Film / The Man with the Golden Gun

♫ No one can catch him
No hitman can match him... ♫

Bond: Charming trinket. Even has my number on it.
M: Precisely.
Bond: Well, obviously it's useless as a bullet. I mean, sir, who would pay a million dollars to have me killed?
M: Jealous husbands, outraged chefs, humiliated tailors. The list is endless!

The One With… Christopher Lee driving a flying car.

The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth film in the James Bond series by Eon Productions, the fourth and last to be directed by Guy Hamilton, and the second to star Roger Moore, coming out on December 18, 1974. Lulu performed the Title Theme Tune.

A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel of same name, the film has Bond sent to Thailand to track and find the Solex Agitator, a device that can harness solar energy, while facing the famous and dreaded assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), the "Man with the Golden Gun." The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.

This was the first Bond movie allowed to be screened in the Kremlin, where a Russian official told Cubby Broccoli that the KGB clearly didn't train Scaramanga very well. Possibly because there is only one mention of them in the entire movie (Red China, on the other hand ...). It's also the last film that producer Harry Saltzman worked on, the last film to be released only one year after the film before it, and the last film to be released in winter until GoldenEye.

Preceded by Live and Let Die and followed by The Spy Who Loved Me.

---

This film contains examples of:

• Accidental Kidnapping: Goodnight leans into the trunk to plant the tracking device out of sight. Scaramanga shoves her the rest of the way and decides to take her along.
• Action Girl: In a delightful subversion of the Faux Action Girl trope, two karate-kicking schoolgirls save Bond from a gang of mooks while he looks on in appreciation.
• Action Prologue: Par for the course, but this time focused on Scaramanga and not Bond himself. Scaramanga is seen duelling with a mafia hitman hired by Nick Nack to keep his skills sharp.
• Actor Allusion: In the fight in the dancer's dressing-room, Bond sprays one of the villains in the face with an aerosol can of what is clearly Brut-33, a nod to the Fabergé company with which Roger Moore was associated.
• Adaptational Badass: In the book Scaramanga did have legitimate gunfighter and marksman skills, but was overall simply a mid-level thug who happened to have a streak of good luck that got him prominent enough to be on Bond's radar. In the film he's a full-on Evil Counterpart to Bond with Improbable Aiming Skills who's actually credible when he calls himself "the world's greatest assassin". He really fits the trailer description of being "The Most Dangerous Man Alive".
• Adaptational Dumbass: Mary Goodnight goes from a competent assistant to Bond in the novel to a classic Dumb Blonde who repeatedly screws things up for him in the movie.
• Adaptational Location Change: The book largely took place in Jamaica. The movie sees Bond visit Beirut, Thailand and Hong Kong.
• Adaptational Nationality: Scaramanga is of Catalonian origin in the novel, while in the movie he is British-born and has lived in Brazil.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the book, Scaramanga was an unpleasant, one-dimensional thug. In the film, he's still a villain, but much more charismatic and charming to the point of being a dark reflection of Bond.
• Adapted Out: Felix Leiter is in the book, but for some reason is completely absent from the film and wouldn't appear until The Living Daylights. This is the opposite of Dr. No.
• Affably Evil: Unlike other villains, Scaramanga genuinely respects Bond. It won't stop him from killing him though. He is genuinely suave, charming, and very charismatic — until you get on his bad side. It's interesting to note that when he reveals his dangerous side, his eyes take on a very cold look that could freeze anyone where they stand, and make them squirm; he actually manages to startle and unsettle Bond on more than one occasion. Even when he's being charming, he exudes an aura of dangerous charisma that is both frightening, and very alluring at the same time. Unlike the other villains that Bond has encountered — before and after — Scaramanga is not a terrorist hell bent on world domination or destruction, but an assassin who actually enjoys the thrill of the hunt when on an assignment, or when facing those who have been summoned to try and kill him in his playhouse.
• All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Sheriff J.W. Pepper refers to the people of Thailand as "pointy heads".^note This could be an Unusual Euphemism for the genuine anti-Asian slur "zipperheads", as used in Gran Torino.
• Antagonist Title: Scaramanga of course, whose weapon is a "multipurpose" golden pistol.
• Anti-Climax: The Bond vs. Nick Nack fight. Of all the Post-Final Boss fights Bond has had, this was, by far, the easiest.
• Artistic Licence – Physics:
  • A 95% efficient solar cell is still way outside the reach of science, even decades after this movie was made. To put things in perspective, early 21st century solar cells achieve around 25% efficiency. Assuming the technology was released in the Bond universe after the events of this movie, it would have, as stated in the movie, ended the energy crisis, but to such an extent that it would have put every other kind of energy out of business practically overnight.
• Artistic Licence – Gun Safety: The Walther PPK in the hands of the Bond dummy, assuming it is real and the one Bond uses after he drops his own one, appears to be loaded.
  • Given that the room is essentially a training course where Nick Nack hires assassins to kill Scaramanga, it's plausible they'd provide extra weapons for a smart assassin in order to increase the challenge for Scaramanga.
  • Scaramanga is shown fondling Anders with his gun as foreplay.
• Asian Drivers: For the most part averted, but one driver in the car chase through Bangkok is so distracted cursing out Scaramanga that he drives his car onto a Fruit Cart and crashes into another car.
• Assassin Outclassin': The pre-titles sequence has Scaramanga outwit an assassin through his funhouse. It turns out that this is a test that Nick Nack regularly puts him through to keep him on his game (and get his inheritance). The climax has Scaramanga attempt to do the same to Bond, only for Bond to outfox him by swapping places with a dummy.
• Auction of Evil: Though only if you consider multinational power companies evil. Scaramanga intends to sell the secret of the Solex Agitator to the highest bidder, granting them a monopoly. Or he'll take money from the Arab oil companies to keep solar power off the market.
• Avenging the Villain: Averted; after the inevitable defeat of Scaramanga, Nick Nack hides on James' escape ship — only to be quickly overcome and serve as a makeshift figurehead for the ship. Also, Nick Nack wasn't avenging Scaramanga, who he was actually helping Bond kill, but was mad that the fancy island base he would have inherited got destroyed.
• Badass Boast: World's greatest assassin Francisco Scaramanga:
  Bond: Six bullets to your one?
  Scaramanga: I only need one.
• Badass Driver: Bond, who performs a whole manner of (very real) stunts in the car chase. Scaramanga too, for that matter (in fact, Christopher Lee was credited as a stunt driver).
