Scenes where Bond is generally scared

AlphaOmegaSin

Do you think there should be more Moments where Bond generally appears scared and confused?

Barbel

Definitely! Moments like in TLD (when he nearly shoots a boy with a balloon), CR (when he comes round and realises what Le Chiffre is going to do to him), etc.

Firemass

yes.


I heard the director of Goldeneye specifically didn't want Brosnan to ever appear frazzled or worried. Obviously, audiences don't want to see Bond constantly second guessing himself however I like to see Bond a little shaken every now and then.

Roger changed his shirt like every 10 minutes in India to avoid looking sweaty. Should they have just let him sweat it out?

Some good scared/confused moments that come to mind:


A View to a Kill- Finding Tippet dead in the back of the Rolls. Wondering why the bad guys are getting up after being shot. Uneasy collaborating with MayDay to remove the bomb.

Octopussy - Confronting Orlov about the bomb. Being pinned down by knives against the door. Race to disarm the bomb at the circus.

Moonraker - Centrifuge gone awry. Visiting Drax with M in the "laboratory" and looking foolish.

For Your Eyes Only - Trapped in the helicopter. Watching his Lotus blow up. Being kicked off the cliff.

OHMSS- Lazenby gazing out the window thinking of Tracy

Goldfinger - The laser scene

Le Samourai

Bond in OP racing to disarm the bomb was great. Moore seemed truly terrified. It was perhaps his best bit of acting in the series.

Similarly, Bond was quite distressed when faced with Goldfinger’s bomb.

See also:

Bond in a stolen coat, sitting by the ice skating rink in OHMSS.

Bond facing incineration in the eco-hotel in QoS.

“Don’t blow us up!” in TWINE.

ZorinIndustries

GE in the helicopter, tied down with Natalya

Charmed & Dangerous

TLD. In the PTS, where the macaque monkey jumps out - it seems to genuinely spook him.

Re Goldeneye, he appears worried on a few occasions - certainly when counting the number if times Boris clicks the Parker pen, he looks nervous as hell!

Dutchfinger

And of course the poisonous spider in Dr. No. (That wasn't even acted! ) )

Thunderpussy

Bond scared?, when Mayday got into bed with him. )

zaphod

Le Samourai wrote:

Bond in OP racing to disarm the bomb was great. Moore seemed truly terrified. It was perhaps his best bit of acting in the series.

Similarly, Bond was quite distressed when faced with Goldfinger’s bomb.

See also:

Bond in a stolen coat, sitting by the ice skating rink in OHMSS.

Bond facing incineration in the eco-hotel in QoS.

“Don’t blow us up!” in TWINE.

You mentioned one of my favourites. The OHMSS scene is fantastic, really understated, Bond is washed up, had it, out of energy and out of hope,just waiting for the inevitable end. He looks up and there is Tracy...a series highlight for me.

Le Samourai

Dutchfinger wrote:

And of course the poisonous spider in Dr. No. (That wasn't even acted! ) )

My problem with this scene is twofold: 1. Tarantulas aren't especially poisonous. 2. The glass separating Connery from the spider is all too obvious. You can see in this still how the spider seems to be sort of levitating.



As an aside, in the novel it was a centipede, not a spider. I once woke up to find a centipede crawling on my back. Talk about being generally scared...

raptors_887

I prefer when Bond isn't scared of anything. He's suppossed to have top notch training and 100% confidence in what he's doing. Thats what makes him the best secret agent and our hero.

The laser scene in Goldfinger is fine because he's totally out of options at that point but the reason that scene is so great is because it only happens once. You wouldn't want him to keep ending up in situations like that or you'd be like "why is this guy so clumsy all the time?"

ZorinIndustries

Also, when Zorin shoots Mr Howe in city hall.... Bond and stacey both seem to be frightened

Blackleiter

That scene from OHMSS is one of the best, I agree. Also, Connery seemed to show real fear in Thunderball when the shark unexpectedly got too close.

zaphod wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:

Bond in OP racing to disarm the bomb was great. Moore seemed truly terrified. It was perhaps his best bit of acting in the series.

Similarly, Bond was quite distressed when faced with Goldfinger’s bomb.

See also:

Bond in a stolen coat, sitting by the ice skating rink in OHMSS.

Bond facing incineration in the eco-hotel in QoS.

“Don’t blow us up!” in TWINE.

You mentioned one of my favourites. The OHMSS scene is fantastic, really understated, Bond is washed up, had it, out of energy and out of hope,just waiting for the inevitable end. He looks up and there is Tracy...a series highlight for me.

Mr Beech

Casino Royale, both the panic as he fumbles when poisoned and when he is tied up with Le Chiffre.

Silhouette Man

Yes, I see the MR centrifuge and moved laboratory comes to mind on here - both where James Bond is scared/annoyed and no pithy comeback a la Ian Fleming's James Bond. And then they tell you that MR is just space-age hokum. How wrong. 8-)

Moore Than

Blackleiter wrote:

Also, Connery seemed to show real fear in Thunderball when the shark unexpectedly got too close.

