The scenes where Bond sneaks around places - hotels, enemy bases, even his boss’s house - are highlights of the series. What is about them that makes them tick - and our hearts race? Do we experience these episodes differently if we have reasons to feel fearful in our own lives? How much is the music responsible for their effectiveness? And what are Licence To Queer readers’ favourite sneaky scenes?

We’ve all had a go at being Sneaky Bond, right?

We can be in a hotel room. The first thing we do upon entering is look it over, identifying places where our enemies might have located listening devices. And there’s never a grape around when you need one...

We can be boarding a train. Before taking our seat, we surreptitiously scan the other passengers’ faces to see if anyone holds our gaze for just a fraction of a second longer than they should. Ah yes, there they are! Clearly an agent of a foreign power. We’ll just pretend we’ve not noticed them noticing us. We can inform our contact at the border and have them taken care of (permanently?).

We can be walking a familiar street, weighing up the possibility that there’s an operative of SMERSH or SPECTRE waiting for us around the next corner. It’s only by an effort of sheer willpower that we hold ourselves back from forming guns with our fingers and finding suitable cover.

And every time, the soundtrack in our heads is the same: a reduced tempo, stripped-back version of the Bond theme. The perfect accompaniment to any Sneaky Bond moment.

The science of sneaking

James Bond Radio presenter Tom Sears, who is synonymous with the term Sneaky Bond, says it is “quite possibly my single favourite flavour of Bond” and it’s hard to disagree. We can all relate to these scenes because (however macho some may profess to be) we all feel fear. Of course, a threat in real-life is usually not very pleasant, but it can be fun to experience fear vicariously, especially when we put ourselves in the shoes of someone as knowledgeable and capable as James Bond.

Whenever we sense a threat, our emotions take over. The amygdala, an almond-shaped set of nuclei in the primordial part of our brain, gets our body ready for whatever happens next. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, getting oxygen and glucose to our muscles. Our pupils dilate and our breathing accelerates. At the same time, a less primitive part of our brain - the hippocampus - is working overtime, evaluating the extent to which the threat is real. Our thoughts and emotions are vying for control.

Feeling anxious is natural but being stuck in fight or flight mode for too long is extremely injurious to our physical and mental health. Something I’ve noticed is whenever my mental health is on a downward slope I find myself unable to fabricate Sneaky Bond moments in everyday life, or have much of a creative spark of any sort. This is only to be expected: the fight or flight response shuts down the more creative parts of our brain to conserve resources. Real-life threats take precedence over imagined ones.

Potential threats

I consider myself to be extremely privileged that my life is not constantly being endangered by conflict or famine, as so many millions are around the world. I’m also not a woman or belong to an ethnic minority group and therefore, statistically much less likely to be attacked on the street. However, as a queer person, I do have a heightened sense of danger that I believe strengthens my connection with any scene where Bond is being Sneaky.

This may be difficult for non-queer people - even those living in countries where we are said to be ‘equal’ - to get their heads around. Gay author Matthew Tood puts it like this:

“Homophobia is always a possibility. No matter how many parties we go to with our heterosexual friends, we know there might be someone present who is uncomfortable with us. Like the Terminator, we learn to scan new environments for potential threats. Can we be ourselves? Do we have to tone down our mannerisms? Can we mention our partners? … We become hyper-aware of our surroundings, continually assessing where we are, questioning whether we are safe, in a constant state of fight or flight.” - Straight Jacket: Overcoming Society’s Legacy of Gay Shame

Todd cleverly uses the analogy of James Cameron’s killer robot. But machines can’t feel fear and even when Bond is doing his utmost to be a Blunt Instrument, he’s still a human being.

Across my lifetime, it’s easier for me to think of situations where I have not felt under threat, as a gay man, than when I have felt under threat. A handful of very specific situations stand out to me: brief periods where I have not been hyperconscious of my gayness and how it might be perceived by others - and what their response might be. And although I have only been physically and verbally attacked a handful of times to the degree that I have felt compelled to involve the Police, these are enough to make a simple act of walking down the street with my husband as stressful as smuggling a Lektor out of the Russian embassy. The questions that stream through my mind as I scan my environment can be exhausting: Do I hold his hand? Will it give us away? Is what we’re wearing enough to have done that already? Are we exposed? Who’s driving that car? Are they going to throw something at us? Will that group of people at the end of the street say something untoward when we walk past them? Will they attack us? Who else is around in case they do? Could we fight them off by ourselves if necessary? Will someone step in to stick up for us or are we on our own?

