Never Say Never Again

Plot synopsis:
In an unidentified tropical region, James Bond, on assignment, is infiltrating an enemy compound. He distracts, subdues and kills several guards until he reaches the compound's primary building. After eliminating several more guards, he enters an adjacent bedroom where he finds a kidnapped woman, bound to a bed. As he frees her arms, she grabs a hidden knife and stabs him in the ribs.At MI6 headquarters, Bond's boss, M, and a tactician review Bond's performance on video; the mission was a fake assignment designed to test Bond's effectiveness. Though his total mission time was acceptable, Bond is heavily criticized for being killed, a result of him missing details in the mission's "plot". Bond points out that he has been a willing participant in M's "war games" and that he was only previously wounded in one of them. M points out that the result of that training exercise was Bond losing both of his legs, thereby becoming useless as an active agent. M orders Bond to Shrublands - a rehabilitation club outside of London.At a bank in France a woman, Fatima Blush, arrives and demands access to a secret room housed within the bank where her parent criminal organization, SPECTRE, holds a top-secret meeting. Present is SPECTRE's leader, Blofeld. He announces a new plan for the group's latest attempt at extortion called "The Tears of Allah", so-named for a jade pendant that the mission's creator, Maximillian Largo, gives to his lover, Domino Petachi. With the aid of Blush, Largo will steal two nuclear cruise missiles. The theft will be performed in part by an American Air Force captain, Jack Petachi, Domino's brother, whose right eye is being altered surgically to represent that of the United States president. Blush's role will be as Capt. Petachi's caretaker following the surgery. However, SPECTRE has also ensured his compliance by addicting him to heroin and threatening the life of Domino.At Shrublands, Bond is required to adhere to a strict regimen of controlled diet and exercise. However, it does not prevent him from sneaking in a small cache of rich food, which he uses while he seduces his physical therapist. After the two have had sex in Bond's room, Bond notices a commotion across the courtyard in another room; a woman is arguing with a man whom she then beats severely. The two are Petachi and Blush. Bond sneaks over to the man's window and observes him using a strange decoding machine. The window shade suddenly flies open and Petachi sees Bond. Blush searches the nearby grounds for Bond using night-vision glasses and spots him easily.The next day Bond is working out in the club's weight room when he is attacked by a large thug, Lippe. Their battle spills into several rooms of the club, causing much destruction. Lippe finally corners Bond in a small lab and Bond throws the contents of a nearby beaker in the man's face, causing him to scream horribly and back into a set of shelves, impaling himself on dozens of pieces of glassware. The man falls dead and Bond looks at the beaker's label; it reads "James Bond - urine specimen". Bond later reports to M who chastises him harshly for creating an enormous amount of damage to the club.At an American-run air force base in Britain, Jack Petachi steals into a sealed control room and uses his fake eye and decoding machine to successfully switch two "dummy" warheads for live nuclear ones. The warheads are installed into two cruise missiles which are loaded on a plane for a test mission. Shortly after leaving the base, Petachi is killed by Blush, who causes a car crash and finishes him with an explosive device.The warheads are launched from a British stealth bomber and speed toward their intended targets. As they pass by Max Largo's yacht, the Flying Saucer ("Disco Volante" in Thunderball), one of Largo's operatives activates a jamming device which forces the missiles to splash down. They are taken aboard and later hidden in an underwater cave. A broadcast from SPECTRE informs NATO that the missiles will likely have differing targets. SPECTRE naturally demands an exorbitant amount of money as ransom.Bond speaks with M and decides to check a lead; Petachi was logged leaving the base right before he was killed. Bond has discovered that Petachi's sister, Domino, is involved with Largo himself and tracks them both to Nassau in the Bahamas. He is met there by the bumbling Nigel Smalls, his MI6 contact. Smalls informs Bond that Largo possesses no criminal record and is quite a philanthropist. Bond is met at a beach-side bar by Fatima Blush, who persuades Bond to join her on a deep-sea diving expedition. The two have sex on the way to their dive spot and explore the wreck of a sunken ship. Blush discretely places a small tracking device on Bond's scuba tank that attracts a tiger shark. Bond traps it on the wreck, only to find another tiger has taken its place. Bond finds the tracking device and detaches it, however, his oxygen line is cut. He swims to the surface and finds a woman he'd befriended at the Nassau harbor. When Fatima sees him and the woman at the dock later on, she is spurned and