Start of minute 26
Bill Koenig on THAT Ford Mondeo
“Artistically, this is this minute used to establish Craig’s Bond’s character. This is him in the field. He drives to the club in a Ford Mondeo, he looks up, he’s kind of gauging, what’s there? He glances at the security cameras and you can tell the wheels are turning in his head. That’s the artistic thing. The commercial side, they (EON) obviously had a deal with Ford. In 2006, Ford was redesigning the Ford Mondeo. At the 2006 Paris Auto Show, which I was at for my then employer, Bloomberg, they had the actress who played Solange, Caterina Monroe. They had her for the presentation at the Paris Motor Show.
Now in the States, we call it street legal in the UK, I think it’s called road legal anyway, that Ford Mondeo James Bond is driving in Casino Royale, is not street legal or road legal. It is a prototype. The body was made of fiberglass. So when you see it driving, they had to I presume,close off the road it was on.
Where is that Ford Mondeo now?
Ford still owns the car, but they have lent it to the Ian Fleming foundation on a kind of, semi-permanent basis.
Basically, they they retained ownership so that if something ever happens to the foundation, they can get their hands back on it. That’s in the Ian Fleming car collection because I’ve seen some videos about it online.
Can the public see that car?
There’s two things going on right now. There’s this bond in motion thing in Washington, DC. And then in Chicago, there’s this bond science exhibit, which vehicles are part of. So the foundation supplied the vehicles for both. Both things, but I don’t know if the Mondeo is part of either. I have seen the car in person. And if you tap on the hood, you can tell it’s fiberglass. In my experience is, this must be the most unloved Bond car.”
Bill Koenig from The Spy Command and I break down Minute 27. Check out the individual minutes, thoughts and discussion points here. Listen on iTunes or Spotify, or the player below.
Images of Daniel Craig driving a Ford Mondeo in Nassau from Casino Royale (2006) Image rights held © 2008 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Danjaq, LLC. Nothing like a bit of fine print that no one gives two craps about.
