Differences between James Bond novels and films
Encyclopedia
The James Bond novels, written by English author, journalist and World War II intelligence officer Ian Fleming
, and the later James Bond films, often differ in tone and detail, a trend which increased with each new movie production. The James Bond novels, written mainly in the 1950s and early 1960s, are generally darker, with relatively explicit violence and sex. They mirror the atmosphere of the Cold War by using the Soviet Union
as one of the main adversaries, especially in the first several novels. They depend on suspense, intrigue, ingenuity and dialog at least as much as action. While some clever devices are introduced, they do not reach the flamboyant extremes of some of the movie gimmicks.
The James Bond films
, starting in 1962 near the end of Ian Fleming's life, are generally lighter in tone, with more humour and somewhat more orientation toward family entertainment, while keeping considerable suspense and adding action and more ingenious weapons, devices and gimmicks. Soviet Communists are replaced as the main villains by a fictional criminal and terrorist organization, SPECTRE, which Fleming portrayed in later novels. The first film in the series, based on the sixth novel, Dr. No
, was a box office success. It was followed by the film which many critics and fans alike still consider the best production, From Russia With Love
. With the huge popularity of the third film Goldfinger
in 1964, the James Bond films were set to become a part of popular culture and continue a long line of box office successes.
Although the first Bond films had much in common with the novels, later films increasingly departed from the books. As time passed, the titles, characters and a few events and locations alone tied the two presentations of the same story with many details and even key points of the plots diverging. Bond films had increasing numbers of gimmicks and modified dialog, which while clever and entertaining, departed from the novels. Some of the changes appear to have been based on advances in technology and changes in style in order to make the films appear more contemporary and up to date. Faithful depictions of the novels set in the time period in which they were written mostly would have appeared dated and less exciting. On the other hand, as more films were made, some of the suspense and intrigue of the novels seems to have been omitted in favour of big budget action. After all of the Ian Fleming novels, except Casino Royale which was originally filmed outside the James Bond movie franchise, were used in film productions, Fleming's short stories and elements of various books were used to write new screenplays. Some of the movies used material from John Gardner's newer series of James Bond novels. Some of the screenplays were almost totally new except for characters and a little background.
The 2006 film Casino Royale
has been considered a reboot
of the series since it cuts back on gimmicks and big action sequences and follows the plot and details of the novel more closely. The film is darker in tone, like the book. Since graphic violence and sex have become generally much more accepted in the movies since the 1960s, these aspects of the book and the film are far less controversial and less of a hindrance to attracting a wide audience than they would have been when the first films were released. There is some of that in this film. It does have some modern or updated touches and technologies. The plot and location of this novel lends itself to this type of treatment while it might be more difficult to make a similar production of some of the others which followed the plots more closely with only a modest amount of gimmickry, action and updating.
was the first James Bond novel cinematically adapted by EON Productions
. It introduced Sean Connery
as the first actor to portray James Bond on the big screen; Joseph Wiseman
portrayed Dr. No.
Although the story follows the same general arc there are significant number of changes. Early in the movie, Bond meets Felix Leiter and Quarrel for the first time, and they are initially portrayed as potential threats. The book did not include Leiter at all, and anyway Bond already knew both him and Quarrel from prior novels. Sylvia Trench and Professor Dent were also added to the story. A key sequence in the film - Bond's execution of Dent - has no equivalent in the novel. Unless absolutely necessary, the literary Bond is incapable of killing in cold blood.
In the film Bond has a tarantula
planted in his bed, whereas in the novel it is a centipede
. Bond has a sexual encounter with one of Dr. No's operatives in the movie but not in the book. In the book, Honey first appears nude except for her knife belt; when Bond first sees her in the film, she is wearing a bikini
.
Dr. No's physical appearance and background change in the film. In the novel, No's hands were cut off by Tong hit men; in the film his hands were destroyed by radiation, and his island fortress is nuclear-powered. The specific method in which Dr. No is killed is also changed significantly: in the movie, the villain is drowned in reactor coolant rather than buried alive in guano as he was in the book. Furthermore, Dr. No in the movie is an operative of SPECTRE
rather than the Soviet Union. Fleming did not introduce SPECTRE until Thunderball in 1961.
In the book, after finally meeting Doctor No, Bond is forced to enter an obstacle course of torture, culminating with him fighting a giant squid. A highly similar sequence occurs in the movie, but the viewer is lead to think Bond is merely escaping through a ventilation shaft. Bond's fight with the squid is omitted entirely. Meanwhile, in the book Honey is staked out to be eaten by beach crabs; in the film, she is tied to drown in a water pool. Originally the crabs were going to be incorporated into this scene, but the crabs had all died by the time they made it to the set. In the book, Honey breaks free by her own devices, but in the movie Bond has to rescue her.
was released in 1963
, produced by Albert R. Broccoli
and Harry Saltzman
, and directed by Terence Young. It was the second James Bond film in the EON Productions
series, and the second to star Sean Connery
as the suave and sophisticated British Secret Service agent James Bond.
The main villains change from SMERSH
(a division of Soviet Intelligence) to SPECTRE
(a fictional terrorist organisation), although SMERSH is mentioned once in dialogue by Tatiana. Rene Mathis (from Casino Royale) appeared briefly in the book, but not the movie. The story stayed true to the novel, except action sequences such as the boat chase and helicopter attack were added.
Much of the plot in either version revolves around the decoder device. In the original book, it is called a Spector decoder. This was changed to Lector for the film, most likely to avoid confusion with the SPECTRE terror organization.
Compared to the movie, the book spent a much longer time previewing Donovan 'Red' Grant (AKA Nash) and the Russian plot to kill Bond. This section of the book emphasised the constant scheming, distrust, and fear of execution prevalent among the Soviet leaders, a theme hinted at in the movie by Blofeld's tendency to punish failure with death.
Grant appears periodically throughout the movie unbeknownst to Bond, manipulating events and ensuring the Soviets do not kill Bond prematurely. In the book, this is not necessary since all of the villains are on the same team.
The gadgets involved in Bond and Grant's final encounter are also a bit different. Bond carries the enhanced attaché case in both versions, but in the book it is not booby trapped with tear gas. In the movie, Grant's concealed weapon is a garrotte wire/watch instead of a gun/book. At the end of the movie, Klebb accosts Bond in his hotel room, in Venice
; in the book, it is Bond who tracks down Klebb, in Paris
.
, who wrote the previous films, returned to adapt the seventh James Bond novel, Goldfinger
. Maibaum fixed the novel's heavily criticised plot hole
, where Goldfinger actually attempts to empty Fort Knox. In the film, Bond notes it would take twelve days for Goldfinger to steal the gold, before the villain reveals he actually intends to irradiate it with a Red Chinese atomic bomb
. However, Harry Saltzman
disliked the first draft, and brought in Paul Dehn
to revise it. Hamilton said Dehn "brought out the British side of things". Connery disliked his draft, so Maibaum returned. Wolf Mankowitz
, an un-credited screenwriter on Dr. No, suggested the scene where Oddjob puts his car into a car crusher
to dispose of a dead body.
In the novel, Goldfinger's obsession with gold is more explicit; sexually so. Both his family name and his first name are related to gold ("Auric
" is an adjective pertaining to gold). He wears yellow briefs to suntan in, has a collection of yellow-jacketed pornographic books and can only find satisfaction in copulating with gold-painted women (apparently prostitutes), he travels in a gold plated car, employs a blonde secretary and even has a ginger
cat (which is eaten by Oddjob for dinner after Bond uses it in a ruse). He employs Korean servants who are repeatedly referred to as "yellow-faced". (Despite Goldfinger's relations with the Soviet Union
, they are from South Korea
, not Communist
North
.) The film keeps the colour of the Rolls-Royce and secretary’s hair, but not the other explicit material, and adds other gold motifs (see film discussion
). A bit of Goldfinger's eulogy to gold ("I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.") is one of few dialogue lines from the novel to be kept relatively intact in the film, but Gert Fröbe
maintains the subtext of his character's fetish for the metal through expressions, such as when Bond distracts his putt with an ingot
, and when the villain is forced to turn away and leave Fort Knox's contents. Also, Bond drives an Aston Martin DB III
in the novel, but uses a newer gadget-laden DB5
in the film.
In the book, Pussy Galore is a lesbian gangster, representing an all-female syndicate called the "Cement Mixers." By the end of the book, Bond manages to convert her to heterosexuality. In the movie, she is Goldfinger's personal pilot and instructor of an all-female flight school. The movie does not explicitly comment on her sexual preferences, though she eventually falls for Bond. In the book, Tilly Masterson does not die until the Fort Knox scene, and is seemingly also a lesbian.
