Interesting Stuff

In Bunker 2 there is a computer with an animated man skateboarding against a green background. According to Project Lead Martin Hollis the man is programmer Mark Edmonds, who otherwise did not wish to appear in the game. (Source)

That said, Edmonds' head actually is in the game as a random guard head, the head for the Russian Soldier multiplayer character, and the hidden character Mark.

There's a head model with the file name "CheadsallyZ." Sally is a real person who worked as cleaning staff at Rare's offices. One day character artist Brett Jones asked if he could take pictures of her face for a game. Sally was a little puzzled but acquiesced. In the final game her head is mostly unused but can be unlocked as a hidden character. (Source: GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr, p. 57-58)

Everyone has used the Watch Magnet Attract to grab the key off the wall and escape from Bunker 2's jail cell. But this gadget will actually pick up anything the player can pick up. That includes guns, throwing knives, keycards, and even the Flight Recorder in Archives once the safe is open.

I only slightly question its ability to pick up the Severnaya Stafflist, because that does not seem to be made of anything magnetic.

The only reference to game developer Rare inside any level is this lone graffiti placed low on the wall towards the end of Depot. There are probably literally millions of people who ran by this without noticing.

While equipped with the Camera gadget and holding L or R you can use and to zoom in and out just like with the Sniper Rifle.

In the movie Janus steps out of the shadows in Statue Park and reveals himself as Alec Trevelyan, former agent 006. Bond and Alec's conversation goes as follows:

Bond: Alec?

Trevelyan: Back from the dead.

Trevelyan: No longer just an anonymous star on the memorial wall at MI6.

The developers seem to have noticed this line about the memorial wall. In a sketch of GoldenEye's gameplay loop there is an idea that if the player died they would be shown their star on the memorial wall. As far as we know the memorial wall idea never progressed beyond this sketch.

Nintendo Magazine System Issue #53 claims that the character head named "Jim" — a standard guard head with a missing tooth — is based on a gardener who worked at Rare. We know that Brett Jones took pictures of pretty much anyone he could find over at Rare HQ so this seems entirely plausible. Whether or not that tooth was really missing or the texture was just edited that way remains a mystery.

The low level of detail model (the one used when the camera is far away) for the Siberian Guard has a real oddity. The bottom of his right leg uses the texture of Karl Hilton's face. The texture coordinates are very stretched which prevents the face from being seen in-game, but it is still very strange that this texture is used. Thanks to Flargee for pointing this one out.

You probably know that if you shoot Mishkin or his guards at the end of Statue they will execute Natalya. They have no objection to you slapping them a bit though. Once you do knock one out Natalya will still die even if no one is actually pointing their gun at her!

If you're a GoldenEye fan you almost certainly know this already, but how could we call ourselves a GoldenEye site an not mention it? If you wound a Scientist twice they will pull out a DD44 on you. They can even throw Grenades!