Never Say Never Again (1983)
d. Irvin Kershner, 137 minutes

Opening Credits, Title Sequence

The film opened with the camera zooming into rows of transparent 007 numerals, that then opened onto the scene. The title and opening credits played over an action sequence - the rescue of a kidnapped girl in a jungle setting (although it was revealed to be a videotaped field-training session in which Bond failed the test). There was no traditional gun-barrel sequence. At the end of the film, Sean Connery (Bond) winked at the camera, breaking the "fourth wall," as he affirmed: "Never again." An iris closed in on his face and became part of a "007" pattern of numerals Main Title Sequence: Micheline Roquebrune/Connery Title Song: "Never Say Never Again " (sung by Lani Hall)

Film Plot Summary

The film's prologue opened in a jungle in Central America, where a middle-aged Bond (Sean Connery) infiltrated into an armed camp of fanatical revolutionaries, where he knocked out one guard, garrotted another (# 1 death, # 1 Bond kill - FAKE), and shot a poison dart into the neck of a third. He threw a bomb that exploded on a chess board, injuring the two players and two other guards. He burst threw the window and machine-gunned the group (# 2-5 deaths, # 2-5 Bond kills - FAKE), and then attempted to rescue a kidnapped female (a millionaire's daughter) tied to a bed. After knocking out another guard, he cut the wrist straps of the abductee, only to be stabbed in the chest by her and mortally wounded.

However, the entire opening prologue was a taped video recording of a war games training exercise (using "blanks") which Bond had failed. The video tape was timed as it was viewed at MI6 headquarters in London by M (Edward Fox), who strictly criticized Bond for not knowing that the 8-week abductee had obviously been "brainwashed...could have turned" - susceptible to the Stockholm Syndrome. In two weeks of training, Bond had been seriously injured one other time - a land mine on a Black Sea beach blew his legs off. M was skeptical of Bond's skills and abilities: "Is your edge sharp enough? That's the difference between a double-0 and a corpse." M had little use for the double-0's, and Bond had also been off-duty teaching (rather than "doing"). M scolded Bond because he had "too many free radicals...toxins that destroy the body and the brain" by eating too much red meat and white bread and drinking "too many dry martinis." Bond volunteered to give up the white bread, but to no avail. He was ordered to shape up with a "strict regimen of diet and exercise" to purge the toxins -- at a health clinic outside London called Shrublands. As Bond left the office, he told M's secretary Miss Moneypenny (Pamela Salem) his new assignment: "to eliminate all free radicals." She looked concerned and urged: "Do be careful."

The aging Bond drove himself in his 1937 black Bentley coupe to Shrublands Health Farm/Clinic, where he was physically examined and told he had lots of scar tissue. He was to be reeducated to the "virtues of nutrition, proper exercise, meditation, and hopefully spiritual enlightenment." A young staff nurse asked for a urine sample from across the room: "If you could fill this beaker for me?" Bond quipped: "From here?"

The next scene introduced the film's femme fatale - well-dressed Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), first seen from the legs down - with black leather pants, a pair of black high-heels and a fur coat. She entered a French bank's vault, where a secret passageway led downstairs to a highly-secure area, where a meeting was being conducted by SPECTRE's Supreme Commander Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Max von Sydow), holding and petting a white Persian cat. The criminal organization SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) was supplying rebel and government forces with armaments and missiles. He announced SPECTRE's next "audacious enterprise" -- led by Spectre No. 1 Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), called "The Tears of Allah." An American Air Force officer, Captain Jack Petachi (Gavan O'Herlihy), was subjected to a surgical operation. A corneal implant made his right eye an exact replica and match to the retina of the US President. The officer, used as SPECTRE's puppet, was moved to a convalescent clinic where Spectre No. 12 -- Fatima Blush -- had the responsibility of providing for his care.

