The name’s bond, chemical bond

An image showing a James Bond-inspired poster

Source: © Jennifer Dionisio @ Début Art

Kathryn Harkup explores the poisons – real and fictional – used in Bond films

The latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, has been postponed twice already and is now due for release in September 2021. The anticipation, as always, has been very high. Every new 007 film has to live up to, if not exceed, its predecessors. Explosions get bigger, stunts get more intricate and plots often get more ridiculous, only to be scaled back to basics and the cycle starts again. To satisfy the audience’s craving for fast-paced entertainment, details such as credibility and accuracy sometimes need to be sacrificed. But this is far from a complaint: I’m not expecting a chemistry lecture. My expectations of a Bond film are thrilling action sequences, narrow escapes and sinister supervillains, which they deliver in spades.