Authors: Roger Moore
Bond On Bond (13 page)
A couple of years on, and Seiko were still supplying 007 with their latest watch. It was waterproof.
Sometimes the Bond baddies have gadgets too. In
The Man With The Golden Gun
it came in the shape of … yes, you’ve guessed it, a golden gun. The gun comprised everyday items such as a pen, a cufflink and a cigarette case.
The original, made by Pinewood Effects engineer Bert Luxford.
One of the laser guns we used in our space-fight finale in
Moonraker
.
A handy wrist dart gun, as described by Q in
Moonraker
. Another ‘must’ for Christmas.
Bond was issued with a new gun in
Tomorrow Never Dies
, a Walther P99, which he kept for the next few adventures.
Everything for the traveller abroad – Q’s deadly travel kit includes an alarm clock (guaranteed never to awaken the user) and Dentonite toothpaste, the latest in plastic explosive.
In
Dr. No
Jimmy was hauled in to M’s office, where we learned he had carried a Beretta for ten years but, on one assignment, the said pistol – with the suppressor attached – snagged in his waistband. He was hospitalized for six months.
Boothroyd recommended the Walther PPK 7.65 mm as being the best choice for an automatic, with ammunition available everywhere. In thanks to Boothroyd, Fleming later called his armourer Major Boothroyd.
The Walther PPK was presented to Jim in
Dr. No
and was said to have an impact like ‘a brick through a plate-glass window’. I used a PPK in all my films, though it fell out of favour with the real Secret Service when, on 20 March 1974, an attempt was made to kidnap HRH Princess Anne. The police officer protecting the princess was carrying a Walther PPK and it jammed. The gun was subsequently withdrawn from use.
In the Pierce Brosnan films the PPK was updated with a Walther P99, but they reverted to a PPK again with Daniel Craig in
Quantum Of Solace
. Whenever I had to fire the PPK, I used to anticipate the ‘bang’ and blink. The director would call for us to go again, because I often blinked and winced several seconds before I pulled the trigger. Such a coward.
A rocket-firing plaster cast. Only Q could come up with such a novelty!
A new Ericsson mobile phone did everything from remotely driving a car to … making a phone call in
Tomorrow Never Dies
.
Desmond Llewelyn posing as a car rental salesman at Hamburg Airport in
Tomorrow Never Dies
. He had a hard time persuading Pierce Brosnan’s Jimmy Bond to take out accident insurance!
The first real Bond gadget was of course the attaché case in
From Russia With Love
. It contained:
A
N
AR
-7 .22 SURVIVAL RIFLE WITH INFRARED TELESCOPE 50
G
OLD
S
OVEREIGNS
A
TEAR GAS CANISTER DISGUISED AS TALCUM POWDER
A
MMUNITION FOR RIFLE
A
THROWING KNIFE
But should you ever find yourself issued with one, be sure to turn the catches the correct way when opening, or else the tear gas canister will explode in your face.
Terence Young and Peter Hunt decided to have a bit of fun with this element of the case when some United Artists executives were visiting Pinewood. They ran the first couple of reels of the movie, and when it reached the scene where Bond opens the attaché case, Peter cut to the huge explosion from the end of
Dr. No
and ran the closing titles. The End.
Although he and Terence collapsed in hysterics, the UA execs were not particularly amused. But that was the type of fun you could have on a Bond movie.
In
Goldfinger
a brilliant set of homing beacons was presented to Jim. The first, larger, one was attached to the villain’s vehicle and its early GPS-type technology used to locate his Swiss base. The second, smaller one, concealed in Jim’s shoe, allowed MI6 to track him. It really was a prototype of GPS as we know it today – and very useful for the likes of jealous wives.
Q came up with some jolly ideas in
Thunderball
– the first time he was sent on location, incidentally, but Desmond couldn’t sun himself in the Bahamas for continuity reasons – including the Bell Rocket Belt, which was used to propel Bond into the air when escaping Jacques Bouvar; then there was the Underwater Jet Pack used during the final undersea battle. Most usefully, there was an underwater camera capable of taking eight shots in darkness using an infrared film. We take that sort of thing for granted these days, but back then it was revolutionary.