James Bond

James Bond, also known as 007 (pronounced "double-oh seven"), is a fictional British spy introduced by writer Ian Fleming in 1953. Fleming wrote numerous novels and short stories based upon the character and, after his death in 1964, further literary adventures were written by Kingsley Amis, John Pearson, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, and Charlie Higson; in addition, Christopher Wood wrote two screenplay novelizations and other authors have also written various unofficial permutations of the character.

Vehicles & gadgets

Exotic espionage equipment and vehicles are very popular elements of James Bond's literary and cinematic missions; these items often prove critically important to Bond removing obstacles to the success of his missions.

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Fleming's novels and early screen adaptations presented minimal equipment such as From Russia With Love's booby-trapped attaché case; in Dr. No, Bond's sole gadgets were a geiger counter and a wristwatch with a luminous (and radioactive!) face. The gadgets, however, assumed a higher, spectacular profile in the 1964 film Goldfinger; its success encouraged further espionage equipment from Q Branch to be supplied to 007. Some films, in the opinion of many critics and fans, have had excessive amounts of gadgets or extremely outlandish gadgets and vehicles, specifically 1979's science fiction-oriented Moonraker and 2002's Die Another Day in which Bond's Aston Martin could cloak itself. Since Moonraker subsequent productions struggled with balancing gadget content against the story's capacities, without implying a technology-dependent man, to mixed results.

Related Topics:
Attaché case - Geiger counter - Radioactive - Science fiction - Cloak

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Bond's most famous car is the silver grey Aston Martin DB5 seen in Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, and Tomorrow Never Dies. In Fleming's books, Bond has a penchant for "battleship grey" Bentleys, while Gardner awarded the agent a modified Saab 900 Turbo nicknamed the Silver Beast.

Related Topics:
Aston Martin DB5 - Bentley - Saab 900 - Silver Beast

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