• Ballistic Discount: Bond questions a gunsmith about a custom bullet he made by, in part, threatening to shoot him with a rifle the man is making for a customer who has lost 2 fingers on his right hand and needs something custom balanced. Apparently, the rifle fires an inch below the target for people with 5 fingers. Bond proves this by shooting at, and missing, the gunsmith's wedding tackle.
  Bond: So speak or forever hold your piece.
• Battle Butler: Nick Nack. When not cooking, serving drinks or hiring killers to off his boss as a training exercise, he personally goes to the field on Scaramanga's orders.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Bond attempts to masquerade as the villain, Scaramanga, to Hai Fat — by actually pasting a third nipple on himself and hanging out proudly by the pool. He's gambling on the idea that that Fat and Scaramanga have never actually met in person, and that Fat would only know Scaramanga by his identifying physical oddity. The plan actually works but then Bond gets found out and used for practice by a Thai krabi krabong school. Turns out, Scaramanga was watching the whole time, and Hai Fat knew perfectly well Bond was a fake.
• Bedlah Babe: Saida, whom Bond tracks down to find Scaramanga. This one is justified, because she is a belly dancer.
• Berserk Button: Unless you're another girl, never cockblock James. Nick Nack learned that the hard way.
• Betty and Veronica: Goodnight and Andrea.
• Bifurcated Weapon: Scaramanga's gun. It's made of a lighter, a cigarette box, a pen, and a cufflink.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Hai Fat imagines this with Francisco Scaramanga, but Scaramanga proves him spectacularly wrong.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Hai Fat imagines that he is in charge or at least part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Francisco Scaramanga in their plot to steal the Solex device, but once the assassin has what he wants he quickly uses his signature weapon to slay Fat and then takes over his company.
• The Big Board: There's a plotting board example in a Chinese air defence room.
• Bit Part Bad Guys: Bond travels to Beirut to retrieve a golden bullet that was kept as a charm by a belly dancer. While there, he gets into a messy brawl with a couple of criminals who are apparently wholly unrelated to Scaramanga or Hai Fat. In fact, the entire sequence is rather pointless, since Scaramanga had already sent him one of his golden bullets.
• Bizarre Human Biology: Aside from using a golden gun and requesting a million dollars for every hit, Scaramanga is distinctively known for having a supernumerary nipple. James Bond uses a prosthetic when posing as him to Hai Fat, who has hired Scaramanga, but never met him.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The eponymous Golden Gun. While Scaramanga could have conceivably made his Scaramanga Special out of a number of other materials, he chose gold as a way to boast about his marksmanship skills.
  Scaramanga: I only need one bullet.
• Bond One-Liner:
  • Scaramanga kills Hai Fat and jovially explains to his dismayed assistant:
  Mr. Fat has just resigned. I'm the new chairman of the board.
  • Goodnight has one after knocking an engineer into a tank of liquid helium:
  I knocked him out cold.
• Bond Villain Stupidity:
  • Bond takes up Hai Fat's invitation to join him for dinner in his mansion while pretending to be Scaramanga, not knowing that the real Scaramanga had already gotten in touch with the guy. When he arrives there late at night, he's incapacitated by some guards in an ambush. As they're about to kill him, Hai Fat forbids them from doing so because he doesn't want Bond killed in his home. They'll just take him somewhere else to finish him off right? Nope. Hai Fat has Bond placed in a krabi krabong school to...get beaten up? Maybe? Scaramanga rightfully ridicules Hai Fat's thinking before killing him.
  Scaramanga: What do they teach at that school, ballet dancing?
  • Justifiably invoked by Scaramanga late in the film; he freely admits that he could have used his solar-powered laser to blow up Bond's plane the monent he landed on the island, but chose not to do so because of how unsatisfying it would be. Scaramanga would like nothing better than to engage in a fair Duel to the Death with 007 himself. Scaramanga is such an expert killer that he really desires a Self-Imposed Challenge, even allowing his minion Nick-Nack to send other assassins after him when he least expects it.
• Brick Joke: The Thai street kid trying to hawk the wooden elephant to Mrs. Pepper, who's not paying any attention. When she gets off the boat, she rushes off to buy one.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Bond mimics Sherrif Pepper's accent, "Ah shoah ayum, boah!" ("I sure am, boy") just before the bridge jump.
• Bullying a Dragon: Hai Fat is stupid enough to tell Scaramanga that he's just a lackey, treating Francisco Scaramanga like a junior partner or subordinate with some disdain, but the assassin proves him spectacularly wrong and quickly pulls off a Klingon Promotion.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: James Bond impersonates Francisco Scaramanga and talks with Hai Fat. During the talk, Bond warns the man about James Bond and plays up his skills.
• Butt-Monkey: Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
• Call-Back:
  • When Bond confronts Andrea as she's showering in her hotel, she asks for a towel, but instead of the larger bath towel, Bond hands her a tiny hand towel. This is similar to a scene in Thunderball, as Bond walks in on Fiona Volpe as she's bathing, she asked him to give her something to put on, so he put her slippers in front of the tub before she simply takes the towel for her hair off to cover herself.
  • As in his previous outing, Bond uses an aerosol spray as an Improvised Weapon.
• Can't Bathe Without a Weapon: Andrea pulls a gun on Bond when he walks in on her in the shower.
  Bond: A water pistol?
• The Cavalry: Lt. Hip and his nieces, who show up Just in Time to save Bond from Hi Fat's minions. This results in a funny moment when they accidentally drive off without him!
• Chekhov's Dummy: The mannequin of Bond seen in Scaramanga's funhouse during the cold opening comes in handy during the final confrontation.
• China Takes Over the World: A minor example; Scaramanga lives on a luxury island in Chinese waters "rent free" in return for "an occasional favour". His island has been turned into a power plant for a revolutionary solar energy device by a Thai conglomerate, but though it's in their territory, the Chinese don't seem to have much involvement in that.
• Closet Shuffle: Bond forces Goodnight to hide in a closet when he is visited by Andrea. She falls asleep there, and is quite dismayed when she finds out that she spent two hours there.
• Collapsing Lair: Scaramanga's hideout, when the helium's temperature rises too high.
• Continuity Nod: Bond didn't like Thai beverages in You Only Live Twice either.
• Combat Pragmatist: Bond faces a trained martial artist in a karate match. When the other man bows, Bond kicks him in the throat. The next opponent comes and bows while keeping a careful eye on Bond to prevent getting sucker kicked himself.
• Confronting Your Imposter: Bond turns up at Hai Fat's house pretending to be Scaramanga, thinking that he would not have met a contract killer face to face. After Bond leaves, the real Scaramanga puts on an appearance — turns out Scaramanga and Hai Fat are in business together.
