The lost climax of Diamonds Are Forever: Reconstructing the Frogman sequence & the unfilmed Salt Mine showdown...

"I was, around that time, intrigued, because I had seen a few stills of a huge salt thing in Baja California, or the Mexican end. 

Miles and miles of white mountains and I rather fancied Sean in black, running around on these white mountains. 

And presumably, there'd be big machinery that would suck the stuff in. We couldn't get permission to go there, so that more or less killed that."
 - Guy Hamilton (Director of Diamonds Are Forever) *

A mock-up of Bond running around giant salt mounds as Guy Hamilton describes

What was the original climax?

Some Bond fans may have heard of the original concept for Diamonds Are Forever's climax, devised by the film's co-writer Tom Mankiewicz and its director Guy Hamilton. In addition to the CIA Helicopter attack on Blofeld's off-shore oil rig, there was to have been explosive-bearing Frogmen who would've demolished it. **

As we can see on the Ultimate Edition DVD special features, it appears part of the Frogmen sequences were indeed shot. Similar to the underwater battle in Thunderball, these sequences were rehearsed on the surface. ***

The released footage shows the Frogmen leaping into the sea from Marines Huey Helicopters with containers for limpet mines, then swimming in groups in the direction of the oil rig. 

Interestingly, there is no footage of the Frogmen reaching the legs of the rig and detonating the explosives. Perhaps because that part was never shot, which would appear to be the case as Michael Wilson's commentary over the footage says the scene was scrapped during filming.

I presume that the Frogmen would then have detonated mines on one or more of the Oil Rig's legs to destroy the control centre so that Blofeld's laser satellite would be stopped.

The other element of the finale that never came to be was a confrontation between Bond and his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld at a Salt Mine in Mexico. 

Rather than Blofeld's Batho-Sub being crashed into the Oil Rig's control centre by Bond, the villain would have escaped from the Rig in his aforementioned midget submarine. Meanwhile, Bond would have followed along via a Weather Balloon. The intention was for them to arrive at a salt mine in the Mexican part of Baja California, where there would be a fight to the death between the two, climbing across gigantic hills of salt. **

In a gruesome turn, Blofeld would have fallen to his death in a salt granulator (rather than a chimney as was his eventual death in the series, seen in For Your Eyes Only's pre-credits sequence).

As Hamilton states in the quote above, the owners of the salt mine did not give them permission to film at the location, thereby scrapping much of the planned finale for good.

But it seems there was another obstacle to this extended climax making it to the screen; the running time. In one interview, Guy Hamilton revealed that the script for Diamonds Are Forever was originally timed at two and a half hours. *****

The previous entry in the series, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) was the longest Bond film up to that point, with its 142 minutes running time beating even the 130 minutes of the heavily successful Thunderball (1965).

Hamilton explained why a long running time was not acceptable to cinemas at the time; 

"in America they’d lose one show, possibly two shows, each day where they began at 10 am, then another one at 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and at 10 pm. So when I got to sign my contract, the picture had to be under two hours or else I had a penalty clause you had never seen in your life." *****

Simply put; even if the climax was filmed as originally planned, it's very likely that much of it wouldn't have made into the final print. So it's understandable why Hamilton had to make this tough decision to shorten the finale.

Re-imagining the "lost climax"

And that brings us to the purpose of this post; how have I approached re-imagining this sequence for the climax of my Diamonds Are Forever Re-Imagined project?

Since this project is a live-action fan-edit/animation hybrid, most of the climax will be animated as with the majority of the new sequences I'm working on, but with a few live-action scenes from the original film's Oil Rig climax.

The deleted footage of the Frogmen I mentioned earlier is an immensely important asset; without it, I'm not sure how I could possibly begin to re-construct that sequence from scratch. Therefore the only bits of that section of the climax that I would need to animate would be the Frogmen deploying the limpet mines to the Rig.

As for the Salt Mine confrontation, I've done a little bit of research to try and get an understanding of what Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz had in mind, since the screenplay for Diamonds Are Forever has not been released online to my knowledge.

The Oil Rig sequences were shot on a semi-portable Rig hired by the film crew, off the coast of Oceanside California. * In the film, the map in Willard Whyte's Penthouse places the Rig on the coast of Baja California.

From what I've been able to find out, there is indeed a salt works (founded in the 1950s) in the Baja peninsula around the Ojo de Liebre lagoon and near a town called Guerrero Negro. ****

While I have no information to confirm this, I think it's possible that this is the same location that Guy Hamilton mentioned seeing stills of, but was unable to film there.

Using photographs such as these of the location for reference (as well as some artistic licence), I'll visualise some exterior sets in Moviestorm. Hopefully it will enable me to replicate the broad strokes of Mankiewicz's planned climax to Diamonds Are Forever.

For now, here are some stills of how I envision the epic confrontation between Bond and Blofeld (albeit with the likeness of Telly Salavas rather than Charles Gray). Taking place on a gantry high above the ground after a pursuit across giant hills of salt, it will be by all means a gritty and tough brawl for sure...

