007 Mission Files – ‘Never Say Never Again’

1983 marked the second time Bond fans saw their hero twice in the same year. The EON production of Octopussy, starring incumbent James Bond actor Roger Moore, was a moderate success as far as Bond films go. However, hot on the heels of its release came Never Say Never Again, which saw the return of the original James Bond–Sean Connery.

How did this come to be? If you can remember back to Thunderball, there was a lawsuit between EON Productions and Kevin McClory for the rights to the film and characters therein. McClory had aided James Bond creator Ian Fleming in the development of the story and some of the themes and characters, such as Blofeld and SPECTRE. For that reason, neither has appeared in a Bond film in over a decade.

With the dust of the lawsuit settled, McClory went about making a Bond film to rival EON’s series, but he was legally bound to the story of Thunderball. The writers did their best to tweak the script so it didn’t seem exactly like Thunderball, but beat-for-beat, it is the same movie. Even the name of the boat was just changed from the Disco Volante to the Flying Saucer. Same thing, different language.

After the script was in place, McClory knew he had to find an actor to fill Bond’s shoes that would bring in a crowd. He approached one-time Bond star George Lazenby from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Lazenby was actually briefly on board until McClory was able to land Sean Connery.

Connery and EON had a long-storied feud that went back to his time as Bond. He signed a multi-picture deal before the series started, and as the movies gained popularity, he continued to be paid a comparatively meager wage. The producers did make it up to him in a couple of films that he did after his contract ran out, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever, but the bitterness remained and he saw this as his final shot to get back at them.

With Connery set to return, McClory was able to recruit director Irvin Kershner to helm the film as his followup to The Empire Strikes Back. His next theatrical release was RoboCop 2, in a string of increasingly odd movie sequels.

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McClory received a budget of $36 million from TaliaFilms to make the movie. While this was $9 million more than EON spent on Octopussy this same year, the returns were not as great. Octopussy won the Battle of the Bonds in 1983 by $23 million, and McClory’s hopes of a rival Bond franchise were dashed as a sequel was never greenlit from the studio. Interestingly, MGM now owns the rights to all of the films. Never Say Never Again is often included in their distribution and syndication deals, but not in any official box-set releases.

Never Say Never Again is literally a direct remake of Thunderball, which was unfortunately one of the worst Bond films, so I won’t spend too much time with a recap of the plot. If you need to refresh your memory, you can always refer back to the Thunderball article.

The movie opens with Bond infiltrating an enemy base to rescue a kidnapped princess. When he gets to her and cuts her free, she stabs him in the rib cage. Don’t worry, Bond fans! This was all just a training exercise.

I really like this opening sequence. The idea of it was reused later in The World is Not Enough to some success, but before that movie’s release it reminded me of the opening scene in From Russia with Love, in which Red Grant is hunting down a man posing as Bond for a training exercise.

After Bond’s failure in the training exercise he returns to M’s office. There’s a new M in town and he doesn’t approve of Bond’s lifestyle, suggesting it was the cause of his failure. Bond pointed out that he has passed the other exercises during his training, and his role has been reduced to that of teacher since the Double-O section was shut down. M sends Bond to a health spa to get back into shape and cleanse his body of free radicals.

While at the spa, Bond witnesses a fight between a woman and an unknown man. We find out that the woman is Fatima and the man has had eye surgery to change his retina to match the President of the United States. He is able to use this to sneak onto a military base and alter a training exercise to use live nuclear missiles. From there his associates steal the missiles and hold the world hostage. Fatima kills the man to cover their tracks.

We meet SPECTRE and their leader Blofeld. As he explains the plot to the rest of the members he introduces Maximilian Largo as the architect of the plan. Blofeld then reveals his grand scheme to the United Nations and threatens to launch the missiles if each nation does not pay them a quarter of their annual budget each year.

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With this news, M is ordered to re-open the Double-O section and send them to find the missiles. Bond is recruited to check on Largo in the Bahamas. There, everything begins to fall into place. The man who had posed as the president was the brother of Largo’s girlfriend Domino. Bond uses his charms to gain Domino’s trust and tells her that Largo has killed her brother. She pledges to help him. Eventually Bond is able to discover the location of the missiles, and they are disarmed. Domino kills Largo to exact revenge for her brother’s death. The two of them seemingly live happily ever after.

