Agreed!
4.
The maps, much like the frankly horrifying religious iconography in my Great Grandmothers house, are holographic and change depending on how look at them. Just like eyes in above iconography following you around the room.
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16-
Probably why Benicio Del Toro’s eyes are constantly watery in the movie.
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She… likes to keep things fresh? And since 007 does not comment on her changing outfit choice she gets creative. And still nobody cares. But wait until M notices she has also exchanged the paintings in his office.
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I suppose Moneypenny has her own gadget. Bond gets revolving number plates; she has revolving maps. In between the changes, we see the sliding map thing in the briefing room, so it’s feasible.
Or more likely, a reshoot and they stuck something on the wall.
As for 5th, I suppose there has to be a way of Blofeld identifying something’s wrong but I have never been entirely sure what the significance of the air conditioner is, unless we are invited just to accept this is a heightened bit of absurdity dialogue that happens in this world.
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The air conditioner: a practical joke from the ground crew? “Ah, this is absolutely important for your oxygen supply - do take this with you at all times.” - “Hah, funniest thing. We noticed the rocket is too heavy, so… leave that thing here. Yeah, I know, the oxygen, well… Should be fine. Really, should be… um…”
Bond is probably totally uneducated about space exploration. His whole knowledge is from sci-fi movies. So he thinks he can just get on board, shoot things down and then re-enter the atmosphere. Most of the time, some Holly is in the driver’s seat anyway, so she will safely bring him back so he can jump into the rubber boat and have some quality time before being rescued. Or not.
Which by the way always irritated me. You’re on a small rubber boat in the ocean. A ship comes along and wants to rescue you. But since you’re scoring right now you think: nah, let them sail away. I want to finish here. And then?
“You’re such an idiot, James! You know how rare it is that a ship finds a small rubber boat in the middle of the ocean? I’m hungry, I´m thirsty. And you’re such a brute you will probably eat me first just to survive!”
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Who does Bond get the air conditioner from and who suits him up? If it was the captured astronauts, maybe they outfitted him following their procedures, but SPECTRE does things differently (after all, they have a reusable rocket with landing gear decades before SpaceX figured it out, so they they’re obvious an unconventional outfit).
Then again, why would an astronaut need a portable air conditioner at all unless they were planning some kind of EVA? As long as you stay in the capsule, I would think it’s redundant.
As far as Bond’s “plan,” I’ve always been bothered by this, too. Let’s face it, getting stopped by Blofeld was a lucky break for 007; if he’d actually been launched, it would’ve been a bad scene; probably his last mission. He doesn’t know how to land the thing even if he could overpower the other astronauts mid-flight.
But maybe it wouldn’t have come to that, anyway. Logically all the astronauts would have been responsible for some element of the final pre-launch countdown checks, and Bond is unlikely to have been able to answer correctly when his part came up. Even if he did guess the right answer, as soon as he delivered it in that Scottish brogue, the other astronauts would’ve realized, “Hey, wait a minute, that’s not Shecky!”
Yes, I said Shecky. Shecky the astronaut, on a rocket that lands on squatting legs. Because it’s YOLT.
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Astronauts back then carried a portable air conditioner with them from the time they suited up to the time they reached the capsule because the electronics in the suit caused them to heat up rapidly. Once they reached the capsule they removed it and plugged into the capsule’s built in air conditioner (you can’t have a box like that loose during takeoff, after all).
It’s a detail I’m sure the public, and therefore Bond, wouldn’t necessarily have known.
But the movie has it completely correct.
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Aha. I guess enough of the audience would’ve known that in 1967, even if Bond didn’t.
Also at work here is Bond’s miraculous ability to fit into any outfit he comes across in a villain’s stronghold, even though he exceed’s NASA’s astronaut height limit by three inches.
Incidentally, one of my favorite scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark comes when Indy tries to dress in the uniform of a punched-out Nazi and finds it doesn’t fit AT ALL. Not even close.
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M is ANGRY in TMWTGG. Justifiably so, as 007 is practically flaunting himself as a SPY, much like the flaunting of the nipple ( no. 3 ) the Waxwork doll is there because Scaramanga secretly has a deathwish and wants Bond to be able to disguise himself as said Waxwork at some point in time to kill him. I’d wager he even suggests Bond wear black trousers and the exact shade of ivory shirt, specifically so he can just whip off his jacket and disguise himself more quickly, probably part of some ritual death he saw in a Hammer horror film ( fnar ). Because no one, especially James Bond would pair a Donegal tweed coat of that colour with anything other than a grey trouser.
