Fast and furious, Bond-style

‘Bond in Motion’ takes you through the entire 60-year history of Ian Fleming’s character… on wheels. And it’s a gas.

There are cars. And then there are James Bond cars.

Over 23 films spanning six decades, 007 has been behind the wheel of an amazing fleet of automobiles — some spewing tacks and oil slicks, some outfitted with rocket launchers and ejection seats. One recent exhibit in London lets you step into the movie frame and get a look at all the top gear.

You don’t have to be a car enthusiast to love “Bond in Motion,” ongoing at the London Film Museum  (Wellington Street, near Covent Garden). It’s a huge space devoted to all the great rides that made James Bond films such a thrill.

You don’t expect to find a fleet of Aston Martins, Mercedes-Benzes, Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Jaguars down in the basement of the London Film Museum. But suddenly, this touristy spot of London seems a bit more suave, dashing. A bit more Bond.

Entering the exhibit hallway, you see a lethal-looking helicopter — it’s a scale model of the AugustaWestland AW101 used by Javier Bardem to hunt down Daniel Craig’s 007 at his abandoned Scottish estate in Skyfall. One-third the actual size, it was used for the final battle sequence and is the most recent entry in the Bond series, but “Bond in Motion” takes you through the entire 60-year history of Ian Fleming’s character. And it’s a gas.

Not just cars, but every form of Bond transport is on display — personal submarines and private jets, mini-helicopters and snow skidoos, moon rovers and aqua cars loaned from parent film company EON Productions. It’s a mind-bending trip through the many devices that allowed James Bond to make his getaways.

Technology has always been a key draw of the Bond movies. Ever since Q showed off his attaché case outfitted with knives, sniper rifles and tear gas capsules in 1964’s From Russia With Love, fans have grooved on 007’s gadgets. One man was responsible for bringing a lot of these cool toys to life: upstairs at the exhibit, look through detailed concept drawings and storyboards by Sir Ken Adam, the technical designer who served on the Bond films for decades. His souped-up cars — loaded with weapons and contraptions — are incredible morphs. Who can forget the Aston Martin from Goldfinger, capable of eluding pursuers in a hail of machine-gun bullets, spraying nails or oil in its wake, and equipped with an ejector seat for those hard-to-get-out-of situations?

Sir Adam really was the H.R. Giger for gearheads. His visionary drawings come close to science fiction or steampunk fantasy, but some features — like bullet-proof windows and reversible license plates — might actually be commonplace among today’s Filipino politicians.

Not only that, but most of his concepts — from the flying car to the flamethrowers coming out of the Aston Martin grill — were used to build actual working models.

It’s the trip downstairs, though, that brings you face to face with Bond’s four-wheeled co-stars.

It’s a vast floor space with overhead pin lighting, as big as a car dealership, where you can walk through just about every major ride from the Bond movies.

And there are specs, specs, and more specs.

You’ll see the original Aston Martin DB5 that set the ball rolling in Dr. No (1962), and a few others that got more ostentatious as the series shifted from Connery to Roger Moore, then to Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. (Yes, George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton are also represented.) The DB5 actually featured in five more Bond films: Thunderball, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale and Skyfall. If nothing else, 007 was consistent.

Behind each car is a looped film clip, bringing to life its starring role in each Bond movie. It’s really cool to watch those scenes again, because you realize that, even if you don’t remember the movies as such, the chase sequences live on in your memory.

And it goes without saying: the cars are as sexy as Bond’s co-stars. Halle Berry wore an amazing bikini in Die Another Day, but here it’s the Aston Martin Vanquish II — fully loaded with double-barrel machine guns built into the hood — that rivets your attention.

There’s a whole section devoted to aqua chases. The Wetbike, a kind of jetski used by Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever, is on display. There’s the Glastron GT150 speedboat that outran a Florida cop in Live and Let Die. The groovy Bath-O-Sub, also from 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. The white Lotus Esprit S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me that doubled as a submarine. You know how they used to promise us jetpacks in the future? Well, it looks like all the R&D went into Bond technology instead.

And never have so many beautiful cars been demolished in the name of action than in Bond movies.

There’s the Aston Martin DBS from Daniel Craig’s Quantum of Solace that looks like it went through a cheese grater (paired with another of the same model, tortured beyond repair in Casino Royale two years earlier). There’s the Renault Alliance that gets decapitated by a concrete underpass in A View To A Kill (probably deserving, it’s such a meh car). Though the Bond movies show a love of automobiles, there’s also a perverse auto-destructive streak: cars ritually take a beating. Take the scene in Tomorrow Never Dies where Pierce Brosnan “parks” a BMW 750iL via remote control by sending it flying off a rooftop and through the window of an Avis Car Rental.

And yes: there is a jetpack.

Remember the scene with Q (John Cleese) in Die Another Day where Pierce Brosnan fiddles around with a Bell-Textron jetpack previously used by Sean Connery in 1968’s Thunderball? “Does this thing still work?” Brosnan remarks smugly. Turns out it did: it could fly 15 feet in the air, though the US military found it too unsafe for combat use. Not for 007, though.

“Bond in Motion” is a fast, furious, fun ride, and there’s even an area where you can put on a mock tuxedo to pose for a photo with your favorite car. 

Your only dilemma? Getting some significant other to come along and take your picture.