How to tie a bow tie in 007 First Light

A few years ago, I had to learn how to tie a bow tie for the first time. It took me — and this is not an exaggeration — two full weeks of practice. It’s the fold. Always trips me up. But James Bond can apparently nail it on the first try?!

Or at least that’s what 007 First Light wants players to believe. The first James Bond game in 14 years casts players as a younger version of 007, a 26-year-old MI6 recruit who hasn’t yet earned his 00 status. Throughout an action movie montage tutorial, Bond is put through the paces in all sorts of spy activities: shooting, sneaking, climbing, running, more sneaking, jumping, driving, fist-fighting, and, of course, hitting unsuspecting dudes with toxic darts from high-tech smartphones. But it’s during First Light‘s eighth chapter, “Time To Die,” that Bond faces his hardest lesson. While preparing for a gala at a luxury resort in Vietnam, he has to learn how to tie a bow tie — a clear riff on the iconic suit-up scene from Casino Royale.

“I don’t suppose Q included instructions?” Bond asks.

Q, the stalwart quartermaster of MI6, did not, but is happy to get on the line with Bond and walk him through the steps. Over the phone. With no visual element to aid. “Listen, if anyone asks, I was never trained for this,” Bond says.

And yet he goes through those motions with ease, controlled by the player in a lengthy series of quick-time events. He pulls on one side of the bow tie so it’s longer than the other, then creates his first loop. He makes the first fold, then mirrors it with a second one, folding the bow tie and pulling it through the loop. At the end, he pulls it tightly to achieve the slightly imperfect asymmetry — sprezzatura, the practice of intentional sartorial carelessness — that distinguishes legit bow ties from clip-ons.

“I’ve disarmed bombs less complicated than this,” Bond says, accurately summarizing what it’s like to learn how to tie a bow tie.

Video games, particularly action games like 007 First Light, often let players live out a power fantasy; it’s part of the allure. In these games, you can scale sheer cliff faces with the dexterity and athleticism of Alex Honnold. You can sprint as fast as a cheetah with limitless stamina. You can aim weapons with frightening precision and banter in conversation with the perfect witty response.

But these same games rarely let players live out the power fantasy of just… being really good at a moderately challenging yet banal activity. And before you tell me that tying a bow tie is baby work, congratulations on mastering something plenty of people still struggle with. Despite the best efforts of Esquire and its ilk at educating the populace, the general query of “how to tie a tie” remains one of the top 100 most-searched phrases on Google to this day. There’s a reason the search results for “how to tie a bow tie” are an ever-rotating glut of men’s magazines, style influencers, and Brand Blogs jostling for visibility. (Credit where it’s due, Charles Tyrwhitt’s ten-step guide is one of the better ones out there.)

Bond’s bow tie scene in 007 First Light could’ve easily been a cutscene, but in making it an experiential moment, developer IO Interactive awards it the same weight as all the sneaking, shooting, and other forms of spycraft you engage within the game. Despite spending all that time years ago trying to master the art, I still struggle tying a bow tie. Takes me several tries — on a good day. But at least I can turn to 007 First Light and nail it in one go.

Why not just wear a clip-on? Q put it best: “Cheap.”