Kazakhstan Nuclear Test Facility

The Kazakhstan Nuclear Test Facility - also known as Russian Atomic Defense Agency Test Facility - is major location in the 1999 James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. Situated in Kazakhstan, the place was a nuclear weapons test site during the time when Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the site is being decommissioned, with its nuclear arsenal in the process of being dismantled.

The place is integral to the main antagonists' plan, because it is used by Renard to steal weapons-grade plutonium needed to carry out Elektra King's scheme.

History

Film

James Bond with Dr. Christmas Jones on the surface of the facility.

Posing as Sasha Davidov, James Bond has successfully infiltrated Renard's henchmen and boards their plane to Kazakhstan. Upon arrival, they drive a UAZ 469 LUV to the Test Facility situated in the desert, where numerous large explosions go off.

They reach their destination, with Bond now assuming cover of Dr. Mikhail Arkov (whom Davidov was meant to impersonate) while Renard's men enter. Bond meets with base's commander, CIS Colonel Akakievich and are soon joined by IDA physicist Dr. Christmas Jones. Bond apparently seems to convince Dr. Jones and gains entry to one of the underground facilities.

Arriving down the elevator into the underground facility, Bond soon finds Renard's men working on a nuclear warhead. Renard then appears issuing orders to his men, and once he is out of his men's sight Bond catches him by surprise.

Bond tries to force the former to comply at gunpoint, but Renard acts deliberately uncooperative, noting he feels no pain and does not fear death. Renard reveals that he was the sniper at the Bank of Bilbao, protecting Bond until he delivered the bomb that killed Sir Robert King. After Renard brings up Elektra, Bond pistolwhips Renard and proceeds to try kill him silently, suppressing his Walther P99. This prompts Renard to say Elektra's motto "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive", to Bond's disbelieved shock.

Then, Dr. Jones appears, accompanied by Colonel Akakievic and few armed CIS soldiers. She accuses Bond of being a imposter, with Col. Akakievich ordering everybody to stop. After having pressed Bond's injured collarbone, Renard attempts to continue despite Akakievich's orders. This prompts Renard's concealed henchmen to throw a FN P90 to Renard, who opens fire at Akakievich and his men, killing them.

Renard and his men proceed to continue moving the nuclear warhead, while Bond attempts to stop them. Bond succeeds getting through the blast doors, killing all of Renard's men, and getting the nuclear warhead locator card that one of the henchmen removed. However, Renard manages to get to the elevator with the warhead, with Bond's attempts to shoot Renard undone by the elevator's bulletproof glass.

Bond escaping the explosion from Renard's bomb

Renard taunts Bond and the elevator ascends, with Renard's finger pointing towards a bomb he left. Bond uses the chains to zoom through the corridor and through the blast door, that was reopened by Dr. Jones, to avoid the explosion. However, an exploding barrel gets through the closing blast door and setting the chamber in fire.

Back on the surface, Renard has loaded the warhead aboard the LUV and escapes with his underlings. Bond and Dr. Jones escape using a small lifting device and escape bunker being consumed by fire in the nick of time.

Outside, they see Renard's plane leave the scene and rest of the site exploding. Dr. Jones tells Bond that the nuclear warhead has a locator card that allows them to track it, but Bond shows that the he has the card that was removed by Renard's henchman.

Video Game

PS1 version

"Right, Bond, you're now part in one of the more desolate regions of Kazakhstan. This place is one of the old Soviet nuclear testing facilities, owned by the Russian Atomic Energy Department. We've kept an eye on all these places for years. This one is in the process of being decommissioned - they're disarming and dismantling any remaining warheads now.
The other scientists are the International Decommissioning Agency, which is a United Nations-sponsored organization. They'll be managing the decommissioning to make sure it's environmentally responsible and safe.
The whole place is being guarded by the CIS army, under the command of a man named Colonel Akakievich. Now, any of the people here may be secretly working for Renard - those men you are with are disguised as Russian scientists - so keep pretending you're Dr. Arkov until you know what's really going on. "

― Message from Robinson, Chief of Staff

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N64 version

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Behind the scenes

Location

The exterior of Kazakhstan nuclear facility was shot at the Bardenas Reales, in Navarre, Spain.

Writing

The idea for nuclear weapons disposal site action sequence was previously explored in the early scripts for GoldenEye, but the scene was removed in subsequent rewrites and then repurposed for The World Is Not Enough. In the GoldenEye draft, the site was located Degelen Hills (sometimes misspelled as Gegelen Hills) located near the city of Semipalatinsk -- where the real life Semipalatinsk Test Site (aka "The Polygon") is situated. There, Bond would find one developers of the orbital EMP weapon (originally named Tempest), as well as the test equipment used to design and test it. Bond would have properly met up with the Bond Girl (Natalya in the final version) here, and the two would stick with each other to the end of the film from here on.

Gallery