Octopussy, the sixth James Bond movie to star Roger Moore, was direced by John Glen and premierred in 1983 (incidentally, the same year as Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery). It was a point in time when the Cold War was still on many people's minds, but less tense than in previous decades, as disarmament talks were finally starting. Many people in the west were also demanding unilateral disarmament.
Octopussy picks up on that theme, featuring a fiendish plot by a renegade Soviet general that involves exploding a nuclear bomb inside a U.S. military installation in West Germany to further weaken the NATO position. Unforgettable is the scene in the Soviet planning centre involving the giant screen and the rotating discussion table, where he first details his plan to overrun the west, but is rejected by the council. Really nice performance - this guy is one crazy bastard.
It also features a second main villain, the evil Kamal Khan, who's in it for the money, and his scary Indian henchman Gobinda who can crush loaded dice to dust in one fist, and learns to fly near the end. Other enemies include the knife-throwing Russian twins and the Indian with the yo-yo saw.
This movies' Bond girls are Maud Adams as Octopussy (a smuggler and trainer of young girls, as well as owner of the Octopussy Circus) and Kristina Wayborn as Magda, assistant to Khan. Incidentally, Maud Adams is only other Bond Girl besides Ursula Andress to appear in two films: She also appears in The Man with the Golden Gun albeit as a different character.
The inventions and technical highlights presented by Q in this movie include, but are not limited to:
- The Ghetto-Blaster, a portable boom box with a built-in bazooka.
- A pen that spouts acid and includes an earplug to go with the ...
- ...miniature microphone and homing beacon that is fittet in the Faberge Egg's stage coach miniature
- The automatic fakir-rope-trick (not yet perfected)
- Acrostar, the jet-plane that's so small that it fits in a horse's behind, and runs on regular gas.
True to tradition, 009, the other Double-0 to appear, has only a short appearance and life expectancy... Remember, if you are a Double-0, stay away from Bond.
And as Master Villain pointed out to me, this is the only Bond movie that does not feature its title somewhere in the theme song, All Time High sung by Rita Coolidge.
Previous Bond: For your Eyes Only, Unofficial Bond: Never say never again, James Bond will return in: A view to a Kill