Most of the time, nothing happens. But there’s always that possibility.

Constant jeopardy

You might think I’m torturing the analogy, but one of the reasons I believe I connect so much with James Bond is this feeling that he’s permanently at risk. Sebastian Faulks, who wrote his own Bond continuation novel, identifies constant jeopardy as a vital ingredient in Fleming’s writing. Fleming thought carefully about how we experience fear, even when nothing bad actually happens. When we anticipate a threat only to learn that there was nothing to be afraid of in the first place, we may feel relief or we may feel ridiculous, or a combination of both. It’s something Fleming captured right from the start of his superspy’s career and he returned to several times. Even so, Bond’s reward for being cautious when entering hotel rooms is self-ridicule:

“Bond knew exactly where the switch was and it was with one flow of motion that he stood on the threshold with the door full open, the light on and a gun in his hand. The safe, empty room sneered at him.” - Casino Royale, Chapter 1

“His hand on the gun under his coat, Bond softly approached his door. He turned the key and kicked the door open. The empty room yawned at him.” - Dr. No, Chapter 6

Being sneered or yawned at by an empty room is hardly the end of the world. But it never happens in the films: there’s always someone or something waiting for Bond, whether it be friendly or not.

Even on those occasions when find out it’s a false alarm, the human body’s response is the same. Even when we know we are extremely unlikely to come to any harm - on a rollercoaster, watching a horror film, observing a caged predator in a zoo - there’s still enough danger for our evolutionary programming to kick in and get our hearts racing.

The music of dread

Sneaky Bond can play delightful havoc with our body chemistry. And whatever’s happening on screen, it’s the music which is significantly responsible for filling us with dread.

A 2015 academic study attempted to unpick why many of us (at least half of us and probably closer to four fifths) experience a pleasurable aesthetic chill from listening to particular pieces of music. This ‘frisson’ was especially pronounced when a piece of music featured a prolonged build up of tension which was then released. Although they did not use any Bond music in this particular study, they did use a piece from film composer Hans Zimmer, so it may be worth repeating the experiment with the score for No Time To Die. Certainly I would recommend that any future studies include Sneaky Bond selections from the scores by John Barry and David Arnold.

Not being well-versed in musicology, I sent Chris Wood (aka @bondonvinyl) a list of my favourite Bond tracks which had the ‘frisson’ effect on me and asked him if there were any similarities from a musical standpoint.

“The common thread is for sure minimal instrumentation - scaling back to low end brass and high strings and not utilising full orchestra. When you think ‘sneaky’ you think quiet. When someone says be sneaky and creep up on someone you automatically step on your tip toes and put your finger on your lips and it’s the exact same concept with the musicality, you can’t pull off Sneaky Bond at full capacity; it wouldn’t give the same feel. Also there’s no major and no minor notes being played (it doesn’t feel happy, it doesn’t feel sad) just ominous.”

One of the tracks I sent in my list to Chris, which also happens to be one of my favourite Bond cues ever, was Barry’s Bond meets Bambi and Thumper from Diamonds Are Forever.

“This is the perfect example of sneaky Bond. It’s the slow tempo and the light touch of the ride cymbal slowly building over the three-note Bond theme motif that makes it feel so under the radar and suspenseful. Sprinkle the Diamonds melody over the top and you have yourself a winner.”

Furthermore:

“The Living Daylights’ ‘Final Confrontation’ always feels Diamonds-esque to me, the stabs at 0:33 in particular! I think what makes this cue so sneaky is the lack of instrumentation and again, slow tempo.”

When it came to David Arnold’s music, Hamburg Break-In was top of my Sneaky Bond list.

“This could be straight out of Goldfinger in my opinion. Those high strings give the sense of anticipation and the interplay between the brass and percussion coming in sporadically ensure you don’t relax… at 1:15 we get the glorious Bond Theme weaved in with a real kit but this quickly dissipates and is quickly replaced with electronic syncopated beats which time stamp the 90s. The synthesiser effects sprinkled over this track screams technical espionage!”

