James Bond's Fake Day of the Dead Parade Was So Cool Mexico City Wants to Do It for Real Nathaniel Janowitz - VICE News
go to original July 9, 2016

Spectre - Opening shot that tracks Bond through The Day of the Dead (Movie Maker)

The most recent James Bond film, Spectre, begins with the British spy chasing a bad guy through Mexico City's historic downtown district while thousands enjoy a Day of the Dead parade.

Huge papier-mâché skeletons smoking cigars and wearing Aztec headdresses traverse the busy central streets on large floats. Local revelers with skeleton face paintings dance wildly. Bond's tuxedo has a skeleton silhouette on it.

The scene from the movie released last year seemed tailor-made to promote Mexico's annual celebration of dead loved ones on November 1 and 2 to an international audience. But there was a problem — Mexico City didn't have a Day of the Dead parade.

It will now.

"We have to invent the Day of the Dead carnival because, after the James Bond movie, tourists are going to come looking for the carnival and they're not going to find it," Tourism Minister Enrique de la Madrid Cordero told a meeting of travel agents on the date designated to celebrate travel agents in Mexico.

Mexico City's place in Spectre was already controversial because the authorities paid for the privilege.

Read the rest at VICE News

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