Time For 007

James Bond movie musings. 007 words, 007 sentences. Twice daily at 10:07 AM/PM UTC.
Octopussy (1983)

It goes by hot air

Octopussy‘s hot air balloon raid into Kamal Khan’s fortress stands as one of the most bizarre and uninspired action sequences of any Bond movie. Starring elephants, generically tame fistfights, swords and a weird man that yells and breaks down the front door, it’s main highlight is Bond and Q’s bizarre decision to infiltrate using a hot air balloon. Not only do I find it an odd choice, it’s just not practical or fast, especially given that a raid is normally done with an element of surprise and not with a Union Jack plastered on the side of a gigantic hot air balloon.

Why didn’t somebody just shoot the balloon?

On This Day…

All other April 24th posts

April 24, 2026 – 10:07 AM UTC

Harris Dickinson is a compellingly low-key candidate for James Bond since, purely from a visual standpoint, he sits in a sweet spot. To me, he gives the look of Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton without actually resembling either. If he were to match either of their acting prowess and presence as Bond, I’d be ecstatic….

April 24, 2025 – 10:07 PM UTC

…has to be the scorpion.  Yes, the glass was clearly visible for the tarantula in Dr. No, but a totally (and obviously) CGI’ed scorpion in Skyfall during a forced and rather odd drinking game was forgettable.