Casino Royale has a high quotient of Sneaky Bond moments but it’s the scene where Bond hacks M’s computer in her apartment which always stands out to me. The cue that plays in this scene is Arnold’s Unauthorised Access.

“Unauthorised Access does something incredible: deep in the mix we have a heartbeat which makes the track feel much more personal and tense. The end note does not resolve, it leaves the listener on tenterhooks… as anyone would feel when being sneaky!”

Whether consciously or not, Arnold replicated in musical form what is going on in our bodies when we watch the scene.

I also asked Chris about my favourite homage to Bond music, Michael Giacchino’s score to The Incredibles (Barry was asked to score the film himself but declined). In particular, I get the chills whenever I hear the cue Kronos Unveiled, which Chris described as a “beast” of a track: “It’s got You Only Live Twice vibes, like Capsule In Space.” Giacchino’s also employs a ‘heartbeat’: an ostinato on harp (the same instrument used in Capsule In Space) that sounds more and more insistent as it goes and the character on screen, Mr Incredible, gets inexorably drawn into danger.

These pleasurable aesthetic chills that music can cause, which result in us sometimes getting literal goosebumps, have sometimes been labelled ‘skin orgasms’. Little wonder then, that so many of us cannot get enough of Sneaky Bond.

Sneaky selections

I asked Licence To Queer readers for their own favourite Sneaky Bond moments. Here are some of their selections along with my commentary, presented in mostly chronological order.

Goldfinger opens with Bond sneaking into a heroin factory by wearing a dead bird on his head, an invention of gay screenwriter Paul Dehn (Bond’s regular writer Dick Maibaum was more in favour of a dead dog… which is significantly less amusing). It’s a favourite moment of @bearclawbillie: “UGH Bird On The Helmet Connery is *iconic*”. Goldfinger is a popular choice, featuring as it does extended stalking sequences with Bond scoping out Goldfinger from a distance. The alpine drive sequence culminates in Bond overlooking Goldinger at his factory, where he overhears him discussing Operational Grandslam. Later, Bond learns all about what the Operation entails, peering through the windows of a model of Fort Knox. @ShaggyTheTyke observes that “On each occasion, serendipity ensures he encounters what the plot needs him to overhear.” Reuben Wakeman (Toys of Bond) loves these scenes too. They are “all good spy stuff” and he also picks Bond breaking into Goldfinger’s Miami Beach hotel room as a favourite.

Bond does a lot of sneaking around in Thunderball and John Barry’s music is some of the sneakiest in the series. The sequence in Shrublands where he discovers the pilot’s body is a highlight for @twd78.

The Really 007 boys “Love it in You Only Live Twice when Bond poses as one of Osato’s injured men by putting on the hat and mask, and feigns injury to avoid being detected by The Rock’s grandad” [performer Peter Maivia]. In this fifth outing, Connery spends most of his time in some form of disguise or other, something I have analysed as selling the whole death/second life idea that is at the forefront of Fleming’s novel but more subtextual in the film. The closest the film comes to bringing this theme to the surface is when Bond tries to sneak aboard Blofeld’s rocket posing as an astronaut and embarks on what would certainly be a suicide mission (RetroCaptain1 concurs with my interpretation).

It’s surely no accident that one of the most furtive of the films, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was directed by a gay Englishman only two years after homosexuality was partially descriminalised in his home country. Bond spends 40 film minutes in the guise of an outwardly respectable (gay) genealogist creeping around Blofeld’s lair. Bond’s sneaky escape from Piz Gloria is a favourite of @iknowthezarbi and it’s hard to disagree. Fellow gay Licence To Queer writer Sam Rogers (whose favourite Bond film is OHMSS) adores it also: “That build up of tension leading to the spectacular ski chase is executed brilliantly!”

Surely the most sustained sneaky Bond sequence in all of the Bond films is the Hitchcock-like break into Gumbolt’s office in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a scene with such queer energy it requires Bond to reassert his heterosexuality by passing the time flicking through an issue of Playboy. This scene was cut out of several versions of the film entirely and is still chopped out of some TV broadcasts today. The scene is a favourite of @mrjohnnyandrews and @uturndriving.

