Bond #5: You Only Live Twice

**YOU ARE NOW ENTERING SPOILERTOWN**

Plot: Hijack both US and Soviet spacecraft (while in orbit) to start a world war between them.

Foiled by: Bond finds the secret volcano lair where they are stashing the stolen spacecraft, infiltrates it while inexplicably not being killed, leads a ninja battalion to victory and blows up the hijacking spaceship with a rocket cigarette.

Intriguing Setting(s): Japan | Underground volcanic lair

Bond: Sean Connery

Villain(s): Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence)

• This is the first film in which you see Blofeld’s face
• Also the first time Blofeld says his name (as opposed to Number 1)

Bond Girl(s):

• Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi)
• Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama)
• Helga Brandt aka No. 11 (Karin Dor) – later dies in classic style, eaten by piranhas!

HL’s Hot Take: This is probably the largest gap between my ranking and the critical response. This movie is terrible. Connery, who by this fifth installment was completely over being Bond, mostly mails in this hybrid space heist/kung fu/Cold War mashup with an INCREDIBLY slow pace and an absurd plot.

Head Librarian Rank: 23/24

Critical Rank: 12/24

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TRIVIA SECTION!

Odds & Ends:

• Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay. Yes, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl. Yes, seriously.
• Released the same year as  Bond-spoof Casino Royale

6 Degrees Cameos: In one of the wackier casting decisions in the series, the man who plays Henderson (Charles Gray), Bond’s short-lived expat contact in Japan, later plays Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever.

Gadgets: Rocket shooting cigarette holder; “Little Nellie”, Bond’s mini helicopter

Cars: Toyota 2000 GT (but it’s Aki’s car and Bond doesn’t actually drive the whole movie)

Awards: Not so much

Release Order: 5/25 (1967)