The pre-title sequence of No Time to Die — the Aston Martin taking fire in a stone piazza, the motorcycle jump up onto the rooftops, the chase through stepped alleys — was filmed in Matera, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy.
The Sassi di Matera are two districts of dwellings carved directly into a limestone ravine, continuously inhabited for a very long time and probably among the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the world. What makes the Bond sequence startling is that almost none of it is a set: the honey-coloured stairways, the rooftops that are other people's floors, and the piazza above the ravine are the actual town.
From national disgrace to World Heritage
Matera's recent history is the reason it looks the way it does. By the mid-twentieth century the Sassi housed a very poor population living in caves alongside their animals, with no running water or sewerage and severe malaria and infant mortality. Carlo Levi's book Christ Stopped at Eboli brought national attention, and in the Italian parliament the Sassi were denounced as la vergogna nazionale — the shame of the nation.
Under a law passed in 1952 the caves were forcibly evacuated and roughly 15,000 people were rehoused in new districts built on the plateau above. The Sassi stood largely empty for decades.
Reoccupation began slowly from the 1980s, UNESCO inscribed the Sassi as a World Heritage Site in 1993, and Matera was European Capital of Culture in 2019. Cave dwellings that were condemned as unfit for habitation within living memory are now boutique hotels.
What the Bond production did there
Filming took place in autumn 2019 and was a substantial operation for a town of Matera's size — streets closed for weeks, stunt rigs installed above the ravine, and a large temporary crew.
The most conspicuous piece of stunt work is the motorcycle jump up onto the stone in the area around Piazza San Pietro Caveoso and the Murgia side of the ravine. The DB5 gun-turret sequence, with the car rotating in a stone square while returning fire, was shot in the town's piazzas.
A number of Aston Martin DB5 replicas were built and destroyed for the sequence, which is the sort of detail that gets reported locally with some satisfaction.
Matera's other films
Bond arrived late. Matera has been standing in for Jerusalem for over half a century, because it is the most convincingly ancient-looking inhabited landscape in western Europe.
Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed The Gospel According to St Matthew there in 1964. Mel Gibson shot The Passion of the Christ in Matera in 2004, which brought the town its first real wave of international attention. The 2016 Ben-Hur remake used it, as did Wonder Woman for the Themyscira sequences.
The result is that Matera's tourism economy shifted decisively from almost nothing to substantial within about twenty years, driven very largely by film.
Visiting the location
- Where
- Sassi di Matera, Matera, Basilicata, Italy.
- Getting there
- Matera has no airport and no direct mainline rail. Most visitors come by car or bus from Bari, about an hour away, which has the nearest airport.
- Access
- The Sassi are inhabited districts, free to walk through at any hour. Individual rock churches, museums and cave houses charge separate small admissions.
- Wear proper shoes. The Sassi are almost entirely steps and worn stone, and they are slippery when wet.
- The classic view of the town is from the Murgia plateau on the far side of the ravine, reached by a footbridge and a walk.
- Visit at least one casa grotta — a cave house preserved as it was before the 1950s evacuation. It explains the whole place.
- Staying overnight in the Sassi is the point; the day-trip crowds from Bari thin out completely by evening.
Frequently asked questions
Where was the opening chase in No Time to Die filmed?
In Matera, in Basilicata, southern Italy — through the Sassi districts and the piazzas above the ravine, including the area around Piazza San Pietro Caveoso.
Can you visit the Matera Bond locations?
Yes, freely. The Sassi are inhabited public streets, open at all times and free to walk through.
What are the Sassi di Matera?
Two districts of dwellings carved into a limestone ravine, inhabited for millennia, forcibly evacuated in the 1950s as unfit for habitation, and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
What other films were shot in Matera?
The Passion of the Christ, Pasolini's The Gospel According to St Matthew, the 2016 Ben-Hur and Wonder Woman, among others. Matera has been playing ancient Jerusalem since the 1960s.