That was real fear. As I understand, a plexiglass partition was placed into the water. It was meant to separate Sean Connery from the sharks. But the partition was not long enough to cover the whole pool and a shark managed to swim through the gap and got very close to Connery.

Peppermill

In the novels Bond is sometimes scared, like on planes. I'd like it if they incorporated this more in the movies. I think Craig could pull that off really well.

Silhouette Man

Peppermill wrote:

In the novels Bond is sometimes scared, like on planes. I'd like it if they incorporated this more in the movies. I think Craig could pull that off really well.

Yes, there was always an element of John Gardner's Boysie Oakes to James Bond; he did feel fear, he did bleed. I think that Lazenby and Brosnan brought out this element of vulnerability in the filmic James Bond the best of the lot IMHO, but Craig seems to be doing a rather fine job too. -{

AlphaOmegaSin

raptors_887 wrote:

I prefer when Bond isn't scared of anything. He's suppossed to have top notch training and 100% confidence in what he's doing. Thats what makes him the best secret agent and our hero.

Even the toughest go Jelly Legged when confronted with horrible Odds.

Napoleon Plural

Thing is, it can be hard for an actor to show fear and I'm not even sure Craig can do it. The first Potter movie was ruined for me because Radcliffe was meant to show astonishment all the time, and it's very hard to pull off.

Firemass

Andrew McNess references Roger Moore's "worried eyes" in his book A Close Look at A View to a Kill

"In the case of A View to a Kill, a film where Bond's actions are often rendered ineffective, seeing the worry materialise in those amiable eyes is tremendously engaging and reaches a peak as Bond clings to the suspension cable. At the same time, those worried eyes, along with Zorin's dismissals and May Day's dynamism, steal some of the triumphalist zing."

and here is McNess' note about Goldeneye:

Martin Campbell noted that his essential task in directing was making sure he "never looks panicked or flustered" On the one hand, fear and panic held in check may represent more authientic and realistic behavior froma secret agent, a man who is required to kill. And in the short term this cool and controlled behavior can be quite arresting for a cinema audience to watch. But are we shortchanging ourselves in the process?

Silhouette Man

Great to see references from Andrew McNess' book here, Firemass. Any members of AJB that have not bought his gem of a book - for heaven's sake do yourselves a favour and get a cop ASAP. You won't regreat purchasing this real gem of a book that takes a look at the overlooked quality aspects of AVTAK.

Napoleon Plural

Silhouette Man wrote:

Great to see references from Andrew McNess' book here... a book that takes a look at the overlooked quality aspects of AVTAK.

A pamphlet, then, is it? )

Only kidding, I like the film.

Silhouette Man

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Silhouette Man wrote:

Great to see references from Andrew McNess' book here... a book that takes a look at the overlooked quality aspects of AVTAK.

A pamphlet, then, is it? )

Only kidding, I like the film.

It's a self-published book of over 100 pages - buy it and read it. It's great - it'll win you over!

Nick37

LTK: "SWITCH THE BLOODY MACHINE OFFFFFFF!!!!!"

Dalton gets startled a lot thanks to John Glen's trademark. There's the monkey in Gibraltar, then the birds outside of Whitaker's house in Tangiers, then in LTK when he rappels down outside of Sanchez; Casino in Ithsmus City.

Moore shows a bit of an edge in "TSWLM" They've dodged two attempts on their lives after leaving Stromberg's laboratory, and when the helicopter appears shooting at them, there's a definite tenseness when Moore says, "Ever get the geeling that somebody doesn't like you??"

Blackleiter

Yes, I think I remember reading about that somewhere. Intentional or not, it succeeded in getting a real fear reaction from Connery.

Moore Than wrote:

Blackleiter wrote:

Also, Connery seemed to show real fear in Thunderball when the shark unexpectedly got too close.

That was real fear. As I understand, a plexiglass partition was placed into the water. It was meant to separate Sean Connery from the sharks. But the partition was not long enough to cover the whole pool and a shark managed to swim through the gap and got very close to Connery.

zaphod

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Thing is, it can be hard for an actor to show fear and I'm not even sure Craig can do it. The first Potter movie was ruined for me because Radcliffe was meant to show astonishment all the time, and it's very hard to pull off.

Connery was superb at it, and I'm sure Craig could pull it off very well if he stopped being 'terminator Bond' for a second.

Kent007

When he's captured in DAD I'd say there would be some element of fear, or when he see's Madonna's acting haha

Silhouette Man

The classic one is Connery Bond strapped down on that golden table with the laser beam - very real and iconic fear on his face. Partly, like the shark scene, due to real fear of the blow torch going past the STOP boundary underneath the table (as the laser was of course added later as a visual effect in the film).

hehadlotsofguts

Bond running away from the Piz Gloria henchman.

Daniel123

He's never scared -{