James Bond is Science Fiction 1

James Bond is science fiction. Specifically, Space Opera.

Isn´t a noir story because there are never crimes to be punished, neither assassinations nor robberies. James Bond does not move in the slums like in crime stories. Bond only moves in VIP areas.

And that is exactly the settings of the Space Opera: wonderful and exotic worlds: Monaco, the French Riviera, beautiful and exotic cities like Milan or Venice, or strange like Mexico City. So are the planets in science fiction movies.

The villains in the James Bond films are like the villains in Space Opera stories.

The villains have unlimited resources. They own islands and space bases. They run transnational companies with offices and banks and factories all over the world. They have billions and billions of dollars at their disposal. They have dozens of assassins at their service and of course, private armies.

They are almost almighty. And, they are invisible and anonymous menaces. The very first thing Bond has to do is unveiled them. Until Bond reveals them, it is not understood who is behind the attacks, explosions, accidents, etc.

So are the aliens: very attractive to look at, but dumb: you never know why they want what they want, except that what they want going to destroy us, humans, so the Hero must destroy them.

Villains are inexplicable but very attractive to the eye: for their offices, for their weapons, for the castles and all the paraphernalia they have.

The villains in the Bond movies behave like aliens. They have resources like aliens. They are inexplicable, like aliens. The only difference is that they are human. But if that’s the only difference, we can dismiss it and claim that James Bond is a science fiction story.