Relying on wits: 007's most resourceful moments
Firemass
AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
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.
"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.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Comments
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
For real, I enjoyed in TWINE when Bond and Christmas were escaping and 007 shoots the gas canister, sending them up, up, and away.
1. GoldenEye 2. Goldfinger 3. Skyfall 4. OHMSS 5. TWINE
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
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.
“It reads better than it lives.” T. Case
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Roger Moore 1927-2017
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
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.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
A more negative interpretation is that Roger's lack of physicality necessitated reliance either on gadgetry or wits rather than physical prowess.
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.
Another of my favourites is Dalton in LTK using a speargun and the seaplane to escape Krest's people.
Haha, and if he was feeling really resourceful he could give it a blast with Stacey's 12 gauge salt grinder
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"
"Did somebody mention my name?"
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Yes, that self-publicising and self-important TWIT!
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."
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Off topic, but some of my favorite bits of spy ingenuity were courtesy of Robert DeNiro in the vastly underrated film 'Ronin.'
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#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
And Ronin was a teriffic movie, Great car chases. -{
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?
“It reads better than it lives.” T. Case
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.
Roger Moore 1927-2017