The scene where the queen's land rover breaks down

From what I've heard and read, the royal family is free to roam about their own estates without security, and I remember reading that her car did, indeed, break down at one point. However, she didn't have to wait long for assistance.

Well said, Lynettecon.


"Who put the pineapple juice in my pineapple juice?"

What you DIDN'T see was the 14 security helicopters hovering behind the trees, 27 hidden security snipers in the hills & 47 security frogmen in the stream/river (there were 50, but 3 got flattened when she drove over them) ...

well-said.

I guess you don't count Charles I.

let's go and say a prayer for a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could

The Queen is on her own private land - She's allowed to do whatever she wants - She's the Queen.
Plus there would be security all over the place.
Good luck to anyway who would be able to wander onto the grounds and go undetected.
I live in New Zealand and my family has acres upon acres of land that we still own - It is in the middle of nowhere and very remote - I have been going there my entire life and I can be walking alone in the middle of nowhere at any time of the day and night and I feel like it's the safest place to be in the entire world.
So from this perspective I can totally believe that the Queen would be allowed to wander alone on her own land.

Here in Finland there's this story about our former (1982-1994) president Mauno Koivisto. He usually spent his summers at the president's summer residence in the countryside. Once, his wife was baking something but ran out of milk and he suddenly decides that he will fetch some milk from a nearby general store. He then mounts a bicycle and cycles past his bodyguards, claiming he's going to the general store to do some shopping. These poor fellows try to chase him on foot and beg him to stop, to no avail. They head back to the residence to get a car and drive after the president but when they finally find him, he is already on his way back, with a carton of milk in his hand!

Extensive security measures of the U.S. president are a very recent thing. For example, James A. Garfield was assassinated (1881) while he was waiting for a train with his two sons and no security, amongst the common folk! Theodore Roosevelt was shot with a .38 (1912) but refused to go to a hospital and instead went on with his speech. In 1950, two Puerto Ricans opened fire in front of a small townhouse in Washington where president Harry S. Truman was living at the time. This was a common townhouse, next to a public street, only guarded by a few police officers and secret service men. Truman was actually in the second floor having a nap when bullets started flying outside. Even Kennedy's assassination didn't really change the way the Secret Service acted.

Many important persons have surprisingly lax security because with the basics, few bodyguards, armored car and such in public places, 99% of the assassins are discouraged. To prevent the remaining 1% from carrying out their deed, you'd need insane security like that of the aforementioned U.S. president and still, they might somehow get lucky. So, I'd say that the scene in the film is totally plausible.