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The James Bond Questions Thread

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  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Soundofthesinners wrote:
    What does Freelance hit Quarrel with in the club while they're interrogating her?

    I have always wondered this too. I think every time I see it that it is some kind of coarse stone. Who knows...

    We need Blu-ray screencaps of the scene!
  • Master_DaharkMaster_Dahark
    Posts: 4,813
    THE LIGHTBULB FROM THE CAMERA

    I SAY must I repeat myself?

    Angry-man-001.jpg
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    THE LIGHTBULB FROM THE CAMERA

    I SAY must I repeat myself?

    Angry-man-001.jpg

    You said you "thought" it was the lightbulb. That is hardly a confident conviction. ;)
  • Master_DaharkMaster_Dahark
    edited April 2013 Posts: 4,813
    I did say that-- but thinking back, I'm positive it is-- it even makes a delightful RIPPING sound as it goes down Quarrel's face! :-SS

    Owwwww
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    I did say that-- but thinking back, I'm positive it is-- it even makes a delightful RIPPING sound as it goes down Quarrel's face! :-SS

    Owwwww

    Good thing Quarrel was a badarse.

    \m/
  • Master_DaharkMaster_Dahark
    edited April 2013 Posts: 4,813
    No joke! He touches his head, sees all the blood, and then calmly asks Bond if he should break her arm! So polite too!
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    Could of gone in the 'bits that don't make sense' category, but worth saying, did Dominic Greene have some kind of superhuman strength in Quantum of Solace, as when he and Montes are talking at the Greene planet event, he pushes her against a stone balcony and it almost crumbles or gives way ? Guessing the foundations weren't that impressive or maybe decayed as an obvious choice, but it still appears a bit absurd whenever you see it
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,133
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote:
    Soundofthesinners wrote:
    What does Freelance hit Quarrel with in the club while they're interrogating her?

    I have always wondered this too. I think every time I see it that it is some kind of coarse stone. Who knows...

    We need Blu-ray screencaps of the scene!

    @Master_Dahark is correct. Really, I thought some of you knew your Bond films.

    ;)
    Freelance takes the flash bulb out of her camera, smashes it against the table and shoves it into Quarrels face. Ouch!
    Pretty tough guy old Quarrel, though not when it comes to Dragons though. Bizarre.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    Quarrel even appeared frightened of a harmless crab though ? (maybe he was just startled by it's sudden appearance, I'll have to watch again sometime soon)
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Here's another Dr. No related question. While Bond is crawling though the pipes in Dr. No's lair, he starts climbing down a vertical pipe. About halfway down a weird sound effect plays followed by an echo sound effect that was later used in the space scenes of Moonraker. What was the signification of that sound and why did it cause Bond to fall?
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,568
    Not sure, but I always assumed the sound indicated that the pipes were heating up, hence Bond falling.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    edited April 2013 Posts: 15,111
    Baltimore_007 wrote:
    Quarrel even appeared frightened of a harmless crab though ? (maybe he was just startled by it's sudden appearance, I'll have to watch again sometime soon)

    He is not scared of a lady, but he is a superstitious man, so he might be scared of some animals, such as crabs, in certain circumstances. I know he is a fisherman, but he might not think this particular crab is harmless. He is in Crab Key, after all.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Ludovico wrote:
    Baltimore_007 wrote:
    Quarrel even appeared frightened of a harmless crab though ? (maybe he was just startled by it's sudden appearance, I'll have to watch again sometime soon)

    He is not scared of a lady, but he is a superstitious man, so he might be scared of some animals, such as crabs, in certain circumstances. I know he is a fisherman, but he might not think this particular crab is harmless. He is in Crab Key, after all.

    I don't see what is so odd about Quarrel having fears like that; it is quite natural. Elephants are behemoths, yet they are set off by something as tiny as a mouse that it could kill by simply stepping on it. It seems hard to believe, yet it is true in many cases. So is life.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,111
    Here is another one: who had the idea of having Jaws turn side and why?
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    I think some people may have just seen him as loveable rogue by the time of Moonraker. Not necessarily nefarious, at least not with TSWLM, and all a bit clumsy and inept, but in a different way from before. The whole turn of face and indeed, love angle, was a lousy idea, but Jaws was simply not himself that year

    In fact if you watch the film in question @Ludovico it supplies the answer you seek, in that anyone not up to Drax' standards of perfection will be eliminated or surplus to requirement, and Dolly was included in that. Guess Jaws had a change of heart and decided to help out in thwarting Drax' evil scheme, but above all else, the Kiel character of 1979, was poles apart from the nasty and feared one from The Spy Who Loved Me
  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    Question from Thunderball: How does 007 know that there is a jet-pack on the roof of Colonel Bouvar's chateau? Furthermore, why put yourself high up in the air where his guards should be easily able to shoot him down? (note I said should, because the guards actually had terrible aim!)

    Even if 007 brought the jet-pack for himself, why would he go through the trouble of acquiring it when he could just escape out the front entrance more easily?

