The Effects supervisor was John Richardson.
The first model aircraft we see in the film is supposedly a Russian Helicopter with a red flare burning in the cockpit causing it to careen out of control eventually crashing and exploding. The radio controlled miniature was modeled on the full size helicopter used in the sequence which was a Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105, from a west German manufacturer not actually Russian at all. All the shots with the red smoke coming out of the cabin and the explosive impact are the miniature, the rest were of the full size helicopter.
The main aircraft in the film is an Airship Industries Skyship 500 and is represented by three sizes of model. The smallest was 4 feet long with the next size up made from fibreglass at 10 feet (3m) long. The pivoting and powered motors were radio controlled.
The largest model was 40 foot (12m) long It was also the only model that was actually inflated. Originally they tried actually filling the envelope with helium but found it constantly leaked out, was expensive and made the airship vulnerable to the slightest breeze making it hard to control while being tethered to the ground. Most of the time it was simply inflated with air and hung from a crane. It was filled with hydrogen for the sequence where it explodes and deflates at the end.
It was also used in a different guise, fitted with a replacement 2 story gondola to represent a much larger airship. This model, the Skyship 6000 had extra engines and was used when a miniature dummy was ejected and fell into the sea.
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| Effects supervisor John Richardson front right. |
The Golden gate bridge was also represented by two different scales of miniature for interaction with the Airship miniatures. The smaller scale section comprised a 20 foot (6m) tall tower made from fibreglass and steel and had a large 150 foot long photographic blow up of San Francisco in the background. It was used with the 10 foot blimp model. The larger scale bridge model was a close up section of the top of the tower in scale with the larger 40 foot airship model. These miniature bridge shots were filmed at Pinewood studios in England.
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| Here are the two scales of the bridge on the Pinewood backlot. |
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| Large photo cutout background. |
Some shots of the miniature airship shots were filmed in San Francisco with the real Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Here the smallest model is hung on the end of a boom arm.
There was also a miniature James Bond figure used for shots of him hanging from a tether under the gondola as the airship approaches the bridge tower.
For the sequence where a mine is deliberately and destructively flooded, a large 1/3 scale miniature was built 30 feet (9m) by 20 feet (6m) by twelve foot (3.6) high. In the photo below the actors in the scene were added to the miniature using a mirror. They were standing off to the side against a matching small but full scale wall. I don't however see this wide shot with the incorporated actors in the movie. A section of miniature mine tunnel was also built for the flooding scenes.
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| The actors on the left of frame are a reflection in a mirror in this miniature mine set. |
One other shot that I'm almost certain is a miniature and is in the movie depicts a burning elevator shaft. I have not found any information on this set up.
Sources: Making Movie Magic by John Richardson. 2019 The History Press. ISBN 978 0 7509 9123 0
Cinefex magazine number 33 February 1988
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