The latest James Bond movie, "Skyfall," delves into some tantalizing personal details about the world's favorite British spy, from formative events in his childhood to an up-close look at his relationship with M, the chief of the super-secret British spy service where Bond works.

But while the new film offers plenty of the heart-thumping chase scenes one expects from a Bond movie, it doesn't focus so much on the old-fashioned art of spycraft. Which begs the question: How real is today's Bond?

Some real-life former spies offered to help bust through some of the myths created by the movie:

Bond Myth 1: Spies have super human abilities

In the opening scene, a post-40-year-old Bond manages to survive a particularly wild car chase. He somehow ends up on top of a train, where he ducks through tunnels while engaging in a fistfight with the bad guy, only to be shot and fall to what appears to be his certain death, his body plunging into a lake.

"When you place it in the Hollywood context, his physical abilities don't exist," says Marty Martin, a former senior clandestine operations officer with the CIA, who one source of mine described as "one part" Bond.

"A guy can't take on six guys. He can't jump off bridges and trains. If you do it once, you're lucky, and it will likely blow your knee out, you know what I'm saying?" observed Martin.

And it's not just the physical skills, but add to that all of those other amazing talents that make Bond who he is, and you have just discovered why so many real-life spies admire the guy.

"A lot of people in our business wish we could do things like that," says Robert Richer, a former senior officer in the CIA's Clandestine Service. "He has the skills of a SEAL, He can play baccarat. He can move effortlessly in Monte Carlo, but the reality is it's hard to do all of those things combined."

"There are characteristics," says Martin. "But the whole James Bond, good-looking, suave, has good toys, speaks three or four languages, really?"

Bond Myth 2: Style is a spy's best weapon

"Being suave does make a difference," said Robert Grenier, who spent much of his CIA career working undercover in overseas locations, including serving as the CIA's chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, on September 11, 2001. Grenier is described by some of my sources as being the best-dressed (former) spy in the world.

Grenier, of course, chuckled when I shared that piece of intel with him.

"Espionage is a people business, and at its essence is the ability to make people like you and trust you and being able to enter a social world whether it's nuclear scientists or the court of the king of Morocco or whatever it is, those are the sort of social skills that form a composite of Bond."

Bond Myth 3: It's easier to work alone

"I was operating at a time when we did believe in one range and one rider," says Martin, who has since retired from the world of official espionage. "Today, you're way more likely to work in teams."

But, argues Martin, there is still a lot of logic in keeping those teams small. "Because if you only have two people on the operation, there are only two people who can jack it up," says Martin. "If you have 25, the weakest one will do something stupid like call home and blow the whole deal."

"You want to keep the team as small as you can. The fewer points of failure you have, the better," adds Grenier. "The perception of what we do has changed a little bit because we're operating so much in war zones. But one of the things I've always noticed is that if you ever have two case officers in a room with an agent, a source, it's one too many case officers. It's amazing when you see it because right away they start competing with each other."

Bond Myth 4: Breaking the rules makes you bad

One thing Bond doesn't do while carrying out his mission is stop to call the lawyers. According to the real-life guys, the concept of breaking rules isn't all that off-base for operators working in the field, under increasingly stressful pressure, particularly post-9/11.