James Bond's Longest Day
Napoleon Plural
LondonPosts: 10,274MI6 Agent
Not Connery in the film of that name, but in a movie released around the same time- Dr No, which launched a whole new spy franchise.
Now, in the scene that introduces our hero, he is playing at his gentlemen's club. It is later established in a meeting with M that it is 3 in the morning. 'When do you sleep, 007' M asks. 'Never on the company's time,' comes the reply. Okay, so assuming that he had a day in the office before, that means he got in a 9am and has been up since then.
Except, when he gets back to his flat and meets Miss Trench, it's established he is booked on the next available flight, in a couple of hours, right? So no sleep still. How long is a flight to Jamaica back then? Enough time for a kip? Except this is the jet set age, so Bond would have been excited and looked out the window, marvelling at the clouds....
Okay, just Googled it so it's 12 hour flight. In fairness enough time to get some kip, just as well, because after that he meets the bogus taxi driver, has a meeting with the ambassador, visits Strangways' office - perhaps the 3 blind assassins are passing in the background because in passing themselves off as blind, the ambled down the wrong lane and had to find their way back again in the intervening 20 hours...
Doesn't he meet Prof Dent the same day too? It seems the first time he gets any shut eye, a bloody great spider joins him in bed!
Anyway, admittedly the kip on the flight over nixes this theory, but otherwise surely this must be the longest day Bond has had on screen without a decent kip! I suppose it tells you I'm middle aged when I'm more concerned about that than the fact he doesn't have time to shag Sylvia Trench!
Now, in the scene that introduces our hero, he is playing at his gentlemen's club. It is later established in a meeting with M that it is 3 in the morning. 'When do you sleep, 007' M asks. 'Never on the company's time,' comes the reply. Okay, so assuming that he had a day in the office before, that means he got in a 9am and has been up since then.
Except, when he gets back to his flat and meets Miss Trench, it's established he is booked on the next available flight, in a couple of hours, right? So no sleep still. How long is a flight to Jamaica back then? Enough time for a kip? Except this is the jet set age, so Bond would have been excited and looked out the window, marvelling at the clouds....
Okay, just Googled it so it's 12 hour flight. In fairness enough time to get some kip, just as well, because after that he meets the bogus taxi driver, has a meeting with the ambassador, visits Strangways' office - perhaps the 3 blind assassins are passing in the background because in passing themselves off as blind, the ambled down the wrong lane and had to find their way back again in the intervening 20 hours...
Doesn't he meet Prof Dent the same day too? It seems the first time he gets any shut eye, a bloody great spider joins him in bed!
Anyway, admittedly the kip on the flight over nixes this theory, but otherwise surely this must be the longest day Bond has had on screen without a decent kip! I suppose it tells you I'm middle aged when I'm more concerned about that than the fact he doesn't have time to shag Sylvia Trench!
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
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I mean, in Thunderball, after leaving the clinic he is followed by a Cadillac driver carrying a snub-nosed revolver, only to be saved by the motorcycle lady. He then goes to the office, off to the meeting, changes to a brown suit (with his missing hat), goes to the Bahamas (roughly 9 hours 30 minutes or 10 taking into account delays etc.) and goes snorkling. He then goes for a quick bite with Domino, then off to a casino/dinner. Still. A very long day.
In Live and Let Die, he is woken up at roughly 3 in the morning (just like Dr No) after presumably shagging, meets with M, shags her again, goes to the first flight in the morning to York (roughly 8 hours), goes to New York with his short lived driver, goes to the Oh Cult shop, follows the gangsters around and goes to Harlem. In Harlem he meets Mr Big, quick fight, and then away from where the real action is. He then goes to the island, wants to have a shower but he's interrupted by a snake and a rat (metaphorically used, I mean the woman and no, it's not racist, she's a rat).
A very long day in itself but when he meets Solitaire in her home, they shag twice and then they go fully cocked, sneaking around the island with a quick chase and by boat to somewhere where it is faster to go to New Orleans.
Some very long days that I could think of now. Bond in Berlin and in Kamal Khan's palace in Octopussy, along with the Kentucky/Swiss section in Goldfinger are also big contenders.
I'm sure Bond got enough hours on both those planes to get him going.
Plus the excitement of a new mission (and the fact that he had just done it with Miss Caruso in LALD) would have given him enough energy to keep going.
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
One of the elements I love about DN and several of the early Bonds is that it often does take place in rather short time spans. Bond often goes thru a lot in just one day.
also in Casino Royale, the Body Worlds exhibit must be open well after midnight, considering he flew to get there after picking up a chick in a casino in another country, then the unveiling of the world's largest plane is scheduled to happen even later than that, I'm surprised the sun hasn't risen by then
Let's say that he picked Solange up at 9:05 with their night ending at 9:35. Plenty of time for the Greek guy to talk to Le Chiffre and catch a flight to Miami. Bond hears that and goes after him. They catch the 10:00 flight and go to Miami at about 11:00. The exhibition should still be open so it sort of makes sense. Mind you, I haven't seen CR in a while, so I don't exactly remember the time.
maybe because I'm a geographer so everything I see is information, even if I've seen it before?