Bond met blonde physiotherapist/nurse Patricia Fearing (Prunella Gee) when he accidentally bumped into her in the hallway. He introduced himself: "My name is Bond." She knew of his reputation: "Oh, you're Mr. Bond." During a painful back-cracking session with her, Bond suggested: "You know, there is a more beneficial therapy for a man's lower back." She replied: "Oh really? What might that be?" Later that day, she came to his private room's door and personally offered him his healthful dinner on a tray: "I thought I'd surprise you, James." He opened his suitcase, filled with contraband food he had smuggled in: "caviar, quail's eggs, vodka, foie gras" and offered her a bite. Soon after, he bedded her down (off-screen) with another forbidden treat. (# 1 tryst)

Meanwhile, blackmailed and abducted Captain Jack Petachi was being attended at Shrublands by the evil and rough henchwoman Fatima, dressed as a private health clinic nurse (with syringes strapped to her thigh). She abused and beat her patient, accusing him of disobeying her by smoking, and then threatened: "Jack must do as he's told if he wants his fast cars and his pretty clothes and if he wants to keep his sister alive." Across the way, Bond (in bed with the nurse) was startled by the sounds and sight of the beating. He watched through an open window as Fatima removed a syringe from her thigh to inject her addicted patient with "candy" (hooking him on heroin): "Now darling, do this little trickie in eight seconds. Then nursie will give baby his candy. Hmm?" Bond saw the patient practicing the use of an optical machine to scan his right eye. Bond was spotted peeping through the window and escaped, although Fatima spotted him with an infra-red pair of night-vision binoculars, and recognized him as 007. The next morning as Bond proceeded to work out in the clinic's gym, he informed his doctor that he was a bit piqued, explaining (in Patricia's presence): "I was up all night." The clinic's janitor was rendered unconscious by a brutish assassin, who then attacked Bond and attempted to strangle him with the weight machine. Their intense hand-to-hand struggle went from the gym, down the hallway and stairway, through the clinic's kitchen, into a patient's room, and into the laboratory where the assassin was blinded by a faceful of Bond's urine sample and fell backwards into glass - impaling him in the back (# 1 death, # 1 Bond kill).

M was annoyed that Bond had virtually demolished the clinic, depleting his funding to renovate it. Bond joked: "In fact, I did lose four pounds and God knows how many free radicals," further angering his superior who threatened to suspend him. At the Swadley US Air Force Base in England where Captain Petachi served as one of the officers, practice in missile-targeting was occurring as dummy warheads were loaded into US submarines. Petachi entered a coded-card restricted area, where he circumvented the security with an "eye-print check" (a retinal scan) that confirmed his "Presidential authority." He authorized the replacement of USAF dummy warheads with "live" W-80 thermonuclear devices, that were then loaded onto a Rockwell B-1 Lancer strategic bomber. As the two nuclear cruise missiles were launched, Petachi drove away from the airbase in a Ford sedan. Fatima pulled up in her gold-metallic Mercedes-Benz SL convertible next to him and deposited her pet snake in his lap -- distracted, his car crashed into a brick wall and overturned. To ensure his death, she placed a remote-controlled bomb in the wreck and detonated it (# 2 death) - after rescuing her snake. The cruise missiles were directed to the Atlantic Ocean to land in the water, where they were retrieved by scuba divers in two rubber dinghys, and later removed to two secret areas. Spectre No. 1 Maximillian Largo directed the operation from his helicopter, as Spectre's Supreme Commander Blofeld recorded an extortion message to hold NATO ransom regarding their "Tears of Allah" plot, sending a video transmission that only showed his hands petting his cat. Blofeld demanded tribute of a sum equivalent to 25% of the NATO countries' oil purchases, to be delivered in 7 days. If the demands were not met, SPECTRE would use the stolen nuclear weapons to destroy Washington and the Middle East oil fields. It was NATO's "ultimate nightmare - the abduction of nuclear warheads."

Tanner was reluctantly coerced to reactivate the double-0's to combat the terrorism, with the ransom estimated to be $2 billion, 492 million dollars. Bond was called to action and briefed on the background of Maximillian Largo: he was born in Bucharest in 1945, and was a billionaire industrialist and philantropist. He resided in Nassau in the Bahamas, with no known criminal activity. When Bond was interrupted by Moneypenny, he stated that it was late and she should be "in bed." She replied: "James, we both should be." She escorted him to M, mentioning that Bond was back in business: "Welcome home."

