Bond joins Leiter and a very nervous Quarrel at the dock and
they head off in the boat. After a bit of sailing, they get close to the island,
and Bond and Quarrel head on in a rowing boat small enough to not show up on
radar. Leiter returns to the mainland, Bond telling him to send in the Marines
if they don’t return from Crab Key within twelve hours. Quarrel, meanwhile, is
dealing with his nerves the good old-fashioned way: with copious amounts of
rum. They land on the island and stash the boat under some cover. The plan is
to get some sleep before commencing the investigation the following morning.
Bond chooses to sleep further up the beach, leaving Quarrel alone with his rum.
The following morning, Bond wakes up and finds himself in
one of the most iconic scenes in the history of film.
Someone is singing. Bond wakens and looks down the beach to
see a beautiful woman emerging from the waves in a white bikini.
She’s got lovely shells, doesn’t she? Bond startles her by
joining in the singing. He then approaches the girl, who asks:
“What are you doing here? Looking for shells?”
And Bond replies:
“No, I’m just looking.”
Bond steps towards her, and in a flash, Honey whips out a
knife. She means business.
“I assure you, my intentions are strictly honourable,” Bond
tells her. Sure they are Bond, sure they are. You are never anything but
honourable when interacting with women. Honey, however, is placated, and
sheathes the blade. She washes the shells, still watching Bond warily. They
begin walking along the beach. Bond asks her name, and she tells him:
“Ryder.”
“Ryder what?”
“Honey Ryder.”
Bond asks Honey if she
used the sail on her boat to get to the island. She reassures him that the
guards know she comes to the island, but have given up trying to catch her.
Bond knows differently, however; this time, they will be sure to hunt down any
and all intruders. Bond tells her to hurry up and not worry about the shells,
but Honey won’t let them go so easily. The shells are actually quite valuable,
and although it’s somewhat glossed over, this is actually how Honey earns her livelihood;
it’s not just a hobby.
At this point, Quarrel runs up. Honey goes for her knife,
but Bond assures her that he’s on their side. Quarrel hears something in the
distance. Bond listens, and identifies it as a high-powered boat coming towards
them.
Everyone takes cover behind a sandbank, Quarrel at one end,
Bond and Honey at the other. A boat comes into view. A guy with a megaphone
tells them to come out, otherwise they’ll open fire on them. Everyone stays
put. True to their word, the guards then start shooting at the beach with a
mounted machine gun.
After a bit, the guards realise they aren’t getting
anywhere. They stop shooting, and the guy with the megaphone calls out that
they will be returning with dogs. They depart, leaving Bond and Honey shaken
but not stirred.
Quarrel, meanwhile, is in danger of being savaged by a crab,
and dashes up the beach to join the others as soon as the coast is clear. At
this point, Honey states that she also believes in the existence of the
supposed dragon; in fact, she has seen it.
“He had two great, glaring eyes; short tail and pointed
wings; and was breathing fire.”
Well, that certainly sounds like a dragon. Bond tries
to tell the two of them that dragons are fictional, but Honey has her doubts.
Bond changes the subject and tells Honey she needs to leave the island
immediately. She refuses to go in daylight, but Bond is having none of that. He
practically drags her down the beach to her boat, only to find that the machine
gun has actually done some damage after all: her boat has been ruined. Bond
seems irked that they now have to bring Honey along, but she immediately proves
herself useful by offering to show them a good hiding place. And so they leave
the beach and move inland, towards the heart of the island.
They make their way along a river (as in, actually wading
through the water). Bond asks why they have to do this; Honey tells him it’ll
throw the guard dogs off the scent. Bond gets further irritated by mosquito
bites, and Honey has a solution for that too: rubbing water on yourself, which
washes away the sweat that the mosquitos are attracted to. She then helpfully
rubs some on Bond. Of course.
Quarrel runs up to warn them that guards are coming, with
dogs as they promised. Uh oh! Don’t worry, though, Bond has a cunning plan to
hide from them.
Yes, he uses Honey’s knife to cut some reeds to breathe
through. They all hide under the water. The guards pass by without finding them.
Relieved, Bond surfaces, only to see a lone guard following some distance
behind the others, obviously to catch them when they assume they’re safe and
come out of cover. The three of them take cover again. As the guard passes,
Bond, wielding Honey’s knife, sneak up behind him and kills him.
Understandably, Honey is horrified, but Bond tells her he
had to do it. They continue up the river, passing a sign that says “DANGER. Do
not pass this point.” Well, this is all very dark and sinister. How about
something nice for a change? How about, say, Sean Connery shirtless and Ursula
Andress in a wet shirt?
Perfect! The moment is short-lived, however, as Quarrel runs
up (this seems to be Quarrel’s primary function) and tells them he’s found
something. They go over to have a look and Honey informs them that they’re
dragon tracks! Bond is sceptical, especially since the tracks look more like tyre
treads, and dragons are not known for having wheels. Quarrel elects to keep
watch while the other two get some rest.
