This would play well with all sorts of military fetish cutlery handcrafted* in 300 times folded damask steel available exclusively on the Friends-of-Bezos sub shop of that amazing warehouse website.
Strikes me, the watch could also be shown smashed to a pulp - effects of either stopping a bullet or the incisors of some Spectre underling - while Bond masticates his Tiptree marmalade. And then shown in close-up healing itself miraculously (insert some science fact(-ish) Q-branch babble about memory platinum or whatever gross vulgarity is chic in the trade right now): casing returning to its pristine out-of-the-box condition, armour plated crystal growing back across the face; until the only trace of the previous damage is a spot of blood from Bond’s last brief encounter. Which Bond notices and swipes off the glass disgustedly with his napkin.
Instant run on the website-exclusive limited model of the XYZ Bullettimer, taste and water resistant down to minus 100 degrees on the orange Richter scale.
*by artisans in some Xinjiang manufacture who wish to stay anonymous…
Addendum: Showing Bond actively enjoying his meals would add to his grandeur, a bon viveur celebrating his food in a world of ultra-processed franchise fast food, industry amounts of fat and sugar stuffed into consumer cattle just barely kept in check by Wegovy. And Bond in the middle of it, refusing to feed on offal and protein powder because the next moment he might be dead and wants to do a little real living first.
It’s perhaps a sweeping statement, and speculative because I wasn’t there at the time, but an impression one gets is that the early extraordinary success of the Bond films was the depiction of the aspirational and the out-of-reach. The Caribbean! Gold! Gypsies! Really impressive wigs! Scuba! Aston Martin! etc. Must have been amazing for - and I write perhaps solely in relation to Britain here - an audience still war-affected and feeling the austerity (perhaps that hasn’t changed). Imagine the colours of Thunderball, half a planet away, and then stepping back into the gloom with no prospect of ever being able to see Nassau for one’s self.
Then, for whatever socio-economic reasons (and perhaps in part fuelled by people wanting what they had seen onscreen) a consumerist boom with the Bond films folding back in on themselves and becoming very expensive multi-product adverts with boom-bang and knobbing.
James Bond now being owned by a shop, it’s unlikely that the advertising will stop, it’ll probably get much worse, but the adverts are now for things you can buy, not for things one could not possibly acquire.
Can the aspirational lifestyle element of early Bond appeal ever really be recaptured, or is it now just a means of window shopping for stuff one can actually get? Is there anything left to aspire to? Has that beyond-your-means fantasy gone for good? (This last question is the one to answer).
Strangely, I want to be an optimist here. Unsurprisingly, I also want to be a realist.
So, has that fantasy gone for good? No, as everything can come back (look at 70´s fashion, no one thought that would be a good idea again).
But right now, for the duration of the Amazon years, it will definitely be concentrated on what people can buy (and/or load up debts for life for). Aside from the useless stuff or tacky accessories that prove you’re a fan (mostly of your own tastelessness), I could easily imagine many trinkets which let any family’s monthly budget spiral out of control or some kind of access to 007 cruises or events on private planes leading to red carpets and casinos (PayPal will offer monthly installments until you’re ready to surrender your car and/or house).
Which reminds me: does Jeff Bozos own Bond now for all eternity? Or was there a time limit on it?
Could a resounding flop of the whole brand be its only chance of breaking free again?
I think a generational shift in the fear of indebtedness (my parents would never have countenanced being in debt for anything save the mortgage) tends to demonstrate that very expensive wristwatches, holidays and cars are just a credit agreement away. The more we acquire, the less we own of ourselves, etc. Other than using the Bond series to promote Blue Origin space tourism (and that will happen, I have little doubt), not sure there is anything left where one’s reach now exceeds one’s grasp, or exceeds the attention of the loan companies and their impossible interest rates. I do wonder whether the covetousness of Bond and the availability of “free money” to the sort of cretins who would want to emulate the lifestyle in some misguided manner, has contributed to this in some way.
Sorry to be late to the September party (as if anyone noticed….) and before I answer the question of the day, that anything to do with Mrs Starr should be jettisoned is beyond the pale. If anything, keep the furry hat - in fact only the furry hat, fnarrrrr.
I’m answering Yes, but with the caveat that I’ma heck of a lot older anyway - and to that extent some of the “oooh, I’d like that consumerism” is actually within the reach of my credit card. And if anything, it might actually behoove the product on-screen to get away from some of the very in-your-face product placement (never happen I know, but hypothetically).
