Department M: A new fan-made interactive Bond location map & ranking tool

[MapCurator]

Hi everyone,

I recently joined the forum specifically to share a passion project I’ve been working on lately. It’s a free, interactive map of the James Bond universe called Department M (where M stands for Map).

You can access it here: James Bond 007 Filming Locations Map | Department M

I wanted to build the ultimate geographical dossier for 007 fans. Right now, the map includes:

Cinematic Locations:~~ The exact filming spots across the 60-year history of the franchise. You can browse the locations by Bond actor era or specific film~~

Literary Locations:~~ Real-world locations used by Fleming in his original novels~~ (like the actual Sotheby’s from The Property of a Lady~~ or the specific casino inspirations for Casino Royale).~~

The Lifestyle Archive:~~ Pins for tailoring (Anthony Sinclair, Turnbull & Asser, etc.), gear, and historically significant spots for the franchise. You can easily see where each brand is located in case you are planning a new trip to a place like London.~~

Community:~~ I’ve also started mapping out global Bond fan clubs, content creators and podcasts.~~

Historical timeline:~~ Where Bond has been according to the films (sometimes actual filming location and the location in the film’s story differ)~~

Noteworthy Events for Bond fans: The map scans and updates on regular basis events that would be interesting for us Bond fans like concerts, gatheralls, location tours by Martjin Mulder, cinemas showcasing classic Bond movies etc. You can save an event or all the listed events easily to your calendar.

Bucketlist items for Bond fans:~~ evolving list of Bondian experiences (open to your suggestions)~~

Dossier:~~ You can create your own personal list of favorites from all these categories~~

And couple other features…

Why I’m posting it here:~~ Honestly, the CommanderBond community possesses such a wealth of accumulated knowledge about this franchise,~~ so I would truly appreciate your feedback, comments, and ideas.

Final note: This is entirely a fan tribute project, and I intend to keep it free (no need to create an account or deal with other modern digital annoyances). The feature set and stored data will grow over the coming years based on your feedback. I hope you might even discover new trivia, locations, or interesting content creators from the map like I did when developing it to this stage.

Cheers and have a great weekend,

J / Map Curator

P.S. There might be a hidden feature for Fleming fans if you zoom in enough on the map…

[secretagentfan]

Welcome to the Forum! Great work!

[Yellow-Pinky]

Welcome! And awesome!

[Dustin]

Welcome to CBn, @MapCurator - congratulations on a most impressive feat!

Minor detail: while Chamonix is the location TWINE’s ski scenes were shot Bond didn’t chase Cigar Girl there, who already died at the end of the pts. That skiing scene doesn’t start out as a chase; Bond simply joins Elektra King on a high mountain heli skiing trip where they are ambushed by the attackers.

The mountains above Chamonix are also the place where litBond’s parents died in a climbing accident.

[MapCurator]

Thank you everybody for the feedback (you guys are one of the first to see the map in public version).

And Dustin, you made an excellent remark regarding Chamonix and I have now updated the dataset for both the TWINE movie and the You only live twice book (you might need to reload the map to see the changes take place).

All feedback ideas and data fixes most welcome!

[Dustin]

You’re welcome, glad to be of service.

[MrKiddWint]

First, welcome.

Second, excellent work.

Third: my DAF (movie) suggestions:

1. It is the Palm Boulder Highway Mortuary & Cemetery in Henderson, Nevada. I will end up either there or in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

2. Filming occurs on the Amstel River (for waterway completists)

3. Frankfurt Airport masquerades as Schiphol Airport (blessed are those who have stood on that tarmac).

4. Tropicana Hotel (demolished); Landmark Hotel (demolished); and Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (extant–formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton). The last two are combined with Ken Adam sets to give us The Whyte House. Kuleshov lives!!

5. 515 West Via Lola, Palm Springs (Kirk Douglas’ former home) – Tiffany Case’s rental house in Las Vegas

6. McCarran Airport (now Harry Reid International Airport)

7. Johns Manville Gypsum Plant, Las Vegas (now PABSCO Gypsum). Original dome demolished, and replaced by:

Ars longa, vita brevis

[MapCurator]

This is spectacular feedback for improving the DAF entries, thank you!

I just updated the map database based on your notes including adding Frankfurt/Schiphol airport, the Amstel River, McCarran, and the Gypsum plant for the moon buggy chase.

[MrKiddWint]

@MapCurator

thank you!

Happy to help. I live in service to the genius of DAF.

I am sure others will assist in their areas of expertise/obsession.

[stromberg]

@MrKiddWint

Frankfurt Airport masquerades as Schiphol Airport (blessed are those who have stood on that tarmac).

