# James Bond Dies in the Opening **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182 "2013-03-17T16:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/21 "2013-03-18T13:40:18Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I also would subscribe to this theory, if there weren’t too many story elements that contradict it. Especially in _Skyfall_, where his past is directly addressed. It’s very slightly tongue-in-cheek, like the theory that _Gilligan’s Island_ started with a failed drug buy. You could explain away most of the contradictions as cover stories, or as applying only to the individual JBs. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/22 "2013-03-18T13:52:39Z")
_The Dread Pirate James Bond … ask about YOUR franchise!_ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/23 "2013-03-18T14:55:17Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Because the audience is curious what the catch will be. Obviously, we know Bond isn’t dead, but so what? _Because_ Bond isn’t dead, there is clearly something we aren’t being told yet. What is it? > > We know James Bond won’t really die at the end of the movie, either, and the bad guy won’t get away (though his boss, if he has one, likely will), so what’s the point of any of it? To see how it happens. Yeah, I’m not particularly onboard with the complaint in the OP. To me, it’s a bit of the cheese and fun of Bond, and gives the series that comic book kind of feel to it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/24 "2013-03-18T15:00:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Good storytellers don’t usually start off by saying that their hero is already dead. Rosebud! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/25 "2013-03-18T16:08:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Moonraker** – Another villain fake-death. “Jaws” , the heavy from the previous film, The Spy Who Loved Me, has his parachute fail in the opening sequence after trying - twice - to kill Bond (in what is probably the best part of the entire film). Had this been any other film, he’d now be very squashed toast. But, this being one of Christopher woods Looney Tunes Bonds, Jaws lands on a circus tent and survives, he Indestructible Man. That had been pretty much established in the previous film by having him get up and brush himself off after a wall fell on him. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/26 "2013-03-18T17:02:28Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Rosebud! Get back to me when they tell Bond’s life in retrospect. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/27 "2013-03-18T17:16:05Z")
Tangential: in the books, Ian Fleming actually kills off Bond at the end of a book, at least twice. At the end of _From Russia with Love_ (and also in the movie) remember Rosa Klebb’s poisoned shoe-toes? THe book ends with Bond being kicked, getting woozy, and collapsing. The next book (I forget which it is) M remarks how lucky it was that a nearby doctor recognized curare (or boggledy-boo) poisoning and was able to save Bond. At the end of _You Only Live Twice_, Bond has killed Blofeld, but got banged on the head during the explosion and has a complete memory loss. He winds up going to Russia to find out who he is; the implication is that they’ll kill him, of course. But they don’t, they brainwash him and send him back to London to kill M in _The Man with the Golden Gun_. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182/28 "2013-03-24T18:52:03Z")
He got better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-bond-dies-in-the-opening/653182.md?page=1)