Relying on wits: 007's most resourceful moments

Firemass

Excerpt from John Glen's book about For Your Eyes Only film:

"There is a scene in Fleming's Live and Let Die which sees Bond keelhauled over razor-sharp coral. [...] I was especially pleased that it showed another instance of Bond having to get out of trouble by relying on his wits. Gadgetry will always play a part in the Bond movie formula, but I never lost sight of the fact that Bond is super-intelligent and extremely resourceful. He is a professional who falls back on his skill and regards gadgets as merely tools of the job."
- John Glen, For My Eyes Only pg 129

The following are my own comments and opinions:

FYEO also featured perhaps the most deliberate attempt at showcasing the resourceful Bond when his Lotus explodes and he has to drive a vastly inferior Citroen 2CV to make his escape. Another great bit involved Bond using his shoelace to rig a mechanism to climb back up the cliff after nearly falling to his death.

Octopussy has the great scene where Bond drives his heavily damaged Mercedes onto the train tracks. Perfect solution to having your tires shot out!

A View to a Kill featured a couple of classic "resourceful" scenes when Bond transformed the destroyed snowmachine* ski into a snowboard. Especially since snowboarding was a virtually unknown sport at the time. (*in Alaska we do not call them snowmobiles)

The other iconic "relying on wits" moment was the sunken Rolls Royce scene where Bond uses the tire valve to breath underwater until Zorin is convinced that he drowned. Even cooler is this technique is actually possible, and Roger practiced it until he could stay under for several minutes.

The Living Daylights had the great cello sledding escape sequence after his Aston Martin bit the dust.

One of License to Kill's most famous sequence is 007 underwater surrounded by enemies and he shoots his speargun at the floatplane and swiftly yanked out of a bad situation.

Most of these scenes share a common theme: How the hell is Bond gonna get himself out of this one!

What are some of your favorite scenes where Bond has to rely on his wits ? Forgive me if this has been posted before, but I did a search and found nothing.

James Suzuki

How he blew up the Skyfall manor is pretty resourceful.

ZorinIndustries

The windsurfing scene in DAD...

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For real, I enjoyed in TWINE when Bond and Christmas were escaping and 007 shoots the gas canister, sending them up, up, and away.

James Suzuki

Bond shooting the fire extinguishers in SF to distract Silva so M could escape .

ChromeJob

FRWL: Bond using Grant's own garrotte watch to kill him. Uses the leaking gasoline tanks to cripple the pursuing SPECTRE baddies.

LALD: Mixes a nasty batch of caustic chemicals to blind whatsisname and guide his motorboat into a derelict ship.

TMWTGG: Finding his wax dummy in Scaramanga's shooting gallery/maze, he takes the dummy's place to get the drop on the marksman.

Silhouette Man

I'm actually writing a blog article about the subject area of Bond's resourcefulness vis-a-vis gadgetry at the moment. It's called 'Kingsley Amis, Drax's Gambit and the Future Direction of the James Bond Films'. It will appear as the first in a raft of new articles on The Bondologist Blog.

chrisisall

ChromeJob wrote:

TMWTGG: Finding his wax dummy in Scaramanga's shooting gallery/maze, he takes the dummy's place to get the drop on the marksman.

That and the tire breathing in AVTAK. Both great moments.

PMN

The cigar/aerosol flamethrower in LALD. Brilliant !

Napoleon Plural

The two electrifying scenes in Goldfinger, knocking the lamp into the bath (quick witted) and manoeuvring Oddjob into knocking his bowler hat into the armed bars.

Blackleiter

Great examples from my favorite Bond! -{

Napoleon Plural wrote:

The two electrifying scenes in Goldfinger, knocking the lamp into the bath (quick witted) and manoeuvring Oddjob into knocking his bowler hat into the armed bars.

Silhouette Man

Moore-Bond climbing up the cliff and responding to Apostis in For Your Eyes Only would certainly get my vote for inghenuity and resourcefulness - he uses his shoe laces to pull himself up the rope again to where he was before Apostis attacked him.

James Suzuki

Is that the hench mans name? Never knew it, but always thought he was pretty cool.

Firemass

Napoleon Plural wrote:

manoeuvring Oddjob into knocking his bowler hat into the armed bars.

Ya know, that's one scene that always bothered me because Bond clearly had the opportunity to pick up OddJob's hat earlier in the fight but for some reason didn't think of it. (slow witted?)

I agree LALD has some great ones. Especially when the magnet watch fails and he has to jump across the alligators.

James Suzuki

It's funny how Moore, labelled as the gadgetry campy Bond has the most moments, or maybe because he's been in 7 films.

zaphod

James Suzuki wrote:

It's funny how Moore, labelled as the gadgetry campy Bond has the most moments, or maybe because he's been in 7 films.

A more negative interpretation is that Roger's lack of physicality necessitated reliance either on gadgetry or wits rather than physical prowess.