Watching the movie made me realize just how much I missed Sean Connery as Bond. I had grown accustomed to watching Roger Moore and his version of Bond. Moore was fine and had his style, but with Connery’s return it sort of brought me back into reality. Connery hadn’t made a Bond film in 12 years, but he somehow looked better now than he did in his previous outing Diamonds are Forever. He even looked better than Roger Moore did earlier the same year in Octopussy. The only thing that was worse was his toupee somehow. I think it was moose hair or something. It didn’t look natural at all.

I was really impressed with Connery in this one. He was able to catch up with the times. He didn’t hit any women and was generally more respectful to them than he’d been before. He even went through some body shaming during the first quarter of the movie when everyone told him how old and out-of-shape he was. This is particularly funny, since the current Bond–Roger Moore–was 3 years older than him at the time.

Interestingly, Connery said in an interview later that while he was training for the role his martial arts instructor broke his wrist. Connery lived with the pain for a couple of years before finally getting it fixed. His instructor was Steven Seagal.

As a side-by-side comparison, this movie is way better than Octopussy and Thunderball. A lot of it comes down to the direction. Kershner was able to use a lot of interesting angles and camera movements to sell the story, and you can see his influence throughout the film.

There was some silliness in the movie, but I don’t think it was any worse than Moore playing Bond in a clown costume. Yes, Connery sported overalls in this movie. He also played an arcade game, called Domination, created by Largo. Still, the comedy seemed to come naturally. Instead of Moore’s goofy dad jokes, we returned to Connery’s dry quips and puns.

The theme song is pretty terrible. Ridiculously repetitive. “Never never never say never again…” That’s like a quadruple negative, Lani Hall. Do you want me to say “never again” or not? Maybe it would have worked better if it had a cool James Bond opening credits sequence. Instead it just played over the action of Bond during the training mission.

The movie title came from Sean Connery famously saying he would never play Bond again. When he signed on, his wife allegedly said, “Never say never again.” Connery cleverly had an idea for an alternate ending in which Bond and Domino were to pass Roger Moore (who’s contract had ended with EON) on the sidewalk. They would turn to look at him and he would say, “Never say never again.” Moore and Connery were friends and both pushed for it, but they couldn’t convince the director or producers to get on board.

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Cars: Bond arrives at the spa in a black 1937 Bentley 4 1/4 litre B129JY Gurney Nutting 3-Position-Drophead Coupé. That’s car talk for “gorgeous old car.” They take a few minutes to admire the vehicle when he first arrives. In the books, Bond always drives a Bentley convertible. It was changed to an Aston Martin in the EON movies for a product placement deal.

Bond also drives a Yamaha XJ 650 Turbo motorcycle outfitted by Q branch. He moves really well on it, and it’s a great chase sequence. A gold Mercedes-Benz SL convertible, a red 1983 Renault Turbo, and a black Camaro also appear.

I should also mention Largo’s boat, now named the Flying Saucer. The boat that was used in shooting the film was owned by Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer, and was called the Nabila. There is a special thanks to him in the credits that reads “Thanks A.K.” Interestingly, the boat now belongs to current Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and is called the Trump Princess.

Allies: M is played by Edward Fox. He is a very different sort of M than Bernard Lee had been. He’s very energetic and worried about results and doing things by the book, even referencing that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the previous M. This actually worked really well because Octopussy also marked the first time that someone other than Lee played M in the official series.

Moneypenny was played by Pamela Salem. She brought a youthful edge to the role against Connery’s older gruffness. It worked really well. This was the first time someone other than Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny.

Alec McCowen played Q. Again, this was a really fun take on a character that we’ve already seen a lot of. Q is complaining about a lack of funding since the Double-O section was shut down. He’s been reduced to making arms for the regular agents with very few gadgets. He even longs to hear stories of Bond’s gratuitous sex and violence upon his return.

Bernie Casey plays Felix Leiter. I like his expanded role, and he does a serviceable job.

This is the first feature film credit for Rowan Atkinson, who became famous playing Mr. Bean. He plays Bond’s contact Small-Fawcett in the Bahamas. He adds a good deal of comic relief without going over the edge. He’s just the young agent that hasn’t learned the tricks of the trade yet.

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Bond Girls: Domino is the damsel in distress Bond is able to save. She’s played here by Kim Basinger, who between this and Batman was saved a lot in movies from my childhood. She did a good job, and this is one of the first roles that really put her on the map.