• Conspicuously Public Assassination: After stealing the Solex Agitator from Scaramanga, Andrea Anders arranges to hand it over to Bond at a Thai boxing match, no doubt thinking her boyfriend would be reluctant to kill her in front of a thousand witnesses. Bond sits down next to Anders and starts talking to her, only to see a neat bullethole over her heart. Scaramanga then casually sits down next to him, saying it was "a difficult shot, but most gratifying." Presumably he'd have to inflict spinal damage as well if she Died Standing Up with her eyes open.
• Convection Shmonvection:
  • We're told that the beam of concentrated sunlight, which goes through open air with no isolation from the machine's operator, heats up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Bond later has it lit up a few centimetres from his face.
  • Downplayed when Bond is clearly shielding his face and in considerable discomfort from being so close to the beam. He really should be bursting into flames from his proximity to that much heat, but it's notable that he's affected by it as much as he is.
• Cool Car: The AMC Hornet is really pushing it, but is arguably saved by pulling off an incredible spiral-jump that could only have suceeded with Bond behind the wheel.
• Cool Plane: The Republic RC-3 SeaBee seaplane which Bond uses to fly to the Supervillain Lair, donated by a wealthy American James Bond fan (though only on the condition he fly it himself. Which he did, all the way from the United States to Thailand).
• Counting Bullets: While Bond wanders through Scaramanga's funhouse, Nick Nack taunts him over the PA by saying "You only have three bullets left!"
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Averted; Scaramanga has used the Solex Agitator to power a Death Ray, but it's just a toy to amuse himself. Instead he intends to sell the technology to the highest bidder, or take a larger offer from the oil producing countries not to.
• Da Chief: M towards Bond and Hip after Gibson's assassination.
  M: Gentlemen, I congratulate you. Instead of getting our hands on a perfected solex, we're left with a useless corpse and no leads.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Scaramanga, whose only companion as a child was an elephant from his father's circus that was killed by a trigger-happy handler.
• Dastardly Dapper Derby: Nick Nack wears a more conventional bowler, albeit smaller.
• Deadly Training Area: Scaramanga's Fun House.
• Deadpan Snarker: J.W. Pepper, of all people, during the car chase.
• Death Course: Scaramanga's funhouse.
• Death Ray: One of the few supervillain tropes in this movie. It "realistically" fires an invisible laser beam, but this only occurred because the special effects team didn't have the money to make the "golden beam of laser light" the script called for.
  Scaramanga: Now that's what I call solar power.
  Bond: That's what I call trouble.
• Deliberately Jumping the Gun: James Bond is kidnapped by Hai Fat and taken to a martial arts school, where he is forced to fight the students. In a formal combat like this the opponents are supposed to bow to each other first. While Bond's first opponent is bowing to him, Bond takes him out with a surprise attack. The second opponent keeps both eyes on Bond to make sure he can't pull the same trick again.
• Department of Redundancy Department: J.W. Pepper, upon being re-united with Bond.
  J.W.: I know you! You're that secret agent! That English secret agent from England!
• Depraved Dwarf: Downplayed with Nick Nack. He's Affably Evil at all times, but he does work for a renowned contract killer, and does not hesitate to try and kill others when he feels like it.
• Didn't Think This Through: The rifle Lazar has built for a three-fingered shooter is on a stand in his workshop that can swivel a full 360 degrees. He realizes what a dumb idea this is only after Bond loads it and turns it on him.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
  • A piano version and a jazz version of the theme song plays in Scaramanga's funhouse.
• Do a Barrel Roll:
  • Bond jumping with a car on a destroyed bridge. Yes, it was real; and yes, the producers had the guts to add a slide whistle, of all things! ^note  The director stated in the DVD commentary that he added it because he didn't think there was a way the audiences would take such stunt seriously.
    J.W.: "You're not thinkin' of—"
    Bond: (in a Southern accent) "Ah shore am, boy!" (normal) "Ever heard of Evel Knievel?"
  • Also, the first time a stunt was computer-simulated before in order to get it right.
  • Performed by American Thrill Show stunt drivers, and done in their shows for years after.
  • In the DVD's commentary, the director admitted that after the years he had come to regret adding the slide whistle.
• Doomed Appointment: Bond is scheduled to meet with Andrea Anders at a boxing venue so she can give him the Solex Agitator. When he gets there he finds her dead — murdered by Scaramanga.
• Double-Meaning Title: Scaramanga points out that in addition to having a weapon made of gold, after the solar-powered beam is shot "You must admit I am now undeniably the Man with the Golden Gun."
• Dragon-in-Chief: Scaramanga. Hai Fat refers to him as his "junior partner", and Fat is the one who is actually after the MacGuffin, has most of the Mooks, and his company paid for and built Scaramanga's evil lair. But there's a reason he's not the title character.
• Dragon Their Feet: Nick Nack, pissed off that Scaramanga's base blew up (since it was to be his after his death), attacks Bond and Goodnight as they make their way back to civilization on the junk.
• Due to the Dead: After murdering Hai Fat, Scaramanga is courteous enough to honour his wishes by having his body placed in the mausoleum he loved.
• Duel to the Death: Between Bond and Scaramanga.
• Dumb Blonde: Mary Goodnight, the most blatant example in the whole Bond series. Especially bad, considering she's supposed to be a trained agent herself (albeit in the Foreign Service, but still...). In the original novel, she was actually Bond's secretary, who wouldn't be expected to have field training. This lack of training apparently came through.
• Early Instalment Weirdness: Roger Moore admitted that scenes such as Bond interrogating a woman by nearly breaking her arm felt like they were still writing for Sean Connery.
• Eat the Evidence: Bond accidentally swallows Francisco Scaramanga's bullet (worn in the navel of a belly dancer) thanks to a heavy-handed thug. Once he gets away, he asks to be taken to a pharmacy so he can buy some medicine to help get the bullet out of his system. After delivering it to Q, he quips, "You've no idea what it went through to get here."
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The film provides a temporary example by depicting the MI-6 Hong Kong office in the burnt out and capsized hulk of RMS Queen Elizabeth, the former ocean liner that had been destroyed by arson in Hong Kong harbour the year before the film was released.
• Epic Fail: Hip and his nieces rescue James Bond from Hai Fat's dojo. The plan goes well, until Hip drives off without Bond, despite his nieces trying to tell him that the man they were sent to rescue has been left behind.
• Everybody Owns a Ford: Bond drives a Hornet, Scaramanga's driving (and flying) a Matador coupe and the police cars are Matador sedans.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Scaramanga attempts to invoke the "Not So Different" Remark on Bond, sardonically mocking that he only works for "peanuts, a hearty well-done from Her Majesty the Queen, and a pittance of a pension," only for 007 to shut him down by telling that he's full of a certain "four-letter word."
• Evil Counterpart: Scaramanga is essentially Bond if he were a freelance killer with fewer scruples. Like Bond, he also has his own Cool Car.
• Evil Is Bigger: As you'd expect from a character played by Christopher Lee, Scaramanga is one of the only main villains in the franchise to be taller than Bond himself. For the record, Lee stood at 6'4", in contrast to Roger Moore's 6'1".
• Evil Laugh: One of the features of the funhouse is a recording of a deranged version of this.
• Evil Pays Better: This is part of Scaramanga's "Not So Different" Remark to Bond, to illustrate the one difference between the two men as Scaramanga sees it. He can afford to live on an island paradise because he gets paid a million dollars per assassination contract, while Bond, as Scaramanga puts it, "work(s) for peanuts, a hearty 'well done' from Her Majesty the Queen and a pittance of a pension".
• Evil Plan: Scaramanga wants to corner the market on solar power during the '73-'74 energy crisis. Bit of an Excuse Plot- the real meat of the story is that Scaramanga has abused his girlfriend one too many times and she has duped Bond into going after him by making it look like Scaramanga has taken a contract on his life.
• Eye Scream: Scaramanga mentions that the abusive elephant handler killed the elephant in his charge by shooting him in the eye. Then Scaramanga emptied his stage pistol into his.
• Fatal Flaw: Hai Fat smugly thinks his supposed Dragon Scaramanga is junior to him, but the Man with the Golden Gun proves him wrong in the most painful way. Just before killing his boss, Scaramanga even points out that Hai Fat fell for Bond Villain Stupidity by putting Bond in a "ballet dancing" school that knocked him out instead of killing him outright.
• Fanservice:
  • The whole point of Mary Goodnight wearing a bikini (despite Scaramanga's "no concealed weapons" excuse). Especially the scene where her bottom keeps knocking against the Big Red Button, activating the killer laser. Sure, it's a Crowning Moment of Stupid, but who's going to argue with a tight close-up of Britt Ekland's booty?
  • Were it not for the ripples of the water in the pool, Chu-Mi's one appearance would constitute full-frontal nudity.
  • The bartender at the Bottoms Up Club presents the Visual Pun on her introduction.
• Fanservice Extra:
  • Bond is told that Scaramanga will be at a strip club in Hong Kong, the "Bottoms Up". A Visual Pun follows with a random Chinese girl's bum filling up the screen.
  • At Hai-Fat's residence in Bangkok, Bond finds a girl swimming naked in his pool, with the Punny Name Chu-Mi. She disappears after flirting with Bond for a bit.
• Flash Freezing Coolant: The technician monitoring Scaramanga's solar power facility falls into the vat of liquid helium that cools the machinery, freezing him to death. It also severely impairs the coolant's actual function, leading to the whole facility going haywire.
• Flying Car: A Truth in Television example (though apparently without the range cited in the movie).
• Foreshadowing: Bond speculates that if Scaramanga hears about his meeting with Anders, he'll use one of his golden bullets on her. Sure enough, he does.
• Freudian Threat: Bond interrogates Lazar by pointing a gun at his groin and saying, "Speak now or forever hold your piece."
• Giant Mook: Bond had to fight two Sumo wrestlers in one scene. He just about beats them, but then Nick Nack cheats, clocking him on the head from behind.
• Gilded Cage: Scaramanga's mistress has a luxurious life on his secret island, but she is virtually his prisoner. Also, Scaramanga doesn't restrain Goodnight in any way, reasoning that there's no way for her to leave the island anyway, so there's no harm in letting her go where she pleases. (Boy, how wrong he was...)
• Going Commando: Bond encounters Chu-Mi, a beautiful Thai girl swimming in Hai Fat's pool, who invites him to join her.
  Bond: I don't have any swimming trunks.
  Chu-Mi: Neither do I.
• Going Critical: Notably averted. There's a sign in Scaramanga's lair that reads "Absolute zero must be maintained to avoid prompt criticality." When Goodnight pushes Scaramanga's technician into the liquid helium, it leads to the whole base blowing up.
• Good Is Dumb: Lampshaded by Scaramanga; while he confesses to his own moment of Bond Villain Stupidity, he also points out that Bond himself could have quite easily shot him as soon as the two met — seeing how the only mooks on the island are Nick Nack and a technician — and puts it down to Bond's sense of chivalry that he didn't do so.
• Go-Go Enslavement: In a Call-Back to Diamonds Are Forever, Scaramanga forces Mary Goodnight to wear a bikini — a rare justification, it's so she can't have concealed weapons, a legitimate concern as Goodnight is (at least supposed to be) a trained agent. The psychological effect of forcing her to be almost totally naked in the midst of her enemies, enhancing her sense of vulnerability, is also a good reason — you can see it when the handyman openly leers at her while they are listening to the beginning of the duel, causing her to cross her arms over her exposed midriff.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Scaramanga is revealed to be working for Red China. At least, they appear content with letting him squat on one of their islands in exchange for a few assassinations now and then when they require the best of the best. How involved they are with the solar chip scheme is up for debate; Scaramanga implies that he personally (and Hai Fat before him) intends to extort the oil and gas industries.
• Groin Attack:
  • Bond stops a sumo wrestler's Bear Hug by tightening his jockstrap.
  • Hip's karate-kicking schoolgirl nieces aid Bond in a fight against a couple of mooks and near the end of the battle, one of the mooks gets kicked in the balls from behind by one of the nieces, which causes Bond to be most impressed by it.
• Hall of Mirrors: Used in the final confrontation between Bond and Scaramanga, and in The Teaser as well. Scaramanga ends up falling for the mirror thing in the finale.
• Hello Again, Officer: James Bond had a not-terribly-pleasant encounter with Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in Live and Let Die, and runs into him again while Pepper just happens to be vacationing in Bangkok. Weirdly enough, the sheriff's opinion on Bond seems to have done a complete one-eighty, and he gleefully appoints himself Bond's deputy on a Car Chase... for all that that's worth.
• Hero of Another Story: Bill Fairbanks, 002, was killed before the start of the film. The fragments of the bullet that killed him are a Plot Coupon.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Scaramanga's golden pistol is constructed from what appears to be an ordinary gold cigarette case and lighter, a gold pen, and a cufflink, thus enabling him to take it out and assemble it in full view of his victim without them realising what he's doing until it's too late.
• Hitman with a Heart: Bond himself explains his case when Scaramanga, an assassin that does not fit this Trope, tries to convince Bond that they are similar. Bond is disgusted by the thought, telling the villain that the people he kills are themselves killers, unlike Scaramanga who enjoys it, which leads to this:

  Scaramanga: You do not enjoy it, Mr. Bond?
  Bond: I admit that killing you right now would be quite enjoyable...

  • As you might expect, Scaramanga decides to stop the pleasantries right there and make his official challenge to Bond.
• Holiday in Cambodia: Bond travels to Thailand to question a possible associate of Scaramanga, the businessman Hai Fat. Funnily enough, Cambodia was going to be a filming location, until the political situation made that impossible.
• Hollywood Police Driving Academy: One of the police cars pursuing Bond crashes into the wrecked car, after swerving and skidding sideways, instead of simply moving over to the right.
• Hollywood Darkness: The pre-credits scene has an assassin pitted against Scaramanga. He gets the drop on Scaramanga, but Nick Nack turns the lights off, causing him to miss. We see the room flooded with red light.
• Hollywood Silencer: Notably averted in the opening scene, where the gangster assassin's silenced weapon is still quite loud, although that might just be a foley goof.
• Hostile Animatronics: The cowboy and gangsters (including Al Capone, of all people) inside Scaramanga's Fun House shoot at the people Scaramanga lures into it for his training with live targets, but it's only blanks. The real danger comes from Scaramanga himself, when he manages to reach his golden gun.
• Human Head on the Wall: Discussed Trope when Bond confronts Scaramanga.
  Scaramanga: I could have shot you down when you landed, but that would have been ridiculously easy. You see, Mr. Bond, like every great artist, I want to create an indisputable masterpiece once in my lifetime: The death of 007, mano a mano, face to face, will be mine.
  Bond: You mean stuffed and mounted over your rocky mantelpiece?
  Scaramanga: It's an amusing idea, but I was thinking more in terms of history. A duel between titans. My golden gun against your Walther PPK. Each of us with a 50-50 chance.
• Human Ladder: Bond stands on Lt. Hip's shoulders to get a view into Hai Fat's residence. Despite seeing loads of security, Bond hops the wall and lets himself in.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Scaramanga likes to hunt at the beginning and the end of the film.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Scaramanga's technician caresses Goodnight very suggestively while Scaramanga and Bond have their duel.
• I'll Kill You!: Nick Nack to Bond, during their fight at the end.
• IKEA Weaponry: Scaramanga keeps his gun disassembled to pass it safely through customs.
• Improvised Weapon
  • In the fight at Saida's room, a chair, a spray can, a bottle and lastly a mirror are used to hurt a human being.
  • Bond wards off Fat's mooks with the prop of a longtail boat.
• In Name Only: The plot of the book and the film are fairly far off. In the book Bond goes to only one place (Jamaica), Scaramanga isn't the Big Bad type he is in the film and the Solex Agitator isn't even a part of it.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Scaramanga's gun fires a 4.2mm bullet. A calibre that small (.165) has no stopping power to speak of unless you hit a point guaranteed to be an instant kill. But then, this is Scaramanga, a crack shot who always does.
  • It should also be noted that a gold bullet in 4.2mm would still be twice the mass of a 7.62 NATO round (and probably require some kind of super propellant).
• Incurable Cough of Death: Hai Fat coughs briefly after he's shot.
• Informed Ability: Mary Goodnight is a trained MI-6 agent ... apparently.
• Instant Death Bullet: Every single person shot by Scramanga dies immediately. This is made more notable by the fact that Scaramanga's gun uses custom made bullets of an absurdly low caliber ^note 4.2mm, making them less likely to kill anyone they hit than bullets fired from a normal gun... unless the man firing it is a spectacularly skilled marksman, which it is established that Scaramanga is. There are places on the human body other than the head where a bullet will indeed kill instantly, and presumably Scaramanga would know of them.
• Island Base: Scaramanga's private island is probably the best example of the trope.
• Jerkass: Inflicted upon Bond by the studio, in an effort to counteract Roger Moore's natural urbanity. Bond is infamously a total asshole throughout this film, threatening to break a woman's arm, slapping said woman, threatening to blow off a guy's testicles, and later pushing a kid salesman ("bloody tourist!") into a rapid stream during a boat chase. Having sex with Anders while Goodnight, who he was just about to have sex with, is hiding in the closet. And then she still has sex with Bond at the end! This could be viewed as reversing the changes of previous movies, as the Bond of the books started off as a much more ruthless, cold-blooded and racist Jerkass than is generally portrayed (at least up until the second Casino Royale (2006). Or Licence to Kill, anyway), plus the undeniable fact that this is exactly how a real life agent would behave — you don't get to save the world without, at the very least, threatening violence. And keep in mind though that in this one, he also has a target on his back from the beginning, so like most other people who are being threatened, he's understandably willing to go to extreme lengths to save his hide. Of course, it still doesn't justify everything he does, but it's got to play a part in some of his actions. He may also be unusually angry because (to paraphrase his own sentiments) the entire affair's seemingly a massive waste of his time and caused by one assassin being bored and envious of him.
• Just Between You and Me: After Bond and Scaramanga finally meet, Scarmanaga shows him around his island and explains his operation, concentrating on the solar energy collection setup.
• Kidnapped by an Ally: Lieutenant Hip doesn't seem to feel any need to inform Bond that the reason he's being arrested and taken out on a police launch to the middle of nowhere isn't so that they can dispose of him with no witnesses - it's so that he get a mission assignment from his boss, who is cleverly concealed in a shipwreck.
• Kingpin in His Gym: Scaramanga has a warped relationship with his diminutive manservant Nick Nack; in the event of his death, Nick Nack inherits everything... in return for Nick Nack actually trying to kill him by hiring the best assassins in the world for Scaramanga to pit his skills against.
• Kiss of Distraction: Bond makes out with Saida in her dressing room in an attempt to get the spent golden bullet she uses as a navel charm. He then crouched down and started intimately kissing her bare stomach, praising how sexy her abs are. Bond continues to make out with her belly until he manages to pluck out the gold bullet from her navel.
• Klingon Promotion: Scaramanga takes over Hai Fat's business corporation this way, by shooting him with his Golden Gun and steals the Solex Agitator as well. An assistant to Hai Fat arrives shortly after Scaramanga kills Hai Fat. Scaramanga then leaves Hai Fat's office and makes a Bond One-Liner of his own:
  Assistant: What happened?
  Scaramanga: Mr. Fat has just resigned. I'm the new chairman of the board.
  (after exiting the office)
  Scaramanga: He always did like that mausoleum. Put him in it!
• Land of Dragons: Two different locales, actually, none of them the mainland. The first is Hong Kong, the second is Scaramanga's island lair, somewhere in the Chinese-controlled part of the South China Sea.
• Landmarking the Hidden Base: The wreck of RMS Queen Elizabeth is used as an MI6 base.
• Legendary in the Sequel: Scaramanga wishes to fight James Bond because of his reputation as the best.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Bond informs of Scaramanga's getaway:
  M: So if I understand it, Scaramanga got away.
  Bond: Yes, sir.
  M: In a car that sprouted wings!
• Lighter and Softer: Easily one of the most jarring examples of this in the series, with the film's over-reliance on comedy regularly earning it scorn from many longtime Bond fans. Notably, it has the lowest kill count of any Bond film, with Bond himself killing just one person — Scaramanga — in the entire film.
• Little Useless Gun: The 4.2mm handgun should be this, but since it's only used by Scaramanga, who has Improbable Aiming Skills, every shot is an instant one-hit kill. Bond-based video games that include the gun continue to make both it and gold-plated variations of whichever Walther pistol Bond swears by for that game an instant kill, regardless of who's using it (or sometimes even what is being shot with it), as a Mythology Gag.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Averted. Scaramanga's death has no impact on the collapse of his lair, which was the result of Goodnight shoving Scaramanga's technician into a liquid helium vat, which destabilized the power station.
• MacGuffin: The Solex Agitator only exists as a reason for Bond to keep chasing after Scaramanga, once he realises that Scaramanga isn't actually intent on killing him.
• Marked Bullet: Bond is sent a golden bullet with the number "007" on it, which leads him and MI-6 to believe that the eponymous assassin has marked him for death. He hasn't; Anders sent the bullet in the hope that Bond would kill Scaramanga.
• Masquerading As the Unseen: Subverted. M tells Bond that no one knows what Scaramanga looks like. Later Bond assumes that when Hai Fat hired Scaramanga they never met. He decides to meet Hai Fat while posing as Scaramanga. It turns out Hai Fat had met Scaramanga and knew Bond was an imposter.
• The Millstone: Mary Goodnight, especially while Bond is trying to retrieve the Solex Agitator in Scaramanga's lair. She accidentally hits the giant, candy-like button with her ass, almost setting off the doomsday thingy while Bond is inside it trying to disable it. Holy crow, maybe not the dumbest Bond girl ever, but a contender.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: 007 receives gold-plated bullet → theft of device used for controlling solar energy.
• Modesty Towel: Riffed when James Bond surprises Andrea Anders in the shower. She tells him to hand her a towel, so he does. Only it's a hand towel.
• Mooks:
  • Averted. As opposed to several other Bond films, Scaramanga's hideout is staffed by only two henchmen. Both of them live longer than their boss does, and one even makes it all the way through!
  • Played straight with Hai Fat, who has several armed guards at his home and an entire school of homicidal martial artists.
• Mythology Gag: Instead of the famous custom gun of the film, the titular Golden Guns of the book are a Colt Single Action Army and a Derringer. Nick Nack holds Bond up in the stadium with a Derringer and Scaramanga uses a Colt SAA to shoot a bottle of champagne on his beach - which he then proceeds to call a harmless toy, which could also count as a possible Take That! to his book counterpart who is considered one of the weaker villains of the series.
  • As Bond arrives at Scaramanga's island, he's greeted by Nick Nack, who offers him some Dom Perignon '64, to which Bond says "I prefer the '62, myself.", referencing that the third Bond film, Goldfinger, also directed by Guy Hamilton, was released in 1964, while the first Bond film, Dr. No was released in 1962. This, in turn, references the scene from Dr. No when Bond tries to attack Dr. No with a bottle of Dom Perignon '55, to which Bond said "I prefer the '53, myself.", which referenced that the third Bond novel, Moonraker, was published in 1955, while the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: When Scaramanga meets Bond after killing Andrea, he introduces himself as "Scaramanga. Francisco Scaramanga".
• Near-Miss Groin Attack: Invoked. Lazar says his custom-made rifle will fire one inch too low for anyone who has all his fingers. Bond threatens him with said rifle (see Freudian Threat, also above), but when Lazar doesn't talk, Bond fires — between the man's legs.

