This is a Bond who needs naps. A Bond who struggles to pull himself up a rope. A Bond who relies on wit and cunning rather than raw physical dominance. When he fights the massive, silent henchman Lippe (Pat Roach) in a kitchen, he wins not by karate chops, but by encasing the man’s leg in concrete and jamming a parsnip into his neck.
Instead, composer (famous for The Thomas Crown Affair and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg ) produced a lush, jazz-infused, romantic score. It is beautiful, sophisticated, and feels utterly wrong for James Bond. The main title song, sung by Lani Hall (wife of Herb Alpert), is a soft-rock ballad with no punch. The lack of the signature brass stabs makes the action sequences feel oddly quiet. For many fans, this is the film’s single greatest sin. The Box Office Verdict: Who Won the 1983 War? When Never Say Never Again finally opened in October 1983 (a month after Octopussy ), the press went into a frenzy. It was Bond vs. Bond. Roger Moore vs. Sean Connery. The official franchise vs. the outlaw. Never Say Never Again -James Bond 007-
The plot follows the classic SPECTRE playbook: The terrorist organization, led by the grotesque and lobotomized (played with theatrical menace by Max von Sydow), steals two nuclear warheads. They demand an impossible ransom from NATO, threatening to obliterate a major city. An aging James Bond (Connery), initially relegated to a remedial physical training course (more on that later), is reactivated to track the bombs down. This is a Bond who needs naps
The film is a time capsule of ego, legal absurdity, and creative risk. It is not a great Bond film. It is arguably not even a good Bond film by the standards of Goldfinger or Casino Royale . But it is a fascinating Bond film. When he fights the massive, silent henchman Lippe
Released in 1983, this James Bond 007 vehicle is not just another entry in the official canon. It is the other Bond film. Produced outside the traditional control of Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, it marked the triumphant return of the original James Bond, , after a 12-year absence. But to understand the chaotic energy, the salty dialogue, and the unique legacy of Never Say Never Again , you have to look beyond the screen and into the boardroom, the courtroom, and the ego of the man who started it all. The War of the Bonds: Why 1983 Had Two 007s To appreciate Never Say Never Again , one must first understand the bizarre landscape of 1983. For over two decades, EON Productions had a stranglehold on Ian Fleming’s creation. However, a decades-old legal quirk involving the novel Thunderball (1961) created a crack in the armor.
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