Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Bond follows a man named Bert Saxby who is in possession of some stolen diamonds. He gets into his van and rides along until they enter a secret government base outside of Las Vegas. Inside, Bond poses as a scientist and steals them back. Here is where it gets interesting. Bond stumbles upon a sound stage in the base and the Apollo 11 moon landing is being filmed. The astronaut actors are walking and swaying their arms slowly as if they’re in space. When the security guards find Bond and he runs through the stage, the astronauts are urged to stop him but they keep moving like they’re on the moon and Bond eludes them. Even better than this is Bond then leaps into the driver’s seat for the Lunar Rover and drives out of the base. A chase then begins in the desert. Bond in the lunar rover with two police cars and three miniature three-wheeled motorcycles in pursuit. The staging is so peculiar and the music doesn’t match the scene that it might be the most out of place and unintentionally hilarious moments from the entire series.
Live and Let Die (1973)
One of the first Bond films I ever saw, so I will always have a soft spot for it. There are a lot of great moments in the film, but there isn’t a clear great Bond moment until the end of the film. While fighting with Kananga in his lair, the pair of them fall into the shark occupied water. Inside the water their struggle continues and Bond takes one of his compressed air bullets, removes the pin, and shoves it in the unsuspecting Kananga’s mouth. Forcing him under the water makes the bullet expand the air inside Kananga’s body, shooting him to the roof of the lair. He shoots out of the water like a balloon and looks like Violet Beauregard from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” He happens to explode when he touches the ceiling. Bond shrugs off these fantastic events with, “He always did have an inflated opinion of himself.”
So if you’re ever talking about Bond with people and want to sound like you know what you’re talking about and also a crazy person, just mention ‘That time Bond made a guy inflate like a balloon and he exploded’.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Bonus moment: The return of Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
