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!)

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The PPK was used by the German police in the fifties and sixties but has been replaced by a Walther P5 (also used by both Moore and Connery in respectively Octopussy and Never Say Never Again) and a Heckler and Koch.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


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:

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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