    Seems to me as if the directors were just adding a useless scene of spectacle to wow the audience- I mean yeah, it obviously worked, but it isn't the least bit practical, or explained, for that matter!
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited May 2013 Posts: 28,694
    00Beast wrote:
    Question from Thunderball: How does 007 know that there is a jet-pack on the roof of Colonel Bouvar's chateau? Furthermore, why put yourself high up in the air where his guards should be easily able to shoot him down? (note I said should, because the guards actually had terrible aim!)

    Even if 007 brought the jet-pack for himself, why would he go through the trouble of acquiring it when he could just escape out the front entrance more easily?

    Seems to me as if the directors were just adding a useless scene of spectacle to wow the audience- I mean yeah, it obviously worked, but it isn't the least bit practical, or explained, for that matter!
    Bond was working with the woman you see in the PTS:
    http://screenmusings.org/Thunderball/pages/Thbll_003.htm

    So it is likely that she is the one who set it up for him to have the jet pack.

    It was a smart escape because as we see, Bond had no real other way out. After he kills the Colonel the men come storming in armed, so the jet pack was the best plan present at the time. Don't think too much into it.

  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I think Bond flew in ahead of time. It makes sense because he was in Bouvar's room waiting to kill him.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Murdock wrote:
    I think Bond flew in ahead of time. It makes sense because he was in Bouvar's room waiting to kill him.
    That is a big possibility. Nice thinking!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 2013 Posts: 18,269
    As my original thread on this was closed down as I'd mistakenly posted it in the 'News' section here on MI6, here is a renewed attempt at getting my LALD question out there:

    Was Mr Big in the film version of LALD based on real-life American drug kingpins of the early 1970s?

    I think that Mr Big may have been based on certain drug dealers, as an update to the character from the novel, which of course did not concern drugs, but the smuggling of gold coins to finance Soviet operations in the United States.

    So, my question remains, was Mr Big, as written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on real life drug kingpins of the early 1970s in America? If so, whom, would you say? A book I bought recently has given me a few possibles, but I'd like to hear from the good folks of MI6 Community first of all.
  • Sir_James_MoloneySir_James_Moloney
    Posts: 388
    I don't think so, @Dragonpol, as Mr Big/Dr Kananga seems to principally be an update of Fleming's smuggler, as you suggest, with the political alter ego thrown in - switching gold coins for heroin, which was more contemporary (not a million miles from Blofeld using "Willard Whyte" as his alter ego in DAF.) Big / Kananga just seems like such a fantasy figure.

    I don't have any specific information on this however so I'd be interested to know who you think Mankiewicz based him on. I'm sure he must have done some basic research, even if it was only from newspaper articles.
  • Master_DaharkMaster_Dahark
    Posts: 4,813
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    Here's a question following a recent viewing of Moonraker: when Bond first arrives in Rio, he's being chauffeured around and catches a glimpse of Manuela taking his photograph, he says something not in English-- anyone know what he said? It was as if he was talking to himself too
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    (From TLD pretitle sequence)So where the hell was OO2 when Bond was stopping the assassin??? What, did he go home early because he was 'out'?
    A bump for two of my questions that remain unanswered :(
  • Sir_James_MoloneySir_James_Moloney
    edited May 2013 Posts: 388
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    Here's a question following a recent viewing of Moonraker: when Bond first arrives in Rio, he's being chauffeured around and catches a glimpse of Manuela taking his photograph, he says something not in English-- anyone know what he said? It was as if he was talking to himself too

    No idea. It seems that he's talking to the driver, presumably in Portuguese. I think you'd need a Portuguese speaker to translate. Maybe it's in the novelisation?
    Master_Dahark wrote:
    (From TLD pretitle sequence)So where the hell was OO2 when Bond was stopping the assassin??? What, did he go home early because he was 'out'?

    Bond happened to see the assassination of 004 and pursued the assassin. As there appeared to be no comms links between 007 and 002, there was no way of Bond notifying him of the assassination.


  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 2013 Posts: 18,269
    Sir_James_Moloney wrote:
    I don't think so, @Dragonpol, as Mr Big/Dr Kananga seems to principally be an update of Fleming's smuggler, as you suggest, with the political alter ego thrown in - switching gold coins for heroin, which was more contemporary (not a million miles from Blofeld using "Willard Whyte" as his alter ego in DAF.) Big / Kananga just seems like such a fantasy figure.

    I don't have any specific information on this however so I'd be interested to know who you think Mankiewicz based him on. I'm sure he must have done some basic research, even if it was only from newspaper articles.

    Thanks, Sir James. I'll reveal who I think may have inspired Tom Mankiewicz with Mr Big in a future article on my blog - it's only a theory as yet, anyway.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    Finally got round to watching OHMSS this afternoon and the PTS struck me as a bit of shambles to be honest.

    Here are some points that I would be grateful if someone could offer some clarification on:

    1. What is the point narratively of the scene with M and Q and the radioactive lint? Why does M say the prime minister wants to be informed the moment they locate 007? Why would the PM make such a request? Is the implication that Bond has gone AWOL? The whole scene baffles me especially considering that when Bond does show up at HQ this urgent man hunt is not even mentioned. I can see why quite a few TV companies ditched this scene to get the running time down.

