James Bond isn’t afraid to commandeer aircraft, but is the current Bond – Daniel Craig – a pilot in real life too?
No, Daniel Craig is not a pilot; nor does he have a pilot license. In fact, he didn’t even have an international driver’s license for a few years before he moved to New York! His most famous character, James Bond, is quite the pilot though, so perhaps that is where the confusion comes from.
Read on to learn more about James Bond and his pilot skills!
Daniel Had to Take a Driving Course When He Moved to New York
James Bond may not exactly be famous for being a law-abiding citizen, but the actors who play him are not exempt from laws, especially in the United States. Daniel Craig moved to Manhattan, New York – along with his wife, Rachel Weisz – he did not have a driving license that was valid there.
According to US law, foreign citizens must – if planning to settle in the country – take a course on safe driving, and then pass a written exam as well as a road safety test, before being allowed to drive on the road.
Daniel took driving lessons at the Professional Driving School of the Americas on Staten Island. After a private five-hour lesson, he took both exams and passed them with ease.
James Bond Shows Off His Flying Skills in Many Movies
James Bond has not always been a star pilot. In fact, he hasn’t always been a pilot at all. In Ian’s Fleming’s original books, Bond did not know how to fly an airplane. However, the Bond we see in movies is at least somewhat of a pilot, although his skills have varied throughout the years.
For instance, in the earlier movies, whenever James Bond was seen at the controls of an airplane, he usually ended up crashing it. But each new film seemed to give him a supernatural ability to do anything, and so his flying skills improved as his stunts got more and more daring.
Some of these stunts have even been criticized for being outright impossible. For example, in the Spectre trailer, Daniel Craig’s James Bond is flying a helicopter and turns it upside down! That’s right, the helicopter performs a 360° corkscrew stunt, with Bond in the cockpit the whole time. While some people were upset because this stunt seemed ridiculous, experts weighed in saying that it could actually be achieved under certain conditions.
Reliving Bond’s Best Moments in the Air
Early James Bond fans could expect to see Bond crashing planes whenever he tried to take control of one. But Bond seems to have become a better pilot over the years. The first time we saw Bond wrestle with the controls of an airplane was in Goldfinger, and yes, he ended up crashing the plane into the ocean – right after he and his companion parachuted to safety. Iconic as this scene was, Bond did seem to improve his skills with the later films. Sean Connery’s Bond seemed to be the unlucky one when it came to airplanes; he was in two near-fatal crashes in this movie and You Only Live Twice.
In Live and Let Die, Bond does a bit better. He attempts an airplane escape, and while he is unsuccessful, he does not crash the plane – merely damages it a great degree. Bond is much more impressive a pilot in The Man with the Golden Gun, where he flies a plane through Thailand’s cliffs. In For Your Eyes Only, Bond shows us that he does not limit himself to airplanes – he flies a helicopter for the first time, taking control during a fight and making an actual landing this time!
Bond uses a jet to make a dramatic escape in Octopussy. He uses a seaplane to fly off with five million dollars of drug money in License to Kill. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond pilots two different airplanes in GoldenEye, and commandeers another one in Tomorrow Never Dies. Daniel Craig’s Bond brings things full circle by crashing a plane in Quantum of Solace, but – as discussed – above, he would go on to redeem himself with the helicopter stunt in Spectre.