"Quantum of Solace"

The mountain of a particularly large telescope will be featured in the new James Bond movie, apparently titled “Quantum of Solace”. The film will highlight the European Space Observatory’s Very Large Telescope’s site, which is located 2600 meters up Cerro Paranal mountain in the Chilean Atacama Desert. I’m not clear on whether the telescope itself will be in the movie, but the hotel in the desert that people stay in when visiting will.

The place is a desert, and a creepy one. It looks like Mars. The villain of the movie hides out at this hotel in this wasteland and Bond has to go after him.

Atacama Desert. Courtesy of the US Geological Survey

I am always 50/50 on physics portrayed in the movies. I like the attention, but I am wary of Hollywood getting it wrong. Last time a telescope was portrayed in a Bond movie that I can remember was the radio telescope Arecibo in Puerto Rico in the movie “Goldeneye.” For me, this was very convenient, because I could use this movie as an example whenever I received I blank stare when I mentioned I did research at Arecibo telescope. Aparently it isn’t enough to be the largest radio telescope in the world, you also have to have a movie star jump on you.