I don't think any secret agent could rival any of those fictional characters. They have incredible plot armor, depending on the scenario. James Bond is an idiot who fucks every woman who moves, even when he knows they're there to trap him, but has a magic dick that hypnotizes them onto his side.

Batman with prep time is an unstoppable force who could take down every army in the world at once if he really needed to.

No, no human can compare to these characters.

This some Mall Ninja Shit.

John Wick and James Bond and superheroes and supervillains are not realistically possible. Otherwise we would have them.

Well they say its ten thousand hours of practice to master a skill right.

Assuming you already work 8 and sleep 8 travel and maintenance stuff for 2 that leaves you 6 houra a day to dedicate to one aspect of spy craft.

That would take roughly 4 and a half years.

So then you're an expert in firearms

Now you need to learn hand to hand combat so again 10000 hours but you need to maintain currency with firearms so you only have 5 hours a day to practice now it's nearly 5 and a half years to become an expert.

So we're at 10 years to learn gun control and hand to hand combat.

Havent even touched on spatial awareness stuff along with driving flying jet ski riding and seduction.

Are we in an action movie? In real life both of those gentlemen would die immediately. It's extremely difficult to beat 2 people in a fair fight even for the best fighters, let alone more like in John Wick. James Bond is pretty much a meme for villains that make it really easy for him to escape.

In an action movie... Well, thinking like a writer I guess it would be a bit like the adult version of Home Alone.

In real life, I guess what's the test? If it's bodycount (and morality aside), see every mass shooting. If it's taking down a major organisation from within, see whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. If it's looking really cool see a fitness influencer or something.

No, because those characters are fantastical. You can stay in great shape if that's your priority and engage in martial arts and other fighty things, but they take a lot of time and dedication.

No, no real human can become as capable as James Bond or John Wick even if they dedicate 24/7 to it.

Sorry I can't talk about it

The closest equivalent I would think of are existing special forces of different militaries.

You first need the physical and mental ability to even be considered. From that, the military will then invest a lot in weapons, combat, and other training.

The closest outside of government training is maybe MMA, but that is only close combat. Even then, people dedicate their entire non-work time for years to get to that level.

Their biggest strength, aside from fantasy physical strength, is years and years of experience in the field. You could train every aspect of it individually, in the end it’s all theory. It’s like every other job, only their jobs don’t exist, to the extend that they do it.

I’d say the closest that you could come to it is if you would join the French foreign legion or something.

Another factor that’s missing in the real world are the gadgets and impossible armors. Without that they wouldn’t survive this long.

I remember something a friend said to me once. We were watching an action movie and during a well choreographed sequence I said something about wanting to be able to fight like that. My friend said, “sorry, you’ve only got one life”.

Nothing is impossible, but after a certain point in life, you’re simply unable to achieve that which would take a lifetime to master.

When you say "taskmaster," I assume you don't mean Greg Davies, right?

This is for a friend, right?

You can train as much as you like, and have all the resources in the world,, but until they invent real world plot armor, you would get wrecked by a stray bullet almost instantly. There are no realistically possible super heros.

Weird link, it goes to a Google Summer of Code post for me.

If John wick was a real human being with a regular human body he would be dead so quickly

Consider Bruce Lee. Dedicated his time to mastering multiple martial arts. Died of edema at 32 years old. No opponents. It's possible he drank too much water.

Just work out after work, train on the weekends, and you'll be better than a majority of people. And isn't that enough most of the time?

I'm sorry, no mortal can withstand the sheer level of alcohol that 007 goes through on a day to day basis.

It would probably help if their full time job was already secret agent.

I always find the bit that takes me out of those characters is that they seem to speak, like, every language. I know polyglots exist, but the time it would take on top of the time all their other skills would take? Not only to learn, but to maintain fluency? There's literally not enough hours in the day.

These have some implied requirements like being ivy league material and a certified patriot. They are also both essentially superprodigies who can only exist in fiction.

You can take a self-defense class, though. Get someone to train you with weapons and parkour, and you are all set to be an average person with self-defense, gun training, and some novice-level parkour abilities.