"There's Nothing Here But Volcanoes": Materiality and Design of Villains' Lairs in the James Bond Films

Villains’ lairs are a key ingredient in the Bondian formula for the James Bond films, yet in comparison with gadgets and weapons, the evolution of lairs has received little attention. The materiality and design of lairs has evolved partly in response to the changing nature of villains’ threats, and can be grouped into three main phases: "Cold War disruptors" in reinforced concrete subterranean spaces (Dr. No, You Only Live Twice); "New World Order survivalists" in fantastical lairs out of science fiction (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker); and "Data manipulators" in a broader range of lairs including nomadic space (Skyfall) and corporate campus (Spectre). Unlike weapons and gadgetry, advances in lairs have generally lagged behind technological developments, rather than anticipate them. Lairs also function as an extension of villains themselves, and highlight underlying biases in the portrayal of villains. Lairs emphasise the material capital of villains; juxtaposed against the sexual capital of Bond, they facilitate the "sexual repositioning" of female characters allied to villains. Beyond practical reasons of concealing infrastructure, the subterranean setting of lairs plays into historical associations between evil and the underground. Early films strongly associated villains with Modernist design, reinforcing implicit links between "foreign-ness", "other-ness", and evil. In contrast, associating foreign allied characters with vernacular design reinforced the pretence of Empire, in which foreign allies are obedient to Bond and Britain. Insights into the role of villains’ lairs within James Bond films inform a wider understanding of how developments in materiality and design are portrayed on screen.