Atlantis' exterior as it appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
- "Why do we seek to conquer space, when seven-tenths of our universe remains to be explored? The world beneath the sea."
- ― Karl Stromberg
Atlantis is a fictional oceanic citadel and marine research laboratory belonging to the webbed-fingered entrepreneur and criminal mastermind, Karl Stromberg. The location made its first appearance in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me and was later featured in the 2008/09 mobile video game James Bond: Top Agent.
History[]
Stromberg's obsession with the ocean encouraged him to construct Atlantis. To all extents, the structure is a palace both in scale and opulence, looking like a giant 4-legged, 200 meter-tall metal frog supported by huge ballast tanks.[1] Similar to the grand volcano fortress of Blofeld, a major advantage of Atlantis is its ability to remain undetected; in the latter's case by submerging itself underwater so as not to be seen or detected. Located off the coast of Sardinia, Italy, Atlantis is a base capable of supporting life for any amount of time. It has a laboratory where submarines are tracked and probably conducted experiments. The boat harbor is located in the central part, which is slightly submerged, and from it there are 4 elevators with trapdoors that lead to the shark pool. This pool is connected to the aquarium. The aquarium can be seen from behind the glass in the headquarters where Stromberg has his office. On the upper levels Stromberg has dining areas with a shotgun under the table and sliding pictures overlooking the launch pads for 4 helicopters, Moreover, in this room Stromberg has buttons for most things, for example the elevator trapdoor. The supports contain corridors with escape capsules. A little lower there are cabins for the crew, probably a kitchen and rooms for a new underwater race of people. Even lower, there is a room with bathyscaphes and diving equipment, connected by a tunnel leading to the outlet. At the very bottom there are energy generators and mechanisms for immersion and ascent and for changing the place of Atlantis. When Stromberg learns his assistant has given the tracking plans to Aziz Fekkesh and Max Kalba, he opens the trap door and sends her into the shark tank where she is eaten. Stromberg later attempts to kill James Bond with the trap but he avoids the death by shark, by balancing himself on the edges of the floor. The shark is later killed by Jaws and his metal munchers when Bond drops him into the tank.
Atlantis is finally destroyed by the USS Wayne and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Behind the Scenes[]
Derek Meddings' Atlantis miniature on location, October 1976.
According to production designer Ken Adam, for The Spy Who Loved Me the renowned set designer decided to experiment with curved shapes for the scenery, as he felt all his previous setpieces were "too linear". This was demonstrated with the Atlantis, which is a dome and curved surfaces outside, and many curved objects in Stromberg's office inside.[2]In October of 1976, the second unit travelled to Nassau to film the underwater sequences which included the Atlantis model. Stromberg's shark tank was also filmed in the Bahamas, using a live shark in a saltwater swimming pool.[3]