You only live once: Epidemiologists analyze health risks in all the James Bond films

A graduate student in epidemiology working in the field leads a perilous life, as Wouter Graumans discovered when he came down with a serious case of food poisoning while visiting Burkina Faso to study infectious diseases. He may have also had a touch of delirium, as his experience prompted him to wonder how James Bond, Britain’s most famous secret agent, managed to travel all around the world without picking up so much as a case of the sniffles.

Graumans, who is working on his PhD at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, decided to undertake an epidemiological analysis of all 25 Bond films between 1962 and 2021. He found willing accomplices in Teun Bousema, an epidemiologist, and Will Stone, who studies malaria, both affiliated with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England.

The result is a highly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek short paper in the journal Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. The paper details 007’s exposure risk to infectious agents during his global travels, covering everything from foodborne pathogens to ticks and mites, hangovers and dehydration from all those martinis, parasites, and unsafe sex. (The authors’ emails requesting funding from EON Productions sadly went unanswered.)

Conducting the study meant rewatching all 25 James Bond films, representing a time investment of about 3,113 minutes per author—hours “that were not spent on more pressing societal issues or forms of relaxation that are more acceptable in academic circles,” the researchers wrote. In all, they counted 86 international journeys to 46 different countries and based their analysis on the Centers for Disease Control’s travel recommendations for each of those countries. They excluded Bond’s trip to space to attack Hugo Drax’s space station in Moonraker on the grounds that “travel advice for this region is currently unavailable.”

Foodborne pathogens are an obvious risk factor for global travelers (as Graumans can attest). For instance, in Live and Let Die, Bond faces a horde of hungry crocodiles on an island but manages to distract them by tossing pieces of raw chicken at them. But did 007 wash his hands afterward? He most certainly did not, being preoccupied with blowing up a drug lab and engaging in a daring speedboat pursuit. The authors note that raw chicken is known to sometimes carry bacteria like Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Clostridium, all of which can cause severe diarrhea.

What about 007’s famous penchant for martinis that are shaken, not stirred? We hardly ever see Bond drink anything non-alcoholic, according to the authors, yet he never seems to experience a hangover. He drinks orange juice in From Russia With Love, (poisoned) coffee in Dr. No, and saltwater in Casino Royale—the latter solely to induce vomiting after his drink (a Vesper) is poisoned mid-poker tournament. Apart from the constant risk of poisoning, Bond also risks dehydration, heatstroke, or sunstroke, since he engages in very strenuous physical activity, often in very hot environments, while eschewing sunscreen. He increases his dehydration risk even further in The Spy Who Loved Me by doing all of this in a black three-piece suit—hardly health-appropriate attire under the circumstances.

Then there’s the matter of sex. James Bond has always been quite the ladies’ man—Graumans et al. counted 59 “amorous activities” across 25 films for an average of 2.4 per film—and he’s not particularly diligent about safe-sex practices. He beds a woman in Thunderball within 20 minutes of meeting her, which leaves little time to exchange information on past sexual histories or preferences for contraception.