Being sneaky doesn’t always mean you have to break a sweat. Lazenby’s Bond escapes Gumboldt’s office with only seconds to spare but he is himself unaware. Only we, the audience, know how close he came to being discovered. This is the key difference between suspense and surprise. As the Master of Suspense himself succinctly put it: “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” More prosaically: you create tension by giving the audience the right amount of information and let them fill in the blanks. The key to great suspense-making is deciding how much information is too much or not enough.

Bond films are masterclasses in suspense, particular in their final acts, with bases exploding over a period of time, protracted fights to the death and literal ticking time bombs with deceptively long fuses (another thing we can credit Paul Dehn with bringing to the series). But their middle portions are more in the realm of mystery, where more information is withheld.

@JasonSt72 admires Connery’s cool in a classic scene of mystery in Diamonds Are Forever. Even in a film where Bond is rarely ruffled by anything, it’s a standout: “It's a small moment, but I like Connery on top of the elevator in DAF. The casual rose sniff/leg crossing feels like him recapturing vintage cool Bond. Sneaking doesn't have to be uncouth!”

Bond doesn’t have a clue what he will find in the penthouse and neither do we. If only we could all be that cool while stepping into the unknown! @JBondPersuader also likes Bond swinging around outside Willard Whyte’s penthouse, shortly before he discovers Blofeld is posing as the reclusive billionaire.

I have always found Live and Let Die’s climax to be an unsettlingly tense affair, with Bond voyaging into the unknown of a voodoo ceremony (although we, the audience, have seen a similar sequence already and it’s this which makes us dread what happens next). When Bond almost stumbles into Kananga’s lair, the drug lord’s hospitality is eerily at odds with his intent: we know it can only end one way for Bond and Solitaire. It’s a favourite too of @TapwaterAlice.

The Man With The Golden Gun is more kinky than sneaky, with Bond acquiring a third nipple to do double duty as Scaramanga (a scene selected for delectation by @DomJBrown). It’s a film bound up with duality and the final mirror-festooned act explicitly provokes the audience, as Scaramaga attempts to provoke Bond, into questioning identity.

Moonraker contains many sneaky scenes, including (as @MarcusPetaja observes) a sustained section in the middle act where Bond sneaks into the glass factory and then surprises Goodhead in bed.

Octopussy is extraordinarily sneaky - and sometimes funny with it. “Sir Rog with a ‘tache”, as featured in the pre-titles sequence, is @NeilNicholson_’s personal favourite Bond disguise. Robbie Sims highlights Bond “perving from Octopussy’s bushes” from the shadows as a Sneaky Bond moment, although one which gay men like ourselves are less likely to feel a ‘frisson’ about.

Startled birds is a Bond film trick to get our hearts racing since Dr. No and they feature prominently in all five of John Glen’s films. In The Living Daylights he adds monkeys into the mix in the pre-titles. It’s back to birds in the finale however, with Bond upsetting some pigeons as he sneaks into Whitaker’s Tangier villa, another selection of @MarcusPetaja. @RetroCaptain1 really likes the sequence in The Living Daylights “whilst he's observing the opium being handled… especially when he gets into the truck and hides in it for a bit.”

“Dalton infiltrating the WaveKrest is top-tier Sneaky Bond” for @KevBot_007 and Tim sneaking around Krest’s warehouse is a favourite of both Steve Spring and Maddy @TimeForAFilm.

Maddy also adores Bond breaking into the facility at the start of GoldenEye, a Sneaky Bond sequence that is surely a favourite of anyone who also played the similarly stealthy GoldenEye 007 video game.

@TapwaterAlice admires the skilful way Xenia steals the Tiger helicopter and enjoys Brosnan’s sneaking around the luxury yacht preceding the theft.

The build up to the reveal of Bond in the pre-titles of Tomorrow Never Dies really gets the adrenaline flowing for Carl @ListeningToFilm, as does 007’s break into Carver’s lab. Carl also chose the surfboard segment of the Die Another Day’s pre-titles as well as Bond break into M’s house in both Casino Royale and Skyfall.

What are your favourite Sneaky Bond scenes?

What did we miss?

How about something from Dr. No, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, A View To A Kill, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Quantum of Solace and Spectre, none of which appeared in anyone’s list?

Leave your comments below or join the discussion on twitter or Instagram @licencetoqueer

Sneaky Bond

The science of sneaking

Potential threats

Constant jeopardy

The music of dread

Sneaky selections

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The enduring appeal of Arnold's aurally androgynous Bond scores