aircraft is quite real and so was the crazy rotating motion.

Spectre (2015 film) - Special Effects to create a spiralling helicopter fight scene seen in the film as above a crowded Mexico City.

A lone helicopter in a remote area was flown and then afterwards, special effects were done to show it flowing over Mexico city itself.

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So this helicopter crashes into the building and therefore, it must have cost a fortune. But, it didn’t, okay? Both were large scale replicas and the explosion was superimposed here as well.

Skyfall (2012) - Skyfall Lodge - the childhood home of James Bond is seen in model form (see man on right for scale during filming) before explosively attacked by enemy helicopter.

The spectacular train chase in the Skyfall was quite real as it involved an actual claw mechanical digger. But visual effects created the feeling of the claw crunching the train bogey into bits right under the feet of 007 himself.

Skyfall (2012) - Viewers watched in amazement in the opening sequences as James Bond (Daniel Craig) took on a rampaging digger mounted aboard a moving train - the image below shows the CGI (computer-generated imagery) being added to footage to achieve the dramatic effect

This scene was filmed in Morocco. Madeleine and Bond oversee a huge explosion at Blofeld’s base. It was quite real as well. Except for them witnessing it part!

Spectre (2015) - (TOP) James Bond (Right) with Bond girl Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) watch the demse of Blofeld's base - filmed in Erfoud , Morocco (BOTTOM) The 24th Bond film features the largest film detonation of all time, with 70 tons of TNT used. The explosion lasted 7.5 seconds. /

This background of buildings was mostly visual effects. Only the base of these structures was real.

LEFT: Final film sees a full background of buildings / RIGHT: Special Effects later add the street scene behind using green screen filming / Bérénice Marlohe) walks (2nd Left) with Daniel Craig as James Bond through a set designed as the lair of Silva (played by Javier Bardem) /

Now this is what I call a mighty deception. These articulate expensive classical buildings only existed in a computer. Great architectural work, though!

Spectre (2015) - TOP: James Bond (2nd Right) approaches Blofeld's (played by Christoph Waltz) desert base - filmed in Erfoud , Morocco but the Observatory base entrance is seen BELOW filmed with barely a simple door frame (with guards)

Now this is getting out of hand. This mouse is also just visual effects.

Spectre (2015) James Bond is led to his next clue in the hunt for Blofeld by a mouse which crawls along the floor to a secret room within an apartment 'Who sent you?' Bond asks the mouse - we see (BOTTOM) entirely the mouse was computer trickery

The never-ending ceiling of the dome is not that high. Just high enough to give it a feeling of continuity. Amazing work though

Skyfall (2012) Daniel Craig (LEFT) lured into the 'not so grand' lair of villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem - RIGHT) as special effects give the impression of a towering hall.

These are some amazing visual effects achievements. Some of them were quite life-like but the rest were just too much to handle. What do you think?

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