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"Well, well... a British agent in love with a Russian agent. Détente, indeed."
Karl Stromberg

The One With… that underwater Lotus.

The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth spy film in the James Bond series of Eon Productions, the second to be directed by Lewis Gilbert and the third to star Roger Moore, coming out in July 1977. The Title Theme Tune was performed by Carly Simon.

The film's storyline involves a pair of nuclear missile submarines that go missing. Independently, Bond and a Soviet agent, Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), are assigned to find them and team up to do so, uncovering a sinister plot by shipping magnate Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens). There is a problem, however: Bond shot Anya's lover dead while on a mission...

Its main iconic features are:

  1. The Teaser. At the end of the sequence, Bond skis off a cliff. He falls for several heart-stopping seconds, then a parachute opens in the colours of the Union Jack as the Bond theme kicks in. There are several reported cases of audiences breaking into applause at this moment (including one showing attended by Charles, Prince of Wales — who also stood up in applause himself). This stunt was done for real and you can see one of the skis hit stuntman Rick Sylvester's chute, which could have been pretty nasty.
  2. The disco-influenced soundtrack by Marvin Hamlisch.
  3. The Lotus Esprit. Driving off a pier into the sea. Where it turns into a submarine.
  4. The 007 stage, built for the massive battle scene in a supertanker. It has been made available for filming other movies and remains the second largest stage in the world.note  It is actually a silent stage, not a sound stage. But the size makes it ideal for big action sequences, which almost always require invokeddoing the sound in post anyway.
  5. Jaws (Richard Kiel), the 7'2" henchman with the metal teeth who is so unstoppable that he is the only Dragon other than Nick Nack to survive fighting Bond and maybe the one who came closest to scaring him. That is partially due to the fact that Bond knows that no matter how hard he hits the giant, he WILL survive it and come back to challenge him again. He returned for the next Bond movie, Moonraker, and even later faced off against Pierce Brosnan's Bond in the video game Everything or Nothing nearly three decades later, with Kiel reprising his role one last time.

The film takes its title from Ian Fleming's novel The Spy Who Loved Me, which was written much differently than the other Bond books, but Fleming was so embarrassed by the results that he only sold the rights to the title, refusing to license the plot with it. As a result, this was the first Bond movie to get its own Novelization, James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me by Christopher Wood (who, with Richard Maibaum, had written the screenplay).

The movie ends with "James Bond will return in...For Your Eyes Only." However, 1977 was the same summer that Star Wars was released, and every producer in the world wanted to have a space-themed hit to cash in on that. So, instead, they quickly scrambled together and made Moonraker since it could support a space-themed plot (it helped that "Moon" was in its title).

It also features the first appearance of a Wetbike—the actual prototype—in a work of fiction, before it was commercially launched, and years before such personal watercraft were well-known.


This movie contains examples of:

