The James Bond franchise may be one of the biggest in the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to some hackneyed cliches.
Since last year’s film “No Time to Die” is considered another success of the franchise, which continues to enjoy great popularity after 60 years, James Bond remains an icon of cinema. James Bond movies can have incredible action scenes, but what sets the British spy franchise apart is how cool this character is.
However, there are some things that make the franchise a little less cool. There are cliches in almost every Bond movie, and they range from minor distractions to serious problems. These are just some of the cliches present in almost every Bond movie.
Travel around the world
There would be no conspiracy or conspiracy of world domination in the world of James Bond if it didn’t take place in the most exotic and glamorous places in the world. Whatever the reason for the narration, the superspy invariably finds himself flying between different countries and even continents during the course of the film.
Even Skyfall, a relatively internal affair that mainly took place in London, managed to cover at least 5 different countries. However, one of the advantages of this cliche is that it brings in the visual appeal of movies, and a James Bond movie that doesn’t look pretty is likely to disappoint viewers looking for escapist action.
The dead tell tales
Bond’s habit of fighting first and then asking questions may not be a trait that would be highly appreciated in real life by intelligence agencies, but it rarely has unpleasant consequences for a spy with a license to kill. On the contrary, criminals and murderers from the world of James Bond always seem to leave traces on their bodies that can become a clue for Bond.
Whenever it seems that the case may come to a dead end without any clues, often there is a rather incompetent henchman who dies and leaves behind an important key to the advancement of the plot. Many action movies use this technique, and Bond films are no exception.
The perfect gadget for the occasion
While recent James Bond films have reduced the spy’s reliance on gadgets, or at least made them a little less excessive, they remain an important part of the films. Bond wouldn’t be the same without the gadgets he gets from Q. However, there is an element of too much convenience in the way gadgets are used.
As a rule, if Q gives Bond gadgets, then they will all find use during the movie and there will be an ideal situation when gadgets are needed. In addition, gadgets, even if they are as revolutionary and useful as Bond Brosnan’s invisible car in “Die, but Not Now,” will almost certainly never be seen again.
“The name is Bond. James Bond.”
Being an elite secret agent with a keen sense of fashion and a taste for the best things, James Bond can get away with a lot more than other characters and still look cool. Lines that would normally be cheesy, like a bad pun after killing a bad guy, don’t seem so bad when spoken by a cool character like Bond.
Unfortunately, over time, the novelty of some of these lines has been lost, including the iconic opening phrase of Bond. Perhaps the old Bonds were more able to pull a line, but nowadays a character pronouncing his last name before clarifying seems a bit clumsy and unnatural.
Everyday sexism
Although the situation improved after characters like Nomi in “No Time to Die” broke boundaries and put women at the forefront of the series, this was not always the case. In particular, women in James Bond films have traditionally been used as nothing more than objects that exist only to show how courteous the protagonist is.
Despite this, there have been some wonderful Bond girls who have demonstrated that this is something more than just a woman Bond sleeps with. However, female characters in Bond films tended to be one-dimensional, and sometimes they were treated horribly, especially in older films like The Man with the Golden Gun.
James Bond becomes a fraud
The main character goes off the rails and comes into conflict with his own organization — an image that seems to exist in almost every action movie. Bond often manages to avoid this, although his independent nature, impulsiveness and extravagant tastes often cause tension in relations with MI6 and M. in particular.
However, sometimes a character goes further and ends up challenging his own organization. In “License to Kill,” for example, Timothy Dalton’s Bond is suspended from MI6, but continues to pursue drug lord Franz Sanchez alone. More recently, Bond ran into his employers in Skyfall when he apparently failed to pass their fitness tests.
Too talkative villains
Villains have a bad habit of arranging their own downfall in the Bond franchise. Even iconic bad guys like Auric Goldfinger, who own all the cards and who just need to make sure Bond is dead to complete their master plan, somehow manage to save defeat from the jaws of victory.
When the villains have to get rid of Bond, instead they arrange long dramatic monologues and at the same time reveal the full scale of their plans and how exactly Bond should prevent them. This cliche has been the key to many Bond films, but it’s hard not to imagine how easily the villains could potentially win if they didn’t feel the need to talk for so long.
Defusing a bomb at the last second
A disappointing movie cliche that Reddit wants to see finished, Bond films are not immune to the countdown that reaches the last number before the main character can save the day. In Octopus, for example, Roger Moore’s Bond pulls the detonator out of the bomb when the timer is exactly at 0, and the situation becomes even more absurd because of how childishly easy he manages to defuse the bomb.
Even though a script with a ticking clock can add a lot of tension to a movie, there are definitely right and wrong ways to do it. However, given how many times viewers have seen the bomb timer tick so low, it’s hard to feel any sense of suspense when it can only end in one way.
Terrible hints
Proof that not everything Bond does is always cool, banal hints are an iconic part of the character’s story, although many viewers may wish that this was not the case. While not all of them are as bad as the infamous phrase “Re-entry” at the end of “Moon Racer,” the series has never shied away from cheesy ambiguities.
In the era of a tougher Bond performed by Daniel Craig, this may be an image that is already beginning to disappear from the franchise, as dry jokes have become the norm. However, hints have been one of the defining cliches of Bond films over the years.
