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List of Bond pop culture references lost on modern audiences

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  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited November 2021 Posts: 16,502
    Gerard wrote: »
    Another reference/joke that has not (to my knowledge) been put here : In TWINE, John Cleese, playing R, is seen trying to avoid obstacles in Q's laboratory in a way that recalls the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus. Definitely intentional, that one.

    I'm not sure he would do that as a reference specifically, it's more he's got a style of physical performance. And I'm not really seeing him do anything particularly like that there anyway.
    Gerard wrote: »
    I wonder how many outside of France (or even inside, for what I know) caught the symbolisme of Lea Seydoux's character name, Madeleine Swann. So, to explain : Swann is a character in the cycle A la Recherche du Temps perdu, by french writer Marcel Proust. The first novel of the cycle, Du Côté de chez Swann begins famously by the narrator eating a madeleine, whose taste evokes his memories of his earlier days.

    Yes, I've seen that mentioned before (perhaps by yourself); I think you're bob on with that.

    I must admit it took me a while to figure out that the daughter of Mr White is called Ms Swan!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,299
    Venutius wrote: »
    Fess up, didn't you sometimes want Cleese to fawn and scrape around M like Fawlty did with Sybil and get exasperated with Brosnan like Basil did with his guests? Or give him one last chance and then find a branch and give Brozza a damn good thrashing?

    Well, it is Q Branch after all. It's expected.
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    Posts: 1,083
    I still don't understand "one standard issue ring finger".

    Should it have been "one standard issue finger ring?"
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,154
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Well, it is Q Branch after all.
    Arf! :D
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    Posts: 1,731
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    Fess up, didn't you sometimes want Cleese to fawn and scrape around M like Fawlty did with Sybil and get exasperated with Brosnan like Basil did with his guests? Or give him one last chance and then find a branch and give Brozza a damn good thrashing?

    Well, it is Q Branch after all. It's expected.

    007: ‘When I pay for a view to a kill, I expect something more interesting than that.’

    Q: ‘Well may I ask what you expected to see out of an MI:6 office window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically…’

    :D
  • JimjambondJimjambond
    Posts: 328
    The title credits to the BBC show A very British Scandal blatantly rips off Dr No's title sequence.
  • cwl007cwl007 England
    Posts: 611
    You Only Live Twice. Tanaka says to Bond "that cigarette will save your life" to which Bond replies " you sound like a commercial".
    To a modern audience that reply sounds a bit random but in '67 a comment like that mirrored almost exactly what tobacco advertisements were claiming.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,619
    Yes, Camel cigarettes were the choice of 'doctors' back then.
  • cwl007cwl007 England
    Posts: 611
    QBranch wrote: »
    Yes, Camel cigarettes were the choice of 'doctors' back then.

    Yes, what a world! In fact after watching YOLT and clocking that line I googled tobacco advertisements from the 1960's, mind blowing.
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    Posts: 1,711
    mtm wrote: »
    Gerard wrote: »
    Another reference/joke that has not (to my knowledge) been put here : In TWINE, John Cleese, playing R, is seen trying to avoid obstacles in Q's laboratory in a way that recalls the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus. Definitely intentional, that one.

    I'm not sure he would do that as a reference specifically, it's more he's got a style of physical performance. And I'm not really seeing him do anything particularly like that there anyway.

    It's not in the lab. When we walks behind the invisible car, his legs are distorted in a way that resembles a silly walk.

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,502
    Bit of a stretch (ho-ho).
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,154
    We'd've all been better off if Cleese had fetched a branch and given the invisible car a damn good thrashing...
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    edited February 2022 Posts: 1,711
    mtm wrote: »
    Bit of a stretch (ho-ho).

    I thought I was posting in the "Uncanny coincidences made by filmmakers wholly unaware of pop culture" thread! :)) I suppose it's farfetched to imagine that any member of the effects team was aware of Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks character and considered it when creating the "distort John Cleese's legs" shot.
    __________________________________________________________

    EDIT: I was obviously being sarcastic about Q's walk being a coincidence, but it is a funny one that the guy who played "Steed" is a horse expert in AVTAK. But that'd be for another thread.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,502
    Yes okay Prof, you know everything and are never wrong about other peoples' thought processes 8-|
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    edited February 2022 Posts: 1,711
    mtm wrote: »
    Yes okay Prof, you know everything and are never wrong about other peoples' thought processes 8-|

    :)) No, no, my abilities there are pretty typical. If they ever appear to be above average, I would attribute it to the flattering juxtaposition of our comments. ;)
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    DN - Stolen Duke of Wellington portrait

    Speaking of which :

  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    One reference which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been picked : In LTK, the Bond Girl is named Pam Bouvier. Later in the movie, Bond presents her as his secretary, Ms. Kennedy. If you don't know that Jackie Kennedy (later Jackie Onassis)'s maiden name was Jacqueline Bouvier, you wouldn't understand why Pam seems upset by that reference.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    Gerard wrote: »
    One reference which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been picked : In LTK, the Bond Girl is named Pam Bouvier. Later in the movie, Bond presents her as his secretary, Ms. Kennedy. If you don't know that Jackie Kennedy (later Jackie Onassis)'s maiden name was Jacqueline Bouvier, you wouldn't understand why Pam seems upset by that reference.