  • Actor Allusion: Curd Jürgens, who plays Stromberg, starred as the U-Boot captain in The Enemy Below, one of the most famous movies involving submarine warfare.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Stromberg's first name is given as "Sigmund" in the novelization.
  • Adaptational Badass: Jaws is loosely based on the villain Sol "Horror" Horowitz from the novel, who is a thug with metal-capped teeth whose villainy is limited to terrorizing a helpless woman. He later gets unceremoniously killed by Bond as he tries to make a getaway on a car (and is outlived by his partner, who became Sandor). Jaws, however, is a man who just won't die, and is one of the most remembered aspects of the film, and its subsequent sequel.
  • Adaptational Location Change: The book took place exclusively in the Adirondacks, in upstate New York. The film visits the Austrian Alps, London, Egypt and Italy—but never New York State.
  • Adaptational Villainy: In the novelization the KGB is depicted in the manner of the Ian Fleming novels. SMERSH is brought back and they murder a young girl during the initial assassination attempt and plant the body in Bond's cabin to frame him. General Gogol is replaced by the thoroughly unpleasant General Nitkin, who makes a lewd advance on Anya right after informing her that her lover has been killed (fortunately she's able to convince him his office is bugged). Bond is subjected to Electric Torture.
  • Agents Dating: A possible Trope Codifier. Bond and Soviet agent XXX (No, not that one) flip flop between working together and working against each other before they finally hookup at the end.
  • Agony of the Feet: Jaws picks up a large stone block to throw, then realises his intended targets have already fled so he drops it...on his foot. His grimace is priceless.
  • All There in the Manual: The novelization gives Jaws a backstory. His real name is Zbigniew Krycsiwiki, born in Poland, the product of a union between the strong man of a travelling circus and the Chief Wardress at the Women’s Prison in Cracow. The relationship and subsequent marriage had been a stormy one and, when it broke up, the young Zbigniew stayed with his mother and attended school and subsequently university in Cracow. He grew to a prodigious height but in temperament he followed his father and was surly and uncooperative, given to sudden outbreaks of violent temper. Because of his size he commanded a place in the university basketball team, but he was sluggish of reaction and his lack of speed was constantly exposed by more skilful but less physically endowed players. After a failed attempt at a basketball career, Krycsiwiki was arrested by the secret police for having taken part in the (fictitious) "1972 bread riots". While he was imprisoned, the police "beat him with hollow steel clubs encased in thick leather" until they thought he was dead, leaving his jaw broken beyond repair. Krycsiwiki later escaped and stowed aboard one of Stromberg's vessels. Eventually he was caught, but instead of turning him in, Stromberg hired a prestigious doctor to create an artificial jaw. After 14 operations Krycsiwiki's jaw was restored using steel components that created two rows of terrifying razor-sharp teeth, although Jaws was left mute.
  • Almost Dead Guy: Just before dying, the captain of the Liparus tells Bond that the submarines are on station and the missiles will be launched in four minutes.
  • Always Save the Girl: 007 chooses to defy his superiors to save Anya from Atlantis, which is about to be torpedoed by the navy. Considering that she said she would kill him as soon as the mission was over, this proves that he really did care about her.
  • Amphibious Automobile: Bond's Lotus Esprit can become a submarine. Bond uses it to evade pursuit and have a look at Stromberg's underwater city (however frogmen and midget submarines turn up to give him further trouble).
  • The Anticipator: Bond goes to rescue Anya Amasova before Atlantis is blown up. Bond's entrance is noticed by Stromberg on his CCTV cameras. He says, "Good evening, Mr. Bond. I've been expecting you" and sends his private elevator down for Bond.
  • Apocalypse How: Class 2 (Civilization Extinction). Stromberg's plan to start a global thermonuclear war.
  • Artifact Title: The First Person perspective in the title is a holdover from the woman who narrated the original story by Fleming. There's no hint of that in the finished film except for Carly Simon's lyrics to "Nobody Does it Better."
  • Artistic Licence – Military :
    • The KGB Honey Trap sends a message via radio and ends with the phrase "Over and out" while awaiting a response. Sergei responds and also ends his message with "Over and out". In real life, "out" is used to end a message transmission while the phrase or word used mid-transmission would be simply "over".
    • The sailors Bond ally with during the climax all sport typical mid 70s haircuts completely unacceptable in Navy regulation.
  • Artistic Licence – Ships: The Soviet submarine is missing its fairwater planes.
  • Assassin Outclassin':
    • The Batman Cold Open has a KGB hit team led by Anya's lover attempt to kill Bond.
    • Sandor attempts to shoot Bond at Fekesh's place, but Bond swings a woman in front of the bullet. He then gains information out of Sandor before knocking him off a rooftop.
    • Jaws attempts to kill Bond and Anya on the train, but is dealt with. Later Stromberg sends henchmen led by Jaws and Naomi after them via land, air and sea, but Bond's Q-supplied Cool Car ensures their survival.
  • Auction of Evil: Stromberg's secretary sells the plans for a system that can track submarines underwater to Max Kalba, who sets up an auction so both sides of the Cold War can bid for it.
  • Award-Bait Song: "Nobody Does it Better", sung by Carly Simon.
  • Bad Vibrations: In HMS Ranger's mess, coffee cups start shaking before being taken over by the Liparus.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Our introduction to Anya. We see the Russian bigwigs discussing the need to call in their best agent Triple X. The agent is apparently a Soviet counterpart of Bond, as the camera focusses on a handsome Russian with Carpet of Virility in bed with a beautiful woman, who speaks regretfully of having to leave his lover for another mission. A message comes in, ordering XXX to report for duty. The man and woman sigh sadly, knowing that their romantic interlude is over... then the man gets up and the woman answers the call, revealing that she's the secret agent, rather than the man as the audience was no doubt expecting, especially given how identical the scene is to the way Bond is typically introduced to the audience.
  • Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Earlier in the film, Anya tells Bond that she will kill him when the mission's over to avenge her lover. At the end, Anya has Bond at gunpoint, but all she shoots is the cork off a bottle of Dom Perignon '52 that he had in his hand.
  • Bait the Dog: The scientists working for Stromberg are understandably nervous about getting into the elevator after seeing the trapdoor used to off Stromberg's secretary, but he lets them leave unmolested. Then he blows up their helicopter with a remote-control bomb. Either he wanted to Make It Look Like an Accident, or figured his shark was no longer hungry after eating the secretary.
  • The Baroness: Anya is a goody who starts off as the Sexpot type, but rapidly defrosts.
  • Bedlah Babe: The harem girls who work for Bond's friend Hosein wear this garb.
  • Big Bad: Karl Stromberg.
  • Big Badass Battle Sequence: The massive shootout in Stromberg's base, where the combined forces of British, Soviet and American sailors battles Stromberg's soldiers. At the time of shooting the setpieces and number of extras playing both mooks and redshirts were among the largest in Bond history.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Played for effect when Stromberg summons his henchmen to deal with the security leak. First the heavyset Sandor lumbers into the room. Then Jaws enters and we get a sense of just how big he is from the way he towers over Sandor.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Sort of; General Gogol's secretary is "Miss Rublevich."
  • Blofeld Ploy: Stromberg sends his secretary out of the room before confronting the person responsible for stealing and attempting to sell his plans. Turns out the culprit is the secretary herself, and her exit takes a detour by way of Shark Pool.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Mostly played straight: most prominent examples being when Stromberg's tiger shark mauls his secretary to death, and Fekkesh's death. Averted, ironically, when the aforementioned shark is killed by Jaws.
  • Bond Gun Barrel: This film's was the first to feature Bond in a tuxedo, as previous films had him wearing a business suit.
  • Bond One-Liner: Lots and lots.
    • XXX kicks out a nice one right after slamming Jaws into a stone Egyptian ruin using the van they're in.
    • Bond does a non-verbal version by placing an OUT OF ORDER sign on Max Kalba's body.
  • Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: When Anya discovers Bond killed her lover. It takes him a full adventure and life-saving to make her forgive him. This also gives us one of the very few scenes where Roger Moore's Bond seems remorseful. For hurting a woman's feelings!
