As the latest Mission Impossible movie hits the screens in UK cinemas, it’s time to consider perhaps the best scene from spy movies of the past. While most of them turned out to be just about possible, this one did perhaps stretch the imagination a little bit. But this was the 1970s, this was the espionage genre at its best…. and this was James Bond.
The intrepid 007, played by Roger Moore, is skiing down a mountain when four hefty baddies, all armed of course, follow him with a view to making sure he doesn’t reach the bottom alive. They shoot at him several times without success, mainly due to Bond’s excellent ski skills. In close-up shots, the mountain looks suspiciously like a backdrop, but that’s all part of the charm, isn’t it? The bad guys turn out to be pretty incompetent at shooting, because they fail to hit the target even once, despite the fact that Bond is helpfully wearing a bright yellow ski-suit.
The man with the golden ski-pole
Eventually, 007 gets bored of being shot at, so he stops for a moment and looks backwards. As one of the henchmen approaches, our hero lifts up his ski-pole, which is also a gun (obviously!), and shoots the guy dead with a single shot. He then sets off again, barges into one of the hoodlums like a prop forward in a rugby match, before skiing off the end of the mountain, no doubt to fall to his instant death.
But wait – this IS James Bond, after all, and the movie has only just started, so surely he must have some sort of escape strategy. As he falls gracefully and silently through the sky, he suddenly opens his parachute and is saved, floating slowly to the floor under the canopy of his Union Jack ‘chute. As he descends, the opening titles begin, accompanied by the unmistakable voice of Miss Carly Simon.
Location, location, location
The movie goes on to tell the story of an advanced tracking system for submarines, and 007’s attempts to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. As you’d expect, the action takes place in several places, from Austria (where the ski scenes occurred), through to Egypt and Sardinia, too. Naturally enough, there is a secret underground base involved as well.
Mercifully, Bond manages to save the day and prevent a global nuclear war, and all without even getting a single hair out of place – remarkable. Opinions differ about whether Roger Moore was the best to play 007, of course, but few people would argue that the ski scenes in The Spy Who Loved Me weren’t among the most memorable of any Bond film.
About today's Guest Writer:
David Rice is a UK writer who has a special interest in espionage movies. He often visits the Online Spy Shop to look for his favourite gadgets. He likes voice recorders, vehicle trackers and software monitoring systems in particular.
007 - The Spy Who Loved Me - Ski Chase
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