    2. Has Draco ordered his men to kill Bond? They don't appear to be planning to take him to Draco as in the book and when the hood gets Bond to lie down in the rowing boat it seems to me the way he raises his gun that he is about to execute Bond. Does Draco have every man who goes near his daughter killed like this? Why then does he suddenly have a volte face the next day and kidnap Bond and pour his heart out to him?

    I love OHMSS but seeing how I've been critical of SFs sloppy plotting I didn't feel it just to let this PTS, which is all over the place, off the hook.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,111
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    Finally got round to watching OHMSS this afternoon and the PTS struck me as a bit of shambles to be honest.

    Here are some points that I would be grateful if someone could offer some clarification on:

    1. What is the point narratively of the scene with M and Q and the radioactive lint? Why does M say the prime minister wants to be informed the moment they locate 007? Why would the PM make such a request? Is the implication that Bond has gone AWOL? The whole scene baffles me especially considering that when Bond does show up at HQ this urgent man hunt is not even mentioned. I can see why quite a few TV companies ditched this scene to get the running time down.

    2. Has Draco ordered his men to kill Bond? They don't appear to be planning to take him to Draco as in the book and when the hood gets Bond to lie down in the rowing boat it seems to me the way he raises his gun that he is about to execute Bond. Does Draco have every man who goes near his daughter killed like this? Why then does he suddenly have a volte face the next day and kidnap Bond and pour his heart out to him?

    I love OHMSS but seeing how I've been critical of SFs sloppy plotting I didn't feel it just to let this PTS, which is all over the place, off the hook.

    It is an exciting fight, but yes, it is all over the place and does not make much sense. It is also part of its charm. Before I read the novel, when I first watched the film, I thought they were Blofeld's men trying to kill Bond or to get to Draco by killing or kidnapping Tracy.
  • saunderssaunders Living in a world of avarice and deceit
    edited May 2013 Posts: 987
    The first scene with M, Q and Moneypenny is simply to establish with the audience that although the lead actor has changed Bond's world is still very familiar, the reference to the 'PM wanting to know when we've found 007' is just a small in-joke regarding the much publicised search for the new replacement to Connery, in much the same tone as the 'Now your back' line in DAF. I agree it doesn't make narrative sense but personally I think it was a nice touch, but then again I liked the 'This never happened to the other fella' line for much the same reason.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited May 2013 Posts: 28,694
    saunders wrote:
    The first scene with M, Q and Moneypenny is simply to establish with the audience that although the lead actor has changed Bond's world is still very familiar, the reference to the 'PM wanting to know when we've found 007' is just a small in-joke regarding the much publicised search for the new replacement to Connery, in much the same tone as the 'Now your back' line in DAF. I agree it doesn't make narrative sense but personally I think it was a nice touch, but then again I liked the 'This never happened to the other fella' line for much the same reason.

    I hate moments like that because they take me out of the film.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,269
    Dragonpol wrote:
    As my original thread on this was closed down as I'd mistakenly posted it in the 'News' section here on MI6, here is a renewed attempt at getting my LALD question out there:

    Was Mr Big in the film version of LALD based on real-life American drug kingpins of the early 1970s?

    I think that Mr Big may have been based on certain drug dealers, as an update to the character from the novel, which of course did not concern drugs, but the smuggling of gold coins to finance Soviet operations in the United States.

    So, my question remains, was Mr Big, as written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on real life drug kingpins of the early 1970s in America? If so, whom, would you say? A book I bought recently has given me a few possibles, but I'd like to hear from the good folks of MI6 Community first of all.

    Any further interest in this particular question of mine?

    I find it fascinating and would really love to hear some further replies on it, please, if at all possible.
  • Sir_James_MoloneySir_James_Moloney
    Posts: 388
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    Finally got round to watching OHMSS this afternoon and the PTS struck me as a bit of shambles to be honest.

    Agreed about the PTS. It makes no sense whatsoever. Bond sees a girl walking into the sea so he races down onto the beach to drag her out. Then a bunch of hired goons attack him for no reason. I didn't have a clue what it was about until I read the novel.
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    Here are some points that I would be grateful if someone could offer some clarification on:

    1. What is the point narratively of the scene with M and Q and the radioactive lint?

    I don't think it serves a narrative purpose. Although I think @saunders is right that it's all part of loading the film with continuity references to ensure viewers know that "this is James Bond!" Also, I always understood the particular gadget to be a joke at the expense of the previous films growing reliance upon gadgets as it's so inherently ridiculous.
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    Why does M say the prime minister wants to be informed the moment they locate 007? Why would the PM make such a request? Is the implication that Bond has gone AWOL?

    I had never considered @saunders' suggestion that it's an in-joke about the search for Bond. That makes sense. I think, narratively, it's due to the fact that Bond's been hunting Blofeld (Operation Bedlam), so it would make sense that the PM would take an interest bearing in mind the events of YOLT and, particularly, Thunderball.
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    I love OHMSS but seeing how I've been critical of SFs sloppy plotting I didn't feel it just to let this PTS, which is all over the place, off the hook.

    I've just posted on the "most incompetent Bond" thread with much the same comparison.
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