In the novel, explosive decompression of plane cabin causes Oddjob to be sucked through a broken window. After this, Goldfinger is strangled to death by Bond. In the film, it is Goldfinger who gets blown out of the plane. Oddjob has been killed earlier in Fort Knox vault by electrocution
. Also, the novel ends with the plane crash-landing in the ocean from where Bond and Galore are rescued by a weather ship. The film's last scene shows Bond and Galore having landed safely by parachute on a forested hill.
In the novel, Bond admires how well Felix Leiter operates his car with a prosthetic
hook. Leiter was maimed by a shark in the earlier novel Live and Let Die
and lost his arm and a leg. In the film series this happens later, in Licence to Kill
. Thus Leiter is in one piece and still working for the CIA in Goldfinger.
film was released. Most of it is adapted from the novel, changed mostly to incorporate unique gadgets. Story continuity is minor difference between the cinematic and the literary versions of Thunderball; SPECTRE was first featured in Thunderball but in the film series, it was briefly mentioned in Dr. No
and From Russia with Love
. Among the major sequences added to the film were the pre-title sequence involving the Bell rocket belt
, the Junkanoo
parade, Bond's attempt to rescue Paula Caplan from Palmyra
, his lunch with Emilio Largo
, his infiltration of the SPECTRE team while recovering the atomic bombs, his rescue by Felix Leiter
, and the conversion of the Disco Volante
from a luxury yacht to a high-speed hydrofoil
.
The female villain Fiona Volpe was added to the movie. Towards the start of both versions, Bond is in a health clinic where he encounters Count Lippe. However, the movie added a fanciful plotline in which Domino's brother is replaced with a trained and surgically-altered impersonator. In the book, Domino's brother was killed after he himself stole the warheads.
According to the books, there are only three "00" agents in the entire Secret Service. In the movie, Moneypenny exclaims that "every 00 man in Europe" has been called back, and M is shown briefing 8 or 9 agents. Bond asks to be reassigned from Canada to Nassau based solely on a photo of Domino & her brother. In the novel, it was M's decision to send him there, based on his analysis of the evidence.
In the book, Leiter and Bond's roles in the mission are much more equal than in the film. Furthermore, Leiter has a good reason not to be in the action scenes, since he was crippled in an earlier book. In the movie, Bond has encountered SPECTRE twice before, and Largo seems to immediately know he's an enemy. Nonetheless, Largo alternates between trying to kill Bond and acting as a gracious host. In the book, Bond and Largo's suspicions of each other build more gradually, and Largo has no obvious chance to kill Bond once his enmity is known. In the book, Largo does not have pet sharks or an eye-patch.
ese setting and some character names, the two stories are very different (among other things, the novel dealt with the aftermath of Blofeld's killing of Bond's wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which had yet to be adapted for film). Also, unlike most James Bond films featuring various locales around the world, almost the entire film is set in one country and several minutes are given over to an elaborate Japanese wedding. This is in keeping with Fleming's original novel, which also devoted a number of pages to the discussion of Japanese culture. A profound difference between the novel and film is that Bond kills Blofeld in the novel, while in the film the villain survives.
Blofeld's basic conspiracy is completely changed. In the movie, he uses a spacecraft to capture Soviet and American vessels, threatening to put the two nations at war. In the novel, he sets up a "garden of death" full of deadly plants and animals, tempting Japanese citizens to trespass and commit suicide. Blofeld's lair is changed from a castle within the garden to a hollowed-out volcano.
was adapted into a film
starring Sean Connery as Bond. It is a loose adaptation of the novel, with the most notable difference being Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the primary villain, instead of the Spang brothers. While the book featured a straight-forward diamond smuggling plot, the film featured the diamonds being used in a laser satellite. Though many of the book's characters appear in the film (including Tiffany Case, Felix Leiter, Mr. Wint, Mr. Kidd and Shady Tree) they often have little in common with their literary counterparts besides their names.
The movie version adds in an opening credits sequence in which Bond is hunting down Blofeld, seeking clues as to his whereabouts from a variety of shady characters - this is most likely either intended as a sequel to Connery's previous Bond outing, You Only Live Twice, in which the villain escaped and he is now on his trail, or the film version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which Bond would understandably be seeking vengeance for his wife's murder.
The early parts of the film borrow most from the book. The steps in the smuggling pipeline are almost identical, as is the way Bond meets Tiffany and infiltrates the pipeline. At differing points, both versions feature an assassin going down the pipeline and killing people off, and both versions end with Wint and Kidd trying to assassinate Bond and Tiffany on a cruise ship. The movie makes a nod to the book's opening by prominently featuring a scorpion early on. However, in between, many of the film's most memorable twists - the millionaire recluse Willard Whyte, henchwomen Bambi and Thumper, Blofeld and his surgically-altered doubles - are completely new. The movie emphasizes Wint and Kidd's apparent homosexuality much more than the book did.
in 1969. Along with the first few Sean Connery films, this movie was extremely faithful to the book. The major difference is that it followed You Only Live Twice
, thus extending the roles of Blofeld and Tracy. At the start of both versions, Bond and M strongly disagree about whether to keep hunting Blofeld, putting Bond on the verge of resigning. Surprisingly, however, their respective positions are reversed: in the book Bond thinks chasing Blofeld is futile and a waste of his 00 status; in the movie M wants to call the operation off for the same reasons. While the following background is not explicit in the movie, Bond's first scenes with Tracy occur at the Casino Royale, where he comes each year to visit Vesper Lynd's grave.
In both versions, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's compound on Piz Gloria by impersonating Sir Hillary Bray, a genealogist sent to certify Blofeld's title as Count. In the movie, this section is comedic instead of suspenseful. The movie omits the brutal execution of a SPECTRE agent, and eliminates Bond's forced betrayal of a friend and fellow agent ("Number 2" from Station Z). Knowing Number 2 will be tortured and blow Bond's cover, in the book Bond escapes pre-emptively. Conversely, in the movie Bond plays Bray as a stereotypical pompous noble, rather than sticking close to his true personality. Bond is captured due to his own mistakes, and escapes after Blofeld brags to him about his plan.
In both versions, Blofeld plans to commit biological warfare, hypnotizing his female patients to distribute crop and livestock-destroying agents. However, in the movie Blofeld's threat was extended from the United Kingdom to the entire world. In the book, it seems the Soviets are paying him to complete the operation, while in the movie Blofeld is trying to extort the British into recognizing his title. In the movie, before Bond comes back to raid Piz Gloria, Blofeld abducts Tracy, raising the stakes for their final battle.
Sequences conceived specifically for the movie include Bond's safecracking in the office of Blofeld's lawyer and a stock-car chase.
This was the first book written after the movies had begun, and contains two references to that effect: 1) In a seeming reference to Connery, Bond is given Scottish descent for the first time; 2) on Piz Gloria, Fraulein Bunt points out a number of famous guests, including Ursula Andress (who starred in "Doctor No").
, a film based loosely on the novel
, was released in 1973
. The film was directed by Guy Hamilton
, produced by Albert R. Broccoli
and Harry Saltzman
and starred Roger Moore
in his first outing as the secret agent. In the film, a drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tonnes of heroin free so as to put rival drug barons out of business. Bond is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to Mr. Big's scheme.
The characters as portrayed in the film differ from Fleming's descriptions. Mr. Big's real name in the movie is Dr. Kananga instead of Buonaparte Ignace Gallia, and he smuggles heroin instead of gold coins from Bloody Morgan's treasure. In the novel, Baron Samedi was only a voodoo myth – people believed Mr. Big was actually Baron Samedi or perhaps his zombie. Solitaire's real name is revealed in the novel, she does not lose her virginity to Bond until after the actual events in the novel, and there is no evidence that she risks losing her psychic powers by having sex. Also, in the novel she uses regular playing cards.