We now get a nice little scene where Bond and Honey sit and
talk, in the process filling in some of Honey’s backstory and fleshing her
character out. She had previously lived all over the world, earning money by
collecting shells. She also has educated herself by reading an encyclopaedia.
She tells Bond that she’s pretty sure Doctor No was responsible for the death
of her father, leaving her with no one to look after her. A man in Kingston did
help her out for a bit, but one night he crept into her room and raped her.
Honey, however, proves herself to be not as naïve as she seems: after the
incident, she got her revenge on her rapist by slipping a Black Widow spider
into his bed, giving him a very painful death. Bond looks somewhat unsettled;
he’s probably remembering his own recent encounter with a spider.
Honey asks Bond if he has “a woman of his own”. Bond
hesitates, long enough for Quarrel to, you guessed it, run up and tell them
that he hears something in the distance – probably the dragon. Bond is
determined to see the thing for himself, so they all head back to the beach.
It’s dark by the time they get there. Suddenly, a voice calls out, telling them
to stay where they are, and something nightmarish moves towards them.
Okay, it looks pretty intimidating, with its glowing eyes
and jets of fire, but it’s obvious what the “dragon” really is: a tank, dressed
up to look like the mythical beast and scare people off. Bond, of course, isn’t
going to run away. He tells Honey to stay behind, while he and Quarrel try to
disable the tank with their pistols. I bet this goes well.
Bond and Quarrel take cover. They begin firing at the
vehicle, but their shots don’t seem to be having any effect (possibly because
it’s a fucking tank). Quarrel sees the dragon closing in on him, and is
paralysed with fear, causing him to hesitate too long. The tank lets loose
another jet of flame at him, and, with a horrible scream, Quarrel comes to a
blazing end.
Seeing that the situation is hopeless, Bond surrenders.
Guards emerge from the tank and handcuff him. Bond moves towards his fallen
comrade’s body, to pay his last respects, but the guards deny him (and Quarrel)
even that. One of them grabs Honey, who tries to resist. Bond moves to help her,
but is promptly whacked over the head and carried into the tank.
The tank carries them
into the bauxite mine. Bond and Honey are escorted into a large room where
everyone is wearing radiation suits. The pair of them are scanned, and found to
have picked up some radiation. They are hosed down by the guards in a moment
that most certainly should not be seen out of context:
After the hosing, they’re still reading radioactive. The
guards conclude that it must have seeped into their clothes. Solution? Get them
to strip down and shower! But of course. At least it’s not just the girl for
once, Bond strips as well, providing fanservice for every taste.
Out of the shower, they are given bath robes, and Bond seems
to have found time to do his hair as well. Another quick scan, and they are
deemed clean. They’re sent through a door, and things take a turn for the
bizarre. They walk into what looks for all the world like the reception area to
a hotel, or private clinic. They are greeted by Sisters Rose and Lily, who are
beaming, calling them “dear” and generally acting like staff in a nursing home.
This is very disconcerting, and Bond and Honey don’t know what to make of it.
They are shown to their rooms, and provided with food, clothes, basically
anything they want (apart from being allowed to leave, of course).
I must say, it’s a rather clever strategy on the part of
Doctor No; by confusing and unsettling the enemy like this, he’s knocked them
off-balance and disorientated them, ensuring that he is in control of the situation.
As Bond villains go, No is one of the cleverer and more sinister ones. Note
that we are now almost an hour and a half into the film, and we have yet to
actually see him. However, we have felt his presence throughout the film, and
it’s the fact that we haven’t seen him that adds to his status as memorable
villain. The same principle is used in the best horror films: tease the
audience with the monster, without showing it, for the first three quarters of
the film, allowing their minds to run wild and establish the monster as more of
a force of nature than an entity. In this way, Doctor No stands out as one of
the great Bond villains, even though he’s only technically in the last twenty
minutes of the film.
Okay, back on track. After the creepy nurse departs, Bond
does a quick check and realises that there are no windows, nor are there
handles on the doors. They’re trapped, in a mink-lined prison. Bond suspects
that the room is probably bugged as well. He pours himself and Honey a cup of coffee.
They sit on the sofa and drink, Honey feeling very down about the situation.
Yesterday, she was happily diving for shells without a care in the world; now,
she’s prisoner of a sinister madman. At this point, Honey looks a bit dizzy,
but it isn’t that she’s getting overwhelmed by the situation – it’s something
far simpler. She passes out and Bond begins to feel dizzy. He realises that the
coffee was drugged, but he’s already drunk it, it’s too late. He crashes to the
floor and blacks out.
Some time later, someone has thoughtfully put Bond and Honey
to bed (separately, that is). The door slides open and a man, seen only from
the waist down, enters. It doesn’t take a genius to work out who it is. He
approaches Bond’s bed to examine him. At this point, we see something
unsettling: his hands. He appears to be wearing black gloves, but another look
at them suggests that they are metallic. Yup, Doctor No has metal hands. We’ll
find out why shortly. The good Doctor does nothing else at the moment, other
than look at Bond while he’s sleeping. As if you didn’t have reason enough to
find him creepy.
Bond’s in trouble now!
Screencaps courtesy of
screenmusings.org
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