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Bicycles and 007
1) To my knowledge, 007 rides a bicycle on film only once : to avoid looking suspect to the French police after killing Fatima Blush in NSNA, 007 rides a bicycle and Felix Leiter jogs behing him. The vehicles of 007 are a topic so well covered I'm confident it's indeed the only time he does so on film. No 007 on bicycle for EON so far...
First question : what about the books ? I don't remember in Fleming's books, and have not read many continuation novels...
2) "Noticeable" bicycles in 007 movies : well, is there another instance than in the DB5/Ferrari chase in GE ? There's even a cameo of the director in the cyclists. Right now I can't remember another noticeable appearance of a bicycle in a 007 movie. But I'm far less sure. I'll try to gather my memories but if you already remember some noticeable appearances, you can tell me here.
3) Background appearances : here, it'll be far longer to list, but somehow, I think bicycles should still be quite rare. One can see bicycles in Amsterdam in DAF, or in Paris in AVTAK for instance, that was quite easy to list these two. But in the latter case, one can see bicycles that are handled by passer-bys who are in the middle of the huge stairs that 007 drives on, it's a bit nonsensical !
3bis ) Q-lab background : I noticed that in NSNA (again!), someone is working on a bicycle in Algernon's lab ! Is there a similar appearance of a bicycle in a Q lab in one of the EON movies ?
First question : what about the books ? I don't remember in Fleming's books, and have not read many continuation novels...
2) "Noticeable" bicycles in 007 movies : well, is there another instance than in the DB5/Ferrari chase in GE ? There's even a cameo of the director in the cyclists. Right now I can't remember another noticeable appearance of a bicycle in a 007 movie. But I'm far less sure. I'll try to gather my memories but if you already remember some noticeable appearances, you can tell me here.
3) Background appearances : here, it'll be far longer to list, but somehow, I think bicycles should still be quite rare. One can see bicycles in Amsterdam in DAF, or in Paris in AVTAK for instance, that was quite easy to list these two. But in the latter case, one can see bicycles that are handled by passer-bys who are in the middle of the huge stairs that 007 drives on, it's a bit nonsensical !
3bis ) Q-lab background : I noticed that in NSNA (again!), someone is working on a bicycle in Algernon's lab ! Is there a similar appearance of a bicycle in a Q lab in one of the EON movies ?
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Comments
I think he's solely talking about bicycles, not motorcycles.
A bicycle action scene would be dangerously close to being ridiculous though I'm afraid, if Bond is on the bicycle. If Bond has a motorbike, and he's chasing a bicycle doing tricks, well it could work, but it would look like the Parkour chase Mk II...
A gadget bicycle ? It would be a bit ridiculous too (except for a Q-lab background joke possibly).
But Bond could ride a bike to pass as a tourist, in order to observe a villain, or in order to approach the girl, etc.
Bicycles are somehow becoming cool again, more and more (at least in Europe, for what I can see and read), I really wonder if it could reach 007 movies, where cars are still king :)
But here my remark is that even for the dramatic scenes, not the action scenes, or even just the exposition scenes, bicycles are almost nowhere to be seen in the movies ! In NSNA and GE, it's even only there for the joke...
In Europe, bicycles now outsell cars (but the figures include kids' bicycles...), but yet it's still a vehicle that is not promoted a lot. I mean, you see no ads for bicycles on TV, even though it's very hard to choose amongst all the models, so one would think one maker would benefit a lot from any advertisement. No ad = no promotion = no tie-in = no reason to be in a blockbuster movie ? (I remember seeing Brad Pitt on a bicycle in World War Z, but here it was because of the plot - Or Superman rides a bicycle at the end of Man of Steel, but you don't see the bike, it's just because that gives a nice short scene of Clark Kent almost "flying" over the road - the camera is at his shoulder).
One more likely possibility, IMO, to see a bicycle in a Bond movie would be in a case where we witness an assassination by the henchmen (like a sniper killing some official while he's riding a bicycle). But it has not happened yet... In the very beginning of Grosse Pointe Blank, there is such a scene, and it's not ridiculous at all.
