`Bond, James Bond` exhibition opens in Vancouver, Canada this weekend
13-Jun-2004 • Event
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The Vancouver Sun has reported from the opening day of the exhibit housed in Science World.
Leonardo DaVinci is credited with envisioning everything from the helicopter to scuba gear. The art directors on Star Trek can lay claim to the modern mobile flip-phone design, and James Bond -- well, his gadgets have always been visionary, but are they sexy mothers of invention, or
pure fantasy?
A recent exhibition of James Bond gadgetry has put the British super agent and his gadget man Q to the test, and for the most part, 007 should probably think twice before he leaps from his next airplane with a pocket parachute.
"Most of what's here is not the product of science, but an artist's imagination," says Rob Lunde, curator for Vancouver's Science World, the first museum in Canada to show a new collection called Bond. James Bond. The Exhibition.
Featuring two of the Bond cars, the refurbished DB5 from Goldeneye (a clone of the original from Goldfinger) and the road model of the supercharged Jaguar from Die Another Day, the exhibition was put together through the estate of Bond producer Albert Broccoli and Eon Productions, owners of the Bond trademark and copyright.
"This is the first full assembly of the show in North America," says Lunde. "There was a smaller version in Detroit, but only galleries in Britain have been able to get the whole show -- and that's what we have here now."
Lunde says everything included in the exhibition, which runs through to September, is the real deal. Lunde says proof of authenticity can be found in the lack of car keys. The machines were placed on dollies and lowered on to the floor.
"A test drive just wasn't included," says Lunde, looking longingly at the champagne-coloured DB5, generally considered Bond's sexiest ride.
The first DB5 could eject baddies from the passenger seat, release an oil slick and tire-puncturing tacks, stop bullets and shred tires.
Most of the functions of that first DB5 were plausible, he says.
"The ejection seat is the one that just wouldn't work. The recoil from the explosive blast would probably destroy the car -- and certainly cause serious injury to the driver."
Yet, amid the original sketches for super villain laboratories, Rosa Klebb's flick-knife sensible shoes and Jaws' metal teeth, there are a handful of items that do work -- some of which inspired real spy gear.
"The rebreather apparatus has become a reality, but it's not a small device -- like he had in the movie. It's rather large. The signature gun is also a real thing. There are guns that need your fingerprint in order
to fire," he says.
Lunde walks over to a different area where a small plane with folded wings sits under glass. "That's the acrostar. It's a real plane that was used for stunt flying. It's very difficult to control, but it can fly."
Another real item that proved difficult to fly was the jet pack used in Thunderball.
"The only thing that didn't really ring true with the jet pack was the way he threw it in the back of his car when he was done. The burners would have been so hot, they would have melted the car."
If Bond has a licence to kill, it's only fair the writers had creative licence to invent whatever gadget James needed to extricate himself from trouble, be it an inflatable ski jacket in case of avalanche or a ski
pole that fired bullets (which could easily be a reality).
Right now, the main problem facing the creative people behind the franchise is computers. With digital graphics, just about anything is possible, but that takes away the main pleasure in watching a Bond movie because they've always been about stunts and gadgets first, sexy
co-stars, evil villains and storyline second.
"The Bond movies demand the "wow!" factor, and right now, that's becoming harder and harder to pull off because we've seen so much already, and people just think -- oh, it's done with computers."
Lunde says he's heard the production team is re-evaluating the use of CGI (computer generated images) in the new movies. And just as well, no one needs to fake it with Bond.
Thanks to `Geoff` for the alert.
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