Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Craig's 'Casino Royale' leap tops 'Best James Bond Stunt Of All Time' poll

Daniel Craig's death-defying crane jump in 'Casino Royale' has topped a new poll of 'The Best James Bond Stunt of all Time'.

In the opening scenes of the film, Bond is featured chasing the bad guy into a building site and battling him 200 feet from the ground.

The 2006 film marked Craig's debut as 007 and the actor took part in the stunt himself.

"It was important to me that I do as many of my own stunts as possible for authenticity. I wanted to be seen jumping from crane to crane, physically exerting myself. I didn't get fit just to take my shirt off," the Telegraph has quoted him, Craig, as saying.

The scene has beaten classic stunts involving previous 007s Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, to top the poll for the Radio Times.

The downhill ski chase in 'The Spy Who Loved Me', which ends with Moore floating to safety under a Union Jack parachute came second, according to the poll of over 1,500 film fans.

The third spot went to Moore's 'barrel roll' car jump over a canal in 'The Man With The Golden Gun' while the speedboat leap from 'Live And Let Die' came fourth.

Rounding off the top five was Pierce Brosnan's speedboat chase in the 'Thames in The World Is Not Enough'.

The top ten 'Best James Bond Stunt Of All Time' are:

1 Crane jump - Casino Royale
2 Ski chase and Union Jack parachute jump - The Spy Who Loved Me
3 Car 'barrel roll' - The Man With The Golden Gun
4 Speedboat leap - Live And Let Die
5 Thames speedboat chase - The World Is Not Enough6 Aston Martin ejector seat - Goldfinger
7 Dive from the Verzasca Dam - GoldenEye
8 Ski chase - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
9 Jumping over crocodiles - Live And Let Die
10 Motorbike jump over a helicopter - Tomorrow Never Dies