On a trip to the Netherlands in past years, there were a significant amount of people on bicycles, not too many cars or other vehicles, so there must of been a few examples in DAF for instance. Bond in NSNA as mentioned, although not an official entry, and had to give a mention to the street chase in Octopussy with Vijay and Bond and someone cycles past and gets a tennis racket on the head ? Will have to have another watch to confirm the actual incident
I can't recall too many other instances than those already mentioned
As for 007 himself, James Bond 'license to pedal' doesn't look like taking off anytime soon
I'm having trouble seeing how a serious bicycle sequence could work- perhaps if it was something like Bond (using a different vehicle) chasing or being chased by a gang of downhill mountain bikers. Such a scene could share elements of the bikers/hockey players in FYEO, and seeing how they traverse the terrain like Mollaka in CR.
Yes but the persons are rather young there, Gordon-Lewitt was 30 at that time. Seeing a 40/50 yo doing this would feel a bit awkward, wouldn't it ? In one Taxi French movie, a fully helmeted motorbiker looses his motorbike, steals a BMX bicycle, and then does some BMX tricks to escape chasers on motorbikes and rollers, and when he removes his helmet later, one can see it was supposed to be Stallone on the bicycle. It doesn't work at all, the stuntman on the bicycle was obviously very fit but also very thin, like all pros !
I already listed the first two in the first post, which shows there aren't many examples to remember :) Good finding for the Vijay scene : one can spot a few bicycles in the background (but only a few), and there's indeed a cyclist that passes (unharmed and untouched) between Vijay/Bond and the jeep of henchmen in a very short stunt. It's in the middle of the tennis sounds gag but at least this time it's not purely to joke about bicycles !
These days, seeing how bicycles are very rare in blockbuster movies, I think the idea that even someone on a bicycle could be a killer could be a director's trick to show dangers is really everywhere for the hero. I could imagine Mr Wint and Kidd riding bicycles in Amsterdam in DAF to convey that feeling (and well, it would be clear that bicycles are not "manly" enough for Bond, an idea that's still in the air), but even in Amsterdam they didn't do it. We just see one taking pictures...
A small sequence, a chase, for instance, in woods wouldn't be bad at all. I can imagine Bond "borrows" it to a sportive to chase any henchman (also on a bicycle), who has stolen some USB key, which contains importants evidences... and going on slopes with that mountainbike. Knocks the guy and let the bicycle. Well, could be.
Funny, I thought about this too. Some kind if athletic, lean and cyclist henchman using a bicycle to.move fast and discreetly. I cannot see a bicycle working in an action except for a comedic moment a la GE. More like a minor oddity for the villain. The Prisoner tv series showed us the most silly looking bicycle can have sinister overtones in the right context.
http://www.redbull.com/en/motorsports/offroad/stories/1331578720557/maddo-s-007-adventure
Now if we think about motorbike, it's a quite recent trend overall :
NSNA/GE/TND/QOS/SF are the most noticeables appearance of Bond on motorbike I remember right now. Craig's Bond on motorbike almost looks like something usual now ! While I remember that for NSNA, that Bond on motorbike was one of the novelty put forward...
Bicycle could be around the corner sooner than expected then ? It'll be difficult not to be OTT if it is for an action scene though - Bicycle pros' antics look even more "alien" than most parkour stunts : ie, you "can" imagine some alpha male wihtout any specific training jumping from 6 meter high and roll on the ground. But jumping over a 1m50 fence on a bike without being a bicycle champion on the first place ?
"Jack, I want you to paint me like one of your French girls"
"What, on a bicycle with some onions?"
Just thought I'd share ;-)
Free running and then skates.
Well, just kidding. Seriously, I cannot imagine a decent scene with Bond on a bike. If it were really brief, maybe. I still find it a easier foil for humor rather than suspense or great action.
Anyway, Bond on a bike could work if done right. I think having him racing through a city could look a bit silly but an off road chase, with the baddy being an expert cyclist and Bond struggling to keep up (ala CR, like people have mentioned), that'd be good.
After all, what's wrong with James Bond 007 on a bicycle, after some of the asinine nonsense from some recent releases, such as surfing CGI waves. This is a good enough topic of conversation, and Bond taking to pedal power (albeit for a brief time) seems feasible enough, and I hope it's an area to explore in subsequent releases. You got scope for some decent action
That's with anything, though. I'm sure someone said CR stole from 'District 13,' QoS stole from Bourne, and SF stole from 'TDKR'/'Taken 2'/'Home Alone'. Anything you do in a film these days will obviously be influenced from something else, and with that, there will always be people ready to call out a movie for copying something else.