Bond and Melina’s two-person submarine sequence in For Your Eyes Only briefly places Bond outside his usual element before reaffirming his trademark competence. While his Royal Navy background makes some familiarity with underwater operations plausible, deep-sea exploration hardly feels like standard spycraft, placing Bond in an environment that feels more hazardous than exotic.

Even so, Bond rapidly proves his usefulness, correctly deducing that compressed air would be inadequate at that depth and that an oxygen-helium mixture would be required. He then goes a step further by calculating that they have roughly eight minutes at 584 feet and confidently takes charge of the descent and exploration of the wreck. Heroically, he also fends off the enemy at depth and disarms him with a bomb found on the wreck, in a suspenseful scene where Melina loses consciousness. It’s an impressive display, but one that undeniably strains credibility.