How Bond Film-Makers Modified the Lotus Esprit S1 for the Underwater Chase In Spy Who Loved Me

The Spy Who Loved Me is indeed one of the best Bond films, and that underwater sequence made the film a buzzmaker. However, none of it would've been possible without the Lotus Esprit S1 and the team behind the modifications.

The Lotus Esprit S1 first appears in a mountain top chase through Sardiania which ends when it jumps off a pier into the ocean. And to everyone´s surprise, it switches from a car to a full-scale submarine out of nowhere and Bond and Amasova travel underwater to the submerged city of Atlantis. This is one of the most iconic scenes in Bond films. And what´s even more amazing is that this was a real vehicle underwater and not created by computer graphics. How did that happen? Take a behind-the-scenes look at how this legendary transformation from a regular vehicle to a submarine car happened!

Photo Credit: m.imdb.com

Designing of the Lotus Submarine

Fans are unaware that it took several transformations in the early drafts of Spy Who Loved Me to build a submarine car. The submarine was just a concept, but transforming it into a fully functioning submersible that also looked futuristic and aesthetically pleasing was no minor feat.

At this juncture, it needs to be emphasised that the concept of aquatic cars was not new then. But they don´t submerge. They are really more like amphibious craft that transition from travelling on the surface of roads to the surface of water.

And the Lotus Espirit S1, although futuristic in design and touted to be the fastest production car in Britain at that time (222 km/hr), was still just a car, with no abilities to travel underwater.

So the makers of the film were faced with quite a challenge in turning their idea into reality.

It was production designer Ken Adam who chose the Espirit for this job. Producer Cubby Broccoli wanted to portray Roger Moore as a modern James Bond, who was not opposed to the détente between East and West Europe, and more importantly, had no problems working alongside female spies. And the Esprit with its futuristic lines seemed perfect for it.

And so, with the car finalised, Ken Adam and special effects coordinator Derek Meddings began work on it. Lotus had provided 11 cars to them including 6 body shells of the Esprit. Of them, one functioning car was used for the mountain top chase in Sardinia, to which Adam made design modifications and outfitted it with gadgets befitting a spy. The inspiration for this was from two previous Bond cars – – Wallis WA-116 Agile autogyro and Aston Martin DB5.

Like the Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit is also fitted with gadgets. The submarine car emulated the oil slick from DB5. There's also a rear-mounted concrete sprayer on the Lotus Esprit.

Meddings oversaw the production of mechanized models and miniatures from Adam's designs. The miniatures were also used in the filming for stunts. In fact, the underwater sequence frequently cuts back and forth from a full-size car to a miniature. The very first miniature used is the first shot of the car sinking underwater after launching off the pier.

For the submarine part of it, one the body shells provided by Lotus was to be converted into an aquatic vehicle. Now, according to Meddings, neither he nor Adam knew anything about hydrodynamics or what makes a submarine float or submerge or move through water. However, the sleek lines of the Esprit with its trademark ´folded paper´origami design seemed like a likely candidate.

Adam added additional fins to the shell that replaced the car's wheels and increased the streamlined look. When in water, the wheels folded up inside the structure. The crew equipped the car with a mine laying panel and an oil slick, post which Meddings transported the vehicle to Perry Oceanographic for conversion into a submarine.

Photo Credit: m.imdb.com

Building the Functioning Car Submarine

Perry Oceanographic is an underwater engineering firm that created underwater scooters and submarines for the US Navy. They installed four watertight battery-operated motors, fins, ballast tanks, and four propellers into the Esprit. This submarine could touch a top speed of 10 knots and went down to a depth of 13m, which exceeded the performance of many commercial underwater vehicles at that time.

Photo Credit: en.wikipedia.org

However, it still had its limitations because it was originally designed to be a car. It had poor visibility and no watertight compartment for the driver. Two scuba divers, kitted up in full underwater breathing apparatus, piloted the craft.

The remaining body shells were used to show the car´s transformation from a land craft to a sea craft. The entire underwater sequence from the jump off the pier to travelling underwater to Atlantis and then getting chased by frogmen was only for 3 minutes on screen. But it took 70 technicians over 3 months of pre-production and five weeks of filming to finalise.

The Esprit gained so much popularity in this movie that it was featured in two more Bond films and will forever be known as Roger Moore´s car. However, it´s lifetime isn't over. Last we heard, Elon Musk purchased this submarine-car at an auction to re-engineer it so that it legimately transforms from a car into a submarine. Not much progress has been reported on that though.