GUNS
& GADGETS
HIS
GUNS (FOR THE REALLY ANAL FAN)
Fleming always went to great
lengths in the books to describe Bond's guns. He did this to add a sense of realism
to the stories (not to earn financing, like the movies do).
The movie Bond's
fans don't worry about that sort of stuff - they just want a gun to be shaped
like a camera or a cigarette. This is the type of thing that only works
in films, because if you read "Bond's cigarette shot the guard cleanly in the
head," it sounds a bit ridiculous.
Here is a general list of Bond's firearms.
See if you can understand any of it. Personally, I'd skip down to the "gadgets"
section below - it's more fun:
In both the literary and film version of Dr.
No, Bond was advised to replace his Beretta .25 with a Walther because the
former lacked stopping power and was more a 'ladies gun'. Moreover the Walther
is double-action and can be carried safely with a cartridge in the chamber, which
enables to carry it ready-to-fire. (I've been told in reality it's not advisable
suggest to carry a Beretta .25 ready-to-fire; it's pretty unsafe!)
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Bond
now packs a German made Walther PPK self-loading pistol, caliber 7.65 millimeter
/ .32 ACP. It fires seven rounds and the safety guard also decocks the weapon.
The weapon can be fieldstripped by taking down the trigger guard, racking the
slide and then taking the slide and spring off (forwards). Bond has a blued version
and the magazine has an extension on which the little finger rests. (Older PPK's
did not have this extension).
The PPK was used by the German police in the
fifties and sixties but has been replaced by a Walther P5 (also used by both Moore
and Connery in respectively Octopussy and Never Say Never Again)
and a Heckler and Koch. The Walther he carries is the movie Octopussy is
the very exotic P-5 which would have been a good replacement for the PPK.
It
doesn't have the extended round magazine so popular today, but that would probably
be preferable to 007 as his accuracy with all weapons would out weigh the need
for extended fire power. Not at the cost of conceilability and balance anyway.
A favorite choice concerning Bond's weapon among gun enthusiasts is a Sig
P230 stainless in .380 ACP. It is a fine, extremely accurate weapon but still
easy to hide under a jacket. And with all of the wires, talons, mouse traps and
explosive cigarettes Bond has to carry, he needs the room...
GADGETS
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In discussing Bond's gadgets,
one has to make a distinction between the tools of the literary Bond and the tools
of the film Bond:
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BOOK
GADGETS
Fleming
tried to give Bond legitimate spy tools to perform his missions, or at least tools
that seemed possible. In 1962, Fleming admitted to the New York Herald Tribune
that: "My good friend Allen Dulles (the chief of the CIA) tried out two or three
of the technical gadgets in my books in CIA laboratories, and they didn't work."
It should also be noted that Fleming mentioned this to show the inadequacies of
the CIA, not his gadgets (he was proven right; Dulles had his technicians attempt
to follow a car by radar in the pursuer's dashboard, as in Goldfinger, and although
they were unsuccessful, it is a common surveilance technique now).
MOVIE
GADGETS:
The cinematic Bond uses and discards gadgets like
the Bond of the books does his cigarettes. Assuming that Bond wears a full array
of gadgets on any particular mission, he is outfitted like this at all times while
in the field:
? Walther pistol.
? Briefcase with tear gas, knives, rifle,
exploding aftershave, and gold coins (From Russia With Love).
? Transmitter
in the heel of his shoe, ear muffs for listening to the Beatles (Goldfinger).
? Jet pack, a 5 minute re-breather, a homing device he swallows, a geiger counter
clock (Thunderball).
? Pocket safe cracker that displays safe combinations
when placed over the lock, and cigarettes that shoot exploding darts (You Only
Live Twice).
? Spare kilt, a metal ruler, an eraser and paper clip (that's
all they gave him for On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- radioactive lint
was rejected by M before the mission).
? Various wire mousetraps on his body
in case he's searched, a gun that shoots cables and darts to scale buildings (Diamonds
Are Forever).
? Magnetic watch that doubles as a buzz saw, and special
rubber soles on his dress shoes to run across the backs of six crocodiles (Live
and Let Die).
? Supercilious papilla, or third nipple -- frustrated male
Bond fans had to stare at Roger Moore's three nipples and yet couldn't see one
of Maud Adams' or Britt Ekland's (The Man With the Golden Gun).
? Ticker-tape
spewing watch, a ski pole/rifle (The Spy Who Loved Me).
? Dart-shooting
wrist pack -- that in reality would've killed everyone he shook hands with (Moonraker).
? Radio watch (For Your Eyes Only).
? Acid-filled pen and a video watch
(Octopussy).
? Cigarette case bomb with gyroscope (actually it IS just
a cigarette case, but he uses it anyway), a laser watch and rocket pen (Never
Say Never Again - how many watches can one man wear at any single time?).
? Device that reads the pages beneath what people have written on -- perhaps he
should have used it to find better ideas in earlier drafts of the script (A
View To a Kill).
? Exploding, tear gas expelling key chain, a tuxedo with
velcro lapels for assassinating in the dark (The Living Daylights).
? Explosive toothpaste and cigarettes, a laser-firing polaroid camera, an exploding
alarm clock, and a signature gun camera (Licence To Kill).
? Another
laser watch (they're past the elbow by this point), and a ballpoint pen that doubles
as a hand grenade (GoldenEye).
? Remote control for his car (Tomorrow
Never Dies).
? Piton-shooting wristwatch, X-Ray specs (The World Is
Not Enough).
Try fitting all that under a Brioni suit...
REAL
GADGETS
It should also be noted that Bond has permeated all
of modern spying and surveilance, in fact many of items created in the novels
and films were marketed and sold soon after. Even the most mundane of modern spy
paraphernalia is given a Bondian spin - for instance, there's Datatek's Intimus
007S - a paper shredder (for some really disgusting gadgets, read about the real
"Q" in the Universal Exports chapter.
During the
mid-eighties New York entrepeneur Stuart Fields opened the Counter-Spy Shop, featuring
items like bulletproof jockstraps, homing devices disguised as hearing aids, cars
that emit teargas, spray oil slicks, and secret weapons compartments. There is
even a newer version of Bond's attache case in From Russia With Love - only this
one sends 47,000 volts of electricity if you open it wrong. Gone are the days
when Bond fans could only buy a lunchbox to remind them of the movies...
TOP PHOTO: Fleming with Geoffrey Boothroyd, who advised him on Bond's choice of personal weapon. The character Major Boothroyd ("Q" in the films) is named after him.
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