Tag: Octopussy

Octopussy‘s hot air balloon raid into Kamal Khan’s fortress stands as one of the most bizarre and uninspired action sequences of any Bond movie. Starring elephants, generically tame fistfights, swords and a weird man that yells and breaks down the… Read More →

This is one of those baffling editorial choices that refuses to justify itself. In Octopussy, as Roger Moore’s Bond swings on vines through the jungle evading Khan’s men, the added Tarzan yell turns what should be a tense escape into… Read More →

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Rita Coolidge’s theme All Time High for Octopussy, but I’ve always wondered what a theme would be like using the unique (and vulgar?) title in the lyrics. Thanks to generative AI, we can do… Read More →

The death of General Orlov in Octopussy brings a fitting end to one of the most complex plots of any Bond movie. In short, his plan to detonate a nuclear device on a U.S. base in West Germany is designed… Read More →

M’s warning to Bond in Octopussy underscores how deeply the Cold War shaped Bond movies’ dramatic stakes. Set against the Cold War tension between United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, Bond movies often relied on plausible deniability as a narrative… Read More →

This exasperated line from Q in Octopussy shows how fed up he can get with Bond’s inattentiveness and mischief during equipment briefings. Q openly scolds Bond for behaving like a schoolboy and gives major “headmaster restoring order to an unruly… Read More →

Vijay’s death in Octopussy is one of the movie’s most jarring creative choices. As Bond’s local MI6 contact in India, Vijay’s levity and upbeat demeanor complement Roger Moore’s lighter interpretation of 007. Their dynamic adds texture to Bond’s time on… Read More →

Kamal Khan in Octopussy is a deliberate blend of Bond villain archetypes. He displays a cultivated elegance at dinner with Bond and Magda with this comment on the souffle and is obsessed with rare antiquities. This echoes other refined villains… Read More →

Bond’s exchange with Moneypenny in Octopussy lands with an odd mix of nostalgia and discomfort, largely because of the sudden introduction of her younger assistant, Penelope Smallbone. Bond, momentarily wrong-footed, compliments Smallbone as being every bit as “attractive and charming”… Read More →