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It is the only thing that makes sense for underusing an Actor like Monica Bellucci. NTTD with Leiter as the betrayer and Widow Sciarra as Safin. No Blonde Billy Boy, Bond has to kill his buddy Felix and Bellucci scrabs him with nanobots in a neat homage to Fatima Blush.
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Interesting - thank you for this.
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Details? Research? Facts and truth?
Oh. Hey, another great thing about these threads: one expands one´s horizon.
Well done, chap!
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Obsolete equipment - yes, I think that was a dig at Connery. Not the best of relationship with EON at that time, so… petty? Yeah. Funny? A bit.
Miniaturisation - maybe an inside joke that never stuck its landing, just like the delicatessen in stainless steel-line.
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I always took this exchange as a dig at the series’ increasing reliance, if not dependence, on progressively more outlandish gadgets to move plots along and maintain interest. The relatively plausible attache case with concealed knife and gun leads to a sportscar with an ejector seat, which leads to jetpacks over and under the water, which leads to a tiny helicopter carrying armament twice its weight. What does OHMSS give us? Radioactive lint. The stupidest and least sexy or photogenic “gadget” imaginable. M is having none of it.
Every film since FRWL has responded to the challenge to present a more amazing gadget than the one before. OHMSS says, “Nope.” We did not budget for the design and construction of elaborate gadgets: you get a wad of pocket lint in a plastic case. We’re spending that money on sets and stunts.
Yes, I know there’s the copier later on, which must come from Q branch because there’s no parallel in real life. But it doesn’t get a build-up from Q and at the end of the day, it’s just a piece of office equipment. If anything, its unwieldy size and weight underscores the “lint” joke: In 1969, miniature cameras are not at all a new thing, so there is no reason on Earth to use such a ridiculously large and complicated device that very nearly can’t finish the job in the time allotted, when a pocket-sized camera could have done it in seconds.
No, for me, OHMSS is saying, “You want gadgets? Here you go. Be careful what you wish for.”
Two years later, DAF will signal a return to form – on steroids – with an inversion of the joke. When we see Q in his lab, his team is lowering into an Aston Martin a half-dozen surface-to-air missiles which, even if they fit, would leave no room for the engine.
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Actually Lazenby is using a Minox during the raid on Piz Gloria while he’s in the laboratory to gain as much information as possible before the place is blown up. That would have been the tool for the Gumbold job - though Bond couldn’t have been shown with that magazine while the copier does his job then.
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Well, the device does serve two functions: it also figures out the safe combination. But two years earlier, Bond had a pocket-sized gadget for that, too.
Theres no good defense for the sheer bulk of that thing, but given that Laz had to follow an act like Connery, I guess I dont blame him for overcompensating.
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The diamonds: Blofeld seems to attract people who not just need the job but truly enjoy it, even if it is high pressure and not that well paid. Kind of like working for 45. Damn, DAF really is layered and prophetic!
Smells a rat: Since those scripts were/are in permanent flux nobody probably knew whether one line would be picked up on as a punchline - that punchline being added later on, improvised or even used first there since that scene might have been shot before the pipeline scene. It also could have been written in the script… and yes, quite some time until the payoff.
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ConneryBond shoving Diamonds up the back passage of what is supposed to be him, is layered and worrying in equal measure. As a statement of the world at the time, going up its own ass is quite prophetic. The diamonds ( the world/ art /human psyche ) has passed through implements of work, of religion, of its own image ( fake) and finally inside it’s physical body to be burned yet still remain… The rat, imo, is probably the only prepared joke in the film, it’s planned for that very payoff.
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Shady Tree says the diamonds in the urn are fake, which I guess adds another layer to shoving them up Frank/Bond’s backside if you’re looking for symbolism. But it does raise the question of how – if they’re paste – do they not get incinerated? And what happened to the real ones? Were they smuggled into the US some other way? And why does Bond lie to Felix about it?
Also, for what it’s worth, cremation is a slow process and not nearly the “Zap! Done…here’s your brother” scenario we see in the film. But hey, it’s a movie.
The “rat” line works because it’s Bond putting it all together: he never saw Wynt and Kidd when he was put in the pipeline, so the scent is his only clue that they’ve “met” before.
Incidentally, both the DAF and MR soundtracks include a track called “Bond Smells A Rat,” though they’re different compositions. Do we know if this is the only time this happens during Barry’s run?
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I always wondered what really happened to Jaws. He does help Bond to avert the end of this world in MR. But he also killed lots of people, most brutally. The victims we see will only be the tip of the iceberg.
And then this young woman who mistakes him due to his teeth for a fellow braces sufferer has most likely to find out that this guy is not that sweet to begin with.
Or is she another demented serial killer?
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