Fact and Fiction Behind Bond's Gadgets

bubblegoose writes "With the new 007 movie coming out soon MSNBC is running a story about some of the fact and fiction behind the Bond gadgets."

Comments

Yes, hogwash....

[Yoda2]

Wait a second, just what is hogwash exactly?

Poll

[selderrr]

now there's a poll for which you can't have enough options...

Seriously, apart from rocket shooting cars, I've found most Bond accesoires rather dumb. A laser wristwatch strong enough to burn your way into a steel safe ? Com'on, we're geeks, but even those don't believe everything !

Screw James Bonde's Gadgets

[garoush]

While Bonde may have the coolest gadgets of them all, the best are those used in the movie: "The Sum of All Fears" where our hero's c-phone and PDA just keeps on working fine in the middle of a radioactive explosion. Can Bonde beat that? I think not -- he is British not an American. Go figure.

The interviewee doesn't get it

[DougJohnson]

A big part of this article is how the movie "Just doesn't get it" which is of course the biggest load.

Of course the movie gets it. What the commenter doesn't get is that the movie is about fantasy. It's not trying to be a realistic portrayal of life as a spy, it's about selling copies, giving kids a fantastical role model, and being down right entertaining. everyone (well, men) want to be Bond at some point of Bonds career or another, loads of people mimic Bond's speach. I'd say that Hollywood gets it

Re:The interviewee doesn't get it

[Matey-O]

Oh, and the theme tune was a big let down, too. Definitely not in the same category as Bond films of yesteryear. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent film, and worth seeing

Have you seen many Bond films in the theatre in the past? a BUNCH of them left me with that 'eh, it was okay entertainment' aftertaste. Bond is the perfect 70% demographic franchise. Since it doesn't aleniate by being too intelligent, nor too stupid, it makes a ton of money.

That said, I want his car...

...any of 'em.

At least he's driving a British car again.

[m.lemur]

mmmm Aston Martin.

I'm so glad they got rid of the BMWs

Product Placement

[zuhl]

I used to enjoy the Bond flicks. They were fun. Connery was witty and all the Bonds are sleek and the women are certainly easy on the eyes.

But the last few movies seem to have been nothing more than extended commercials for huge corporations. Ericsson, BMW. etc. Convergence with a vengence. Now there never really was much of a plot or meaning in Bond films, but now they border on the ridiculous. Even the action scenes are completely subsumed by the products they are hyping. James Bond remote controling his super-neat-o BMW with his tricked out Ericsson phone.

I will see the movie and probably drool over Halle Berry, but I will never, ever buy anything that they are "advertising" in the film. Branding a product or company is fine, but I have a problem with it completely subverting a movie. And the Bond francise seems to be ONLY about pushing specific products/gadgets down our collective throats.

Re:Product Placement

[DrainBead]

James Bond remote controling his super-neat-o BMW with his tricked out Ericsson phone.

How about looking past the BMW/Lotus/fancy-other-stuff etc and going with the entertainment/fantasy? As in "James Bond remote controlling his cool gadget filled car with an even cooler gadget filled cell phone like any kid (size doesn't matter) would dream about having." Afterall, marketing happens everywhere nowadays - just look at your average webpage.

XXX

[Russ Nelson]

You could argue that XXX is today's version of James Bond. They even have a version of Q. I love how he modified the Pontiac with all sorts of gadgets, which were so far from self-explanatory that it needed a user's manual. So he's driving along at whatever speed while she's trying to figure out how to use the car's gadgets.
-russ

Re:XXX

[Robotech_Master]

I think that in some ways, XXX was a parody of James Bond. Just look at the opening sequence where the tuxedo-clad agent meets his end.

And the scene where XXX and the girl are racing along the highway, and she's trying to figure out the instruction manual seems to me to be an inverse reference back to The Spy Who Loved Me where the female KGB agent was able to use the weapons in the car as expertly as if she'd been trained on them, because she'd stolen the plans for the car the year before.

That female agent's code name? Triple-X.

Does anybody ever feel sorry for Q?

[CaffeineAddict2001]

He makes all these awesome gadgets and James uses them in some unintended way and they always break.

If I were Q, I'd keep the laser\toothbrush and replace it with a real toothbrush.

James would probably save the day anyway.

The Tank

[IPFreely]

Of all the gadgets I've seen in all the Bond movies, the only one that really grabbed me and made me say "I want THAT!" was the soviet tank he drove through the streets of Moscow. All the rest was tripe or too unbelieveable to even illicit interest.

Re:As cute as this article is...

[bellings]

it's sister-article is much more interesting. It's on how much product placement is featured in the new bond movie,

Do they talk about how much product placement is featured on the front page of MSN, too? Or are we to assume Norelco paid the movie producers to put their product in the movie, but the movie producers did not pay MSN to put their movie on the front page?

19th century patent office almost closed down.

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of the true story of the British commissioner of patents in the late 19th century who advised the government that the Patent Office should be soon closed because just about everything that could be invented already had been.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/done_th at .shtml

Since nothing was invested this past century, I absolutely agree with you.;-)

Ian Flemming's books

[Taos]

After reading three of the original Bond books (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger) this past summer, I have come to realize that Bond really was an action character from the beginning. So, those talking about how Connery's Bond was thoughtful and dealt with more espionage, read the books.

M was constantly telling Bond to try and be more inconspicuous, but he got into too much trouble anyways. I think instead, the pacing of the original Bond films comes from the style of film making during the 60's. They used much more dramatic pacing, where as Flemming raced through much of the slower points of his books by skimming details. Whereas, when the action was going, he described every little pore on Bonds body.

I do have to note, however, I much prefer the thoughtful pacing of that era of movies instead of the non stop action of today's movies. Another example outside of the Bond area is the movie "The Day of the Jackal" and it's horrid remake "the Jackal". The original was extremely slow, but kept you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

Taos

Re:Art Imitating Life

[drinkypoo]

The best part of the future is that it is unknown. You don't know what is left to invent because it hasn't happened yet. Who knew that the transistor would be invented? How about the generation and use of electricity? (A nod of the head must be given to Tesla here for AC power. Thank you.) And way back when, the generation and use of fire was just as revolutionary.

One can always hope that the next thing invented will be something revolutionary rather than evolutionary; It does happen now and then, usually by accident or semi-accident. After all, you can't step in the pile of shit and find the ring unless your bare feet are dancing 'midst the cow-pies.