REBREATHER

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

A pocket-sized aqualung supplied to James Bond (Sean Connery) by Q (Desmond Llewelyn) in Thunderball. It holds four minutes of air, and Bond makes good use of it when he’s trapped in the shark-infested pool at the estate of Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi).

After filming was completed, Thunderball’s art director, Peter Lamont, received a call from a commander in the British Royal Navy who was having difficulty with a design for a Navy rebreather and wanted the scoop on the film’s unit. Lamont had to disappoint the naval officer by explaining that it was only a prop. It was not the first time that the military had become intrigued with a James Bond gadget only to find out it was a piece of movie magic.

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