Crab Key

"An expendable little island, Mr. Bond. When my mission here, in Crab Key is accomplished, I destroy it and move on."

― Dr. Julius No

Crab Key is a fictional island off the coast of Jamaica that served as the stronghold of Dr. Julius No. The location first appeared in Ian Fleming's 1958 novel Dr. No and was subsequently adapted for EON Productions' 1962 James Bond film of the same name.

History

The island was abandoned for a long time, but was formerly the centre of guano mining operations. Dr. No acquired it around the time of WW2 for one million dollars. It is implied to be a good distance from mainland Jamaica meaning that it is not clearly visible from there and few visit.

Honey Ryder emerging from the sea

Crab Key is rich in wildlife, partly from being undisturbed for such a long while. It is rich in certain types of seashells which Honey Ryder collects. It supports a wide variety of birds, notably the roseate spoonbill. Crab Key is named after the thousands of large land crabs – what they call in Jamaica "black crabs" – which infest the island.

Quarrel is burnt to death by the Dragon

Dr. No's arrival on the island disturbs the ecological balance. He has a number of new buildings erected including submarine spaces. He scares many of the birds away, using the Dragon and also starts exporting guano again (officially) and using it for nefarious operations.

Description

The island itself was tropical from the outside, but there was radiation on it, which caused a significant reduction in the number of animals. The entrance to Dr. No's base was slightly protruding from the island. The hall, connected by two copper bridges, housed the room in which Professor Dent talked with Doctor No. There was also an entrance hall where radiation was checked and removed using a Geiger counter and a large washing track. This room was connected to the reception and a corridor with rooms and the room where Dr. No tried to drown Honey Ryder. In Bond's room there was a wardrobe, a bathroom, a room for Honey and a table with sleep-inducing coffee. There was an elevator at the reception, we don't know much about the other floors, but they could have housed intern rooms, storage rooms, laboratories, and so on. The elevator took you to Dr. No's room, which had an artificial aquarium, a table and a desk, the room was in Chinese style. There was one more door, probably to the doctor's bedroom and bathroom. No he imprisoned Bond, who somehow managed to get through the boiling water drain to the disinfection room, where he took the suit from Chang, and entered the headquarters where there was a tank with radioactive waste material, which could be played on the pier. There was a laboratory there, and control areas for things like radiation and temperature. This is where the rockets were jammed from. There was a small table where Dr. No. was sitting with a microphone. Perhaps it was connected to the doctor's apartment by an elevator. The loss of the radioactive agent led to the island's explosion.

Behind the Scenes

Ian Fleming based Crab Key on a marshlands swamp on the island of Great Inagua in the Bahamas which he had seen in March 1956.

"Key", or "Cay", is a common Caribbean word for a small island.

The original crab torture scene in Dr. No.

In the 1958 James Bond novel Dr. No by Ian Fleming there is a scene where Dr. No plans to torture Honey to death by tying her naked to the ground in the path of the crabs' migration; mistakenly believing that the animals are carnivorous from the death of an earlier victim. A similar scene was attempted for the 1962 film with Honey being tortured by being tied to the ground along with crabs, but since the crabs were sent chilled from the Caribbean, they did not move much during filming, so the scene was altered to have Honey slowly drowning.

Gallery

Crab Key, as it appears in the 2004 spin-off video game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.