**YOU ARE NOW ENTERING SPOILERTOWN**
Plot: 007 must recover the ATAC tech (which can control MI6’s entire fleet of nuclear subs) from a sunken ship before it falls into the wrong hands.
Foiled by: Bond gets the help of some unexpected allies and a vengeful daughter to hunt down both the ATAC and the ones trying to sell it.
Intriguing Setting(s): Greece | Italian Alps
Bond: Roger Moore
Villain(s): Aristotle Kristatos, though you don’t know it at first
Bond Girl(s):
- Melina Havelock – nothing seduces a woman like getting revenge for her murdered father
- Countess Lisl von Schlaf – falls into the growing cannon of post-coital murder victims. Oh and by Austrian Countess it turns out she means Liverpool hustler. She was also, in real life, married to future Bond Pierce Brosnan.
- Bibi – the ice skating youngster who is denied the full Bond treatment, due to her age, despite getting naked in Bond’s bed.
HL’s Hot Take: A more serious, realistic Bond pays off big after the cartoonish (yet entertaining) Moonraker. My highest rated Roger Moore Bond film and hands down the best use of the title in the entire canon.
Head Librarian Rank: 10/24
Critical Rank: 11/24
TRIVIA SECTION!
Odds & Ends:
- Even though 007 kills “Blofeld” at the beginning, they couldn’t call him Blofeld because of a rights issue over SPECTRE and the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s name. It was an inside way to show the series doesn’t need the character.
- Features another sick ski chase! (Though apparently it lead to one stuntman’s death, yikes)
- Only film not featuring the character M, as Bernard Lee had recently died of cancer.
6 Degrees Cameos: Julian Glover, who plays Kristatos, is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Empire Strikes Back, AND Troy. That’s Heston-level epic acting.
Gadgets: Greatly de-emphasized after the over the top use in the last few films.
Cars: Lotus Esprit Turbo
Awards: Oscar nod for Best Song – “For Your Eyes Only” (Lost to “Arthur’s Theme” from Arthur)
Release Order: 12/25 (1981)