    I was aware of her maiden name, but never thought of Pams reaction in that way. I took it at face value, Pam not happy at being Bonds secretary, and not the only way around. I will have to remember that, the next time I watch LTK.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but IIRC, after Bond introduced her as "Ms. Kennedy", she says "Ms. Kennedy ? Really ?" Could have been worse, he could have called her Ms. Onassis.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,502
    Yeah I don't think she's upset by the reference (why would she be?), and the question after is just because it seems a bit of an obvious choice by Bond. All in all, not the series' strongest gag :)
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    Maybe, but that's still a reference that can fly over the heads of people who were not alive in the sixties, or failed to learn their history at school (or had history classes that didn't cover the subject). So, I'll leave it there.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,154
    mtm wrote: »
    All in all, not the series' strongest gag :)
    :D
  • 007HallY007HallY
    edited May 2022 Posts: 4,230
    I was actually really surprised that Bond described the Spectre party in NTTD as 'Spectre Bunga Bunga', presumably referencing the joke about former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's alleged sex parties of the same name from around 2010...

    It's a bit like referencing dogging in a Bond film, come to think of it... oddly specific, strangely dated, but kind of funny if you know what it's referring to...
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,854
    Gerard wrote: »
    One reference which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been picked : In LTK, the Bond Girl is named Pam Bouvier. Later in the movie, Bond presents her as his secretary, Ms. Kennedy. If you don't know that Jackie Kennedy (later Jackie Onassis)'s maiden name was Jacqueline Bouvier, you wouldn't understand why Pam seems upset by that reference.

    Definitely deserves mention to make sense of the line and at least part of Pam's reaction, thanks for highlighting this @Gerard.

    Also the Bunga Bunga @007HallY, good to represent here for understanding/memory jogger.


    Bunga Bunga | Official Trailer (2020)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p58_Ep5R4JU

  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    One that's quite obscure nowadays, even if, at the time it happened, it mqde headlines all over the world :

    At the end of TLD, General Pushkin asks for General Koskov to be sent back to Moscow... by the diplomatic mail. This is certainly a reference to the kidnapping of israeli double agent Mordechai Louk by the Egyptian secret service. The poor guy was found in a crate at the Rome airport, bound and gagged and ready to be sent to Egypt for trial. The crate was marked as part of the egyptian embassy's diplomatic mail. And apparently, it wasn't the first time the egyptians had used the same trick.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Louk

    At the time, there were many journalists who likened that to a James Bond plot.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    Now, on to FRWL : Kerim Bey's mistress tries to entices his lover in a bout of afternoon "R & R" while he's working. At first not really in the mood, Kerim Bey ends up accepting the invitation, and mutters "Back to the Salt Mines". Which is certainly a reference to the Siberian salt mines in which people condemned to forced labour by all regimes, from the tsars to the Communists, were forced to work in very harsh conditions.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,005
    And of course, there's that :



    Which I haven't seen anywhere on this thread. And of course, Bond misspoke the line. It's either "A small step for a man" or "A giant leap for mankind", but not "A giant step for mankind".
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,054
    Gerard wrote: »
    And of course, there's that :

    (link removed)
    Which I haven't seen anywhere on this thread. And of course, Bond misspoke the line. It's either "A small step for a man" or "A giant leap for mankind", but not "A giant step for mankind".
    You're too picky, @Gerard. Everyone who saw that film knew what the line was referring to anyway. May be a "character error" on IMDb, but no more than that.
  • CrabKeyCrabKey
    Posts: 2,008
    As usual in a Moore film, no real tension or menace to Bond. But, his line is correct. Without Drax, it most certainly is a giant step for mankind.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,854
    377f1e9818c70163ad51baa50598610028108258.gifv

    In DN, photographer Annabel Chung's action to lick the contacts of the flash bulb for her camera to ensure a strong contact becomes a 20th Century mystery.


    https://pravin73.wixsite.com/camera-sly/single-post/2017/12/04/the-cameras-of-007
    crown_graphic_45_3quarter.jpg


    ad-flashbulb-1962-american-ad-general-electric-12223946.jpg.webp

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