Scientist debunks a few of the wackiest plot strains in James Bond movies
From deadly laser beams to girls lined in gold paint, the James Bond movies certainly embrace a few of the most spectacular set items in trendy cinema.
But usually, even die-hard Bond followers are left questioning if the varied stunts and plot strains within the beloved blockbusters are based mostly in actuality.
Thankfully, a brand new e book lastly separates the scientifically correct from the completely fantastical.
Dr Kathryn Harkup, a British chemist and creator, has studied all 25 James Bond movies made by Eon Productions, ranging from 1962’s ‘Dr No’ as much as 2021’s ‘No Time to Die‘.
In the e book, she debunks a few of the weirdest and wackiest set items involving the fictional spy, whereas others are, she says, are surprisingly scientifically sound.
From being reduce by lasers and electrocuted by headphones, a chemist reveals whether or not plot strains in James Bond movies are literally scientifically sound
SUFFOCATION BY GOLD PAINT
Surely probably the most memorable scenes in the entire James Bond franchise is available in ‘Goldfinger’ (1964).
In a Florida lodge, Bond (performed by Sean Connery) finds the lifeless physique of Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) who has been coated from head to toe in gold paint.
In the next scene, Bond explains to his superior M at MI6 that people suffocate if the physique is painted until ‘you permit a small naked patch on the base of the backbone to permit the pores and skin to breathe’.
But as Dr Harkup reveals, regardless of assumptions from Bond followers, this isn’t scientifically correct in any respect.
In precise truth, solely about 2 per cent of the physique’s oxygen provide is absorbed by means of the pores and skin – so blocking it with paint would not cease us from respiratory.
The solely method we might suffocate from paint is that if it obstructed our main respiratory pathways – the mouth and the nostril.
Dr Harkup says: ‘The picture of Masterson’s gold physique mendacity on the lodge mattress has develop into ingrained in widespread tradition and the concept of being killed by pores and skin suffocation has develop into accepted as truth, although it’s nonsense.’
More than 40 years later, the scene was recreated within the 2008 Bond movie ‘Quantum of Solace’ starring Daniel Craig.
In ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), Bond (performed by Sean Connery) finds the lifeless physique of Jill Masterson (performed by Shirley Eaton) – who has been suffocated by having her pores and skin painted gold
Dr Kathryn Harkup tackles all 25 Bond movies in her new e book, Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech within the World of James Bond
In a nod to the unique scene, Bond finds MI6 agent and love curiosity Strawberry Fields lifeless and lined in crude oil.
However, contemplating the character was drowned within the oil relatively than simply being lined in it, this scene is extra credible.
DEATHLY LASERS
Later in Goldfinger, Bond wakes as much as discover himself strapped to a desk by the movie’s eponymous villain, performed by Gert Fröbe.
Goldfinger flicks a change and a vivid purple laser beam begins advancing in the direction of Bond’s crotch.
As Goldfinger explains, his ‘industrial laser’ that emits ‘a rare mild to not be present in nature’ is ready to ‘challenge a spot on the moon or at nearer vary reduce by means of strong steel’.
As Dr Harkup factors out, the laser ought to make brief work of slicing by means of a undercover agent and would have ‘began its bisection at probably the most delicate components of Bond’s anatomy’ earlier than ultimately reaching his very important organs.
While it is true that lasers can reduce by means of flesh and steel, it would not have seemed just like the purple one coming from the villain’s contraption.
James Bond (Sean Connery) has been captured by Auric Goldfinger, who has arrange a gold laser beam inching in the direction of 007’s crotch
In truth, it ought to have been infrared mild, which is invisible to the human eye, however then it would not have been seen to cinema-goers.
‘The purple mild from Goldfinger’s laser can be virtually fully mirrored by the steel and it does not have the facility to chop by means of Bond’s physique both,’ the skilled says.
BULLET IN THE HEAD
When we’re launched to villain Renard (Robert Carlyle) in ‘The World is Not Enough’ (1999), he has a bullet lodged in his mind.
However, he is nonetheless alive, and aside from a nasty scar the one facet impact appears to be the lack of his main senses – contact, scent and ache.
As the MI6 physician explains, the bullet remains to be shifting – albeit very slowly – by means of the a part of the mind known as the medulla oblongata, killing off the senses.
