How real is the crocodile scene from the live-action James Bond movie Let It Die?

When the best James Bond movie ever made, Casino Royale debuted in 2006, it introduced audiences to a new, rugged and more grounded version of the famous spy. Gone are the crafted Q gadgets and impossible to escape death traps. In fact, Q as a character was completely removed from the films. All of these Bond trademarks would return to the franchise with 2012 Skyfall, still the greatest Bond film of all time despite not being very good, but for Casino Royale they eschewed it in favor of a cinematic realism that portrayed Bond's origins with finesse.

But by the time Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond ended, much of that tasteful restraint had been abandoned, a fact that was never more evident than when Eon Productions and director Cary Fukunaga decided to have Craig's previously grounded spy killed with a whole bunch of rockets. end of “No Time to Die”. Of course, this isn't the first time the Bond saga has depicted something unrealistic, although it was the first time it was done with a supposedly grounded version of the titular spy. Indeed, the film that almost killed cinema's most enduring franchise, Die Another Day, is still considered worst bond movie ever mainly due to its fancier elements, such as giant ice castles, invisible cars, and a favorite trope of failed blockbuster filmmaking: giant sky lasers.

But unrealistic elements and unlikely scenarios actually have a proud history in the Bond canon, starting with Sean Connery's 007 who came very close to having his nether regions removed with an unnecessarily slow laser beam. Then there was the time Roger Moore's Bond jumped a queue of crocodiles to escape certain death. But this unlikely moment was actually much more real than most people realize.

There is no James Bond movie the most realistic spy moviesbut that's part of the reason we love them. Bond himself is a fantasy that author John Le Carré brilliantly tried to subvert with his truest character, George Smiley. But while Le Carré's novels and their adaptations have their appeal (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is one best spy movies of all time), Bond remains the ultimate cinematic spy to this day—even with all the ice castles and crotch lasers.

When Roger Moore played the character, he ended up in all kinds of absurd and ridiculous scenarios, from laser fights in space to snowboarding, for some reason accompanied by “California Girls”. In his first outing in a tuxedo, 1973's Live and Let Die, Moore's Bond finds himself in a classic 007 predicament when he's marooned on a small island in the middle of a crocodile-infested swamp. He then tries to distract the crocuses by throwing meat into the water before using his electromagnetic clock to lure the boat towards him. When both attempts fail and the folds fall on Bond, he simply skips his way over the reptilian heads to safety in a thrilling floating ending.

While it's somewhere in the middle of the funniest Bond moments, it still feels pretty unbelievable when Moore's spy makes his way to freedom – like something more at home in a Disney cartoon than a spy movie. But this is one Bond moment that's actually more real than you might know. The scene was shot on a real Jamaican crocodile farm owned by Ross Kananga, who, according to Moore behind the scenes featurewhich housed 1,500 creatures. Kananga had been performing tricks with crocodiles since he was a child, and at one point even got his head caught in one of the reptile's jaws for 20 minutes. He also watched his own father, with whom he performed shows, eat one of the crocs. So, you can imagine that a man who has lived through this kind of trauma wouldn't be all that impressed with Bond's daring escape over the heads of a line of crocodiles – and you'd be right. In fact, Kananga was so unfazed by the stunt that he agreed to do it himself … with real crocodiles.

For the scenes involving Roger Moore and the crocs, several foam rubber animals were added to the swamp, while the other live crocs were removed. But when it came time for Bond's precarious escape, Ross Kananga donned a Moore outfit complete with crocodile skin shoes to take on the job of jumping over three live crocodiles. Like behind the scenes shots show, he actually had to do the stunt five times before he pulled it off, and the unused footage is frankly incredible as Kananga falls into the water multiple times while the crocs beat him wildly. Tom Cruise may have done six motorcycle jumps in 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning' but frankly, if I don't see him jump three live crocodiles in the next Mission: Impossible movie, I'm going to be unimpressed.

According to BallenTranceKananga had at least tied the animals' legs to make the stunt less risky, but their jaws remained free to press against their owner as he tried to jump ashore. As the stuntman revealed in a 1973 interview (via BoldenTrance): “The film company kept sending to London for more clothes. Croci chewed everything up when I hit the water, including my shoes. I got a hundred and ninety-three stitches on my leg and face.”

However, a man who was trapped in the jaws of a croc for 20 minutes saw his father being eaten alive, and how Tee Hee actor Julius Harris revealedonce he had a “pet lion” patrolling his crocodile farm, the experience was definitely a day's work. Meanwhile, Moore was happy to simply watch the multi-game play out, while Kananga was compensated with a $60,000 payout. Sadly, he died of a heart attack five years later, but his valiant efforts are still immortalized in the movie Live and Let Die.