Spectre: Mexico City to the Sahara

Spectre opens in Mexico City during the Day of the Dead, in one long take. A skull-masked Bond slips from the crowd into the hotel's flamboyant lobby and heads for the roof to take out the assassin Sciarra. The mission foils a bombing attempt at the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. The building housed one of the city's first department stores, and its stained-glass ceiling by Jacques Grüber is original. It became a hotel in 1968.

Visitor guidance: The lobby and its stained-glass ceiling can be seen at Avenida 16 de Septiembre 82, in the Zócalo area.

The opening scene goes on above Mexico City's great square, where Bond takes command of a getaway helicopter in the middle of a fight. The square was closed for the shoot and used 1,500 extras, 10 giant skeletons and 250,000 paper flowers. The Day of the Dead parade in the film had never been held here. After the film, city officials created a real one, on 29 October 2016, and it has been held every year since. The square measures 240 m by 240 m.

Visitor guidance: A large open square in central Mexico City, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral.

After Bond is recognised at a secret meeting, he flees across Rome in a modified Aston Martin DB10, pursued by the assassin Hinx. The chase runs along the Tiber, and Bond finally dumps the car in the river at Ponte Sisto, the arched 15th-century bridge. The production spent five weeks shooting across the city. The bridge itself was built between 1473 and 1479 for Pope Sixtus IV, who gave it his name.

Visitor guidance: The bridge links Via dei Pettinari with Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere.

Bond tracks Mr White down to Altaussee, where White is dying of thallium poisoning. Bond crosses the mountain-ringed Lake Altaussee by boat, and the production filmed there. Not everything was shot at the lake: the fictional Hoffler Klinik was the Ice Q restaurant in Sölden. Altaussee lies in the Styrian Salzkammergut, and a 7.5 km trail circles the clear water beneath the Loser.

Location precision: The film names Altaussee, but the scenes were shot across Austria; the pin marks the Altaussee area, not one filmed building.

Visitor guidance: A 7.5 km trail circles the lake, below the Loser mountain.

Madeleine, a psychiatrist who knows about L'Américain, takes Bond to the hotel in Tangier. A secret room there points them toward Oberhauser's base in the Sahara. On the way, Hinx ambushes them, but they fight him off and defeat him. The production travelled to Morocco in June and filmed in Oujda, Tangier and Erfoud, but the hotel is a story invention.

Location precision: The hotel L'Américain exists only in the story; the pin marks central Tangier, not a filming location.

At the end of the desert trail Bond and Madeleine confront Oberhauser, the man behind Spectre, in a secret base. The film used Gara Medouar, a limestone massif that rises 50 m above the desert. The explosion filmed here holds a Guinness World Record for the largest film stunt explosion, with 8,140 litres of kerosene. The site opened up to cinema and tourism after the 1999 film The Mummy.

Visitor guidance: A well-established tourist site, about 12 miles southwest of Erfoud.

In the finale Bond shoots down Blofeld's helicopter, which crashes onto Westminster Bridge. Blofeld survives and is arrested by M. The crash was done with two full-size helicopter shells, with computer-generated rotor blades added later. The Thames stunts were shot at night, temporarily closing both Westminster and Lambeth Bridges. The bridge is painted predominantly green, like the leather seats in the House of Commons nearby.

Visitor guidance: The bridge links Westminster with Lambeth.