  • Bring Him to Me: A variation — after capturing Major Amasova, Stromberg takes her to his headquarters, "Atlantis" to gloat over her and stick her in a skimpy outfit. Bond later follows and saves her.
  • The Brute: Jaws. Also The Dragon.
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: Bond appears to use Fekkesh's secretary as a human shield when Sandor shoots at him — quite disturbingly as, while the woman may have been meant to be working with the bad guys, it isn't made clear.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A heroic version, Bond initially doesn't think anything about having killed Anya's lover when she asks him.
    Bond: When someone's behind you on skis at 40 miles per hour trying to put a bullet in your back, you don't always have time to remember a face. In our business, Anya, people get killed. We both know that. So did he. It was either him or me. The answer to the question is yes. I did kill him.
  • But What About the Astronauts?: Stromberg hasn't built his underwater city yet (his Atlantis base is just a grandiose lab/mansion). He plans to build his city After the End, which many will clamour to be part of since after surviving the catastrophe of nuclear war, he offers them a fresh start in a new perfect society. His plan, like the one in You Only Live Twice (which this is deliberately based on), generally assumes that nuclear war will not lead to the death of nearly every living thing on the planet, which was a disturbingly widespread idea at the time, as the broader environmental effects of nuclear weapons were seriously underestimated. Stromberg just thought civilization would be destroyed, not the whole world. He was right.
    • It's debatable that this is Stromberg's plan as we were shown a grand total of three women in his organization. He killed one of them and Bond killed another, leaving his utopia with the receptionist and the kidnapped Anya.
  • Car Fu: Jaws going toe-to-toe with a van. While ultimately beat, he does put up a good fight tearing up large portions of it.
  • Car Meets House: The car carrying Jaws and his goons in hot pursuit of James Bond's Lotus Esprit ends up down a cliff and crashing through the roof of a small house. The car explodes, but Jaws just walks out through the door, dusting himself.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Anya's music box plays "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago, which Geoffrey Keene (Fredrick Grey) had a part in.
  • Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Bond is initially amused and impressed as Agent XXX recites his dossier — until she mentions his late wife and he immediately ends the conversation.
  • Characterisation Click Moment: The previous two films two films saw Roger Moore still trying to get The Saint out of his system, while having a rougher style more suited to Sean Connery. This film saw his dapper, lighter take on the role click.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: After Bond uses his rocket ski pole to kill a pursuing KGB agent, the camera cuts to a closeup of the dead man's face, averting What Measure Is a Mook?
  • Collapsing Lair: When Stromberg's lair Atlantis is torpedoed (fortunately it has an escape chamber that Bond and Anya can use). The Liparus also doubles as a secondary example.
  • Come Back to Bed, Honey:
    M: Moneypenny, where's 007?
    Moneypenny: He's on a mission, sir. In Austria.
    M: Tell him to pull out. Immediately.
    [Bond receives message]
    Girl: What happened? Where are you going?
    Bond: Sorry. Something came up.
    Girl: But, James, I need you.
  • Continuity Nod: As well as being the first Bond picture made without the input of Harry Saltzman, and the first not to be based at least somewhat on an Ian Fleming story, this film was the 10th in the series and came out in 1977, marking the fifteenth anniversary of the film series. With all that in mind, the film includes multiple references to and thematic elements borrowed from the previous entries, particularly the seven Connery/Lazenby films (compare the large numbers of continuity nods also added to Die Another Day (marking the 20th entry as well as the 40th anniversary) and Skyfall (marking the 50th anniversary)). These references include
    • Dr. No:
      • The aquariums and fine artworks on the Atlantis are based on those in Dr. No's lair.
      • The car chase on the winding, narrow mountain road.
      • Both feature villains with prosthetic body parts that have super-strength (Dr. No's artifical hands, Jaws'... jaws).
      • For the second and only other time in the series, Q is referred to by his real last name of Boothroyd. (Bernard Lee's version of M is also referred to by his given name, Miles, for the only time in the series.)
      • Bond (this time with Major Amasova) once again escapes through a tunnel being flooded with water.
      • Bond's execution of Stromberg is reminiscent of his killing of Dent, complete with "you've had your six"-esque remark (only referring to the bolt in Stromberg's explosive speargun), as well as Bond firing multiple bullets into the now-defenceless man.
    • From Russia with Love:
    • Goldfinger:
      • The Big Bad is an Aryan-looking portly man with a central European accent.
      • After getting the tech he needs from the two scientists, Stromberg murders them, much as Goldfinger killed off the gangsters after they'd performed their function.
      • Bond's tricked-out car, complete with Oil Slick and other cool gadgets. Amazingly, although six films had happened in the interim, a gadget-laden car was not yet a staple of the series. Most of the cars Bond drove in the chapters in between were regular cars that did impossible things because they were being driven by James Bond. Although we don't hear the dialogue, we see Q giving Bond a brief runthrough of the car's special features in similar fashion to Goldfinger.
      • The villain's servant is a hulking, mute, nigh invincible Dragon with an ordinary object turned into a deadly weapon (Oddjob with his bowler hat, Jaws with his dentures). Both are also electrocuted through those weapons, although Jaws survives.
      • All There in the Manual: According to the novelization, Jaws owes his existence to Stromberg, in much the same way that Oddjob was elevated by Goldfinger.
      • A beautiful Ace Pilot as a top henchwoman (Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, Naomi in TSWLM).
      • Both film climax with Bond attempting to rewire a nuclear weapon before a final showdown with the Big Bad
    • Thunderball:
      • The Big Bad's underwater lair.
      • The use of a Shark Pool to dispose of treacherous henchmen. (This may also have been brought back because of the success of Jaws. See also Live and Let Die, and the piranha tank of You Only Live Twice.)
      • Underwater fight sequences with frogmen.
      • Just as he did with Fiona Volpe, Bond uses Felicca as a Bulletproof Human Shield (and, much like Volpe, the film is somewhat ambiguous as to whether this was intentional).
      • Speaking of Fiona Volpe, the hotel where Bond and Major Amasova stay in Sardinia is the Hotel Cala di Volpe.
      • Both Big Bads make use of fancy, tech-laden ships (albeit Stromberg's is much larger). Both ships explode in spectacular fashion.
      • Bond assumes Stromberg is using the stolen nuclear subs and missiles for blackmail purposes, similar to SPECTRE's gameplan.
    • You Only Live Twice:
      • Both villains are unaligned third parties who capture British and Soviet vessels (space capsules in YOLT, nuclear submarines in TSWLM) to set off World War III.
      • The massiveness of the evil lairs. (In a real-world callback, both sets required special soundstages to be built from scratch.)
      • A tank filled with killer fish (piranhas in YOLT, sharks in TSWLM - see also Thunderball and Live and Let Die) with a trapdoor above it for dropping disloyal or unsuccessful henchmen. Also, Bond disposes of The Dragon by dropping him in the tank. Jaws survives the encounter, however, by killing the shark with his teeth.
      • The use of trick cigarettes as weapons.
      • A massive climactic battle between the good guys and the Mooks in the secret fortress. (See also Diamonds Are Forever.)
      • For only the second time, Bond's superiors interrupt him while he's having sex at the end. (As with the tricked-out car, this would later become a staple of the series.)
      • Lewis Gilbert directed both YOLT and this film, as well as the following film, Moonraker.
      • Bond is seen in his Royal Navy uniform again.
      • Bond is once again sent a build-it-yourself piece of unusual transportation that perplexes an ally. Both Little Nellie and the jetski-esque water bike were innovative for their time and were brand-new to many viewers.
    • On Her Majesty's Secret Service:
      • The Alpine ski chase in The Teaser recalls the multiple skiing sequences in this film. The climax with Bond skiing off a cliff and opening an Union Jack parachute was originally an idea George Lazenby suggested for OHMSS!
      • Just as Blofeld kills Bond's true love, Bond kills Major Amasova's. Unlike Bond with Blofeld, however, she forgives him, perhaps because it was Nothing Personal.
      • During the mountain road chase scene, the camera follows a mook as he falls off the cliff all the way down to his death on the rocks below, in similar fashion to the unfortunate soul who goes off a cliff in this film.