Largo landed his helicopter on the helipad of his Flying Saucer yacht. The two missiles were thought to be located in two areas: on the Eastern seaboard, and close to the Middle East oil fields, threatening massive destruction. Bond suspected that the breach of security (requiring a retinal scan of the US President's right eye) was somehow linked to what he witnessed at Shrublands. And it was a mysterious coincidence that the USAF communications officer Petachi left the airbase immediately after the warheads' launch. In Largo's technically-advanced control room aboard his yacht, a sliding panel door revealed a workout studio where he spied through a one-way mirror, watching his blonde kept-lover Domino Petachi (Kim Basinger) in a gray leotard exercising and stretching to music. He lavished her with another valuable gift, a pendant/necklace with a blue gem inscribed in Arabic with "The Tears of Allah," based upon an old legend. When she asked if she would keep the gift if she left him, he sternly said: "Then, I cut your throat."

In the gadgets laboratory of working-class Q (Alec McCowen), nicknamed Algernon (Algy), Bond was shown a Union Jack-decorated fountain pen with exploding rocket projectile ("not quite perfected yet"), and a digital wrist-watch with laser beam cutting tool. Q was happy to see Bond: "Good to see you, Mr. Bond. Things have been awfully dull around here...I hope we're gonna have some gratuitous sex and violence," to which Bond replied: "I certainly hope so, too."

Bond left for Nassau in the Bahamas to combat SPECTRE, where on the dock at the harbor, he encountered orange-bikinied female (Valerie Leon), dubbed the Lady in the Bahamas, who was preparing to go fishing. He asked jovially: "What are you hoping to catch?" She flirtatiously answered: "Something about six foot two, 190 pounds, with brown eyes." He joked: "Well, why bother going to sea?" When Bond was interrupted by bumbling MI6 operative Nigel Small-Fawcett (Rowan Atkinson) employed by the British Embassy, she added: "Catch you later, perhaps?" Bond was told that the "charming" Largo spent most of his time at Bluebeard Reef for marine archaeology, and he was known for giving lots of money to worthy causes (e.g., a maritime museum and a new wing for an orphanage). Nigel was worried that Bond, with a notorious reputation, would cause trouble and jeopardize the tourist trade by killing people.

At the harbor's bar, Bond learned that Largo's boat, the Flying Saucer, had sailed from port that morning. As he stood at the waterside bar, he was sprayed by Fatima, who was performing stunts on water-skis and landed in his arms after skiing up a ramp: "How reckless of me. I made you all wet." Bond was unperturbed: "Yes, but my martini's still dry. My name is James." After introducing herself, Bond complimented her on skiing, and she added: "I do many things very well." When he said he was there to fish, she offered to personally show him the "best waters," adding as she smiled: "I'd like you to find what you're looking for." He agreed: "I'm all yours." On their hired scuba boat, the vixenish Fatima summoned him to the interior cabin, where they engaged in dialogue foreplay after she threw him some scuba-gear and he undressed in front of her. Bond: "You're marvelously well-equipped." Fatima (looking down): "Thank you, James. So are you." He asked: "What, uh, exactly are we going down for?" Fatima: "Sport and a little fun." She watched as Bond became naked, and he advised her to be less tense and more relaxed when "going down." She removed her flimsy dress strap as she put her arms around his neck and provocatively said: "We've got time to kill." (# 2 tryst) After an extended period of love-making in the scuba equipment room, they went diving together.

But the domineering Fatima attempted to kill the agent - she placed a shark-attracting transmitter on his scuba tank, and then swam away from him when he was investigating a sunken boat wreck. Bond fled from a number of massive man-eating sharks, and was able to fend them off. After trapping one of the sharks under some rigging, he noticed an electronic shark device (a robotic control device) attached to the shark's back, and the transmitter on his tank. He removed it, but accidentally dropped his mouthpiece when bumped by one of the sharks. Needing to swim to the surface, he emerged near the fishing boat of the woman at the dock, who exclaimed: "It's you." He responded: "Well, you did say you'd catch me later." Back at the dock, Fatima noticed from afar that Bond had survived and was on the deck of the fishing boat with another female, showing off their fish-catch.

