As Angelo takes off in the plane, the noise of it irritates
Patricia, who is still getting her massage. Bond goes to close the window, and
sees an ambulance pull up. Lippe gets out and a couple of cronies carry a body
into the clinic.
Bond is curious, so he investigates. He finds the body,
wrapped in bandages. He undoes said bandages to reveal Derval.
Up in the air, the Vulcan carrying Angelo and its deadly payload flies through the air. Angelo is invited
to sit in the front seat (oh goody!) and does so. Time to enact his plan. Fitting
the O2 mask onto his face, he uses the nerve gas to kill the other crewmen. He
seizes control of the plane. Angelo probably doesn’t have much expertise in
flying a military jet, but he doesn’t have to. He pushes the jet into a
nosedive.
As the plane comes down low over the sea, we see a yacht
waiting. Largo is onboard. He orders that underwater landing lights be activated,
and watches as the Vulcan crashes into the sea and sinks.
Time for the next stage of the plan. Largo and his men don
SCUBA gear and swim out to the sunken plane. Angelo, meanwhile, is struggling
to free himself from the plane. It seems his seatbelt is stuck. Largo swims up.
Angelo indicates he needs help. Largo instead severs Angelo’s O2 mask, leaving him
to drown. That’s what you get for asking for more money! Of course, it is
entirely possible that Largo fully intended to kill Angelo anyway, so Angelo
was screwed either way.
Largo’s men retrieve the nukes from the plane. They then
cover the Vulcan in a seaweed-laden net, hiding it from view. Now only the
sharks know it’s there.
Largo gets back on board his yacht and makes sure the
warheads are stowed safely. Then, with their lethal cargo, they head off. Largo
calls Blofeld to confirm the acquisition of the nukes. Blofeld is pleased,
although he also is pissed off that Lippe’s bumbling about and getting Bond
involved may have jeopardised the operation. Like any sane, rational boss,
Blofeld orders for Lippe to be executed.
Back at Shrublands, Bond is checking out. He gets in the
Aston Martin and drives off. Lippe, deciding to make up for his previous
failings by killing Bond, pursues and begins taking pot-shots at Bond. Just
then, a motorbike, its rider’s face hidden by a helmet, comes up behind them.
To Bond’s surprise, a rocket shoots out of the motorbike and causes Lippe’s car
to explode. SPECTRE agents apparently do not go in for subtly. When the order
comes to execute someone, they don’t bother with poison or a silenced weapon,
instead opting to explode the shit out of their target. Well, it’s certainly
effective.
As Lippe’s body roasts in the flaming wreck, the motorbike
zooms off. Bond, clearly confused by what just happened, doesn’t think to
follow.
The bike pulls up beside a lake, where the rider disposes of
the bike. The rider then removes the helmet to reveal:
This redhead, it seems, is not just a pretty face.
Back in London, Bond enters M’s office as usual. However,
Moneypenny tells him that the meeting is being held in the conference room, and
that every 00 agent in Europe is present. Bond goes to the very elaborate hall
and takes his seat, while M glares at him for being late.
Note that Bond sits in chair number seven, so we can assume
that 00 agents are arranged by their number. This is the only time in the
series we see all the 00 agents together, although we will be hearing about several
of them from time to time.
M explains the situation. SPECTRE are demanding £100
million, or else they will use the nuclear warheads to destroy a major city.
These days, the whole “holding the world to ransom with a nuclear bomb” has
become the most clichéd villain scheme ever. At the time, however, this hadn’t
been done before. Ian Fleming’s suggestion that nuclear weapons could be used
as tools of extortion was ground-breaking. So basically, Fleming popularised
nuclear terrorism. Wow, thanks.
The government has decided that they’ll have to pay up… unless someone can recover the warheads.
They have worked out, based on the range of the Vulcan, all the potential
places they could be hiding. All the MI6 agents have been provided with folders
containing the details of the assignments. They’re going to be dispatched all
over the world to search for the bombs. The codename for this operation:
Thunderball. Hey, that’s like the title of the film!
