20 Easter Eggs You Somehow Missed In Quantum Of Solace
4. DC-3 Nellie
The action scenes in Quantum of Solace may feel like an effort to try and distract from the plot (which seems to grow more incomprehensible as the film progresses), so much so that it is one of the few Bond films that boasts a car chase, a boat chase, and an aerial dogfight.
The aerial dogfight involves Bond piloting a Douglas DC-3 (an antique aircraft even when the film was made) with Camille onboard, which is then attacked by a far more modern, manoeuvrable, and deadly Aermacchi SF.260TP, a popular training aircraft in European air forces.
After Double-0 Seven has used his cunning and skill to rid himself of the Aermacchi, the DC-3 is confronted by a helicopter filled with machine gun-firing henchmen, ultimately forcing Bond and Camille to bail out with a single parachute between them.
Director, Marc Forster suggested that the aerial sequence was inspired by the famous scene in which Cary Grant's Roger O. Thornhill is chased by a machine gun-toting crop duster in North by Northwest (1959); indeed, that sequence had been referenced in From Russia With Love (1963) when Sean Connery's James Bond is menaced by a SPECTRE helicopter.
However, it is also worth noting that the sequence in Quantum of Solace also recalls a similar aerial dogfight between the Little Nellie autogyro, piloted by Connery's Bond, and four malevolent SPECTRE helicopters in You Only Live Twice (1967).