Talk about a job with extra perks. Back in 2002, after Pierce Brosnan completed his fourth James Bond movie, Die Another Day, and was in the middle of the promo tour, word got out that he got to keep the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish that he’d driven in the film.
It turns out, this wasn’t without a fight on the part of the actor. In a recent interview / livestream with Esquire from his Hawaii home, Pierce Brosnan revealed one unknown fact about how he became the owner of a brand new, custom-made Vanquish, after driving one as James Bond. The video is available in full at the bottom of the page.
He recalls how thrilled he was to visit Aston Martin and get to test drive the Vanquish, which marked the carmaker’s return to the 007 franchise after three movies in which Bond had only driven BMWs. Brosnan had assumed from the start that he would get to keep the car once shooting was completed, only to be told one day before the promo tour that it wouldn’t happen.
So he instructed his agent to let Aston Martin know that he “wouldn’t go anywhere near that car” at the next day’s press conference, where the Vanquish would be unveiled. Unless, of course, he was told (“in writing”) that he would get to keep the car.
Aston Martin relented and, three months after filming wrapped, a custom-made Vanquish showed up at Brosnan’s home. “There was no other car like it on the road,” the actor recalls with obvious melancholy. It did not come with any of the 007 gadgets, like the passenger ejector seat or the forward mounted machine shotguns with auto-aim assist, the grenades in the trunk or the rockets in the grille, and it certainly couldn’t turn invisible. But it was Brosnan’s and came with plaques that attested it.
The plaques are all that’s left of the beautiful car today. In 2015, a house fire at Brosnan’s Malibu home burned the Vanquish to a crisp, and all he has as a reminder today are the memories and the two plaques and eight bolts.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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