Character sheet for the James Bond film Octopussy.
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MI6
Vijay
Vijay
"No problem, this is a company car!"
Played by: Vijay Amritraj
A MI6 operative and ally of Bond in India. While Sadruddin is knowledgeable, it is Vijay who is the field agent and provides the most assistance to Bond.
- Badass Driver: With his Auto Rickshaw.
- Bond One-Liner: Before using a tennis racket to fend off mooks during the chase: "Game, set and match!"
- Catchphrase: "No problem!"
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: He introduces himself by playing a bar of the James Bond theme on a snake charmer's pipe.
- Improbable Weapon User: Uses his tennis racket to fend off mooks during the chase.
- Meta Casting: The character loves playing tennis. Vijay Amritraj was a tennis champion in real life. During the chase scene, while he hits mooks with his racket, nearby people are seen turning their had back and forth at every hit as if they were watching a tennis match.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is killed by the mook with the circular saw.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is afraid of snakes... despite using a snake charmer cover.
Sadruddin
Sadruddin
Played by: Albert Moses
When Bond arrives in India, Vijay takes him to his boss - Sadruddin, who then escorts Bond to his hotel, pointing out Kamal Khan's palace on the way. He appears in a couple of other scenes throughout the early parts of the film. The first is when he watches Kamal Khan playing backgammon, and then later at Q’s laboratory where he informs Bond about Octopussy's floating palace. Working as head of Station I, Sadruddin merely acts as a point of contact for Bond.
- Mr. Exposition: He gives Bond (and the audience) a basic description of Kamal and Octopussy.
- Only One Name: He is only known as Sadruddin.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The head of the India Station, unconditionally helps Bond.
009
009
Played by: Andy Bradford
A 00 agent who investigated Orlov's jewels smuggling network in Octopussy's circus using a clown disguise. He was chased by Mischka and Grischka and fatally wounded by Grischka's throwing knife at the beginning of the film. Had just enough time to bring a stolen Fabergé egg to the British ambassador in West Berlin before succumbing, kicking off the plot.
- Determinator: Not even getting fatally wounded by Grischka stops him from delivering the stolen Fabergé egg.
- Hero of Another Story: His investigation and circus infiltration is never shown.
- Heroic Sacrifice: All things considered, he saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: As he is dying, he gives the Fabergé egg to the British ambassador.
- In the Back: Receives Grischka's throwing knife in the back.
- Irony: Bond ends up with the very same clown disguise as him in order to find and defuse the nuclear bomb in the circus.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: His murder while he was investigating the jewels smuggling network in Octopussy's circus leads to the discovery of Orlov's World War III plot.
- The Mole: In Octopussy's circus.
- No Name Given: He is only known as Agent 009.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Not in the Cold Open, but comes right after it and sets Bond off on his mission.
- Pursued Protagonist: In the opening scene, he gets chased by Grischka and Mischka.
- Revealing Skill: Confronted by a knife-wielding assassin, a clown is able to fight him off with his bare hands, foreshadowing the reveal that he's a British agent in disguise.
- Sad Clown: More like a "Tragic Clown"; he's killed trying to save the world.
- So Much for Stealth: When one of the balloons tied to 009 bursts, it alerts Mischka & Grischka who are pursuing him.
- Spanner in the Works: His stealing the fake egg forces Kamal to expose himself buying back the real egg at the auction, enabling Bond to pick up his trail.
- You Are Number 6: His rank as a Double-O agent is 009.
Penelope Smallbone
Penelope Smallbone
Played by: Michaela Clavell
A MI6 secretary and assistant to Moneypenny.
- Flowers of Romance: Bond arrives at Universal Exports with a bouquet of carnations; he hands a single red carnation to Moneypenny... and the remainder of the bouquet to Miss Smallbone.
- Nice Girl: From what little is seen about her, she's a very demure young woman, especially in contrast to Moneypenny's Sassy Secretary. Might be also why Moneypenny feels compelled to caution her about Bond's advances.
