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What's Gardner's best action scene?


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#1 whiteskwirl

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 12:43 PM

What action scene (and from which novel) is your favorite? What about the scene makes it so good?

#2 coco1997

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 03:37 PM

While Benson wrote action scenes much better than Gardner, there were a few I really enjoyed, such as the helicopter chase midway through "SeaFire." "Icebreaker" and "FSS" have some great ones, as well.

#3 zencat

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 03:43 PM

The rally race in For Special Services is pretty terrific. Also the o-kee-pa ritual at the end of Brokenclaw.

#4 whiteskwirl

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 04:04 PM

The rally race in For Special Services is pretty terrific. Also the o-kee-pa ritual at the end of Brokenclaw.


I just checked out For Special Services from the library today. I'm looking forward to to reading it.

#5 OmarB

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 05:05 PM

I really dig the. Climaxes in LR on the plane. Also the whole Bond Vs Brokenclaw was pretty painfull

#6 Trident

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 06:06 PM

As memorable action scenes go Gardner has had a few. My favourite is from LR, Bond's escape from Murik Castle (that right, Murik Castle???). It's reminiscent of Bond's escape from Blofeld's Piz Gloria. Bond steals a means to manipulate the electric locks of his room. Lavender provides him with a loaded old duell pistol. On his way out Bond runs into Cavendish (?), Murik's servant. He shoots him with the pistol and runs for his SAAB, started up by his remote control. There follows a shoot-out with Murik's men and a car chase SAAB vs. BMW M1. A helicopter finally manages to force Bond's SAAB off the road and into a field where drainage works wreck the machine.

Other memomarble scenes:
from IB - SAAB vs. snowplough
from FSS - the 'pre-title sequence' with Bond and SAS men (always faceless figures, bit of a let down) preventing a hijacking
from ROH - the training drill at Erewhon with live ammunition
from BC - the o-kee-pah ritual

#7 whiteskwirl

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 06:10 PM

As memorable action scenes go Gardner has had a few. My favourite is from LR, Bond's escape from Murik Castle (that right, Murik Castle???). It's reminiscent of Bond's escape from Blofeld's Piz Gloria. Bond steals a means to manipulate the electric locks of his room. Lavender provides him with a loaded old duell pistol. On his way out Bond runs into Cavendish (?), Murik's servant. He shoots him with the pistol and runs for his SAAB, started up by his remote control. There follows a shoot-out with Murik's men and a car chase SAAB vs. BMW M1. A helicopter finally manages to force Bond's SAAB off the road and into a field where drainage works wreck the machine.

Other memomarble scenes:
from IB - SAAB vs. snowplough
from FSS - the 'pre-title sequence' with Bond and SAS men (always faceless figures, bit of a let down) preventing a hijacking
from ROH - the training drill at Erewhon with live ammunition
from BC - the o-kee-pah ritual


The snowplough in Icebreaker is probably my favorite so far, but I had forgotten about that scene in License Renewed until you described it. That was a good scene.

#8 AMC Hornet

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Posted 01 June 2010 - 07:22 PM

The first one that pops into mind is the climax to Nobody Lives Forever. All hell breaks loose as Bond is brought before Tamil Rahani, and Bond just steps out of the way, as he is the only one expecting it (note to SPECTRE: never leave your helpless leader alone when your worst enemy is on the premises). His treatment of Nannie Norrich is pretty brutal, but not undeserved and it suits the mood of the scene.

Apart from that, the climax of Role of Honour made up for the slow pace of the book, as did that of No Deals, Mr. Bond.

From my own experience in 1977 I have to say, it seems like every writer who sees kids flying kites on the lawns in front of Fortress El Morro in San Juan gets an idea for an aerial assault on the installation. I changed the details in a story of my own after seeing Sky Riders later that year. Still, it supports the axiom that great minds think alike (I also saw a cool Canadian Club ad in Playboy in '76: "If you space the Asgard, before you hit the powder, hit the silk!" Again, I had to change my story a year later).

#9 Double-Oh Agent

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 07:27 AM

As memorable action scenes go Gardner has had a few. My favourite is from LR, Bond's escape from Murik Castle (that right, Murik Castle???). It's reminiscent of Bond's escape from Blofeld's Piz Gloria. Bond steals a means to manipulate the electric locks of his room. Lavender provides him with a loaded old duell pistol. On his way out Bond runs into Cavendish (?), Murik's servant. He shoots him with the pistol and runs for his SAAB, started up by his remote control. There follows a shoot-out with Murik's men and a car chase SAAB vs. BMW M1. A helicopter finally manages to force Bond's SAAB off the road and into a field where drainage works wreck the machine.

