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"Reunion with Death" is more of a personal mission for Bond and ends tragically, so I think it might have been more interesting for Dalton. But neither Smith's nor Westlake's treatments are fully developed and would have needed a lot of work.
Oddly enough, the idea of having the villain's wife sleep with Bond and betray her husband originated in "Reunion with Death," carried over to Westlake's treatments, and finally landed in TND.
I think gene therapy has been mentioned in this very thread. Regarding the hypnotherapy in OHMSS, it never bothered me: it may look dated now, but not implausible at the time it was written. Let's not forget that The Manchurian Candidate was released in 1962, where hypnotic treatment taken up to eleven is used in a relatively similar fashion. A Clockwork Orange had been published in the early 60s and, while it was sci-fi, the Ludovico treatment used mental manipulation in a very grounded way. (Come to think of it, quite interesting to think that at least three works of fiction published at about the same time used evil behavioral methods in their plot. I might start a thread about it.)
I definitely agree with your take generally speaking. I may have to add in that my hatred for the biotech may also be from other factors such as all of them being a key component to the plot and not doing enough selling to get us there to believe the tech in the first place. That is why perhaps I can painfully swallow some of the bad tech ideas and not these particular ones... It does show the value in keeping Q around.
So specifically, OHMSS does allow for off-screen manipulation efforts over time to occur, but I just despise what they do show - undergoing hypnosis uncontrollably. That said, it is the least offensive of the ones I mentioned.
Yes, the bionic eye is tech is something being worked towards in theory, but man, the physical hurdles required to make it work - on top of the questions you brought up on how Blofeld got his just feel too far from reality. Like how do the eyes transmit info to/from the brain? Then, on top of that, how do they transmit info between them, particularly when one is in a super security jail cell. Perhaps if it weren't so central to the storyline, it could be overlooked. Likewise, the nano bots is explained in an extremely vague manner and are somehow indestructible and can reproduce themselves to spread everywhere and be effective through one little moment of touch...and on top of that is once again central to the plot. I think the general concepts aren't horrible per se, but they took them way too far out of plausibility.
Lastly I dont feel like I should have to do any explaining with gene therepy and how what is shown will never work. And again, it is used as a cheap "gotcha" plot device central to the overall story.
Compare those to worst non-biotech gadgetry - the invisible car. The tech was based on an existing technology. Had they shown it as something working from a distance and not directly in front of Bond's face, it'd be much more closer to plausibility. But even as is, I can accept the stretch. The part that grinds me is that how exactly does it work on the tires and not metallic parts of the car. While it remains one of my most hated Bond gadgets, it is at least used in a playful manner that can't be said with the others (and it isn't central to the plot).
I'm all for taking technology and stretching limits, but I wish they did a better job keeping it in the realm of plausibility instead of sheer impossibility.
I agree, a film like Bond, if it's one that's meant to be taken seriously as opposed to a more frivolous affair like Moonraker, has the task of "selling" its outlandish concepts to the audience.
I'm not certain the hypnotism in OHMSS is portrayed as absolutely uncontrollable, however. Ruby pushes Bond away from her of her own volition and says it's time for her treatment. Or at least it can be seen that way. Then I suppose it might be viewed as a combination of brainwashing and hypnotism.
Yes, honestly I think if the brainwashing of Bond storyline popped up in a film I'd really struggle with it: it's a lot to swallow and really belongs in a Man From Uncle episode. An invisible car I'm fine with because it's just a fleeting novelty, but if Bond were brainwashed for a chunk of a film it'd be putting something impossible just a bit too front and centre and affecting our main character for my liking. It's probably over my 'too silly' threshold.
Mind you, I guess I just about buy Jason Bourne's amnesia -and indeed brainwashing- perhaps because it's entirely what his story about, and his amnesia is slightly easier to swallow and less of a cliche because he has supposedly been subject to huge psychological torture effectively.
Yeah, I do agree: "Reunion with Death" was more interesting in its portrayal of Bond, who was more in line with, let's say, Licence to Kill, than any of the Bond 17 scripts (except France's Goldeneye). They never seemed that focused on the character of Bond himself, as opposed to "Reunion" that better evoked Dalton's previous movies.
The problem I have with this script however concerns more the story as a whole: it's not very exciting, it's very standard and, all in all, not very creative, more notably regarding its bad guy. The only redeemable parts are, in my opinion, the London attack against M, the Japanese setting, the Tiger Tanaka and the bittersweet ending. Maybe these ideas would have been highlighted by a more interesting story, maybe by taking inspiration from the unmade B17 scripts.
Sorry to have wandered off-course, but, well, see, my brain was affected by watching those films
The giant squid is the one thing I'm really glad they left out of the DN film. It would have dated the film terribly, even if they'd managed to have good fx for it. Imagine Ray Harryhausen doing them for instance. Then we'd have a Ray Harryhausen movie, not a Bond movie. Interesting what if: maybe we'd expect a monster every film, instead of gadgets.
I have no problem accepting hypnotherapy in OHMSS, as it was a common trope at the time and they managed to keep in grounded, I think. An invisible car or azself sustainable space station, however, I can't buy it. And as much as I like NTTD, the bionic eye doesn't make one bit of sense.
We right now think that would be crazy and would never happen but did anyone see the curve balls thrown our way from No time to Die?
Would've loved to have seen Dalton tackle something like this.
How do you mean? It's outlandish, but it makes sense.
Shh! Around here you're supposed to hate personal missions! ;) :D
Agreed. Prosthetics and other tech to assist persons are quite advanced these days. Please see ScienceDaily.com for June 10, 2020 article on "World's first spherical artificial eye has 3D retina" with this Summary: Scientists have developed the world's first 3D artificial eye with capabilities better than existing bionic eyes and in some cases, even exceed those of the human eyes, bringing vision to humanoid robots and new hope to patients with visual impairment.
Oh, boy, I didn't mean to bring up the robot thing again...
Oh im ready to accept that someone has a prostectic eye, thats not the issue. Thats the whole logistic. How did Blofeld got the eye? He didn't have it in Spectre, he then had a wounded eye. Then how did Blofeld give it to Primo? How is he communicating with his staff during the birthday party? How did he managed to get it to work, be connected to them, all this pretty much undetected from MI6 and the people in charge to guard him? I love the scene, it's deliciously creepy, surreal, nightmarish even. But like a nightmare, it doesn't make much sense if you stop to think about it.
That a signal got out of his prison is just spy stuff, really: I can swallow that. Would Belmarsh be monitoring signals? I don't know.
It's a lot to accept, even taking into account that SPECTRE seems extremely efficient at covert activities. It's a beautiful scene and I accepted it without giving a second thought at first, but it's one of these things that is extremely far fetched if you look into it a bit. And don't get me wtong: I loved the film.
Quite how he keeps it charged, on the other hand... :D
Here are some photos I took of the prop on display a couple of weeks ago, just for fun:
As for signals going in and out of prisons, well I don't know if they're monitored for that or not. I suspect there's no real reason to. Although this is the Bond world of course and everything is a bit more sci-fi there, so perhaps they would.
His natural eyeball, or a device eyeball ? It might take bionic vision to catch the glimpse...
That rings a bell; I think you can see his face get injured, yes.
When he's blown back and his head hits the floor, you see a splat of blood. No eyeballs though, not as far as I can see (wink).