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What and when was your first experience of 007 ?

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  • tigers99tigers99
    Posts: 582
    My first experience - I used to buy Nintendo Official Magazine every month and they had a big spread in their Aug 1997 issue about the upcoming GoldenEye game. It all looked very exciting, and there was a list of all the Bond films with which actor played Bond. Shortly after I caught a trailer on ITV for You Only Live Twice. I thought I'd check out this James Bond guy, and from watching YOLT I became a Bond fan. I was 11 at the time. I would watch Bond films whenever they were on ITV and eventually bought GoldenEye on VHS in January 1998 with some Christmas money. I watched that film so many times. I still have that VHS and the quality of the tape is now horrendous because I watched it constantly.

    I started collecting them on VHS, and taping them off the TV starting with The Living Daylights in May 1998 when my dad suggested that I tape it to keep it. Didn't get them all until DVD arrived, and then between October 2000 and January 2002 I got them all on DVD.
  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    My first dealing with 007 came a young ‘un when, one bank holiday afternoon in the early 80’s, 1982 to be exact, Boxing Day. I remember the television being on and a movie called “Moonraker” was announced to be coming on. The title alone had my attention so I sat down, few leftovers from Christmas Day and watched it. Back then I was 9 years old and I absolutely loved it, I don’t know a youngster who wouldn’t have loved it. I didn’t actually know until a couple of hours later that there were other James Bond movies but after telling mum I it she, she said something along the lines of “oh god, bloody James Bond” (in a jokey manner I might add) and told me there were others. After that, my 1980’s days follow a similar path to that of Mark O’Connell, of @CatchingBullets fame. I’ve read his book a few times now and it really is a trip down memory lane for me. So, yeah, I had dusty VHS tapes etc. with Bond movies on and used to watch them on a top loading video recorder. My first movie at the cinema was The Living Daylights when I was 14.

    The rest, as they say, is history.
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    edited November 2015 Posts: 1,731
    I was given a Corgi (brand name of car-replicas) white Lotus Esprit (TSWLM) which I found under our Christmas tree when I was about 5 years old. Had no awareness of James Bond, but it was a favorite toy of mine for a long while - it 'converted' to the submarine car, very cool :D

    I think the first time I became aware of Bond was when I caught a glimpse of Roger Moore hanging over the underground shark-pool (LALD) on tv when I was around the same age, must have been 5 or 6 at the time...
  • JNOJNO Finland
    Posts: 137
    Around late eighties, early nineties. Octopussy, The Living Daylights were the first ones.I was about eight or nine years old. Then the finnish TV broadcasted all the early Bonds, maybe up to TSWLM or MR in 1990 0r 1991. Very shortly after that I discovered the books, comics, magazines... and bought my first VHS-copies.

    My first Bond experience in cinema was Goldeneye in 1995. I wasn´t so impressed but I was extremely glad to see our man of secret service back in business...

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Somebody needs to count how many people became Bond fans because of GoldenEye on the N64. It's like some sort of Bond black hole, drawing people into the fandom.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Agent007391 wrote: »
    Somebody needs to count how many people became Bond fans because of GoldenEye on the N64. It's like some sort of Bond black hole, drawing people into the fandom.

    It is like asparagus making you like vegetables.
  • Mathis1Mathis1
    Posts: 7,430
    GF on television, and OP in Cinema! And I've seen every Bond movie since in the same cinema, same screen! But I remember quite well the first tv showing of LALD (highest audience figure for a movie premiere in Great Britain, and unbeaten to this day I believe?)
  • Perilagu_KhanPerilagu_Khan
    Posts: 2,483
    Shark_0f_Largo wrote: »
    My first dealing with 007 came a young ‘un when, one bank holiday afternoon in the early 80’s, 1982 to be exact, Boxing Day. I remember the television being on and a movie called “Moonraker” was announced to be coming on. The title alone had my attention so I sat down, few leftovers from Christmas Day and watched it. Back then I was 9 years old and I absolutely loved it, I don’t know a youngster who wouldn’t have loved it. I didn’t actually know until a couple of hours later that there were other James Bond movies but after telling mum I it she, she said something along the lines of “oh god, bloody James Bond” (in a jokey manner I might add) and told me there were others. After that, my 1980’s days follow a similar path to that of Mark O’Connell, of @CatchingBullets fame. I’ve read his book a few times now and it really is a trip down memory lane for me. So, yeah, I had dusty VHS tapes etc. with Bond movies on and used to watch them on a top loading video recorder. My first movie at the cinema was The Living Daylights when I was 14.

