6. How Did Bond Survive The Fall From The Train?
Skyfall As the opening credits of the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, begin to roll, Bond himself has just been shot by a fellow agent and has fallen from a train into the river a long way below. Whilst this drop looks as if it could very easily have the potential to be fatal for someone who has simply fallen into it, let alone been shot, there is a plausible explanation as to how he could have survived the fall. Firstly, when the bullet strikes Bond, he immediately freezes and falls from the Train, likely knocked unconscious by the force of the blow, which probably saved his life. It is not impossible for people to have survived large falls simply because they have been unconscious and so have not been able to tense their bodies through sheer panic and fear, making them a lot less likely to shatter bones and internal organs upon landing, especially when landing in water as Bond does in the film. For examples, we only need look as far as the Twin Tower attack of 9/11, in which a Man named Pasquale Buzzelli was knocked unconscious when the building collapsed, but was eventually recovered by Firemen above a pile of rubble with only a fractured foot and minor scrapes and bruises. Although there is still a debate as to which floor he was on when the building collapsed, he believes it was the 22nd floor whilst a clerk who was with him claims it was the 13th floor, it is still a significant drop to survive with such few injuries, especially when a whole building was collapsing around him at the same time. Bond only had to fall into water, not onto and around a pile of rubble. How he managed to survive drifting down the river without drowning is another matter, but to be fair he does seem to be floating rather convincingly the last time we see him and who's to say how long it was before he awoke again and dragged himself out of the water, or was at least dragged out by someone else. He is James Bond after all.