At the British Colonial Hotel, Fatima made a second attempt to kill Bond - she had stuck an explosive under his hotel-room bed. Then, hidden from view, she watched as Bond and the unnamed lady returned to the hotel together, where they both had separate rooms, and were first seen in bed together in one of the rooms. (# 3 tryst) While they made love, Bond took a phone call from Nigel at an inopportune time, learning that Largo's boat was headed for the south of France. Fatima's detonation of the bomb was also foiled, when Bond had decided to make love not in his own room, but in the room of the Lady from the Bahamas. Bond quipped when he saw his room blown up across the courtyard: "Proof that we made the right decision." She asked: "About what, darling?" He responded: "Your place or mine."

Bond flew back to the South of France (Nice) where he was met at the airport by young MI6 operative '326' Nicole (Saskia Cohen Tanugi). She told him that she had rented a "perfect" villa for him, above where Largo's Flying Saucer was anchored in the bay below. After giving Bond the explosive fountain pen delivered from Q, the two met up with CIA operative/assistant Felix Leiter (Bernie Casey). Nicole's car was towing a crated motorbike, also sent from England. From the terrace of the villa, Bond and Felix used a high-powered telescope to view Largo's "lady" - Domino Petachi - dancing on the Flying Saucer's deck. That afternoon, Bond followed Domino to a beauty salon/spa, gained entrance to the facility (filled with young bikinied females lounging poolside!) and posed as a masseuse. After she requested a "hard" massage, her turned her over onto her front-side before oiling her up and rubbing-down her back, when mentioning casually that he knew of Largo: "I know he owns many beautiful things." Bond learned that Largo, known as a "very generous man," was hosting a charity ball at the Casino Royale in Monte Carlo (Monaco) that evening to benefit orphaned children. When she asked for him to massage lower, he obliged until the real masseuse (Brenda Kempner) arrived and apologized for being late. When Domino learned the man didn't work at the salon, she shrugged and smiled to herself.

In her Peugeot sedan, as Nicole dropped tuxedoed Bond off at the casino in Monte Carlo, he told her to return to the villa. The Peugeot passed Fatima's Citroen CX, who had overheard their brief conversation. She left her vehicle and instructed her driver to "find that villa." Gate-crashing Bond punched the casino's bouncer (Dan Meaden) in the groin, and then in a closet as he held a gun to the man's head, he threatened the detonation of his cigar case-bomb - (fakely) claiming it had a motion-sensing gyroscope inside. He left the terrified man holding the case as still as possible. Inside the casino, he formally introduced himself to Domino: "My name is Bond, James Bond," and apologized for his earlier deception at the salon by offering her a drink. In the bar area lined with a video-game arcade, she ordered a double Bloody Mary, while he ordered a plain vodka on the rocks. Fatima schemed with Largo, urging him to execute the British agent - who might persuade his paramour Domino to change sides. He asked if she had bungled her own attempts because "you want him for yourself." Largo approached Bond and challenged him to a futuristic, 3-D holographic/table-top video-game of Domination: "Are you a man who enjoys games?" (Bond responded: "Depends with whom I'm playing.") To gain the objective of world power, each player (with antiquated joysticks that delivered electric shocks) shot lasers and nuclear missiles to control and win countries (as well as points and dollars). Although Bond lost early on, he managed in a winner-take-all round (to win $325,000 and the entire world), ending up with total winnings of $267,000, but exchanged his winnings in return for one tango dance with Domino. As they danced, she asked: "What is it you're after?" She was told her brother was working for Largo, but was murdered: "Largo's the prime suspect. Your brother was used and then eliminated." Largo ordered Fatima to kill Bond - "this time, you'd better not fail."

