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Careful, James! It’s 5,000 years old!
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… Read More →
Filed Under: For Your Eyes Only -
I always thought I loved animals
This exchange between Scaramanga and Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun is one of the movie’s more revealing and unsettling moments. Scaramanga recounts a childhood affection for animals, only to describe how that sentiment curdled after he witnessed a handler abusing what he calls his “only real friend,”… Read More →
Filed Under: The Man With The Golden Gun -
Organic espionage: Bond’s Dr. No hair trick
One of the most elegant examples of Bond’s intuition and tradecraft appears in Dr. No, when he uses a single strand of hair stretched across his hotel room closet to detect whether someone enters in his absence. He reinforces the test by dusting his briefcase clasps with talcum powder, creating… Read More →
Filed Under: Dr. No -
Liver not too good, it’s definitely him
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… Read More →
Filed Under: Die Another Day -
“James Bond” as a codename?
The recurring notion that “James Bond” might be a transferable codename is a misguided attempt to tidy up the ending of No Time To Die, and if it comes to fruition, this Bond fan will not be happy. It’s an inelegant solution to a self-inflicted narrative problem, and one that… Read More →
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Jealous husbands, outraged chefs, humiliated tailors!
So here’s who M says would pay $1 million to have Bond killed in The Man With The Golden Gun, where he also mentions that the “list is endless.” Telling a double-oh that the “list is endless” is a harsh rebuke, especially since Bond’s reputation inevitably reflects on M’s leadership.… Read More →
Filed Under: The Man With The Golden Gun