Bondathon: The Spy Who Loved Me

Well, darn. Maybe the Moore era won’t be that bad.

Yeah, The Man with the Golden Gun wasn’t the greatest, and EON and MGM saw that. So, in time for the 15^th anniversary of James Bond, with the release of the tenth film in the series, they decided to adapt the tenth book in the series: The Spy Who Loved Me. Moore was back once again as our favorite tuxedo-clad hero, as well as the fair share of newbies to the franchise, such as Curd Jürgens as Karl Stromberg, Barbara Bach as Major Anya Amasova (aka XXX), and quite possibly the most notable addition, Richard Kiel as Jaws. So, new faces, new directions, and a new mind after the last film…did they pull it off?

The movie kicks off as two submarines, one British and one Soviet, mysteriously disappear from their last tracked positions. We see shots of the higher ups at MI6 and the KGB receiving the news, and saying that they will send their best agents: the Soviet Anya Amasova (our first scene showing her being in bed with her boyfriend before he’s sent off on a mission himself) and, of course, our friend Jimbo (who’s of course in bed with a beautiful Austrian girl). We then cut to a ski chase after the British call Bond, which ends with James skiing off a cliff and parachuting down, sporting some rather patriotic means.

Bond is taken to meet with MI6 higher ups, including M and Admiral Hargreaves (which is a face we will see again in a few installments), and is briefed on what has happened. He is sent to Egypt, where he is told to meet with a man named Fekkesh about information regarding a submarine tracking device. As Bond goes to meet Fekkesh, a henchman of our villain, Karl Stromberg, confronts him. The henchman relay’s Fekkesh’s location as the pyramids in Giza, before Bond kills him. At the pyramids, Bond spots Fekkesh and Amasova sitting and talking together, before Fekkesh unexpectedly leaves. Bond follows him, and practically witnesses as a man with metal teeth kills him. Anya shows up afterwords, and after witnessing Bond tussle with some heavies, they part their ways.

Bond finds his way to a club in Cairo, where the owner is holding a microfilm containing information on the tracking device. He also reunites with XXX, and after they trade back wit about how much information they know regarding each other (including a quick quip about Bond’s wife Tracy, that I love), they then proceed to meet with the club’s owner to bid over the microfilm. The owner is called away for a phone call only to be killed by the metal teeth man, revealed to be known as Jaws as he escapes in a van with Bond and Anya in the back. Jaws drives out to the remote desert with the pair in the back. After they exit the van, there’s a quick fight scene, Jaws shows off his strength by pulling apart the van’s panels one by one, but eventually the two escape.

After a night on a boat (where Bond gets tricked and left on board for the morning as Anya leaves), Bond makes his way to MI6’s Egyptian hideout, where, to his surprise, he meets the KGB leader General Gogol and Anya. M announces that MI6 and the Soviet Union have set aside their differences and have vowed to work together to get to the bottom of all these disappearances. Using Q, they find a stamp on the film which points them to Stromberg laboratories.

Bond and Anya travel to Italy, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, a marine biologist and his wife. They’re taken aboard Stromberg’s craft, Atlantis, where Bond and Stromberg have a meeting in the latter’s corners. Stromberg shows Bond his plans for an underwater city that he is planning on constructing, with his oddly shaped Atlantis craft used as the center structure. Meanwhile, Anya is being shown around the ship, and is shown a model of Stromberg’s latest oil tanker, the Liparus. As Bond joins the rest, he takes note of the Liparus model and later comments to Anya about how the hull of the ship looked oddly shaped.

As Bond and Anya make it back to shore, they soon find that a black helicopter, piloted by Naomi, Stromberg’s personal pilot, is following them. Bond and Anya make way in Q’s Lotus Esprit, and a chase ensues, eventually leading to the Lotus driving off a dock and transforming into a submarine. After losing the assailants, Bond uses the Lotus to pilot back to Atlantis and investigate the outside of the craft. Atlantis shoots a missile at the Lotus, causing a leak, and forcing the pair to come ashore. Later, in their hotel, Anya finds a lighter that Bond purchased in Austria (calling back to the pre-titles scene), and she asks him if he had executed her then-boyfriend during the mission. Bond says yes, and Anya says she will kill him when the mission is over.

The duo report upon an American submarine as they plan to further investigate the Liparus and see if it has anything in connection to the submarine disappearances. Before they’re able to make a move, however, the Liparus reveals itself and its party trick: the hulls open to literally swallow up the submarine. When they’re inside, they see the formerly lost British and Russian craft. Stromberg takes the crew hostage and finds 007 and Anya. He reveals his plan to use nuclear missiles to destroy various cities across the globe and create his underwater utopia. Stromberg captures Anya and exits the frigate, making his way to Atlantis.

Bond finds his way free and releases the captive crew members, who all stage an ambush on the Liparus and its operators. Bond needs a way to get inside the control room to de-activate the missiles, so he retrieves a detonator from one of the missiles on board and eventually blasts his way in and quickily taps in new coordinates for the missiles to blow up the opposite sub. Bond escapes Liparus and makes his way to Atlantis, where he goes on board to have a little chat with Stromberg. Bond ends up shooting the man, and he and Anya escape within one of Stromberg’s escape pods.

This movie just erases all of the bad points of the previous film and makes up for it at least tenfold. The story is great, the actors are great, the cinematography and the direction is FANTASTIC. There’s a reason why this film is in my top five Bonds, because it is just everything that a classic Bond should be. It’s only edged out of the top three (those are still coming) because of the few corny bits, but even then it isn’t all that too terrible to make it unbearable. This is the first review where I really have no negative things to say about a movie. If you need one movie to show you what Roger Moore’s Bond was all about, this is that movie. I’m giving it 5 out of 5 stars, the second 5 star rating so far in my Bondathon series.

If only this winning streak would have stayed strong. I’m not looking forward to my next Bond review…stay tuned, folks.