  Bond: You're right — one inch too low!

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Bond successfully retrieves the Solex Agitator and gives it to Lieutenant Hip, who gives it to Mary Goodnight. Instead of focusing on getting the Solex to M, Goodnight decides to plant a bug on Scaramanga's car. She succeeds...only to have Scaramanga toss her into the trunk. Worse still, Goodnight still has the Solex with her. Scaramanga had no intention of killing Bond, he was just after the Solex. Had Goodnight just taken the Solex, he'd have nothing.
  • Also, the Collapsing Lair is due to Goodnight pushing a mook into a liquid helium tank.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Scaramanga's justification for why he doesn't just shoot Bond; it'd be too easy, and Scaramanga, considering Bond his rival (if not equal) in skill, wants an actual duel between them to make Bond's death personally satisfying.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: James Bond travels to Scaramanga's island with the intent of killing him and rescuing his partner Miss Goodnight. Scaramanga welcomes him to the island, gives him a guided tour and invites him to lunch (with Miss Goodnight wearing a bikini rather than evening wear). During lunch, Scaramanga challenges Bond to a duel to the death, and Bond accepts. Superbly parodied here.
• No OSHA Compliance: Scaramanga's laser has a maintenance access area mere inches from the path of the beam, which can be switched on if someone so much as bumps the control panel. Additionally, his complex's power source involves uncovered vats of cryogenic liquid, which naturally have catwalks above them from which it is easy to fall (including one section right next to a vat conspicuously missing a safety railing). Did we mention the whole thing explodes if something (like, say, a body) causes the temperature to rise?
• Nobody Here but Us Statues:
  • Rather convenient for Scaramanga to keep a statue of James Bond in his funhouse of death.
  • Nick Nack and the sumo wrestlers pull the same trick in Hai Fat's house to ambush Bond when he goes through its garden the second time.
• Not-So-Abandoned Building: The burned and capsized wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong harbour serves as a base.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Scaramanga is clearly envious of James Bond, putting a wax statue of the man in his shooting gallery and desiring a titanic duel so he can finally prove he is the best killer in the world. When they meet at Scaramanga's island resort in the climax, Scaramanga tells Bond how similar he feels they are, especially in how they both enjoy killing, albeit in a manner dripping with barely-veiled contempt.
  Bond: You live well, Scaramanga.
  Scaramanga: At a million dollars a contract I can afford to, Mr. Bond. You work for peanuts. A hearty 'Well done!' from Her Majesty and a pittance of a pension. Apart from that, we are the same.
• Not So Similar: Bond thinks Scaramanga's comparison between them is total bunk, and doesn't mind saying so. The only thing he agrees with is that he does enjoy disposing of Her Majesty's enemies.
  Bond: There's a useful four letter word. And you're full of it. When I kill, it's on the direct orders of my government. And the men I kill are themselves killers.
• Nudity Equals Honesty: Scaramanga forces the captive Mary Goodnight into a bikini for this reason.
  I like a girl in a bikini. No concealed weapons.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Scaramanga has two of these early in the film, while evading the Mob hitman Rodney. First occurs when he tries to open his gun cabinet, only to discover it's been locked by Nick Nack. The second occurs when he tries to grab his Golden Gun, only it's just a reflection in a mirror.
  • When Bond realizes Scaramanga is going to show him the power of the Solex Agitator on his seaplane.
  • Bond drops his gun while under the funhouse. Luckily, there's another Walther PPK nearby...in the hands of the Bond mannequin.
  • Nick Nack has one when he loses track of Bond in the funhouse, as he's already climbing down the scaffolding.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Bond is anything but thrilled to see Sheriff Pepper again.
  Pepper: Now, I know you.
  Bond: Oh, no.
  Pepper: You're that secret agent. That English secret agent from England.
• One Bullet Left: Happens with the final confrontation between Bond and Scaramanga; the latter only has a single-shot weapon, and Nick Nack taunts Bond with the fact that "You have only three bullets left" at one point.
  Bond: My six bullets against your one?
  Scaramanga: I only need one.
• One-Hit Kill: The titular Golden Gun is able to kill anyone with just one shot. Probably the reason why the gun chamber was designed to hold one bullet at a time.
• Only a Lighter: Inversion: the titular gun is also a working cigarette lighter when not being used to shoot.
• Outdoor Bath Peeping: Bond visits Hai Fat's compound, and comes across a young woman skinny-dipping in a fountain. (And amazingly enough, she flirts with him.)
• Overt Rendezvous: Bond is scheduled to meet with Andrea Anders at a boxing venue so she can give him the Solex Agitator. When he gets there he finds her dead — murdered by Scaramanga.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted when James Bond tries to pose as Francisco Scaramanga and gain information from Hai Fat simply by wearing a fake third nipple. Bond thinks this will work, because nobody knows what Scaramanga looks like, and he has always, up to now, dealt with his clients via intermediaries; the third nipple is his only known distinguishing feature. Unbeknownst to Bond, Scaramanga has a new goal in mind and has met with Hai Fat personally this time, so he isn't fooled, but plays along with Bond for now.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Scaramanga tells Bond how he killed an abusive animal handler — by emptying his stage pistol into his eye after he did the same to his favourite elephant.
• Phallic Weapon: Scaramanga makes love only before he kills, and it's clear from one scene with Anders that the gun is a penis substitute (he's caressing Anders with it suggestively as they lie in bed).
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Nick Nack tries to attack Bond on the junk after he's defeated Scaramanga... like he had any chance.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Hai Fat says that Bond's presence in Bangkok has become a problem, Scaramanga, right before killing Hai Fat with the Golden Gun, replies "That's no problem."
• Product Placement: Tabasco Sauce. And AMC Motors, which is why Bond isn't booting around in an Aston Martin or BMW in this one. Also an early example of the series' long-standing love affair with Sony.
• Professional Killer: Scaramanga is the world's best and highest paid (one million dollars per victim) assassin who uses a gun loaded with gold-plated bullets to make hits. (He has much bigger plans over the course of the film, however.) And he also invokes the "Not So Different" Remark on Bond, but 007 shuts him down on this.
