Did Pierce Brosnan think that once playing super-spy James Bond made him immune to dangers of the highly acidic hydrothermal waters, boiling in one of Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs?
Or, did he somehow think that being an internationally renowned movie star made him special enough that he could allegedly ignore stay-on-the-trail signs and trespass in an area of the park that’s been designated as off limits?
Who knows what was on Brosnan’s mind, but he reportedly entered “delicate,” restricted areas in the Wyoming national park twice on Nov. 1, according to The Telegraph and other news reports. And now he has to answer it.
The 70-year-old Irish actor is due to appear in court in Wyoming on Jan. 23, accused of leaving permitted trails in the park to apparently get a closer look at the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, The Telegraph said. This famous attraction consists of technicolored limestone rock formations that are created by water boiling up out of the ground.
Leaving the permitted trails is a federal offense that is punishable by up to six months in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000, The Telegraph said. The more than 2 million-acre park contains thousands of hydrothermal features, including geysers, hot springs and fumaroles, according to the Billings Gazette. Park officials constantly warn visitors to stay on the trails or boardwalks, as some of the hot springs can reach temperatures of nearly 200 degrees while steam vents can be as a hot as 275 degrees.
“Scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust” around the park’s hot springs, the U.S. National Park Service said. More than 20 people have died by falling into the park’s hot springs and geysers, the Billings Gazette reported. The organic soil around the thermal features can also be fragile and take decades to be restored.
The Telegraph said that Brosnan has never been in trouble before with the law. He also did not respond to requests for comment from The Telegraph and other news outlets.
Brosnan, who lives in Beverly Hills, had been the area filming “Unholy Trinity,” a Western which is set in nearby Montana in the 1870s, The Telegraph said. Brosnan plays a sheriff in the film, which co-stars Samuel L. Jackson.