Never Say Never Again

Never Say Never Again is an unofficial James Bond film and remake of the 1965 film Thunderball. Released in 1983, it stars Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent James Bond. It was released theatrically by Warner Bros.

The film is considered "unofficial" because it is not part of the Bond film franchise from EON Productions and United Artists, despite its currently being handled by the official film series distributor, MGM. MGM acquired the distribution rights in 1997 after their acquisition of Orion Pictures. The film also marks the culmination of a long legal battle between United Artists and Kevin McClory. Its release opposite the franchise Bond film Octopussy (starring Roger Moore) quickly led the media to dub the situation the "Battle of the Bonds."

Plot summary

Being a remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again follows a similar plotline to the earlier film and novel, but with some differences.

The film opens with a middle-aged, yet still athletic James Bond making his way through an armed camp in order to rescue a girl who has been kidnapped. After killing the kidnappers, Bond lets his guard down, forgetting that the girl might have been subject to the Stockholm syndrome (in which a kidnapped person comes to identify with his/her kidnappers) and is stabbed to death by her. Or so it seems.

In fact, the attack on the camp is nothing more than a field training exercise using blank ammunition and fake knives, and one Bond fails because he ends up "dead" (though, confusingly, a previous 'fake' mission saw his legs get blown off by a land mine). A new M is now in office, one who sees little use for the 00-section. In fact, Bond has spent most of his recent time teaching, rather than doing, a fact he points out with some resentment.

Feeling that Bond is slipping, M orders him to enroll in a health clinic in order to "eliminate all those free radicals" and get back into shape. While there, Bond discovers a mysterious nurse (Fatima Blush) and her patient, who is wrapped in bandages. His suspicions are aroused even further when a thug (Lippe) tries to kill him.

Blush and her charge, an American Air Force pilot named Jack Petachi, are in fact operatives of SPECTRE, a criminal organization run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Petachi has undergone an operation to alter one of his retinas to match the retinal pattern of the American President. Using his position as a pilot and the president's eye pattern to circumvent security, Petachi infiltrates an American military base in England and orders the dummy warheads in two cruise missiles replaced with two live nuclear warheads, which SPECTRE captures and uses to extort billions of dollars from the governments of the world.

M reluctantly reactivates the 00 section, and Bond is assigned the task of tracking down the missing weapons, beginning with a rendezvous with Domino Petachi, the pilot's sister, who is kept a virtual prisoner by her lover, Maximillian Largo. Bond pursues Largo and his yacht to the Bahamas, where he engages Domino, Fatima Blush, and Largo in a game of wits and resources as he attempts to derail SPECTRE's scheme.

Changes to the Bond universe

The film makes changes to the James Bond universe, and to the noticeably older character of 007 – having him drive his beloved Bentley from the novels, for example. There is a gritty realism to the entire environment and a recognition of the geopolitics of the early 1980s and the rising powers of the Middle East, driven by oil money.

MI6 is shown to be underfunded and understaffed, the new M (this is acknowledged) played by Edward Fox having little time for 007's methods and exploits, and taking an accountant's attitude (which would eventually be picked up in the official EON series with Judi Dench becoming another new M in GoldenEye). With regards to Q Branch, the character Q is referred to by the name "Algernon" and may also be a different individual than the Q in the official Bond series (where Q's first name is never revealed). His personality is also very different, as is his impoverished background environment; Algernon makes no bones about expecting "gratuitous sex and violence" from Bond, which the Q of the official series is very much against. James Bond does not have a wonder-car, either - rather a sprightly and mildly armed motorcycle that Q promises to send him if he can "get it to work" (of course he does).

Maximilian Largo's Disco Volante has experienced changes, in many ways for the better. Still launching a wet-sub from a secret chamber, the Disco is now a civilianised frigate, and equipped with the amenities expected within a villain's lair, and particularly of a villain with superb taste and a definite European character - the EON films have in recent years made their villains intensely American in terms of megalomaniac scope.

Perhaps the most notable change is in the depiction of Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA friend and colleague, who is portrayed by an African-American actor for the first time (the 2006 version of Casino Royale will also feature a black Leiter). This film also appears to take place in an "alternate universe" in which none of the events of SPECTRE-involving films such as You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds Are Forever (which followed the original Thunderball) have taken place, since Blofeld is active and apparently previously unknown to Bond and MI6 at this point, and of course the events chronicled in Thunderball proceed differently, and at a much later time than in the "official" universe. The film also makes a major departure from "official" continuity by ending with Bond indicating his intention to retire from MI6 (and settle down with his leading lady, for once). Actor Connery also breaks the fourth wall during this scene by winking at the camera (something George Lazenby previously did in On Her Majesty's Secret Service).

Cast & characters

James Bond - Sean Connery
M - Edward Fox
Q (a.k.a. Algy) - Alec McCowen
Miss Moneypenny - Pamela Salem
Maximillian Largo - Klaus Maria Brandauer
Fatima Blush - Barbara Carrera
Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Max von Sydow
Domino Petachi - Kim Basinger
Felix Leiter - Bernie Casey
Nigel Small-Fawcett - Rowan Atkinson
Patricia - Prunella Gee
Lady in Bahamas - Valerie Leon
Jack Petachi - Gavan O'Herlihy

Crew

Directed by: Irvin Kershner
Screenplay by: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Produced by: Jack Schwartzman, Kevin McClory (executive), Michael Dryhurst (associate)
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Music composed by: Michel Legrand

Trivia

The movie title comes from Sean Connery's statement when asked if he would ever play Bond again after Diamonds Are Forever, to which he replied "Never Again".
The Flying Saucer, Largo's ship, is a translation of "the Disco Volante", the name of Largo's ship in Thunderball. In this film, the Disco Volante is a formidable vessel clearly based on a military cruiser hull, with a helipad and scale which dramatically dwarf the vessel present in the official film continuity. The Disco is still the base of underwater operations by Largo. In real life, the ship used in long shots was known as the "Nabila" and was built for Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi. The craft was later sold to Donald Trump who christened it the "Trump Princess."
The casino where Bond and Largo go head to head in a videogame was called Casino Royale.
- This scene also prevented author John Gardner from having a somewhat similar scene involving Bond playing a computer game over a LAN in Gardner's novel Role of Honour. Bond was supposed to be playing a simulation of "The Battle of Waterloo", this was later changed to a different type of game involving "The Battle of Bunker Hill". Interestingly, the Battle of Waterloo would also play a part in the later official Bond film, The Living Daylights.
Originally, both this film and the official Bond film, Octopussy were to be released to theatres simultaneously, which led to a brief flurry of media activity regarding the "Battle of the Bonds." Ultimately, it was decided to separate the two release dates.
McClory originally planned for the film to open with some version of the famous "gunbarrel" opening as seen in the official Bond series, but ultimately the film opens with a screenful of "007" symbols instead. When the soundtrack for the film was released on CD, it included a piece of music composed for the proposed opening.
Klaus Maria Brandauer, who played Largo, was originally cast as Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October; the role eventually went to Connery.
Rowan Atkinson, who later became famous for the Mr. Bean comedy series, played a British agent in this movie, the bungling Nigel Small-Fawcett. Later he would play a James Bond parody in Johnny English.
Sean Connery's Bond wore a PULSAR watch (made by the SEIKO) likewise SEIKO also provided Roger Moore's watch in OCTOPUSSY.

External links

MGM's page on the film

1983 films | James Bond films | Film remakes