The twenty-third movie in the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, wallows rather appropriately in the concept of age and modernity, (minor spoilers for the overall plot of the movie follow). What good are physical spies in an era of cybercrime and internet espionage? Are old fashioned models of espionage useful in the modern day? It’s not hard to see the WikiLeaks Scandal in the action of the plot.
In an effort to re-establish Bond as relevant for modern day audiences, one of the most escapist franchises ever make an attempt at realism. In a wonderfully self-referential scene, the reintroduction of Q as a hacker genius drives home Skyfall’s commitment to verisimilitude in a nod to the kitsch of Bond’s past. “What,” he quips, “were you expecting an exploding pen?”
Q’s gifts to Bond — a gun only he can shoot and radio tracking hardware — are scientifically plausible. The human palm print is just as unique as the human fingerprint; keying a gun to the palm print is a logical way to ensure that only one person can shoot it. Radio waves are also used in the tracking of animals. There’s a historical precedent for use of radio technology in military offenses: in World War II, what the Americans called Radio Detection And Ranging (RADAR) played a major part in the Allied victory. These gadgets are practical — they lack the whimsy and outlandishness of some of the earlier Bond technology.
The irony is, of course, that a sizeable portion of the appeal of the Bond franchise comes from those “exploding pens.” Bond technology has always favoured the cool factor over scientific reasoning. His outlandish gadgets are as much a part of his image as his martini order.
Of course, standards of outlandishness change with time. In 1963, calling the office from your car seemed outlandish, but now nearly everyone can do what Sean Connery’s Bond does in From Russia with Love thanks to the invention of the mobile phone. In 2008’s Quantum of Solace, M uses a table that functions as one large tablet computer. The iPad was released in 2010, two years later. Moonraker depicted a space base in 1979; the International Space Station was launched November 20, 1998.
Possibly the single most derided Bond gadget, in 2002’s Die Another Day, is the invisible car. Roger Moore, himself intimately familiar with the more “imaginative” Bond technology, commented that he thought that the movie played too fast-and-loose with reality. “Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!” he scoffed.
In 2006, Duke University researchers created a cloaking device that redirected electromagnetic waves around an object. The waves behave as if they have moved through empty space, and the object was cloaked. Researchers announced recently that the device had been further perfected. The device doesn’t yet work on a visual level, but scientists might be able to use similar principles to bend light waves around objects and hide them from human sight.
Bond movies may not always be realistic at the time of their release, but they have a proven track record in predicting technological advances. Skyfall cut gadgets for realism, but in doing so, missed an opportunity to be ahead of the curve.
