20 Things You Didn't Know About Die Another Day

11. “Let There Be Light!”

Die Another Day
MGM/20th Century Fox

Gustav Graves’s Icarus satellite forms the core of his plot for North Korea to dominate the South and then attack Japan. Whilst ostensibly being developed for humanitarian purposes, it is a deadly space weapon that uses a large mirror to harness the Sun’s ray and produce a focused beam of destructive energy.

It was hardly a new concept for a Bond film, but it did set a trend for the British film industry.

For the sequence in which Graves unveils it for its peaceable purposes during his grand party in Iceland, the filmmakers brought in an 160,000 Watt light array of pod lights to simulate the effect of Icarus’s mirror reflecting down on the ice palace from orbit.

It was the largest lighting array ever used in a British film at the time, illuminating an area on Pinewood Studios’s backlot that was even larger than Wembley Stadium.

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I started writing for WhatCulture in July 2020. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. I have contributed to several short story competitions and I have occasionally been fortunate enough to have my work published. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I also started reviewing films on my Facebook page. Numerous friends and contacts suggested that I should start my own website for reviewing films, but I wanted something a bit more diverse - and so here I am! My interests focus on film and television mainly, but I also occasionally produce articles that venture into other areas as well. In particular, I am a fan of the under appreciated sequel (of which there are many), but I also like the classics and the mainstream too.