plants an explosive charge under Bond's bed. She activates it only to find she'd gotten the wrong room; Bond had gone back to the fishing woman's room instead.Bond checks in with Smalls, who tells Bond that Largo has set sail for the south of France on the Flying Saucer. Bond travels there and meets his MI6 contact, Nicole, and Felix Leiter, his CIA contact. While Bond observes the Flying Saucer in the bay below their villa, he sees a beautiful blond woman dancing on the deck; Domino Petachi. Bond goes to the same spa as Domino and poses as a masseur to find out information about Largo. Domino tells him that Largo is hosting a large charity event for orphaned children. Bond goes there and gains entry by subduing a security guard. He meets Domino and Largo; the millionaire challenges Bond to a video game called Domination. The two battle each other for the monetary values attached to countries of the world. The game, however, is rigged to electrically shock the hands of the loser in each round. In the final round, Bond, having challenged Largo to a match for the entire dollar amount of the remainder of the world, wins and forces Largo to let go of his hand controls; when Largo shows no obvious physical pain, Bond concludes that Largo is psychotic. Largo is about to pay Bond his winnings when Bond offers to waive them in exchange for a single dance with Domino. Largo orders a tango and during the dance, Bond tells Domino that Jack is dead and that her lover is the chief suspect. Largo suddenly ends the dance and tells Domino that her brother will again be delayed in meeting them.Bond returns to the villa to find Nicole murdered and hears the killer leaving the house. The killer is Fatima, who drives off. Bond mounts a turbo motorcycle and pursues her in a furious chase, using the cycle's defenses to evade the henchmen who chase him in cars. He chases her into a harborside warehouse, where she knocks him from his cycle. At gunpoint, she forces him to write a statement saying that Fatima was the greatest sexual partner he's ever encountered and threatens to shoot him in the crotch if he doesn't. Bond tries shooting her with an explosive charge from his pen but the charge fails to detonate immediately. As Fatima aims her own gun, the charge goes off, killing her. Felix Leiter steps out from a hiding place and helps Bond escape the French police.Before the Flying Saucer sets sail, Bond and Leiter scuba dive to it's keel, finding that it's designed to open, which it does. Bond is quickly captured and is treated quite pleasantly as a guest by the genial Largo. Bond finds Domino in the yacht's dancing studio and deliberately kisses her passionately, knowing Largo is watching through a one-way mirror in his private control room. Largo rushes into the studio and begins smashing the mirrors and stereo with a fire ax. Bond gains entry to Largo's control room and radios his contacts that the Flying Saucer is headed for North Africa.After arriving in North Africa, Largo retrieves the hidden nuclear warheads and imprisons Bond in an ancient fortress. He explains to Bond that the two nukes have different targets; one will be planted in Washington DC, but he refuses to reveal the other target specifically, which will be somewhere in the oil fields of the Middle East. He also gives Domino to a man who intends to auction her off to a group of local Arab men. Bond waits until Largo leaves and escapes from his shackles. He steals a horse from a guard and rescues Domino, however, the two are forced to jump from a rampart into the sea to escape. They are rescued by Leiter, who has come in an America submarine.The submarine follows the Flying Saucer, finding her anchored off a shallow coastline. Bond, Leiter and the sub's captain try to figure out where Largo has hidden the bombs. The location is revealed when Bond notices that the map of the general area matches the design on Domino's pendant. Bond and Leiter, along with a commando team, infiltrate Largo's lair and battle briefly with his men but are unable to stop him from moving the bomb to his yacht. Bond and Leiter regroup with the sub's crew and pursue the Flying Saucer. Bond is dropped from a helicopter into the crevasse where Largo intends to plant the warhead. He fights with Largo, pinning him to the crevasse wall with a submersible vehicle. Largo aims a harpoon gun at Bond but is killed himself by Domino, who uses a harpoon gun of her own. She and Bond return to the surface.While on holiday with Domino, Bond surprises a man who had attempted to sneak up on him. The man is Nigel Smalls who informs Bond that M wants him to return to active service. Bond refuses, saying "never" - a reference to actor Sean Connery's quitting the role of James Bond after his final film, Diamonds are Forever.

Tags: good versus evil, revenge, cult, murder, violence

Review:
It probably would have been better if he'd succeeded earlier - say, around 1976 or so; as it is, Connery, who managed to equal Roger Moore's number of Bond portrayals with this film, is a full dozen years older since his previous Bonder "Diamonds Are Forever," and it shows.