From 95 onwards, the series was so much more overtly a shop window for a multiude of name brands (Z3 in GE anyone?) but it would be nice to return to the 60s when it was style, rather than the product, that was aspirational.
That might be impossible since, I suspect, product now is considered style, unfortunately.
That is so beautifully put. And now Jiff Debasoz will put it on a t-shirt mandatorily worn by his warehouse workers (the ones who have to do the robots‘ biddinh).
It will be the title of the Moonraker remake. Either that or „shape of my member“.
We’re living in bizarre times. On the one hand one can now order a Bentley or a Ferrari more or less with the smart phone (which will also fill in the necessary credit forms in case your bank account doesn’t back the deal). On the other a growing number of young people struggles to find affordable housing and moves in with their parents again in their 30s. Influencers make a living from explaining ‘quiet luxury’ while they show off their naff tinsel (that they lease by the kilogram to make you buy the same trash by the ton). There’s that saying about buying stuff you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like - and this is not the definition of luxury but hell.
Bond is now foremost a salesman, an advertiser for stuff that might furnish our daydreams - but it’s increasingly not something you would really aspire to if you’re even halfway a sane adult. The supercars and superSUVs are forever trapped in traffic jams, the exotic locations crowded with a million other people seeking the same picturesque spot for their selfies. We poke fun at the Bezos and his villainous gang of fellow oligarchs. But it’s not Bezos renting the whole of Venice for a wedding who makes living there insufferable for the locals - it’s us, the hordes of tourists that overrun the place the other 51 weeks in the year. And it’s more or less the same everywhere else.
Fleming began his novels at a time when airlines hadn’t yet introduced classes and Bond was the epitome of the individual traveller (not tourist, mind you). Some of that spirit was still traceable in the early films, even when Venice, Istanbul and Switzerland were already catering to the masses. The world has become a much smaller place and whether it’s Crab Key or Piz Gloria, some tour organiser surely offers a coach trip there.
Real luxury is not feeling the urge to take the trip. But how should Bond sell this?
First, I had to change my vote. I did not answer correctly the first time.
Second, my thoughts ran along the same line as Dustin’s. A young architect I know–possessing the necessary degrees, apprenticing with a firm–is living with her mother in Brooklyn, and does not see any change in the near future on the above average salary she is making. Her best hope is to inherit the apartment from her mother.
She and her generation are not interested in aspirational cinema.
I thought about some form of slow travel, something at the speed of an airship or maybe even slower. Think of a modern version, much bigger but with just as few passengers as the Orient Express, spacious compartments, restaurant, spa, casino. A cross between a floating luxury hotel and a Mississippi steamer cruising the world - where passengers don’t primarily want to arrive but travel hopefully.
And every once in a while one of them turns up in tiny pieces…
Assuming the new series will be set in a slightly futuristic present day, which would be the least unappealing use of developing yet possible technology. Think invisible car - can sort of be done but not really in such an enhanced way.
The villain, who appears to be flesh and blood but only appears indoors, is actually an advanced AI avatar.
Bond and his lady chum enjoy a moment of vigorous Rand R in a driverless car.
Due to climate change, Bond develops a taste for Scottish wine.
Bond’s gadgets all come to his home address in overpackaged brown card parcels; often having to pick them out of the hedge.
Bond’s left palm is imprinted with various nanoapps so he doesn’t have to use a smartphone.
That AI villain puppet is also a fairly old trope, Wizard of Oz being the obvious ancestor. The driverless car bonk is fairly what Bond always does when a vehicle offers the opportunity, being towed by US Coast Guard or in a Q-marine ice-camo vessel. I’d actually love Bond fishing his gadgets out of the trash, murmuring something like ‘Hey, what have we here? That’s a perfectly good mini-bazooka; who throws something like this in the bin?’ The palm implant sounds interesting but may not be really practical in the field - I’d opt for some implanted infrared filters over his irises and a compatible flashlight in his phone and his watch.
The AI villain because it could certainly be done better than in „M:I“ and because it would be so „five minutes into the future“ and send a nice FU to Silicon Valley and the collaborators and the billionaires and…
Of course, the Amazon Overba(l)ddie will insist on the twist that Bond himself is now AI and so good for the world. He can even make funny cat videos now.