Bond found the body of Nicole when he returned to the unusually-quiet villa - she had been stuffed and drowned in a water-bed (# 3 death). The maniacal murderess Fatima Blush sped off in her red 1983 Renault 5 Turbo, with Bond following on the recently styrofoam-unwrapped turbo-boosted motorbike. Down winding roads and through the town (Bond took short-cuts up and down stairs), the pursuit led to a tunnel where Bond was surrounded and cornered, and forced to drive into the back of an open truck. As the ramp door was raised, he executed a racing-jump and escaped. Now in pursuit of Fatima's red vehicle, he caused the crash of two other cars involved in the chase (number of deaths unknown) and followed her into an unused concrete alcove. Fatima knocked him from his bike and held a gun on him, ordering: "Spread your legs" and she threatened to shoot his crotch: "You're quite a man, Mr. James Bond. But I am a superior woman! Guess where you'll get the first one." He talked back: "Well, in view of your hatred of men..." - but she yelled: "Liar! You know that making love to Fatima was the greatest pleasure of your life." Bond differed: "Well, to be perfectly honest, there was this girl in Philadelphia." She shot back: "SHUT UP! I am the best." Bond agreed: "In fact, I was going to put you in my memoirs as No. 1." She commanded him to write a note on a scrap piece of newspaper about her love-making abilities, dictating: "The greatest rapture in my life was afforded me on a boat in Nassau by Fatima Blush. Signed, James Bond 007." Bond quipped: "I just remembered, it's against Service policy for agents to give out endorsements." She blurted back: "WRITE!" Fatima met her demise when Bond fired a miniature rocket grenade into her chest from his Union Jack-decorated projectile fountain pen. She cackled, believing she was still alive, but then the grenade exploded, leaving only her charred high-heeled stilettos behind (# 4 death, # 2 Bond kill). Bond muttered to himself his amazement regarding the powerful nib that Q said was not yet ready: "Not perfected yet?"

Bond and Felix Leiter donned scuba gear and stealthily approached the Flying Saucer yacht, in search of the missing nuclear warheads. Bond entered the vessel through a below-surface compartment, where he soon found himself Largo's guest (he had been invited for lunch but unexpectedly arrived early). In his situation/control room, Largo claimed his latest venture was oil, as the yacht set sail to North Africa to his house and base of operations at Palmyra. In the workout studio onboard, Bond (who was given free-run on the ship!) met up with Domino, and to "provoke a reaction" (and "because I've always wanted to"), sensing that the jealous Largo was spying on them through a mirror, he kissed her. When she set off a fire alarm as a distraction, Bond entered Largo's control room to transmit a message regarding his destination, using an emergency code: Tango Zebra. At Palmyra, Largo announced to Bond: "The game is over" and had him imprisoned in a rock-tower littered with skeletons and vultures. He then gave Domino his "greatest treasure" as a wedding present - a large jade statuette, although he knew that she had betrayed him. She angrily confronted him about her missing brother: "I hate you." He coerced a kiss from her, as she accused him of madness: "You're crazy." He replied: "Yeah, maybe. I'm crazy." To punish her, he bound her in black cloth and auctioned her off to gun-wielding Arabs on horseback in an open square. Stupidly, Largo told Bond the location of one of the nuclear bombs: "Bomb number one is right under the President's feet... in Washington DC." Later, using his wrist-watch with a laser beam, Bond cut through his metal shackles and chains and escaped, and then heaved a guard to his death through the prison window (# 5 death, # 3 Bond kill). He stole a horse and rescued Domino from the unsavory Arabs by riding off with her. The two dove off the tall gated wall - still on horseback - into the water far below. They swam to a rowboat nearby and were retrieved by Felix Leiter in a dinghy, as a US naval submarine fired deadly mortars at the Arabs (number of deaths unknown) from offshore.

On the naval submarine, Bond and Domino showered together (Bond: "It was never like this when I was in the Navy") (# 4 tryst). Both were eager to go after Largo, although she confessed: "Maybe I don't hate him enough to risk losing you" - and they kissed. The Washington DC bomb was located and defused, but Bond had only five hours to find and defuse the second bomb. Bond and Leiter tracked Largo's yacht to near the "Tears of Allah" oasis-well location - adjacent to the Middle East oil fields, where Largo and other scuba-divers transported the second warhead (to be ransomed for huge sums of money) to an underwater cave. The US naval vessel fired top-secret missile-like XT-7Bs, with Bond and Leiter strapped inside the launched missiles. The two guided the jets of their individual transporters to land by the water's edge near the caves. Donning scuba gear, the two infiltrated the cave to follow Largo, and a large-scale gun battle erupted there after Leiter called for backup support (number of deaths unknown, but at least twelve). When Largo made an escape with the armed warhead to try and reach open water and detonate it, Bond was forced to intercept Largo. He contacted Leiter and called for a chopper to carry him directly above the Tears of Allah well where he dove in. He then engaged Largo in underwater combat, and as Bond was disarming the bomb - the madman was killed by a vengeful Domino (# 6 death) with a harpoon spear-gun.