• Psycho for Hire: Scaramanga is a Professional Killer who doesn't care whom he kills, even those who hire him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Scaramanga only goes after Bond when he tries to interfere with his plans, which Bond had only uncovered because he was led to believe Scaramanga had been hired to take out a contract on him.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Minor example when Bond faces two sumo wrestlers. After beating one off, he gets carried by the other, and tries to beat him, to the beat of the soundtrack no less — but the guy doesn't even flinch. Bond has to give the poor wrestler a painful wedgie in order to escape.
• Punk in the Trunk: While Mary Goodnight is trying to hide a homing device in the trunk of Scaramanga's car, she's shoved into the trunk and the car is driven away. She eventually gets the trunk open, only to find she's hundreds of feet in the air.
• Punny Name: Chu-Mi and Hai Fat.
• Ramp Jump: There's a visually impressive corkscrew jump across a river, although for some reason they decided that it just had to be accompanied by a stupid cartoon-style slide whistle sound effect.
  • Perhaps on purpose, because the originator of the Jump, who refused to ever reveal how it's done, never wanted anyone else to try it. Thus the addition of the slide-whistle would make it seem simply impossible to do.
• Ramp-rovisation: The cool broken-bridge improvised ramp that leads to the car making a 360 degree jump.
• Red China: China is implied to be connected to the main villains... in fact the evil lair is located in Red Chinese waters.
• Red Right Hand: Scaramanga has three nipples.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Mary Goodnight, while being held prisoner on his private island by Scaramanga, is forbidden any clothes other than a bikini; Scaramanga's excuse is that he wants to make sure she has no weapons concealed.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Britain really was going through an energy crisis in the 1970s, more exactly the 1973 oil crisis.
• Running into the Window: Bond is trying to navigate Scaramanga's lair and walks into a clear glass wall.
• Scaramanga Special: The Golden Gun itself. Scaramanga combines specially designed parts disguised as a pen, a cigarette lighter, a cigarette box and a cuff link. The Trope Namer and Trope Maker.
• Sealed with a Kiss: Bond disconnects a phone call from M to make out with Mary Goodnight.
• Sequel Escalation: Averted. The plot is rather down-to-earth (no world domination plots), especially before The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker played this trope straight. However, as seen in Lighter and Softer above, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's regularly considered a better film for this reason.
• Sequence Breaking: While Bond walks into the same funhouse trap as the assassin in the intro, he fares a lot better because he refuses to play into their game and simply finds the edge of the maze so the cameras will lose track of him. This results in him beating Scaramanga since Nick Nack can't give his boss any more hints or sabotage his opponent.
• Sexophone: A very saucy sax soundtrack bit plays when Bond woos the belly dancer in Beirut to steal her the golden bullet of Scaramanga that she keeps as charm on her navel.
• Sex Signals Death: Andrea Anders has sex with Bond to help convince him to kill her boyfriend, only to be murdered by Scaramanga when he finds out.
• Sex Slave: Andrea Anders serves as this for Scaramanga.
• Shooting Gallery: Scaramanga's funhouse.
• Shoulders-Up Nudity: Played With. After Mary Goodnight and Bond have a make-out session on Scaramanga's ship, she's shown holding up a sheet covering her body with her shoulders exposed. She drops the sheet and reveals that she's wearing a Modesty Towel.
• Shout-Out: Scaramanga's funhouse, especially the hall of mirrors, was no doubt inspired by The Lady from Shanghai.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Bond's response to Scaramanga's assertion that, bar the paycheck, he and Bond are the same:
  There's a useful four letter word. And you're full of it.
• Sighted Guns Are Low-Tech: Scaramanga is a good enough of a marksman that, even though the pen clip that is part of his gun is in the correct position for a sight, he only aims obviously with it once.
• Silver Bullet: Scaramanga is equipped with a golden gun (assembled from ordinary-looking parts) which is then loaded with custom-caliber, gold bullets engraved with the name of their targets. Averted because the bullets have no supernatural powers — Scaramanga is really that good.
• Skinny Dipping: Bond finds a woman swimming naked in a swimming pool. She invites him to join her, and he politely declines until she asks again. The people he was waiting to meet interrupt him before he can cast off his clothes.
• Sleeping Dummy: Referenced: When Mary Goodnight is hiding under the covers, James Bond tells Andrea Anders that he was using the "three-pillow trick."
• Sniper Pistol: Scaramanga uses his golden pistol to shoot Gibson on a sidewalk while hiding on a rooftop across the street.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: Francisco Scaramanga is a dedicated and straightforward assassin who scorns Hai Fat for trying to kill James Bond by setting him against a dojo of martial artists. On the other hand, Scaramanga is gradually established to be something of a warrior at heart, growing bored with his increasingly mundane life and being happy at finally having a Worthy Opponent in Bond.
• Spy Ship: An odd variation. James Bond discovers that the partially sunken RMS Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong Victoria harbor has been turned into a British listening post for spying on the Chinese.
• The Starscream:
  • "Mr. Fat has just resigned. I'm the new Chairman of the Board."
  • Nick Nack hires various assassins to kill Scaramanga to keep him on the edge. Subverted in that unlike most other examples, Scarmanaga not only knows about it all, but has specifically made it Nick Nack's job in order to constantly test him — if he ever succeeds, Nick Nack inherits his boss' money — and even quite enjoys the exercise.
• Start of Darkness: Halfway through the film, Scaramanga tells his backstory to Bond while watching a kickboxing match.
  Scaramanga: When I was a boy, I was brought up in a circus. My only real friend was a huge, magnificent, African bull elephant. One day, his handler mistreated him and he went berserk. Bleeding, dying, he came and found me, stood on one leg, his best trick, picked me up and put me on his back. The drunken handler came along and emptied his gun into his eye. I emptied my stage pistol into his! You see, Mr. Bond, I always thought I loved animals. Then I discovered that I enjoyed killing people even more.
• Storming the Castle: Bond in a plane.
• Sumo Wrestling: Hai Fat has two statues of them on his manor grounds; when Bond comes at night on a dinner invitation, the statues are replaced with real ones whom he has to deal with.
• Surprise Slide Staircase: Scaramanga has one of these in his lair. In the opening segment he uses it to slide down and grab his golden gun to kill an assassin.
• Suspect Is Hatless: As Bond talks to Miss Anders about Scaramanga. Anders does provide an actually useful description after this, such as the fact that Scaramanga is a Villain in a White Suit and prefers gold jewelry.
  Bond: How will I recognize him?
  Anders: Tall, slim and dark.
  Bond: So's my aunt.
  Anders: Yes, but how can I tell you? He's not like other men. [gestures toward her chest] He has three...
  Bond: Fascinating anatomical tidbit. But probably the most useless piece of information I've ever heard. Unless, of course, the "Bottoms Up" is a strip club and Scaramanga is performing.^note It actually is a strip club, but Scaramanga doesn't perform.
