Bond's .25 Beretta automatic rifle

Bond’s .25 Beretta automatic is a compact, carefully prepared weapon whose concealment accompanies Bond’s controlled approach to the baccarat confrontation. When Le Chiffre’s men capture Bond, they take the pistol and deliver it to Le Chiffre, marking the reversal from armed readiness to helpless captivity.

Preparation and Concealment

Before leaving his room, Bond retrieves the very flat .25 Beretta automatic from beneath his shirts. It has a skeleton grip. He removes the clip and the round in the barrel, works the action several times, and pulls the trigger on the empty chamber. He then reloads the weapon, engages the safety catch, and places it in the shallow pouch of a light chamois-leather shoulder holster worn under his clothes.

The preparation is methodical: Bond checks the weapon’s operation, then checks his reflection to ensure that the pistol makes no visible outline beneath his left arm. Wearing a dinner jacket over a heavy silk evening shirt, he leaves with the concealed Beretta as part of his readiness for the evening’s danger. The gun’s flatness and the holster’s position make concealment itself central to its function.

From Readiness to Capture

The pistol does not figure in Bond’s collection of winnings after the baccarat game. Once Le Chiffre’s men have hauled the injured Bond onto the road, Le Chiffre orders them to tie Bond’s arms, put him in the car, empty his pockets, and hand over his gun. The thin man takes the Beretta along with Bond’s other belongings and gives it to Le Chiffre.

Le Chiffre stuffs the objects and the pistol into his wide pockets without examining them. The weapon that Bond had unloaded, tested, reloaded, and hidden with care is thus removed from him almost casually. Its transfer accompanies the larger reversal: Bond, previously armed and deliberate, is bound and too dispirited to attempt escape. The Beretta’s changing place—from concealed protection to an item in Le Chiffre’s possession—makes the capture tangible without the pistol itself being shown in use.