In the film's epilogue, Bond returned to the Bahamas - with Domino - where he planned to retire ("those days are over"). The couple were swimming in the pool and lounging in the hottub, having drinks although Bond complained about the tropical drinks ("I always have a martini at five"). They were interrupted by Nigel, who pleaded with Bond to return to service "for the security of the civilized world." Bond responded: "Never again." As Domino approached and asked: "Never?", Bond kissed her, looked into the camera, and winked.

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

This action film was essentially a remake of the earlier Sean Connery/Bond film Thunderball (1965), in which Claudine Auger played the "Domino" (Dominique Derval) character, and Adolfo Celi played the role of "Emilio Largo." The Fiona Volpe character became Fatima Blush. And much of the film's action was moved from the Bahamas to the south of France. Both films were based on Ian Fleming's 8th Bond novel.

This was Sean Connery's seventh (and final) film appearance as James Bond, after he left the series 12 years earlier in the early 70s - after Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

A more disdainful M was portrayed by Edward Fox, while Miss Moneypenny was briefly portrayed by Pamela Salem - she was the very first actress to play the straight character role (other than Lois Maxwell). And African-American actor Bernie Casey portrayed CIA agent Felix Leiter. Q (also called Algernon) was played by Alec McCowen.

It was released just four months after the opening of Roger Moore's Octopussy (1983). Although at the time, the two films were trumped up as a Bond vs. Bond showdown, the Roger Moore film excelled in all areas.

Barbara Carrera was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her supporting role portrayal of Fatima Blush.

With a production budget of $36 million, and gross revenue of $55.4 million (domestic) and $160 million (worldwide).

Set-pieces: the war-games training session in the film's prologue, the hand-to-hand struggle between Bond and a brutish assassin in the Shrubland's Clinic (from the gym to the lab), the Fatima-Bond seduction scene on-board the diving boat, the underwater attack of robotically-controlled sharks, the holographic Domination video-game challenge, the turbo-boosted motorbike-Renault 5 Turbo chase scene, the horseback rescue of Domino from Arabs, and the climactic undersea battle

Bond Villains: SPECTRE's Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Max von Sydow), Spectre No. 1 Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), Captain Jack Petachi (Gavan O'Herlihy)

Bond Girls: Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), Patricia Fearing (Prunella Gee), Domino Petachi (Kim Basinger), the Lady in the Bahamas (Valerie Leon)

Number of Love-Making Encounters: 4

Film Locales: Central America (training exercise), MI6's headquarters and Shrublands Health Farm/Clinic near London, England, SPECTRE's Headquarters -- somewhere in France, Swadley US Air Force Base also near London, England, Nassau in the Bahamas, S. France (Nice) and Monte Carlo (Monaco), Palymra (North Africa), Middle East oil fields

Gadgets: infra-red night-vision binoculars, retinal scanner, remote-controlled bomb, Union Jack-decorated fountain pen with exploding rocket projectile, digital wrist-watch with laser beam cutting tool, shark-attracting transmitter and robotic control device, high-powered telescopic viewing mechanism, Bond's cigar case (fakely claimed to be a bomb with a motion-sensing gyroscope), Domination video-game, Bond's black Walther P5, two top-secret XT-7Bs (missile-like transporters launched from the US naval submarine)

Vehicles: Bond's vintage black 1937 Bentley coupe, Rockwell B-1 Lancer strategic bomber, Jack Retachi's Ford Taurus sedan, Fatima's gold-metallic Mercedes-Benz SL convertible, rubber dinghys, helicopter, Flying Saucer yacht, black Yamaha turbobike - a jet equipped motorcycle with rocket motor, Nicole's Peugeot sedan, Fatima's Citroen CX, Fatima's red 1983 Renault 5 Turbo, US Navy submarine

Number of Deaths (Bond Kills): 6+ (3)