What do you think?
Rate this book
The Science of James Bond: The Super-Villains, Tech, and Spy-Craft Behind the Film and Fiction
Spy-Fi Culture with a License to Kill
From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, James Bond is the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. Out-grossing Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the world’s most iconic and international secret agent has a shelf life of almost six decades, from Dr. No to Spectre. As nuclear missile threats are replaced by a series of subtler threats in a globalized and digital world, Bond is with us still.
In The Science of James Bond, we recognize the Bond franchise as a unique genre: spy-fi. A genre of film and fiction that fuses spy fiction with science fiction. We look at Bond’s obsessions with super-villains, the future, and world domination or destruction. And we take a peek under the hood of trends in science and tech, often in the form of gadgets and spy devices in chapters such as:
Goldfinger: Man Has Achieved Miracles in All Fields but Crime!
You Only Live Twice: The Race to Conquer Space
Live and Let Die: Full Throttle: Bond and the Car
Skyfall: The Science of Cyberterrorism
And more!
This is the only James Bond companion that looks at the film and fiction in such a spy-fi way, taking in weapon wizards, the chemistry of death, threads of nuclear paranoia, and Bond baddies’ obsession with the master race!
From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, James Bond is the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. Out-grossing Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the world’s most iconic and international secret agent has a shelf life of almost six decades, from Dr. No to Spectre. As nuclear missile threats are replaced by a series of subtler threats in a globalized and digital world, Bond is with us still.
In The Science of James Bond, we recognize the Bond franchise as a unique genre: spy-fi. A genre of film and fiction that fuses spy fiction with science fiction. We look at Bond’s obsessions with super-villains, the future, and world domination or destruction. And we take a peek under the hood of trends in science and tech, often in the form of gadgets and spy devices in chapters such as:
Goldfinger: Man Has Achieved Miracles in All Fields but Crime!
You Only Live Twice: The Race to Conquer Space
Live and Let Die: Full Throttle: Bond and the Car
Skyfall: The Science of Cyberterrorism
And more!
This is the only James Bond companion that looks at the film and fiction in such a spy-fi way, taking in weapon wizards, the chemistry of death, threads of nuclear paranoia, and Bond baddies’ obsession with the master race!
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2020
11 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 24, 2022
A pleasant diversion for someone who's been a James Bond fan since "From Russia With Love" first came out.* It runs through the series film-by-film, focusing on the spy tech (or "spy-fi" as Brake calls it, a term he may or may not have coined to define the nexus of spy and science fictions) and villains - who aside from Q, seem to generally be the guys wielding the tech.
The book also includes nice summaries of each film in terms of box office, budget, body counts, etc. And so while production budgets were overall fairly predictable - "Dr. No" the lowest at just $1 million, and 2015's "Spectre" the highest at $230-300 million (which seems a rather inexact range) - it wasn't a steady progression: "You Only Live Twice" was the first film to cost more than $10m, but then it didn't hit eight digits again until "Spy Who Loved Me" five films later ($14m); and then more than doubled for the next film, "Moonraker" ($34m)…the whole thing would probably make an interesting (if uber-nerdy) bar chart.
However, unlike the overall rise in budgets, body counts were all over the place. Most films produced casualties in the 30-70 range, while "Dr. No" and "Live and Let Die" came in with a measly dozen each, and - surprisingly - "Golden Gun" gave us just a measly six murders; just what kind of assassin was he?? On the high end, "Spy Who Loved Me" had 147; "YOLT" had 196 and "Spectre" clocked in at 235 - so apparently those expensive evil lairs are also death traps. (While this book came out before the Craig's final "No Time to Die," a quick Google search shows that this film comes in a disappointing third place with just 155.)
One other fact that jumped out - to me at least - is that while Connery, Brosnan and Craig tended to go up against Cold War superpowers or evil organizations like SMERSH, Quantum or Spectre, Roger Moore seemed to spend most of his time battling bored Elon Musk-type billionaires like Mr. Big, Karl Stromberg, Hugo Drax and Max Zorin, (although Brosnan's Elliot Carver falls firmly on this list as well - and is probably the most Muskian of them all).
Brake provides a lot of interesting and factual background in the "this movie was a response to the oil crisis" or "this was a result of the early space race" vein, although in other places he keeps his tongue at least loosely in cheek. My favorite comment in the whole book is:
"Felix Leiter was a regular feature in Bond films, played by a rather confusing number of different actors; making one wonder whether Bond's faculties as an agent failed to include that of face recognition."
Anyway, a nice easy listen if you're among those for whom James Bond represents one of the few constants throughout our LOONNG lives.
_________________________________
* I can still remember going to Bond triple features with my sister at any of several drive-in theaters at the time; I also remember how, as some of the Connery movies were December releases, we went to at least a couple of them after opening our presents on Christmas - back when you just bought a ticket and walked in on the movie...whenever, and then when it ended you just sat through it again to make sense of the plot. Good times!!
