The Man with the Golden Gun 007

The cork-screw car jump was apparently conceived years before the movie went into production. Researchers at Cornell University were studying rollover collisions for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and they did a computer simulation of the barrel roll stunt used in the film. Race car driver Jay Milligan, who is the promoter of the American Thrill Show during the 1960s and 1970s with the sponsorship of the American Motors Corporation, did actually perform the barrel roll stunt, known as the Astro Spiral Jump and it debuted on January 12, 1972 at the Houston Astrodome using an AMC Javelin. Milligan was contacted by Albert R. Broccoli during an American Thrill Show performance in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he wanted the stunt performed in a James Bond film. The producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli allegedly took out patents and copyrights on the stunt as they did not wish it to appear in another movie before they had used it. The 360-degree car-spiraling jump over a canal was performed in just one take by uncredited British stuntman \’Bumps\’ Williard as 8 cameras simultaneously captured the spectacle. So potentially hazardous was nature of the stunt, divers, ambulances and cranes were on standby alert in case of any catastrophic consequences. The stunt was so rapid that the film is shown in slow motion. Williard was given a large bonus for completing the jump on the first take. Jay Milligan did actually perform the driving stunts with the AMC Hornet used in the film – AMC provided 15 vehicles used in the film (some of them where AMC Matador police cars). There were two AMC Hornets used for the spiral jump stunt and one of them is still owned by Jay Milligan – which is the backup vehicle while the other one is in a museum. The jump is also credited with being the first stunt ever to be calculated by computer modeling.