There’s also the role of “Lady in Bahamas.” This was a character Bond bumped into multiple times while he was in the Bahamas. He eventually seduced her before moving on to the next step in his investigation.

Gadgets: There weren’t a lot of gadgets, since Q branch was losing funding. He did have a specialized watch that shot a laser, which cut him out of his chains at one point. Pretty standard for Bond. He also had a pen that shot a mini-missile, which of course came in handy.

My favorite was Bond’s cigar case. It was honestly just an ordinary cigar case, but Bond put it in the hand of a guard and told him it was a bomb with a gyroscope in it. If it moved too much the bomb would go off. He later retrieved it from the guard and pulled out a cigar. Great moment.

Villains: I’m always excited to see Max Von Sydow’s performances. He’s a fantastic if not underrated actor. He’s been in so many great movies that to only list a few would be a disservice to him. I will mention The Seventh Seal, which was an amazing Ingmar Bergman movie from 1957. I also really enjoyed him in The Exorcist, What Dreams May Come, Minority Report…again, too many good ones to mention. He’ll next be seen this winter in The Force Awakens!

Here Sydow plays ultimate Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It’s one of my favorite Blofeld performances behind only Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice. Sydow was kind of a big name for such a small part, but they had originally planned on this being the first in a series of movies, and his role would have expanded as time went on.

Maximilian Largo is Bond’s primary foe in the movie. They butt heads numerous times, most notably over a video game Largo created. Klaus Maria Brandauer turns in a really strong performance here. He teeters on the edge of overacting, but is always able to reel it in at the last second. Throughout the movie, you’re just waiting for him to go too far, but he never does.

Fatima is played by Barbara Carrera. She was Largo’s right-hand woman. Carrera turned in a strong performance as well. She created a layered character that turned out to be kind of insane, but you get to watch the transition as the movie progresses.

Pat Roach played Count Lippe. This was Fatima’s assistant/bodyguard at the spa. He beats the crap out of Bond and has a really cool weapon. It’s part whip, part machete. Roach also has the distinction of being the only actor to beat the crap out of both James Bond and Indiana Jones. He appears in both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as an adversary for Indy.

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Overall, I enjoy Never Say Never Again more than a lot of the Moore movies. It just depends on what you like from the series. It’s definitely better than Octopussy. The acting and directing are both better than most Bond movies to date. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get past the terribly boring plot of Thunderball.

This was Connery’s last appearance as James Bond. He did do the voice for Bond in the video game adaptation of From Russia with Love that was released in 2005, but this is his last time onscreen.

Overall, Connery goes down as my second favorite Bond to date, and there is no denying he’s one of the all-time greats. He created the template for the character that all of his successors tried to live up to. Not all of his movies were great, but pound for pound they’re better than Roger Moore’s movies. Including this unofficial entry for Connery, they both played the character seven times. Here’s my ranking:

  1. Thunderball – A fun game to play is to watch this movie with a group of friends and see who is the last person to fall asleep.
  1. Never Say Never Again – I’d really like to put this higher. Great acting and directing, but it has the same slow plot as Thunderball.
  1. Diamonds are Forever – This was a lot more fun than I remembered it being. Unfortunately, as far as production value goes, it’s the worst of the Connery era. Probably because his salary was eating up so much of the budget.
  1. Goldfinger – Its status as a classic was the only thing that kept it from being passed by Diamonds are Forever. It’s the only Connery movie that feels outdated. There’s a lot of sexism and bad references. That being said, there are also a lot of iconic moments and characters.
  1. Dr. No – I thought this was going to be lower on my list. I loved it as a kid, but had recently found it a little slow and boring. Watching through them this year moved it back up my list. Great introduction to Bond.
  1. You Only Live Twice – This entry has been skyrocketing while Goldfinger plummets. It’s the perfect mix of action with just enough comedy. Classic Bond. That’s why Austin Powers borrowed from it so heavily.
  1. From Russia with Love – Not only is this Connery’s best Bond movie, it’s one of the top 5 of the entire series. Great plot, solid script, good acting. It’s underrated among non-Bond obsessives due to its lack of action, but it doesn’t need it. It’s one of the few true spy stories in the James Bond series.

What do you think? Do you agree with my list? Think there should be changes? Let us know in the comments below.

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