Some scenes from this novel were depicted in subsequent Bond movies; for example, the keelhauling sequence was later used in the film adaptation of For Your Eyes Only
, and Felix Leiter was not fed to a shark until Licence to Kill
, which also faithfully adapts this novel's shootout in the warehouse.
made a film
based on The Man with the Golden Gun
. The film version has little to do with the novel, except character names and other minor details. In the film, Scaramanga is attempting to assassinate Bond, whereas in the novel, the villain is unaware of who Bond is at all. In the film, Mary Goodnight is kidnapped, and also provides comic relief. Scaramanga's domicile changed from Cuba to China. Accordingly, the character of Felix Leiter
was excluded while Nick-Nack, Andrea Anders and Hai Fat were added. Bond's attempt to kill M at the novel's beginning was excluded from the film. Also, the film's story has nothing to do with the sugar industry as in the novel but features a plot about solar lasers and circuitry as the villain's main agenda. In the film, Scaramanga fired a special gold plated gun which broke down into a pen, cigarette case, lighter and cuff link. This gun fired 4.2mm (slightly smaller than .17 calibre), solid gold bullets. Also in the novel, Bond has been programmed to kill M but fails.
in the EON Productions
series. It was the third to star Roger Moore
as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. Per Ian Fleming's wish the only elements from the novel that are used in the film are the character of James Bond (along with his MI6 associates) and the title. The story, all locations and all other characters are different, though the mobster henchmen, "Sluggsy" (a short, stocky, thug with a disease that prevents hair growth) and "Horror" (a tall, gaunt thug with steel capped teeth) serve as inspiration for the movie henchmen "Sandor" (a short, stocky, bald thug) and "Jaws" (a giant, super strong thug with steel teeth). The metal teeth, especially, were thought quirky enough to be worth keeping by film producer Cubby Broccoli. Some elements from the book were used in other films, as well. For example, in Dr. No
, Bond uses a pillow trick to make it appear he is asleep. The film was novelised the same year by screenwriter Christopher Wood
and the resulting book was the first novelisation of a Bond film. To avoid confusion with Fleming's novel, the book was named James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me
.
, produced by EON Productions
and released in 1979. Directed by Lewis Gilbert
and produced by Albert R. Broccoli
, the film featured Roger Moore
in his fourth appearance as Bond. As 1950s era nuclear missile technology was no longer relevant, however, the plot of the film was updated to focus on the new US space shuttle program and the story was completely re-written. Other than the Bond character (together with some of his MI6 associates) and the title, very few elements from the book survived into the film version. Most prominently, the character of Hugo Drax
was retained as the villain, but he was changed from a British industrial metallurgist and missile designer to an American aerospace industrialist. The principal Bond girl is retained as an undercover agent working within the Drax operation, but her name is changed from Gala Brand (a Scotland Yard
agent working as Personal Assistant for Drax) to Holly Goodhead (a CIA
agent working as an astronaut
for Drax). As in the novel, the film starts out with Bond collecting evidence from the Drax mansion (on the Moonraker project site) and retains a scene where Bond and Goodhead are imprisoned beneath rocket exhaust nozzles to be incinerated upon launch (though the details of both elements are significantly changed). Also, the Nazi inspired element of Drax's motivation in the novel is indirectly preserved with the "master race" theme of the movie plot. It is widely believed that Broccoli had decided to take advantage of the success of the film Star Wars
and accordingly, the plot of Moonraker was modified so as to involve outer space
. Since the screenplay was original, EON Productions and Glidrose Publications authorized the film's screenwriter, Christopher Wood
to write his second novelization based upon the film. It was titled James Bond and Moonraker, and became a best-seller in 1979. Several elements of Moonraker were seen in other Bond films. Drax's warning to Bond to spend the prize money quickly after being defeated in a gamble was quoted in the 1983 film Octopussy
. The 2002 film Die Another Day
used some of the novel's content, such as the Blades club. According to actress Rosamund Pike
, speaking for the DVD commentary of Die Another Day
, her villain character in that film, Miranda Frost, was originally to have been named Gala Brand, the name of the Bond girl in this novel.
series, For Your Eyes Only
. Released in 1981
, it was the fifth film to star Roger Moore
as the British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond and moved the title "Ian Fleming's" from above the title to above "James Bond 007" for the second time in the last three films. The film used some obvious elements and characters from the short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico" from this collection as well as elements from other Fleming novels. Some slightly similar ideas from the remaining short stories, "Quantum of Solace" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" might also be considered to have been incorporated into the movie of the same name, though in very oblique fashion.
In order to blend the plots of the two short stories, several changes were made for the film. Since the film is set in Greece
, closer to the location of "Risico" than to that of "For Your Eyes Only" and a location featured in Colonel Sun
, the Havelocks were changed from being Jamaican, as in the short story, to an Anglo-Greek couple (Mr. Havelock being English and Mrs. Havelock being Greek). Havelock's daughter, "Judy," was also renamed "Melina" in the film, the Greek word for honey
(a reference to the first screen
Bond girl
's name). The film also contains elements from several Ian Fleming stories: The warring smuggler characters Kristatos and Columbo come from "Risico". The keelhauling sequence comes from the novel Live and Let Die
, a scene unused in the previous film adaptation. The Identigraph comes from the novel Goldfinger, where it was originally called the "Identicast". The film's opening, with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife, refers to both the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service
and a scene in the novel where it is revealed that 007 visits annually the grave of Vesper Lynd
(from Casino Royale
).
(1983), starring Roger Moore
as James Bond, was the thirteenth film in the EON Productions
series. The original "Octopussy
" short story provided the back story for the film Octopussy's
family, while "The Property of a Lady" was more closely adapted for the Fabergé egg
auction sequence at Sotheby's.
The plot element of a double agent within the Secret Service was later referenced with the character of Miranda Frost in Die Another Day
as well as M's traitorous bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, in 2008's Quantum of Solace.
One notes that the phrase, "property of a lady", occurs in the cinematic version of Octopussy: early in the story, when James attends an auction at which he intends to outbid Prince Kamal Khan for the Fabergé egg, the auctioneer identifies the provenance of said egg as, "Property of a lady."
is adapted from Ian Fleming
's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the third Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me
and Octopussy
to have an entirely original screenplay. No characters from the original short story appear in the film. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin
, who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley
. Some reviewers have noted parallels in the plot and villain to those of Goldfinger
. In addition, the John Gardner
Bond novel, Licence Renewed
(1981) includes a sequence in which Bond's mission takes him to a high-class horse race where a villain is cheating; a similar event occurs in this 1985 film. The climax of the movie is similar to that of Role of Honour
.
was later adapted as the fifteenth film
(1987) and starred Timothy Dalton
in his first appearance as Bond.
At a time when the films often shared no more than the title, the major recurring characters, and some character names with the book, the plot of "The Living Daylights" was used almost untouched in the film of the same name, setting up the rest of the film. Bond finishes the segment with the same words as his literary counterpart; "I must have scared the living daylights out of her". The character of Trigger is changed from a professional sniper to that of cello player Kara Milovy
. The antagonist
of the film has a weapon obsession, much like the villain in the novel Licence Renewed
.
(1989). There is one oblique connection between the short story and the For Your Eyes Only film, as both feature yachtsman antagonists and involve underwater diving. Later, Milton Krest (with his wife-beating tendencies (with a stingray
-tail whip) transferred to the film's main villain
), his "foundation", the "Wavekrest" and "the corrector" all were incorporated into Licence to Kill.
The novelisation of the Licence to Kill screenplay was the first since Moonraker
in 1979. Then-current Bond series novelist John Gardner novelised the Michael G. Wilson-Richard Maibaum screenplay — a great challenge, because his stories follow Fleming's continuity (albeit updated); Felix Leiter already had lost an arm and a leg to a shark in the Live and Let Die
novel, an incident recycled in Licence to Kill. Resultantly, in the chapter "Lightning Sometimes Strikes Twice", the novelisation requires reader acceptance of Bond dealing with Leiter's twice being maimed by a shark; however, Gardner does not attempt to reconcile the presence of Milton Krest, (who was murdered in The Hildebrand Rarity short story).
The relatively faithful novelisation adds detail to resolve some issues around the film's more fantastic elements, notably explaining the unrealistic behaviour of the 'Stinger missiles' on-screen. It also differs from the script in places: (i) Bond uses a Walther P38K, not a Walther PPK
(as in the film), because SIS
had replaced it, a fact in Gardner's Bond novels; (ii) Q
has an extra scene (occurring while Bond is at Sánchez's Olimpatec Meditation Institute), wherein he joins a police captain in raiding Sánchez's house. Although he then had written eight Bond novels, the novelisation was Gardner's first work featuring Q; before Licence to Kill, Q was heard of, not seen in his novels, having been replaced by his assistant, Ann Reilly, Q'ute. The novelised Licence to Kill story occurs before Win, Lose or Die
, wherein Bond is promoted to Captain (in the novelisation and the film, Bond is a Commander).
novel, besides the characters of Bond, M, and Miss Moneypenny. The movie does have a similar plot to the James Bond novel Zero Minus Ten
that was released 1997, the same year as the film. Both the movie and the novel deal with the villain who is hoping to trigger a war between China and Britain, but both do it through different means. In that novel, it is through a nuclear bombing of Hong Kong, while in the movie, the villain is using a "yellow journalism" tactic to start the war, but this is only done to boost the circulation of his newspaper.
