Why are the James Bond stories named the way they are?

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by The Borgified Corpse, Oct 1, 2009.

  1. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    How do some of these James Bond stories get their names? Some are obvious, like Casino Royale, Dr. No, Goldfinger, From Russia with Love, & The Spy Who Loved Me. I know that The Living Daylights is a line within the original short story. But where do some of these other titles come from, like Live & Let Die? How did Fleming come up with them?
     
  2. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Well Live and let Die is just a riff on Live and let Live. As for the others, I dunno, Fleming just made them up I guess :lol: Wasn't Goldfinger named after a guy called Goldfinger who Fleming had had a falling out with, or did I imagine that!

    Quantum of Solace, lord knows how he came up with that!
     
  3. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Erno Goldfinger, a famous architect

    That's actually explained in the short story in question
     
  4. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Oh I know, but still it's an interesting concept to come up with, I love it. Thanks for confirming I'm not mad re Goldfinger!

    question is, was Mike Myers pissed at anyone called Goldmember...
     
  5. captcalhoun

    captcalhoun Admiral Admiral

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    The World is Not Enough got its title from the Bond family motto

    Goldeneye got its name from Fleming's home in Jamaica

    Tomorrow Never Dies was supposed to be called Tomorrow Never Lies as a reference to Carver's newspaper in the film.

    License to Kill was named after Bond's freedom to shoot people after 'License Revoked' tested badly.

    The Spy Who Loved Me was originally a short story in which a woman in a Canadian motel is hassled by thugs and Bond comes in and saves her. they boink and he's TSW 'loved' her.

    For Your Eyes Only is a reference to the classification level 'Eyes Only', typically to a general or station chief or what ever.
     
  6. Andrew_Kearley

    Andrew_Kearley Captain Captain

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    Fleming was just very very good at coming up with these elegant sounding titles.
     
  7. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Spy Who Loved Me was a novel, though Bond's appearance in the book amounts to a short story-sized chunk of text. Fleming so disliked the book that when he sold the rights, he sold only the rights to the book's title, resulting in a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with the book.
     
  8. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't think Felming disliked the book, I thought it was down to the critical slagging off it got pissing him off? I actually quite like it, its very different, even if as you say 007 is barely in it.
     
  9. Out Of My Vulcan Mind

    Out Of My Vulcan Mind Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Man with the Golden Gun has that title because it's about a man with a golden gun. :p
     
  10. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    Which seemed weird, that the filmmakers were legally forbidden from using any plot elements from the book, even ones they liked. (Although, IIRC, Jaws is loosely inspired by a villain in the book named Horror.)

    Yes, but what does that phrase have to do with that particular story?

    "The Quantum of Solace"!
    I don't know what that means.
    What does it mean?:guffaw:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CoNUE5Zho&feature=related
     
  11. Andrew_Kearley

    Andrew_Kearley Captain Captain

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    Well, specifically, it derives from a conversation Bond has with his American contacts about Mr Big - they say that his activities have mostly been within the black community and until they're ready to move against him, their policy towards him is one of "live and let live". Bond rejoinders by saying his own motto when facing a character like Mr Big is "live and let die" - one of the literary Bond's rare forays into humour. (It's in Chapter IV.)
     
  12. G2309

    G2309 Captain Captain

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    Tomorrow never Dies was meant to be called Tommorow never lies. Which I think is a far better title. But someone madea mistake with a press release and it stuck.

    Theres far too many titles with the word "Die" in it
     
  13. Marten

    Marten Captain Captain

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    People like death, apparently.
     
  14. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, in a series about a man with a licence to kill, that makes no sense whatsoever.
     
  15. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Quantum of Solace is a reference to the fact that even if Bond gets revenge against those responsible for Vesper's death, he won't get much satisfaction from it. Only a tiny amount - a "quantum" of solace.
     
  16. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

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    ^ And Quantum is the name of the organisation he's fighting against.
     
  17. doubleohfive

    doubleohfive Fleet Admiral

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    In the books, Doctor No explains his name: "Doctor" obviously comes from his advanced education; "No" comes from his own father's complete and total abandonment of Doctor No as a child.

    I've not read You Only Live Twice yet, but from the film alone the title's origin is quite obvious -- Bond is "assassinated" in the pre-titles tease, only to be "resurrected" for his mission.

    "The World is Not Enough" comes from the Latin translation, roughly modified from the direct translation "the world is insufficient," which is the Bond family credo, and seen on his family crest.

    That's the context of title in the film, there's more to it regarding the short story, and though it may not be as "exciting" a context as that for the film, the original context of the title from the short story is much more human, much more believable.

    The short story starts with Bond being bored and annoyed at having to go to some dinner at an island governor's house. There, after the party, Bond notices some chatterbox old lady and her husband, and is further annoyed by the simplicity of the evening. There's no excitement, no derring-do. Just coffee and dessert. BORE-ING. The governor tells him a story all about a woman who came to the island years ago as flight attendant and met one of his officers, a bookish, nerdy guy.

    Eventually they got married, but it wasn't long before she began running around on her husband, going from affair to affair while everyone on the Caribbean Island they lived on knew about it except her husband. This goes on for years until finally the husband goes away on assignment. He returns, and promptly explains to her in no uncertain terms that they will remain married publicly, but that they will sleep in different beds, she will do all the house-cleaning, and take care of the domestic responsibilities of home. They will not vacation together, they will not even eat together. He had lost all empathy and affection for her, and being that she was otherwise penniless, she had to comply.

    This goes on for years, after which the husband finally divorces her after selling off his house and property, and leaves her behind --broke, homeless and with nowhere to go. He's never heard from again.

    Bond then asks what happened? Why didn't the husband help her out, even if he was going to leave?

    The governor tells him there are some evils people commit that are so awful, so hurtful to us that they can't ever be forgiven. For a relationship to work, for a romantic relationship to work especially, both partners must have a quantum of solace -- that tiny spark of empathy for this person you love-- to continue to work through whatever hardships may arise. The officer clearly had reached a point, thanks to his now-ex-wife's shenanigans where the quantum of solace -- that last spark -- had been snuffed out entirely.

    Bond shrugs it off, but reconsiders when the governor reveals that the destitute flight attendant who had so horribly scarred her husband after all those years of cheating on him was in fact the elderly, chatterbox woman Bond had met earlier. Bond is renewed with enthusiasm about the more mundane aspects of life, seeing again that even though some people can put up a good facade, just underneath all of us is a dark underbelly of our baggage, our sins, and our mistakes.

    I might be misremembering some details, but that's the gist of it.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2010
  18. ToddPence

    ToddPence Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Quantum of Solace" stories are both attempts by Fleming to depart from the usual Bond formula. "Spy" has a female narrator, the only story in the Bond canon that is told from a first-person narration. "Quantum" was an attempt by Fleming to tell a story in a pastiche of his literary idol Somerset Maugham. There was really no reason for it to be a Bond story, but perhaps Fleming felt that it would sell better if Bond appeared in it. That considered, I'm surprised Bond didn't put in an appearance in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".
     
  19. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That's fascinating. I'm going to have to read that short story now. I've always been intrigued by the more human elements to the Bond mythology, which is why I like the Craig Bond movies so much because they tap into that human element more so than any of the previous Bonds in my opinion.
     
  20. Chrisisall

    Chrisisall Commodore Commodore

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    Yes, yes it is. Oh well.