    The rest, as they say, is history.

    MR was the first Bond I saw in the theater. I was 12 at the time. Still a fun and beautiful film after all these years.

  • renno61renno61
    Posts: 157
    For me it was Diamonds are Forever with my father , not sure of the film age ratings then but somehow I was allowed in .To a youngsters it was a eye opener in more ways than one and I've been to see plenty more
  • SkyfallCraigSkyfallCraig Rome, Italy
    Posts: 630
    i was 9 I think. Every sunday morning, after lunch and before going to the match (Lazio fan here), my grandfather watched with me VHS. We started with Dr No
  • TubesTubes The Hebrew Hammer
    Posts: 158
    I remember doing this at the old place. Lets see how much I can remember.

    GoldenEye 007 came out of the N64 at the end of August 1997. At some point between then and November I first experienced it at my friends house. I remember distinctly declining a motorcycle ride with my father to play that instead. He wasn't terribly happy about that. One of those weird turning points in life.

    After experiencing GoldenEye and talking nonstop about it, my parents took me to see Tomorrow Never Dies in cinemas at the ripe age of 8. The pre-title sequence at the arms bazaar left a major impression on me, as did Teri Hatcher's underwear and Carver's bloodless demise via sea-drill. For a while, the cinemas was the only place I would watch a Brosnan film, as I wouldn't own one on home video for another 4 years.

    Birthday 1998 brought me two Bond films on VHS, Goldfinger and Thunderball. Purchased by my father, who was and still is a Connery purist. He begrudgingly respects Roger Moore, but thinks of him only as Simon Templar. Never asked him about the others. I watched Thunderball so much I wore the tape out. Leading both films was the famous teaser to GoldenEye and the equally important Bond Collection VHS trailer.



    In addition, I was gifted my first two Bond CD's, the 30th Anniversary disc with all the title themes (and Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and the soundtrack to Tomorrow Never Dies. I annoyed everyone in the household by listening to one or the other every night. I was usually out once From Russia With Love (the 12th track) played. Later that year came Moonraker on VHS, my first Moore film and a movie I still have a certain fondness for. Watched it as often as the Connery films.

    Between 1998 and 2001, I caught the majority of the other Bond films on VHS or cable TV. There were a few that I constantly missed, notably the impossible to find On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I remember seeing Never Say Never Again at rental stores, but never actually seeing it. The one noteworthy viewing I remember was renting A View To A Kill in 1999. I remember it mainly because my grandfather died on Halloween and I watched it on his old TV in his living room after his funeral.

    In that period, my Bond VHS collection expanded greatly. New arrivals were Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Diamonds Are Forever, A View To A Kill, and The World Is Not Enough. 2002 brought the first batch of Bond DVD's, a collection that would eventually be completed two years later. The last VHS tape I bought was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which was also the first Internet purchase our family ever made. Worth the wait, as I doubt my 9 year old self would appreciate the movie as much.

    That's where the interesting stuff stops, really. Watched every Bond release post 1997 in cinemas, with multiple trips for the Craig films. Own all of them on DVD up until Quantum Of Solace, with both revisions of the Casino Royale DVD's and Never Say Never Again. Skipped the Ultimate Edition releases (didn't see them as enough of an upgrade) and haven't had the cash to get the Blu-Ray's yet.
  • sunsanvilsunsanvil Somewhere in Canada....somewhere.
    Posts: 260
    My history with the films is somewhat different from others my age, me being in my mid 40s now. In my teens, in the mid 1980s, my family was overseas living in a country which only recently got its independence and still had a strong colonial influence. In particular the movie theaters were still the gargantuan monsters, built probably in the 60s, with names like "The 20th Century", or "The National". Seating was still assigned with no less than 3 different price points in the stalls (main floor), and two in the balcony (price determined by distance to screen). Yes that's right, I said "Balcony". Back then they still started with the national anthem, a newsreel, and even an animated short, before the feature. To give you a sense of size, later that decade the balcony was renovated into two small theaters, the main floor converted into retail store space.

