(Credit: Far Out / United Artists Releasing)
Gadgets have always been an integral part of the James Bond character and the eponymous franchise, but at one point, 007’s shiny new toys proved just as deadly to his real-life stunt team as they were to the villains who faced them on screen.
By the time the cameras started rolling on the fifth film starring Sean Connery as the iconic secret agent, You Only Live TwiceBy the 1960s, the Bond saga was already well established as a Hollywood marquee. The problem was that audiences expected the bar to be raised with each new installment, which prompted the sets to get bigger, bolder, braver and more dangerous.
After developing and building the WA-116 autogyro in the early 1960s, Air Force veteran Ken Wallis You Only Live Twice Production designer Ken Adam interviewed a former wing commander talking about the small aircraft he had built and successfully flown.
It was decided that a gyrocopter was essential for Bond, so the device was integrated into the film with all the necessary equipment. Special effects supervisor John Stars equipped the contraption with an array of weapons and props, and renamed the vehicle “Little Nellie” in honour of legendary musical hall performer Nellie Andrews, nicknamed “The Quintessence of Eccentricity”.
Wallis was the only person qualified to pilot the aircraft. You Only Live Twice He landed for a location shoot in Japan, but bad weather and the gyrocopter’s small size left him at the mercy of the weather and he crashed into the camera crew following him in the air several times.
Unfortunately, while capturing aerial footage, cameraman John Jordan’s skills nearly led to tragedy when, while figuring out how to hang from a harness with his feet on the landing strut of “Little Nellie,” his foot got caught in the rotors during the downdraft, nearly amputating it completely.
Fortunately, a surgical conference was taking place nearby in Miyazaki, where Jordan’s nearly amputated limbs were reattached, but he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he ended up having his leg completely amputated when he returned to London. Fitted with a prosthetic leg, Jordan worked on the Bond series for a few more years before dying in a 2,000ft fall while filming another movie in 1969.
It was an ignominious but cruelly fitting end for a daredevil crewman who, although he suffered terribly, could have suffered far worse. You Only Live TwiceBut at least “Little Nellie” has been immortalised as one of Bond’s most iconic pieces of equipment.