The Devil's Breath

Exterior shots of The Devil's Breath, as seen in The World Is Not Enough (1999).

The Devil's Breath is a fictional natural gas fire which blazes continuously around a natural grotto, located somewhere on the Absheron Peninsula near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (a country which itself is known as "the Land of Fire"). The location appeared in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough and its accompanying novelisation.

History

The World Is Not Enough (film)

For thousands of years, Hindu pilgrims journeyed to the site to witness the natural flames that never die and to test their devotion to God by holding the scalding rocks in their hands as they prayed. The Devil's Breath is used by the terrorist, Renard, for meeting with oil heiress Elektra King's security chief, Davidov, and a nuclear weapons scientist named Arkov, who also secretly works for him. They discuss the next phase of their scheme, and after Arkov is shot dead for disloyalty. Davidov is punished for failing to assassinate James Bond, by having one of the scalding rocks forced into his hands. Renard subsequently orders Davidov to take Arkov's place on a secret mission the next day.

The World Is Not Enough (novelisation)

An expanded description is found in the novelization of The World Is Not Enough, which situates the location in the 'Field of Fire', circa ten miles outside Baku, in the middle of a petroleum field. Like similar real-world phenomena, Natural gas seeps from holes in the baked earth, creating a gigantic, perpetual inferno that covered an area of half a square mile. Aside from these details, the scene itself plays out exactly like its cinematic counterpart.