Benjamin Lind

Shortly after I had become a huge Bond Fan with “GoldenEye” in 1995, I was able to witness the location filming of 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” in Hamburg. It was a big thing for me since I was only living an hour away from Hamburg at that time.

Tomorrow Never Dies Hamburg

Tomorrow Never Dies on Location

Bond quite suddenly came into very close range.

Since I was still in school, I thought it would be nice to do a school newspaper special on Bond and the filming so close to us. I quickly arranged a “press” meeting with the marketing department of the Hotel Atlantic, got invited without problems and went with a friend to Hamburg by train.

The whole film crew was still there, putting finishing touches on the scene. We were allowed to watch from the ranks of the hotel staff Рthat was very close to the stars. As you can see in the photographs, I made snapshots of director Roger Spottiswoode walking right past me in front of the hotel with Baddie G̦tz Otto, who is a big TV star here in Germany.

I then got a photo of Pierce Brosnan climbing up a ladder to the hotel roof – the ladder was attached especially for the film.

After that, we were escorted into the hotel and up to the “Atlantic Suite” that you can see in the movie – it was however rebuilt in Pinewood. We were then taken up to the roof to enjoy the view.

There was no way to speak to the stars however since we were asked not to interrupt filming or procedures, but we got some very nice insights from the marketing director of the hotel. She told us that Pierce Brosnan stayed in the actual suite that is used in the movie with his family and attended a big launch event of the filming in Hamburg two nights earlier.

This was my first real experience in getting close to Bond in the Making and it was fascinating.

When I saw “Tomorrow never Dies” a few months later, I was impressed on how well they had used Hamburg as a location and how good the scenes looked on the big screen.

I am a Bond Fan since 17 glorious years now and Bond has never let me down (except “Quantum of Solace” in a way).

I happily count myself as a member of the incredible Bond Fan Community that shares the love for this global phenomenon.