Just to clear things up, Donal is the butler's name. Cavendish was Hugo Drax's butler in James Bond And Moonraker.

Anyway, as to the thread, some good choices there and my top picks have pretty much been mentioned.

1. Bond and four SAS men take down some in-flight terrorists at the beginning of For Special Services.
2. Bond unknowningly participating in a live exercise at SPECTRE training camp Erewhon in Role Of Honor.
3. The explosive climax in Nobody Lives Forever.
4. Gardner's take on The Most Dangerous Game when Bond is pursued by the four "Robinsons" near the end of No Deals, Mr. Bond.

If I had to choose one, I guess I'd go with the Role Of Honor one. It's exciting, and once the live shooting starts, you don't know how Bond is going to escape.

#10 Trident

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 08:38 AM

As memorable action scenes go Gardner has had a few. My favourite is from LR, Bond's escape from Murik Castle (that right, Murik Castle???). It's reminiscent of Bond's escape from Blofeld's Piz Gloria. Bond steals a means to manipulate the electric locks of his room. Lavender provides him with a loaded old duell pistol. On his way out Bond runs into Cavendish (?), Murik's servant. He shoots him with the pistol and runs for his SAAB, started up by his remote control. There follows a shoot-out with Murik's men and a car chase SAAB vs. BMW M1. A helicopter finally manages to force Bond's SAAB off the road and into a field where drainage works wreck the machine.

Just to clear things up, Donal is the butler's name. Cavendish was Hugo Drax's butler in James Bond And Moonraker.

Anyway, as to the thread, some good choices there and my top picks have pretty much been mentioned.

1. Bond and four SAS men take down some in-flight terrorists at the beginning of For Special Services.
2. Bond unknowningly participating in a live exercise at SPECTRE training camp Erewhon in Role Of Honor.
3. The explosive climax in Nobody Lives Forever.
4. Gardner's take on The Most Dangerous Game when Bond is pursued by the four "Robinsons" near the end of No Deals, Mr. Bond.

If I had to choose one, I guess I'd go with the Role Of Honor one. It's exciting, and once the live shooting starts, you don't know how Bond is going to escape.



Thanks, I knew there was something not quite right about Cavendish/LR. Donal it is!


The thing that keeps the Erewhon drill from going higher on my personal list is, it's somehow not entirely logical. If you spend a lot of funds, time and energy on training a private army, it makes no sense setting them against each other with live ammunition just for the sake of an exercise, however 'real' it's supposed to be. I'd have wished for a more logical reason for things happening this way, maybe a duell between Bond and the terrorists.

Also Bond's reaction to the 'surprise' that his adversaries are potentially lethal is illogical. If he assumes he's 'thrown to the wolves' with a gun loaded merely with blanks, why didn't he try out first? And if the rounds in the first magazine are blanks (they were not), why ever would the other hidden magazines in the building contain live rounds?

That's what spoilt the fun of this particular scene for me.

#11 David Schofield

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 09:28 AM

As memorable action scenes go Gardner has had a few. My favourite is from LR, Bond's escape from Murik Castle (that right, Murik Castle???). It's reminiscent of Bond's escape from Blofeld's Piz Gloria. Bond steals a means to manipulate the electric locks of his room. Lavender provides him with a loaded old duell pistol. On his way out Bond runs into Cavendish (?), Murik's servant. He shoots him with the pistol and runs for his SAAB, started up by his remote control. There follows a shoot-out with Murik's men and a car chase SAAB vs. BMW M1. A helicopter finally manages to force Bond's SAAB off the road and into a field where drainage works wreck the machine.


For a few days I've been trying to think of Gardners action scenes to contribute to this thread, but LR apart its been such a long time since I read them.

And, of course, you're right about the escape from Murik Castle.

Top stuff and reminscent of Fleming, right down to the writing.

Every re-reading of LR makes me smile at just how much - for a continuation author - Gardner was trying to get the feel and flavour of Fleming down, at least back with his first book(s).

LR really is a Bond classic and head and shoulders above anything that has followed.

#12 whiteskwirl

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 03:00 PM

Reading For Special Services, and so far the action is underwhelming. The airplane cabin scene at the beginning would have been okay if it had been written with some excitement; as it is, it just seems very run-of-the-mill. The elevator scene lacks sufficient tension to be interesting. I know Bond is going to make it out okay, but it seemed too easy, too quick.

#13 Jim

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 04:01 PM

Rather partial to the (extremely bloody) hospital shoot-out in Scorpius. An unnervingly cold-blooded book, Scorpius.