21 replies to this topic

[tim partridge]

This really does sum up how out of touch the filmmakers were with the whole internet/computer theme of GOLDENEYE. Nerds play with pens?! That pen gimmick was seemingly only in the film to allow Bond to disract OO6 at the end with an explosion. Not only is the pen trick pose achingly unnatural looking, it's also a rather illogically laboured way of performing a non-event party piece. I get the rhythm of the double click, sure, and how convenient that Boris just so happens to have that habit when Bond needs to detonate the pen most. Very lazy writing.

It is funny how an exact replica of Boris' pen came included in the GOLDENEYE video boxset back in 1996. It's about the laziest piece of unwanted iconography from all of the Bond movies.

Oh, and is it just me or does Bond actually activate the pen when he's talking to Q, to the point where we should have seen it explode?

[David Schofield]

Come on! EVERY Bond gadget has a contrivance to get it used....

Ah, Mr Bond, you have an exploding briefcase. Let me try open it.

Ah, Mr Bond. You have rocket cigarettes. WOuld you like to smoke.

So, Mr Bond. You car has a passenger ejector seat. Allow me to put my man in it so you can shoot him out of the roof.

No, GE is no different with the pen-trick.

[dogmanstar]

Oh, and is it just me or does Bond actually activate the pen when he's talking to Q, to the point where we should have seen it explode?

Bond would have to click it one more time, right? OR does memory fail me?

[Daddy Bond]

Come on! EVERY Bond gadget has a contrivance to get it used....

Ah, Mr Bond, you have an exploding briefcase. Let me try open it.

Ah, Mr Bond. You have rocket cigarettes. WOuld you like to smoke.

So, Mr Bond. You car has a passenger ejector seat. Allow me to put my man in it so you can shoot him out of the roof.

No, GE is no different with the pen-trick.

Indeed, that's why, if Q returns, he should logically give Bond a gadget that would make sense for the assignment he is going on. It always irritates me (but only a little bit) when Bond uses the exact gadgets (and pretty much only the exact gadgets) that Q gave him earlier in the film - even though there was not always a logical reason why Q would anticipate that he use those particular gadgets on that assignment. The small SCUBA made sense in Thunderball, considering what Bond would likely be doing on that mission.

[doublenoughtspy]

A friend always complains about that issue - that Bond seems to have the exact unusual gadget at the right place at the right time.

But they've always made sense to me.

As Daddy Bond mentions - the rebreather makes sense for an aquatic mission.

Bond's parka makes sense for TWINE. It's not like he pulled out a desert pith helmet with gadgets.

Explosive pens have been issued since WW2 (though in those cases they were used as fuses to detonate larger explosives, rather than being a grenade) - I don't have a problem with the one in GE.

[tim partridge]

Come on! EVERY Bond gadget has a contrivance to get it used....

Ah, Mr Bond, you have an exploding briefcase. Let me try open it.

Ah, Mr Bond. You have rocket cigarettes. WOuld you like to smoke.

So, Mr Bond. You car has a passenger ejector seat. Allow me to put my man in it so you can shoot him out of the roof.

No, GE is no different with the pen-trick.

Nooooooooooooo, I disagree.

Any villain might plausibly try to open your briefcase.

Any villain might plausibly try to threaten you while in the passenger seat of a car.

A double click activated pen in the hand of someone else? Who is going to ever DOUBLE click any kind of a pen WITHOUT writing something? They had to design Boris' wholey unnatural pen habit, establishing his quirk in the earlier part of the film, just so it seemed remotely plausible for Bond to get out of the computer room pickle. I bet to some degree they built Boris' entire obessive, techno-nerd character around that pen, trying to justify why in hell he'd ever activate it with it's relatively complicated detonation process. Why not make it one click, even? It's just so awkwardly obscure and moment specific where Bond's fate depends entirely on unbelievable coincidence.

It always seemed extremely artificial that the extremely artificial nerd stereotype Boris was established so early on in GE, clicking his pen away in that grossly unnatural fashion. It actually feels like the filmmakers were trying to prove a bit of net-nerd commentary with that pen trick, rather than use it as a throwaway plot device, which they probably weren't. Again, if anything it just further illustrates how out of touch the Bond team were with their depiction of net/computer culture, aspiring to be a relevant "techno-thriller".

