Skyfall is being heralded as the best James Bond movie of all time (although I’m still partial to Casino Royale) and is currently nominated for 5 Academy Awards including best cinematography, best score and best original song. But amidst all the fanfare about Skyfall the fact is lost that the title of the movie is actually (spoiler alert!!!!!) the name of the home of James Bond.
To my recollection this is the first Bond movie that bears the name of a home in the title. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I would ask that you stop reading and just click that “like” button at the top, go watch the film and then come back and finish reading. It’s well worth your time. In any case, Skyfall as a residence is a rather rundown place. It was evidently the boyhood home of 007 and is located out in the moors of Scotland. We learn the house has some truly unique features as it had at one time a well stocked gun room and a secret passage way behind the fireplace that allows for a quick escape should the house be overrun with machine gun fire and military choppers.
Skyfall does have its perks as it’s very secluded with plenty of land. It probably would be a really nice vacation home for those looking to get away from it all, but as a primary residence I think it might make you a bit of a hermit. In fact Bond himself utters towards the end of the movie (another spoiler alert!), after blowing up his child home, “I always hated this place.”
While the home is supposed to be set in Scotland, it was actually filmed at Hankley Common which is near Surrey, England. Interestingly, this location was used in another Bond film, The World is Not Enough, for the shooting of the oil pipeline explosion scenes. The Skyfall house was actually built from scratch using plywood and plaster to create a full-scale model of the building (image above). Some of the scenes in the final sequences were shot elsewhere at Glencoe Village, which is in Scotland.
Skyfall is one of the best James Bond movies that I’ve seen and certainly one of the most interesting homes to bear a movie title. Plus who wouldn’t want to explore a home that raised the greatest secret agent the world has ever known?
Header image courtesy of James Bond Wikia. Secondary image courtesy of Flickr user myalexis.
Loved that the title of the film was the name of the house. Intrigued to gain insight into the pre-story of Bond. Obviously, they are trying to reinvent Bond. While there were a few traditional ‘Bond’ moments (the opening chase, the casino), much of the film seemed like a script for another action genre (Die Hard, Speed) and they just inserted James Bond as the main character. Am underwhelmed by trading action for adventure.
THanks for the comment Chris. I think they ended the movie reestablishing the classic Bond feel. Moneypenny is back. Q is in the picture. I still like Casion Royale better bet felt Skyfall was pretty good. Plus would have liked to have seen the home fully furnished and sans cobwebs.
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Actually there was another James Bond movie with the name of a home in the title, Goldeneye. That is the name of the villa that Ian Flemming lived in, and wrote the original books in.