      • Reciting a list of Bond's biographical info to him at a bar Anya mentions: "Married only once. Wife killed-" Bond cuts her off. This is the first film to directly reference Tracy's death.
      Anya: You're sensitive, Mr. Bond.
      Bond: About certain things, yes.
    • Diamonds Are Forever:
      • Like Willard Whyte is supposed to be, Stromberg is not an assassin, a professional criminal nor a spy, but rather a capitalist intent on building his own type of real estate.
      • The elevator of doom in both Willard Whyte's and Stromberg's lairs.
      • A climactic final battle between the heroes and the Mooks aboard the ship that serves as a lair. (See also You Only Live Twice.)
      • Since there are only a few items for this film, this is as good a place as any to acknowledge that Stromberg is basically an Expy of Blofeld, complete with his aforementioned SPECTRE-esque private army. Pretty much the only reason he wasn't Blofeld was complicated character-ownership issues.
    • Live and Let Die:
    • The Man with the Golden Gun:
      • A car that is more than just a car (Scaramanga's plane-car, Bond's submarine-car).
      • Bond meets M and Q in a secondary MI6 base located within a landmark (the Queen Elizabeth shipwreck in Golden Gun, an Egyptian tomb in Spy).
      • Bond dispatches Stromberg by shooting him to death (this is only the second time in the series in which this occurs, not counting underlings and mooks, of course).
      • Someone has Bond dead-to-rights with a gun, but chooses to shoot the cork off a champagne bottle instead (Scaramanga because he wants a man-to-man duel with Bond; Anya because she's genuinely forgiven him).
    • In addition, there is a likely unintended callback to the spoof Casino Royale (1967) by way of the tongue-in-cheek rendering of the film's theme song that that comes at the end of the film in similar fashion to the ending of the 1967 film.
  • Cool Boat: Stromberg's supertanker, the Liparus. It eats submarines.
  • Cool Car: The Lotus Esprit submarine, nicknamed "Wet Nellie" by fans and often considered a contender for Bond's coolest car against the Aston Martin. After the film came out, demand grew so much that customers were put on a three-year waiting list.
  • Cool Sidecar: The bad guys chase Bond with a sidecar that becomes a detachable missile steered by a joystick on the motorbike.
  • Coolest Club Ever: After the fight at Luxor, Bond and Amasova end up meeting by chance at a nightclub in Cairo. With a few tense moments sprinkled in, they're practically talking shop.
    Bond: You left quite an impression.
    Anya: I'm sorry for Ivan and Boris. They exceeded their orders.
    Bond: Good staff is hard to find these days.
  • Corporate Conspiracy: Karl Stromberg, head of the Stromberg Shipping Line, hijacks nuclear submarines in a bid to start World War III and restart civilization in an underwater city.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The command centre of the Liparus has armor plating and holes through it to shoot with firearms. It's almost as if Stromberg's army expected the captive submarine crews to be freed and attack them.
  • Creator Cameo: Assistant Director Victor Tourjansky is the beer-drinking beach dweller in the scene where Bond's Lotus emerges from the sea.
  • Crossing the Desert: James Bond and Anya Amasova walk and walk and walk throughout the Egyptian desert after their getaway car breaks down, eventually reaching a dock.
  • Damsel in Distress: After discovering Bond and Anya Amasova on his ship, Stromberg has his minions capture Anya and he takes the spy with him to his Atlantis. As the climax builds up, Anya is held as a helpless prisoner tied to a chair in Stromberg's quarters.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • Very subtly done. Although Bond gave his moral viewpoint on killing in the previous film, this is the first time his profession is openly discussed, and What Measure Is a Mook? is a running theme throughout the film. Although Dalton, Brosnan and Craig have all played increasingly complex versions of the character, this was the first step towards Bond's psychological maturity.
    • The novelisation by Christopher Wood is written In the Style of an Ian Fleming novel, so most of the movie zaniness—Bond One Liners, spy gadgets (except the submarine car) Fanservice Extras—have been removed and the action is played seriously. In the Action Prologue for instance, Bond discovers the corpse of a dead girl in the mountain chalet, the idea being to frame Bond for her murder. There's also a scene where he's subject to Electric Torture by SMERSH agents.
  • Deadly Gas: After capturing the USS Ranger, the villains fire a hollow bolt through the hull and attach it to a tank of cyanide gas, giving those inside a choice of surrender or die.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Bond, as usual; and Anya proves quite adept at snark as well.
  • Death by Adaptation: Jaws does actually get killed by the shark in the novelization.
  • Description Cut: Anya tells Gogol that she would very much like to meet whoever is responsible for her boyfriend's death. Cut to Bond arriving at a naval base via helicopter.
  • Diabolical Mastermind: Karl Stromberg is a billionare shipping magnate with an underwater base who steals nuclear submarines.
  • Did You Actually Believe...?: Stromberg sneers at Bond when he thinks he's trying start a War for Fun and Profit.
  • Disconnected by Death: Jaws lures Kalba away from his meeting with Bond and Anya by disguising himself as a telephone linesman and placing a call to Kalba from an adjourning telephone booth. Once he takes the call Jaws barges into Kalba's booth, intimidates Kalba into handing over the microfilm and murders him. Bond of course provides the obligatory Bond One-Liner.
    Anya: What happened to Kalba?
    Bond: He was cut off. Permanently.
  • Disney Villain Death: Sandor is almost falling, if not for holding Bond's tie. After 007 gets useful info outta him, he causes the henchman to fall to his death. Who'd have thought the Roger Moore era would have one of the nastiest bits of cold-blooded murder committed by Bond in the series?
  • Dispense with the Pleasantries: Bond's contact in Egypt turns out to be a former classmate at Cambridge. When he offers refreshments, Bond prefers to get down to business. However once their business is concluded an attractive Bedlah Babe enters their tent and Bond figures he might linger after all.
    Bond: When one is in Egypt, one should delve deeply into its treasures.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Anya Amasova to Bond. The scene where she is called on a mission while in bed with someone is in particular very reminiscent of Bond on numerous occasions (though unlike Bond most of the time, she clearly did love her bedmate at the time).
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the climax, American, British, and Soviet sailors join forces to prevent a global holocaust. Bonus points for the Big Bad having a German-sounding name.
  • Door-Closes Ending: The film ends as the Royal Navy recovers the pod and the two spies are seen in an intimate embrace through its port window, much to the bemusement of their superiors on the ship. James Bond closes the blind on the window—seen from the outside—to give them some privacy.
  • Double Entendre:
    • While auctioning the submarine tracker, Kalba quips that Bond will find Anya's figure hard to match.
    • One of the tastiest in Bond history:
      M: Moneypenny, where's 007?
      Miss Moneypenny: He's on a mission, sir. In Austria.
      M: Well, tell him to pull out. Immediately.
      [Cue Bond making love with a woman by a fireplace in Austria]
    • An even better one at the end, and arguably one of the best Bond endings.
      M: 007!
      Gogol: Triple X!
      Minister of Defence: Bond! What do you think you're doing?
      Bond: Keeping the British end up, sir.
  • Double X: Agent Triple X is the codename of Bond's Distaff Counterpart. It also serves as the obligatory suggestive Bond Girl name, given that her actual name is Anya Amasova.
  • The Dragon: Jaws.
  • Dragon Their Feet: Bond fights Jaws after killing his Diabolical Mastermind boss Stromberg. Jaws survives and does a Villain: Exit, Stage Left.
  • Driving Stick: Anya falls foul to this when trying to escape Jaws with 007.
    [Anya failing to drive stick, causing the gears to grind noisily]
    Bond: Can you play any other tune?
  • Drone of Dread: An ominous tone plays as Jaws is about to kill a terrified Kalba.
  • Early Instalment Weirdness: Bond holds a private discussion with Frederick Gray, during which it's implied that the two knew each other beforehand and might even be friends, as Bond refers to him as "Freddie". It is never revealed how they know each other well enough for Bond to be so informal, and in the rest of the films, Bond calls Gray "Minister"; the change in style is not specified either, but it could be either because most of their scenes include other officials, or as a result of the embarrasment Bond caused him after being found in bed with Anya Amasova at the end of that film.
  • Easter Egg: The sail of American submarine USS Wayne has hull number 593. That particular hull number belonged in the Real Life to USS Thresher (SSN-593), a nuclear submarine which sank in 1963.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect:
