Bond blunder: how Spectre’s villain gets it wrong

by Terry Robson January 5, 2016

When you watch a feature film, especially a Hollywood, you suspend disbelief; if you spent your time in an action film or a rom-com questioning whether a character would really do that or if the laws of physics would allow something like that to happen then you would spend no time at all entering into the storytelling. While many Hollywood films rely on the audience entering into that suspension of disbelief contract there is no franchise that does it moreso than the Bond films. Since 1962 James Bond has been challenging the laws of physics and decency but in the latest Bond film, “Spectre”, according to a real neurosurgeon, it is the villain who has got his anatomy terribly wrong.

There are people who have "face blindness" and it is theoretically possible to impair someone's ability to see faces by damaging the brain.

SPOILER ALERT: if you don’t want to hear anything about what happens in the film “Spectre” then read no futher because we will talking about scenes from the movie.

The comments from the neurosurgeon have been published in an issue of the science journal Nature. In the film the villain Blofeld aims to erase Bond’s memory of faces. He correctly identifies a part of the brain called the lateral fusiform gyrus as an area of the brain responsible for facial recognition. There are people who have “face blindness” and it is theoretically possible to impair someone’s ability to see faces by damaging the brain but then Blofeld makes a crucial mistake.

In the film Blofeld decides to drill into Bond’s lateral fusiform gyrus and places the drill just below and behind the left ear. The problem is that drilling there, according to our neurosurgeon, would strike the vertebral artery and the bones of the neck causing a stroke or massive haemorrhage. In fact, the lateral fusiform gyrus is located just in front of the left ear.

If you have made the decision to watch a Bond film this anatomical discrepancy probably won’t disturb you as it occurs amidst a sea of improbably smitten women, amazingly accurate heroes, woefully inaccurate villains, incredible arch-ness on both sides, and explosions of inestimable dimensions. However, this little fragment of knowledge may provide the opportunity for some intellectual posturing over your post-film coffee.