007 film locations: New Otani hotel, Tokyo

James Bond (Sean Connery) just before an action sequence in You Only Live Twice

TOKYO — Some visitors to the New Otani hotel in Tokyo likely get a feeling of deja vu.

Osato Chemical “headquarters” today

They should, at least if they’ve seen a lot of James Bond movies. The hotel provided a key exterior for the 1967 film You Only Live Twice.

In the film, Bond takes the place of an assassin he has killed. The agent is taken to the headquarters of Osato Chemical & Engineering Co. He ends up having to fight his way out, helped by Aki, an agent for the Japanese Secret Service.

Later, Bond goes undercover into Osato headquarters to try and find out more about the company, which turns out to be a front for SPECTRE’s plot to start World War III. Again, he needs Aki’s help to get out alive. That leads to a high-speed car chase, climaxing with a helicopter with a giant magnet, snatching the car chasing Bond and Aki.

In real life, at least in 2015, it’d be extremely difficult to have a high-speed car chase. The nearby streets are crowded most of the time. Most of the Osato sequences were actually filmed on Ken Adam-designed sets at Pinewood Studios in England.

The hotel includes a revolving restaurant at the top and a variety of stores and services. Its guests include tourists from around the world and is also used for corporate events.

Here’s a 2011 video contrasting the hotel as it appeared in the movie (filmed in 1966) and in real life.

Elon Musk and Blofeld, the sequel

Elon Musk photo on Twitter.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, really, really likes to compare himself to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond’s arch enemy.

This week, SpaceX had a much-publicized launch. It didn’t go as planned. Here’s an excerpt from CNN’S WEBSITE:

(CNN)—SpaceX on Tuesday launched a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed cargo spacecraft called Dragon on a flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station.

That was the easy part. In a difficult bid to land a rocket stage on a floating barge for the first time, the private space exploration company was unsuccessful.

Musk, whose photo on Twitter evokes Blofeld as well as Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies, had been more optimistic about the outcome. And, in doing so, *again* evoked Blofeld, specifically as depicted in You Only Live Twice:

If this works, I'm treating myself to a volcano lair. It's time.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2015

Musk was less jovial after the landing failure.

Droneship is fine. No hull breach and repairs are minor. Impact overpressure is closer to a fast fire than an explosion.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2015