NUMBERS AND FIGURES IN THE JAMES BOND SERIES

This is a list of some of the numbers and figures that have meaning from various points-in-time in the James Bond series.

1 minute and 52 seconds: The amount of time it takes SPECTRE assassin Donald Grant (Robert Shaw) to track and strangle the phony James Bond in the From Russia with Love pre-credits teaser.
2 moles on the left thigh: The method by which 007 (Sean Connery) recognizes Domino (Claudine Auger) in Thunderball. He spots the identifying marks when she climbs into her motorboat.
2 white dots: The familiar animated logo designed by title specialist Maurice Binder for the first James Bond film, Dr. No, in 1962. The logo is featured in each film in the series. Accompanied by John Barry’s staccato signature 007 theme (which was continuously reorchestrated by succeeding composers), two dots—simulating the view down the scope of a sniper’s rifle—roll across the screen, merging into one dot through which James Bond takes his patented walk. The dot itself then takes on the characteristics of the inside of a gun barrel. At a given point, 007 turns and fires at the screen, triggering a red shroud that slowly covers the dot. As it wavers and begins to sink, indicating the death of the sniper, the single dot reappears, through which we see the first scene of the movie’s pre-credits teaser. In the first three James Bond movies, which were projected on the screen in the 1.85:1 ratio—referred to in film jargon as “flat”—stuntman Bob Simmons portrayed James Bond. When Thunderball was planned as the first 2.35:1 widescreen Bond film—referred to in film jargon as “scope,” for “Cinemascope”—title designer Maurice Binder was forced to create a new version of the 007 logo. He asked Sean Connery to take the patented “walk and fire.” Since then, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig have all taken the walk in the dot.
4 jacks: Winning hand of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) against Bond’s full house (kings over aces), which cleans out Bond early in the no-limit Texas hold’em poker tournament in Casino Royale. Bond thought Le Chiffre was bluffing because he twitched—what Bond determined was the man’s “tell.” Unfortunately, 007 has been betrayed by one of his allies, who alerted Le Chiffre prior to the hand.
4 minutes: The amount of time on the counter when Mr. Ling (Burt Kwouk) activates the atomic device that’s set to explode inside Fort Knox in Goldfinger. When the bomb is deactivated, the timer stops, fittingly enough, at 007—even though Bond (Sean Connery) quips, “Three more ticks and Mr. Goldfinger would’ve hit the jackpot.” Four minutes is also the amount of time that Bond (Roger Moore) has left to stop World War III when he enters the shattered command center of the Liparus supertanker in The Spy Who Loved Me. During Bond’s rush to change the trajectory of the soon-to-be-launched nuclear missiles, a technical blooper occurs in the dialogue regarding the time remaining. Only ten seconds after the Liparus’s skipper (Sydney Tafler) says four minutes remain until the launch, Commander Carter (Shane Rimmer) says only three minutes are left.
4.2mm: The unusual caliber of the automatic pistol used by Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in The Man with the Golden Gun. Its bullets are custom manufactured by a Macao gunsmith named Lazar (Marne Maitland).
6 hours: The amount of time that the Disco Volante, the yacht belonging to Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), was out of Nassau Harbor on the night of the A-bomb hijacking in Thunderball.
13 Gs: The amount of force that Bond (Roger Moore) endures in the sabotaged centrifuge trainer in Moonraker. According to Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), a normal human being will black out at 7 Gs.
58 days: The number of days it took to shoot Dr. No in 1962. It is also the exact number of days, owing to bad weather in Switzerland and a complicated script, that On Her Majesty’s Secret Service went over schedule in 1969.
58 years: The amount of time the entire American gold reserve will remain radioactive if Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) successfully explodes an atomic device inside Fort Knox, Kentucky, in Goldfinger.
98.4 degrees: The correct temperature for serving saki, according to James Bond (Sean Connery) in You Only Live Twice.
106 minutes: The running time of Quantum of Solace, the shortest Bond film to date. No Time to Die is the longest at 163 minutes. Note: Running times tend to be much longer now, due mostly to the lengthy closing credit roll, which includes virtually everyone who worked on the film.