Bond is trained to observe so I'm sure he too looks out the window when he travels
that said if he was flying at night there'd be nothing to see, and he probably has a dossier he's supposed to be reading
Hmmm, I don't know about that. Rowing out to sea from the Ama village to the volcano sea cave, swimming, trekking up the volcano, scaling down the SPECTRE base on suction cups, immobilizing enemy personnel, joining in the Ninja raid, then that final, frantic swim away from the exploding SPECTRE base...perhaps that respite in Blofeld's lair was the most downtime he got during that plus-24 hour period so I wouldn't say "he wasn't moving all the time," and he didn't even get to finish his cigarette! If anything, comparing this last day of the YOLT assignment with the rundown of events you spelled out above re: TB and LALD, those were a walk in the park.
I assume he took some breaks with Kissy while climbing up the mountain, sat on the slow monorail for a bit, immobilised two guards, sat from 1:38-1:43 film time (an eternity in film land), had a small fight while having his cigarette break 1:43:50ish to 1:44:10ish (short), walked a small distance from 1:44:ish to 1:48 where he joined the ninja raid (slow, and still presumable a long period). Frantically dodging bullets he went to the alternate entrance after he dispatched a couple of henchmen, was beaten up a bit by Hans and then destroyed the capsule in space which probably lifted a huge weight off of his shoulders. He then ran and swam to safety and had a moment with Kissy.
All things considered, I admit that it was quite a day for 007 but he still get a tiny bit of rest, at least give me that.
The Spy Who Loved Me also had a long day but not nearly as long as this one.
A View To A Kill (after the firetruck chase) also was a long day and the day after the wedding in LTK was also long (with the investigation etc but nothing that OO7 couldn't do).
In TWINE, during the Body Double sequence, isn't that also quite bloody long? I mean, Casino>Shagging Elektra (a feat in itself
In DAD, after shagging Chilli Frostie, he goes for a sub-zero swim, confronts the villain, escapes, drives, surfs, Aston chase etc.
In QoS, after Greene's party (or even before that when Bond drank OO7 Vespers, possible insomnia) he sees his friend die, drives all night for a plane, has a dog-fight-esque fight with another plane, parachutes out, goes out of the underground thing, walks a long way through the desert to a bus, goes to his hotel, meets M, sees another friend dead, has an elevator fight and presumably on the same night he meets Felix where he just barely scrapes by a SWAT-esque team.
I think that is just about the lot.
In the book they do, there's a whole subplot about a bird sanctuary and missing biologists that got left out of the film. It's more of a detective story, Bond is looking for these missing biologists, and Honey, who knows the ecology of the island, leads Bond to the nesting site of the birds, which I believe has been reduced to scorched earth. Bond now has evidence to bring the proper authorities to the island and is ready to leave when they are captured. That is what keeps them busy all day, but its left out of the film, thus dusk seems to come unexpectedly soon.
I mean, he didn't need to dual wield an MP5 and a P99 but he did it anyway.
His pants must've been a bit browner after the skyscraper escape so he loses a couple of points there.
I'm going to be 50 this year. I did a two-week trip to China a month ago where I averaged about four hours a sleep a night. We walked, rode, or flew to multiple destinations each day, sat in on lectures, gave presentations, and moved at the relentlessly fast pace of crowded cities like Beijing and Shanghai. We rarely had down time during the day, so I didn't take naps. I returned for a week to continue a full summer teaching load and then flew off to the AP reading to score student essays. All day long, we read them and then at night went out to the bars and restaurants. Again, I averaged about four hours a sleep a night. I'm now back teaching and have managed dates and mini-vacations. A short story of mine just got published, and I'm working on another. What I'm saying is that the body can handle quite a bit when the mind and spirit are fueled. Sure, when things slow down, a lot of catch up rest may be required, but I'd imagine an alpha alpha male like Bond could trundle along with little effort given his hedonistic lifestyle. The books in particular point out that Bond gets great enthusiasm from his professional pursuits.
Surely this is a contender?
Hence, why he persuades Wai-Lin to bathe in the street after dispatching the heli...and which is why Wai-Lin picks her cuff to get away from him!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Three points: I read somewhere that 20 mins good deep sleep can at times help a person stay awake and actively functional for 6 hours. I've tried it. It works, but not every time.
Exercise doesn't tire a person, but invigorates them. All that sex Bond has on these long days can be very useful.
Personally, even given Fleming's contrary evidence, I always assumed Bond tries to rest / sleep on every commercial flight he takes.