The book also includes nice summaries of each film in terms of box office, budget, body counts, etc. And so while production budgets were overall fairly predictable - "Dr. No" the lowest at just $1 million, and 2015's "Spectre" the highest at $230-300 million (which seems a rather inexact range) - it wasn't a steady progression: "You Only Live Twice" was the first film to cost more than $10m, but then it didn't hit eight digits again until "Spy Who Loved Me" five films later ($14m); and then more than doubled for the next film, "Moonraker" ($34m)…the whole thing would probably make an interesting (if uber-nerdy) bar chart.
However, unlike the overall rise in budgets, body counts were all over the place. Most films produced casualties in the 30-70 range, while "Dr. No" and "Live and Let Die" came in with a measly dozen each, and - surprisingly - "Golden Gun" gave us just a measly six murders; just what kind of assassin was he?? On the high end, "Spy Who Loved Me" had 147; "YOLT" had 196 and "Spectre" clocked in at 235 - so apparently those expensive evil lairs are also death traps. (While this book came out before the Craig's final "No Time to Die," a quick Google search shows that this film comes in a disappointing third place with just 155.)
One other fact that jumped out - to me at least - is that while Connery, Brosnan and Craig tended to go up against Cold War superpowers or evil organizations like SMERSH, Quantum or Spectre, Roger Moore seemed to spend most of his time battling bored Elon Musk-type billionaires like Mr. Big, Karl Stromberg, Hugo Drax and Max Zorin, (although Brosnan's Elliot Carver falls firmly on this list as well - and is probably the most Muskian of them all).
Brake provides a lot of interesting and factual background in the "this movie was a response to the oil crisis" or "this was a result of the early space race" vein, although in other places he keeps his tongue at least loosely in cheek. My favorite comment in the whole book is:
"Felix Leiter was a regular feature in Bond films, played by a rather confusing number of different actors; making one wonder whether Bond's faculties as an agent failed to include that of face recognition."
Anyway, a nice easy listen if you're among those for whom James Bond represents one of the few constants throughout our LOONNG lives.
_________________________________
* I can still remember going to Bond triple features with my sister at any of several drive-in theaters at the time; I also remember how, as some of the Connery movies were December releases, we went to at least a couple of them after opening our presents on Christmas - back when you just bought a ticket and walked in on the movie...whenever, and then when it ended you just sat through it again to make sense of the plot. Good times!!
April 18, 2022
An interesting and enjoyable book.
James Bond is a huge franchise if you think about it. It has existed for a long time, with a whole lot of movies, tie-ins and merchandise in a only loosely connected world. This is a novel that explores what the movies kind of are, what they are in the context of their time and how this relate to the Spy-Fantasy (spy-fi) genre.
And truth be told it did quite a good job a that. I especially liked the sections on the various gadgets Bond uses and the different types of villains he fought through the ages. I also though it quite interesting that the various movies very much reflected the era in wish the were made. I didn't know that everything from the tone, amount of humor, type of villain and political outlook at that time all had their influences on the eventual movies.
In all this was a book I'd recommend to people who like James Bond, but aren't superfans who already know everything there is to know about him.
James Bond is a huge franchise if you think about it. It has existed for a long time, with a whole lot of movies, tie-ins and merchandise in a only loosely connected world. This is a novel that explores what the movies kind of are, what they are in the context of their time and how this relate to the Spy-Fantasy (spy-fi) genre.
And truth be told it did quite a good job a that. I especially liked the sections on the various gadgets Bond uses and the different types of villains he fought through the ages. I also though it quite interesting that the various movies very much reflected the era in wish the were made. I didn't know that everything from the tone, amount of humor, type of villain and political outlook at that time all had their influences on the eventual movies.
In all this was a book I'd recommend to people who like James Bond, but aren't superfans who already know everything there is to know about him.
September 19, 2022
Not bad, but more of a philosophy of tech and its meaning in society than an examination of science and gadgets.
I have read all the books, but haven't watched all the moves, though I think I have seen all that were made since I was a teen. This is much more focused on the movies, but I found that interesting and informative. I hadn't realized how financially successful they had been, nor that one man was did most of the directing up until the 80s.
I have read all the books, but haven't watched all the moves, though I think I have seen all that were made since I was a teen. This is much more focused on the movies, but I found that interesting and informative. I hadn't realized how financially successful they had been, nor that one man was did most of the directing up until the 80s.
March 19, 2022
Not recommended. The author uses James Bond movies as a platform for / an excuse of his political preaching. Good old James deserves better than this.
March 31, 2024
**Really about a 2.75**
This is not really a book about the science of James Bond so much as a retrospective on the James Bond movies, their societal impact, and how they relate to the times they were made.
I was disappointed because of the lack of science. I enjoyed learning about the various Bond movies. The narrator (audiobook) was good and prefect for providing the information with the appropriate amount of emotion to keep an otherwis dry narrative.
This is not really a book about the science of James Bond so much as a retrospective on the James Bond movies, their societal impact, and how they relate to the times they were made.
I was disappointed because of the lack of science. I enjoyed learning about the various Bond movies. The narrator (audiobook) was good and prefect for providing the information with the appropriate amount of emotion to keep an otherwis dry narrative.
September 6, 2024
Interesting but not quite what I was hoping for. That said I did learn a bunch about the movies I didn't previously know.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews