In ‘A View to a Kill’ Paris was location of a spectacular jump from the top of the Eiffel Tower as well as high-speed car chase along the Seine river.

James Bond arrived to Paris to meet French agent Achilles Aubergine. While they were talking in the restaurant located mid-way up the Eiffel Tower Aubergine was killed by black-clothed assassin – May Day. The restaurant scene was filmed in Pinewood Studios near London. The jump and the car chase were filmed on location in Paris.

To get a permission to film the jump from the Eiffel Tower the producers had to deal with over thirty separate authorities. It was nearly ruined when two people (a man and a woman) jumped from the Eiffel Tower unauthorized. Fortunately the permission was not canceled and filming in Paris could begin.

B.J. Worth and Don Caldvedt were two stuntmen hired to jump from the Eiffel Tower. To prepare properly for the stunt, they completed 22 practice jumps from a hot air balloon. The plan was to perform a three-second free fall before opening their parachutes.

B.J. Worth later said that the wind in their ears served as their altimeter. At a certain pitch, they knew three seconds had passed and it was time to deploy the parachute.

A special jumping platform was built at the top of the tower so they could clear the structure safely, as the base is much wider than the top. Early in the morning, B.J. Worth was the first to step onto the platform. He shouted, “This one is for Cubby!”—a tribute to Albert R. Broccoli—and jumped. After waiting three seconds, he opened his parachute and landed safely beside his wife and daughter. He performed so well on the first take that Broccoli decided not to take any additional risks and canceled the remaining jumps.

Don Caldvedt, who had been B.J. Worth’s backup, wanted to jump so badly that he even offered to do it for free, but he was not given the opportunity. Determined, he called a friend and proposed making an unauthorized jump at 7 a.m., before the crew’s arrival.

However, they did not know that the entire film crew had also arrived very early that morning to prepare for shooting on the tower. As the director was selecting camera angles, Don Caldvedt suddenly dropped into view in free fall, his parachute opening with a loud snap. A few seconds later, his friend repeated the stunt.

For the second time, the production nearly lost its filming permission, and B.J. Worth was forced to fire Don Caldvedt.

Below you can see a few photos with a view that stuntmen could see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

May Day made a swan-dive and parachuted away over the Seine River. James Bond took up pursuit on the roof of an elevator riding down, where he stole a taxi and began a high-speed car chase, during which he drove down the stairs, jumped over the bus and sheared off the car’s roof and back-half. May Day landed on a boat with a wedding reception onboard. 007 parked his damaged car on a bridge and jumped on the same boat, where he landed in the wedding cake. The killer managed to escape.

Stunt pilot Marc Wolff recalls working on the set in Paris: That was quite a funny experience for me. I had a unique permission to fly in the centre of Paris but the permission required me to stay over the river Seine. The director wanted to relate the tower, the river, the city and the parachutist in one shot. The place the parachutist was supposed to land was between the tower and the river. To get a shot of the tower, the river, the parachutist’s landing site and the city of Paris in the background, I needed to be on the opposite side (the south side) of the tower, off the river, so I went around the back side of the tower to get the shot. When I landed back at the Paris heliport at Issy les Moulineaux, the police came and said that I did something called ‘bavarder’. I speak a bit of French and ‘bavarder’ means chatting or gossiping so at first I didn’t understand what they meant. I discovered it was slang and that I had ‘wandered’ off my permitted track when I went around the back side of the tower. He slapped me on the hand and said: ‘Don’t do it again’. Fortunately we didn’t need to do it again. He also added: The timing is critical. We talk about it in great detail; we discuss where the camera should be, and at what height, at each moment in the shot. So with the jump from the Eiffel Tower, I had to know how long he/she was going to free fall, how quickly the canopy would open and how long he/she would be under canopy. I knew the framing that they wanted for the opening frame so I had to work out the timing required to get from that position to the end-frame position within the timing the director wanted and the parachute gave us. When we have the opportunity to rehearse, we obviously do that. We always film the rehearsals because quite often it can be the best take. In this case we didn’t have such an opportunity. We just had to be in the right place at the right time, which is why they bring in someone like me rather than using a local pilot. I’ve got the experience and skill and the best chance of of getting it right first time. (Interview with Marc Wolff – pilot who has worked on 12 Bond films)

Car chase coordinator was Remy Julienne and one the stuntmen was his son. Film director John Glen mentioned a few years later that Jullienne’s english was not very good and his french was even worst so they managed to communicate through drawings.

Below you can see photos of the car chase filming location. In the first two pictures there are stairs between Quai Branly at the Eiffel Tower and Port de la Bourdonnais at the Seine River where the beginning of the sequence with James Bond in taxi driving down the stairs was filmed. In the next picture there is a Port de la Bourdonnais seen from the Pont de l’Alma bridge where next seconds of the sequence were filmed.

The scene with May Day landing on the boat was actually filmed before the jump from the top of the Eiffel tower. It was B. J. Worth who did the scene. He jumped from the helicopter (Marc Wolff was the pilot – read an interview with him in INTERVIEWS section: Interview with Marc Wolff – pilot who has worked on 12 Bond films). When he was at 500 feet he said ‘Action!’ over the radio in his hand and the boat parked underneath one bridge took off. He had to repeat the jump several times.

Below you can see the bridge Alexandre III where James Bond parked cut in half taxi and jumped on the boat.

In the next scene James Bond was picked up from the Paris police station by M. The car with 007, his boss and the accompanying Sir Godfrey came out from the building at Quai de l’Horloge. While M reprimanded James Bond they drove across the bridge Alexandre III, from which 007 jumped on the boat.

Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘A VIEW TO A KILL’ to see photos of locations compared with movie scenes.

Sources:
–  A View to a Kill Audio Commentary, A View to a Kill Special Edition, Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation, 2006
–  Inside ‘A View to a Kill’. An Original Documentary, dir. John Cork, Danjaq, LCC and United Artists Corporation, 2000
– ‘James Bond. Szpieg którego kochamy’”’ Michał Grzesiek, Wydawnictwo Bukowy Las 2011.

 More photos from Paris: