20 Things You Didn't Know About The World Is Not Enough (1999)
3. The Least We Could Do
Even though he is a fictional character, James Bond is considered to be an ambassador of sorts for Great Britain. It is often said that the Bond name and the pedigree of the franchise can get the films special access to filming locations that would otherwise be difficult to secure; he even opened the 2012 London Olympic Games during Daniel Craig's time in the role.
The character's influence is perhaps no better demonstrated than with the special access that was granted directly by the British government for the producers to film around the Secret Intelligence Service Building at Vauxhall Cross in London in The World Is Not Enough.
The British Secret Service had initially declined permission to film a sequence involving a terrorist attack there but, at the urging of Janet Anderson MP, then-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook granted the filmmakers permission to shoot there, noting that “After all Bond has done for Britain, it was the least we could do for Bond”.
Whilst the sequence in which an explosion bursts through the building was achieved with John Richardson’s miniature effects, the establishing shots of the location and the launching of the Q-Boat into the Thames were performed on location at the real MI6 Headquarters.
Of course, the building also frequently features as the exterior of the fictional MI6 base in other Bond films.