The only time Bond yells for help?

I'm an old geezer in my 50s and a diehard 007 fan since the age of 11. Naturally, I've seen all the films a gazillion times.

While watching THUNDERBALL again the other day, I was struck by something:

Once Count Lippe ratchets up the stretching table to max (lethal) speed, putting Bond in mortal peril, our hero actually becomes quite panicked... Realizing there's nothing he can do to save himself, he starts yelling desperately for help.

I tried to think of any other instance in the EON franchise when Bond actually screams "Help! Help me!" -- and came up blank.

Is that THUNDERBALL scene the only time this actually happens? Am I forgetting anything?

Comments

  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Great question. :D , I never thought of that before, and think you
    Might be right.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,556
    Interesting notion, James Bond screaming for help. I believe you're right about TB being the only instance, although I'm pretty sure in OHMSS Bond tried to scream for help, but nothing came out.. (where Bond discovers Irma Bunt in bed)

    Bond: "I must be six inches shorter!"
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    QBranch wrote: »
    Bond: "I must be six inches shorter!"

    LOL! =))

    In Octopussy I recall him shouting HEY at a tour group to stop and wait to pick him up but he didn't really say Help.

  • Posts: 11,189
    There's a scene when Bond is trapped on Mount Rushmore and shouts help in desperation to one of the villains...who then tries to stamp on his hand before being shot.

    Is that Bond or am I thinking of a similar movie ;)
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    There's a scene when Bond is trapped on Mount Rushmore and shouts help in desperation to one of the villains...who then tries to stamp on his hand before being shot.

    Is that Bond or am I thinking of a similar movie ;)

    i think you got Bond mixed up with Road House..
  • Bond has had his bacon saved by others on various occasions -- not least at the end of the very same film (THUNDERBALL) -- but I suppose the "rack" sequence in TB really is the one time a truly helpless Bond cries, "Help! Help me!" in abject fear for his life...
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Bond yelled for help when MayDay entered his bed. Or am I projecting?
  • FrozenStalkPuFrozenStalkPu Always on the move- I'm a traveling salesman
    edited December 2014 Posts: 5
    Thunderball is the rare example... but I don't think Bond should be saying either "help" nor "hey". Hey is too classless and common a word. for a BOND Vivant like 007. We come to these movie to be transported away into a world of danger and luxury.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    Well I think that Bond calling for "Help!" on occasion actually makes him more human - it shows he has fear for losing his life like nay other normal human being. Bond should not be presented as a superman (though he often is in the films, of course) but as someone who bleeds when cut or injured. The Connery, Lazenby, Dalton and Craig Bonds have shown this the most of the screen Bonds to varying degrees.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited June 2015 Posts: 23,883
    I only remember the TB incident, although Rog's Bond certainly had the look of 'helplessness' while succumbing to May Day's charms in AVTAK.

    I found the TB scenario unbecoming of the uber-cool SC Bond actually. While it showed his vulnerability in that particular instance, the call for help just seemed a little out of character.......to me.

    I recall Lazenby either calling for help or showing real fear in his eyes while down at the base of the mountain escaping those thugs at the Murren ice rink and when Bunt interrupted his rendezvous with Ruby.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    bondjames wrote: »
    I only remember the TB incident, although Rog's Bond certainly had the look of 'helplessness' while succumbing to May Day's charm in AVTAK.

    I found the TB scenario unbecoming of the uber-cool SC Bond actually. While it showed his vulnerability in that particular instance, the call for help just seemed a little out of character.......to me.

    What else could he realistically have done in that situation though? He had no handy gadget with which to escape the machine or stop it dead in its tracks. I don't myself see how this demeans Bond in any way. In fact, as I said above, it only serves to make him more human and in so doing, highly admirable for all that.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited June 2015 Posts: 23,883
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    I only remember the TB incident, although Rog's Bond certainly had the look of 'helplessness' while succumbing to May Day's charm in AVTAK.

    I found the TB scenario unbecoming of the uber-cool SC Bond actually. While it showed his vulnerability in that particular instance, the call for help just seemed a little out of character.......to me.

    What else could he realistically have done in that situation though? He had no handy gadget with which to escape the machine or stop it dead in its tracks. I don't myself see how this demeans Bond in any way. In fact, as I said above, it only serves to make him more human and in so doing, highly admirable for all that.

    Totally agree. Certainly it made him more human. It's just that it seemed a little out of character to me for that era's Bond (the call for help, if not the fear). Rog handled it better in his similar trapped encounter in MR imho.
    bond-04-thunderball-05.jpg
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited June 2015 Posts: 18,264
    I do concede however that Bond looks a bit silly in the traction scene in TB but that is the only slight criticism I would utter. I too love the similar scene in MR and especially the way the Moore Bond deals with the matter - no quips, refusing Dr Goodhead's hand etc.
  • Posts: 618
    I never thought that yelling for help in TB in any way "demeaned" Bond... The fact that he has had to do so only once in the course of 23 screen adventures is yet another testament to 007's badassery!