    • Bond tries to meet Fekkesh at Giza Sound and Light Show, which features The Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza.
    • The Egyptian base of operations for MI-6 is located just inside the main entrance to the Temple of Ramesses II in Abu Simbel.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Naomi turns up in a speedboat to collect Bond and Anya—the latter gives Bond some irritated looks over the way he's ogling her (unsurprising as she's dressed in a bikini with a see-through wrap).
    Bond: (watching Naomi walk to her boat) What a splendid craft. Such lovely lines.
  • Enemy Mine: Not only Bond and Anya, as well as MI6 and the KGB, but also the American, British and Soviet submariners who fight against the Liparus crew.
  • Enhance Button: Back before it was cool. Q is showing the microfilm plans on a projector, and enlarges the image to show a Stromberg Shipping Line watermark.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The traditional pre-credits action scene features the standard scene of Bond effortlessly disposing of a couple of enemy mook. Post credits...one of the mooks is given a name and a personal life, and later on Bond has to explain to his love interest why he had to kill her former lover.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Averted. On Sardinia, when Bond and XXX pick up the Lotus from Q, she greets him with his true name, Major Boothroyd. (Q takes this completely in stride.) Meanwhile, Gogol refers to M by his given name, Miles, becoming the only character in the original film series to do so. Even M gets into the act; this is one of the only times on screen that he refers to Bond by his first name rather than as 007 or Bond.
  • Evil Plan: Stromberg wants to start World War III by hijacking nuclear submarines and launching them at New York and Moscow respectively, as in You Only Live Twice framing both countries as perpetrators of the others' plan. He will then build and rule an underwater city as a paradise for the survivors to rebuild civilization. Yes, he is insane.
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Jaws falls into a tank with a shark. They both go under and blood is soon seen floating to the surface. After the villain's lair is sunk into the sea, Jaws surfaces and swims off, reappearing in the next film.
  • Expy: Stromberg is pretty much Blofeld in all but name, complete with his own private army and plans for world domination. Justified by the fact he originally was to be Blofeld, but issues over the ownership of the character and his SPECTRE organization prevented this from happening.
  • False Flag Operation: Two nukes are simultaneously launched towards Moscow and New York City, prompting nuclear war. Stromberg, of course, is safe in his undersea base.
  • Fatal Flaw: Karl Stromberg's obsession with the sea.
  • Fed to the Beast: Stromberg drops his treacherous secretary into a Shark Pool to be eaten. Later when Bond turns up to visit Stromberg, he's disturbed to see her severed hand lying on the ocean floor outside the windows of his underwater lair.
  • Fingore: During the fight with Jaws in the Egyptian temple, Bond punches Jaws in his steel teeth, leaving Bond reeling in pain, clutching his hand.
  • The Film of the Book: The film was based off of one of Fleming's least favourite Bond novels, which centres around Bond rescuing a woman from two assassins in a ski lodge. The movie threw it out and replaced with Bond teaming up with a Russian agent to stop a plot to wipe out mankind.
  • First Law of Resurrection: Jaws was supposed to die, but test audiences liked him so much that they went back and filmed a scene of him defeating the shark he went up against. He then appeared in the next film.
  • Friendly Enemy: General Gogol and M are so friendly with each other that they’re on a first name basis! It might also be a case of Lonely at the Top in that they’re the only two individuals who really understand what the other does for a living.
    • James and Anya have this until Anya finds out that James killed her lover, their relationship becomes all business and very icy until he goes out of his way to save her.
  • Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: While the Trope is Played Straight, it comes close to a dangerous subversion. Anya remembers her vow to kill Bond for her lover's death (which he has already apologized for) and seems about to do it. But she has a change of heart, and the Trope is played straight.
  • Go-Go Enslavement: Stromberg forces Anya Amasova to wear a cleavage-revealing outfit in Atlantis. Maybe he found it in Naomi's wardrobe?
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: During the fight on the train, Bond smashes a champagne bottle over Jaws' head (to no avail).
  • Groin Attack:
    • Bond to Jaws in the shark pool room.
    • Bond to Stromberg... with two bullets from his Walther, thanks to Stromberg having an explosive launcher under the table with a perspex tube to guide it straight into the groin of the man across from him, for the ultimate in groin attacks. After dodging the shot, Bond decides to show Stromberg what he thinks of the concept...
    • Jaws does this to Bond on the train before slamming him into the ceiling.
  • Hammerspace Parachute: James skiis off the edge of a cliff, only to deploy a parachute with a large Union Flag on it. Stunt supervisor Don Calvedt and Stunt Double BJ Worth invented a new parachute that was only an inch thick and could be concealed under a suit jacket, which had Velcro seams to allow the parachute to open.
  • Handshake Refusal: Bond is told before meeting Stromberg that he won't shake hands. Bond holds out his hand to Stromberg anyway and is predictably rebuffed, given that Stromberg has webbed hands.
  • Hand Signals: The leader of the KGB team trying to kill Bond gestures to the others to split up and a Stromberg crewman makes a beckoning gesture to another crewman.
  • Haven't You Seen X Before?: A submarine sailor is surprised to see Major Anya Amasova using the captain's shower. The Captain, without looking up from his desk, but knowing full well what the sailor must be looking at, asks "What's wrong, sailor? Haven't you seen a major using a shower before?"
  • Hellish Copter:
    • The underwater Lotus to Naomi's chopper.
    • Also the helicopter used by Bechman and Markovitz, which Stromberg destroys for Shoot the Builder purposes.
  • High-Altitude Interrogation: Sandor finds himself standing on the edge of a roof, and desperately clings to Bond's tie to stop himself falling. As the tie starts to slip through Sandor's fingers, Bond interrogates him, then when he has the information he needs, knocks the tie from Sandor's grasp and lets him plummet to his death.
  • Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Stomberg's mooks wear orange as contrast to the British, Soviet and US sailors. However, these mooks aren't proper soldiers but rather workers with guns for defense. And such workers (like on board oil rigs) occasionally wear orange so they can be spotted easily if they fall into the water.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Stromberg tries to shoot Bond with a harpoon gun under his dining table. After dodging it, Bond shoots back through the barrel.
    • The Mook with the motorcycle sidecar missile. The sidecar missile misses Bond and Anya, but instead blows a hole in a truck carrying feathers; the Mook drives through the cloud of feathers, loses control, and drives off a cliff.
    • Jaws gets hit with this a few times. A missed stroke with a pole causes him to get buried under a collapsed scaffolding, he gets run over with his van, and his steel teeth are used against him twice; first when Bond electrocutes him with a broken lamp, and later when Bond activates a magnet, causing Jaws to be attached to the magnet until Bond turns off the power and drops him into the Shark Pool.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: After Stromberg has taken Anya to Atlantis, he has her dressed in a revealing outfit and tied up in his study to caress her. In the novelisation he even threatens to give her to Jaws to breed children with his strength and her beauty and intelligence.
  • I Know You Know I Know: When they officially meet at the Egyptian night club, Bond and Anya rattle off what they know about each other from their intelligence.
  • IKEA Weaponry: After the US commander agrees to hold off for an hour so Bond can rescue Anya, Bond asks for the duffel bag left for him by Q Branch, which contains a disassembled jetski.
  • Implacable Man: Jaws proves himself to be Bond's most resilient foe.
  • Improvised Weapon: During the train fight, Bond fends off Jaws by smashing a lamp and using the broken ends to electrify Jaws' teeth, stunning him.
  • Ineffectual Death Threats: Indeed, Major Amasova never does kill Bond for killing her lover. By then, Bond had saved her life even when he had no other reason to.
  • In Name Only: Ian Fleming disliked his original novel so much that he only allowed the film to have the same name on the explicit condition that it would not be an adaptation of the novel, which was about Bond seducing a hotel clerk and stopping her employers from burning the hotel down to collect on the insurance money. The original novel only features Bond in the last third, with the majority of the story being essentially the autobiography of the hotel clerk, so its viability for a Bond film was questionable anyway. It stands as the very first Bond film to be completely original in terms of storyline and characters, retaining nothing from the original book except the character of James Bond himself (M, Q and Moneypenny do not appear in the original book).