These sources greatly helped with my research into DAF's "lost climax":

* Diamonds Are Forever Ultimate Edition DVD, Commentary Track (Region 2)

** MI6-hq.com Trivia - Diamonds Are Forever

*** Some Kind of Hero (By Matthew Field & Ajay Chowdury)

**** Guerrero Negro site

***** Guy Hamilton interview - Filmtalk.org

Big Scene development post 4: The Oil Rig climax (Part 1 - Bond's arrival on the Oil Rig & scenes in the control centre)

UPDATE: Some of the scenes I talk about here in this post have been cut down and re-edited to get to the Oil Rig Battle scene quicker.

And now we've reached a pivotal point of this project; the time I can work on animating a re-jigged version of the Oil Rig climax from the original film. 

Taking inspiration from the climaxes of the two Bond films that preceded Diamonds Are Forever (On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice), this will enhance the scale of SPECTRE's last stand immensely and provide a more satisfying conclusion than what we originally got.

So far, I have animated the scene showing Bond's arrival on board the Oil Rig and everything set inside the Rig's interiors. This includes Blofeld's office and the Ken Adam designed control centre with all the computer banks and technicians.

As you may be able to tell from these stills, this scene here shows Bond sneaking aboard the Oil Rig before getting captured. In the original film, he was captured immediately after emerging from an inflatable sphere in the ocean. 

Here however, he discards the guards who discover him at the recovery platform and spends time climbing his way up to the top before he is caught. This is because he is purposefully trying to distract Blofeld and buy some time for the CIA's helicopter attack force to arrive.

Although some of the lines from Gray's Blofeld in the original film have been kept for this confrontation, this Blofeld is in no mood to keep Bond a prisoner. And he'd rather have him executed...

"I learn from my mistakes, Mr Bond."

The trickiest of the interior scenes to animate were the ones where dear old Professor Dr Metz is arguing with Blofeld over the choice between surrendering or fighting to the very end.

Metz: "You don't give a damn about peace! All you care about is-"
Blofeld: "Oh, shut up Metz!"

There are two things I had to keep in mind with these dialogue scenes. Firstly, I had to decide where to put all the technicians/scientists working on the computer banks in the background. They all had to be doing something on-screen, which made the whole situation more convincing.

Secondly, I would focus on Blofeld and Metz's facial expressions whilst they argue. The problem was that the Moviestorm software came under strain from having to process so many additional background characters that some ended up being removed to save memory.

Thankfully, I think my animating of the principal characters in the scene came out well. I payed close attention to Joseph Furst's portrayal of Metz in the original film to match his reactions to Blofeld's arrogant attitude. Blofeld on the other hand, was a different story altogether.

Since the likeness of the character model I use for him is mainly based off Telly Savalas, I couldn't just copy Charles Gray's performance from DAF. But I decide to incorporate elements of all three classic Blofelds:

1. The creepy cold stare, menace and scar of Donald Pleasance (You Only Live Twice)

2. The hand gesturing whilst holding a cigarette & the imposing physicality of Telly Savalas (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

3. The pompous arrogance and aristocratic tone of Charles Gray (The original DAF)

Though this Blofeld will be far less charming and polite, I must add.

Also, I wanted to show this version of Blofeld in my fan-edit to act like he's having a villainous break-down. This is inspired by the version of Blofeld in the You Only Live Twice novel by Ian Fleming, which presents him as a de-ranged and rambling foe with an aggressive fighting style (something which will be important in a later scene of this fan-edit...).

The schedule for remaining Oil Rig scenes

I've split up the Oil Rig climax I have scripted into various chunks that are animated out of sequence. This is mainly to simplify things, as I'd prefer not to continually switch between sets by doing it in chronological order.

With interiors finished, next on the list is the filming of shots featuring Helicopters. The original film has quite a few of these, and the Ultimate Edition bonus disc does contain more out-takes of Helicopters attacking the rig.

But the ones I have scripted are required to show specific characters inside, such as Felix Leiter and Willard Whyte.

After that, I will move onto the battle scenes. A certain friend of Bond's will parachute onto the Rig with a small army of men to assist 007 in attacking the control centre.

The battle is more likely to be of a similar scale to the assualt on Piz Gloria in OHMSS, but I will also take some inspiration from the fighting seen in YOLT's Volcano Base attack. 

All will become clear in the next update on this enormous action sequence...

- The Retro Captain

Update #5 on (mostly) completed animated scenes

Greetings! Although it has been over a month since my last update, I will now share the significant progress on the project that I was remarkably able to do in the whole of March.

Four entire scenes have been completed; the Motorbike chase across the Nevada Desert (which I started animation of in December 2020), a conversation between Tiffany Case and Felix Leiter in the Whyte House Bridal Suite, a car tailing sequence outside Las Vegas and finally a shooutout between 007 and some Spangled Mob gangsters. 