Blessed I am. A few years ago, the German Fan Club had their annual meeting in Frankfurt. One of our members had done an intense research and found out about the exact location where the scenes where shot, so we did the airport bus tour with the club, and as part of our arrangement we stopped at the exact location. The original hangars are long gone, so we stood somewhere on the tarmac in the middle of the airport.

[MrKiddWint]

@stromberg

we stopped at the exact location

It was you I was thinking of when I wrote that.

Yet another piece of DAF demolished, and yet also preserved on film and in pixels.

[theSpectre]

Pretty cool. Spot on with the locations for Live and Let Die in New Orleans. I posted pictures years ago of the approximate location of the Fillet of Soul. Will you be adding information from the continuation novels and games?

[MapCurator]

Thanks for feedback and future roadmap ideas!

Now with the release of the new 007 game, that could be an interesting new layer. Same goes for expanding the “By the book” section with continuation novels.

The latest feature I finished developing for the map has been a visual map layer showing the countries where Bond has been so far and possible contenders for the next movies. You can access the new map layer with this shortcut: https://department-m.agency/map/?entry=bond_filming_locations

[Double-0-Slevin]

Wow this is incredible! I appreciate that it’s pretty easy to navigate on mobile as well.

A few additions:

For The Man With The Golden Gun, The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong. I was there about 10 years ago, and they still had their green Rolls Royces.

For Fan Clubs, there’s at least two stateside:

-Capitol Royale 007 in the Washington DC Metro Area

-To Live and Let Die in L.A. in Los Angeles.

[Double-0-Slevin]

I actually just made a note in my phone the other day listing all the Bond locations I’ve been to, by movie, so I have these fresh in my mind.

A few more notes:

The Living Daylights:

-I see you have Vienna listed and the specific locations in the description. I feel like the Prater Ferris wheel and Schönbrunn Palace are distinct enough to get their own entries

Die Another Day:

-The surfing at the very beginning was filmed at Jaws surf break (Pe’ahi) on Maui in Hawaii.

Casino Royale:

-You can add the filming location for the interior for Bond and Vesper’s hotel lobby as being in the Prague National Museum

Spectre:

-I’m not sure about the location in Vienna for the funeral. I thought it was filmed at the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome? Also you have it listed as the Pale King’s funeral, but the Pale King was Mr. White, not Marco Sciarra.

-I’d add in Rules Restaurant in Covent Garden for where M is having dinner before the climax.

[Jim]

Interesting idea and a massive task but some of the English locations seem a bit off? e.g. part of Tomorrow Never Dies’ bike chase being filmed on what appears to be Cannock Chase? Forgive me if I have been generally unaware of this fact to date.

[MapCurator]

Thank you Double-0-Slevin for fantastic inputs. I have now made several updates to the map base data based on your comments. Do let me know if you find further improvement ideas.

[MapCurator]

You are absolutely right Jim, that this is a massive task and I should perhaps highlight more in the UI that the source data is in no way close to complete and there are several fine tunings needed for various locations.

Regarding the Tomorrow never dies, I have now updated the location for the bike chase to be in Frogmore Studios, Hertfordshire.

Do please let me know if you spot further entries needing improvements.

[Jim]

Certainly don’t want to appear too picky as this is an excellent idea, but the following did spring to mind - all England/Wales - either as curiosities or potential inclusions (the function to filter by film is great):

Die Another Day - I think the very final scene (exteriors anyway) of the Korean temple which Bond and Jinx desecrate with some dreadful acting, was somewhere above a beach in Cardigan Bay - I think.

The Living Daylights - a few here - I think the entry for Eastbourne/Beachy Head should refer to the Land Rover in the pre-titles rather than the Hercules later on. The Blayden Safe House could be included perhaps (Stonor House near Henley on Thames) and not solely because it is five minutes from where I live; the entry for Marlow (Quarterdeck) is probably better as one for OHMSS?; some of the others read as quite surprising and things I did not know and will take your word for it.

Tomorrow Never Dies - I thought the car chase was Brent Cross shopping centre rather than any car park associated with Oxford University; knowing the car parks of Oxford well, for reasons too disgusting to broadcast, can’t think where it might have been if in Oxford; there is the bit though where Bond’s car is parked at Oxford, New College by the look of it.

[MapCurator]

Splendid updates Jim, this is exactly the type of local knowledge that makes the map that much better for all the fellow bond fans visiting the map, thank you for sharing! I have now made several updates based on your comments, should be visible in your browser if you refresh.

Another feature that I have added recently has been Michael G. Wilson’s cameos map layer, although some of the data still a working progress. So update ideas welcome!