I Watch Films: Never Say Never Again

Never Say Never Again

Ian Fleming worked with Kevin McClory (and Jack Whittingham) on a film that didn’t get made; Fleming then re-worked it into the novel Thunderball, which got made into a film; McClory got the rights to make his own version. Eventually they got Sean Connery to come back and went head-to-head with Octopussy!

So it’s much the same plot as Thunderball, SPECTRE steals two nuclear warheads and holds them for ransom. Despite the new head of MI6’s unhappiness, he reactivates the 00 section and Bond heads off on an adventure.

More humorous in it’s light sections than most of the other Connery films (perhaps influenced by Moore) with deputy villain Fatima Blush having absolutely fantastic costumes, stupid plans, and, thinking she’s got Bond out of the way, spots him while she is dancing in triumph on an outdoor terrace in Nice. At one point Bond pauses to look at a multi-armed statue of (probably) Kali and puts his apple down on a spike, an entertaining nod to Octopussy.

Maximillian Largo, the main villain, has an iconic yacht, a brand mark that is used for everything, and a cool techno-control room (for the 80s). He even has his own computer game, Domination! Finally a gamer villain.

It's not especially good or interesting, Bond is still a sex pest, the film manages a bit of casual racism and also dubious geography, and if you don't think those two are related I can write you an essay. More a curiosity than anything, and even some Bond Completists have an excuse to leave it out.

Watch This: It’s an amusing adventure with colourful villains
Don’t Watch This: It adds nothing to Thunderball, other than having shorter, better edited underwater sequences