Reporting For Duty
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The roots of Bond
Don't worry, I'm not going to discuss hair here, but only try to find out if things that we've seen in Bond books or Bond movies have happened before Fleming ever put his pen on paper to give us the adventures of the most famous secret agent in the world. And to start with, I'm going to talk about Thunderball.
Indeed, you might think that TB has an original plot, what with nuclear blackmail, and many people in the 60s thought so. Except that I found out that it was not that original after all. Indeed, there's one movie that predates both the novel and the movie by more than a decade. Its title : Seven Days to Noon. In it, a physics professor working on the british atomic bomb decides one day to steal one of them and to blackmail the government into abandoning the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. If his demands are not met, he will detonate his bomb in the center of London in a week's time. The movie was filmed and released in 1950, TB, the novel, was published in 1961, and the movie released on 1965.
So, did Fleming and/or McClory watch this movie ? I don't know, but it's highly probable. Although I find the idea of carrying a nuke in a Gladstone bag rather preposterous, given that an atomic bomb at the time was quite bulky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_to_Noon
Are there any other examples ?
Indeed, you might think that TB has an original plot, what with nuclear blackmail, and many people in the 60s thought so. Except that I found out that it was not that original after all. Indeed, there's one movie that predates both the novel and the movie by more than a decade. Its title : Seven Days to Noon. In it, a physics professor working on the british atomic bomb decides one day to steal one of them and to blackmail the government into abandoning the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. If his demands are not met, he will detonate his bomb in the center of London in a week's time. The movie was filmed and released in 1950, TB, the novel, was published in 1961, and the movie released on 1965.
So, did Fleming and/or McClory watch this movie ? I don't know, but it's highly probable. Although I find the idea of carrying a nuke in a Gladstone bag rather preposterous, given that an atomic bomb at the time was quite bulky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_to_Noon
Are there any other examples ?
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The secret agent hero is also supposed to have inspired The Avengers' John Steed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Planes