Tags
Germany, Hamburg, James Bond, James Bond filming location, James Bond movie locations, Tomorrow Never Dies
In ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) followed Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) to Hamburg in Germany. At the airport he got specially equipped BMW 750 from Q (Desmond Llewelyn). Bond went to a big party organized by his opponent. There he met his former lover – Paris (Teri Hatcher), who had married Elliot Carver. Jealous husband ordered his subordinates to get rid of 007, who managed to come out of trouble and return to hotel. Paris Carver was already waiting for him in his room.
Bond sneaked into the printing house of Carver’s press empire. There he found entrance to secret laboratory. He had to run away in a hurry after being discovered by security. He left the building and got into the car parked nearby. Driving a car he was talking on the phone with Elliot Carver. His arrival to the hotel was noticed and reported by Stamper (Gotz Otto), standing on the roof of the opposite building. In the room James Bond found Paris dead and assassin – dr. Kaufmann (Vincent Schiavelli). James Bond killed that man and escaped from the room on the roof of the hotel. In a multi-storey car park he used mobile phone to remotly drive his car to escape from a group of opponents and finally knocked BMW into the AVIS window.
The sequence descriped above was located in Hamburg, but only part of it was filmed in Germany. Indoor scenes were filmed mostly in Great Britain. James Bond’s meeting with Q was filmed at the Hamburg airport on march 25th 1997. Carver’s party was filmed in IBM building in London, as well as in Pinewood Studios. Bond’s apartment was filmed in Stoke Poges club in Buckinghamshire and the fight in Carver’s printing house in real printing house in south-east part of London. James Bond ran out and… got into the car parked at Monckebergstrasse in the center of Hamburg in Germany.
On the left side of the first picture you can see part of the pavement where 007’s car was parked. There is a city hall tower in background. The scene with Bond driving and talking on the phone was filmed nearby at Ballindam street (next photo).
While he was driving, different buildings were visible in background on the other side of the Inner Alster Lake, also called Binnenalster. There was i.e. Heinrich Hertz Tower that you can see in the next photo.
Restaurant umbrellas obstructed the view, while he was passing by the Inner Alster Lake.
James Bond arrived to real Atlantic Kempinski Hamburg. You can see the entrance at Holzdamm street in the next photo.
His arrival was noticed by Stamper standing on the roof of the building that you can see on the right side of next photo. 
James Bond left the room and climbed the ladder. As you can see in the next photo the ladder was not there anymore in 2019, when I was in Hamburg.
The following car chase sequence was filmed at car parking in London. The scene with BMW 750 at the highest level of parking was filmed back in Hamburg. Currently it is covered as you can see in the next photo. In the film there was fake big ‘ATLANTIC HOTEL’ sign mounted on the roof. In reality the hotel was located about one kilometer away.
At the end of the sequence BMW 750 jumped over Monckebergstrasse street. In the next photo you can see comparison of the film frame (top) and the street in 2019.
It is one of many examples how film world differs from reality. The scene on the roof of the parking was filmed on the top of Saturn (on the left in next photo), but the car jumped from the top of the building at Monckebergstrasse street (on the right in next photo).
The roof of the building was a bit modified since 1997 as you can see in the next photo.
And that is the storefront that played AVIS rental in the film.
Visit LOCATIONS GALLERY on top of the page to see locations photos compared with movie scenes.
Information sources:
– ‘James Bond. Szpieg którego kochamy’ Michał Grzesiek, Wydawnictwo Bukowy Las 2011
– ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ audio commentary, Tomorrow Never Dies Special Edition, Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation 2006
– Monckebergstrasse in Hamburg, Germany. (location photo: 2019) Read the story behind the scene: 
– Monckebergstrasse in Hamburg, Germany. (location photo: 2019) Read the story behind the scene: 
– Ballindamm street at Binnenalster lake in Hamburg, Germany. (location photo: 2019) Read the story behind the scene: 
– Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg, Germany. (location photo: 2019) Read the story behind the scene: 
In the next picture I managed to capture double-decker bus parked on the Kurfürstendamm street almost in the same place as similar bus in the film scene.
In the next scene (that was filmed as the first one, on August 10th 1982) they arrived at Checkpoint Charlie, best known crossing point between West Berlin and East Berlin during Cold War. Currently the building at Checkpoint Charlie is a tourist attraction.
The film crew didn’t get a permission to go through the Checkpoint Charlie so the car with Roger Moore had to turn around in no man’s land and return to West Berlin. Nowadays everybody can freely walk around that place.
Very close to Checkpoint Charlie there is a BACK-FACTORY CAFE with “Octopussy” memorabilia. A model of Acrostar BD-5J Micro Jet known from pre-credits is hanging from the ceiling.
There are also many film posters and photos from “Octopussy” on the wall.
Sources:
JAMES BOND 