According to a former member of the CIA, three of the gadgets used by Daniel Craig’s James Bond in No Time to Die are indeed based in reality. However, that does come with a few caveats. Apparently, the James Bond movie franchise isn’t exactly accurate in terms of how they’re utilized. Dawn Meyerriecks, who previously served as the deputy director of the CIA’s science and technology department, reviewed a number of gadgets in popular action movies, including the Mission: Impossible series and No Time to Die.

In a video posted online, Meyerriecks discussed three gadgets in the latest James Bond movie, specifically the Aston Martin car and its machine gun weaponry, 007’s high-tech watch, and the “smart blood.” Meyerriecks expressed that she liked the general concepts behind all three, but according to her, all of them are inaccurate at least to some degree in terms of their execution [via YouTube].

CIA Expert Praised The Basic Ideas Of The Gadgets, But Cast Doubt On Their Real-Life Utility

No Time To Die’s Gadgets Are Too Flashy For Real-Life

Dawn Meyerriecks offered an in-depth analysis of all three gadgets. In regards to the Aston Martin, Meyerriecks expressed skepiticism when it came to such a vehicle being equipped with machine guns. While conceding that the CIA is willing to modify cars to fulfill a specific purpose, she said that she doesn’t anyone who would try such a task with an Aston Martin. It’s a luxury vehicle, whereas the CIA would prefer to use – in Meyerriecks’ words – armored cars that are “nondescript” and can blend in with others. That makes sense, considering they would draw less attention that way.

I love the whole idea, but no tech ops officer that I worked with would have said, “Oh yeah, let’s put machine guns in the Aston Martin.” We do modify cars and trucks, and all sorts of things. But it has to really focused in what the mission needs. So the armored cars, we do have armored cars, right, but they’re pretty nondescript, we try to make them blend in, because if you attract attention, particularly official attention, you’re in a bad place. Case officers would love to be given Aston Martins to go do their mission. We do not do that either. At the end of the day we are a government organization and that would probably not be an appropriate use of tax payer dollars.

So the high tech watch, is, I think the right idea, in terms of what we will modify.We really look hard at the environment we’re operating in and we don’t want them to stand out, right? You don’t want a big ostentation watch if you’re in a poor country with very little in terms of commercial goods. So what we really try to do, what’s the persona that we’re creating? What’s the profile we’re creating?

So the Q Branch that’s demonstrated here is very, very similar to the work, the human work, that Science and Technology did. But I had the privilege of running the Science and Technology organization and we did two main functions. I talked about technical collection piece, but we also supported the human operations, the documents, the disguise, communication devices, all of those gadgety things that you’re all familiar with if you watch movies at all. The challenge, I think, with the smart blood, is that there’s an implication that it emanates. If you’re emanating, you’re trackable. And very often we’ll choose to be safe and just not do that. And we’ll perform overwatch more classically with people on the street or literal overhead of whatever domain kind of thing.

It would seem that the same logic applies to the watch. Apparently, a watch is exactly the sort of the tech the CIA would make modifications to in order to suit a mission’s needs, but it would do so in a discreet manner. As for No Time to Die’s “smart blood,” it too has a basis in the CIA’s methods, but it lacks practicality, as it’s safer to just keep tabs on an agent using more conventional methods, and not something that’s “trackable.“

What This Means For No Time To Die

The Lack Of Accuracy Doesn’t Ruin The Movie

While Meyerriecks’ comparison between real-life technology and what happens in No Time to Die does poke holes in the film, is hardly a scathing criticism of its use of science and gadgets. Essentially, all this goes to show that these three gadgets in No Time to Die weren’t exactly made-up, but were simply dramatized and made more flashy. That’s not surprising for a Hollywood action movie; a “nondescript” armored car in the film might have been more believable for the story, but it wouldn’t have been as “cool” as what took place onscreen.