- Punny Name: Penelope Smallbone. As if that name wasn't bad enough, at one point, Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) flubbed it and called her Penelope Smallbush.
- Sexy Secretary: While she's not portrayed as a sexpot, she's an extremely lovely secretary.
- Tuckerization: Despite her name sounding like a bad pun, Smallbone is actually named after a real person: She's named after one of the models in the opening credits of The Spy Who Loved Me.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Moneypenny introduces her saying that she's training her to become her successor.note She doesn't appear in the following film, and Moneypenny's actress would be instead replaced via the character being recast like Bond.
Bianca
Bianca
Played by: Tina Hudson
A MI6 agent who aids Bond when he arrives to an unnamed Latin American country for a mission in the pre-credits sequence. She initially is there to provide Bond with a disguise (complete with a fake moustache), but when 007's cover is blown, she catches up with the paratrooper guards driving away with a captured Bond in her Jeep and flashes her bare thighs to distract them. Seizing the opportunity, Bond pulls the rip cords on the guards' parachute harnesses, ejecting them from the vehicle. Before Bond escapes in an Acrostar minijet hidden in the back of the Jeep's horse trailer, he kisses Bianca goodbye and says that he will meet her in Miami.
- Fanservice Extra: She's in the movie briefly and gives copious amounts of Fanservice, but in a subversion of the usual role she gets a name and also plays a pivotal role in helping Bond.
- Only One Name: She is only known as Bianca.
- Show Some Leg: Literally; after Bond is captured, she drives alongside the truck Bond and the guards are in and pulls up her skirt, showing her thighs, and while the guards are distracted, Bond reaches out and yanks the ripcords on the soldiers' chutes. The chutes deploy and the soldiers go flying off the back of the truck.
- Sideboob: She gives a healthy amount of this during her Show Some Leg gambit.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She's only in the film during the pre-credits sequence, but it is thanks to her that Bond escapes capture while on his mission during said sequence.
- Spicy Latina: She certainly presents the image, being a dark-skinned woman who operates in a Latin American country and isn't adverse to being flirtatious (even if it's only as a ploy).
Octopussy's Gang
Octopussy
Octavia Charlotte Smythe / Octopussy
" I don't have a country, no price on my head. I don't have to answer to you, a paid assassin, for what I am."
Played by: Maud Adams
A mysterious woman living on an island near Delhi with her Amazon Brigade. She made her wealth in jewels smuggling. Kamal Khan manipulates her in order to smuggle jewels out of USSR and uses her circus to hide a nuclear bomb and detonate it once the circus gets close to a NATO base in West Germany.
- All There in the Manual: Her full name is Octavia Charlotte Smythe (though Smythe was her father's family name, which was mentioned in the movie).
- Age-Gap Romance: She's one of the very few late Moore-era Bond girls who is not excessively younger than Bond. Even though Maude Adams is still 18 years younger than Roger Moore and 38 at the time of the filming, she is the third oldest Bond girl he had ever met in a movie.
- Always Save the Girl: After stopping Kamal Khan's evil plan, Bond travels to India and grabs the wings of an aeroplane to save Octopussy from the villain.
- Animal Motifs: The symbol of her smuggling network is a blue-ringed octopus.
- Battle Couple: With Bond at the climax.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: At the climax, Octopussy is physically assaulted by the villains and has to jump out of a plane, land on a rocky area, and nearly fall off a cliff. Even so, she remains beautiful.
- Character Title: Her name gives the film its title.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Not only does her father's death help a lot with the whole "mysterious woman living on an island with her Amazon Brigade" thing, but the circumstances behind his death made her have knowledge of Bond beforehand.
- Damsel in Distress: She's captured by Kamal in the climax, and Bond rescues her.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her father's backstory.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Set up as one half of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Kamal Khan, until he betrays her and she pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Girl of the Week: The main Bond Girl of this film.
- Heel–Face Turn: When she discovers that Kamal swapped the jewelry treasure with a nuclear bomb that nearly blew her and an entire base of innocent people up to let Russia into the West, she immediately joins MI6 in confronting Kamal.
- Lady of War: During the final battle, she briefly fights mooks with a talwar.
- May–December Romance: Maud Adams was 18 years younger than Roger Moore, but her mature personality and demeanour, coupled with the fact that the couple has several romantic scenes throughout the film, hide this fact. Very different from what happened with Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only and Tanya Roberts in A View to a Kill, where Bond's relationship with them seemed more of father and daughter, with the only sex scene in both cases occurring at the end of the movie.
- Meaningful Name: Her father loved studying octopuses. And she keeps a venomous blue-ringed octopus as a pet in an aquarium.
- Ms. Fanservice: Busily skinny-dipping as Bond infiltrates her island, and emerges in the nude before wrapping in a towel as she goes off to greet Bond.
- You Killed My Father: Subverted. She is actually grateful to Bond for allowing her father to commit suicide, as it saved her father the shame of a military trial (Bond was tasked with arresting him, and gave Maj. Smythe 24 hours to settle his affairs).
Magda
Magda
"He suggests a trade. The egg for your life."
Played by: Kristina Wayborn
Octopussy and Kamal Khan's main henchwoman and circus director. She helps Kamal Khan to retrieve the Fabergé egg but ends up fighting on Bond's side after the nuclear bomb disposal.
- Action Dress Rip/Battle Strip: During the climactic battle, when she whips off her sari and uses it as an Improvised Weapon.
- Action Girl: The one who most convincingly kicks ass in the assault in the climax.
- Amazon Brigade: The leader of Octopussy's Amazon Brigade.
- Dark Action Girl: While she is still on the villains side.
- The Dragon: To Octopussy, and somewhat to Khan.
- Femme Fatale: Pulls this on Bond in order to steal the Fabergé Egg.
- Heel–Face Turn: Initially Magda is one of Kamal Khan's villainous henchmen, but after he betrays her and Octopussy, she joins Bond against him. Magda is one of the few "bad" Bond Girls who sleeps with Bond but doesn't undergo the turn because of it. She turns from Heel to Face because of her Undying Loyalty to her mistress Octopussy.
- Honey Trap: Does one to Bond in order to steal the Fabergé Egg. Bond is fully aware of this, allowing her to steal it because he'd left a bug/tracker inside it.
- Lady of War: Becomes a ferocious fighter in the climax.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her bed scene is quite revealing (for a franchise so well known for its fanservice, bed scenes tend to be rare on this). Especially the way she escapes Bond: she ties one end of the sari she's wearing to a balustrade and jumps off a balcony, descending to safety as it unravels, leaving her in her underwear.
- Only One Name: She is only referred to by her first name, Magda.
- Sacrificial Lion: Averted. Magda 1) is a major character, 2) whom Bond first meets on the mission, 3) and has sex with, 4) but she's not the main Bond girl. These 4 traits combined would normally spell death for a character, but Magda lives, thanks to her Heel–Face Turn.
- Sex–Face Turn: Averted. Magda has sex with Bond in the middle of the film, but she only changes sides at the end of the film out of loyalty to Octopussy and after finds out that she has been betrayed by Kamal.
- Stage Magician: As Octopussy's circus director, she does some tricks to the officials who attend the show.
- Stripperiffic: Her belly dancer outfit in the climatic battle.
- Supporting Leader: In the climax battle.
- The Vamp: Despite not being completely evil, while working for Khan, Magda seduces Bond so that she may steal the Faberge Egg.
Villains
Kamal Khan
Kamal Khan
"You have a nasty habit of surviving."
Played by: Louis Jourdan
An Afghan prince who allied himself with Orlov and manipulates Octopussy for his scheme.
- Affably Evil: He is consistently cordial, pays out when beaten in a game of backgammon he was fixing, and insists on properly providing hospitality even as he discusses how he wants to torture Bond. Naturally, as he is played by the very charming Louis Jourdan.