[Daddy Bond]

A friend always complains about that issue - that Bond seems to have the exact unusual gadget at the right place at the right time.

But they've always made sense to me.

As Daddy Bond mentions - the rebreather makes sense for an aquatic mission.

Bond's parka makes sense for TWINE. It's not like he pulled out a desert pith helmet with gadgets.

Explosive pens have been issued since WW2 (though in those cases they were used as fuses to detonate larger explosives, rather than being a grenade) - I don't have a problem with the one in GE.

I agree that there is nothing particularly special about the exploding pen, only that Q just happened to give him the exact gadgets he uses on the mission, some of which Q could not have predicted he would use (like the belt). Oddly enough, I am one that liked the fact that there was no chase sequence with the BMW in GE. I got a kick out of Q explaining the car to Bond and then Bond just drives the car, that's it.

[plankattack]

I kind of like the pen, myself......

Of course it a ludicrous one-trick pony, just the thing he needs at just the right moment. But how many Q gadgets aren't? The sonic ring from DAD? Come on now! And I am a stickler (I can't remeber the writer who first discussed the concept of the Bondian rules for gadgets) for Q giving it to him, and then using it later. Just whipping it out unannounced is lazy story-telling. Grappling hook watch in TWINE? Exploding watch in MR, I could go on and on. The cars and boats are one thing (we expect them to do something) but Bond getting in a pickle and whipping out the perfect gadget (the suctions pads in YOLT? WTF!) just isn't on!!!

I'll say this for the pen, the scene where it goes off is very well done, and Brozza plays it perfectly.

Wouldn't like to have one lying around on my desk though......

[Eurospy]

Out of all the gadgets used in other Bond movies, that pen always bothered me as well.

Suspense-wise, the "constant clicking of the pen at the finale" worked well, but still, the way it is inserted in the plot stretches it a bit for me. Boris' nervous tick felt too forced and way too convenient when it came to the use of the pen.

[Cody]

I agree that it's a bit goofy within the movie, but

A double click activated pen in the hand of someone else? Who is going to ever DOUBLE click any kind of a pen WITHOUT writing something? They had to design Boris' wholey unnatural pen habit

I do have this nervous pen clicking habit myself. GoldenEye might have planted the seed in my anxiety-riddled mind, so Boris may be to blame. But regardless, if I'm concentrating on something and there's a clickable pen within reach, I'm gonna be clicking the hell out of that thing. Possibly while also bouncing one leg and/or grinding my teeth.

[JimmyBond]

It's actually activated by three clicks.

[00Twelve]

Oh, and is it just me or does Bond actually activate the pen when he's talking to Q, to the point where we should have seen it explode?

"Three clicks arm the four-second fuse, another three disarm it."

Broz clicks three times, asks how long Q said the fuse was, then Q snatches it back and we hear him click it another three times as he says "Grow up, 007."

The time between arming and disarming really is just short of four seconds.

...

Why do I know this??

[Double-Oh Agent]

I don't see why so many are hung up on Q always supplying the right gadgets for Bond on his missions. If you're going to have gadgets in a film, you're going to use them, why else have them? Besides, the audience expects you to use them. Now, I suppose, how you use them is another matter.

As for Boris and the pen, I have no problem with how he plays with it. It seemed pretty plausible to me for his character. Sitting at a computer for hours on end, you'd expect him to have some nervous energy boiling up inside of him. He'd have to let it out some how and playing with pens does that. And he's such a computer whiz and gotten so good at doing the pen trick that he can do that and type with his other hand at the same time.

[sharpshooter]

How about a magic trick?

[Jaws0178]

00Twelve, don't feel bad. There are things I can rattle off that people ask me how I can remember crap like that. My fiancee complains that I can't remember important things but I can remember the most minute bit of trivia about all things 007.

[Scottlee]

I like the pen thing. I think it's one of GE's great scenes. It's much more interesting than say, the wrist darts in MR, where it was obvious how Bond would eventually use them. With the pen you immediately expect Bond to click it and throw the damn thing across an office at some point (boring), but when it comes to the crunch his pen is taken from him and he has to improvise. The moment when Boris is twirling the pen in his fingers is edge-of-your-seat stuff.

I've tried on occasions to do that pen trick and the best I can do is a slight variation on the theme which doesn't look as impressive. I wonder if Alan Cummings actually knew the trick before landing the part or if he to learn it?