Raymond Benson, then the incumbent author of the Bond continuation series, provided a novelization that fleshed out many elements of the film's plot, including the use of a secondary villain within the Chinese military who served as a willing participant in Carver's main scheme.
is known as the Bond family motto, mentioned in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The basis of the movie, a plot of nuclear disaster to aid terrorists was used in the non-Fleming novel Licence Renewed
. The kidnapping of M was featured in another non-Fleming novel, Colonel Sun
. Raymond Benson again provided a novelization of the screenplay.
is a vague 'rehash' of the plot of Moonraker. The movie also features a subplot about diamonds, which was extensively used in Diamonds Are Forever
. The movie also makes several references to older films in the film series as a 40th anniversary.
The subplot of James Bond going rogue, which was also featured in the films Licence to Kill
and Quantum of Solace was not featured in any novel. It is believed that the plot of Bond going rogue would have been featured in the novel Per Fine Ounce
. This novel was meant to be a continuation of the James Bond series after the death of Ian Fleming
. The name of the villain, Colonel Sun-Tan Moon, comes from the first Bond continuation novel, Colonel Sun
. The sub-plot of the agent in the service being a villain is a regularly used plot in the movies (see GoldenEye and Quantum of Solace) is taken from The Property of a Lady. Raymond Benson provided his final Bond novelization based on this screenplay, which marked the end of his involvement with the Bond literary series.
stays true to the original novel
but there are several significant changes. In the novel, Le Chiffre is a Russian agent who loses his clients' money after making a series of bad investments in brothels in France; in the film, Le Chiffre is manipulating the American stock exchange by sabotaging an airliner, and his plot fails because of Bond's direct intervention. In the novel, the casino sequences take place in the fictional French town of "Royale-les-Eaux" and the game played is Baccarat
whereas the film places the casino in Montenegro
and the game is Texas Hold 'Em
poker. The novel's infamous torture sequence involves Le Chiffre beating Bond's genitals with a carpet beater
in a villa in France, but for the film this was changed to a heavy length of knotted rope and takes place on a darkened boat. In the novel, Vesper commits suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills because of her guilt in betraying Bond; in the film, she kills herself by locking herself in an elevator that plunges into the waters of Venice so that the Quantum
organization cannot influence him. The Venice sequences were added to the film; they do not appear in the original novel. The novel features a scene where Bond reveals to Vesper the two kills he needed to gain his Double-Oh status, but the film shows the two kills as its pre-title sequence. The targets of Bond's kills and the reasons for their assassination differ between book and film. In addition, Bond and Vesper do not, in the novel share a room in the hotel, the room with the connecting bathroom shown in the film was originally from much later in the novel when Vesper takes Bond to a summer inn near Royale. Other points include a larger role for Mathis and Vesper and a smaller role for CIA agent Felix Leiter. A character in the film, Solange, shares a name with a character featured in the short story 007 in New York.
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
, and the later James Bond films, often differ in tone and detail, a trend which increased with each new movie production. The James Bond novels, written mainly in the 1950s and early 1960s, are generally darker, with relatively explicit violence and sex. They mirror the atmosphere of the Cold War by using the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as one of the main adversaries, especially in the first several novels. They depend on suspense, intrigue, ingenuity and dialog at least as much as action. While some clever devices are introduced, they do not reach the flamboyant extremes of some of the movie gimmicks.
The James Bond films
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
, starting in 1962 near the end of Ian Fleming's life, are generally lighter in tone, with more humour and somewhat more orientation toward family entertainment, while keeping considerable suspense and adding action and more ingenious weapons, devices and gimmicks. Soviet Communists are replaced as the main villains by a fictional criminal and terrorist organization, SPECTRE, which Fleming portrayed in later novels. The first film in the series, based on the sixth novel, Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
, was a box office success. It was followed by the film which many critics and fans alike still consider the best production, From Russia With Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
. With the huge popularity of the third film Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
in 1964, the James Bond films were set to become a part of popular culture and continue a long line of box office successes.
Although the first Bond films had much in common with the novels, later films increasingly departed from the books. As time passed, the titles, characters and a few events and locations alone tied the two presentations of the same story with many details and even key points of the plots diverging. Bond films had increasing numbers of gimmicks and modified dialog, which while clever and entertaining, departed from the novels. Some of the changes appear to have been based on advances in technology and changes in style in order to make the films appear more contemporary and up to date. Faithful depictions of the novels set in the time period in which they were written mostly would have appeared dated and less exciting. On the other hand, as more films were made, some of the suspense and intrigue of the novels seems to have been omitted in favour of big budget action. After all of the Ian Fleming novels, except Casino Royale which was originally filmed outside the James Bond movie franchise, were used in film productions, Fleming's short stories and elements of various books were used to write new screenplays. Some of the movies used material from John Gardner's newer series of James Bond novels. Some of the screenplays were almost totally new except for characters and a little background.
The 2006 film Casino Royale
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
has been considered a reboot
Reboot
Reboot can refer to:* Rebooting , an event sequence when restarting a computer* ReBoot, a Canadian CGI-animated television series* ReBoot , a video game based on the television series...
of the series since it cuts back on gimmicks and big action sequences and follows the plot and details of the novel more closely. The film is darker in tone, like the book. Since graphic violence and sex have become generally much more accepted in the movies since the 1960s, these aspects of the book and the film are far less controversial and less of a hindrance to attracting a wide audience than they would have been when the first films were released. There is some of that in this film. It does have some modern or updated touches and technologies. The plot and location of this novel lends itself to this type of treatment while it might be more difficult to make a similar production of some of the others which followed the plots more closely with only a modest amount of gimmickry, action and updating.
Dr. No
In 1962, Dr. NoDr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
was the first James Bond novel cinematically adapted by EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
. It introduced Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as the first actor to portray James Bond on the big screen; Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman was a Canadian theater and film actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, his role as Manny Weisbord on Crime Story, and his career on Broadway...
portrayed Dr. No.
Although the story follows the same general arc there are significant number of changes. Early in the movie, Bond meets Felix Leiter and Quarrel for the first time, and they are initially portrayed as potential threats. The book did not include Leiter at all, and anyway Bond already knew both him and Quarrel from prior novels. Sylvia Trench and Professor Dent were also added to the story. A key sequence in the film - Bond's execution of Dent - has no equivalent in the novel. Unless absolutely necessary, the literary Bond is incapable of killing in cold blood.
In the film Bond has a tarantula
Tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
planted in his bed, whereas in the novel it is a centipede
Centipede
Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
. Bond has a sexual encounter with one of Dr. No's operatives in the movie but not in the book. In the book, Honey first appears nude except for her knife belt; when Bond first sees her in the film, she is wearing a bikini
White bikini of Ursula Andress
The White bikini of Ursula Andress was a white bikini worn by Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in the 1962 James Bond film, Dr. No...
.
Dr. No's physical appearance and background change in the film. In the novel, No's hands were cut off by Tong hit men; in the film his hands were destroyed by radiation, and his island fortress is nuclear-powered. The specific method in which Dr. No is killed is also changed significantly: in the movie, the villain is drowned in reactor coolant rather than buried alive in guano as he was in the book. Furthermore, Dr. No in the movie is an operative of SPECTRE
SPECTRE
SPECTRE is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games...
rather than the Soviet Union. Fleming did not introduce SPECTRE until Thunderball in 1961.
In the book, after finally meeting Doctor No, Bond is forced to enter an obstacle course of torture, culminating with him fighting a giant squid. A highly similar sequence occurs in the movie, but the viewer is lead to think Bond is merely escaping through a ventilation shaft. Bond's fight with the squid is omitted entirely. Meanwhile, in the book Honey is staked out to be eaten by beach crabs; in the film, she is tied to drown in a water pool. Originally the crabs were going to be incorporated into this scene, but the crabs had all died by the time they made it to the set. In the book, Honey breaks free by her own devices, but in the movie Bond has to rescue her.
From Russia with Love
The cinematic From Russia, with LoveFrom Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
was released in 1963
1963 in film
The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
, produced by Albert R. Broccoli
Albert R. Broccoli
Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and EON Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the...
and Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
, and directed by Terence Young. It was the second James Bond film in the EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
series, and the second to star Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as the suave and sophisticated British Secret Service agent James Bond.
The main villains change from SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
(a division of Soviet Intelligence) to SPECTRE
SPECTRE
SPECTRE is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games...
(a fictional terrorist organisation), although SMERSH is mentioned once in dialogue by Tatiana. Rene Mathis (from Casino Royale) appeared briefly in the book, but not the movie. The story stayed true to the novel, except action sequences such as the boat chase and helicopter attack were added.
Much of the plot in either version revolves around the decoder device. In the original book, it is called a Spector decoder. This was changed to Lector for the film, most likely to avoid confusion with the SPECTRE terror organization.
Compared to the movie, the book spent a much longer time previewing Donovan 'Red' Grant (AKA Nash) and the Russian plot to kill Bond. This section of the book emphasised the constant scheming, distrust, and fear of execution prevalent among the Soviet leaders, a theme hinted at in the movie by Blofeld's tendency to punish failure with death.
Grant appears periodically throughout the movie unbeknownst to Bond, manipulating events and ensuring the Soviets do not kill Bond prematurely. In the book, this is not necessary since all of the villains are on the same team.
The gadgets involved in Bond and Grant's final encounter are also a bit different. Bond carries the enhanced attaché case in both versions, but in the book it is not booby trapped with tear gas. In the movie, Grant's concealed weapon is a garrotte wire/watch instead of a gun/book. At the end of the movie, Klebb accosts Bond in his hotel room, in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
; in the book, it is Bond who tracks down Klebb, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Goldfinger
Richard MaibaumRichard Maibaum
Richard Maibaum was an American film producer, playwright and screenwriter best known for his adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels....
, who wrote the previous films, returned to adapt the seventh James Bond novel, Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
. Maibaum fixed the novel's heavily criticised plot hole
Plot hole
A plot hole, or plothole, is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot, or constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot...
, where Goldfinger actually attempts to empty Fort Knox. In the film, Bond notes it would take twelve days for Goldfinger to steal the gold, before the villain reveals he actually intends to irradiate it with a Red Chinese atomic bomb
596 (nuclear test)
596 is the codename of the People's Republic of China's first nuclear weapons test, detonated on October 16, 1964 at the Lop Nur test site. It was a uranium-235 implosion fission device and had a yield of 22 kilotons...
. However, Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
disliked the first draft, and brought in Paul Dehn
Paul Dehn
Paul Dehn was a British screenwriter.-Biography and work:Dehn was born in 1912 in Manchester, England. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and attended Brasenose College, Oxford...
to revise it. Hamilton said Dehn "brought out the British side of things". Connery disliked his draft, so Maibaum returned. Wolf Mankowitz
Wolf Mankowitz
Cyril Wolf Mankowitz was an English writer, playwright and screenwriter of Russian Jewish descent.-Early life:...
, an un-credited screenwriter on Dr. No, suggested the scene where Oddjob puts his car into a car crusher
Car crusher
A car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict cars prior to transport for recycling.Car crushers are compactors and can be of two types: "pancake", where a scrap automobile is flattened by a huge descending hydraulically-powered plate, or the baling press type,...
to dispose of a dead body.
In the novel, Goldfinger's obsession with gold is more explicit; sexually so. Both his family name and his first name are related to gold ("Auric
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
" is an adjective pertaining to gold). He wears yellow briefs to suntan in, has a collection of yellow-jacketed pornographic books and can only find satisfaction in copulating with gold-painted women (apparently prostitutes), he travels in a gold plated car, employs a blonde secretary and even has a ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
cat (which is eaten by Oddjob for dinner after Bond uses it in a ruse). He employs Korean servants who are repeatedly referred to as "yellow-faced". (Despite Goldfinger's relations with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, they are from South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, not Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
North
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.) The film keeps the colour of the Rolls-Royce and secretary’s hair, but not the other explicit material, and adds other gold motifs (see film discussion
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
). A bit of Goldfinger's eulogy to gold ("I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.") is one of few dialogue lines from the novel to be kept relatively intact in the film, but Gert Fröbe
Gert Fröbe
Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz.-Life:Born in...
maintains the subtext of his character's fetish for the metal through expressions, such as when Bond distracts his putt with an ingot
Ingot
An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
, and when the villain is forced to turn away and leave Fort Knox's contents. Also, Bond drives an Aston Martin DB III
Aston Martin DB Mark III
The DB Mark III is a sports car sold by Aston Martin from 1957 through 1959. It was an evolution of the DB2/4 Mark II model it replaced, using an evolution of that car's W.O...
in the novel, but uses a newer gadget-laden DB5
Aston Martin DB5
The Aston Martin DB5 is a luxury grand tourer that was made by Aston Martin. Released in 1963, it was an evolution of the final series of DB4. The DB series was named honouring David Brown ....
in the film.
In the book, Pussy Galore is a lesbian gangster, representing an all-female syndicate called the "Cement Mixers." By the end of the book, Bond manages to convert her to heterosexuality. In the movie, she is Goldfinger's personal pilot and instructor of an all-female flight school. The movie does not explicitly comment on her sexual preferences, though she eventually falls for Bond. In the book, Tilly Masterson does not die until the Fort Knox scene, and is seemingly also a lesbian.
In the novel, explosive decompression of plane cabin causes Oddjob to be sucked through a broken window. After this, Goldfinger is strangled to death by Bond. In the film, it is Goldfinger who gets blown out of the plane. Oddjob has been killed earlier in Fort Knox vault by electrocution
Electrocution
Electrocution is a type of electric shock that, as determined by a stopped heart, can end life. Electrocution is frequently used to refer to any electric shock received but is technically incorrect; the choice of definition varies from dictionary to dictionary...
. Also, the novel ends with the plane crash-landing in the ocean from where Bond and Galore are rescued by a weather ship. The film's last scene shows Bond and Galore having landed safely by parachute on a forested hill.
In the novel, Bond admires how well Felix Leiter operates his car with a prosthetic
Prosthesis
In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control...
hook. Leiter was maimed by a shark in the earlier novel Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die (novel)
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, where the initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out. As with Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics...
and lost his arm and a leg. In the film series this happens later, in Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
. Thus Leiter is in one piece and still working for the CIA in Goldfinger.
Thunderball
In 1965, the ThunderballThunderball (film)
Thunderball is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham...
film was released. Most of it is adapted from the novel, changed mostly to incorporate unique gadgets. Story continuity is minor difference between the cinematic and the literary versions of Thunderball; SPECTRE was first featured in Thunderball but in the film series, it was briefly mentioned in Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
and From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
. Among the major sequences added to the film were the pre-title sequence involving the Bell rocket belt
Bell Rocket Belt
The Bell Rocket Belt is a low-power rocket propulsion device that allows an individual to safely travel or leap over small distances. It is a type of rocket pack.-Overview:...
, the Junkanoo
Junkanoo
Junkanoo is a street parade with music, which occurs in many towns across The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands every Boxing Day , New Year's Day and, more recently, in the summer on the island of Grand Bahama. The largest Junkanoo parade happens in Nassau, the capital...
parade, Bond's attempt to rescue Paula Caplan from Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...
, his lunch with Emilio Largo
Emilio Largo
Emilio Largo is a fictional character and the main antagonist from the James Bond novel Thunderball. In the novel he is depicted, according to the British stereotypes about Italians, as a large, heavyset, olive-skinned, powerful man exuding animal charm, with the profile of a Roman emperor, and...
, his infiltration of the SPECTRE team while recovering the atomic bombs, his rescue by Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter is a fictional CIA agent created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA and assists Bond in his various adventures as well as being his best friend. In further novels Leiter joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and in the film...
, and the conversion of the Disco Volante
Disco Volante
Disco Volante is a 1995 album by the band Mr. Bungle. It is by far the most experimental of all their productions, as it picks up inspirations from a wide variety of musical styles, including death metal, techno, '50s space age pop, musique concrète and Italian avant-garde...
from a luxury yacht to a high-speed hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
.
The female villain Fiona Volpe was added to the movie. Towards the start of both versions, Bond is in a health clinic where he encounters Count Lippe. However, the movie added a fanciful plotline in which Domino's brother is replaced with a trained and surgically-altered impersonator. In the book, Domino's brother was killed after he himself stole the warheads.
According to the books, there are only three "00" agents in the entire Secret Service. In the movie, Moneypenny exclaims that "every 00 man in Europe" has been called back, and M is shown briefing 8 or 9 agents. Bond asks to be reassigned from Canada to Nassau based solely on a photo of Domino & her brother. In the novel, it was M's decision to send him there, based on his analysis of the evidence.
In the book, Leiter and Bond's roles in the mission are much more equal than in the film. Furthermore, Leiter has a good reason not to be in the action scenes, since he was crippled in an earlier book. In the movie, Bond has encountered SPECTRE twice before, and Largo seems to immediately know he's an enemy. Nonetheless, Largo alternates between trying to kill Bond and acting as a gracious host. In the book, Bond and Largo's suspicions of each other build more gradually, and Largo has no obvious chance to kill Bond once his enmity is known. In the book, Largo does not have pet sharks or an eye-patch.
You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice was adapted into film starring Sean Connery, which was filmed in 1966, but not released until 1967. You Only Live Twice is the first Bond movie to greatly deviate from the source material. The plot of the film is sufficiently different to be a different story, though several details remain the same (such as location and the primary characters). More specifically, other than the JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese setting and some character names, the two stories are very different (among other things, the novel dealt with the aftermath of Blofeld's killing of Bond's wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which had yet to be adapted for film). Also, unlike most James Bond films featuring various locales around the world, almost the entire film is set in one country and several minutes are given over to an elaborate Japanese wedding. This is in keeping with Fleming's original novel, which also devoted a number of pages to the discussion of Japanese culture. A profound difference between the novel and film is that Bond kills Blofeld in the novel, while in the film the villain survives.
Blofeld's basic conspiracy is completely changed. In the movie, he uses a spacecraft to capture Soviet and American vessels, threatening to put the two nations at war. In the novel, he sets up a "garden of death" full of deadly plants and animals, tempting Japanese citizens to trespass and commit suicide. Blofeld's lair is changed from a castle within the garden to a hollowed-out volcano.
Diamonds Are Forever
In 1971, Diamonds Are ForeverDiamonds Are Forever (novel)
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of novels. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 26 March 1956 and the first print run of 12,500 copies sold out quickly...
was adapted into a film
Diamonds Are Forever (film)
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
starring Sean Connery as Bond. It is a loose adaptation of the novel, with the most notable difference being Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the primary villain, instead of the Spang brothers. While the book featured a straight-forward diamond smuggling plot, the film featured the diamonds being used in a laser satellite. Though many of the book's characters appear in the film (including Tiffany Case, Felix Leiter, Mr. Wint, Mr. Kidd and Shady Tree) they often have little in common with their literary counterparts besides their names.
The movie version adds in an opening credits sequence in which Bond is hunting down Blofeld, seeking clues as to his whereabouts from a variety of shady characters - this is most likely either intended as a sequel to Connery's previous Bond outing, You Only Live Twice, in which the villain escaped and he is now on his trail, or the film version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which Bond would understandably be seeking vengeance for his wife's murder.
The early parts of the film borrow most from the book. The steps in the smuggling pipeline are almost identical, as is the way Bond meets Tiffany and infiltrates the pipeline. At differing points, both versions feature an assassin going down the pipeline and killing people off, and both versions end with Wint and Kidd trying to assassinate Bond and Tiffany on a cruise ship. The movie makes a nod to the book's opening by prominently featuring a scorpion early on. However, in between, many of the film's most memorable twists - the millionaire recluse Willard Whyte, henchwomen Bambi and Thumper, Blofeld and his surgically-altered doubles - are completely new. The movie emphasizes Wint and Kidd's apparent homosexuality much more than the book did.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service was adapted into a filmOn Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the sixth spy film in the James Bond series, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Following the decision of Sean Connery to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon Productions selected an unknown actor and model, George Lazenby...
in 1969. Along with the first few Sean Connery films, this movie was extremely faithful to the book. The major difference is that it followed You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice (film)
You Only Live Twice is the fifth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name...
, thus extending the roles of Blofeld and Tracy. At the start of both versions, Bond and M strongly disagree about whether to keep hunting Blofeld, putting Bond on the verge of resigning. Surprisingly, however, their respective positions are reversed: in the book Bond thinks chasing Blofeld is futile and a waste of his 00 status; in the movie M wants to call the operation off for the same reasons. While the following background is not explicit in the movie, Bond's first scenes with Tracy occur at the Casino Royale, where he comes each year to visit Vesper Lynd's grave.
In both versions, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's compound on Piz Gloria by impersonating Sir Hillary Bray, a genealogist sent to certify Blofeld's title as Count. In the movie, this section is comedic instead of suspenseful. The movie omits the brutal execution of a SPECTRE agent, and eliminates Bond's forced betrayal of a friend and fellow agent ("Number 2" from Station Z). Knowing Number 2 will be tortured and blow Bond's cover, in the book Bond escapes pre-emptively. Conversely, in the movie Bond plays Bray as a stereotypical pompous noble, rather than sticking close to his true personality. Bond is captured due to his own mistakes, and escapes after Blofeld brags to him about his plan.
In both versions, Blofeld plans to commit biological warfare, hypnotizing his female patients to distribute crop and livestock-destroying agents. However, in the movie Blofeld's threat was extended from the United Kingdom to the entire world. In the book, it seems the Soviets are paying him to complete the operation, while in the movie Blofeld is trying to extort the British into recognizing his title. In the movie, before Bond comes back to raid Piz Gloria, Blofeld abducts Tracy, raising the stakes for their final battle.
Sequences conceived specifically for the movie include Bond's safecracking in the office of Blofeld's lawyer and a stock-car chase.
This was the first book written after the movies had begun, and contains two references to that effect: 1) In a seeming reference to Connery, Bond is given Scottish descent for the first time; 2) on Piz Gloria, Fraulein Bunt points out a number of famous guests, including Ursula Andress (who starred in "Doctor No").
Live and Let Die
Live and Let DieLive and Let Die (film)
Live and Let Die is the eighth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman...
, a film based loosely on the novel
Live and Let Die (novel)
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, where the initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out. As with Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics...
, was released in 1973
1973 in film
The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
. The film was directed by Guy Hamilton
Guy Hamilton
Guy Hamilton is an English film director.Hamilton was born in Paris, France where his English parents were living. Remaining in France during the Nazi occupation, he was active in the French Resistance...
, produced by Albert R. Broccoli
Albert R. Broccoli
Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and EON Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the...
and Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
and starred Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
in his first outing as the secret agent. In the film, a drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tonnes of heroin free so as to put rival drug barons out of business. Bond is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to Mr. Big's scheme.
The characters as portrayed in the film differ from Fleming's descriptions. Mr. Big's real name in the movie is Dr. Kananga instead of Buonaparte Ignace Gallia, and he smuggles heroin instead of gold coins from Bloody Morgan's treasure. In the novel, Baron Samedi was only a voodoo myth – people believed Mr. Big was actually Baron Samedi or perhaps his zombie. Solitaire's real name is revealed in the novel, she does not lose her virginity to Bond until after the actual events in the novel, and there is no evidence that she risks losing her psychic powers by having sex. Also, in the novel she uses regular playing cards.
Some scenes from this novel were depicted in subsequent Bond movies; for example, the keelhauling sequence was later used in the film adaptation of For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only (film)
For Your Eyes Only is the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It marked the directorial debut of John Glen, who had worked as editor and second unit director in three other Bond films. The screenplay by Richard Maibaum...
, and Felix Leiter was not fed to a shark until Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
, which also faithfully adapts this novel's shootout in the warehouse.
The Man with the Golden Gun
In 1974, EON ProductionsEON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
made a film
The Man with the Golden Gun (film)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth spy film in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
based on The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
. The film version has little to do with the novel, except character names and other minor details. In the film, Scaramanga is attempting to assassinate Bond, whereas in the novel, the villain is unaware of who Bond is at all. In the film, Mary Goodnight is kidnapped, and also provides comic relief. Scaramanga's domicile changed from Cuba to China. Accordingly, the character of Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter is a fictional CIA agent created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA and assists Bond in his various adventures as well as being his best friend. In further novels Leiter joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and in the film...
was excluded while Nick-Nack, Andrea Anders and Hai Fat were added. Bond's attempt to kill M at the novel's beginning was excluded from the film. Also, the film's story has nothing to do with the sugar industry as in the novel but features a plot about solar lasers and circuitry as the villain's main agenda. In the film, Scaramanga fired a special gold plated gun which broke down into a pen, cigarette case, lighter and cuff link. This gun fired 4.2mm (slightly smaller than .17 calibre), solid gold bullets. Also in the novel, Bond has been programmed to kill M but fails.
The Spy Who Loved Me
In 1977, the title The Spy Who Loved Me was used for the tenth filmThe Spy Who Loved Me (film)
The Spy Who Loved Me is a spy film, the tenth film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum...
in the EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
series. It was the third to star Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. Per Ian Fleming's wish the only elements from the novel that are used in the film are the character of James Bond (along with his MI6 associates) and the title. The story, all locations and all other characters are different, though the mobster henchmen, "Sluggsy" (a short, stocky, thug with a disease that prevents hair growth) and "Horror" (a tall, gaunt thug with steel capped teeth) serve as inspiration for the movie henchmen "Sandor" (a short, stocky, bald thug) and "Jaws" (a giant, super strong thug with steel teeth). The metal teeth, especially, were thought quirky enough to be worth keeping by film producer Cubby Broccoli. Some elements from the book were used in other films, as well. For example, in Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
, Bond uses a pillow trick to make it appear he is asleep. The film was novelised the same year by screenwriter Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood (writer)
Christopher Wood is an English screenwriter and novelist best known under the pseudonym 'Timothy Lea' for the Confessions series of novels and films. Under his own name, he adapted two James Bond novels for the screen: The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker .Wood has written many novels...
and the resulting book was the first novelisation of a Bond film. To avoid confusion with Fleming's novel, the book was named James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me is the official novelisation of the EON film, The Spy Who Loved Me.-Background:When Ian Fleming sold the film rights to the James Bond novels to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, he only gave permission for the title The Spy Who Loved Me to be used...
.
Moonraker
Moonraker was used as the title for the eleventh James Bond filmMoonraker (film)
Moonraker is the eleventh spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Clery, and Richard Kiel...
, produced by EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
and released in 1979. Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:He was the son of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, and watching the shows from the side of the stage. He first performed on-stage at the age of 5, when asked to drive a...
and produced by Albert R. Broccoli
Albert R. Broccoli
Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and EON Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the...
, the film featured Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
in his fourth appearance as Bond. As 1950s era nuclear missile technology was no longer relevant, however, the plot of the film was updated to focus on the new US space shuttle program and the story was completely re-written. Other than the Bond character (together with some of his MI6 associates) and the title, very few elements from the book survived into the film version. Most prominently, the character of Hugo Drax
Hugo Drax
Sir Hugo Drax is a fictional character created by author Ian Fleming for the James Bond novel Moonraker. Fleming named him after his friend, Sir Reginald Drax. For the later film and its novelization, Drax was largely transformed by screenwriter Christopher Wood. In the film, Drax is portrayed by...
was retained as the villain, but he was changed from a British industrial metallurgist and missile designer to an American aerospace industrialist. The principal Bond girl is retained as an undercover agent working within the Drax operation, but her name is changed from Gala Brand (a Scotland Yard
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
agent working as Personal Assistant for Drax) to Holly Goodhead (a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent working as an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
for Drax). As in the novel, the film starts out with Bond collecting evidence from the Drax mansion (on the Moonraker project site) and retains a scene where Bond and Goodhead are imprisoned beneath rocket exhaust nozzles to be incinerated upon launch (though the details of both elements are significantly changed). Also, the Nazi inspired element of Drax's motivation in the novel is indirectly preserved with the "master race" theme of the movie plot. It is widely believed that Broccoli had decided to take advantage of the success of the film Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
and accordingly, the plot of Moonraker was modified so as to involve outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
. Since the screenplay was original, EON Productions and Glidrose Publications authorized the film's screenwriter, Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood (writer)
Christopher Wood is an English screenwriter and novelist best known under the pseudonym 'Timothy Lea' for the Confessions series of novels and films. Under his own name, he adapted two James Bond novels for the screen: The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker .Wood has written many novels...
to write his second novelization based upon the film. It was titled James Bond and Moonraker, and became a best-seller in 1979. Several elements of Moonraker were seen in other Bond films. Drax's warning to Bond to spend the prize money quickly after being defeated in a gamble was quoted in the 1983 film Octopussy
Octopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
. The 2002 film Die Another Day
Die Another Day
Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale...
used some of the novel's content, such as the Blades club. According to actress Rosamund Pike
Rosamund Pike
Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike is a British actress. Her film roles include villainous Bond girl Miranda Frost in Die Another Day, Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Helen in An Education, Lisa in Made in Dagenham, Miriam Grant-Panofsky in Barney's Version and Kate Sumner in Johnny English...
, speaking for the DVD commentary of Die Another Day
Die Another Day
Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale...
, her villain character in that film, Miranda Frost, was originally to have been named Gala Brand, the name of the Bond girl in this novel.
For Your Eyes Only
The title story of the collection lent its name to the 12th EON James Bond film in the EON ProductionsEON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
series, For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only (film)
For Your Eyes Only is the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It marked the directorial debut of John Glen, who had worked as editor and second unit director in three other Bond films. The screenplay by Richard Maibaum...
. Released in 1981
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
, it was the fifth film to star Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as the British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond and moved the title "Ian Fleming's" from above the title to above "James Bond 007" for the second time in the last three films. The film used some obvious elements and characters from the short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico" from this collection as well as elements from other Fleming novels. Some slightly similar ideas from the remaining short stories, "Quantum of Solace" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" might also be considered to have been incorporated into the movie of the same name, though in very oblique fashion.
In order to blend the plots of the two short stories, several changes were made for the film. Since the film is set in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, closer to the location of "Risico" than to that of "For Your Eyes Only" and a location featured in Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun , by Kingsley Amis, is the first James Bond continuation novel published after Ian Fleming's death in 1964; Glidrose Productions used the collective pseudonym "Robert Markham", for British novelist Kingsley Amis, with the intent of so publishing other novels by different writers...
, the Havelocks were changed from being Jamaican, as in the short story, to an Anglo-Greek couple (Mr. Havelock being English and Mrs. Havelock being Greek). Havelock's daughter, "Judy," was also renamed "Melina" in the film, the Greek word for honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
(a reference to the first screen
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
Bond girl
Bond girl
A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...
's name). The film also contains elements from several Ian Fleming stories: The warring smuggler characters Kristatos and Columbo come from "Risico". The keelhauling sequence comes from the novel Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die (novel)
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, where the initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out. As with Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics...
, a scene unused in the previous film adaptation. The Identigraph comes from the novel Goldfinger, where it was originally called the "Identicast". The film's opening, with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife, refers to both the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the sixth spy film in the James Bond series, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Following the decision of Sean Connery to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon Productions selected an unknown actor and model, George Lazenby...
and a scene in the novel where it is revealed that 007 visits annually the grave of Vesper Lynd
Vesper Lynd
Vesper Lynd is a fictional character featured in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Casino Royale. The name is a pun on "West Berlin". It has been claimed that Fleming based Lynd on the real life Special Operations Executive agent Christine Granville. In the 1967 film of Casino Royale, she is played by...
(from Casino Royale
Casino Royale (novel)
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....
).
Octopussy
OctopussyOctopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
(1983), starring Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as James Bond, was the thirteenth film in the EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
series. The original "Octopussy
Octopussy and The Living Daylights
Octopussy and The Living Daylights is the fourteenth and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series...
" short story provided the back story for the film Octopussy's
Octopussy (character)
Octopussy is a fictional character in the James Bond film of the same name. She is played by the Swedish actress Maud Adams.-Biography:...
family, while "The Property of a Lady" was more closely adapted for the Fabergé egg
Fabergé egg
A Fabergé egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide...
auction sequence at Sotheby's.
The plot element of a double agent within the Secret Service was later referenced with the character of Miranda Frost in Die Another Day
Die Another Day
Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale...
as well as M's traitorous bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, in 2008's Quantum of Solace.
One notes that the phrase, "property of a lady", occurs in the cinematic version of Octopussy: early in the story, when James attends an auction at which he intends to outbid Prince Kamal Khan for the Fabergé egg, the auctioneer identifies the provenance of said egg as, "Property of a lady."
A View to a Kill
Although A View to a KillA View to a Kill
A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
is adapted from Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the third Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me
The Spy Who Loved Me (film)
The Spy Who Loved Me is a spy film, the tenth film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum...
and Octopussy
Octopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
to have an entirely original screenplay. No characters from the original short story appear in the film. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin
Max Zorin
Max Zorin is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. He was portrayed by Academy Award winner Christopher Walken...
, who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. Some reviewers have noted parallels in the plot and villain to those of Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
. In addition, the John Gardner
John Gardner
John Champlin Gardner, Jr. was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is perhaps most noted for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view....
Bond novel, Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed , first published in 1981, is the first novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was the first proper James Bond novel since Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun in 1968...
(1981) includes a sequence in which Bond's mission takes him to a high-class horse race where a villain is cheating; a similar event occurs in this 1985 film. The climax of the movie is similar to that of Role of Honour
Role of Honour
Role of Honour , first published in 1984, was the fourth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond...
.
The Living Daylights
The Living DaylightsOctopussy and The Living Daylights
Octopussy and The Living Daylights is the fourteenth and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series...
was later adapted as the fifteenth film
The Living Daylights
The Living Daylights is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent 007. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story, "The Living Daylights"...
(1987) and starred Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
in his first appearance as Bond.
