Top 40 James Bond Vehicles Of All Time

#24- 1974 AMC Hornet

Appeared in: The Man With The Golden Gun

“How ’bout a demonstration boy? Certainly sir.”

In 1974, you wouldn’t think they had computer-aided design at their disposal, but for a crucial corkscrew stunt that the movie studios could only pull off once, CAD was employed with great success. The jump itself got a second opinion courtesy of the supercomputers at Cornell University.

We happen upon the 1974 AMC Hornet sitting in a car dealership in Bangkok, Thailand. After Mary Goodnight attempts rather unsuccessfully to place a homing device on Scaramanga’s car, she’s kidnapped and placed in the boot of Scaramanga’s car. Bond, seeing this, decides to track her by commandeering an AMC Hornet at the aforementioned dealership. Sitting shotgun is Sheriff J.W. Pepper which we met from “Live and Let Die” and thus begins one of the greatest chase scenes in Bond history.

Spying Scaramanga’s car across the river with J.W. Pepper giving up hope, Bond spies a rather conveniently placed ramp on the rivers edge. He masterfully jumps it, corkscrews and lands on the other side seemingly unharmed.

The 1974 AMC Hornet used in the shot was configured to have the steering wheel and seat placed smack dab in the middle for balance purposes. Eight cameras had their lenses aimed at the Hornet and there were divers in the water just in case anything went wrong (which nothing didn’t of course.) The shot landed successfully on the first shot and then producer Guy Hamilton celebrated the success of the whole stunt with champagne all around. Bond was stuck with his infamous Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred.

Next: 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7