Following the North Korean prisoner exchange in Die Another Day, Bond undergoes a full-body medical scan with mostly normal readings such as a normal heart rate, stable blood pressure, scorpion poison/antidote they surmise resulted from torture, but otherwise no obvious abnormalities. Then comes the telling detail that his liver “not too good,” which plays for a quick laugh, but taps into a long-standing Bond trope of an issue with alcohol.
Bond’s complicated relationship with alcohol appears elsewhere in the series, most explicitly in Skyfall, where his post-mission collapse verges on self-destructive behavior. Beyond that, he’s frequently shown drinking, sometimes as an indulgence and sometimes as a coping mechanism. What’s unusual here, however, is that we’re given an explicit medical assessment linking his liver condition, however implicitly, to that habit.
The doctors’ reaction bordering on amused recognition suggests this isn’t a surprise but a familiar trait, almost a biometric calling card as distinctive as Bond’s scars. Fortunately for him, this particular vice seems to register only in his medical history and not in the field.