• Take a Third Option: With the then-unseen Scaramanga after him, M gives Bond the choice to either resign or take a sabbatical and lay low. Bond decides instead to go on the offensive and seek out Scaramanga himself
  Bond: If I find him first, sir, that might change the situation.
  M: Dramatically, wouldn't you say?
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Andrea Anders describes Scaramanga to Bond as "tall, slim, and dark." Bond remarks that his aunt matches that description, too.
• A Tankard of Moose Urine: Bond is offered a wine with the Unfortunate Name of "Phu Yuck". Bond snarkily notes that he approves — but he's actually referring to Goodnight's dress.
• Tap on the Head: Nick Nack knocks Bond out with a trident.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Hai Fat building his own mausoleum.
  • In-Universe: Scaramanga has left Nick Nack all his money in his will. Nick Nack in return arranges for various Professional Killers to murder his boss, but this is actually what Scaramanga wants, since it helps him keep his skills sharp.
• Ten Paces and Turn: Subverted — it's 20 for a start. Scaramanga disappears while Bond's back is turned, leading to a hunt.
• That's What I Call "X"!:
  Scaramanga: [Destroys Bond's sea plane with a solar-powered weapon] Now that's what I call solar power.
  Bond: That's what I call trouble.
• Theme Tune Cameo: When Sherriff J.W Pepper sees Bond pass by on a speedboat, a snippet of the theme from Live and Let Die plays.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Bond visibly thinks this when Sheriff Pepper recognises him.
• Thug Dojo: The martial arts school where Hai Fat has Bond sent to is a place where students Duel to the Death in front of the kru^note the Thai equivalent of "sensei", likely what Hai Fat intended for Bond. (Bond cheats against the first student who tries to fight him, the second is far more careful.)
• Title Drop: When Bond is asked if he has heard of Scaramanga, he uses the title to describe him. Scaramanga later uses it as well, referring to his solar-powered laser.
• Too Dumb to Live: Mary Goodnight and Sheriff J.W. Pepper. Unfortunately, they both do.
• Tracking Device: Mary Goodnight has one as a button on her clothing. MI6 uses it to locate her after Scaramanga kidnaps her.
• Triple Nipple: As Andrea Anders says, "Scaramanga is not like other men." The gene that triggers breast formation was named after him.
• Unknown Rival: This is the case for the first half of the film. James Bond is tracking down Scaramanga on the basis of the bullet carved with his number which was sent to MI6 and interpreted as a threat. The bullet was actually sent by Scaramanga's assistant Andrea, who wanted Bond to kill him, and Scaramanga even admits when he meets Bond that he has nothing against him.
• Unwanted Assistance: Goodnight blocks Bond's taxi, gets kidnapped uselessly trying to plant an unnecessary tracking bug while carrying the Solex Agitator, causes a chain reaction by knocking out the man keeping watch on her, and triggers the solar beam where Bond is working.
• Useless Protagonist: Other than retrieving the Solex Agitator and killing Scaramanga, Bond doesn't really accomplish anything throughout the film. Albeit at least retrieving the Solex Agitator was Bond's original mission.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Mary Goodnight and Scaramanga use their Compartments.
• Villain Opening Scene: The pre-credits sequence focuses on Scaramanga.
• Villainous Friendship: Scaramanga and Nick Nack, who have a peculiar but affectionate relationship. The former in general is one of the few Bond villains to avert the Bad Boss trope, no doubt helped by only having two employees and one of them being his heir.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: The innuendo-laden Lulu song. "He has a powerful weapon", apparently. "Who will he bang? We shall see..."
• Wacky Sound Effect: The visually impressive Ramp Jump car stunt which is accompanied by a silly cartoony slide-whistle sound. Many fans were very upset that one of the most spectacular car stunts in film history was essentially ruined this way, effectively sabotaging the entire chase scene of which the stunt was part. The scene is thus often considered to symbolize everything that many considered wrong about the 1970's Bond films.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: The gangster Scaramanga uses to test his abilities in the opening.
• Wait Here: After killing Scaramanga, Bond tells Mary Goodknight to "wait here" while he takes care of the maintenance man. Goodknight enthusiastically tells him that she's already taken care of the maintenance man (she hit him over the head with a wrench).
• Walking Disaster Area: Goodnight's incompetence and clumsiness causes so many disasters, you almost wonder how she manages to survive to the climax, where she slugs Scaramanga's crony, causing him to fall into a cooling tank (eventually causing the whole island to blow up) then backing into the starter button for the laser, turning it on. (Bond is very lucky the cloud didn't move a second earlier...)
• We Don't Need Roads: Scaramanga has a car that can fly (with an attachable wing and engine).
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: Scaramanga owns a Chinese junk.
• Wham Shot: During the big duel at the funhouse, Scaramanga goes near the statue of Bond where he finished off the last person out to get him. Then there's a shot from behind the statue, and its fingers that he shot off before has somehow come back....
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Lampshaded.
  Scaramanga: I could've shot you down when you were in your plane, but it would've been ridiculously easy.
  • Notably, this is the first of only four Bond movies (the others being The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough, and No Time to Die) where Bond dispatches a Big Bad by gunshot.
• Wicked Cultured: Scaramanga is rich, played by Christopher Lee, which already makes him suave and dangerous, and he even had an eco-friendly Supervillain Lair... located in the Phang Nga Bay.
  • Somewhat averted when Scaramanga shows Bond the solar energy plant built by Hai Fat and then says:
  Scaramanga: Science was never my strong point.
• Worthy Opponent: How Scaramanga sees Bond. Bond begs to differ.
• Would Hit a Girl: Bond nearly breaks Andrea Anders' arm interrogating her.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: When the Thai police catch up with Bond and Pepper, Pepper tries to explain the situation, thinking that as a Louisiana sheriff they'd surely trust him. Turns out, the police aren't an international brotherhood, and they handcuff him.
• You Can Leave Your Hat On: The Bottom's Up Club is indeed a strip club; making 007's remark earlier coincidentally accurate. The waitress' chest is concealed via Godiva Hair.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Scaramanga practically telegraphs this just with his glance immediately after Hai Fat naively hands him over the Solex Agitator in a move to keep it out of Bond's reach.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Bond is very displeased by Scaramanga's compliments as one Professional Killer to another.
  Scaramanga: (raising his glass) To us, Mr. Bond. We are the best.
  Bond: There's a useful 4-letter word, and you're full of it.

---