  • Instant Sedation: While Anya and Bond are sailing down the Nile, Anya knocks out Bond with sleep dust blown out of a cigarette. This allows her to get the microfilm from Bond, with General Gogol immediately returning it as a "good faith gesture" when the UK and Soviet Union agree to cooperate to find their missing submarines.
  • Intimate Healing
    • Nude Body Warmth Sharing version when Anya suggests this to Bond to keep warm while they're on the boat to Cairo. It doesn't happen.
    • Played Straight at the end, when they both need to get out of their cold wet clothes.
  • Irony: Stromberg's plan was to trick the West and the Soviets into firing nukes at each other so he could take over the remains of the world. Instead, the British and Soviet spy organizations ended up cooperating with each other to find the missing submarines.
  • Island Base: Stromberg's Atlantis base is a giant floating platform.
  • It's Personal: Major Amasova vows to kill Bond at the end of the mission when she finds out he killed her lover. Unless you mean in the Shakespearean sense, she doesn't.
  • It's Raining Men: Bond skis off the edge of a cliff to avoid Soviet troops and pops a parachute with the British flag on it.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: James Bond does this with Sandor hanging by his necktie from a great height. Once Bond has the information, he lets him fall.
  • Joker Immunity: Jaws is Made of Iron and routinely survives otherwise catastrophic disasters by just dusting himself off. This allowed him to survive for Moonraker, where he underwent a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Knockout Gas: Anya Amasova uses a trick cigarette to blow knockout gas into Bond's face.
  • Last Request: Bond asks Anya if he can make one before she kills him. Of course, that was before a popping champagne cork broke the tension. It was unlikely from that point she was going to actually kill him.
  • Left the Background Music On: A variation. When Bond pulls the plug on the Liparus' bridge monitors, the Bond theme abruptly shuts off.
  • Literal Ass-Kicking: During Bond's fight with Sandor, Bond kicks the smaller man in the butt while forcing him out onto the roof.
  • Man Bites Man: Played With. Jaws is so obviously strong and bulky that he would probably not even need his empowered teeth to be an unbeatable match for almost every human opponent. Ironically, being fixated with biting people to death, and even having these teeth in the first place, is what allow Bond to beat him more than once. However, Jaws ends up making good use of his weapon when he is put against a shark.
  • Made of Iron: Always true of Bond, but Jaws as well.
  • Majored in Western Hypocrisy: Hosein, Bond's contact in Egypt, turns out to be a former classmate of his in Cambridge who hasn't lost the English accent he must have picked up there. It's clear they're Birds of a Feather; when Bond is reluctant to stay the night, Hosein summons one of his scantily clad harem girls to make him reconsider.
  • Man on Fire: Several British crewmen attempt to attack the Liparus's control room, but are repulsed. One of them is set on fire by a flamethrower.
  • MegaCorp: The Stromberg Shipping Line.
  • Mega-Maw Maneuver: Stromberg has a device that can cause submarines to lose power and surface. He also has an oil tanker with a bow that can open and swallow up the helpless submarines. He uses them to capture three nuclear missile submarines (one Soviet, one American and one British) during the movie.
  • Men of Sherwood: The American, British and Soviet submarine crewmen.
  • Milkman Conspiracy: The Stromberg Shipping Line hijacks nuclear submarines in a bid to start World War III and restart civilization in an underwater city.
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Disappearing submarines -> plot to start a nuclear war.
  • Motive Misidentification: When Stromberg explains his plot to fire off the nukes on New York and Moscow, Bond asks how much Stromberg is going to demand not to fire the missiles off. Stromberg appears honestly surprised at the question as Bond realizes the man truly is insane and this isn't about money but wiping out the world.
  • Mr. Exposition: More like Miss Exposition, as Major Amasova reads off everything she knows about Bond in the nightclub scene.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Naomi, Stromberg's gorgeous helicopter pilot/assassin; and Major Anya Amasova, especially in the shower of the U.S. submarine.
  • Neck Lift: Jaws does this to Bond during the train fight, which Bond only gets out of due to a nearby lamp.
  • New Era Speech: Stromberg gives one to Bond:
    Stromberg: I intend to change the face of history.
    Anya: By destroying the world?
    Stromberg: By creating a world. A new and beautiful world beneath the sea. Today civilisation as we know it is corrupt and decadent. Inevitably, it will destroy itself. I'm merely accelerating the process. I will accept the judgment of posterity.
  • Next Sunday A.D.: The film was released on July 7, 1977, but takes place in August 1977, as Bond discovers Fekkesh's daily planner and learns he was planning on meeting Max Kalba on August 3, 1977.
  • Nipple and Dimed: Averted with the women in the opening credits sequence.
  • No Escape but Down: Bond skis off a cliff, only to reveal he was wearing a parachute.
  • No More for Me: When Bond's car/submarine Lotus Esprit drives out of the ocean onto a beach, a wine-drinking beachgoer takes a bewildered look at his bottle.
  • No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Subverted. Stromberg invites Bond to join him for dinner so that Bond will be sitting right in the sights of the gun attached to the underside of the table. Bond figures it out, gets clear in time and returns the favour down the firing tube.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Stromberg is by far the least physical of Bond villains, relying on push-button deathtraps and legions of Mooks to do his bidding. When he finally tries to take out Bond himself towards the end, it goes badly.
  • The Noun Who Verbed: Used as the film's title.
  • Novelization: Written by screenwriter Christopher Wood, it adds SMERSH and some original Fleming characters to the plot (tying up some loose ends from From Russia with Love, in fact). It was the first Bond novel released since Colonel Sun, and is (perhaps surprisingly for a novelization) well-regarded, often appearing as a dark-horse candidate on polls of the best post-Fleming novels. On the cover, it was re-titled James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me to avoid confusion with The Spy Who Loved Me. (I mean, to the extent that that would avoid any confusion at all...)
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Bond takes a shot at Jaws and the bullet ricochets off his steel teeth. Then Bond's PPK jams and Jaws uses the opportunity to escape.
  • A Nuclear Error: The "Impulse Conductor Circuit", which can detonate a nuclear warhead while it's being disassembled.
  • Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: After escaping from Stromberg's guards on the Liparus, Bond leaps off the catwalk and lands in the back of the maglev rail car passing underneath.
  • One-Hit Kill: Don't let Jaws' jaws near you. Bond didn't, even through all the attempts.
  • One-Hit Polykill: During the breakout from the Liparus, Bond gets his hands on the compressed air gun used to fire cyanide gas tube through the submarine hull. He turns it on the mooks pursuing him, killing two with one shot.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted briefly in the big shootout scene, when one of the random British sailors is also named "James".
    British Lieutenant: (issuing orders to a few of his crew): "Andrew, James, Russell, Purvis, follow me!"
  • The One Thing I Don't Hate About You:
    Bond: "Mmm, maybe I misjudged Stromberg. Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad."
  • Operation Game of Doom: Removing the detonator from a nuclear warhead. It's magnetic too, just to make it even more difficult.
  • Overt Operative:
    • How about Bond's Union Jack parachute? Way to maintain deniability, unless you're going for the double bluff: "Well, obviously a real British agent wouldn't advertise his allegiance like that!"
    • Although they've never met before, Bond and Anya both know who their counterpart is, their real name and even their preferred drink order. Justified as MI6 and the KGB would have detailed files on The Opposition.
    • Averted when Bond introduces himself to Max Kalba as The Name Is Bond, James Bond and the response is an unimpressed, "What of it?"
    • Bond introduces himself as "Sterling, Robert Sterling" and Anya as his wife when going to meet Stromberg. After they leave, Stromberg calls in Jaws to confirm they were the ones he encountered before. Stromberg then identifies Bond and Anya by name, but it's not mentioned how he knows this.
  • Personal Mook: Stromberg has his personal helicopter pilot Naomi.
  • Pet the Dog: Gogol showing sympathy for Anya's loss helps to establish that he's not the callous villain of the movie.