Let's take a look at each scene:

The Motorbike Chase

As I have said in previous posts on this scene, it is a replacement for the infamous Moon Buggy chase in the original film. The real problem with it was that Bond never seemed to be in much danger, especially since the guards chasing him kept crashing and looking like idiots.

Therefore, with this replacement scene it was neccessary to change Bond's mode of transport to a Motorbike. This way he's more vulnerable and has to be careful with maneuvering terrain.

The chase is split into three sections:

1. Driving through an area with rocky hills on either side, whilst security guards pursue Bond and Tiffany in their cars.

2. Going along a long road in the desert whilst being cornered by both cars and all-terrain motorbikes.

3. Out-maneuvering a dune buggy and some all-terrain motorbikes whilst driving up desert hills and a large rock formation.

The entire scene was storyboarded over a few months whilst I began rendering assets in Moviestorm to make up the various desert sets. It was a lengthy process but one which enabled to discover what was possible to achieve in the software and what had to be abandoned.

For example, I couldn't actually have wide shots of vehicles moving up slopes and high terrain as the Moviestorm software was not designed for vertical movement. That's why upwards movement is limited to chroma-key and back-projection shots that create the illusion of the vehicles driving up terrain.

I was pleased with a lot of shots I achieved, however. During storyboarding I had the idea to implement a transition from day-time to dusk, whereby I created a sun-set lighting system. This introduced some vibrant colours into the cinematography that otherwise stuck to day-time lighting.

The sequence was completed on the 16th March 2021, leaving me with some smaller scale scenes left to work on for the time being...

Tiffany and Felix's conversation in the Bridal Suite

The third and probably the last time I will make use of the Bridal Suite set in the whole film. It covers a gap not touched upon in the original film, where Tiffany is still waiting for Bond to return from his trip to Whyte's penthouse.

Naturally, if Felix Leiter (in this case Norman Burton's portrayal of the character) were to find out Bond has gone and done something as reckless as this he'd be quite annoyed and exasperated by the consequences it could cause. However, I wanted to stress that although what Felix's superiors would think about Bond's actions are on his mind, he also still cares about Bond as a friend.

That's why the characterisation of Felix in the project is slightly tweaked compared to the original film. I wanted to add some legitimate depth to his friendship with Bond that was otherwise never as important to the plot in DAF.

The scene also features Felix talking on the phone to a C.I.A Agent, which was achieved with what I call a chroma-key phone booth. To put it simply; the character walks into a phone booth and uses the phone whilst the walls are covered by greenscreen backdrops. 

This is only done because the Moviestorm software's vintage phone props are static, so my technique is the next best way to simulate a 1970s phone conversation.

The car pursuit from Las Vegas into the Nevada desert

This was an interesting scene to do as it required intercutting between the likes of Wint and Kidd driving across the desert and Felix's CIA Agents trying to tail them to whichever secret location they're headed to.

It worked alongside the same filming techniques I used in the Motorbike Chase; characters sit in cars for shots when the cars are physically moving on the set (the shot can only last a few seconds due to difficulties the camera has keeping up with a moving object).

If the vehicle is stationery, then the shot can go on for longer. But most of the shots of Felix and Tiffany Case inside the Ford Mustang were done as 'back-projection' shots that used stock footage of driving across a desert road.

The sequence also makes use of an exterior set featuring the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign outside the city. I used this for two scenes in total, but unfortunately I forgot to save a back-up copy of the set.

The files for the set were somehow corrupted and I can't access it anymore, leaving only the rendered footage available to see what it looked like.

Shootout between Bond & Gangsters

Another scene created to replace something from the original scene (though not in the same way as the Motorbike Chase, as this changes the placement of a scene rather than removing it altogether from the fan-edit). It shows Bond having to make a daring escape from some gangsters who ambush him at Slumber Inc.

The sequence represented a slight challenge staging-wise, as I had to make the actions of the Gangsters and Bond feeling realistic enough to be believable. After all, this scene is more about building suspense as to how Bond will escape when he's in a vulnerable position; out-numbered by multiple gangsters.

There are no gadgets to instantly de-fuse a situation. He has to rely on just his gun and his wits to get himself out of this messy situation, and I think that makes the scene all the better for it.

As an in-joke, I decided to switch characters models for Bond during the last part of the shoot-out for when Bond makes his escape in the funeral hearse owned by the Slumber Inc attendants. The character model used in wide shots of this driving segment is made to look like stunt-man Richard E Butler, who was Sean Connery's driving double in parts of the original film.

What's next?

The next set of sequences currently being animated are those set aboard Blofeld's Oil Rig. The original film's climax aboard the rig is one of the lesser climaxes of the series when compared to other big battles on the villain's base the series has given us. So I hope to do it justice by significantly improving the content of the scene.

I've started off by filming Bond's arrival on the oil oig, and eventually I will move onto to filming scenes in the oil rig's control centre. After that, it's time to alter the big climatic battle that the original film limited to helicopters attacking gun turrets and firing rockets at the control centre...