The James Bond Questions Thread

11920222425210

Comments

  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    In TND, why does Bond say it will take him four hours to get Paris out of Hamburg? Seems rather long.
  • Maybe it's the amount of time he'd need to secure official MI6 transportation, as opposed to just sticking her on a bus or train bound for the other side of Europe (Paris maybe?).
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Maybe it's the amount of time he'd need to secure official MI6 transportation, as opposed to just sticking her on a bus or train bound for the other side of Europe (Paris maybe?).

    And Carver and his men would no doubt be watching, so he'd have to be careful, cautious, and stick to roundabout ways out of the place.
  • retrokittyretrokitty The Couv
    Posts: 380
    I haven't seen it in a while but I thought it was because he had stuff to do first. I have to revisit it to be sure.
  • saunderssaunders Living in a world of avarice and deceit
    Posts: 987
    I'd always assumed that it would take the four hours to create the necessary official documentation to get her out of the country under a false identity, knocked up by the Head of Station G Germany, no doubt!
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    edited September 2013 Posts: 9,117
    On a whim I was just in the mood to watch TMWTGG:

    1. Is that Brut Bond sprays in the goon's face in Saida's dressing room? I know its the 70's and she's hardly the best looking Bond girl but why would Saida have a bottle of Brut?

    2. When Bond goes to Hai Fat's place masquerading as Scaramanga why does Hai Fat invite Bond to dinner later only to have him bonked on the head and taken to the karate school? Why not do it there and then?

    3. JW says to his wife 'we're Democrats Maybelle'. Now I dont know much about American politics but JW strikes me as the sort of bloke who strongly believes in America, God and the right to own guns. Thats a Republican isnt it?

    4. I'm no chemist but Bond says 'we have about 5 minutes before his body temperature raises that helium well above zero and then this whole place will go sky high'. Would this happen? Wouldnt the liquid helium just turn to a gas which is pretty harmless?

    5. Did boats in the 70's have automatic pilot? Fair enough on the open sea perhaps but sailing through all those islands pre GPS? Was that possible?

    6. In the final fight Bond has bare feet so how come he doesnt end up like John McClane?

    7. The 'how does M know Scaramanga's number' question is an old one but how does M know to offer Bond congratulations? Who has told him? I cant imagine Reuters had a bloke on the next island to Scaramanga's. Unless of course at some point Bond reported in which is how M got the number.
    In any event why does M want to speak to the gormless Goodnight rather than Bond (except of course to set up the lame final gag)?

    Overall a pretty lazy release summed up for me by the fact that a member of the film crew is visible to the audience reflected in a mirror not once but twice.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited September 2013 Posts: 17,789
    1. I thought it was Hai Karate-?
    2. To size him up, maybe get a piece of info.
    3. JW was a messed up dude, he probably didn't even realise he was actually a Repub.
    4. Liquid helium needs to be below zero to cool the solar core battery beneath the installation, no variance is advisable; the resulting gas is not flammable.
    5. Sonar guided ones were in existence then though not common by any means.
    6. Serendipity.
    7. Spy satellites have been in place far longer than has been revealed, clearly.

  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @Wizard, American politics is very much like preschool antics, but yes, someone with JW's beliefs would be more in line with the republican ticket than anything resembling a liberal. He seems very much pro gun and set in his ways, a conservative to the core and quite far from what you would imagine a Democrat to be. I find politics to be quite an inferior system anyway, but that is my take on your inquiry.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    3. JW says to his wife 'we're Democrats Maybelle'. Now I dont know much about American politics but JW strikes me as the sort of bloke who strongly believes in America, God and the right to own guns. Thats a Republican isnt it?

    The South *was* very Democratic until more or less the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Perhaps J.W. was slow to change--a lot went on in those ten years. Undoubtedly his character would be a Republican now.
  • echo wrote:
    3. JW says to his wife 'we're Democrats Maybelle'. Now I dont know much about American politics but JW strikes me as the sort of bloke who strongly believes in America, God and the right to own guns. Thats a Republican isnt it?

    The South *was* very Democratic until more or less the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Perhaps J.W. was slow to change--a lot went on in those ten years. Undoubtedly his character would be a Republican now.

    Indeed. The south still went mostly for Carter in 1976, three years after Live and Let Die (although the Republicans had varying levels of success from 1964-1972).
  • edited September 2013 Posts: 3,494
    To clarify about J.W- I never used subtitles for him but what I've always heard him say in his deep South jargon is "they's", and not "we're" Democrats. I'm used to the accent having had relatives from Texas which is right next door to Louisiana. And the southern U.S being part of what they call the "Bible belt", in particular white people long entrenched there for generations and most especially those with J.R's racist bent, typically votes for the more conservative religious and gun friendly Republican party.

    Jimmy got the benefit of the doubt in 1976 being a native Southerner, no question about that.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited September 2013 Posts: 17,789
    To clarify about J.W- I never used subtitles for him but what I've always heard him say in his deep South jargon is "they's", and not "we're" Democrats.
    His Wife says she wants to buy one of those cute little elephants to which JW replies:

    "Elephants.
    We're Democrats, Maybelle."

    I just check the script.

  • edited September 2013 Posts: 6,396
    I've been watching that scene and I still can't tell if it's "we're" or "they're".
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited September 2013 Posts: 17,789
    I've been watching that scene and I still can't tell if it's "we're" or "they're".