[SpyGal006]

00Twelve, don't feel bad. There are things I can rattle off that people ask me how I can remember crap like that. My fiancee complains that I can't remember important things but I can remember the most minute bit of trivia about all things 007.

Aren't the 007 things, the most important? I don't understand.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eddie Izzard's take on his Jame's Bond bit...of all the gadgets that he was given, did he ever bring any back that weren't useful on a mission..."A watch that turned into a hamster...and jam trousers." Fantastic.

I always loved getting to see what Q had cooked up in the lab. And it only made it better when they were more realistic. 007's briefcase with the conceled knife (FRWL), Shaving Kit (L&LD), Dentonite Toothpaste (LTK)....plus the pen in GE. It's far more exciting to think what normal items could be turned into the coolest spy gadgets.

I liked the pen.

[marktmurphy]

A friend always complains about that issue - that Bond seems to have the exact unusual gadget at the right place at the right time.

But they've always made sense to me.

As Daddy Bond mentions - the rebreather makes sense for an aquatic mission.

Bond's parka makes sense for TWINE. It's not like he pulled out a desert pith helmet with gadgets.

How about Q 'winterizing' Bond's Aston Martin for his mission to, er, Tangier? Lucky Bond decided to go to chilly Czechoslovakia instead...

[staveoffzombies]

I like the pen thing. I think it's one of GE's great scenes. It's much more interesting than say, the wrist darts in MR, where it was obvious how Bond would eventually use them. With the pen you immediately expect Bond to click it and throw the damn thing across an office at some point (boring), but when it comes to the crunch his pen is taken from him and he has to improvise. The moment when Boris is twirling the pen in his fingers is edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Exactly. Q and Bond had no idea that pen would end up in someone else's hands...and it wasn't designed with the expectation that that would occur. It was made so that Bond would have access to a non-descript looking grenade if he needed to blow something up.

[Roebuck]

Suspense-wise, the "constant clicking of the pen at the finale" worked well, but still, the way it is inserted in the plot stretches it a bit for me. Boris' nervous tick felt too forced and way too convenient when it came to the use of the pen.

The unforgivable part is Trevelyan already suspects the pen is a weapon (picking it up and asking pointedly about Q) and still he lets Boris play about with it.

[Double-Oh Agent]

Suspense-wise, the "constant clicking of the pen at the finale" worked well, but still, the way it is inserted in the plot stretches it a bit for me. Boris' nervous tick felt too forced and way too convenient when it came to the use of the pen.

The unforgivable part is Trevelyan already suspects the pen is a weapon (picking it up and asking pointedly about Q) and still he lets Boris play about with it.

No he doesn't. When Natalya slapped Boris, he fell down, knocking a bunch of stuff off the table, including Bond's pen. Naturally, Boris picks up the first pen he sees, which is Bond's, and he's so upset with Natalya that he doesn't notice that it's not his pen. Meanwhile, Trevelyan has already taken the pen away from Bond so he's not that worried about it and is too pre-occupied anyway with GoldenEye's computer guidance system that he doesn't notice what pen Boris picked up either. Only Bond is aware of this. And Boris' constant clicking of the pen drives him and the audience nuts as the suspense ramps up. Great scene.

[00Twelve]

Suspense-wise, the "constant clicking of the pen at the finale" worked well, but still, the way it is inserted in the plot stretches it a bit for me. Boris' nervous tick felt too forced and way too convenient when it came to the use of the pen.

The unforgivable part is Trevelyan already suspects the pen is a weapon (picking it up and asking pointedly about Q) and still he lets Boris play about with it.

No he doesn't. When Natalya slapped Boris, he fell down, knocking a bunch of stuff off the table, including Bond's pen. Naturally, Boris picks up the first pen he sees, which is Bond's, and he's so upset with Natalya that he doesn't notice that it's not his pen. Meanwhile, Trevelyan has already taken the pen away from Bond so he's not that worried about it and is too pre-occupied anyway with GoldenEye's computer guidance system that he doesn't notice what pen Boris picked up either. Only Bond is aware this fact. And Boris' constant clicking of the pen drives him and the audience nuts as the suspense ramps up. Great scene.

Couldn't have said it better, DOA. One of my favorite gadgets, and a great little suspense scene to highlight it.