Actor: Sean Connery
US Release Date: 13 June 1967
US gross, $ [adjusted]:43,084,787 [208,139,067]
Worldwide gross, $ [adjusted]: 111,600,000 [539,130,434]
World Premier - 9th December 1965 at Hibiya Cinema, Tokyo, Japan
Locations: Hong Kong, Japan.
Source for above info: The " mother " of all James Bond books - James Bond: The Legacy.
Happenstance
The teaser starts with a shot of a NASA spacecraft being
gobbled up by a UFO. That's what happens when you go when no
man has gone before. Immediately, a world summit with the Mega
Powers is called with accusations traded about. Just when you
think that this is another mission for our suave secret agent,
we see Bond lolling about with an Oriental Babe.
Bond: Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other
girls?
Chinese girl: You think we better, ha??
Bond: No, just different. The way Peking duck is different
from Russian caviar, but I love them both!!
His lolling about is abruptly cut short when he is shot at
indiscriminately and later his mortal remains are laid to rest
at a sea burial. Japanese umbrellas burst out of 007's spilt
blood, and Nancy Sinatra sings the Bond song over shots of
geishas and volcanoes.
Coincidence
But for the worried audience (read: people who have not seen the
earlier four Bond films and don't know that Bond is
indestructible) it is revealed that the entire killing was a
fake to throw SPECTRE off the track. Bond reaches M's office
(this time located on a submarine) to report about his death.
Bond: Hello Penny!
Moneypenny: You'd better go right in. You're late as usual, even
from your own funeral.
Bond: Well, we corpses have absolutely no sense of time!!
And we come face to face (literally as in the earlier films we
saw his hands and the pussy) with the criminal mastermind of
the millennium, Ernst Stavro Blofeld,played exceptionally well
by Donald Pleasence. The Blofeld character was parodied to the
hilt in the Austin Powers series as Dr. Evil. The world's only
hope is James Bond, who races to Japan to stop the
space-jackings and to stop Blofeld. In Japan, our secret agent
is lured into the Japanese secret service headquarters
(located in a train) by a Japanese beauty Aki (Akiko
Wakabayashi). Later Aki and Bond driving a Toyota 2000GT
convertible are chased by (yes, you guessed right) SPECTRE
Japanese Branch goons. From a radio in their Toyota, Aki and
James call in the electro-magnet-equipped, tandem rotor
helicopter to do away with the tailgating bad guys. The Boeing
KV-107II has no trouble lifting the villains' black sedan
hundreds of feet into the air before dunking it in the Sea of
Japan. Now it is time for Bond to know Ms. Aki a little
better.
Tanaka: I suppose you know what it is about you that
fascinates them.... it's the hair on your chest. Japanese men
have only beautiful bare skin.
Bond: Japanese proverb say: "bird never make nest in bare
tree.....".
Later the SPECTRE Japanese Branch goons abduct Bond after a
long terrifically choreographed chase on the docks. Bond
meets Japanese tycoon(and SPECTRE agent) Osato's comely
secretary Helga, the second beautiful female chopper pilot in
the series (after Pussy Galore) and she also meets with the
same fate as Ms. Galore ,in the arms of the super spy. But
like Ms. Galore she does not have a strong lifeline and hence
she turns into fish food for Blofeld's pet piranhas.
Enemy Action
Bond returns back to safety and meets Q who has brought for
him the the most famous helicopter in the entire Bond series,
"Little Nellie". Q's refinements make Little Nellie a
formidable adversary.
Q: "Right. Now pay attention; twin forward-facing machine
guns, rocket launchers, rear-firing flame throwers, aerial
mines, and heat-seeking missiles."
With these refinements, Blofeld's four black Kawasaki/Bell
47G-3's sent to shoot her down don't stand a chance. Here we
are also introduced to the Mother of all Gizmos, Blofeld's
massive headquarters nestled in an inactive volcano. A similar
gizmo was used in
Goldeneye
, with Alec's headquarters deep under a lake. After
dispatching off the helicopters Bond returns for some Ninja
training at Tiger Tanaka's training school. Here
unfortunately, Aki meets an untimely end when a ninja assassin
misses Bond and kills Aki instead.
Training and grieving over, Bond takes on a disguise as a
Japanese fisherman (worse than his hairjob on
Never say never again
) and lands on Blofeld's island to search for SPECTRE's
hidden rocket launching base. As a cover he has to marry
Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama), a Japanese girl who makes her
living diving for shells, and working for the secret
service.
Bond: We're supposed to be on honeymoon..
Kissy: Think again, please. This is business.
Later, Bond climbs into the volcano and is just about to
board the rocket used for abducting spacecrafts when
Blofeld apprehends him.
Blofeld: James Bond. Allow me to introduce myself. I am
Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They told me you were assassinated in
Hong Kong.
Bond: Yes, this is my second life.
Blofeld: You only live twice, Mr. Bond.
Finally, Tiger and his Ninjas lead an assault on the hidden
headquarters and Bond succeeds in destroying the base (with
the help of some missile launching cigarettes), not before
Blofeld escapes and the volcano erupts. And finally as a
man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, Bond tries out the
latest Japanese model on a lifeboat after escaping the
volcano.
The movie, though not a mega success like Thunderball was still a huge hit, propagating the Bond mania further. For once, Sean Connery decided not to return as James Bond and hence the producers fixed on George Lazenby to play James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service , a movie whose fortunes brought the Scottish actor back for movie number seven as Bond.
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