    Movies notoriously came at least a year later than the rest of the world and seem to hang around for a long time, even spilling over to one of a couple massive drive-ins for a sort of second or extended run.

    As fate would have it, more than once during those years, James Bond "films-festivals" came round the circuit. Net result, my introduction to 007 was to see all the films, in release order at a rate of about one per week, on the big screen, the REALLY big screen! And not just once, but several times.

    I remember looking at the posters outside, and then the lobby cards inside. The anticipation!

    Seeing those Maurice Binder and Robert Brownjohn titles for the first time....I was enchanted! Back then they played trailers after the feature, in this case advertising next week's Bond. What a show.

    30+ years later it is difficult, even on the most technically proficient home theater hardware, to reproduce that experience...
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    Posts: 1,731
    Agent007391 wrote: »
    Somebody needs to count how many people became Bond fans because of GoldenEye on the N64. It's like some sort of Bond black hole, drawing people into the fandom.

    Not really that curious, actually. I expanded on this a while back in another thread (the 'What was your 1st Bondfilm in the cinema?' one I think...) - but it makes sense if you htink about it:

    *Six year hiatus - creates a vacuum, ready to 'Bond-athise' a new generation.
    *Lots of media savvy kids & teens by mid 90's, who were perfect audience for GE hyper agressive PR
    * More access to cinema screens, easy Video rental, cable & sattelite tv etc. by 1995 compared to late 80's
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,718
    My parents bought me a N64 for Christmas in 1998, and one of the games that came with it was 'GE 007'. I loved it, played it endlessly for months until I found out there were 19 films featuring this James Bond fella as the main character. The rest is history.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    sunsanvil wrote: »
    Seeing those Maurice Binder and Robert Brownjohn titles for the first time....I was enchanted! Back then they played trailers after the feature, in this case advertising next week's Bond. What a show.

    That sounds great!
  • TubesTubes The Hebrew Hammer
    Posts: 158
    AceHole wrote: »
    Agent007391 wrote: »
    Somebody needs to count how many people became Bond fans because of GoldenEye on the N64. It's like some sort of Bond black hole, drawing people into the fandom.

    Not really that curious, actually. I expanded on this a while back in another thread (the 'What was your 1st Bondfilm in the cinema?' one I think...) - but it makes sense if you htink about it:

    *Six year hiatus - creates a vacuum, ready to 'Bond-athise' a new generation.
    *Lots of media savvy kids & teens by mid 90's, who were perfect audience for GE hyper agressive PR
    * More access to cinema screens, easy Video rental, cable & sattelite tv etc. by 1995 compared to late 80's

    The other side of the coin is a lot of people who use discussion boards like this were right in that age group as well. The sample size is skewed, so to speak. A lot of 20 somethings on the internet with experience in the Brosnan era and Bond video games. The real fun is going to be where the new Bond fans of the Craig era got their start.
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    Posts: 1,731
    Tubes wrote: »
    AceHole wrote: »
    Agent007391 wrote: »
    Somebody needs to cCount how many people became Bond fans because of GoldenEye on the N64. It's like some sort of Bond black hole, drawing people into the fandom.

    Not really that curious, actually. I expanded on this a while back in another thread (the 'What was your 1st Bondfilm in the cinema?' one I think...) - but it makes sense if you htink about it:

    *Six year hiatus - creates a vacuum, ready to 'Bond-athise' a new generation.
    *Lots of media savvy kids & teens by mid 90's, who were perfect audience for GE hyper agressive PR
    * More access to cinema screens, easy Video rental, cable & sattelite tv etc. by 1995 compared to late 80's

    The other side of the coin is a lot of people who use discussion boards like this were right in that age group as well. The sample size is skewed, so to speak. A lot of 20 somethings on the internet with experience in the Brosnan era and Bond video games. The real fun is going to be where the new Bond fans of the Craig era got their start.