James Bond (Sean Connery who shows his face clean-shaven and wearing a variety of grey and brown wigs) matches wits with a nasty , good-looking tycoon , Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) , who is holding the world nuclear hostage as part of a diabolical plan schemed by Espectre led by a sinister leader (Max Von Sydow) .
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 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.
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.
NSNA is a remake of "Thunderball" and stars the original Bond, Sean Connery -who comes back to the role after many years of absence.The film is released some months after "Octopussy" with Roger Moore, the 13th episode of the EON series.
Both films are a big success in 1983, even if "Octopussy" earns more money at the box office.NSNA is a luxurious film made by excellent technicians -director Irvin Kershner who led "The Empire strikes back", Douglas Slocombe -cinematographer of "Raiders of the lost Ark"-, and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr -who wrote "The three days of the Condor"- among others...The cast is excellent with Connery, a then relatively unknown Kim Basinger, Barbara Carrera, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max Von Sydow, Edward Fox...Although all that the film remains inferior to the original "Thunderball".
Connery's 007 Bow Offers Moore Fun. Yes, it's Sean Connery playing Bond again, looking more alive and into his part than any time since the first time they made this film, in 1965 when it was called "Thunderball".
However, after seeing it again around the turn of the century, I was disappointed.I think it's a bit overrated only because critics were so happy to see Sean Connery end his 12-year hiatus from playing Bond that they didn't dare criticize the film.
I thought Klaus Maria Brandauer was the more intriguing of the two because he was so low-key and looked the "nice guy next door." He wasn't your normal Bond villain.This had plenty of "skin," for a PG movie, especially with Kim Basinger starring, never being an actress known for hiding her figure.
Well, the cast is very very interesting, Maria Brandauer is a great Bond- villain, Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera are just like the "original" Bond- girls, plus Rowan Atkinson and a truly great Edward Fox, who looks really refreshing in the "M" role.
Finally, a Bond movie where all the women are GORGEOUS (Barbara Carrera, Kim Bassinger, Valerie Leon, Lucy Hornack), the jokes are actually funny, the stunts are well staged and the plot is as confusing, long drawn out and non-sensical as all the other Bond films.ALL James Bond films are too long as the only segments that the public REALLY wants to see are the girls (almost always disappointing in my opinion), the gadgets and the chases.Please don't complain about the acting, script, plot development, music, etc...
("Some men doesn't want to be taken for a ride.")The setting is not the Caribbean Islands but France which is enjoyable enough, in my opinion.The movie is especially to be considered underrated due to its killer cast: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Kim Basinger, Rowan Atkinson, Max von Sydow...A nice finishing touch for Connery's contribution to the Bond series..
This movie was mostly realistic and that is why it is so great.This was Sean Connery's last James Bond film which gives it a special kind of appeal.
The plot is a remake of the movie ThunderBall yet i think they made an even better movie this time around.Sit back with your beverage of choice and watch this movie with your wife or girlfriend as it is not overly violent and the movie is entertaining enough to keep anyone interested.This is my favorite Bond film and i give it 10 stars!.
Let me depart from many comments I've read here, and say that this film ranks as one of the five best Bonds, along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, From Russia With Love, Licence To Kill, and For Your Eyes Only (the ONLY time Roger Moore actually played the role of Bond, instead of futzing around).
Sean Connery returns as James Bond, in a movie remake of Thunderball.
There is lesser action in this movie than in previous Bond films, but some of the the thrills are still a little entertaining, especially the part where Bond attempts to dispatch the femme fatale Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera).Sorely missing is John Berry's iconic James Bond theme and score, and what we have instead is a very 80s-sounding soundtrack from Michel Legrand.
Klaus Maria Brandauer gave a convincing villain in Maximilian Largo - slimy and sly, making you want to punch him in the face.The film its adventurous moments, but, it's not one of the best Bond movies out there - it's more like a stand alone action flick.Grade C+.
When Kevin McClory won the legal battle to remake Thunderball, he turned to the original 007, Sean Connery to return as Bond, older, greyer, with a bigger toupee and a nicer pay cheque.There is no hiding the fact that we have an out of shape Bond here, but the rest of the film is the same as Thunderball.
That year both Roger Moore and Sean Connery starred in two separate James Bond film, the former (Octopussy) was produced by the "official" makers of the Bond films while the later (Never Say Never Again) was produced "unofficially" by a group led by Kevin McClory who held the film rights to Thunderball.