At a time when the films often shared no more than the title, the major recurring characters, and some character names with the book, the plot of "The Living Daylights" was used almost untouched in the film of the same name, setting up the rest of the film. Bond finishes the segment with the same words as his literary counterpart; "I must have scared the living daylights out of her". The character of Trigger is changed from a professional sniper to that of cello player Kara Milovy
Kara Milovy
Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d'Abo, is a fictional character in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights.-Film biography:Bond has been informed that General Georgi Koskov is willing to defect from the Russians. As Koskov runs across the road to meet Bond, 007 spots a sniper, whom he...
. The antagonist
Brad Whitaker
Brad Whitaker is a fictional character and a major antagonist in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. He was portrayed by American actor Joe Don Baker. Baker also played Jack Wade, Bond's CIA contact in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies....
of the film has a weapon obsession, much like the villain in the novel Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed , first published in 1981, is the first novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was the first proper James Bond novel since Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun in 1968...
.
Licence to Kill
Plot elements from "Live And Let Die" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" were incorporated in the 16th Bond film, Licence to KillLicence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
(1989). There is one oblique connection between the short story and the For Your Eyes Only film, as both feature yachtsman antagonists and involve underwater diving. Later, Milton Krest (with his wife-beating tendencies (with a stingray
Stingray
The stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes, and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae , Plesiobatidae , Urolophidae , Urotrygonidae , Dasyatidae , Potamotrygonidae The...
-tail whip) transferred to the film's main villain
Franz Sanchez
Franz Sanchez is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. He was played by Robert Davi. The character is based on Pablo Escobar...
), his "foundation", the "Wavekrest" and "the corrector" all were incorporated into Licence to Kill.
The novelisation of the Licence to Kill screenplay was the first since Moonraker
Moonraker (film)
Moonraker is the eleventh spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Clery, and Richard Kiel...
in 1979. Then-current Bond series novelist John Gardner novelised the Michael G. Wilson-Richard Maibaum screenplay — a great challenge, because his stories follow Fleming's continuity (albeit updated); Felix Leiter already had lost an arm and a leg to a shark in the Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die (novel)
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, where the initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out. As with Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics...
novel, an incident recycled in Licence to Kill. Resultantly, in the chapter "Lightning Sometimes Strikes Twice", the novelisation requires reader acceptance of Bond dealing with Leiter's twice being maimed by a shark; however, Gardner does not attempt to reconcile the presence of Milton Krest, (who was murdered in The Hildebrand Rarity short story).
The relatively faithful novelisation adds detail to resolve some issues around the film's more fantastic elements, notably explaining the unrealistic behaviour of the 'Stinger missiles' on-screen. It also differs from the script in places: (i) Bond uses a Walther P38K, not a Walther PPK
Walther PPK
The Walther PP series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols.They feature an exposed hammer, a double-action trigger mechanism, a single-column magazine, and a fixed barrel which also acts as the guide rod for the recoil spring...
(as in the film), because SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
had replaced it, a fact in Gardner's Bond novels; (ii) Q
Q (James Bond)
Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q , like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch , the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service...
has an extra scene (occurring while Bond is at Sánchez's Olimpatec Meditation Institute), wherein he joins a police captain in raiding Sánchez's house. Although he then had written eight Bond novels, the novelisation was Gardner's first work featuring Q; before Licence to Kill, Q was heard of, not seen in his novels, having been replaced by his assistant, Ann Reilly, Q'ute. The novelised Licence to Kill story occurs before Win, Lose or Die
Win, Lose or Die
Win, Lose or Die, first published in 1989, was the eighth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.Beginning with this...
, wherein Bond is promoted to Captain (in the novelisation and the film, Bond is a Commander).
GoldenEye
GoldenEye has a villain who was also a member of MI6, which was similar to the short story The Property of a Lady. John Gardner provided a relatively faithful adaptation novel of the GoldenEye story, including it within the continuity of his own series of Bond adventures, including references to two of the last three novels he wrote.Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies has no connection to any Ian FlemingIan Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
novel, besides the characters of Bond, M, and Miss Moneypenny. The movie does have a similar plot to the James Bond novel Zero Minus Ten
Zero Minus Ten
Zero Minus Ten, published in 1997, is the first novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's James Bond following John Gardner's departure in 1996...
that was released 1997, the same year as the film. Both the movie and the novel deal with the villain who is hoping to trigger a war between China and Britain, but both do it through different means. In that novel, it is through a nuclear bombing of Hong Kong, while in the movie, the villain is using a "yellow journalism" tactic to start the war, but this is only done to boost the circulation of his newspaper.
Raymond Benson, then the incumbent author of the Bond continuation series, provided a novelization that fleshed out many elements of the film's plot, including the use of a secondary villain within the Chinese military who served as a willing participant in Carver's main scheme.
The World is Not Enough
The title of the movieThe World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond film series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It...
is known as the Bond family motto, mentioned in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The basis of the movie, a plot of nuclear disaster to aid terrorists was used in the non-Fleming novel Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed
Licence Renewed , first published in 1981, is the first novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was the first proper James Bond novel since Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun in 1968...
. The kidnapping of M was featured in another non-Fleming novel, Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun , by Kingsley Amis, is the first James Bond continuation novel published after Ian Fleming's death in 1964; Glidrose Productions used the collective pseudonym "Robert Markham", for British novelist Kingsley Amis, with the intent of so publishing other novels by different writers...
. Raymond Benson again provided a novelization of the screenplay.
Die Another Day
Die Another DayDie Another Day
Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale...
is a vague 'rehash' of the plot of Moonraker. The movie also features a subplot about diamonds, which was extensively used in Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of novels. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 26 March 1956 and the first print run of 12,500 copies sold out quickly...
. The movie also makes several references to older films in the film series as a 40th anniversary.
The subplot of James Bond going rogue, which was also featured in the films Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
and Quantum of Solace was not featured in any novel. It is believed that the plot of Bond going rogue would have been featured in the novel Per Fine Ounce
Per Fine Ounce
Per Fine Ounce is the title of an unpublished novel by Geoffrey Jenkins featuring Ian Fleming's James Bond. It was completed circa 1966 and is considered a "lost" novel by fans of James Bond because it was actually commissioned by Glidrose Productions, the official publishers of James Bond...
. This novel was meant to be a continuation of the James Bond series after the death of Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
. The name of the villain, Colonel Sun-Tan Moon, comes from the first Bond continuation novel, Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun
Colonel Sun , by Kingsley Amis, is the first James Bond continuation novel published after Ian Fleming's death in 1964; Glidrose Productions used the collective pseudonym "Robert Markham", for British novelist Kingsley Amis, with the intent of so publishing other novels by different writers...
. The sub-plot of the agent in the service being a villain is a regularly used plot in the movies (see GoldenEye and Quantum of Solace) is taken from The Property of a Lady. Raymond Benson provided his final Bond novelization based on this screenplay, which marked the end of his involvement with the Bond literary series.
Casino Royale
Overall, the filmCasino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
stays true to the original novel
Casino Royale (novel)
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....
but there are several significant changes. In the novel, Le Chiffre is a Russian agent who loses his clients' money after making a series of bad investments in brothels in France; in the film, Le Chiffre is manipulating the American stock exchange by sabotaging an airliner, and his plot fails because of Bond's direct intervention. In the novel, the casino sequences take place in the fictional French town of "Royale-les-Eaux" and the game played is Baccarat
Baccarat
Baccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...
whereas the film places the casino in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and the game is Texas Hold 'Em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
poker. The novel's infamous torture sequence involves Le Chiffre beating Bond's genitals with a carpet beater
Carpet beater
A carpet beater or carpetbeater is a housecleaning tool that was in common...
in a villa in France, but for the film this was changed to a heavy length of knotted rope and takes place on a darkened boat. In the novel, Vesper commits suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills because of her guilt in betraying Bond; in the film, she kills herself by locking herself in an elevator that plunges into the waters of Venice so that the Quantum
Quantum (James Bond)
Quantum is a fictional criminal organization, featured as the antagonists in the James Bond films Casino Royale, and its sequel, Quantum of Solace. The organization prefers to remain in the shadows, and is known to contract third parties to avoid implicating itself...
organization cannot influence him. The Venice sequences were added to the film; they do not appear in the original novel. The novel features a scene where Bond reveals to Vesper the two kills he needed to gain his Double-Oh status, but the film shows the two kills as its pre-title sequence. The targets of Bond's kills and the reasons for their assassination differ between book and film. In addition, Bond and Vesper do not, in the novel share a room in the hotel, the room with the connecting bathroom shown in the film was originally from much later in the novel when Vesper takes Bond to a summer inn near Royale. Other points include a larger role for Mathis and Vesper and a smaller role for CIA agent Felix Leiter. A character in the film, Solange, shares a name with a character featured in the short story 007 in New York.