James Bond: Videos of His 7 Greatest Skiing Scenes

Ian Fleming’s James Bond was always bit of dab hand at skiing – with his own inimitable style – and he wears a range of natty ski outfits. The newest movie has been partly filmed in Solden in Austria’s Tirol, and here is a clip from it. We have also put together the some of our all-time favourite James Bond ski footage.

Spectre (2015)

In August 2014 the production office for Spectre was set up in Solden, ready to co-ordinate the filming, which took place from mid-January to February 2015. A total of 22 filming days was planned in the Tirol, and at its peak the film crew consisted of 500 people.

Although this is the first time 007 was filmed in Tirol, there is a connection between the famous secret agent and the region – Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, lived in Kitzbuhel in the 1920s.

Spectre stars Daniel Craig and was released on November 6, 2015. Other stars of the 24th Bond film include Ralph Fiennes, Christoph Waltz, Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux, with Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

The sixth James Bond film stars George Lazenby in his only appearance as 007 and wearing a powder blue skin-tight onesie. Here he visits arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (acted by Telly Savalas), who has set up a clinical research institute in Switzerland. Bond is captured, then escapes from the Piz Gloria down the slopes together with Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (played by Diana Rigg). The revolving Piz Gloria is in fact the iconic restaurant in the Jungfrau resort of Murren, pictured above – so, in spite of the video reference, the movie was not filmed in Zermatt. See the two videos below.

The same film, with some early cornice jumping sequences, a torchlight descent, and a finish on one ski à la Bode Miller during the famous race in Bormio…

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Roger Moore stars as James Bond and the movie was made in St Moritz, even though we are told on the video clip that it’s somewhere in Austria. The spectacular cliff jump (don’t try it at home!) was actually filmed on Baffin Island in Canada. Bond wears a banana yellow one-piece and what looks a bit like an avalanche airbag on his back is actually a parachute. See video below.

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Roger Moore is back again, this time donning a dusty blue jacket and a woolly hat, and one of the baddies is actually wearing a helmet…way ahead of its time. The clip was filmed at the bottom of Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Socrepes ski area, and also right through the middle of a mountain restaurant. The clip includes the tragic bobsleigh scene, during which one of the stuntmen was killed on the final day of filming. See video below.

A View To A Kill (1985)

This was Roger Moore’s last appearance as 007 and the first time snowboarding was featured in a James Bond film. Moore wears a pristine white parka and rides a snowmobile for some of the filming. Although it is said to take place in Siberia, the film was in fact shot in a mixture of Switzerland and Iceland. Incidentally, the Russians are on Elan (manufactured in what was then Yugoslavia) skis. Mike Nemesvary, three-times world champion and former captain of the British Freestyle Ski team, performed the skiing in the opening credits but the same year was paralysed in a training accident.

The Living Daylights (1987)

Timothy Dalton starred as Bond this time – he and the female lead, Maryam d’Abo, don’t ski here but drive a car on snow and ride a cello as a toboggan. The Russians are on skis and the whole thing is supposed to take place on the border region between Bratislava and Vienna which is in reality is extremely flat. In fact the sequence was filmed at Weissensee in Carinthia, Austria. See video below.

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Pierce Brosnan stars here in his third film as Bond. The skiing that supposedly takes place in the Caucasus Mountains actually happened in Chamonix. A wonderful padded ‘bubble’ releases when Bond and his female lead, Sophie Marceau, are caught in an avalanche. The stunt man is champion snowboarder/skateboarder Tom Sims and the girl is three-times world freeride champion Francine Moreillon. See video below.

Thanks for the idea provided by Chalet Chocolat. Have we missed out your favourite Bond film clip? If so, add it below. Now here’s one more! The late great Shane McConkey plays James Bond in a 2009 spoof of The Spy Who Loved Me…

Thanks to the help on this post provided by Chalet Chocolat