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What will Bond be doing in 2040?
Darius
UK
Bond 32, if the franchise still exists, could possibly be screening around 2040. According to the latest extrapolations, there should be around eight and a half billion people in the world by then – about one and a half billion more than there are today. Skimming though all the latest prophesies of doom and gloom as far as the environment is concerned, it is predicted that the Arctic ice cap will be all gone by 2040, which might mean a rise in sea levels of up to 23 feet (7m) if the ice around Greenland follows suit. This will effectively remove a large chunk of usable land area, which will mean severe overcrowding in most existing urban areas.
So, this is the sort of world that James Bond of the year 2040 might be living in. With land area at a premium, it’s likely that he will be living in a world where many countries are invading others to secure more space, and this might well lead to several armed conflicts. I doubt whether anyone will be crazy enough to press the nuke button, but I daresay the threat will be there. There’s likely to be shortages of food, which may well lead to civil wars and all this will certainly lead to massive social problems within communities.
All things remaining the same, it’s also likely that there will be worldwide energy shortages as oil reserves dwindle to dangerously low levels (even the most optimistic forecasts say that oil production will peak no later than 2025), and this is also likely to cause countries to fight bitter wars over what little oil there is left.
All this means that Bond will likely as not be working to protect Britain’s interests abroad by undermining the schemes of countries who have their eyes on British assets, and this might mean oil, food, energy generation and good old-fashioned land. It may well be that Bond will be fighting to preserve power alliances with other countries – alliances that rival countries may be seeking to sunder. The chances are that with the desperate need to discover economical sustainable energy sources, a new Energy Cold War might happen, with Bond going back to his fifties Cold War roots. However, this time the warring factions may well be powerful energy companies, rather than governments.
Who knows what Bond will be doing? These are just speculations, but as Arthur C. Clarke said, “The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
So what do you think our benefactor will be up to twenty-five years hence?
So, this is the sort of world that James Bond of the year 2040 might be living in. With land area at a premium, it’s likely that he will be living in a world where many countries are invading others to secure more space, and this might well lead to several armed conflicts. I doubt whether anyone will be crazy enough to press the nuke button, but I daresay the threat will be there. There’s likely to be shortages of food, which may well lead to civil wars and all this will certainly lead to massive social problems within communities.
All things remaining the same, it’s also likely that there will be worldwide energy shortages as oil reserves dwindle to dangerously low levels (even the most optimistic forecasts say that oil production will peak no later than 2025), and this is also likely to cause countries to fight bitter wars over what little oil there is left.
All this means that Bond will likely as not be working to protect Britain’s interests abroad by undermining the schemes of countries who have their eyes on British assets, and this might mean oil, food, energy generation and good old-fashioned land. It may well be that Bond will be fighting to preserve power alliances with other countries – alliances that rival countries may be seeking to sunder. The chances are that with the desperate need to discover economical sustainable energy sources, a new Energy Cold War might happen, with Bond going back to his fifties Cold War roots. However, this time the warring factions may well be powerful energy companies, rather than governments.
Who knows what Bond will be doing? These are just speculations, but as Arthur C. Clarke said, “The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
So what do you think our benefactor will be up to twenty-five years hence?
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Comments
Bond 32 will be a cross-over story with Star Trek.
Commander Bond has to join the first manned warp-speed mission together with Zefram Cochrane, because some strange metallic sphere is about to enter earth's orbit...
oh...not? ok... ;)
It will probably be some story about the war for resources that will already have been going on since 2030. Some megalomaniac industrial zillionaire is trying to get rid of the British government, or what's left of it. The parliament has long been replaced by technocrats who are only serving the few left multi-billion corporations.
MI6 being one of the few left relatively independent organizations tries to destroy the villains plan for total domination of the UK.
Kidding aside, I suspect that there will be a point where real technology becomes so advanced that making the movies contemporary just won't feel like 'Bond'.
There will likely come a point when Bond movies are just set in the 60's, so he can continue to drink, smoke and have plenty of sex like he should!
we can never really say about such a thing
True. I may die in a car accident or something.
Oh Dear! Unfortunately they are still quite young.
