After six decades in cinema and 25 official films, screenwriters and directors devised hundreds of action sequences for the James Bond series. But not all of them make it onto the screen. Most remain hidden forever on unused screenplay drafts and script treatments, but there are some abandoned sequences that are recycled for later installments.
One such sequence is a killer helicopter chase in an early screenplay for Goldeneye that ends with Bond and the Bond Girl bailing from their plane and skydiving into a sinkhole. EON Productions recycled the one-parachute-for-two-people scene for Quantum of Solace fourteen years later, but the chase leading up to the stunt is quite different.
This early Goldeneye screenplay includes different versions of villains Xenia and Alec Trevelyan. The villain’s intention to use a stolen Russian EMP weapon against London is roughly the same. Written by the late Michael France (Cliffhanger), the 1994 screenplay was written with Timothy Dalton in mind. The actor quit the role that same year and other screenwriters rewrote the script for Pierce Brosnan instead.
In the abandoned script, Bond and Marina (later Natalya) conduct an aerial search for Trevelyan’s hidden satellite dish over a fictional Caribbean island St. Latrelle. A no-rotor helicopter intercepts them, however. According to the script, helicopters without tail rotors are more maneuverable than other helicopters. Bond, at the controls of a Russian military plane, tries to activate the machine guns. But they malfunction.
The helicopter’s machine guns, however, are fully functional, and Bond maneuvers the plane to dodge enemy fire.
Recalling the helicopter chase in You Only Live Twice, another three helicopters join the pursuit. One fires an air-to-air missile, and Bond pulls the nose of the plane into a barrel roll to avoid it. The missile crashes into the ground but the helicopters are still in pursuit.
Bond flies close to the satellite dish and then under suspension bridges that lead to the heart of the dish’s antenna. Guards standing on the antenna open fire but miss Bond’s plane and hit the helicopter in pursuit. The chopper collides with the antenna and explodes on impact.
One helicopter down, three to go. Another air-to-air missile is fired at Bond and Marina. Taking evasive action, Bond dodges the missile. But he is soon trapped. There’s a helicopter on his right, another on his left, and the third is behind him. He can only move forward toward a mountain. But he soon spies a narrow cavern in the mountain and accelerates toward the opening.
The helicopters pursue Bond inside the cavern and Bond turns his plane to avoid crashing into the cavern walls and the hail of bullets bearing down on him.
Bond sees the end of the cavern and dumps fuel from the plane’s wings behind him. The bullets from his pursuer ignite the fuel and the helicopter flies into the fireball and explodes.
Bond and Marina’s plane exits the burning cavern with the remaining two helicopters on their tail. One of the plane’s wings is on fire and a helicopter has missile lock.
Bond sees only one parachute behind him. He grabs the chute and Marina. Both leap free as a missile slams into their plane. They freefall, with Bond grabbing hold of Marina just like the one-parachute-for-two-people scene in Quantum of Solace.
Debris from their plane falls around them. A helicopter turns around and bears down on them with machine guns blazing. Bond draws his Walther PPK and fires into the helicopter’s cockpit. Bullets hit the control panel, and ricochet killing the pilot. The helicopter crashes past them on the ground below. As Bond and Marina freefall into the sinkhole, Bond pulls the ripcord. The pair aren’t out of trouble yet, as pieces of the helicopter and their plane still rain down on them. They dodge the debris.
The remaining helicopter lands at the top of the hole and a co-pilot winchs down. Bond jumps the co-pilot and they fight on the winch slamming into the cavern walls. He kills the assailant and he and Marina climb the winch. Bond kills the other pilot, and escapes with Marina in the stolen helicopter.
They use the helicopter to return to the satellite. Bond finds an entrance and confronts Trevelyan.
The scene itself was removed from subsequent drafts. At one point, the helicopter sequence was returned to the script and changed so that the last remaining pilot was changed to Xenia Onatopp who shoots Bond and Marina as they freefall into the sinkhole. Considering her piloting skills, this would be a suitable way for Xenia to go.
The sequence was considered too expensive to film after director Martin Campbell and his crew had already shot the tank chase through St Petersburg and the expansive pre-credits sequence. Instead, in the final film, Bond and Marina’s (now Natalya) plane is shot down by a missile hidden beneath a lake that hides Trevelyan’s satellite dish, and Xenia repels from a helicopter on a harness to fight Bond and Natalya. Xenia meets her demise when Bond grabs her machine gun and kills the helicopter pilot. The helicopter flies out of control which causes Xenia to be pulled back by her harness into the fork of a tree as the helicopter crashes. She’s crushed to death as the helicopter crashes to the ground and explodes. Bond quips, “She always did enjoy a good squeeze.”
The plane chase and one-parachute-for-two-people freefalling sequence in Quantum of Solace is not as elaborate as the sequence cut from Goldeneye. But it is a more realistic version that is shot in a documentary style, and the sequence is more in keeping with the real-world plot and tone of Daniel Craig’s second Bond film.