Although I'm pretty sure the life of an actual spy is far from glamorous, that's not what the movies would have us believe. Sure, sometimes we get to see fictional spies at their lowest — but far more often, we see them jetting to far-off and exotic locales, dressing in tuxes and gowns while undercover at fancy clubs and casinos, and — of course — drinking like proverbial fish. And hey, if you've ever wondered how much alcohol James Bond drinks, the good news is, we have an answer. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it's a lot, but, well… it's a lot.
Yesterday, Redditor anticafard posted an infographic listing every single drink 007 consumes in each of his films in the r/Movies subreddit. While an impressive feat of booze-spotting, it wasn't exactly the easiest thing to read; so, a couple of other Redditors took the infographic and improved on it: AnonymityIllusion gave each film its own line, and luke_in_the_sky fixed the spacing. The results are — to say the least — fascinating.
So: How much does Bond drink, and is it possibly too much? Let's take a look.
Since 007 is British, his alcohol use would be governed by the UK's Department of Health recommendations, rather than those from any U.S. organization. That means that he should really be drinking no more than 21 units of alcohol per week and no more than four units per day, wherein a unit is calculated by multiplying the number of milliliters in a drink by the percent of alcohol by volume, then dividing the whole thing by 1,000. He should also have at least two alcohol-free days a week.
It might be kind of hard to judge whether or not Bond stays under the 21 units per week and four units per day limits — movie time doesn't run the way real time does, and to be honest, I'm not even sure how many days, weeks, or months the events of most Bond films take place during. The good news, though, is that if we assume all the films take place over at least a week, he's generally under the 21 units limit; the exceptions are Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he consumes 22 units, and Casino Royale, in which he consumes 26. However, this assumption may be erroneous;I believe, for example, that Casino Royale largely takes place over a few days, rather than a week. Furthermore, each of these tallies only takes into account the drinks he consumes onscreen (let's face it: Bond probably drinks even more offscreen). I'd be willing to bet that he rarely goes alcohol-free two days a week, too. The poster child for not drinking on the job, he is not.
Some other fun facts I gleaned from the infographic:
- Bond's least boozy film is License to Kill, in which he drinks only four units of alcohol throughout the entire movie (for the curious, those units are covered by two glasses of champagne and a vodka martini).
- Although he's known for drinking vodka martinis, shaken (not stirred), Bond doesn't drink them in every film. Five films are martini-less: Goldeneye, A View to Kill, For Your Eyes Only, The Man With the Golden Gun, and From Russia With Love.
- Bond drinks a ton of champagne. The only films in which he doesn't have at least one glass of bubbly are Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever.
- He also prefers red wine over white; in fact, he drinks about twice as much red as he does white.
Check out the full infographic below. Cheers!
