"From Russia With Love"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: James Bond is back. We are the spy fi guys, and this is from Russia with love. Hello, and welcome back to the spy fi guys, where we cover spy fact, spy fiction, and everything in between. I'm Zach. [00:00:18] Speaker B: And I'm Christian. [00:00:19] Speaker A: And today we are back with the second Sean Connery James Bond zero zero seven movie from Russia with love. Of course, this is not the first James Bond movie we've covered on the spy fi guys. Far from it. But never let it be said we do anything traditionally, although we are actually. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Going in order with the Connor films so far, because we covered Doctor. No. And that's the only, to my memory, the only one that we've covered of his movies. So we're going with his second film right now. And don't forget, we've also covered the video game version of this back last year for our James Bond day special. [00:00:54] Speaker A: Yes, that was very helpful. And before we get back into the movie, I want to say we may have something exciting to announce. We're not ready to do it yet, but please follow our social media at the spy fi guys on all your various socials. If there's something to announce, you will see it there first. [00:01:11] Speaker B: What a tease. Zach. [00:01:12] Speaker A: That's me. Just call me James Bond. But anyway, yeah, Christian. So how much of Russia with love did you remember before we watched this? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Quite well. I mean, so not only was I re watching the movie, I'd also. I was also reading the book alongside I'll have, in our spy fact verse fiction, some interesting differences. I did also listen to the BBC put out an audio drama version of this. So it was like a. Like, you know, one of those things where they sort of have different people reading out different characters and. Yeah, so. Which is about an hour and a half long, was narrated by or, like, James Bond was played by Tobey Stevens, who was the villain from die another day. He also read the audiobook version of the one that I read. So I'm quite familiar with the plot of this one. In addition to, of course, the video game that we covered. I did want to ask you this. Did like, what, playing the video game, did that help you understand the movie more, or did like watching the movie kind of help you understand what was going on in the video game more? [00:02:05] Speaker A: Well, I actually think the video game made the movie not as easy to understand just because there's so much stuff the game was helpful for remembering. Oh, I remember this from the game. Oh, I remember this from the game. So from what I remembered before I played the game was little flashes. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:24] Speaker A: I remembered pretty much the whole movie takes place on a train. And I remember rose about half that. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Sure. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, in my memory, it was the whole movie. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:02:35] Speaker A: And then I also remember Rosa. Club's thy foot. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, well, funny you mentioned this on a train. So I actually did watch a majority of this, actually, including most of the train stuff while I was on a train. So it was a fun sort of, you know, real life mirroring, you know, what I was doing or movies mirroring what I was doing in real life. So that was fun. [00:02:55] Speaker A: It's like a four DX experience. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Kind of. Kind of, yeah. All right, shall we get into it then? [00:03:01] Speaker A: Yes. So, as always, we have our plot synopses. We'll begin with poetry synopses. And of those, we will start with the haiku, an obvious trap. Belly dancing is sexy. Look out, a chopper. [00:03:15] Speaker B: All right, all right. [00:03:17] Speaker A: And then we have. I was waiting for a reaction that never came. And then we have our Limerick summary of from Russia with love. There once was an agent from Spectre whose job was to pick up a lector. When he opened the case, it blew up in his face. Now his funeral needs a director. [00:03:32] Speaker B: Nice, nice. Except, well, you know, I'll have a minor correction to that. It wasn't the lector that blew up in his face. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Well, I said when you opened the case, I guess it could be implied that it was the lectures case. [00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. All right, fair play. All right. Yes. [00:03:48] Speaker A: Here's the real IMDb plot summary. James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive russian beauty in order to retrieve a soviet encryption device that was stolen by Spectre. [00:04:00] Speaker B: All right, pretty, pretty good, pretty good. So we start the film with the James Bond gun barrel. As usual, Doctor null goes from gun barrel to title sequence directly. This is the first time we actually get that pre title sequence. And we've got James Bond, John Connery, in a hedge maze, and he's like lurking around being stalked by this big blonde, you know, brute who kills him with a garrote that's hidden in a watch. [00:04:29] Speaker A: So this, I was like, oh, yeah, the game. I remember this from the game. Something notable about this question is it's the only time we see James Bond wearing a tuxedo in the movie. [00:04:41] Speaker C: True. [00:04:42] Speaker B: That is very true. Yep. Although it is not James Bond. [00:04:46] Speaker C: Right? [00:04:47] Speaker A: Yes, that's the reveal. And actually my girlfriend, who I was watching this, noticed. Wait a minute, something's wrong with his face. It looks like it's made out of wax or something. [00:04:56] Speaker B: They did something to his face to make it look more waxy. So make you think there's something off there. [00:05:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So of course, this kind of sets off a can of worms. Oh, and like a world building. Because, like, if Spectre had a mask that was able to make someone look exactly like James Bond, you'd think they'd be. Exactly. [00:05:16] Speaker C: Because. [00:05:17] Speaker A: Similar. [00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah, similar, yes. But also, I mean, that may come into play in future James Bond films. [00:05:26] Speaker A: None that I remember. So that'll be interesting. [00:05:29] Speaker B: There's one that I will. We'll talk about when we get to it. [00:05:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:32] Speaker B: So there's a mask pulled off. It's revealed that there's not Sean Connor, James Bond. This is some other dude. And this was all just a training exercise. [00:05:41] Speaker A: It is funny how in the training exercise they have James Bond wearing a tuxedo. [00:05:45] Speaker B: Well, they know that's what his trademark is at least. Or is it? There's only been one film. [00:05:51] Speaker A: I know. They're crazy, right? Well, like I mentioned when we watched Doctor. No. It was interesting how so many of the tropes had been so firmly established. One moving in, though in this one, it's a little rougher around the edges, which is something I kind of like about it. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Interesting, interesting. You say that. So. And we'll come back to that. Um, but, yeah, so this is all training exercise for. We find out his name. There's Red Grant, played by, uh. Oh, goodness, what's his name? Guy from Jaws. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Guy from Jaws. [00:06:17] Speaker B: He's in Jaws. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Not Jaws. [00:06:19] Speaker B: He is not Jaws. He is. Oh, Robert Shaw. [00:06:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's cool. I didn't even recognize him. [00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah, he. I mean, he always looks different in his mo, in his roles. We had the pre title second sequence. Now we get the title sequence with. Oh, I assume this is what the belly dance. I was like, the belly dancer was like, only in one scene in my memory. So I was like, oh, wait, it was the title sequence. That's what you're talking about, wasn't it? [00:06:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Well, also, it's a very memorable scene. That was one of the only other things I remembered from the movie way back when I saw it. And this opening is what I mean about it's a little rougher. There's no original theme song. It's the James Bond theme. Just like in doctor. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Well, no, there. It's James Bond theme mixed with an instrumental of love. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:07:03] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:04] Speaker A: And then, whereas normally the opening has women, guns and martinis, this one's just a woman. [00:07:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:10] Speaker B: Well, so, I mean, yeah, like you said, it was. They were still trying to figure out the formula. This is actually not done by Maurice Binder, who did almost all of them up until essence, to kill this and Goldfinger were done by another guy whose name I forget. [00:07:25] Speaker A: I also noticed in the opening that one of the actors was just Layla. No last name. It made me think it was like a dog, like Layla, the dog who went into space. But no, that's the belly dancer's name. [00:07:37] Speaker B: That's Laika is the dog who went to space, not Layla. [00:07:40] Speaker C: Yes. [00:07:40] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:07:41] Speaker B: All right, so we have designer Robert Brown John is the person who did the credits for this and Goldfinger, but then, yeah, Mer Spinder did everything else, so he sort of took what Brown John created with this and especially Goldfinger and really accentuated. But, yes, so you're right. Yeah, it's almost there, but not quite there in terms of the tropes. So we next go to a chess match where we see Kronstein, who we find as a spectre agent playing against another guy. He gets a note in his, like, on the. In the napkin of his water. It's like, you are needed immediately. So he, like, even though it seems to be a very tense match, immediately wins, and, like, goes to the meeting. [00:08:19] Speaker A: It was the idea that he was just playing, no pun intended, with his opponent. I thought he was gonna, like, resign immediately, but instead he just wins. [00:08:27] Speaker B: No. Yep. So we go to a specter meeting on a boat. This is the first time we meet Ernst Stavro Blofeld and establish the trope of him never being seen, except from, like, you know, his hands and his cat. [00:08:41] Speaker A: And don't worry about the cat. But isn't he just number one? He doesn't have a name. Right. [00:08:46] Speaker C: You're right. [00:08:47] Speaker B: He only has. He only has a number one. [00:08:50] Speaker C: I don't. [00:08:50] Speaker B: And I'm not. [00:08:51] Speaker A: I'm not trying to be funny here. I actually want to know who is number two. [00:08:55] Speaker B: We will find out in a couple movies. [00:08:57] Speaker A: Okay, did you get where I was going with that? [00:08:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Yes, I got that. Yes, yes. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:05] Speaker C: Well. [00:09:05] Speaker B: And we'll get to it when we get to thunderball so far away, though. Cause we do meet number three and number seven. Number three being Rosa club. And then number seven, I believe, is. Number seven is Cronstein. Now, Rosa Kleb is russian. She used to work for Smersh. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Right. Which we've discussed many times here on the Spotify guys. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Just once with a. Well, we'll talk about it later. Anyway, so they have a meeting. They have a whole plot of, basically they're going to steal this lecter machine and they're going to use british intelligence as their, as their weapon to do so. And result also get revenge for the killing of their agent, Doctor NGo. [00:09:46] Speaker C: Ah. [00:09:47] Speaker A: A little bit of continuity, but you don't need to have actually seen Doctor no to understand that. [00:09:51] Speaker B: No, no, this is, this is the, you know, first of the tropes of. All right, we're gonna do something and pit, you know, the west and the east against each other. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I like it. It's more clever than let's just steal a nuclear bomb and hold the world at ransom yet again. [00:10:05] Speaker B: You know, I'm gonna count how many times that's actually happened in a film because it's not that many. [00:10:10] Speaker A: I don't even remember what doctor no was doing last time he wanted to message. [00:10:16] Speaker B: He was toppling, hopping. What was it? Oh, yes, us rockets. [00:10:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Anyways, so we go next to Spectre island, which, you know, that sound, that sounds fun. And it's whole training site for Spectre agents and assassins. And we again, meet Red Grant. This is where we find out that he's going to be recruited into this plot as well. [00:10:39] Speaker A: So this is cool. I have a few thoughts. First, we're spending a lot of time with the bad guys before our heroes. Like, a lot. It's been like four scenes, which is interesting. Also, the bad guy base is cool. I was hoping we were going to meet, like, a bad guy Q, who are bad guy gadgets. But no. Then I was wondering, in the interests of, as I think I may have mentioned before, the engineering term, you reach perfection when there's nothing left to take away, nothing left to add. Do you feel like we needed this scene because Red Grant easily could just walked in the door on the boat and been like, here's your guy, Red Grant. Okay, get out of here. [00:11:20] Speaker B: I think. Well, and this, it is interesting watching this because this, like, I'd say the first four Connery films are very much loyal to the books. Like, there's maybe a few changes, but, like, this scene where he's being massaged by, like, by a half naked woman is in the book and, like, Rosa Kleb coming to recruit him. So I think it's because mostly because they were being slavish to the book that they could. It easily could have happened like you said. Sure. Except we don't really get to know Grant as much that way. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Well, we barely get to know him at all. But I think these old movies, they like to take their time. [00:12:02] Speaker B: And there's nothing wrong with that. [00:12:04] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. All right. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Anything else to say about Specter Island? [00:12:08] Speaker A: I thought it was cool. I thought it was neat, though. [00:12:12] Speaker C: It's interesting. [00:12:13] Speaker A: It doesn't come back. Like this army of henchmen doesn't come back in this movie, but it does help to explain where this army of henchmen comes from. [00:12:21] Speaker B: They do. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about what constitutes an army. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Okay. All right. Well, keep that in mind. So next we get the scene of we meet Tatiana Romanova, otherwise known as Tanya, who works as a russian cipher clerk. And she's been being recruited into this whole scheme, but she thinks she's doing it all for Mother Russia rather than Spectre because she's. Well, apparently, Rosa klebs defection from SMERSH to SpECtRe is only known to a very few members of the russian or the soviet political scheme. [00:12:58] Speaker C: It's not. [00:12:58] Speaker A: It's great. It's like Chernobyl. It's a commentary on the soviet totalitarian system and how it makes them more vulnerable. And I like how the bad guys are smart in this. Again, it's not just stealing a nuclear bomb and threatening to blow it the world. [00:13:15] Speaker B: But, yeah. So she is evaluated by Rosa club. What did you think about the vibes of this scene? [00:13:22] Speaker A: You mean the gay stuff? [00:13:23] Speaker B: Okay. I was wondering if you were gonna pick up on it. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, so Rosa Club is a great villain. She's really interesting. She's cool. There's a lot going on, but it is because I feel like they're doing, like, a gay panic kind of situation with her. [00:13:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's much more prevalent in the book. I'll get. When we talk about the differences. I'll get to that, but, yeah. So she evaluates her both, you know, physically and also as just like. All right, what. What is she loyal enough to Russia and the Soviet. And the Soviet Union to take care to go through with this? Which she passes. And we finally get to James Bond, who is lounging around with. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Were we supposed to know who she was? [00:14:10] Speaker B: Sylvia Trench. That's her name. The character's name is Sylvia Trench. She was the girl who was playing cards with him in the beginning of doctor now. [00:14:20] Speaker C: Christian. [00:14:20] Speaker A: How dare you. I remember who Sylvia Trench is doing. Soulmate. But I didn't think she was Sylvia Trench because she. I didn't think she looked like her. [00:14:29] Speaker C: Maybe I forgot her. [00:14:30] Speaker B: She looks like the exact same actress. [00:14:32] Speaker C: It's. [00:14:33] Speaker B: She was so. She was. That's one of the few Bond girls who recurs and also, she was meant to actually keep recurring. Terrence Young, who was director of doctor. No, in this film, wanted to keep her. Having her come back is like, you know, she keeps. Bond keeps getting pulled away as they're about to, you know, you know, keep the relationship up. But we got a different director with the next movie, I believe, guy Hamilton. So that's sort of got dropped. [00:15:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:04] Speaker A: Like I said, things were kind of rough. Things were rough when you first get started. [00:15:08] Speaker B: You keep saying rough, but I'm bristling at that because this is not a rough movie. [00:15:14] Speaker A: No, it's not a rough. It's a good movie. But I mean, the formula, like, it's kind of like Star Trek. Right. They're trying to figure it all out. Exactly how the warp drive works, exactly how the uniforms work. [00:15:25] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:27] Speaker B: Right. I'll give you that. But do you want it to be a slave to formula? [00:15:32] Speaker C: Definitely. [00:15:32] Speaker B: I don't necessarily. [00:15:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:33] Speaker A: This is something I like about this one is that it's like a little pick up on the differences. I also noticed. [00:15:38] Speaker B: I know. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Yes. [00:15:40] Speaker B: Well, I just know that if you keep saying RAF, it's gonna make it sound, especially to the bond fans out there, that you don't like this movie. [00:15:45] Speaker A: No, I did like it, but I also wanted to notice there's no martinis. And he never says, bond, James Bond. Unless I missed it. But I don't think I did. [00:15:57] Speaker B: I don't think my friends call me James Bond. No, no, he doesn't. [00:16:02] Speaker A: I like that. [00:16:03] Speaker C: But, yeah. [00:16:04] Speaker A: So, as you know, Christian, I like things that are different. So I appreciate that this was different. [00:16:09] Speaker B: All right. Okay. I just want to make clear, like, I get what you're coming at, but I want to make it clear for the audience. That's what you're saying. [00:16:18] Speaker A: Okay, thank you. Thank you for making that clear. [00:16:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:21] Speaker B: So he gets called into the office. We have a briefing from m where he spells out the whole plot, or at least what they know of as the plot, is that, you know, Tanya is a russian cipher clerk who says she fell in love with a picture of James Bond and that she now wants to come over and defect. And the bait is a lecter decoding device. [00:16:39] Speaker A: Yep. [00:16:40] Speaker B: You also get a Q scene here with actually, Desmond Lloyd and the Q. Not the guy who played him last movie who was not Desmond Lloyd. [00:16:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And who is the armor. So the gadgets is great. I like how it's one gadget with all the other things inside it. Does he use all of it? [00:16:57] Speaker B: There's the tear gasket almost all of it. Yes, he uses that. All right. I think he does use all of it. Another thing about. Yeah. He gets his little briefcase and then goes off to Istanbul. We get the arrival in Istanbul. A driver greets him, says, kerem Bey sent a car. Kerem Bey is the head of station T in Turkey. And we get the first of many uses of a code phrase. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:19] Speaker B: Which is, you know, aber a match. Oh, I prefer a lighter. Better still. Until they go wrong. [00:17:25] Speaker A: That was good. I also like how they bring that back later. [00:17:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:17:28] Speaker B: But you also notice that not only is Grant there and he's watching them and following them, you also see him, some russian spies who follow them in a car. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I liked that. Is something else different is how Grant, like, stalks him through the whole movie, like Michael Myers. And then. Yeah, you don't see that really in any other James Bond movies to my memory. [00:17:53] Speaker B: There are other. Well, yeah, there are other films where the villain doesn't show up until, like, halfway through. But in the case of where you see him. But Bond doesn't. No, I don't think there are. So next we meet Kerem Bey, who's the head, as I said, of station t in turkey. We also find out that, like, all of his key personnel are all his sons. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Christian, what did this remind you of? This is going to be a deep cut. [00:18:17] Speaker C: Deep cut. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Munich. [00:18:19] Speaker C: Munich. [00:18:20] Speaker A: The french guys in Munich. The family. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Oh, I guess so. [00:18:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:24] Speaker B: It didn't really, but no, except that. [00:18:26] Speaker A: These guys, like, actually help with the government. They don't hate them. [00:18:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:31] Speaker B: And so Kerem Bey gives his opinion that this is all a trap and that he should, you know, just enjoy a few days in Istanbul and then go home. [00:18:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:39] Speaker A: Which, I don't know about you, that came off as a little bit threatening to me. Like, if James Bond didn't go home, he was gonna make him go. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Oh, I think it was more of a, you should go home, because this, like, he even spells out, this is an old friend of mine. He pokes his nose and he says, and it says, something smells. He's just suspicious of the whole thing. Now, as this is happening, we see grant picks up one of the Bulgarians who the Russians use as spies in Istanbul and kills him. And we get something that I kind of miss in my James Bond films. It's when Bond goes into a hotel room, checks in and checks out his hotel room, like, goes around it. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Well, something else I thought was interesting about the engineering side of things, about the movie. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:19:20] Speaker A: They showed him going to the hotel clerk, checking in, getting his key, walking to the elevator and getting in when they really didn't need to. It almost made it feel like they were hiding the runtime. [00:19:33] Speaker B: I will say this, this is, you know, this movie came out, you know, sixties, early sixties, post World War Two. I mean, it's a travelogue, is what it is. It's people, unlike nowadays, a lot of people wouldn't have to experience that. Luxuries of going to hotels and things like that. So really milking that and showing up. Oh, this is what, you know, what the high life is, is why that's in there. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Oh, cool. Yeah, I like that also. It's just the movies were older so you get away with a little bit slower pace. But I also like how when he's checking the room for bugs, the James Bond theme is blasting. Like, you expect him to be like punching someone or shooting, but instead he's just slowly walking around the room. [00:20:17] Speaker B: It just makes the scene that much cooler. [00:20:21] Speaker C: I should do that. [00:20:22] Speaker B: Anytime I enter a hotel room, it's just blast. The James Bond theme as I'm walk, looking around at things. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it sounds like fun. [00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. But yeah, he does discover that the room is bugged and tells hotel reception the bed's too small. And they said there's nothing else except the honeymoon suite. So let me take a look at it. Thankfully, we don't repeat this exact same thing as he goes in the honeymoon suite. [00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they give us, you know, they cut us a break there. But I get the impression that the hotel people are like in on the spies. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Oh, they definitely. [00:20:50] Speaker A: I mean, that was pretty clear. [00:20:52] Speaker C: So. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we see the dead bulgarian discovered in the car by the Russians. And as a result, and as retaliation, the Soviets bomb Kerem Bey's office. [00:21:05] Speaker A: See, it's funny because sometimes they take too long with other things and then the movie goes too fast. Like, this is when it goes too fast. I would have liked a scene of the Russians being like, it killed one of us, so let's kill one of them. Tell your men to set a bomb outside the concept. It will be done. [00:21:22] Speaker B: I honestly like the surprise. You don't know, like, you see Kerem and his mistress just sort of about to get into some hanky panky and then explosion. I like it. I think if we had that, it would ruin that surprise there. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Now, of course, those of us who played the video game know that the explosion leads to bond shooting and killing about 75 Russians and then taking down a helicopter. But that doesn't seem to have happened in this movie. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Not in this movie now. But we do get a scene where Bond and Kerem go into the undergrounds of Istanbul to go right up underneath the russian consulate and look through a periscope and spy on their meeting there. And also find out that the person who has orchestrated the bombing is an old enemy of Kerem Bey is named Krilenku. [00:22:09] Speaker A: More bad guys appear. I also liked how they weren't able to hear. It's like these super spies do have their limits. [00:22:16] Speaker B: And so because they need to take care of this Krilenku business, Bond can't go back to his hotel. So instead they're going to go to. I'm going to call it a Romani camp. They use a different word in the film, which is a slur, so we're not going to use it here. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is very memorable, this whole scene. It breaks up the visuals, too, which is nice. [00:22:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:37] Speaker B: So this is. I'm sure for people of the Romani race is probably very uncomfortable. But, I mean, it's certainly the only. [00:22:48] Speaker A: Movie, if it's kind that does that, does this. [00:22:51] Speaker B: True. But I'm just. I'm just saying it, you know, it is very stereotypical. You have. Where you have this encampment and then, you know, have a fight between two girls because they're both in love with the same man, one of the chief's sons. So the only way to solve it is let them fight to the death. [00:23:11] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know. It's like. It's like an rpg where you have a side quest. You have to resolve some local trouble. [00:23:19] Speaker B: I, you know. Okay. I like viewing it that way. That's nice. [00:23:24] Speaker C: But. [00:23:24] Speaker B: And as a. They're about to. You know, we see a decent amount of the girl fight, and there's about. One of them is about to kill the other when there was a shot rings out and turns out that Krilenku and a bunch of the Bulgarians are attacking the Romani camp. [00:23:41] Speaker A: And I do like. There's a throwaway line where, like, the Bulgarians are the russian proxies, the same way these guys are Kerem's proxies. And then now they're fighting each other. [00:23:50] Speaker C: Oh, it's like. [00:23:51] Speaker A: It's a cold war. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:54] Speaker B: So there's. So throughout this. What do you think of the music in this scene? [00:23:57] Speaker A: I mean, it's all James Bond. Like, the music's always good. It's not something I noticed this time, though. The action was great. I like James Bond doing the shooting. [00:24:06] Speaker B: From the hip, he does do that. So, like, this music here is known as what's known as a zero zero seven theme. So John Barry, who has written, I think, all of the theme, or at least the majority of the soundtracks from here on up until eleven daylights, Monty Norman created the James Bond theme and John Barry sort of wanted his own secondary theme, which he's called the double oh seven theme. And that's what this sort of theme is. You hear it pop up in a couple of other James Bond movies and you'll recognize it once you hear it. But, yeah, I enjoyed Connery going through it. I think this is one of my favorite levels in the video game, is like, getting to assist in all the random fighting that's happening. [00:24:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:44] Speaker A: It's not the kind of action we normally see in James Bond movies. Usually it's him versus everybody. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, you say that, but when we get to the formulaic bond, we'll talk more about that, especially with the next seancon we see. [00:24:58] Speaker A: Oh, by the way, we skipped the big belly dance. I don't know if there's anything to say about it. [00:25:03] Speaker B: There's nothing really to talk about there. No, it's just that there's a belly dance scene, like as was performing for Bond and Kerem Bey. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So one other important part here is Bond's about to get shot by one of the Bulgarians, and then someone else kills the Bulgarian before he's shot and turns out it's red Grant. Why is that going on? [00:25:26] Speaker A: Well, because it's. I don't want to say it's like Star Trek or he's basically like, I'm the one who has to kill him. It has to be me. Well, also, Bond doesn't have the lecter yet. [00:25:36] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:25:37] Speaker B: He needs him alive still. That's why it's not. You're the only one who gets. I'm the only one who gets to kill you. It's because he's still carrying out the plot and he needs the plot to go on, even if the script seems. [00:25:49] Speaker A: To have forgotten about it. [00:25:52] Speaker B: Well, we'll get to it. So we get after this business is done. Crelenku has escaped, so the Romani are torturing one of the bulgarians who are still alive and tell him where Elenku is. And we find him hiding behind a giant billboard of the movie. Call me Bwana. [00:26:14] Speaker C: Okay. [00:26:15] Speaker A: I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to go back to the Romani for a second. [00:26:18] Speaker B: All right? [00:26:19] Speaker A: Maybe I missed something. [00:26:20] Speaker B: I need you to explain oh, right. [00:26:22] Speaker A: I think the way he resolved the issue with the two. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Oh, I forgot about them. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Both fall in love with him. Is that correct? [00:26:31] Speaker B: Pretty much so, yeah. So at the end of the whole thing, the Romani chief says that, you've saved my life. You're now my son, and if there's anything I can do for you. And he says, well, can you stop the girlfriend? [00:26:45] Speaker C: And so now. [00:26:46] Speaker B: So now Bon gets to decide who. How to resolve that. So takes both of them for the. [00:26:53] Speaker A: Night, which really doesn't resolve it, which is hilarious. But I love this because it's just not what you normally see in a James Bond movie. [00:27:05] Speaker B: So it was resolved in some way because I watched this this time, and you notice when they're saying goodbye to Bond as he's leaving, one of them is right up all around, like, arms around him, and the other is further back, so clearly that one was the winner. How he determined that is unknown to. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Us, though I'm sure we have our theories. [00:27:32] Speaker B: All right, so back to the sniper. Yes, the sniper level. Krilenku is hiding out behind the giant, you know, billboard of the movie. Call me Bwana. Kerem Bey got shot in the arm. Bond lets him use his arm or his shoulder as, like, a perch for his. For the rifle that. The rifle, which is the rifle that is in the Itachi case. [00:27:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:54] Speaker A: And he says, you only have one shot. Does that mean the gun can only fire one shot? Cause he only uses it the once. [00:27:59] Speaker B: No, no. I mean, there is a bunch of spare ammunition. It's more of a. He can reload. But it's really. You'll really only have this one shot. Otherwise you might get away. [00:28:09] Speaker A: It's gonna take too long. [00:28:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Aaron managed to shoot him. And then bond goes back to his hotel room, gets on the phone downstairs, orders breakfast, turns on the bath, and then sees something across the hall, across the way. [00:28:25] Speaker A: And I said to my girlfriend, last time this happened, someone was playing golf in his room. [00:28:33] Speaker B: Also note he never turns off the bath. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Oh, no. It's really wasting water. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Well, that and you would just be flooding. Tatiana Romanova is there under the sheets, wearing only, you know, a little black ribbon around her neck. [00:28:52] Speaker C: Interesting choice. [00:28:52] Speaker B: So, yeah, they're introduced to each other, is recalling things from his file, like the scar that he has. [00:29:01] Speaker A: Okay, so the scar, was that from the last movie? [00:29:03] Speaker C: I don't remember that. [00:29:04] Speaker B: It shows up earlier in the scene with Sylvia Trench. Right, but that's. We haven't seen it before or since. [00:29:13] Speaker A: My girlfriend also liked in this scene, apparently, Bond is a yogurt person because you see him ordering his breakfast, and they have him list all the breakfast items. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Green figs, yogurt, coffee, very black. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:27] Speaker A: That I kind of forget because it's a little bit of an insight into his character. [00:29:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:32] Speaker C: I mean, yeah. Nothing wrong with. [00:29:34] Speaker B: I like a good yogurt in the morning. [00:29:36] Speaker A: I meant that the movie spent time doing it. [00:29:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:40] Speaker B: So they get into bed together, and what we discover is that there's a giant mirror behind the bed. The headboard. [00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:50] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:29:51] Speaker B: And on the other side of the. Of the mirror, actually, it's one way glass. And you see a movie, a film camera, and grant back there, like, smoking a cigarette as. [00:30:04] Speaker A: Watching it happen, as he's making James Bond's sex tape. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Yep. [00:30:09] Speaker C: Yep. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Bond and Tatiana meet the next day at St. Sophia's, which is a very famous location in Istanbul. And what she brings is plans for the consulate, which they were wishing that they had back when they were underneath the consulate, because they're trying to figure out a way to get the lector out of there. [00:30:30] Speaker A: I also like bond wearing his sunglasses. Sixties sunglasses. [00:30:34] Speaker B: I do enjoy those. [00:30:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:36] Speaker B: I may have pairs that look similar, but also what happens here is there's another dead or another agent who's killed. I don't remember if it's from the russian side or from the Mi six's side, but another one's killed. So just really up the. Up the tension happening in Istanbul. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Okay, so this confused me. So the agent is killed and he drops something, and then Grant replaces it or something. What happened? He just. All he does is kill the guy. [00:31:06] Speaker C: He kills the guy. Yeah. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:31:09] Speaker C: No, what. [00:31:09] Speaker B: What happens is that Tatiana drops the plans and. [00:31:15] Speaker C: And. [00:31:15] Speaker B: Oh, the drop. Bulgarian is about to pick. Is about to pick it up, but then Grant kills him. Cause he needs a plot to go forward. [00:31:24] Speaker C: Right. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Gotcha. Gotcha. Thank you. [00:31:26] Speaker B: The next rendezvous on a boat where we have von basically trying to make sure that the goods are legit for the lector. So he has a tape recorder hidden inside a camera. And we have Tanya describing the lector but also wanting to know that she will be fine in England but also that she will be well loved in England. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Yeah, she's really selling the whole in love with James Bond thing. I love the old camera. Like, this gigantic old camera voice recorder, I guess. But this is my favorite part of the movie right here. [00:32:06] Speaker B: You mean when we go back to, em, listening to the recording with, like, all the other people? [00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah, keep going, keep going. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Tanya says, you know, tell me, James, am I as exciting as all those western women? And Bond says, well, no. Well, there was one time with em in Tokyo. [00:32:25] Speaker A: That's amazing. It's amazing. [00:32:30] Speaker B: And it was a good. It's a good joke because as soon as that, like, comes up, em pauses it and tells Moneypenny to go out of the room. And yet she's still eavesdropping on, like, the intercom. [00:32:40] Speaker A: I need someone to make a comic book or a fan film or something of em and James Bond, like, out on the town in Tokyo. [00:32:47] Speaker B: Except the only problem with that is that there's. And you only live twice, you know, four or five movies later, Bond says he's never been to Japan. [00:32:57] Speaker A: Well, come on. James Bond isn't. He doesn't tell the truth. He's a spy. [00:33:04] Speaker C: Anyways. [00:33:05] Speaker A: But, yes, I forgive it. [00:33:06] Speaker B: That line is always funny. Has always been funny. Yes. He gets a telegram back from M saying that the goods are legit. So proceed with the plan. And so m, not M. Bond and Karen Bey are planning out what, how they're gonna do it. They have the drawing that Tanya gave them, as well as the original architect's blueprints. And they also decide they're gonna tell her the wrong date for when this can happen so that she can't, even if she is working at cross purposes, she can't tell anyone. [00:33:37] Speaker C: Nice. [00:33:37] Speaker A: Pretty smart. Pretty smart. [00:33:39] Speaker B: Nice double bluff. So on the 13th, we go to the russian embassy where he, like, asks, like, one of the workers, is that the correct time? Like, a few times. And, like, I like that. You know, russian clocks are always on time. And as soon as that, he says that explosion, kerem, like, puts off a bomb, sets off some tear gas inside there. Bond, like, grabs a gas mask out of his briefcase, and he guns down 50 more russians. [00:34:07] Speaker A: Oh, wait, that was just. Yeah, I like how the movie has some good jokes. It's a good dry humor. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And so he goes to steal the lector and Tanya, and they go down into the tunnels where they see a bunch of rats, which proves that line from get smart wrong, where he says rats. I never see James Bond dealing with rats. [00:34:29] Speaker A: Ooh, good memory. I don't remember that. [00:34:33] Speaker B: I do this. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Makes me think of Indiana Jones. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. [00:34:37] Speaker A: So why were the rats running around? [00:34:40] Speaker B: Because there was a big explosion. [00:34:42] Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough. [00:34:44] Speaker B: So Kerem guides them through the tunnels and they pop up near the train station. And as they get to the train station, Tanya panics because there's Benz, a KGB guy who sees her as. As she gets on the train and gets on the train after them. But also, did you spot who else was already on the train? [00:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah, Grant. He's there. [00:35:05] Speaker B: He's lurking. [00:35:06] Speaker A: He's literally one step ahead of them. But, yeah, I like the Russian. All the interplay of the different teams. I also like the trinity. Like Bond, Tanya and Kerem. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Kerem, yeah. [00:35:19] Speaker A: It's a fun dynamic they have there. [00:35:21] Speaker B: So on the train, Kerem tells Bond what the plan is, which is they paid off the conductor so that they'll slow down at one of the turns and then they would hop off just before, just after six. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Very straightforward. I like how Bond has passports and cover names and women's wear, like, with him ready to go. [00:35:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And Tanya's going through a fashion show of all the things that she's gonna wear. [00:35:48] Speaker C: Yep. [00:35:49] Speaker B: In the meantime, Karam works with the conductor and finds Benz and keeps him company while they're, while they're waiting. [00:35:58] Speaker A: Are there a couple specific observations I have here? [00:36:00] Speaker B: All right, sure. [00:36:01] Speaker A: There's a couple part where Bond and Tanya are in bed and there's a knock at the door and Bond says, you're nearest. It's like one asshole. But it actually also kind of makes sense. And then also there's a part where, again, they're in the room and he's walking around and he pulls the blind on the window, like, super fast. And it makes a fast sound. For some reason, I was expecting Grant to be, like, standing behind the window, even though I know it's impossible just because it felt like something out of a horror movie. Like, he pulls it and then grant, like, smashes through. [00:36:34] Speaker C: But that's funny. [00:36:37] Speaker B: I've noticed that too, that he gets, like, he pulls it down and like it and it goes up and he, like, gets annoyed at it. At the sound of it, too, as they're about to, you know, it's about 06:00 so they need to meet Karam for tea time in the cafe car. And they get all dressed up and the conductor finds Bond and tells them that there's been a terrible accident and shows them the room that Kerem and Benz were in and shows that they killed each other. [00:37:08] Speaker C: Dun dun dun. Nice. [00:37:10] Speaker A: And then I like how it produces a change in Bond's character. He gets pretty mad. [00:37:15] Speaker B: And also we see Kerem's son, or one of Kerem's sons, with the car, like, ready for them to slow down and is confused why the train didn't slow down and no one hopped off. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah, this is me and my girlfriend sat. She was like, oh, no, his dad's dead and now he's never gonna see him again. Aw, she felt bad for him. [00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So Bond confronts Tanya, and he's trying to get anything out of her. Cause he knows that she's in some of the plot, but he doesn't know how much he knows and he wants to find out. And she refused to tell anything. He slaps her a few times. For the record, slapping women is wrong. [00:37:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker A: This movie's a product of its time in a few different ways. [00:37:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:59] Speaker B: She refuses to tell him anything and says, once we get to England, I'll tell you everything. So at the next stop, one of Kerem's sons finds bond, and they do the code phrase again. But did you notice who's watching them give the code phrase? [00:38:15] Speaker C: Yes, Grant. [00:38:16] Speaker A: But I also was wondering if Grant. [00:38:19] Speaker C: No, I was. [00:38:19] Speaker A: I thought maybe Grant. One of Grant's, like, underlings was that guy was not his son. And that was how Grant was able to, like, work his way in. But that's not what happened. I also like. You can tell they're in northern Europe because it's 05:30 p.m. And it's like pitch black outside. [00:38:35] Speaker B: But I. I appreciate it this time when they do the code phrase, they don't even say it. It's all in pantomime. Really. [00:38:48] Speaker C: Like, you. [00:38:48] Speaker B: I like. Or you don't even hear the audio of it. You just see them going through the motions of it. [00:38:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I like it. The movie rewards people who pay close attention, including all the grant creeping in the back. [00:39:00] Speaker B: Bond tells Kerem's son that his father is dead and says, you know, call him. And Savim, send someone in from station Y in Yugoslavia to meet me because we need to get, you know, we need help to get over that border. And here's where we probably get the. Well, one of the many inspirations for the Indiana Jones montage. You don't have the red line with the moving, but you do have it going over the map. You have the montage of, like, the train and all the different places it goes past. [00:39:27] Speaker A: I did like it. Of course, the best music for the map is the Indiana Jones music. [00:39:33] Speaker B: Of course. We'll take it from Russia with love is also good, too. Like, I do appreciate here, like, you know, we don't. We here, we've heard a snippet of the actual theme and we heard it. Hold on. I always forget. Is it diegetic is when it's in the movie, or is it not diegetic? [00:39:52] Speaker A: I think diegetics when it's in the movie. Yeah. [00:39:55] Speaker B: So this is one of the few. Well, the first 1st example of the like theme song being diegetic in the film because we heard it when Bond and Sylvia Trench are canoodling in the boat, like on a radio. [00:40:09] Speaker A: Oh, I want to hear the fan explanation for how that works. [00:40:14] Speaker B: This just happens to be a song. [00:40:17] Speaker A: Yeah, this isn't Star wars. They have to explain everything. [00:40:20] Speaker B: Throughout the rest of the soundtrack. We hear a lot of instrumentals of it as well, which I enjoy. That's thing that John Barry did really well was integrating the James Bond theme and the theme song in together throughout the soundtrack. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:40:38] Speaker B: So we arrive in Zagreb and we see that grant exits the train first and goes over meets the mi six men and again in pantomime, gives the code. You even just see the reference to the lighter and the whole thing and it's all silent. [00:40:54] Speaker C: And then he. [00:40:55] Speaker B: You see them go back into the station. Grant definitely kills the guy and then poses as him to meet with Bond. And then again we see the pantomime of the code. [00:41:07] Speaker A: And again, this was great. So unexpected. If you imagine jaws walk into James Bond and be like, hello, James Bond. I am actually on your side until the moment I choose to betray you. I also like Grant's british accent. He's like, steady there, old chum. We'll have you out of Russia no problem. Yeah, old man. That being said, I am a little bit suspicious that Bond never figured out. [00:41:33] Speaker B: Well, one, he asked M to send someone in station y and then he gives the code. So you would think that, like, the code is literally supposed to show that you're safe. [00:41:45] Speaker C: No, I get that. [00:41:46] Speaker A: But I was hoping, like, as they spent more and more time together, Bond would have been like, ah, no english man takes two lumps of tea in his tea. You must really be from Spectre. [00:41:59] Speaker B: Something like that, Zack. That literally happens. [00:42:02] Speaker A: What, did I miss it? [00:42:04] Speaker B: Yes, we'll get to it. [00:42:05] Speaker A: Well, Grant still gets the drop on him. [00:42:07] Speaker B: So he does, but he is suspicious about it. All right, so Anya and Bond have dinner with Captain Nash, which is what Grant is posing as. And no one saw. This is a audio medium, so no one saw me put finger quotes around Captain Nash. [00:42:25] Speaker C: But. [00:42:25] Speaker B: But I did. [00:42:26] Speaker A: Yeah, we got it. Yeah. [00:42:28] Speaker B: And he ordered. So he orders fish and then orders red wine with fish. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I remember this now. But he figures it out too late, though. I did, some of Bond's actions kind of made it seem like he was suspicious. [00:42:44] Speaker B: He is suspicious about it, but so what happens next is that Grant spills Tanya's wine, picks it up, and puts something in her drug in there to drug her. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Did Bond notice this? [00:42:57] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:42:57] Speaker B: Cause he said, what did you put it in the very next scene, as they're putting her in a bed, he says, what you put in her drink? He said, chloral hydrate. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [00:43:06] Speaker B: He's like, why did you do it? You know, are you here for the girl or the lector? [00:43:10] Speaker A: I think that should be pretty obvious. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Grant is explaining, you know, what his plan. Wolf says, better me show it on the map, and tells him what part of the plan is, but as he's telling him, pulls a gun out of, you know, a drop holster in his ankle. On his ankle holster, you know, hits him on the back of the head. And this is where Bond says, red wine with fish. I should have known. [00:43:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:35] Speaker B: So, literally, the thing you were describing, Zack. [00:43:37] Speaker A: But it is too late. Wanting to figure it out before he got the drop on it. [00:43:43] Speaker B: Yes, but then we don't have a movie. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Well, then it's definitely not as exciting. But then. Okay, so, Christian, I know this is a question that's been asked about James Bond a lot. I'm going to ask it again. I know it's a cliche. Why doesn't Grant just kill him? Because he has the lecter. [00:43:58] Speaker B: He's about to kill him is what's happened. Bond plays with his ego and gets him monologuing. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Oh, I see. I see. No more questions. [00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:44:11] Speaker B: It's. It's. It's all about Grant's ego. He plays up his ego and, like, you know, this is where Grant reveals that it's not smersh that's going on here or that's doing all this. It's Spectre and the whole plot. Is that. All right, they've got film. Their encounter in the bedroom. [00:44:32] Speaker C: Sex tape. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Yeah, they've got their sex tape. They're gonna put it in her purse along with a note saying that. What was it? Oh, yeah, that, you know, if you don't, you know, marry me and bring me to this, to the west. I'm going to send this to every, you know, major news station, and then they'll discover both of their dead bodies. [00:44:53] Speaker A: So it's like a murder suicide plot. [00:44:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:55] Speaker B: Which will be a scandal on the British Secret Service. And on top of that, you know, they won't have a lector. [00:45:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. In addition to everything else. And they lost their best guy. So it's a total villain monologue, and he, like, explains the whole plan. [00:45:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:13] Speaker B: So he's trying to bargain with him, says, all right, you know, how much are they paying you? We'll double it. And then that doesn't work. So he says, you know, can I at least have a cigarette? I'll pay you for it. Like with, what, 50 gold sovereigns in the case? So there, he's using that other gadget. [00:45:30] Speaker C: Right. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Not bad. [00:45:32] Speaker B: And then Grant's greed gets the better of him. He says, is there more in the other case? And. Sure, should be a standard kit. So we noticed that when Bond opened it, he turned the latches horizontally before he opened it because his case was primed and he assumed that agent, the real captain Nash, is primed. Case was also primed. But Grant doesn't know this, so he opens it. Normally, it explodes in his face. [00:45:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:59] Speaker A: So the other case is, in fact the exact same as the one bond has. Very interesting standard issue. [00:46:05] Speaker C: Well, that's what Q says. [00:46:06] Speaker B: It's standard issue. Now they have their fight, the train fight. This is probably one of the best, most intense fights in the, like in a James Bond film. And they're still sort of chasing after this intensity. [00:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really good. It's like, probably the most memorable. This is one of the few parts from the movie I remember from when I saw it way back when Bond. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Uses the dagger that pops out of the case. So I think that's almost. That's pretty much all of the gadgets in the case. [00:46:32] Speaker C: Yep. [00:46:33] Speaker A: And again, I thought it would end with Grant going out the window, but that was not the case. It must be some other movie that I'm thinking of. [00:46:42] Speaker B: There's at least two where that happens on the train. [00:46:45] Speaker C: There you go. Read. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Now that I think about it. Yeah, there's quite a few of those, but, yeah. So it ends with Bond using Grant's own weapon against him, his garrote watch. [00:46:58] Speaker C: That's right. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Bond tries to wake up Tanya, who's still very groggy from the chlorohydrate, but wakes her up. And they take Grant's exit from the train. There's a stalled car on the tracks they used to get off the train and then they knock out his. Grant's ally and take the. Take his car. [00:47:19] Speaker C: So. [00:47:19] Speaker A: I'm sorry, there's a couple things here. [00:47:21] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead. [00:47:22] Speaker A: This is kind of like the Lord of the Rings, fellowship of the Ring, where in my memory, I feel like the emotional climax of the movie is when he kills Grant and then everything after. [00:47:31] Speaker B: This is. [00:47:32] Speaker A: First of all, I had no memory of it. And also, it's kind of like. [00:47:35] Speaker C: It's kind of like. [00:47:36] Speaker A: It feels like that's the end of the movie. [00:47:38] Speaker B: It's a lot. [00:47:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:40] Speaker A: I kind of feel like it's funny how Bonk is threatening to leave Tanya behind. Some action hero he has. I also like how he still has his hat the whole time. [00:47:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:47:49] Speaker B: I mean, he was a proper english gentleman who, you know, always had a hat. [00:47:54] Speaker A: It was this, the Kennedy years when. [00:47:56] Speaker B: Men stopped wearing hats all the time about there, so. Yeah. All right, so next we get what I refer to as the north by northwest scene. [00:48:06] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:48:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. I had zero, zero memory of this. It was totally new. [00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Bond is hunting your spectre army. Here's the start of it. Here's, you know, now we've got all these henchmen who are, first of all, in a helicopter trying to go after him, and he managed to use the sniper rifle against them. Blows up the helicopter. [00:48:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:30] Speaker A: I like how a lot of it was just him, like, run, run, dive. As the helicopter goes by. I was wondering what both of their plans were. Was the plan of the helicopter just to hit him, splatter him, as us halo players would say. And it was his plan just to run around until, I guess, he found a hiding spot. All right, Chris. [00:48:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:48] Speaker A: Now time for me to. I'm going to share one of my favorite quotes early because I hate it. [00:48:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:48:55] Speaker A: So he kills the chopper, and then he says, I'd say one of their aircraft is missing. [00:49:00] Speaker B: Is missing. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Like, what does that even mean? [00:49:03] Speaker C: Is it. [00:49:04] Speaker A: Is it a punishment? [00:49:05] Speaker B: It's trying to be, but it really isn't. [00:49:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:09] Speaker A: It's probably the worst thing I've ever. [00:49:11] Speaker B: Heard James Bond say, oh, I loved. [00:49:15] Speaker A: It because it was so bad. [00:49:17] Speaker C: It's. [00:49:17] Speaker B: It's good. Yeah. I think it was trying to be like, you know, there's this. Was it in doctor? No, there's the. The three blind mice guys, and they're in the hearse chasing after him, and, you know, they. When he knocks them off the road, he says something the effect of, I think they're on their way to a funeral. It was trying to be that, but it failed. [00:49:38] Speaker A: It's very direct. [00:49:41] Speaker C: Yeah, but, yeah. [00:49:42] Speaker B: So after that, we get to the Spectre boat, where we get the first instance of this organization does not tolerate failure. And I'm gonna kill the other person than you think. [00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you failed me for the last time. [00:49:57] Speaker B: It's all set up to have Rosa Kleb be killed, but instead, it's Cronstein. [00:50:03] Speaker C: Yep. [00:50:04] Speaker B: By the very iconic, you know, shoe dagger, which is great. [00:50:09] Speaker A: I love the shoe dagger. [00:50:11] Speaker B: And we get our next action scene, which is the boat chase. They're trying to make their way towards Venice when they get here. You wanted, you wanted a Spectre army. Here is a whole army full of, or a navy full of boats. [00:50:24] Speaker A: I was about to say that. [00:50:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:27] Speaker A: So this scene was great. I loved it. It should have been in the middle of the movie because a lot of these action scenes are like backloaded again. Still work in the kingdom. It's all good. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Also, you know, I have to mention this. The guy on the boat with the megaphone, there's a few scene, there are a few parts where he's talking when he's not holding up the megaphone, but his voice is still projected as if he's holding the megaphone. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Ooh, that's funny. It's like an error, mistake, if you will. [00:50:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:50:57] Speaker A: I liked how he kept trying to talk James Bond down. As if James Bond would ever do that. [00:51:02] Speaker B: And they're all, he's also like yelling at the boat, saying, you're shooting too close. You're trying to stop them not to kill him. [00:51:07] Speaker A: He's like, no, you idiots. No, you idiot, stop shooting him. But then we had a funny change. He said, bond, heave to. And my girlfriend says, what does heave to mean? And I wasn't actually sure. So. So I said, I think it means pull over when you're in a boat. [00:51:23] Speaker B: Something to that effect I actually don't like in context. That makes sense, I guess so. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Yeah. You don't really think about it. [00:51:32] Speaker C: No. [00:51:33] Speaker B: No, you don't. So we finally get them arriving in Venice. They're in a hotel room and we see Rosa Kleb disguised as a maid. And Tanya notices her and like panics. And then Bond realizes it as, you know, he's on the phone with someone and she pulls off the wig and pulls out a gun. They have a fight. She pulls out the shoe knife and he like, gets a chair. Like she's a lion and he's a lion tamer. [00:52:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I know. How else are you gonna stop him? With the, with the footnote? [00:52:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Manages to get her like against the wall with the chair and like his gun or. No, I think it was Rosa Klebs gun had fallen away onto the floor. And Tanya has that moment of, alright, who am I supposed to help? Am I helping Bond or I'm helping other Russia. And she ends up shooting Kleb. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Of course she does, because it's James Bond. [00:52:28] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. We end with a boat ride on. A boat ride through Venice, where, you know, they're about to make out. And then Bond. Tanya says, careful. Behave yourself, James. We're being filmed and there's, like, a tourist on one of the. One of the bridges overhead, I think one of the more famous bridges. I don't remember which one, though. And then he, like, remembers, oh, wait, not Nash Grant put that film in her purse. And he goes and looks at it and Tanya asks, what's that? I'll show you. And then he starts making out with her in the boat. He throws it overboard. And the most awkward, like, rear projection, like, waving goodbye. [00:53:13] Speaker A: Yes. That was really. I didn't realize that was what they were trying to do. [00:53:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:53:19] Speaker A: I also wondered if he was exposing the film. [00:53:22] Speaker B: No, it's. If it's already developed, it wouldn't be. Yeah, that's not. Yeah, it's. [00:53:26] Speaker A: No, that's not what was happening. [00:53:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:53:28] Speaker A: So do you remember my joke about how James Bond movies usually end with James Bond making out with a Bond girl on a raft? [00:53:34] Speaker B: I mean, that's really accurate for, like, all of the connery's. [00:53:38] Speaker A: This one was so close, but not quite there. [00:53:41] Speaker B: I mean, it's not always a raft. It's usually a boat of some sort, though, or there's a body of water nearby. [00:53:47] Speaker A: There you go. Head your bets and just say something on the water. All right, so now it is. So that's the movie. Thank you, Christian. Now it's time for our spy fact versus fiction. I can go first if you'd like. [00:53:59] Speaker B: Sure. I've got a lot of stuff, but I'll let you see what you've got quickly. [00:54:04] Speaker A: Something interesting about siamese fighting fish, which is blofeld has it, says when they start fighting, they do high energy attacks and then, like, decrease their behavior to save energy. [00:54:16] Speaker B: Interesting. All right. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Which is. Yeah, it's not quite as interesting as it sounds, so I'm going to skip that. There's a part where Bond holds up Tanya's little, like, band. Black velvet band ribbon. [00:54:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:30] Speaker B: Calls it her trousseau. [00:54:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:32] Speaker A: So do you know what a trousseau is? [00:54:34] Speaker B: I do, but I'll let you explain. [00:54:36] Speaker C: Okay. [00:54:36] Speaker A: So, Miriam Webster, the possessions, such as clothing and linens that a bride assembles for her marriage. I thought what that specific ribbon was, but apparently that's not the case. [00:54:48] Speaker C: Ah, yeah. [00:54:49] Speaker B: So it's. It's. Yeah, it's basically because they're married now, because you know, they're posing as a married couple. So that's her true self. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Venomversuspoisonlivescience.com. Comma, venom is injected directly by an animal, whereas poison is delivered passively, such as by being touched or ingested. [00:55:08] Speaker B: So it is technically a venom. [00:55:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:11] Speaker A: Well, the movie uses it correctly. That's what was impressive. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:15] Speaker A: All right, we have to get a faster venom or something like that. And then I was going to have something about honey trapping. But were you going to do that? [00:55:23] Speaker B: I have a little bit, but go ahead. [00:55:25] Speaker C: Okay. [00:55:26] Speaker A: So then finally, Wikipedia. Honey trapping. Honey trapping is a practice involving romantic or sexual relationships for gain, and it has a long history in the use of espionage. During the cold War, female agents called masno girls, or mosnos, were used by the KGB. It comes from the russian word mosno, meaning it is permitted, as these agents were allowed to breach regulations restricting russian contact with foreigners. In 2009, Mi five distributed a 14 page document to hundreds of british banks, businesses, and financial institutions titled the threat from chinese espionage. And it described a wide ranging chinese effort to blackmail western business people over sexual relationships. So, yeah, and then this is from my memory, I don't have a source, but I remember somewhere the KGB would use honey trapping, but America and the west would not because we thought it was unethical. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Well, thank you, Zach. What I've got for spy factors and spy fiction is. So first, I'll start off with a movie and book differences. So here's the interesting thing. In the book, the main villains are actually SMERSh, not Spectre. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Oh, did he not come up with that yet? [00:56:38] Speaker B: No, Spectre did not come out until Thunderball. And we'll get into that when we get to thunderball. But it's interesting that you mentioned in the, you know, in the movie how you're four scenes in and you haven't seen James Bond yet, other than fake James Bond. [00:56:53] Speaker A: Right. [00:56:54] Speaker B: He doesn't show up until a third of the way through the novel. [00:56:57] Speaker C: Ooh, nice. [00:56:59] Speaker B: So you have all this backstory in detail about Red Grant and who he is, how his father was. Was a rush, a strong man from Ireland, and his mother was. I forget. I don't remember what the backstory was. And then you also have sort of this different motivation for the plot. Instead of, you know, Spectre wanting to hit SMERSH and mi six against each other, it's really because SMErSH and the Soviet Union have had all these failures recently, and so they need something to really sweep, you know, sweep, you know, turn everything into in their favor. Bond is almost incidental to the revenge plot. Like he had come up against Mersh a few times in the novels. By that point. This is what, the fourth or fifth novel? I don't remember off the top of my head. Wait, actually, Doctor Cassin Royale, love and let die, diamonds are forever. Maybe the fourth, but. So yeah, he just happens to be the, like the perfect person they can use in the plot and it's not. They want it specifically motivated against him. Yeah, it's not possible. The lector in the book was actually called the Spector, but because of Spectre being involved with the plot, they had to change the name to the lector. Some of the order of events are moved around a little bit, but the biggest. And one of them, well, also. Yeah, there's, there is no helicopter chase, there's no boat chase. After, you know, Grant is killed, they make their way to Venice and this is where we get the biggest change. Well, one, Tanya's not in this scene and they are knowingly going after roast a club and. And so they go in, they're going after her and as the fight happens, Bond gets kicked in the shin and only. And it then revealed that there was a knife blade as he actually gets stabbed and he like falls over and the whole thing ends on a cliffhanger. [00:59:01] Speaker A: So I definitely like the movie better. The thing with Tanya having to decide who to shoot. [00:59:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's. But you know, just think it's like it is very much in the same vein of like the Reichenbach fall in Sherlock, the Sherlock Holmes mythology where Ian Fleming was sort of getting tired of it. So he decided to kill off his character but then realize, but then was convinced to bring him back. [00:59:24] Speaker A: How many books had come out before this one had? [00:59:27] Speaker B: I believe it was four or five. This is either the fourth or fifth book. I don't remember off the top of my head. So not a ton, but I mean, five books once every year. [00:59:40] Speaker C: There you go. [00:59:41] Speaker B: That's a lot for one writer. So he was getting tired of it. [00:59:44] Speaker A: Would you say an ending like that is a cliffhanger or a cop out, to use the phrase from Argyle. [00:59:52] Speaker B: I would say it's a cliffhanger. It is not a cop out because you have the entirely complete story and then you have that little thing. So into some other spy fact versus spy fiction. So the lector slash Spectre is clearly based on the Enigma machine, which we talked a lot about in the imitation game. So if you want more information about that, go back to that. We also you know, like we mentioned earlier, we smersh, we've seen specifically in the living daylights, where it's, you know, revealed that it sounds like General Pushkin has reactivated SMERSH. I do have a coda on everything we talked about in SMErSH there. Well, first I'll say that, you know, SMErSH stands for Smiret Spionam, which means death spies. Now, in an article from Newsweek in December of 2023, it's revealed that a politician, a russian politician named Andrei Gurulylov, has made remarks which said that basically to the effect that SMErSH had been reactivated, that they were sending it to create a department that works in the same way in what they refer to as the new territories, ukrainian regions, that Russia has overtaken. So SMersh lives again. [01:01:18] Speaker C: Yikes. Old school. [01:01:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:21] Speaker B: So also, Rocky, which is the drink that they drink at the Romani camp, is an alcoholic beverage made of thrice distilled grape pomace and flavored with aniseed. So it's very anise flavored, if that. Licorice sort of thing. I tried it for the first time about a month ago. It was very interesting. [01:01:45] Speaker C: Nice. [01:01:46] Speaker B: It's got so similar to Uzo in a way. [01:01:51] Speaker A: Never had either of them. [01:01:53] Speaker B: Oh, all right. [01:01:55] Speaker C: So. [01:01:56] Speaker B: But, you know, like, there's. Yeah, rock. Aram Bay says rocky, filthy stuff. It's very tasty. It's interesting. Like, I was given a tip, like, you know, don't drink it straight. You know, if they brought it to me with a cup, you know, in, like, a little carafe with a. And a cup and some ice and some. A carafe of water, and they said, you know, all right, the ice in the cup. Pour some in. It's going to change color when it hits the ice, and it gets more cloudy. [01:02:23] Speaker C: Wow. [01:02:23] Speaker A: It's like sitting on a Harry Potter. [01:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:02:27] Speaker B: The Itachi case. Now, this is, you know, basically the first gadget in the James Bond films, and it also was one of the most, you know, sought after toys. They made a toy version of it, which had the sniper rifle. It had the bullets. It had. What else did? Like, a past secret agent passport, decode. Decode coder book, and the knife that popped out. And it is one of the holy grails of James Bond toys. [01:03:03] Speaker C: I. [01:03:05] Speaker B: They used to come up for auction every now and then I, on eBay. I put out on a bid for $200. At one point, it went up to a couple thousand, and I was like, I can't. I'm not doing that. [01:03:17] Speaker A: I wonder if Dexter has one, he probably does. [01:03:21] Speaker B: The James Bond double oh seven online store. They recently, I think in the last year or two, maybe it's before the 60th anniversary, James Bond released a new version of it. But because they don't want us, you know, have guns and toy guns now it's a camera, like a spy camera. [01:03:38] Speaker C: Oh, man. [01:03:39] Speaker B: And, like, there's no bullets. Instead, they have the gold coins. So it's not quite the same. However, I. My source is in the spy museum, and actually, it's on my sources at the spy museum. And, well, not really just. Just my sources, but also a podcast from Spycast Museum's official podcast had Andrew Hammond, who we've had on. On the show before, talk about various things they have in their collection, and they mentioned that they have one of these toys. And I talked to someone else in the museum, not that they only have one. They have multiple. [01:04:15] Speaker A: All right, but what's the point of having them if you're not going to do anything with them? [01:04:19] Speaker B: Well, they want to display them. They're just very delicate. So they need to figure. They're trying to figure out a way to do that. I'm also trying to find out if there's a way that I can get backstage and just not. Not touched, but just see them, because that's. [01:04:30] Speaker A: Just let me see it. So I'm using them. Just let me see it. [01:04:33] Speaker C: Yes. [01:04:34] Speaker B: It's the. It's the holy grail of James Bond toys. [01:04:37] Speaker C: You know, like. [01:04:38] Speaker B: All right, so that's. That's the attache case. Also, that AR folding snipers rifle that they had in the case is a real gun. You used to be able to purchase them pretty easily. I think they've stopped producing them, though, so now you have to search if you want to find one. I did also, there was an auction that went up for, like, a toy version that I missed out on. Next we've got call me Bhuana. So call me Bhuana is a 1963 film starring Bond, Bob Hope, and Anita Ekberg. It is the only film made by Eon Productions that was not about James Bond until 2014, when they made another film called the silent storm. [01:05:23] Speaker A: That's great that it's an eon productions. [01:05:25] Speaker B: Like, in jokes, I feel like I'm trying to remember what it was in the. In the novel. I don't recall because it was not. Call me one. It was something else. Oh, here it is. Actually, it was a. [01:05:42] Speaker C: His. [01:05:42] Speaker B: Marilyn Monroe's face in a poster for Niagara. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Okay, I could see that. [01:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, next I have. So the bedroom scene where, like, Bond meets Tanya for every James Bond after Connery, that's been the audition scene that they've had to do, even in our modern era. Yes. Oh, yes. They've never released footage of any of the actual James Bonds who people were cast doing it. They've released footage of, like, people who almost got it. I believe they've got Burt Reynolds doing it somewhere. [01:06:17] Speaker C: Wow. [01:06:18] Speaker A: Really? [01:06:18] Speaker B: Like, on YouTube, maybe. I know he was sought after for. I think it was for one of them. Maybe it was for Roger Moore before Roger Moore. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting. Hang on really quick, because Burt Reynolds was also concerned for Han Solo, and his audition tapes are on YouTube. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe it's not. But I know that there are other people whose auditions are on there. There's footage of Daniel Craig doing that audition, but we don't actually get to hear it. [01:06:46] Speaker C: We just. [01:06:46] Speaker B: It's like it's in one of the documentaries about it, but, yeah. So that going forward is the audition scene that every James Bond actor or potential James Bond actor has done. [01:06:56] Speaker C: Mm hmm. [01:06:57] Speaker B: Now, you covered most of what I was going to about honey pots, but there's one other little thing that the. According to former c. And this from Wikipedia for according to former CIA officer Jason Matthews, the Soviet Union had a sex peonage school called state school. And they're trained their female ages to be swallows. Now, you may recognize the name Jason Matthews. It's because he wrote the novel Red Sparrow, which became the movie Red Sparrow. And of course, in that the name swallows was changed to sparrows. All right. And I've just got. Oh, yes. Few more things. Floral hydrate, which is what red Grant uses to poison Tanya, is a. You know, was first used as a sedative and a hypnotic in Germany in the 1870s. Now, we also talked about this, probably back in living daylights, where that's what. Not Tanya. What was her name in living daylights? [01:07:58] Speaker A: I don't remember. [01:07:59] Speaker B: It's gonna bug me. Well, that's what she used when she thinks that her boyfriend is. When James Bond gets a whole reveal of. You know, James Bond is actually not her boyfriend's friend. Poisons him with that red wine. With fish. [01:08:13] Speaker A: Yes. [01:08:14] Speaker B: So according to winepaths.com, generally speaking, a glass of white is the right way to go when eating fish. However, this rule does not apply to every and all occasions. The taste of the wine should never completely overwhelm and overshadow the food equally. The food should never overpower taste of the drink, as reds tend to be deeper and more richly flavored. Many write off the possibility of pairing it with fish. Hence the old saying, white wine with fish and red wine with meat. As an english gentleman in that era, you would not have done it. Now people are more flexible on pairing wines. And lastly, we have a JFK connection from Russia with love. So part of the reason why this was chosen for the second film is because in March 1961, JFK listed from Rushwood Love the novel as one of his ten favorite books. It was the only nonfiction book to hit that list. [01:09:10] Speaker C: That's right. [01:09:10] Speaker A: I think you only mean the only fiction one, but only fiction book. [01:09:13] Speaker B: Thank you. Yes. And it was also the last film that Kennedy saw in the White House prior to his assassination in 1963. [01:09:25] Speaker C: Hmm. Thanks. [01:09:27] Speaker A: That makes sense. [01:09:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So he was actually. It was also that. That endorsement from Kennedy that really sort of bumped up the sales of the James Bond novel. So without Kennedy, we might not have that surge in sales. We might not have ever had a James Bond film series. [01:09:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:44] Speaker A: It might be just like Jack Reacher, but. [01:09:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:46] Speaker B: And then I guess one thing that we do have to touch on is the actor for Kerem Bey, Pedro Armandarez. He had cancer during this film, and he was in great pain throughout the filming, but reportedly, you know, did it to ensure that his family had money after he died. So he had neck cancer, and then shortly after filming, he died by suicide. [01:10:15] Speaker C: Yes. [01:10:15] Speaker A: I read that story somewhere. I think I read that, like, he asked his wife to send him his, like, prize antique firearm or something and killed himself with that. [01:10:25] Speaker B: Um, I know that there was a gun that was smuggled into hospital. I don't know if that was the details. It could be true. [01:10:31] Speaker C: Yeah, it could be. Could be. [01:10:34] Speaker B: All right, so that's what I have for spy fact versus spy fiction. [01:10:38] Speaker A: Okay, next we have our favorite quotes. I have a few besides the one I already said that I like because it was so bad. So I can go first. Another one I liked because it was so bad was he blows up the boats and then he says, where there's smoke, there's fire. [01:10:54] Speaker B: It's not just that. He says, there's a saying in England, where there's smoke, there's fire. It is also bad. [01:11:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, they're. [01:11:04] Speaker A: I mean, whatever. It's bond. It's supposed to be bad. [01:11:07] Speaker C: Okay. [01:11:07] Speaker B: No, they're not supposed to be bad. [01:11:10] Speaker C: So. [01:11:10] Speaker A: See, grown ers anyway. [01:11:12] Speaker B: No, they're supposed to be amusing in a chain. Those were just bad. [01:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:17] Speaker A: So I like when he says grant. I like when he says to Grant, it must be a pretty sick collection of minds to come up with a plan like that. It sounds like something Batman from the old tv show would say. [01:11:27] Speaker B: It does. Yeah. All right. Yeah, yeah. [01:11:30] Speaker A: I like when he says, you sure didn't die of old age. About a couple others I did like when he says, mine, call me James Bond, because I didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not. I thought it was kind of funny. [01:11:44] Speaker B: Well, what was funny is when they awkwardly shake hands with, like, and her, like, trying to keep the sheet on her. Covering herself. [01:11:53] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. [01:11:54] Speaker A: And then it's like that whole exchange and the way he said it was funny. When he's with Sylvia and they gets the call and she starts, it's the office. He actually sounds, like, kind of nervous about and, like, upset, which is so weird to see from James Bond. But then my absolute favorite line in the movie was about the two girls, and they say, you're gonna resolve it, Bond. He says, as if I didn't have enough problems. [01:12:20] Speaker C: All right, how about you? [01:12:21] Speaker B: All right, so I've got a few. You took one of mine with the, you know, where there's smoke, there's fire. I also, like all my key employees are my sons. Blood is the best security in this business. From Grant. When he's telling Bond that, you know, I'm not gonna kill you slowly. Is it the first one won't kill you? Not the second, not even the third. Not till you crawl over here and kiss my foot. [01:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a little scary for me. I like the funny ones. [01:12:49] Speaker B: I also liked when they're at the Romani camp and, like, kerem Bey is translating everything, and then that they're saying. And then bond at certain point, stops him and says, yes, I think I got it without the subtitles. [01:13:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that was great. [01:13:06] Speaker C: Yep. [01:13:07] Speaker B: All right, well, that's what I've got. [01:13:09] Speaker A: All right, so now it is time for our ratings. On a scale of one to ten martinis, one being Avengers 1997 and ten being even better than Mission impossible, Ghost protocol, how would we rate from what she. Not the game or the book. [01:13:24] Speaker B: All right, Zach, let's hear it. [01:13:26] Speaker A: So I thought it was quite good. Not amazing, but I thought it was quite good. I liked how it was so different from other James Bond movies, how it was more of a traditional spy plot with scheming and the villains that are smart and they hold their fire, and it's more like escaping. And the villain was scary. The love story was weak, even by James Bond standards, which should tell you something. And I didn't love how all the action was backloaded at the end after the emotional climax and defeated the villain, but, you know, they're still figuring it out. So that's okay. So I thought was quite good. I will give it a seven and a half out of ten. [01:14:11] Speaker B: All right. All right. So obviously gonna go higher because this is me. This is one of my top three favorite James Bond films. I don't quite think it will get the ten out of ten, but it will get up there. So, because. And you say, you know, like, it is not your typical James Bond yet. It also sets so many of the trademarks that were not, like, were not apparent in Doctor. No, like your Q scene. You've got the final henchmen fight. You've got the, you know, scenes on trains, which is very much a James Bond staple. You've got killing, you know, the Spectre henchmen who fail. And then if you get the very first time, James Bond will return in next movie. And now this film is not only one of my favorites, it's also reportedly Sean Connery's favorite James Bond film. That's why he came back to do the video game. It's also Daniel Craig's favorite James Bond film. And, you know, it may not be the cookie Cutter James Bond film, but we don't want everyone to be that, and you want them to be different, to be exceptional. So I'm gonna give this. I'm nine out of ten martinis. [01:15:26] Speaker C: Very nice. [01:15:26] Speaker B: It's not all the way up there, but it's high up there, and it's really good. [01:15:31] Speaker A: I remember before we did the podcast, you were saying that you hadn't seen it in a long time and you were wondering if it held up, so I guess it did. [01:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely does. And it holds. Like, you know, there was stuff where I was anticipating it, but there was other stuff where it's like, I, you know, it's been a while since I seen it, so I actually forgot it. And I was pleasantly surprised by things. [01:15:53] Speaker A: Very nice. [01:15:54] Speaker B: How much, like, I've forgotten how much grant is there in the background. That really started stuck out to me this time. I really enjoyed that. [01:16:02] Speaker A: Very nice. That is definitely different, which I appreciate. All right, well, thank you for joining us. You can find us on social media at the spy Fi guys, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at our merch store as [email protected]. Dot. Until next time, I'm Zachary. [01:16:19] Speaker B: And I'm Christian. [01:16:20] Speaker A: And we are the spy fi guys signing off. [01:16:30] Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the spy fi guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on iTunes. The theme song from this podcast is mistake the Getaway by Kevin McClellan from incompetech.com, comma, licensed under creative compass by attribution 3.0. Films, books, and television shows reviewed by our podcasts are the intellectual property of their respective copyright holders and no infringement is intended. [01:16:56] Speaker A: This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements, or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those of people, institutions, or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. [01:17:21] Speaker B: You can find our podcast on social media at thespyfi guys on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.