The Dalton-Brosnan era of James Bond — from The Living Daylights in 1987 to Die Another Day in 2002 — spans four very different Bond actors and six films across a period that saw the franchise navigate the end of the Cold War, a six-year production hiatus and the challenge of remaining relevant against an increasingly competitive action film landscape. The locations during this period reflect both the Cold War preoccupations of the Dalton films and the increasingly global ambition of the Brosnan era, covering everything from the Soviet-Afghan border to the streets of Prague to an Icelandic glacier.
Location 01Iceland — Die Another Day (2002)
Die Another Day used Iceland's Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and the surrounding Vatnajökull glacier as the location for Gustav Graves' ice palace — a villain's lair carved from solid ice that manages to be both architecturally impractical and cinematically spectacular, which is a combination the Bond franchise has always considered a reasonable trade. The ice palace was a purpose-built practical set constructed on the lagoon, illuminated from within and filmed during the brief Icelandic winter daylight. When production ended the set was left to melt, which it did.
Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in southeast Iceland is one of the most dramatic natural environments in Europe — a lagoon filled with ice chunks calving from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, with icebergs drifting toward the sea over a black sand beach. It is approximately five hours from Reykjavik on the Ring Road, accessible year-round but most spectacular in winter when the ice formations are at their largest and the northern lights are potentially visible overhead.
The lagoon is free to visit. Boat tours of the lagoon run from May to October, taking you among the icebergs at close range. Diamond Beach, the black sand beach where the glacial ice washes up and glitters, is immediately adjacent. The combination of the lagoon and the beach is one of the more visually extraordinary natural environments in the world and does not require any Bond context to justify the journey, though having the Bond context does not hurt.
🇮🇸 Iceland — book it
Location 02Prague — The Living Daylights (1987)
The Living Daylights — Timothy Dalton's first Bond film and widely considered the better of his two — used Prague as the location for the film's Czechoslovakia sequences, filming extensively in the city's historic centre in the late 1980s, before the Velvet Revolution had transformed the country's political landscape. The Prague that appears in The Living Daylights is the communist-era city, its architecture unchanged from the Habsburg and inter-war periods but its atmosphere carrying the weight of Soviet occupation.
Prague's Old Town, Charles Bridge, the castle district and the Estates Theatre — where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787 and where Bond scenes were filmed — are all accessible to visitors. The city's extraordinary preservation of its medieval and baroque architecture means that the Prague of The Living Daylights is largely identical to the Prague of today. The political context has changed entirely. The buildings are the same.
Charles Bridge, crossing the Vltava between the Old Town and the Malá Strana neighbourhood, is one of the great public spaces in Europe — a 14th-century pedestrian bridge lined with 30 baroque statues of saints. Prague Castle, visible from most of the city and the dominant presence in the castle district, is the largest ancient castle complex in the world by area. The combination of medieval infrastructure, baroque decoration and the specific Bond film context makes Prague one of the richest single-city Bond locations in the franchise.
Prague practicalities: Prague receives direct flights from most UK airports and is approximately two hours from London. The city is compact and largely walkable from a central hotel. The Old Town and Malá Strana cover the main Bond filming areas and are connected by Charles Bridge — about 20 minutes on foot.
Location 03Baku, Azerbaijan — The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The World Is Not Enough used Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, for its Caucasus sequences — a city whose oil industry heritage, Soviet-era architecture and spectacular waterfront position gave the film a visual identity unlike any previous Bond location. The film arrived in Baku at a moment of significant transformation for the city, as post-Soviet reconstruction and oil wealth began reshaping its skyline.
The Baku waterfront — the Bulvar, a seafront promenade extending along the Caspian — appears in several sequences, as does the Old City (İçərişəhər), the walled medieval centre of Baku that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Maiden Tower, a 12th-century structure within the Old City walls, is visible in establishing shots. The Old City's narrow streets, caravanserais and historic architecture contrast with the Soviet-era apartment blocks and the new oil-funded towers that define modern Baku.
Baku today is a considerably different city from the one the Bond production used in 1998 — significant architectural investment, including Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Center, has transformed the city's contemporary face while the Old City has been preserved and restored. Azerbaijan Airlines flies from London Heathrow to Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport. The combination of the Old City, the Caspian waterfront and the Bond connection makes Baku an unusual and genuinely rewarding destination for visitors willing to travel beyond the standard European circuit.
Planning Your Dalton-Brosnan Bond Tour
- Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, Iceland — 5 hours from Reykjavik on the Ring Road. Free to visit. Boat tours May to October. Northern lights visible October to March.
- Diamond Beach, Iceland — immediately adjacent to the lagoon. Black sand, glacial ice. Free.
- Prague Old Town — direct flights from all UK airports, 2 hours. Walk Charles Bridge, visit Prague Castle, find the Estates Theatre on Ovocný trh.
- Baku Old City (İçərişəhər) — UNESCO World Heritage Site. Azerbaijan Airlines from Heathrow. 4.5 hours.
- Baku Bulvar waterfront — free to walk. Best in the evening when the lights of the new towers reflect on the Caspian.
The Political Landscape of the Dalton-Brosnan Era
The six films from The Living Daylights to Die Another Day navigate the Cold War's end in real time — Dalton's Bond operates in a world of Soviet-Afghan conflict and Czech dissidents; Brosnan's Bond operates in a post-Soviet world of oligarchs, rogue agents and the specifically 1990s anxiety about what replaces superpower certainty. The locations reflect this: Prague carries the weight of communist occupation and imminent liberation; Baku represents the Caspian's post-Soviet oil wealth; Iceland is politically neutral in a way that allows it to stand in for anywhere the production needs it to be.
Visiting these locations now, decades after the films were made, adds a further layer — you see not just the Bond film but the history that the Bond film was using as its backdrop. Prague's velvet revolution happened two years after The Living Daylights filmed. Baku's transformation happened in the decade after The World Is Not Enough. Iceland remains Iceland. Some things are more permanent than others.