Jaguar XKR

Zao (Rick June) drives a green Jaguar XKR in Die Another Day (2002).

The convertible Jaguar can already be spotted in the pre-titles scene in Colonel Moon's North Korean HQ, when the car is part of a supercar line-up, next to a Ferrari 355 GTS, Porsche 911, Ford GT40, Ferrari 360 Modena and Lamborghini Diablo. Most of the cars are destroyed in the gunfight, but the XKR, F355 and Diablo survive and show up later in the film.

The Jaguar XKR is seen in action when used by Zao in the Iceland scene, where he chases James Bond in his Aston Martin Vanquish. The licence plate on the car is an Icelandic registration and reads OR 203.

The XKR is completely filled with gadgets, mostly an arsenal of weapons hidden in the front, side and rear of the car.

A M134 Minigun comes up from behind the front seats; missiles are hidden in the sidepanels of the doors; the trunk hides an arsenal of mortars and rockets; hidden behind the front grille are 18 red tipped rockets.

The M134 Minigun, on which the prop gun mounted on the Jaguar is based, can be seen in many other films, tv series and video games, see an overview at the IMFDB.

The front of the Jaguar features a battering ram with which Zao tries to ram Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish, although Bond escapes this by using the invisibility feature of his Vanquish.

The stunning metallic green color of the XKR is very special, although there are two accounts of its origin: it is claimed that green paint was a blend of the standard paint finish and pure gold at a cost of nearly £2,000 per litre (source), while the book Bond Cards - The Definitive History mentions on page 266 that the green was the same color used for the Jaguar Formula One cars at the time.

Eight cars were made for the film, of which four special effects cars. For the stunt cars the standard 4-litre V8 engine was replaced and the car was made into a 4-wheel drive for better grip on the ice lake in Iceland.

One of the Bond Jaguar XKR cars is on display at the Bond In Motion exhibition which is currently in the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles after being on display for years in the London Film Museum in the heart of London.

Another one of the movie XKR cars is on display at the Dezer Museum in Orlando, FL (see this Instagram post of a recent visit to the museum).

Scale models

Several die-cast scale models have been made of the Jaguar XKR.

A 1:18 scale model from The Beanstalk Group features many gadgets that can be revealed including the hidden machine gun behind the seats, red rockets behind the front grille, side rockets in the doors and mortars in the trunk of the car. The only thing missing is the battering ram in the front: it's visible but it can't be extended. Find this model on eBay for $20 - $80.

The Beanstalk group also made the Aston Martin Vanquish and Ford Thunderbird in the same 1:18 scale series.

Additionally Beanstalk offered a slightly bigger 1:16 scale remote control version of the Jaguar XKR (find on eBay) and Aston Martin Vanquish (find on eBay).

The Jaguar XKR was also part of the James Bond Car Collection in scale 1:43 with a small diorama.

Corgi made 1:36, 1:55 and 1:64 scale models, including a Director's Cut edition with working gadgets.

I personally think the Beanstalk 1:18 is the model to get: currently available starting at $20 on eBay and it looks great and has nicely detailed gadgets. Just make sure that the model you buy has the gatling gun cover, which is often missing on open box models.