    Well yes, this was also included in my original answer on that older thread - along with the fact that it has quite simply been around longer than any of the other 'modern', post 80's Bonds, hence increasing the chance that anyone in a certain age group on this forum will have seen GE before any of it's successors... didn't really have the energy to write the whole thing up again, tbh :>
  • josiahjosiah
    Posts: 1,386
    My father used to watch the 60s Connery Bond movies at night after my parents sent me to bed. I would regularly try to sneak downstairs to see what he was watching ever since the night I heard that iconic theme from Dr. No. There was something very alluring about that to my 6 yr. old mind--just that tune (you know the one). I got busted on several occasions trying to sneak down to see what the adults were watching. And then one night from atop the landing with binoculars I got a good look at my first scene from a Bond film and it was "From Russia with Love". The shot was of a cramped train compartment. At the left of the frame was a tall broad man with blonde hair, expertly fitting a second pistol with a silencer while he kept his own gun & watchful gaze on another man on his knees in front of him. This other man was completely unarmed and at the mercy of the first. I soon learned this man's name was "James Bond" when the blonde man said it with great disdain. Instantly, I was hooked as I craned my neck to get a better view of the screen as I watched this "James Bond" for whom I'd grown very concerned. I gave a sigh of relief as Bond outsmarted his opponent & gained the upper hand. A deadly and ferocious battle ensued and I was throwing my fists along with them, mimicking Bond's blows as best I could. I got too excited and made just enough noise to get busted. A couple years later the regular James Bond marathon that plays in the U.S. on TNT or SPIKE tv every November was on at my Grandpa's so my Dad, Grandpa, & my uncles and male cousins and I kicked back and watched several from Connery and Roger Moore. The first Bond movie I saw in its entirety was Goldfinger. I was signed up for an N64 newsletter and I remember getting several pieces of promotional material for this new game "Goldeneye": character portraits and descriptions all contained in these pamphlets that looked like very official spy manilla envelopes with "Top Secret" & "Classified" stamped on top. I remember eagerly rushing home from the post office to paw through the material. I got the game for Christmas and I was ecstatic! When my Dad came upstairs one day to find me shooting defenseless scientists in the backsides & groin & cackling, he confiscated the game and sold it. I think I bought the game 2 or 3 more times and had it confiscated again and again because I could not get enough of it! The first Bond movie I saw in theaters was Casino Royale with my Dad and I absolutely loved it! I've been obsessed since age 6.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Bumping this for new memebers.
  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    edited August 2020 Posts: 3,497
    Around 1993 I first saw a Bondmovie on television. It was TMWTGG...

  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    Posts: 5,970
    I used to watch them all the time as a kid, and Casino Royale was my first cinema experience with Bond which solidified me as a true fan. I was only 10 when CR came out lol :D
  • OctopussyOctopussy Piz Gloria, Schilthorn, Switzerland.
    edited August 2020 Posts: 1,081
    My father used to have all the Bond films recorded on VHS and as a young child I used to watch them. My first exposure to Bond was The Spy Who Loved Me and Goldfinger on those tapes in my living room. I remember growing up wanting to be Roger Moore and felt that he was the absolute epitome of Bond. My first experience of Bond in the cinema was of course a Brosnan film, as I was born in '91 and I think it was Tomorrow Never Dies, although my friends and I would play Goldeneye on Nintendo 64 every weekend without fail.
  • ThunderballThunderball playing Chemin de Fer in a casino, downing Vespers
    edited August 2020 Posts: 814
    Goldeneye is to Bond films as Kind of Blue is to jazz. So many people got their start, their first taste with them. I was one of those. I remember seeing the trailer for GE in theaters back in ‘95 (I was sixteen). It looked insanely cool, and from what very little I knew about the film series then (I knew really nothing), this seemed like quintessential James Bond.
    I saw the film that November, really liked it, then soon I sought out the earlier ones with Connery. That solidified my fandom. I thought he, meaning Connery’s Bond, was the coolest motherf*cker I ever saw.

