Never Say Never Again (1983)

A SPECTRE agent has stolen two American nuclear warheads, and James Bond must find their targets before they are detonated.

Director:

Irvin Kershner

Writers:

Kevin McClory (story), Jack Whittingham (story),

Stars:

Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Kim Basinger	...	Domino Petachi
Klaus Maria Brandauer	...	Maximilian Largo
Barbara Carrera	...	Fatima Blush
Max von Sydow	...	Ernst Stavro Blofeld (as Max Von Sydow)
Bernie Casey	...	Felix Leiter
Alec McCowen	...	'Q' Algy
Edward Fox	...	M
Pamela Salem	...	Miss Moneypenny
Rowan Atkinson	...	Nigel Small-Fawcett
Valerie Leon	...	Lady in Bahamas
Milos Kirek	...	Kovacs (as Milow Kirek)
Pat Roach	...	Lippe
Anthony Sharp	...	Lord Ambrose
Prunella Gee	...	Patricia

Storyline

SPECTRE agents under the command of Ernst Blofeld infiltrate a US air force base situated in the UK and steal two Tomahawk cruise missiles. When NATO is held to ransom, the British reactive their "00" agents and send James Bond to recapture the warheads and kill Blofeld.

---

Plot Keywords:

nuclear warhead | british | bahamas | u.s. air force | missile | 

---

Taglines:

Sean Connery is James Bond 007 [Australian theatrical poster]

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

UK USA West Germany

Language:

English French Spanish Arabic

Release Date:

7 October 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Warhead

Filming Locations:

Alpes-Maritimes, France

Box Office

Budget:

$36,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$55,500,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

PSO International, TaliaFilm II Productions, Woodcote

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min 121 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie was basically made because of remake rights owned by Kevin McClory relating to Thunderball. According to the 20-26/10/1997 edition of the trade paper Variety, characters and situations which McClory claimed he owned included: SPECTRE and its octopus signia; characters Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Domino Smith, Fatima Blush and Fiona Volpe; James Bond up against the hijack of an A-bomb; James Bond fighting Sicilian Mafia; the Shrublands Health Clinic; Bahamas location; a yacht with a hidden hydrofoil and the rocket-firing motorbike. EON Productions owned the James Bond theme and logo plus a considerable number of characters and situations. Elements that were shared by both parties included James Bond, casino gambling, M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, Felix Leiter and the Aston Martin DB5. Interestingly of the latter, this vehicle did not appear in this movie whereas it did in Thunderball. Further, despite the claims, the Bahamas was still a location in Casino Royale.

---

Goofs

The subterranean location where Largo is going to hide the second bomb is supposed to be along the Mediterranean shores in North Africa and in an area rich of oilfields, however the map Bond examines on the submarine with the "tears of Allah" silhouette shows a section of the Eritrean costs of the Red Sea and there are no oilfields in Eritrea.

---

Quotes

Miss Moneypenny: Have you got a mission, James?
James Bond: Yes. I am to eliminate all free radicals.
Miss Moneypenny: Ooh. Do be careful.

---

Connections

Referenced in Edición Especial Coleccionista: Colección James Bond (2012)

---

Soundtracks

"Une Chanson D'amour"
Words by Michel Legrand & Jean Drejac
Music by Michel Legrand
Sung by Sophie Della

User Reviews

Ringing the Changes on a Familiar Theme

The year 1983 saw a strange phenomenon; two rival Bond films. "Octopussy", starring Roger Moore, was part of the official Cubby Broccoli Bond franchise. "Never Say Never Again", made by a rival producer, is, apart from the awful "Casino Royale", the only Bond movie which does not form part of that franchise. Its big attraction was that it brought back the original Bond, Sean Connery; its title reputedly derived from Connery's remark after "Diamonds Are Forever" that he would never again play the role. Some have complained that Connery was, at 53, too old for the role, but he was in fact three years younger than his successor Moore, who not only made "Octopussy" in the same year but went on to make one further Bond film, "A View to a Kill", two years later.

The film owes its existence to the settlement of a lawsuit about the film rights to Ian Fleming's work. It is perhaps unfortunate that the terms of the settlement included a clause that the new film had to be a remake of "Thunderball", as that was perhaps not the greatest of the Connery Bonds. (A remake of "Dr No" or "Goldfinger" might have worked better). The plot is much the same as that of the earlier film; the terrorist organisation SPECTRE, acting together with a megalomaniac tycoon named Largo, have stolen two American nuclear warheads and are attempting to hold the world's governments to ransom by threatening to detonate them unless they receive a vast sum of money. It falls to Bond, of course, to save the world by tracking down the missing missiles.

The film is fortunate in that it has not just one but two of the most beautiful Bond girls of all, Barbara Carrera as the seductive but lethal Fatima Blush and Kim Basinger as Largo's girlfriend Domino who defects to Bond's side after learning of her lover's evil plans. A number of the Bond films have a plot that hangs upon the hero's ability to win over the villain's mistress or female accomplice- there are similar developments, for example, in "Goldfinger", "Live and Let Die" and "The Living Daylights". In the official series, Bond's ally is normally regarded as the female lead, but here Carrera, playing the villainess, is billed above Basinger, who was a relatively unknown actress at the time. Basinger, of course, has gone on to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, whereas Carrera is one of a number of Bond girls who have somewhat faded from view.

Of the villains, Max von Sydow makes an effective Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE, but Klaus Maria Brandauer seemed too bland and nonthreatening as Largo, except perhaps during the "Domination" game, a more sophisticated variant on those violent computer games such as "Space Invaders" that were so popular in the early eighties. Brandauer can be an excellent actor in his native German, in films such as "Mephisto" and "Oberst Redl", but he does not comes across so expressively in English.

One of the film's features is that it both follows the normal Bond formula and, at times, departs from it. There is the standard world-in-peril plot, chase sequences, a series of exotic locations, glamorous women, sinister villains and a specially written theme song based on the film's title. There is, however, no extended pre-credits sequence, and we see some familiar characters in a new light. For example, Bond's boss M becomes a languid, supercilious aristocrat, his American colleague Felix Leiter is shown as black for the only time, and the scientist Q is portrayed by Alec McCowen as a disillusioned cynic with (despite his characteristically upper-class Christian name of Algernon) a distinctly working-class accent. There is also an amusing cameo from Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling British diplomat. Although Connery was perhaps not quite a good here as he was in some of his earlier films in the role, this ringing the changes on the familiar theme makes this one of the more memorable Bonds. 7/10

A goof. Rowan Atkinson's character states that he is from the British Embassy in Nassau. As, however, the Bahamas is a Commonwealth country, Britain would have a High Commission in its capital, not an Embassy.