For the 25th film in the long-running James Bond franchise, No Time to Die, director Cary Joji Fukunaga gained access to some valuable assets for one of the film’s key moments. Number three carrier CMA CGM made available two container ships and a transshipment terminal in Jamaica for an extended shoot. In exchange for prominent coverage of the CMA CGM logo in the sequence, Fukunaga got to film the first known flight of an aircraft under the arms of the STS cranes.
To capture the shot (below), an EON Productions film crew flew at high speed with a helicopter across the row. It also temporarily occupied parts of CMA CGM’s Kingston South Dock terminal with camera equipment, aerial booms and other gear.
CMA CGM identified the container vessels used in the shoot as the 2,200-TEU CMA CGM Fort Saint Georges and the 3,500-TEU CMA CGM Fort de France. The shoot also required 1,000 containers and the participation of a dozen crew members.
The project had corporate support at the highest level. A team led by Tanya Saadé Zeenny – a CMA CGM Group executive and sister of CEO Rodolphe Saadé – managed the operation, working with local Kingston staff.
The announcement did not disclose the date the sequence was shot, but the Jamaican segment of the No Time to Die shoot was completed in April and May 2019, according to EON. The final segments of the soundstage shoot were completed in late 2019, before the pandemic hit. The film was complete and scheduled for release in April 2020, but like so many other events, it was delayed by more than a year due to COVID-19.
The action sequence at the Kingston terminal would be much more difficult to film today, given the limited availability of cargo ships and the infrastructure that services them. Charter rates and asset prices for vessels in this size class have skyrocketed since last year. In August, rates for 3,500 TEU vessels reached near historic levels of $65,000 per day.
The film opens in theaters on September 30 in the UK and October 8 in the US.