  • Pineapple Surprise: Talbot, the British submarine captain, is killed while getting ready to throw a grenade at some mooks. As Bond reaches him, the grenade pops out of his dead hands, leaving Bond seconds to throw it away.
  • Pistol-Whipping: When Bond runs out of ammunition during the battle on the Liparus, he's forced to hit an attacking Mook with his gun before receiving a fresh magazine.
  • Playing Both Sides: Stromberg's plan is launching nuclear missiles from British and Soviet submarines to destroy Moscow and New York City, respectively. This would make each country believe the other attacked them and trigger a global nuclear war (which Stromberg would survive in Atlantis), and subsequently a new civilisation would be established.
  • Pocket Rocket Launcher: In the pre-credits sequence, Bond kills the lover of Agent Triple X with a rocket concealed on the tip of one of his ski poles.
  • Porn Names: The classic punny Bond Girl name does appear, though in significantly downplayed form: Anya is known as Agent XXX. The syllables "ama" from her last name also connote the Latin languages' words for "love."
  • Post-Climax Confrontation: For a moment it looks like Triple X is pulling one of these on Bond, but she changed her mind about killing him once the mission is over — she wants to shag him instead.
  • Power Cable Attack: Bond tries it during his fight with Jaws on the train by breaking the bulb on a table lamp and electrifying Jaws' metal mouth. Unfortunately he's using regular current so he only stuns Jaws for a moment, but that's enough time for Bond to kick him out a window.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Bond to Stromberg after the latter tried shooting him from under the dining room table.
    Bond: You shot your bolt, Stromberg. Now it's my turn. (Shoots back down the barrel twice, followed with two shots to the chest)
  • Pretty in Mink: A lady wears a white mink coat in the beginning. She's possibly Naked in Mink in it as well.
  • Race Against the Clock: During the climax, Bond is given an hour to rescue Anya before the submarine sinks Atlantis.
  • Raised Hand of Survival: James Bond is fighting Jaws under a wooden scaffolding that holds large stone blocks. Jaws swings a board and hits the scaffolding, causing it to collapse and bury him, apparently killing him. Bond leaves him for dead, but the audience sees Jaws' hand emerging from the pile of debris, showing he's alive.
  • Reality Has No Subtitles
    • When James Bond travels through Egypt, he speaks in Arabic to several characters (including a camel rider, Bond's contact and a boat owner) without any translation.
    • After Jaws' car smashes into an old man's hut in Sardinia, the man starts speaking aloud in Italian ("Mamma mia! Che successo? Oddio, tutto distrutto!").
  • Recycled In Space
    • Both You Only Live Twice and this movie dealt with a spaceship-/submarine-eating ship that caused East-West tensions to rise and the potential apocalypse of a nuclear war triggered by a madman.
    • invoked The similarities could have been even greater has the original plan for the movie been followed through. According to Word of God (plus numerous books on the history of the Bond films), the villain of The Spy Who Loved Me was originally to have been Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the villain of You Only Live Twice, but legal hassles involving the character prevented this.
    • The general plot of this one was used in the next film, Moonraker, which also had a megalomaniac attempting to eradicate the population and starting his perfect society...IN SPACE!
    • Bonus points for having Jaws reprise his role as well. No, not just the actor who played Jaws. The Jaws.
  • Red Right Hand: Stromberg has webbed fingers.
  • Red Shirt: A young Royal Navy officer volunteers to lead the charge, something you'd expect Bond to do. It's no surprise when he and his men get killed.
  • Red Shirt Army: The British, American and Soviet submarine crews Bond frees onboard the Liparus, who then raid the ship's armory and battle Stromberg's army. Amusingly, Stromberg's mooks wear literal red shirts.
  • Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Courtesy of General Gogol:
    General Gogol: The submarine Potemkin disappeared without trace? What a catastrophe, Comrade Chairman.
  • Request for Privacy: Stromberg calls two scientists working for him into his office and tells them that one of the people involved in the project is a traitor. He then asks his secretary to leave the room. After she gets into an elevator he turns it into a Blofeld Ploy: he tells her that she was the traitor and drops her into a Shark Pool.
  • Restart the World: Stromberg plans to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. by launching a nuclear missile against each nation simultaneously. His justification?
    Today civilization as we know it is corrupt and decadent. Inevitably, it will destroy itself. I'm merely accelerating the process. I intend to change the face of history [snip] by creating a world. A new and beautiful world beneath the sea.
  • Rescue Romance: Anya doesn't really warm up to Bond until after he saves her from Jaws on the train. His rescuing her from the sinking Atlantis is enough to get her to give up her plans to kill him.
  • Revenge Myopia: In the opening scene, Bond kills Anya's lover, who is trying to kill him at the time. When she finds out about it she vows to kill Bond.
  • Rooftop Confrontation: Bond fights Stromberg's henchman Sandor on a rooftop in Cairo. The fight ends with Bond engaging in a High-Altitude Interrogation before sending Sandor to Disney Villain Death.
  • Samus Is a Girl: A couple of examples involving Anya:
    • During the pre-credits sequence General Gogol refers his best agent by the codename Triple X. The following scene focuses on a shirtless man who talks about an upcoming mission to his lover, implying he is the agent in question. It's only when a message comes in and the woman answers it's revealed she is Triple X.
    • The commander of the American submarine is surprised that the Russian officer who has got on board is a woman.
  • Shaking Her Hair Loose: Anya tucks her hair up under a cap to try to hide from the villains—until one of the minions knocks the cap off and her hair swirls down around her.
  • Shark Pool: Stromberg has a shark pit in his lair with push-button Trap Door access.
  • Shoot the Builder: After Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann create the submarine tracking system for Stromberg, he has them murdered.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shower Scene: Considering that this takes place on a U.S. submarine and involves Barbara Bach, it gives a whole new meaning to the Navy expression "Hollywood shower". For the ignorant, a Hollywood shower is a long, luxurious shower, where you let the water run for the whole shower. By contrast, a Navy shower consists of running the water, cold, long enough to get wet, turning it off and soaping up, and running the water, still cold, long enough to rinse the suds off. The water is on for no more than two minutes in total. For obvious reasons, Hollywood showers are used as rewards.
  • Sic 'Em: "James Bond. And the woman is Major Amasova, a Russian agent. Let them get to shore... and then kill them."
  • Silly Love Songs: The theme song, Carly Simon's "Nobody Does it Better," is a rarity among Bond themes as a touching and sincere love ballad.
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: Surprisingly, Bond and Anya only start liking each other after lots of arguments and fighting side-by-side multiple times. And almost threw it away when Anya found out Bond killed her previous lover.
  • Sleep Cute: Played with. Anya Amasova and James Bond start to do this, but when the Russian agent stops falling asleep she jerks herself back from Bond.
  • Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: This was the first Bond flick of the Moore era to reach Level 4 (a capable leading lady, albeit one who still needs occasional rescuing), which has more-or-less held ever since. The first two Moore films, as well as about half of the Connery flicks, are Level 3 or worse.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: This is easily one of the most idealistic Bond films. East and West put their differences aside to work to a common goal, Bond is an absolute gentleman to his love interest, and the tone is generally up-beat. Although it has a high death toll, many of those deaths are Heroic Sacrifices to help save the day.
  • The Sociopath: Karl Stromberg clearly doesn't care for humanity anymore, thinking that it should be destroyed and then restart it in the ocean.
  • Something Else Also Rises: When they transfer to the submarine, when the Captain discovers that Major Amasova is a woman, he makes some rather lame innuendo. The scene then cuts to an exterior shot of the submarine nosing up.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Stromberg feeding his assistant to the sharks while Bach's Air on the G-String plays.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann survive in the novelization.
  • Stab the Salad: Anya pulls a gun on James Bond, seemingly about to shoot him... only to shoot the top off a champagne bottle.
  • Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure: Bond is strafed by a pursuing helicopter while driving his Lotus Esprit.