The thought.... 8-X
Planning the Daniel Craig retirement party. :-)
or even worse who knows
You twisted fools.
Haha
However, our benefactor is not mortal, and if that is to remain the status quo, it's important that we look to the future to try and see what major challenges may await for our hero. Don't let's forget that Bond was and is intended as a panacea for modern ills -- the things that frighten us all. In the sixties and seventies it was the Cold War and the potential threat of corporate globalisation, so Bond fights the good fight against the Soviets and the Red Chinese (OP, FRWL & DN [thinly veiled], YOLT). In other movies, it was the notion of criminals controlling vast amounts of wealth (GF, MR). Other movies dealt with the (then perceived) threat of corporate globalisation and how multi-national corporations could well be evil (TB, YOLT, DAF etc.).
Now, we can see that the Cold War, as it was, is over; the Soviet Union is no more and corporate globalisation didn't turn the world into one that is dominated by corporations seen in such movies as Rollerball and Alien (although, looking around, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine when one considers the political lobbying power of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Exxon-Mobil etc.).
The threats today are those of "the enemy within" -- religious fanatics that walk among us all unseen and unknowable until they strike, by which time it's too late. This gives rise to movies like QoS and SP that have as their main plot driver large organisations that exist in society but are unseen even to the intelligence community. Okay, so EON have wisely steered clear of the notion of Jihadist threat, but it's there simmering underneath -- the bogeyman in all our closets.
So what of the future? With ever dwindling resources and a burgeoning population, there will certainly be much conflict around natural resources and energy. My own view is that the notion of corporate globalisation has not gone away. At the present, governments do not have direct control of energy -- they can regulate those who do, but that's all. With this resource becoming scarcer as demand steadily increases, this is going to become increasingly difficult until energy companies gain such a stranglehold on governments, that the roles may well reverse, giving rise to energy mega-corporations born of amalgamation and merger (the last rats standing). This will shake democracy to its roots, if not uproot it altogether.
My view is that Bond should be fighting this. He is our Superman, our knight in shining armour. In 2040, my bet is that he will be fighting for democratic rights against the onslaught of commercial energy imperialism.
2040 is only 25 years away good people!
I sure hope most here will live to see that day. What is 55 or 65 years of age in these days when people get older and older.
Bond will undoubtably still be around.
So will Star Trek or DC comics characters (and Marvels...I guess :P )
Think of it, if a new actor joins the franchise in 2020 then by 2040 there might just be 2 other actors that have played Bond maybe a third just starting.
Even Barbara Broccoli could still have the say in the franchise then. She will hit 80 in 2040. Or at least she will still "overlook" the franchise.
Every Bond film would be improved if it was set in the 50/60's. Bond went bad when the seventies hit. The best thing for it now is to live in the 50/60's forever. Best Bond era.
That's why I'd like to go back to period Bond.
Correct, if EON is smart, after Craig Bond will live in the 50/60's forever.
@Mendes4Lyfe
Don't forget that a period Bond would not have the mass commercial appeal of a "present day" Bond. Such movies probably wouldn't stack up commercially due to the high expense of producing period pieces verses the lack of commercial sponsorships etc.
Let's also not forget that Bond has (and always has had) a social function, and that is to address modern fears and insecurities. Would not sending him back to the fifties or sixties be tantamount to burying our heads in the sand?
So long as I get a film every two years or so, and Bond continues to be British, saving the World and doing things only a Bond film can, then I'll be happy. I'll be old, but I'll be happy.
Hey I'm 47 now ...it's not THAT bad ....trust me
And I agree with @Gerald about the scary state of the world in 2040. I fear for my kids when all of the terrorist factions get their hands on small tactical nuclear devices they can put in a back pack and drop off in the center of a major city, and they will do it because they can. Sorry if it is a downer thought, but it's pretty logical to me. So I guess I hope the Bond franchise still exists, cause it kind of says something optimistic about the world in 2040.
Wait 'till you hit 55 like me! Dive rolls hurt a bit more & kicking high ain't all that easy without a pre-stretch. :(
Pshh. Roger Moore did all that just fine at 55. All that you need's a like-haired stuntman, no stretching required. ;)