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Casino Royale crane jump voted best 007 stunt

Radio Times Guide to Films 2009
  • Posted at 2:00pm
  • 24 September 2008
  • by PaulJones-RT
  • 6 comments

The stunning crane jump from Casino Royale - Daniel Craig's first outing as 007 - has been voted the best ever James Bond stunt in a survey of over 1,400 RadioTimes.com users.

It was closely followed by the daring scene from 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, in which Bond skis off a cliff edge to almost certain doom, only to open a Union Jack parachute in mid air.

The full results of the survey are as follow:

1. Jumping from crane to crane - Casino Royale (12%)
2. Ski chase and parachute jump - The Spy Who Loved Me (11%)
3. The car barrel roll - The Man with the Golden Gun (10%)
4. Speedboat leap - Live and Let Die (8%)
5. Thames Speedboat chase - The World is Not Enough (7%)
6. Aston Martin ejector seat - Goldfinger (5%)
7. Dive off the Verzasca Dam - GoldenEye (5%)
8. Ski chase - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (5%)
9. Jumping over crocodiles - Live and Let Die (5%)
10. Motorbike jump over a helicopter - Tomorrow Never Dies (4%)
11. Aston Martin crash and roll - Casino Royale (4%)
12. Jumping from a plane without a parachute - Moonraker (4%)
13. Parachute jump from the Eiffel Tower - A View to a Kill (4%)
14. Remote-control driving the BMW - Tomorrow Never Dies (4%)
15. The jet-pack escape - Thunderball (3%)
16. Little Nellie gyrocopter sequence - You Only Live Twice (2%)
17. Micro jet flown through the aircraft hanger - Octopussy (2%)
18. Car on two wheels - Diamonds are Forever (2%)
19. Lorry chase - Licence to Kill (1%)
20. Barefoot water-skiing - Licence to Kill (1%)
Other (1%)

Radio Times film editor Andrew Collins said "My personal favourite Bond stunt is the ski jump off the mountain because it was actually done. There would be no need to do that today, thanks to digital effects…but for me it can never match the good old days of stuntmen, parachutes and no retakes!"

Do you agree?

What do you think? Did the best stunt win? Or is Andrew right? Or is there another Bond feat that beats them both? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

**

Radio Times Guide to Films 2009

The survey was run to coincide with the release of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2009 - look out for Daniel Craig as James Bond on the cover!

The new edition of the guide is the most comprehensive ever, with more than 22,000 expert movie reviews, including over 500 new entries. Each review features a star rating, plus cast, character, writer and director credits, and details of DVD, Blu-ray and HD availability.

The 1,600-page guide also features 230 pages of actor and director filmographies, as well as an in-depth guide to Bafta and Oscar nominees and winners.

The Radio Times Guide to Films 2009 is available in all good bookshops from 25 September and can be ordered online at www.bbcshop.com.

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Post a comment | 6 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 30 April 2009
  • at 9:59pm
  • by Bondy

Reading the other comments dont you think that Andrew Collins should say sorry for suggesting the Crane Jump wasnt actually done.

This is an insult to the stunt guys who won the 2007 Taurus World Stunt Award for best high wire

  • Posted on 26 April 2009
  • at 10:50pm
  • by Sword fish

The crane jump was actually done 150ft high with saftey wires.

Dont tell me that the other stunts didnt have saftey precautions also.

  • Posted on 28 October 2008
  • at 9:16pm
  • by RicardoRed

It's possible that the Casino Royale crane jump, most recent in people's minds, has been nudged to the top for that very reason. But as a stunt, does it really beat the car roll (no 3) or the parachute jump off the cliff (no2)?

As mentioned previously, these older stunts were real and thus the dangers more so. That's why they wowed audiences so much. If they looked real, they were real. And it's the outrageous danger that these stunts posed and that communication on screen, that make these two stand out from the rest. If these go wrong, somebody dies. The parachute jump was exceptionally close to disaster as one of the detached skis missed the unfurling parachute by a matter of a foot or two; significant contact would have rendered the parachute useless. And tragically in the car roll stunt, two stuntmen died in previous attempts before there was success. I think it's a credit to these two stunts that they're at the top the list, even though they were performed over 30 years ago.

  • Posted on 18 October 2008
  • at 5:16pm
  • by barrada

Surprised that the fall while rock climbing from For Your Eyes Only didn't get a mention - also performed by Rick Sylvester who performed the Spy Who Loved Me parachute jump.

  • Posted on 14 October 2008
  • at 10:01pm
  • by barrie

The stunt in the teaser of Licence to Kill, where Bond arrests a light aircraft by hitching it's tail to a helicopter in flight, looked pretty impressive. I agree with Andrew - I lost interest in the Bond movies when they gave up on practical stunts and put the emphasis on special effects portraying physical impossibilities eg a helicopter hovering at a pitch of -45 degrees and using the blades as a weapon.

  • Posted on 25 September 2008
  • at 11:08pm
  • by Angus

To be fair, the "Jumping from crane to crane" scene was actually done too. Even though the stuntmen were wearing wires (which were then digitally removed afterwards) it's still a mad thing to attempt!

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