Bond's death-defying licence revoked

As the world's most suave secret agent, James Bond has survived 23 films while barely breaking a sweat.

Witness Skyfall, the most recent 007 outing, in which Daniel Craig's only concern after jumping from a digger on to a moving train was to readjust his shirt cuffs.

If Bond's adventures were true to life, however, he would have lasted seven minutes into that film before meeting his death.

A panel of medical professionals has concluded, unsurprisingly, that action films are not very true to life.

In the case of Skyfall, the moment Bond is shot with a depleted uranium shell seven minutes in "would have turned his lungs inside out and killed him".

Even if he had survived that, the uranium shell fragments "would greatly increase his cancer risk". And the rest of the film does not treat him kindly. Removing a bullet from his shoulder in a spot of DIY surgery "risks blood loss, lack of consciousness, nerve and muscle damage and the infection risk is huge".

Falling from the roof of a train into a river, one of the film's great setpieces, "could sever his spinal cord or break his neck", not to mention the dangers of drowning. Grenade explosions at the climax of the film would leave Bond with perforated eardrums.

As for a scene at the end in which Bond wrestles a henchman underwater in an icy Scottish loch, the chances of him surviving that would be pretty low: "Fighting means he would use oxygen quickly so it's improbable he'd get out in time. Hypothermia would set in very quickly and he'd struggle to move."

The doctors offered their opinions in a feature for Total Film magazine.

The magazine also asked medical experts to assess other popular films. They concluded that Bruce Willis' character, John McClane, would not have survived Die Hard. When McClane is shot in the shoulder "there'd be a fair amount of blood loss".

Photo / Supplied

Skyfall injuries

7 mins

Bond is shot in the chest.

12 mins
Bond is shot, falls off a train roof and lands in a river 80m below.

31 mins
Bond removes a bullet from his shoulder.

1hr 54mins
There are gunfire and grenades at his Skyfall estate.

2hrs 2mins
Bond sinks into icy water.

2hrs 23 mins
Length of film.

7 mins
Estimated time of death.