    Somehow I don't think Craig will be yelling for help in SPECTRE...
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    As long as he doesn't run through any more walls (I realize it was just drywall) I'll be ok. Lol. I'll never forget the laugh that got in the theatre..
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    He almost yells for help in OP (circus bomb) and LTK (cocaine grinder), but does not use that word. Would we think less of him if he did?
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    Moore's Bond and Brosnan's Bond weren't the supermen the overall media stereotyped them as. Moore, at least in Moonraker, feared for his life and did show vulnerability during that one particular death trap Drax set it up for him, seeing "some harm could come to him". You could see the helpless facial expressions when flashbacks spark before his eyes, and the exhaustion he's been through after he got out of that vehicle. He could have cracked a joke there like Connery's "six inch tall" line, but he didn't.

    Brosnan also showed a concern for his life during his encounter with Dr. Kauffman, as well as suffering from shoulder injury in TWINE, even not wanting Q to retire soon, because he knows he is going to miss him. Aren't these features humane enough?
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited June 2015 Posts: 23,883
    Moore's Bond and Brosnan's Bond weren't the supermen the overall media stereotyped them as. Moore, at least in Moonraker, feared for his life and did show vulnerability during that one particular death trap Drax set it up for him, seeing "some harm could come to him". You could see the helpless facial expressions when flashbacks spark before his eyes, and the exhaustion he's been through after he got out of that vehicle. He could have cracked a joke there like Connery's "six inch tall" line, but he didn't.

    Brosnan also showed a concern for his life during his encounter with Dr. Kauffman, as well as suffering from shoulder injury in TWINE, even not wanting Q to retire soon, because he knows he is going to miss him. Aren't these features humane enough?

    This is precisely my point. Its the 'help!' itself that I found quite unusual. Thankfully he redeemed himself with the excellent '6 in's taller line', plus, he's uber-macho Connery, so I thought nothing of it. If Brozza had yelled 'help' that would have been it for me.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    bondjames wrote: »
    Moore's Bond and Brosnan's Bond weren't the supermen the overall media stereotyped them as. Moore, at least in Moonraker, feared for his life and did show vulnerability during that one particular death trap Drax set it up for him, seeing "some harm could come to him". You could see the helpless facial expressions when flashbacks spark before his eyes, and the exhaustion he's been through after he got out of that vehicle. He could have cracked a joke there like Connery's "six inch tall" line, but he didn't.

    Brosnan also showed a concern for his life during his encounter with Dr. Kauffman, as well as suffering from shoulder injury in TWINE, even not wanting Q to retire soon, because he knows he is going to miss him. Aren't these features humane enough?

    This is precisely my point. Its the 'help!' itself that I found quite unusual. Thankfully he redeemed himself with the excellent '6 in's taller line', plus, he's uber-macho Connery, so I thought nothing of it. If Brozza had yelled 'help' that would have been it for me.
    But, he didn't. Because he's Bond. ;)
  • Posts: 15,106
    CraterGuns wrote: »
    Bond has had his bacon saved by others on various occasions -- not least at the end of the very same film (THUNDERBALL) -- but I suppose the "rack" sequence in TB really is the one time a truly helpless Bond cries, "Help! Help me!" in abject fear for his life...

    It shows that Bond is far from invincible in TB. I really enjoyed how he is put in a tight spot in such a simple way.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I really enjoyed how he is put in a tight spot in such a simple way.
    I would've never been strapped to the damn thing. It's a BS therapy and an accident waiting to happen. But it *did* get Bond laid....

    :)>-
  • Posts: 15,106
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I really enjoyed how he is put in a tight spot in such a simple way.
    I would've never been strapped to the damn thing. It's a BS therapy and an accident waiting to happen. But it *did* get Bond laid....

    :)>-

    Might be what he was ready to do it.
  • mcdonbbmcdonbb deep in the Heart of Texas
    Posts: 4,116
    He had to yell over the machine and loud enough to be heard. Yelling help sounds the most effective action.

    I work as a healthcare administrator ..if we have an aide in immediate danger the protocol is to yell. ..
  • mcdonbbmcdonbb deep in the Heart of Texas
    Posts: 4,116
    He had to yell over the machine and loud enough to be heard. Yelling help sounds the most effective action.

    I work as a healthcare administrator ..if we have an aide in immediate danger the protocol is to yell. ..
  • Posts: 2,341
    HASEROT wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    There's a scene when Bond is trapped on Mount Rushmore and shouts help in desperation to one of the villains...who then tries to stamp on his hand before being shot.

    Is that Bond or am I thinking of a similar movie ;)

    i think you got Bond mixed up with Road House..

    You both are wrong. that scene was Cary Grant begging from help from the henchman Martin Landau in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest. "
  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    Posts: 4,582
    Well, he didn't "yell" for help in SF, but he sure said, "Q, I need help" when escaping with M.
Sign In or Register to comment.