Plot
A SPECTRE agent has stolen two American nuclear warheads, and James Bond must find their targets before they are detonated.
Release Year: 1983
Rating: 6.1/10 (27,109 voted)
Director:
Irvin Kershner
Stars: Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Storyline SPECTRE agents under the command of Ernst Blofeld infiltrate a US air force base situated in the UK and steal two Tomahawk cruise missiles. When NATO is held to ransom, the British reactive their "00" agents and send James Bond to recapture the warheads and kill Blofeld.
Writers: Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham
Cast: Sean Connery
-
James Bond
Kim Basinger
-
Domino Petachi
Klaus Maria Brandauer
-
Maximilian Largo
Barbara Carrera
-
Fatima Blush
Max von Sydow
-
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
(as Max Von Sydow)
Bernie Casey
-
Felix Leiter
Alec McCowen
-
'Q' Algy
Edward Fox
-
M
Pamela Salem
-
Miss Moneypenny
Rowan Atkinson
-
Nigel Small-Fawcett
Valerie Leon
-
Lady in Bahamas
Milos Kirek
-
Kovacs
(as Milow Kirek)
Pat Roach
-
Lippe
Anthony Sharp
-
Lord Ambrose
Prunella Gee
-
Patricia
Taglines:
Sean Connery ist James Bond 007 [Sean Connery is James Bond 007] [German poster]
Opening Weekend: $10,958,157
(USA)
(9 October 1983)
(1 Screen)
Gross: $160,000,000
(Worldwide)
(1984)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
Germany:
(cut version)
Did You Know?
Trivia: Kevin McClory originally planned for the film to open with some version of the famous "gun barrel" opening as seen in the EON Productions Bond series, but ultimately the film opens with a screen full of "007" symbols instead. When the soundtrack for the film was released on CD, it included a piece of music composed for the proposed opening.
Goofs:
Plot holes:
The nuclear warheads fly very low and very loud, yet, nobody seems to notice them.
Quotes: Fatima Blush:
Jack must do as he's told to keep his FAST CARS and his PRETTY CLOTHES. And if he wants to keep his sister alive... Jack Petachi:
You leave Domino out of this or I'll...
[He attacks Fatima but she quickly beats him up]
User Review
Ringing the Changes on a Familiar Theme
Rating: 7/10
The year 1983 saw a strange phenomenon; two rival Bond films.
"Octopussy", starring Roger Moore, was part of the official Cubby
Broccoli Bond franchise. "Never Say Never Again", made by a rival
producer, is, apart from the awful "Casino Royale", the only Bond movie
which does not form part of that franchise. Its big attraction was that
it brought back the original Bond, Sean Connery; its title reputedly
derived from Connery's remark after "Diamonds Are Forever" that he
would never again play the role. Some have complained that Connery was,
at 53, too old for the role, but he was in fact three years younger
than his successor Moore, who not only made "Octopussy" in the same
year but went on to make one further Bond film, "A View to a Kill", two
years later.
The film owes its existence to the settlement of a lawsuit about the
film rights to Ian Fleming's work. It is perhaps unfortunate that the
terms of the settlement included a clause that the new film had to be a
remake of "Thunderball", as that was perhaps not the greatest of the
Connery Bonds. (A remake of "Dr No" or "Goldfinger" might have worked
better). The plot is much the same as that of the earlier film; the
terrorist organisation SPECTRE, acting together with a megalomaniac
tycoon named Largo, have stolen two American nuclear warheads and are
attempting to hold the world's governments to ransom by threatening to
detonate them unless they receive a vast sum of money. It falls to
Bond, of course, to save the world by tracking down the missing
missiles.
The film is fortunate in that it has not just one but two of the most
beautiful Bond girls of all, Barbara Carrera as the seductive but
lethal Fatima Blush and Kim Basinger as Largo's girlfriend Domino who
defects to Bond's side after learning of her lover's evil plans. A
number of the Bond films have a plot that hangs upon the hero's ability
to win over the villain's mistress or female accomplice- there are
similar developments, for example, in "Goldfinger", "Live and Let Die"
and "The Living Daylights". In the official series, Bond's ally is
normally regarded as the female lead, but here Carrera, playing the
villainess, is billed above Basinger, who was a relatively unknown
actress at the time. Basinger, of course, has gone on to become one of
Hollywood's biggest stars, whereas Carrera is one of a number of Bond
girls who have somewhat faded from view.
Of the villains, Max von Sydow makes an effective Blofeld, the head of
SPECTRE, but Klaus Maria Brandauer seemed too bland and nonthreatening
as Largo, except perhaps during the "Domination" game, a more
sophisticated variant on those violent computer games such as "Space
Invaders" that were so popular in the early eighties. Brandauer can be
an excellent actor in his native German, in films such as "Mephisto"
and "Oberst Redl", but he does not comes across so expressively in
English.
One of the film's features is that it both follows the normal Bond
formula and, at times, departs from it. There is the standard
world-in-peril plot, chase sequences, a series of exotic locations,
glamorous women, sinister villains and a specially written theme song
based on the film's title. There is, however, no extended pre-credits
sequence, and we see some familiar characters in a new light. For
example, Bond's boss M becomes a languid, supercilious aristocrat, his
American colleague Felix Leiter is shown as black for the only time,
and the scientist Q is portrayed by Alec McCowen as a disillusioned
cynic with (despite his characteristically upper-class Christian name
of Algernon) a distinctly working-class accent. There is also an
amusing cameo from Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling British diplomat.
Although Connery was perhaps not quite a good here as he was in some of
his earlier films in the role, this ringing the changes on the familiar
theme makes this one of the more memorable Bonds. 7/10
A goof. Rowan Atkinson's character states that he is from the British
Embassy in Nassau. As, however, the Bahamas is a Commonwealth country,
Britain would have a High Commission in its capital, not an Embassy.
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