Big Scene development post 8: Salt Mine chase sequence completed & animation of the climatic fight has begun!

The project is now at the crossroads folks! With the chase sequence completed, the suspense built up, and it must now come to a climax. James Bond must avenge Tracy by killing his nemesis Blofeld in hand-to-hand combat!

The fight is fully scripted, and it will be my biggest challenge yet to animate and edit it convincingly.

Now, I'm no stunt choreographer like Bob Simmons or George Leech, but I can certainly take inspiration from their style. 

Do I think I'll create a fight that rivals From Russia With Love's famous train fight? Or the selection of excellent brawls and punch-ups in OHMSS? 

Probably not, though I'll do my best to make this one brutal and memorable.

Here's an excerpt from the script I've written of the beginning of the fight;

The fight will eventually move to a high-up footbridge (that is still under construction), where the pair will continue to engage in fist-cuffs until Blofeld is knocked into a salt granulator below.

It's fair to say old Ernst has lost his marbles, so to speak...

One thing you can probably tell from the production stills above is that I am adding facial scars, bruises and blood to Bond and Blofeld's faces. In the early Connery films you do sometimes see a little bit of blood. 

Something like the fight in From Russia With Love does show a bit of blood, particularly on Bond's hand towards the end. 

So I intend to emulate a little of that, with a little more brutality similar to what's seen with Bond's injuries in films like Casino Royale and Licence to Kill.

And finally, the small but important touch I hope to add to this fight will be its animalistic nature, particularly from Blofeld. 

If you are to treat You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds Reimagined as a trilogy, then this fight will feel like a culmination of a years long struggle between two bitter enemies. 

So it deserves to have a certain visceral quality to it, as Bond and Blofeld will no doubt pull no punches in a fight to the death.

To close this post off, I present you with a rough edit of the foot chase leading up to the fight. The audio is not final, and in one shot you can even hear a shout of "action!" by Guy Hamilton from a behind the scenes clip. 

I put that there partly as a joke, but also to give me an authentic feeling during the editing process. Enjoy!