$1,000: The amount of money paid to author Ian Fleming by CBS in 1954 for television rights to Casino Royale. The resulting one-hour dramatization, starring Barry Nelson as James Bond, was telecast live at 8:30 pm EST on October 21, 1954, as the third entry of the network’s Climax Mystery Theater, an anthology series hosted by actor William Lundigan.
5,000 pounds: The value of the gold bar loaned to 007 (Sean Connery) by the Bank of England, which becomes the prize in his high-stakes golf challenge match with Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). The bar was smelted in 1940 at the Weigenhaler Foundry in Essen, Germany. It was part of a smelt of six hundred ingots that were lost in 1944, near the end of World War II, but are now rumored to be lying at the bottom of Lake Toplitz in Austria’s Salzkammergut region.
$6,000: Actress Ursula Andress’s salary for playing Honey Ryder in Dr. No—$1,000 a week for six weeks’ work.
$15,000: According to the terms dictated by James Bond (Sean Connery), it’s the amount of money that Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) must lose to Mr. Simmons (Austin Willis) in the rigged Miami Beach gin game in Goldfinger. Otherwise, 007 is calling the Miami Beach police.
22,000 pounds: Both Sean Connery’s salary for Dr. No and George Lazenby’s salary for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
41,000: The number of US Army troops guarding the gold depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in Goldfinger. One of the gangsters who attends the “hoods convention” assembled by Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) mistakenly guesses 35,000.
45,000 feet: Cruising altitude of the doomed NATO jet bomber in Thunderball. Hijacked by SPECTRE mercenary Angelo Palazzi (Paul Stassino), it will drop below radar and land in the fictional Golden Grotto near Nassau, Bahamas.
50,000 carats: The weight of the huge diamond cache that James Bond (Sean Connery) will smuggle from Amsterdam to Los Angeles in Diamonds Are Forever. Surprised when Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) mentions the size of the cache, Bond, posing as diamond smuggler Peter Franks (Joe Robinson), whom he’s just killed, calculates that at 142 carats to the ounce, that’s “a lot of ice.” That “ice” will eventually fall into the hands of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray), who will use it to power his laser satellite. Bond/Franks receives $50,000 for smuggling the diamonds into the US.
$115,200: Insured value of the jewelry worn by Talisa Soto to play Lupe Lamora in Licence to Kill. The antique chokers, bracelets, and rings were supplied to the production by a Los Angeles collector/dealer. Her name: Sheila Goldfinger.
$500,000: What United Artists offered American producer Charles K. Feldman for the screen rights to Casino Royale in 1965. He refused and produced his spoof version two years later. It’s also the value of the red poker plaque with which James Bond (Daniel Craig) tips the dealer after he wins everything in the Texas hold’em game in Casino Royale.
$1.25 million: Sean Connery’s salary on Diamonds Are Forever. To entice him back into the 007 role, United Artists production executive David Picker also agreed to finance two films of Connery’s choice. Other elements of the unprecedented offer included a percentage of the film’s profits and a provision that if the film went over its eighteen-week shooting schedule, Connery would get an extra $10,000 a week. The enormous length of the Bond production schedules had always irritated Connery, who did not like to spend so much of his time devoted to one project. Diamonds Are Forever was finished on schedule, sparing UA the extra cash outlay for its star.
$115 million: The amount in the final poker tournament pot in Casino Royale. Bond (Daniel Craig) beats Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) with a very impressive straight flush (4-5-6-7-8 of spades).
$280 million: The amount of ransom that SPECTRE demands from NATO after hijacking two atomic bombs in Thunderball. In English currency in 1965, this amount translated to 100 million pounds sterling. The ransom, to be paid in flawless blue-white diamonds weighing between three and eight carats, was then to be dropped in the Mergui Archipelago off the coast of present-day Myanmar.
$15 billion: The amount of gold deposited in the Fort Knox gold repository when it becomes the target of Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) and his Operation Grand Slam in Goldfinger.