In 1983 two Bond movies was made, one was the official Bond movie Octopussy starring Roger Moore who starred as James Bond for the first time in Live and Let Die and the other was the unofficial Bond movie Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery who played the role as James Bond for the first time in Dr. No, that film was also the first 007 James Bond movie to be made.
Never say never again I viewed last on itv4 and by God it's great stuff for real bond enthusiasts it stars Sean Connery as James Bond 12 years after he called it quits with the series with diamonds are forever in 1971 and it's about an older 007 who is called out of retirement by his superior m played by Edward fox to stop a spectre operative played by Klaus Maria Brandeur and his voluptuous sidekick Fatima blush played by Barbra careera who have stolen two nuclear warheads and held NATO ransom by planting them in various locations and bond must stop them before they cause world war 3 .
Overall this film despite it being classified as an unofficial bond film is really quite fun and much better than most of Roger Moore's turkeys ( octupussy which came out at the same time ) Connery is brooding as well charming as bond he doesn't look bad considering he was 52 in 1983 when this was released and handles himself well especially in the action scenes and love scenes better than in Diamonds are forever when he looked flabby and overweight Kim basinger is stunning and tough as the Bond girl of the piece she is not just seen as a sex object .
It's overlong, and it's a remake (of a film based on a book, which itself was based on an unfilmed screenplay) so we mostly know what's going to happen from square one, but Sean Connery seems more into it than he'd been since Thunderball, and that alone makes this film worth watching (for a little while, at least) But the rest of the supporting cast is terrible, and the film just goes on forever.The opening gambit is good, with Connery back, and in good form as Bond, apparently rescuing a hostage from her captors, which raises one's hopes for this film-- but then the rug is pulled out from underneath us and we are basically told "just kidding," as it turns out to be a routine training exercise.Edward Fox (who is horrible) is M.
Instead, it's off to Shrubland's, where (after lame jokes) we get a good fight scene between Bond and Lippe- but it goes on too long, it ends as inanely as possible, and we realise that it was little more than an attempt at cloning Jaws, from The Spy Who Loved Me.By the time the real plot finally begins, were are already about twenty minutes into the film.Once again, the fate of the world is at stake when nuclear warheads are stolen and held up for ransom, and it is up to Bond to track them down and prevent their use.
The bombs are in one place (the Bahamas, again) but the film feels obligated to do the required globetrotting (to France, and north Africa, then back to the Bahamas) to compete with the other Bond films which do the same.Partway through, we get a decent enough motorcycle chase, but we later see Bond basically playing a video game in a casino, in one of the most baffling scenes.To make matters even worse, Klaus Maria Brandauer is a weak villain, Kim Basinger is an equally lame heroine, and Barbara Carrera leaves little impression either.
He returned for "Diamonds Are Forever" and his demanding salary (which was unheard of at the time) forced Eon to cutback on special effects, making it a relatively weak movie.Connery left once again and went off to try and write his own Bond movies with Kevin McClory (Co-Writer of "Thunderball") but United Artist put a stop to that through legal battles.
It would have been impossible for EON to stop the producers from including a pre-credit and title sequence, albeit without the gun-barrel introduction.Sean Connery is on fine form as the immortal secret agent and this film is certainly better than Dr No, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.
Sean Connery clearly stated back when You Only Live Twice was made that he was fed up with Bond but then he made Diamonds Are Forever and then this bloody movie, why would he act in a remake of a film he'd already acted in?
If. If you can watch a Bond film from 1983 that isn't as good as Octopussy and still enjoy it.If you can accept production values which aren't that much above the level of a TV movie.If you can look at Sean Connery with wrinkles on his forehead beneath an obvious toupée and still see James Bond.If you can get past an inexperienced Basinger, a weaker Largo and a jolly Q.If you can learn to love an idiosyncratic score, not up there with Barry on his worst day.If you don't believe the hyperbolic reviews that it was greeted with on release.If you can meet a poker battle and a video game face off and enjoy them both the same.Yours is Never Say Never Again and everything that's in it.And, what is more, you'll probably enjoy it, my son!.