    Well, I just put it on without & with subtitles, it's "Elephant (no 's'). We're Democrats, Maybelle."

    As in, why would we buy an elephant?
  • The elephant is the symbol of the Republican party, so in that context JW must have been a Democrat. It's still pretty antithetical though to his personal views, that much has to be admitted :)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    I think Tom Mankiewicz was having a go at America's political system is all.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Also, who were those guys in the mirror with camera equipment? The KGB?
    Or was Saida about to make a porn?
  • Posts: 533
    I have a few questions regarding Bond's journey on the Orient Express in "FRWL".

    First of all, how did Red Grant knew that Bond, Tatiana Romanova and Kerim Bey would leave Istanbul via the Orient Express? He was already aboard the train, when they boarded.

    How did Grant know that Bond would steal the Lektor from the Soviet consulate on the 13th of that month, when the latter told Tania that he would steal the Lektor on the 14th?

    Why did it take the train a few hours to travel from Istanbul to Belgrade (in Yugoslavia), when it usually takes nearly 24 hours to travel between the two cities?
  • Posts: 533
    Honestly most of the Guy Hamilton films have lots of plotholes and moments that are left unexplained. DAF, LALD, and TMWTGG probably raise the most questions out of the entire series. GF is the only film that is excused from this. I never really cared for Hamilton as none of his films are my favorites.



    I really don't see why GF should be excused from any criticisms of plot holes. It has some holes in its plot that strike me as rather large.
  • Maybe I just imagined this in the throes of the other awfulness on display, but I believe that at one point in Die Another Day Bond hides behind the Vanquish. While it's invisible.

    If I might, how in the bluest of blue hells does that make ANY sense?
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Maybe I just imagined this in the throes of the other awfulness on display, but I believe that at one point in Die Another Day Bond hides behind the Vanquish. While it's invisible.

    If I might, how in the bluest of blue hells does that make ANY sense?

    No, you didn't image that, it actually happened. I have had to seek counseling because of this film. ;)
  • edited September 2013 Posts: 3,236
    Maybe I just imagined this in the throes of the other awfulness on display, but I believe that at one point in Die Another Day Bond hides behind the Vanquish. While it's invisible.

    If I might, how in the bluest of blue hells does that make ANY sense?

    No, you didn't image that, it actually happened. I have had to seek counseling because of this film. ;)

    So...did the logic that an object's being invisible implies that YOU CAN SEE WHAT'S F**KING BEHIND IT not occur to anyone on set? I mean, really.
  • Heh, never thought about that. I'll have to take a look at that, next time I take in a watch of Die Another Day. It couldn't get more absurd than it already is, surely..

    Actually, it their defense, the car wasn't 'invisible' so to speak, it was merely a trick of the light or some fancy camouflague that made it appear that way - but will try another watch sometime soon to get a better take on things
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Q explains that the Vanquish has cameras on all sides of the car so It projects what the cameras making the car look as good as invisible. Essentially a big mirror.
  • I think it was essentially, a 'big mistake' @Murdock (to include such nonsense in the first place)
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I think it was essentially, a 'big mistake' @Murdock (to include such nonsense in the first place)

    Agreed. But...Tamahori.. :-&
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    Posts: 7,314
    In Moonraker why does Bond take a flight from Venice to Rio on an Air France plane? I'm assuming that he left from Venice because that's where we last saw him. I'm sure that Air France airlines flies all over the world but it seems like product placement to me since a good portion of the film was shot in France. Or perhaps it was a sign of gratitude from EON? Most likely it was that the crew flew from France to Rio de Janeiro and it was the easiest way to capture the shot.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    pachazo wrote:
    In Moonraker why does Bond take a flight from Venice to Rio on an Air France plane? I'm assuming that he left from Venice because that's where we last saw him. I'm sure that Air France airlines flies all over the world but it seems like product placement to me since a good portion of the film was shot in France. Or perhaps it was a sign of gratitude from EON? Most likely it was that the crew flew from France to Rio de Janeiro and it was the easiest way to capture the shot.

    Because he wanted to go by Concorde which didn't fly from Italy. It's only taxpayers money after all - wouldn't you?

    And incidentally Rog and some of the crew did arrive on that very plane and the shot of Rog coming down the steps was when he actually got off for real. Lewis Gilbert got out first with a cameraman and they set up and then Rog got off.
  • Posts: 6,396
    pachazo wrote:
    In Moonraker why does Bond take a flight from Venice to Rio on an Air France plane? I'm assuming that he left from Venice because that's where we last saw him. I'm sure that Air France airlines flies all over the world but it seems like product placement to me since a good portion of the film was shot in France. Or perhaps it was a sign of gratitude from EON? Most likely it was that the crew flew from France to Rio de Janeiro and it was the easiest way to capture the shot.

    Because he wanted to go by Concorde which didn't fly from Italy. It's only taxpayers money after all - wouldn't you?

    And incidentally Rog and some of the crew did arrive on that very plane and the shot of Rog coming down the steps was when he actually got off for real. Lewis Gilbert got out first with a cameraman and they set up and then Rog got off.

    Actually I think according to the making of documentary, Rog got off the Concorde, changed clothes, had his make up done then climbed back up the steps in order to film the scene as Bond coming out of the plane.
  • Why did Kingsley Amis use a pseudonym?
Sign In or Register to comment.