- Alliterative Name: Kamal Khan
- Aristocrats Are Evil: He's an exiled Afghan prince.
- Bad Boss: Quite harshly orders Gobinda to climb out onto the outside of their plane to eliminate Bond.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Orlov and formerly Octopussy. Though Orlov drives the plot, Kamal Khan is given more screentime and directly opposes Bond with his Dragon enforcer, Gobinda.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Gets beaten by Bond with his own loaded dice.
- Dirty Coward: Prefers to let his underlings do the dirty work, acts like an obedient toady in front of Orlov and Octopussy (while undermining them behind their backs), and has a tendency to flee in secret at the first sign of things going wrong.
- The Evil Prince: Obviously. He's allied himself with Orlov in order to get stolen Kremlin jewels.
- Fatal Flaw: His greed. He probably could have gotten away easily, but he goes back home to grab some gold and plates with which he could counterfeit his own currency. This exposes him and ultimately gets him killed.
- The Heavy: It is Orlov's Evil Plan and Khan is mostly subserviant to him, but it is Khan who is tasked with carrying it out and is the main obstacle of the film, even (unknowingly) outliving Orlov by a significant margin.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Loves tigerhunting on elephant back ... particularly when the "tiger" is a human.Kamal: Let the sport commence!
- Manipulative Bastard: Manipulates Octopussy in order to smuggle jewels out of USSR and uses her circus to hide a nuclear bomb and detonate it once the circus gets close to a NATO base in West Germany, leaving her, her Amazon Brigade and thousands others to die.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Fittingly for a prince.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: After capturing Bond and imprisoning him in the Monsoon Palace, he invites him for dinner. In a twist, rather than attempt any semblance of cordiality, he discusses how he wants to torture Bond, and the dish served (sheep head) proves to be a little too exotic for Bond's tastes.
- Only in It for the Money: Cares nothing about Orlov's goals. He's just interested in getting paid for it.
- Professional Gambler: Loves playing backgammon.
- Smug Snake: Very self assured and confident. Several times Bond outmaneuvers and even embarrasses him and he manages to stay cool.
- The Starscream: Plans on letting Octopussy blow up at the Circus, so he can take over her smuggling ring for himself.
- Unexplained Accent: An Afghan prince who speaks with a very distinct aristocratic French accent, as he is played by Louis Jourdan. This is explained away by Albert R. Broccoli, suggesting that he possibly went to school in France.
- Wicked Cultured: Evil and a prince.
General Orlov
General Orlov
"The West is decadent and divided!"
Played by: Steven Berkoff
A mad Soviet general who wants to conquer Western Europe with the help of Kamal Khan.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Kamal Khan.
- Chewing the Scenery: His glorious briefing scene at the beginning of the movie.
- Classic Villain: Greed. A corrupt General Ripper, his plans to dominate Western Europe are solely driven by a thirst for more power and glory, body count be damned.
- Evil Is Hammy: One of the most unhinged villains in the series, largely thanks to Berkoff's trademark intensity.
- General Ripper: An absolutely insane and bloodthirsty Soviet general.
- Glory Hound: Gogol thought of him as a crooked and power-mad General Ripper.Gogol: [contemptuously] A common thief. A disgrace to the uniform!
Orlov: Yes, but tomorrow, I shall be a hero of the Soviet Union... [despite his pain, Orlov smiles faintly, and then dies] - Go Out with a Smile: He smiles faintly before dying.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Just look into his eyes.
- In the Back: Orlov ultimately gets shot repeatedly by East German border soldiers while trying to board the train, and Gogol doesn't stop the shooter in time.
- Karmic Death: He is gunned down by East German border guards, who thought he was defecting to West Germany.
- Large Ham: Much like his later villainous Soviet character in another instalment of an iconic action film franchise, Berkoff's fake Russian accent is over the top.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Much like his later villainous Soviet character in another instalment of an iconic action film franchise, he sounds more like a stereotypical Nazi interrogator, complete viz ze inability to pronounce a "th" sound.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Is willing to see hundreds of thousands of people killed by a nuke and risk a nuclear war for his dream to come true.