Never Say Never Again (1983) is an unofficial James Bond film.It's a remake of Thunderball (1965).They both have Sean Connery as the super agent 007 James Bond.That's right, Connery returned one more time to the role that made him world famous.SPECTRE is causing trouble again with his nuclear and Mr. Bond is needed again.Irvin Kershner is the director of the movie.Max von Sydow plays the super villain with his white cat.Klaus Maria Brandauer is the crook Maximilian Largo.Kim Basinger is his girl Domino Petachi.When she meets Bond she won't be Largo's girl for long.Edward Fox plays M.Pamela Salem is Miss Moneypenny.Alec McCowen is Q.For me it's a little weird to see someone else than Desmond Llewelyn playing that character.Then there's also Rowan Atkinson playing Nigel Small-Fawcett.Mr.Atkinson is best known of course as Mr.Bean.This movie is better than most give credit for.There are many great scenes.It's enjoyable to watch Bond give a massage to Kim Basinger.And the kid in me always enjoys a good chase scene.This has got one with James on a motorcycle.There's also some under water action.So I enjoyed this movie.Let's hope Connery ends his retirement and returns for Bond's role one more time..
It is far from the best Bond film, but given that the Moore stable only had Octopussy and A View To Kill left in it at the time, it proves that Sean Connery was still the best man to play Bond.
The answer, not very well (though Ford at his current age appears in better shape than Connery was at the time), and if this were an official Bond entry, it'd be in contention with Moonraker and Live and Let Die as the worst of the series.The film is a virtual remake of Thunderball; Bond is up against madman Largo, a megalomaniac who has a plan for worldwide blackmail by stealing two American nuclear warheads.
Most of the action scenes are terribly boring, the only lively setpiece being a motorcycle chase that's quite fun to watch, but doesn't match up to the series' most impressive action sequences.Never Say Never Again was released the same year as the Roger Moore Bond film Octopussy, which wasn't a great film, but memory serves that it was at least a passably enjoyable action movie that boasted several excellent action sequences.
Most of the supporting cast nails it too Klaus Maria Brandauer makes an a compelling villain (much better than the full guy with an eye patch in Thunderball) Max Von Sydow is in full pantomime villain mode as Blofeld, Kim Basinger looks great and is OK as Domino and Barbara Carrera is a lot of fun too.
Broccoli was carelessly finalizing the thirteenth official Bond movie "Octopussy", together with regular director John Glen and star Roger Moore, the frustrated writer/producer Kevin McClory thought it would be a funny joke to release an unofficial Bond flick with the original hero Sean Connery and – God forbid – an American (!) director by the name of Irvin Kershner.
I think "Never Say Never Again" is best enjoyed as a parody, since many aspects of the film are clearly intended to be ambiguous and humorous, like the meaning of the title itself (referring to the fact that Connery himself said that he would never play James Bond again after "Diamond are Forever") and the presence of Rowan Atkinson as a clumsy British ambassador..
I think if you are a fan of Sean Connery as James Bond then you'll like this movie.
"Never Say Never Again" can't hold a torch to "Thunderball", but to have Sean Connery back in the role of 007 is a great bonus for this movie.It is quite unique in the fact that Bond is portrayed as an ageing operative for Her Majesty's Secret Service who hasn't been 'out in the field' for a long time.
Sean Connery returns for the seventh time as James Bond in this ponderous and pointless film, not a continuation of the franchise, but exists in some alternate reality after "Goldfinger", but instead of "Thunderball", we get this remake, with an identical plot about nuclear warheads being stolen by SPECTRE(led by Ernst Blofeld, here played by Max Von Sydow, the only good improvement to the original, as he is perfectly cast) in order to blackmail the world.Sean Connery plays an aging Bond, reflecting the actors aging, but nothing else about this dud is worth commenting on, a real waste of time.
For one thing it lacks the production values of the official series, and looks more like a cheap TV movie than a Bond film.
This was based on my least favourite bond film thunderball.that relied on underwater sequences where you couldnt tell one from the other.boring as well.this is better than that i liked fatima bush in this.basinger sucked.the main villan was poor and they cut out a scene where bond gets blofeld.pity.very slow moving very little action and very cheap.in fact it looks cheaper than return of the man from uncle.Connery apparently had a tough time making this film.he was being told how to play the role.now that has to be pretty dumb.if he dont know nobody does.the third worst bond movie only thunderball and casino royale are worse..
So Warner Brothers got the rights and I'm sure paid handsomely to get Connery to come back and play his old character.The premise of the movie is that SPECTRE (they seemed to go away during the Roger Moore Bond films) has stolen 2 nuclear warheads and Bond has to find their locations before the detonate.
This remake of 'Thunderball' sees Sean Connery return to the role that made him famous twelve years after his previous Bond film.