How all the James Bond actors fit together on a graph
In the above link, there is an interactive network of nodes showing ALL the actors of the 23 James Bond films (including the new release Skyfall), linked together on the basis that there is an edge if the two nodes (actors) being connected appeared in one of the Bond films together. The more connections to a node, the larger it’s size on the display. There are also filters to limit the display to specific movies or actors. Panning over a specific actor’s name will also limit the display to that node and it’s immediate neighbors. Pretty neat website overall, especially with the new blockbuster release.
Although this article does not provide technical insight into a groundbreaking development, it does demonstrate the presence of certain network principles that we learned very early in class in a seemingly random real world scenario. Firstly, like in nature, there are cliques of nodes that are all interconnected with each other regardless of how they are connected to nodes outside of the clique. This is an exact replication of social circles at high schools: a person maybe connected to several clusters of nodes, and usually also to at least 1 clique just as they would have classes with many people and may have friends in each as well as at least 1 small circle of close friends. Secondly, Strong Triadic Closure. In this sense, if a group of nodes were selected from the graph to appear in the next ‘cluster’ or ‘movie’ then if those nodes are all strongly connected to another node, that node is far more likely to also appear in that cluster/movie, just as how an actor from one movie will carry over to the next even if the movie isn’t a direct sequel. In the case of Desmond Llewelyn (the original ‘Q’ gadget master), he became such a staple on the series, outlasting several different Bonds, villains and heads of MI6 that he could only be stopped from appearing in the next cluster of nodes by his death. Another example of this is Lois Maxwell, the actress who played Miss Moneypenny (the secretary for the MI6 chief). She appeared in the first 14 Bond films, only stopping when her character was completely erased in the ‘modern’ takes on the film with the introduction of the character M. In this case, almost all the other actors were also changed (except Q). This article serves to show that the mapping of almost any abstract idea to a graph can yield recurring properties and interesting insights.
002
11/5/2012