  • Starter Villain: Per the norm for Bond films, the cold open sets up part of the main plot, with the leader of the Soviet hit team being the lover of Major Amasova, the Russian agent Bond works with during the film. She's not happy to find out James killed him.
  • Stealth Pun: What was the name of General Gogol's secretary again?
  • Stock Footage: A series of nuclear bomb footages were used when Bond tricks the submarines into firing the nukes at each other, destroying the subs and Stromberg's crews.
  • Storming the Castle: Bond breaks into Stromberg's headquarters, Atlantis.
  • Sub Story: The film features multiple submarines, although life onboard is not the story's focus. Among its more notable aspects is a movie featuring Page Three Stunna pics somehow getting a PG when the BBFC reclassified the thing and Anya Amasova's shower. On naval ships, water is at somewhat at a premium (no, you can't get it directly from the sea; that's salt water and you need to desalinate it first) and sailors take a "Navy Shower" (rinse, lather, rinse off). Anya has the shower running. The captain clearly liked her; "Hollywood Showers" are only permitted if you've done something special.
  • Suddenly Shouting: Bond threatens Sandor into giving Aziz Fekkesh's location with this exchange:
    (Sandor grabs Bond's tie only to pull it and him near the edge of a house roof)
    Bond: Where's Fekkesh?
    (Sandor holds on to Bond's tie as his feet are at the edge of a roof)
    Bond: WHERE'S FEKKESH!?
    Sandor: Pyramids.
  • Surprise Vehicle: Stromberg's attack helicopter appears from behind a low wall at the edge of a cliff with no warning.
  • Swiss Bank Account: After the two scientists complete the submarine tracking system, Stromberg transfers $10 million into their Swiss bank accounts. Then cancels it when he kills them instead.
  • Table Space: Stromberg is introduced dining at the end of a long table while his Sexy Secretary has her meal down the other end, presumably to convey the psychopathic self-isolation of a man willing to destroy the world. Later he invites Bond to take a seat at the far end, and it's revealed he has a very long barreled weapon under the table—Bond narrowly avoids being killed.
  • Tempting Fate: Bond's comment to Anya that their superiors will never know what they've been up to, mere minutes before they catch them in the act.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Stromberg has a table gun in his dining room designed to fire an explosive projectile straight into the crotch of whoever's across from him. Bond manages to dodge the shot and shoves his PPK into the tube to show him what he thinks of the idea...
  • They Knew the Risks: When Anya realizes Bond killed her lover on an earlier mission, he says, "Anya, in this business, people get killed. We both know that. So did he."
  • This Is What the Building Will Look Like: In his study, Stromberg shows Bond a model of an underwater city with Atlantis as its main structure.
  • Thriller on the Express: Jaws attempts to kill Bond and Anya on a train.
  • Title Drop: Though "Nobody Does It Better" is the name of the Theme Tune, it still drops the movie's title. But does it so classy: "I wasn't lookin' but somehow you found me, it tried to hide from your love light, but like heaven above me. The spy who loved me, is keepin' all my secrets safe tonight."
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Fekkesh spots Jaws and rather than seeking Safety in Muggles—where he already was, he runs off and tries to hide by himself. Of course, Jaws finds him and kills him.
    • Stromberg can't resist Evil Gloating when he's about to kill Bond, tipping Bond off that there's a gun under the table. He dives out of the way and shoots Stromberg in turn.
    • Bond gets one at the end when he leaves his PPK within reaching distance of Anya even though she had sworn a vendetta on him.
  • Transforming Mecha: Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine car.
  • Translation Convention: Russian characters (General Gogol, Major Amasova, her lover).
  • Trap Door: Stromberg uses one in his elevator to drop his treacherous secretary into the Shark Pool. He later tries to use it on Bond, who of course sees it coming.
  • Trap-Door Fail: The elevator really does have a trap door — we see it used early in the film. And this time, Bond straddles it and avoids falling in.
  • Undercover as Lovers: James and Anya pose as man and wife while visiting Stromberg.
  • Underwater Base: Stromberg has an underwater Supervillain Lair in Sardinia.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Stromberg's plan is to trigger World War III and destroy the world, then create a new civilisation under the sea.
  • Villainous Valour: Jaws' sheer persistence in trying to finish his mission ended up making audiences pretty sympathetic to him. Richard Kiel has mentioned seeing entire cinemas cheer when he was revealed to have survived at the end and swimming away into the ocean.
  • War for Fun and Profit: Subverted. Stromberg is not holding the world for ransom, but trying to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and USSR in order to create an underwater utopia.
  • Weaponized Car: Bond's Lotus Esprit.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The opening action sequence ends with James Bond deploying a Union Flag parachute. It's with that scene that Bond turned from a popular character who just happened to be British to a national British icon.
  • Wham Line: General Gogol says Russia's best agent will be put on the submarine job, we cut to a couple in bed with the camerawork focusing on the man similar to Bond's own usual introduction, a message from Gogol comes in... and it's the woman who answers.
    Anya: This is agent Triple X. Message received and understood.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?:
    • Deconstructed. Major Amasova's lover was one of the mooks killed in the teaser, and it comes back to bite Bond hard later in the film. They even have an open discussion on the subject. Bond ultimately has a pretty good explanation in the end. This is the first and to date only time in the film series in which Bond encounters a (non-enemy) loved one of someone he's killed and actually is forced to own up to it and face potential consequence (in this case, Anya's promise to kill him after the mission ends). Ironically, the killing in question was in straightforward self-defence and doesn't even really fall under the usual "licence to kill" aspect of Bond's work.
    • Stromberg plays it straight. After blowing up one of his own helicopters to get rid of two men who knew too much, he directs his secretary to send condolences to the families of the two scientists he just murdered. Nothing is said of the pilot and any other personnel that might have been aboard.
  • When Harry Met Svetlana: James Bond works with Major Anya Amasova of the KGB. Despite the fact that he killed her lover (in self defence), she naturally falls in love with him by the end of the movie.
  • Wicked Cultured: Stromberg likes to kill minions while enjoying fine cuisine and classical music.
  • Within Arm's Reach: While fighting Jaws on a train, James Bond is pinned against a wall with Jaws trying to bite his neck. Seeing a lamp nearby, Bond grabs it and breaks off the shade and light bulb. He then uses the electrified end of the lamp against Jaws's metal teeth, giving him quite a shock. The scene can be viewed here.
  • "Will Return" Caption: The credits announce For Your Eyes Only as the next film, only for Moonraker to be made between films.
  • Would Hit a Girl:
    • Well, not exactly hit as such, but use a (sub)surface-to-air missile on her. Was it really necessary, Bond?
    • The novelization is even worse, as in it Felicca, the girl Sandor shoots while kissing Bond, dies because Bond intentionally uses her as a human shield (in the film she is either accidentally shot or is shot to prevent her from passing on information).
  • Wrestler in All of Us: Bond uses a scoop slam on a mook.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • You Know Too Much: Stromberg is very specific about the instructions he gives to Jaws and Sandor when he sends them to plug the security leak.
    Stromberg: Every person who even comes into contact with that microfilm...is to be eliminated.
  • You Must Be Cold: James give his tuxedo jacket to Major Amasova as they are hiking across the desert at night. They were abducted from a nightclub and she is wearing a backless evening gown.
  • Your Favourite: Bond and Anya show they know enough about each other by both asking the barman for the other's favourite drink.
    James: The lady will have a... Bacardi on the rocks.
    Anya: For the gentleman, vodka martini - shaken, not stirred.
    James: Touche.


M: 007!
General Gogol: Triple X!
Frederick Grey: Bond, what do you think you're doing?
Bond: Keeping the British end up, sir.
[Bond closes the curtains]

James Bond will return in...For Your Eyes Only.

 
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Bond and XXX

A possible Trope Codifier. Bond and Soviet agent XXX flip flop between working together and working against each other before they finally hookup at the end.

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5 (4 votes)

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