How in the hell did M not only know the phone number to Scaramanga's boat, but also that Bond was onboard with both the Solex Agitator and Miss Goodnight?!
Bond and Goodnight actually seemed just as surprised and confused as the audience.
It could be that M had it all along, and indeed, that he already had a lot more information on Scaramanga than he claimed. If so, it would be neither the first time nor the last when M withheld information from Bond. Hell, it wouldn't even be the first piece of information M withheld in this film: He takes Bond off the Gibson case and plays dumb when Bond suggests he kill Scaramanga first; he withholds Lt. Hip's identity and the other use of the Queen Elizabeth until Bond is aboard; and when Bond goes into Red Chinese waters, both he and Bond say M knows nothing of the mission.
It's certainly not beyond believability that MI6 would use freelancers on occasion.
Why does Bond go to all that trouble to get the bullet that killed Bill Fairbanks, when he already has the bullet that was sent to him?
"Well obviously it's useless as a bullet." The Fairbanks bullet was a real bullet used by Scaramanga. The 'trinket' could have been made anywhere.
And it isn't even the calibre Scaramanga uses. It looks like a .32 ACP.
Why doesn't MI:6 know anything about Scaramanga's appearance? They have a full bio on him and yet they have no clue as to what he looks like (except his third nipple). He used to work in a circus so hundreds of people have seen him (even if it was 20 years ago, that would still tell them that he's six foot tall and thus eliminate, for example, Nick Nack). Even a sketchy description is better than none. (Some think M is withholding information from Bond.)
At no point does Bond suspect Nick Nack is Scaramanga though. They do have a sketchy description but it is hardly as helpful as you seem to think- if they say they have "no clue" of what he looks like, they aren't meaning it literally.
If one of the few points of info they have on Scaramanga is that he's six-foot, that still leaves hundreds of millions of other six-foot men to go through. I mean, yes, they've eliminated the guy who's three foot ten, but that doesn't exactly narrow things down that much.
Well, Scaramanga doesn't have many defining features to begin with. Except for a third nipple, but that's not very helpful for finding him, unless he's at the beach or something. Imagine telling someone to find a person "6 Foot, White, Black Hair", That'd be nearly impossible. You'd probably run into 20 (or more) guys like that just by going to the mall. His appearance is very standard, even for a Bond villain. I mean, other villians were easily identifiable. For example, Jaws. If you told Bond "7 foot guy, metal teeth", you'd know exactly what you're looking for.
Even Andrea Anders, who has met Scarmanga personally, can't give Bond much better than "tall, slim and dark ", to which Bond sarcastically quips that his aunt would fit the bill.
Considering this film's setting is mostly Southeast Asia during The '70s, looking for a 6 ft. white man suddenly becomes a bit easier.
As cool as the flying car was, a man of Scaramanga's wealth could just have easily had a real plane or helicopter on standby in that barn. (Although, after all… Scaramanga is a Psychopathic Manchild, hence the funhouse and games. Why have a flying car? Why not?)
If he'd switched to a plane or helicopter, he'd have had to leave his car behind.
Why was Sheriff Pepper searching for AMC vehicles in Thailand?
To rent one of course, so he and his wife can drive around on their holiday. Why else?
Why did the police arrest Pepper and not Bond as well?
They were about to, but the flying car distracted them.
Why does Hip leave Bond behind at the Karate school?
Because he's an idiot who didn't notice that Bond wasn't even in the damn car until it was too late. People give Goodnight crap from being dumb in this film, but Hip is far worse than she is (aside from this gaffe, there was his introduction where he managed to accidentally convince Bond he was being abducted rather than taken to meet his own boss).
Is Scaramanga saying "What do they teach that school, Ballet Dancing?" or is it "Belly Dancing"?
The scene where Scaramanga kills Fat, he says this line in the opening. I can't understand it. It sounds like both, but the subtitles on the dvd say "Ballet". But Netflix says Belly?
Who are the men attacking Bond when he's with the Belly Dancer?
The Belly Dancer that has a Golden Bullet in her navel, Bond tries seducing her and accidently swallows the bullet when attacked by...someone. Who are those guys? Hitmen? Bouncers?
Is Hip a police officer or an MI6 agent?
Both probably, since the RHKP and MI6 are both agencies of the British government the latter probably has him on loan from the former, kind of like of how Bond is as much a Royal Naval officer as he is an MI6 agent.
Why doesn't Hip accompany Bond to Scaramanga's island?
Seriously, he just disappears so abruptly. Right before the chase. What happened to him?
If Nick Nack inherits everything after Scaramanga dies, why not just poison his food?
Poisoning Scaramanga's food would hardly be sporting. It also could be that Nick Nack has at least some loyalty to his employer. We see that Nick Nack acts as a butler and chef as well as an accomplice to Scaramanga. He probably couldn't bring himself to outright kill his boss directly.
Presumably the will that gives everything to Nick Nack is conditional on Scaramanga dying in actual combat, not being assassinated without knowing. One could just as easily ask why Nick Nack didn't put a bomb in the plane when Scaramanga left the island.
Since Nick Nack was Scaramanga's heir, why get that upset enough to kill Bond over the destruction of the island base? Scaramanga must have had bank accounts he kept his fortune at; surely Nick Nack could have claimed all that money and simply started a new life somewhere else.
Nick Nack likes the idea of killing Scaramanga and claiming his fortune, but otherwise the two seem to have a mutually respectful relationship. Nick Nack was probably planning on doing all that anyway, but figured he'd also bump off James Bond out of respect for his former employer.
Quite a number of people have speculated/assumed that Scaramanga's will states that in order to claim the fortune, Nick Nack has to show that Scaramanga died in combat as opposed to being poisoned/bombed/etc. With Scaramanga's body gone along with the island, Nick Nack can't even prove that Scaramanga IS dead to begin with, much less demonstrate that he died in combat. So Nick Nack is trying to kill Bond because he just destroyed everything he could have had.
Nick Nack says that if Bond kills Scaramanga, he gets the island, and Bond blew it up- no reason to think Nick Nack isn't mad as hell even if there is money somewhere, since he must have spent years fantasising about getting the island . There is also the fact that Scaramanga was on the verge of becoming extremely wealthy and powerful through the Solex Agitator and presumably Nick Nack could have gotten that too, but Bond (well, really Goodnight) foiled that as well (in which, he might have planned on killing Bond even if he did just kill Scaramanga, since he can't let him take the Solex).
So Scaramanga has scotched a British operation to retrieve a defector and has in his power the Solex Agitator plus a kidnapped British agent in his island. MI6 then decides to fly a single agent armed with just a Walther PPK and dressed in a business suit and who Scaramanga is already expecting instead of a covert squad of Royal Marines to kill him..... what?
Scaramanga's island was in Chinese territory; sending in armed forces could be considered an act of war. But if Bond goes in solo, then the British government can claim that was acting on his own, pursuing a personal score against Scaramanga, without their knowledge or approval. M makes a point of Bond's mission being strictly off the record.
"Should you be caught or killed, Bond, M will disavow any knowledge of your actions."
In Dr. No, M sends Bond to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of the local Station Chief of MI6 and his secretary. Thunderball starts with Bond who assassinates the Spectre operative who killed some MI6 agents. In Live and Let Die, three MI6 agents on Kananga's case are assassinated and M assigns Bond on the case. It's a safe bet a typical use of the 00 section is investigating when things get heated and agents are killed or disappear. Scaramanga kills 002 and M doesn't even bother to send someone to find the bullet?
What's with Bond's holier-than-thou attitude when being confonted with Scaramanga's claim that the two are alike? Why does James Bond insist to Scaramanga that he has only killed killers? Bond has killed several henchmen, thieves, and even ordinary workers at an evil company like the people at Saito chemicals in You Only Live Twice or the factory workers in Goldfinger.
Why didn't Andreas Anders just tell Bond her plan the first time she encountered him?
Bond asks who would pay Scaramanga a million dollars to have him killed. Clearly he forgot what he does for a living, as naturally he's made quite a few enemies - communists, criminal organizations (SPECTRE, anyone?), terrorists, foreign spies, boyfriends, husbands, restaurant owners, florists, automobile owners, political leaders, government workers, feminists, etc. Half of all civilized society. And much of the rest of the world, too.
Weird enough, Bond is aware of his notoriety among circles in which Scaramanga gravitates. He's not surprised when Lazar, Scaramanga's armourer, says he's honoured to meet him. Neither is he when Anders, Scaramanga's mistress, explains to him she sent the bullet with the 007 written on it to the MI-6 because she knew he was the only one who could kill Scaramanga. she was right. Shame she didn’t live long enough to see Bond do the job.
To be fair to Bond, it may more be that nobody still alive hates him personally enough to pay that much for his death; anyone with the connections necessary to know about Bond probably wouldn't want to draw his attention to their activities too soon, and Bond tends to kill his more personal enemies himself.
Nick Nack has arranged with Scaramanga to be his sole beneficiary in the event of the latter's death, thus giving him the incentive to send hitmen after Scaramanga, even making a deal with Bond himself to achieve such. Scaramanga is living on the island at the behest of his Chinese benefactors. How could a little person possibly meet his dead boss's "quality of service" to continue the mutually beneficial relationship with their landlords? If Nick Nack actually got his way and Goodnight didn't accidentally blow up the island, he would probably be thrown out on his ass anyway.
The Novel
How does Hendriks, the KGB agent at Scaramanga's hotel party, not have a description of Bond before he arrives? At the start of the novel, Bond has spent a year in Russia being brainwashed by the KGB. Are they so compartmented that once Bond fails that mission and is sent back on active duty, they can't tell their agents what he looks like?
With A Mind To Kill suggests this is the case, as far as British Intelligence knows. M says the KGB kept their operations in Cuba (and elsewhere) compartmented. Hendriks was aware of Bond but investigating "Mark Hazard" and Bond killed Hendriks before the latter could advise his higher ups.