Mr Beech

Shooting the small gas tanks behind the crumbling wall panel at the last moment in Quantum of Solace to escape the exploding hotel.

BIG TAM

Daniel Craig does a lot of blowing up canisters to cause explosions. He does it in all three of his films. Perhaps that'll be his trademark. Along with a heck of a lot of running about!

Seven bits of Bond resourcefulness I enjoy:-

FRWL - Using a chair to ward off Rosa Klebb & her deadly shoe blade.

YOLT - Using a settee (!) as a weapon against the Osato office henchman.

OHMSS - Using his pockets as gloves to escape the Piz Gloria wheelhouse.

DAF - Using the fire extinguisher against Peter Franks.

LALD - Using crocodiles' backs as stepping stones. Even more satisfying when his gadget watch is proved totally useless in the situation to hand. A nice touch.

MR - Swiping a baddie's parachute in mid-air!

FYEO - Using his shoelaces to climb that mountain.

BunsenPPK

Another one from Moore in FYEO is when he and Columbo shoot the straps holding the opium barrels, causing them to crush Locques henchmen.
Another of my favourites is Dalton in LTK using a speargun and the seaplane to escape Krest's people.

Thunderpussy

The way Bond was able to russell up a Quiche in AVTAK. )

BunsenPPK

Thunderpussy wrote:

The way Bond was able to russell up a Quiche in AVTAK. )

Haha, and if he was feeling really resourceful he could give it a blast with Stacey's 12 gauge salt grinder

Silhouette Man

James Suzuki wrote:

Is that the hench mans name? Never knew it, but always thought he was pretty cool.

Yes, he's also the chauffeur to Kristatos and Bond and Countess Lisl.

He's credited as Apostis, plus Columbo says, "Apostis, one of Kristatos' killers"

Napoleon Plural

Thunderpussy wrote:

The way Bond was able to russell up a Quiche in AVTAK. )

"Did somebody mention my name?"

Silhouette Man

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Thunderpussy wrote:

The way Bond was able to russell up a Quiche in AVTAK. )

"Did somebody mention my name?"

Yes, that self-publicising and self-important TWIT!

Firemass

zaphod wrote:

James Suzuki wrote:

It's funny how Moore, labelled as the gadgetry campy Bond has the most moments, or maybe because he's been in 7 films.

A more negative interpretation is that Roger's lack of physicality necessitated reliance either on gadgetry or wits rather than physical prowess.

True. Roger's only weak point was lacking in athleticism. However, Keep in mind that Bond is a middle-aged man who smokes and drinks heavily. How good of shape do you expect him to be in?

Fans love 007 for the gadgetry and clever wit. I'd rather see Roger outsmart and enemy (the surprise karate kick is a good example) than Lazenby's repetitive fight scenes. "Work smarter, not harder."

chrisisall

Good points.

Le Samourai

I liked the bit with the grenade in the glass jar from TND.

Off topic, but some of my favorite bits of spy ingenuity were courtesy of Robert DeNiro in the vastly underrated film 'Ronin.'

chrisisall

Le Samourai wrote:

I liked the bit with the grenade in the glass jar from TND.

That was inspired, yes.

Off topic, but some of my favorite bits of spy ingenuity were courtesy of Robert DeNiro in the vastly underrated film 'Ronin.'

I *WILL* have to get that!

Thunderpussy

The Blue Peter effort he made to open the Doors In Piz Gloria.

And Ronin was a teriffic movie, Great car chases. -{

ChromeJob

Napoleon Plural wrote:

The two electrifying scenes in Goldfinger, knocking the lamp into the bath (quick witted) and manoeuvring Oddjob into knocking his bowler hat into the armed bars.

Actually. Oddjob was aiming at Bond, who was quick enough to duck. Oddjob walks nonchalantly over to retrieve it and try again, and THAT'S when Bond lunges for the sliced electrical cable.

I agree, the impromptu use of the aftershave and cigar to quick blanch the snake, brilliant.

I think Bob Simmons gets credit, I've heard Moore or Connery talk about how he could make anything into a weapon for a fight scene. Man of infinite resourcefulness.

Have we mentioned using the shark repellent compressed air "bullet" to finish Kananga?

Thunderpussy

Dalton stealing a pair of sunglasses in TLD to create a brilliant disguise.

Napoleon Plural

ChromeJob wrote:

Napoleon Plural wrote:

The two electrifying scenes in Goldfinger, knocking the lamp into the bath (quick witted) and manoeuvring Oddjob into knocking his bowler hat into the armed bars.

Actually. Oddjob was aiming at Bond, who was quick enough to duck. Oddjob walks nonchalantly over to retrieve it and try again, and THAT'S when Bond lunges for the sliced electrical cable.

Ooh, I dunno. See how, as Oddjob is preparing to throw his hat, Bond sort of manoevres around so his back is facing the bars. That way, if Bond ducks, the hat will get stuck in the bars and Bond can make his next move.