    @Denbigh way to make me feel old. I was 27 when CR, my favorite Bond film, was released. :))
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    Posts: 5,970
    Thunderball wrote: »
    @Denbigh way to make me feel old. I was 27 when CR, my favorite Bond film, was released. 😂
    Haha my apologies, I don't even know how I got into the cinema be honest :D
  • DeathToSpies84DeathToSpies84 Newton-le-Willows, England
    edited September 2020 Posts: 257
    I think my first introduction to 007 was when I was 11 and watched The Living Daylights on VHS. Part of me loved the training exercise gone wrong during the PTS, as well as the Aston Martin V8. But it was GoldenEye that really got me hooked. I remember watching it on a flight back from the Caribbean in March 96 and enjoying every moment.

    Now fast forward 24 years later and a recent binge watch of all the films in one week has made me appreciate them again after being let down by Spectre.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    edited September 2020 Posts: 4,636
    GoldenEye 007 and The World is Not Enough for N64, overall.
  • DrunkIrishPoetDrunkIrishPoet The Amber Coast
    Posts: 156
    I grew up in olden days, watching Sean Connery's Bond pictures on prime-time network television with my dad. I didn't understand the opening bit: we iris out into what appears to be Bond's POV, spying on some thuggish-looking Mafioso via a telescopic sight, or maybe it's an SLR camera. The thug turns and shoots, apparently hitting us right between the eyes as blood now washes across the lens. What the heck?? Who is this shooter? And who is the victim, as it couldn't be Bond??

    "We're looking through a rifle barrel," my dad explained, "and I think the shooter is supposed to be James Bond. He got us before we got him."

    I wasn't so sure: "Then where does the blood come from? Did he shoot us in the shoulder? That's not very good shooting." Kind of confusing, to a kid.

    So I paid closer attention to the opening bit the next time one of those movies was on TV, and I'll be darned but that guy strolling into rifle range did appear to be Sean Connery after all. Huh! Not sure how I missed that in Goldfinger, but--whatever, man. And on second thought, for Bond, armed with only a pistol, turning and drawing and shooting on the move like a cowboy, to take out a sniper with a single shot to the shoulder, making him drop his rifle... well, that's actually some pretty great shooting, and nothing to sneer at.



    My first Bond at the cinema was The Man with the Golden Gun. I hadn't seen Live and Let Die yet because it hadn't come to TV yet, but I knew there was a new guy playing Bond. I swore I would not hold anything against him and I tried my best to get into the movie but I couldn't follow the plot and nothing about it made much sense. My old man and I exited the cinema scratching our heads and asking, "what the hell was that??"

    When I finally saw Live and Let Die on TV I couldn't decide if it was worse than Golden Gun, or only equally as bad. At least the character of JW Pepper now made sense, which was helpful. I about gave up on Bond at that point, but thank goodness a few years later The Spy Who Loved Me came out and saved the series.
  • RoadphillRoadphill United Kingdom
    Posts: 984
    My first experience was my parents renting AVTAK on VHS in 1986. From then on every time a Bond film was on TV, I would watch it and record it, until I had copies of them all up to LTK by the time I was 10!

    Simpler times.
  • Matt519007Matt519007
    Posts: 6
    January 1999. A snowy Friday night, I was 12 years old and my dad rented tomorrow never dies vhs. I was really only into sports at that point and didn’t know a thing about Bond aside from overhearing classmates talk about the goldeneye n64 game. Well we start watching and just from seeing the pre titles bazaar sequence I was immediately hooked for life. Over the next two months we watched 2 to 3 bond movies a week and even though we’re all adults now we still get back together and attend opening weekend together.
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    Posts: 17,756
    My first movie experience of 007 was probably around the age of 9, watching the (then) complete set of films on VHS over a two week period. I remember watching TMWTGG first, quickly followed by TB.

    But before watching any Bond films, I had already read a few John McLusky comic strips, and played the GE video game.
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