Chapter 3

David

Among the many things that make a James Bond film so memorable are the over-the-top chase scenes. More importantly, whether he was escaping from henchmen or doing the chasing himself, Bond always managed to look both cool and exciting while doing it.

David had learned that many of those exciting scenes had, in fact, happened mostly via movie magic. They used rear-screen projection to show a scene in the background of a stationary car in a studio. It made it look like the car was in the middle of a high-speed car chase. They did it that way because taking an entire film crew to a busy urban area was impractical. Either it would be too dangerous, too costly, or simply wasn’t allowed.

Technology had improved to make what seemed impossible back then doable. Chubby Feldman, the director of Devil May Care, had envisioned what he called the ‘Million Dollar Scene.’ His goal was to film a mind-boggling chase scene from beginning to end in one take.

This scene was the last one David filmed. Chubby claimed it was so complicated that he wanted to do it right. David suspected that because he was doing his own stunts, Chubby was worried he would die or get hurt and be unable to finish the movie.

The ultimate goal was to create the most exciting opening scene since Spectre. That was where they dropped a building on James and ended the opening with a fight scene in a helicopter.

The tradition of showing a pre-title action scene began with From Russia with Love, the franchise’s second installment. It was short, only three minutes, and David felt it was probably the best of all of them in many ways.

It didn’t have any over-the-top action, and no one went faster than a walk. Red Grant was an assassin stalking James through the grounds of a huge villa. The tension quickly built as James heard Red when he stepped on a branch.

A game of cat and mouse ensued until Red suddenly appeared behind James and used a garrote to kill him. It was then revealed that the man everyone thought was James was actually someone else, wearing a mask, and this was a test run for killing the real James Bond. Thus, they avoided ending the franchise.

Chubby had worked with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force to get the opening shot he wanted. He’d arranged to borrow or rent drones, planes, and helicopters to film the whole sequence.

David had yet to see the scene because after filming it, he’d had to jump on a plane to New Zealand to film his Star Academy movies. So, when the lights dimmed in the theater, he leaned forward in his seat because he wanted to see how he’d almost died.

He was a bit worried because he was bracketed by his mother and Tami. Either one might kill him after they saw what was to come. The film started, and the James Bond theme music began. David turned to his mom.

“I love you,” he said in a preemptive attempt to keep her from throttling him.

The scene began with a wide shot of London, with Westminster Abbey and the London Eye observation wheel in the distance. The drone turned and climbed, focusing on a large plane that grew in the picture as the drone angled closer. In a few seconds, it showed David standing on the open back ramp of a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane, flying at 10,000 feet.

Suddenly, the image split, showing two points of view. The first remained from the drone’s perspective, while the second was from David’s point of view. A ‘chest camera’ mounted just below his throat showed what he saw as he turned to briefly scan the plane’s interior.

This was an ‘establishment shot’ designed to immerse the audience in the scene. Then both cameras showed Ian Bond turning quickly to leap from the plane.

“Is that you?” Tami asked.

He and his mom locked eyes for a moment before they turned back to the movie screen.

David was wearing a wingsuit with a twist. It was an e-wingsuit built upon BMW’s iEV technology and powered by a chest-mounted rig. He glided for a moment and then fired off the engines. It was like he’d been shot out of a cannon. Chubby later sent David an email telling him they’d clocked him shooting through the sky at 185 mph.

The military drones had no trouble keeping up with him as he flew over London. Up ahead, there was a helicopter that was his destination.

Chubby had several cameras to capture the action, ranging from the drone to the helicopters to Ian Bond’s ‘throat camera.’ Rita James had given David the movie Le Mans as part of his filmmaking education. After seeing that, he’d suggested that Chubby split the screen to show the action from the different cameras while maintaining one on a continuous shot.

Chubby wasn’t totally sold, so David pushed the idea that it would confirm that this was one continuous shot. That would be better than having viewers wonder when they cut the film to show different camera angles. So, when David saw the split screens appear, he felt vindicated. It gave the whole sequence that wow factor that Chubby had been shooting for. Now, if only the camera angles and the editing would do the extended scene justice without making it into a hodgepodge of sensory overload.

The stunt coordinator had been a real wuss because he regularly reminded David for almost three months that bad stuff would ensue if he got near the helicopter blades. He even showed him footage of an old Saturday Night Live skit where they threw a fish into a Super Bass-O-Matic. David made the appropriate head bobs to make the man go away and then pursued the scene anyway.

As David watched the film, he remembered looking down just before the drone came into range and almost chickening out. Now he watched as his character dipped below the helicopter and popped up at the door. He had no idea how he’d managed to land on the footrail.

His character opened the door, reached in, jerked a stuntman out, and grabbed a briefcase. With the different angles, you could see the man fall a long way before the screen switched to another camera.

While on the footrail, David stuffed the briefcase into a backpack. Another helicopter appeared, and a door opened. A man with a gun brought it up to fire as David let go and began to fall. David fired up the e-wingsuit and raced toward the ground with the second helicopter pacing him.

David marveled at what a good pilot the man flying the helicopter was as he watched them fly between London skyscrapers. The chopper kept right on David’s tail as he made multiple turns and twists to try to get away. He then shot to the warehouse district, where a new apartment complex was being built.

David also admired Chubby’s genius as the split camera views shifted several times to highlight different aspects of the chase while maintaining the continuous throat-camera view. Chubby had pulled it off, to David’s eye. The numerous gasps and exclamations David kept hearing from the sophisticated audience around him seemed to confirm his judgment. This scene would be talked about for a long, long time.

His character swooped down to land on the upper level of the half-completed apartment building, where there were only exposed I-beams. As he quickly shed his suit and helmet, the helicopter hovered, and four lines were dropped. That was followed by the four villains dressed all in black, rappelling down the ropes.

The next phase had David parkouring down the exposed structure as he fought the four men. Both his mother and Tami dug their fingernails into his thighs as they cringed when he almost fell to his death a number of times. While some of that was acting, there were a couple of times when he almost took a tumble—which he did not point out to his mom.

Even David cringed when he saw himself sliding down beams and then twisting and turning to launch himself to another floor. During the action, one of the stuntmen lost his balance and plunged five stories. David was glad their stunt coordinator had prepared for that sort of mistake, and the man had only minor bruising after the scene.

The final jump was spectacular as David dropped two stories to the roof of a construction trailer. It had been designed to cushion his fall, but he flinched, remembering how it had all but knocked him silly. The three remaining men chasing him were right behind, so his character made a running leap toward the neighboring building. David snagged a railing on a fire escape and climbed to the roof.

The following sequence consisted of running and leaping from rooftop to rooftop. David used his full range of parkour tricks as he bounced, swung, jumped, and launched himself through, over, and around different obstacles. He’d loved it because it was like a giant game of super-tag.

The final jump was really long, so his character sprinted full out. As his character flew through the air between buildings, David rocked back into his theater seat with a satisfied grin. The stunt had called for him to come up short and grab the edge of the building. He was to dangle there for a moment to let the bad guys catch up, but by some miracle, he stuck the landing.

Not knowing what to do, David turned and tipped his imaginary cap at the hooligans chasing him and grinned as he aped a line from M.C. Hammer, rapping U Can’t Touch This.

He then ran to the far side of the roof, where he jumped down to different roof levels until he reached the ground. David’s character looked back and ran down the street. As he reached the intersection, an Aston Martin raced up, and the door flew open.

The split screen at the end showed David’s view of Stewart Thatcher smiling sardonically from the driver’s seat while simultaneously showing Stewart’s view of a slightly winded Ian Bond.