She says: ‘He can push himself more durable, longer than any regular man. The bullet will kill him, however he’ll develop stronger day-after-day till the day he dies.’
So is that this even in any respect potential?
In ‘The World is Not Enough’ (1999), the villain Renard (Robert Carlyle) has a bullet lodged in his mind
In a nutshell, no.
Dr Harkup calls this ‘an enormous exaggeration for the good thing about the fantasy world of 007’.
Aside from the truth that bullets haven’t any purpose to develop into lodged in comfortable tissue, they ‘don’t bore neat little tunnels’ within the mind as proven within the movie.
What’s extra, the bullet’s path of destruction would end in extra than simply diminished senses, comparable to ‘dramatic modifications in character’.
‘Damage will likely be intensive and prone to knock out a number of different essential features together with any areas concerned in ache notion,’ Dr Harkup says.
HEADPHONE ELECTROCUTION
Near the beginning of ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981), MI6 sends a helicopter to select up 007 (Roger Moore) for an emergency mission.
Unfortunately, the headphones of the pilot have been rigged by the evil Blofeld to ship a deadly electrical shock so he can sabotage the plane.
Although the shock is delivered with cartoon-blue electrical flashes, that is one thing of a ‘credible electrocution’, based on Dr Harkup.
Blofeld might simply have tampered with the pilot’s headphones, exposing a couple of wires and connecting them to a high-voltage provide, she explains.
Electrocution by means of headphones? It might occur, albeit with out the cartoon-blue electrical flashes as seen in ‘For Your Eyes Only’
‘The route between the 2 earpieces would take the present by means of the mind, the place it might disrupt nerve alerts controlling respiratory and trigger unconsciousness, even when it did not kill the unlucky pilot instantly.’
What’s extra, in the actual world there have been a number of tragic reviews of individuals being electrocuted by their headphones whereas they have been plugged right into a charging telephone, considered on account of defective gear.
CROCODILE RUN
‘Live and Let Die’ (1973) incorporates a campy however memorable sequence that is pretty attribute of the Roger Moore period.
In the Deep South, Bond is left to be eaten by crocodiles, however our hero escapes by operating alongside the animals’ backs to security.
This actually is feasible – though Dr Harkup does not advocate it.
Astonishingly, the stunt was carried out with actual crocodiles – not by Moore, however by crocodile farm proprietor and stunt man Ross Kananga, a self-confessed croc wrestler.
The scene required 5 takes, together with one the place a croc snapped at Kananga’s heel, tearing his trousers and inflicting a number of accidents (considered one of which required 193 stitches).
‘One of them rotated whipped his head round and truly bit the heel of his shoe,’ Moore later recalled.
‘If it had been me it will have been my entire leg.’
As Dr Harkup factors out, ‘seemingly inconceivable eventualities’ like this may be dropped at life by the experience and collaborative efforts of filmmakers – to not point out courageous stuntmen.
In ‘Live and Let Die’, Bond is left to be eaten by crocodiles, however our hero escapes by operating alongside the animals’ backs to security
NANOBOTS
The newest Bond movie, ‘No Time to Die’, was accomplished simply earlier than the Covid pandemic, but a key ingredient of the plot is eerily just like the lethal coronavirus.
MI6 is secretly engaged on the final word organic weapon – tiny programmable gadgets known as ‘nanobots’ the dimensions of a purple blood cell, invisible to the bare eye.
The nanobots might be programmed to recognise DNA profiles of choose people, or teams of people with the identical genetic profiles, and kill them.
As a consequence, individuals contaminated with the nanobots are unable to hug and even contact their relations with out killing them.
Pictured, the nanobots in ‘No Time to Die’, which go away contaminated individuals unable to hug their relations with out killing them
Fortunately, these nasty little bots don’t exist in actual life and are unlikely to exist anytime quickly, based on the chemist.
Aside from the nanobots being unable to move by means of pores and skin to contaminate somebody, they’re prone to be bodily degraded upon coming into the physique.
What’s extra, assembling gadgets which might be fairly so small, both by human employees or an automatic course of, can be past at the moment’s technological capabilities.
Dr Kathryn Harkup tackles scenes from all 25 Bond movies in her new e book, ‘Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech within the World of James Bond’, which has been printed in paperback by Bloomsbury