- Psychotic Smirk: Just look at the image above.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A hybrid of Type B and C. He's a high-ranking Soviet general, but the way he hurls rude insults and sulks back to his seat after being criticized for his power-hungry plans to invade Europe is very similar to a child being told no.
- Red Scare: Interestingly, he's one of the last few to be this, as the Cold War was beginning to die down by the time the film was made. This is shown in his introductory scene, where the Politburo disagrees with him, and the other Soviet leaders are more interested in making peace with the West, making Orlov a Renegade Russian.
- Renegade Russian: A treacherous Soviet military general, he goes against the beliefs of most of his superiors and plots with Kamal to kill thousands.
- Shadow Archetype: A crooked and treacherous Glory Hound, Orlov is essentially what General Gogol could have been had he chose to become bloodthirsty and lustful for power. Unlike Gogol, who remains an important Bond ally to stop Orlov's scheme, Orlov is even willing to betray his own country by plotting with Kamal Khan to kill millions of innocents in his power-hungry plans to invade Western Europe.
- The Sociopath: An unhinged brute and maniac to boot, he isn't bothered by the fact that his intended bombing of a US base will kill thousands of civilians and trigger World War III.
- Would Hurt a Child: He's willing to see countless innocents, including children, killed by nuking a US military base in West Germany and doesn't flinch a bit.
- You're Insane!: Courtesy of General Gogol. And even the Politburo was visibly disgusted by his plans to invade Western Europe just for personal gain.
Gobinda
Gobinda
"The Englishman has escaped!"
Played by: Kabir Bedi
Kamal Khan's fearsome Sikh bodyguard and main henchman.
- Beard of Evil: A very well-groomed one.
- BFG: Tries to kill Bond with a double-barrelled blunderbuss during the Rickshaw chase.
- The Brute: Is huge and very strong.
- Death Glare: It would be easier to count the moments when he doesn't throw death glares.
- He even does this to a poster, not knowing it's covering up Bond's escape route.
- Determinator: This guy can just keep on taking hits. It takes falling off a plane in flight for him to stay down.
- Disney Villain Death: Gets ordered by Khan to get Bond off their escape plane. He gets a wire in the face and falls off instead, and the plane was in midair.
- The Dragon: Kamal Khan's main enforcer and bodyguard.
- Establishing Character Moment: All you need to know about him is that he crushes dice with his fist, complete with a Death Glare at Bond.
- Obviously Evil: When your Establishing Character Moment is crushing dice with your fist while throwing a Death Glare to the hero, you're this.
- Only One Name: He's only referred to as "Gobinda".
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Kamal Khan orders him to climb out onto a moving airplane to eliminate Bond.
- Undying Loyalty: Though he becomes a little shaky at the prospect of climbing onto the wing of a moving plane, and for good reason.
- Would Hit a Girl: Knocks out Octopussy twice in the climax.
Mischka and Grischka
Mischka and Grischka
"And this...for my brother!"
Played by: David Meyer and Anthony Meyer
Kamal Khan and Orlov's Russian knife-throwing twin henchmen, who work undercover in Octopussy's circus. They killed 009 at the beginning of the film.
- And This Is for...: Double example. When Grischka corners and pins Bond to off him, invoking his dead brother. Bond returns him the line invoking 009 when he kills him with one of the knives he threw.
- Anvil on Head: Bond dispatches Mischka by making the circus cannon fall on his head, which kills him.
- Bash Brothers: Bonus point for being literal twin brothers.
- Determinator: They keep on trying to kill Bond, even as he beats them.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Grischka doesn't take Mischka's death very well.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Grischka is killed by Bond with his own throwing knife.
- Kill It with Fire: Mischka tries to kill Bond with a blowtorch.
- Knife-Throwing Act: They work as knife throwers.
- Professional Killer: They're both Russian assassins.
