33 Brilliant James Bond Details in 007 First Light

Warning: spoilers for 007 First Light follow. Proceed with caution.

It may not surprise you to hear that 007 First Light has its fair share of spycraft Easter eggs. From deadly gadgets seen in James Bond movies to more subtle nods to the world of real-life espionage, IO Interactive has layered in treats for the most casual and nerdiest of fans alike. We’re not pretending to have found close to all of them here, but what we do have is 33 brilliant little details from the world of Bond and beyond.

1. What better place to start than with 007 himself? James Bond’s facial scar is a detail from Ian Fleming’s original novels that has been borrowed for Patrick Gibson’s in-game model. Described as a three-inch line above the cheek in the books, it’s never officially explained how he came to sport such a feature. Incidentally, no on-screen Bond has borrowed this detail before, aside from Pierce Brosnan, who actually has a similar scar above his mouth that he gained while filming Tomorrow Never Dies.

2. The most obvious Bond movie Easter eggs in First Light come under the legacy collectibles banner. There are nine to find, and some are well hidden away, so we’ve only discovered six so far. The first one you can find is during the Iceland prologue, where James can pick up a golden key with an eye shape in it. This is one of the keys from, you guessed it, GoldenEye, which are needed in order to launch the satellite weapon.

3. Another is a pair of smart shoes with a sharp dagger hidden in the sole of each. These are replicas of Soviet-turned SPECTRE agent Rosa Klebb’s signature weapon from 1963’s From Russia With Love.

4. From the same era, a Trilby Hat can be found in the wearables area of Q later in the game. The first on-screen Bond, Sean Connery, often sported this headwear over the course of his seven films as 007.

5. In Vietnam, you can take a little extra time nosying around Ramon Hernandez’s villa at The Pearl resort and find a deck of Tarot cards. All portraying the Lovers, this is a reference to Live and Let Die and Roger Moore’s encounter with tarot reader, Solitaire.

6. If you pop into the Kensington gala cafe for a quick break, you can also grab a poster for a concert featuring a Czechoslovakian cellist. This is a nod to Kara Milvoy from The Living Daylights.

7. Elsewhere in First Light, you can find a Blades Club Badge. The Blades is a fictional gentlemen’s club from the novels that M is a member of, as well as Hugo Drax, the villain of Moonraker.

8. Though not officially a legacy collectible, when wandering around Aleph’s black market, you can find a box containing prosthetic gold fingers, belonging to Lenny Kravitz’s Bawma. This is obviously a reference to Goldfinger, and its big bad, Auric Goldfinger.

9. Another type of collectible is the playing cards found throughout each level. These are Swiss-German, and of the same style James Bond played with his mother, Monique Delacroix, when he was a boy in the books.

10. Sticking with Bawma, he also owns a Jaguar Type 00. There’s a long lineage of Jaguar cars appearing in Bond films, but interestingly, James has only ever driven them on one or two occasions. They almost exclusively belong to villains.

11. You’re much more likely to find 007 behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, as happens twice in First Light. The Yellow DBS used in the Slovakia mission is a shout-out to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and the Valhalla armed with machine guns and missiles is from Daniel Craig’s final film, No Time to Die.

12. The Transworld Consortium is a fictional business from the Bond books used as a cover for MI6. It first appeared in The Man with Golden Gun novel.

13. Similarly, Universal Exports was the central London cover building for MI6 in the books until Blofeld learned all about it, and they had to rebrand to Transworld. Universal Exports is still used as the cover business in the movies, though.

14. Inside MI6, you’ll meet M’s secretary, Ms Ponsonby. She’s from a couple of the books where she's actually Bond's personal secretary.

15. Someone else you bump into at MI6 is Cressida Bright. She’s seemingly named after Joan Bright Astley (Penelope Bright), who was an intelligence officer during WW2, in a relationship with Bond creator Ian Fleming, and reportedly inspired the character of Moneypenny.

16. Q Lab is buried deep beneath the offices of MI6, and here you’ll find many nods and easter eggs. The first you’ll likely spot is a telephone box. Although different in style, a phone box trap can be seen in GoldenEye, in which an airbag incapacitates whoever walks inside.

17. A note on a whiteboard mentions a jetpack, as well as a short conversation being had by two technicians about the dangers of a ‘60s one. This could well be a nod to the Thunderball film.

18. Stay a little longer, and they’ll also mention a one-man submarine disguised as an alligator, which is from Octopussy.

19. And thirdly, the bizarre Bagpipe flamethrower from The World is Not Enough.

20. A definite reference to the movies is the On Her Majesty's Secret Service theme playing during the quarry truck chase. A moment guaranteed to send a tingle down the spine of any Bond fan.

21. A couple of other classic Bond moments include James sipping his first Martini on the boat after Isola makes him one.

22. And it wouldn’t be a Bond story without 007 being placed in a near-death trap. A classic in the laser between the legs scenario, which can be seen here, as well as most famously in Goldfinger.

23. It’s not just the Bond movies being referenced, though, but other spy and action movies. At one point, James bluffs his way through by using the name Kittridge, a character from the Mission Impossible series.

24. During the Aleph Auction, one of the bidders belongs to the Three Storms clan. Could this be related to Big Trouble in Little China?

25. And on one visit to Q Lab, you can overhear some chatter about an “adventurer archaeologist.” Steven Spielberg famously created Indiana Jones after wanting to make a James Bond movie of his own, but not getting the chance to.

26. Also in the lab, some scientists right at the back can be heard talking about an exploding conch and cigar. These are both supposed Fidel Castro assassination attempts, as they discuss their “cousins” at the CIA.

27. More real-life spycraft is alluded to in the form of a poison-tip umbrella being the answer in a game of hangman in Bond’s apartment. This is a reference to the infamous “Bulgarian Umbrella” involved in the assassination of writer Georgi Markov during the Cold War.

28. Also from real-life, is social media Khaby Lame, complete with his well-known and well-memed expression at this luxury Vietnam resort. We don’t know why he’s here, either.

29. Similarly, British drum & bass stars Chase & Status can be seen and heard DJing at this small London club. This one makes a little more sense.

30. Sticking with music, when infiltrating Webb’s Antarctic facility, James can tickle the ivories of a grand piano. The song he plays? The End of the World by Skeeter Davis. Appropriate for a man who loves nothing more than saving Earth from the brink of disaster.

31. And it wouldn’t be an IO Interactive game without a few little winks to the camera about the Danish developer’s other games. A bottle of Chateau de 47 wine can be seen in the Carpathian Hotel manager’s office in a nod to Hitman.

32. But that isn’t the only Agent 47 Easter egg, as a Rubber duck in a Bond tuxedo can be spotted at Webb Industries.

33. And finally, it’s not just Hitman getting some love, but Kane and Lynch, too, as boxes of K&L shoes can be found stacked in Bond’s apartment.

That’s everything we’ve spotted in 007 First Light, and there are no doubt many other little secrets and details littered around its expansive environments to seek out. What did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.