Bond’s assignment is to go to Canada, but he has other
ideas. The folder contained information on all the airmen on the Vulcan, and
he’s spotted a face he recognises: Derval. Even though Derval was apparently on
board the Vulcan, Bond saw his body in Shrublands when he was allegedly flying
over the Atlantic.
There’s a girl in the photo with Derval. The information
states that this is Dominique Derval, Derval’s sister. She resides in Nassau. Bond tries to persuade M to
send his there instead. M asks if he wants to go because of his love of
watersports. I really hope he doesn’t mean in the modern sense.
M knows that Bond just wants to go after the pretty girl,
but it’s a still a better lead than anything else they have. He agrees to let
Bond pursue the innocent young lady. To the Bahamas!
The film gets stuck into showcasing the underwater scenery
immediately. A girl in a black swimsuit is hitching a ride on a large turtle,
while Bond floats nearby. She pauses to collect a starfish, and in doing so
gets her foot wedged in some coral. She panics, but Bond seizes the opportunity
to rush to the rescue. He frees her and they float to the surface together.
It’s the girl from the photo: Dominique, Major Derval’s
sister. Bond wastes no time as usual. With his first sentence, he introduces
himself and immediately begins flirting. Dominique is at least somewhat
receptive to this, and awards him her starfish as a reward (not a euphemism,
the actual starfish she found on the sea bed, so get your minds out of the
gutter).
Bond swims over to his own boat. He has another agent
working with him, and if you assumed that it’s a sexy lady in a bikini, well:
Of course it is. Outside Felix Leiter, about 90% of the
agents Bond works with just happen to be sexy ladies. In spite of appearances,
though, Paula Caplan is a pretty competent agent. She and Bond pretend to be
unable to start their boat, and Bond asks Dominique if she’ll give him a lift.
She agrees and Bond leaves Paula floating in the middle of the ocean so he can
seduce the girl. She doesn’t seem to mind, though.
They arrive on a crowded beach. Bond instantly proposes
having lunch by the pool, and Dominique accepts. As they head off, two sinister
men watch them go. Neither appears to be connected to the other.
Bond and the girl sit down for lunch, and make chitchat.
Dominique is fully aware that he’s trying to seduce him, and plays along. She
spots one of the two men watching them and reveals that she is kept under
constant supervision. She has a “guardian” who likes to know where she is at
all times. She seems slightly resentful of this fact.
A horn sounds in the distance. A yacht has arrived.
Specifically, Largo’s yacht. Dominique excuses herself, telling Bond that her
guardian has arrived. Putting two and two together, that means that Largo is
her guardian. Bond asks if he can meet him. She refuses, and also turns down a
dinner invitation. To which, Bond says:
BOND: “My dear
uncooperative Domino…”
DOMINO: “How do
you know that? How do you know my friends call me Domino?”
BOND: “It’s on
the bracelet on your ankle.”
DOMINO: “So, what
sharp little eyes you’ve got.”
BOND: “Wait till
you get to my teeth.”
Skip ahead to night-time. A very swanky party is going on,
and Bond is swanning around in his tuxedo as expected. He wanders into a
casino.
Largo is at the table, accompanied by Domino. Bond makes
himself known, causing Domino to look surprised. He joins the game and, being
Bond, immediately wins a hand against Largo.
LARGO: “Well,
someone has to lose.”
BOND: “Yes, I
thought I saw a “spectre” at your shoulder.”
LARGO: [pause] “What
do you mean?”
BOND: “The
spectre of defeat. That your luck was due to change.”
LARGO: “We’ll
soon find out.”
This scene is brilliant because, as soon as Bond introduces
himself, Largo immediately knows who he is. I suspect the subject of Bond comes
up frequently at SPECTRE board meetings. So both men know exactly who the other
is, and do not hesitate to let the other know this. But they do it while
playing cards, in front of a large group of people. Everything is doublespeak
and hints. It’s a great scene.
Bond, naturally, wins again. At this point, Domino wants to
go and get a drink, but Largo refuses to leave the table until he has won his
money back. Bond offers to buy her a drink instead, with Largo’s permission of
course. Largo accepts.
By “drink”, Bond apparently meant dinner, as he and Domino
sit down to an elaborate meal, champagne and caviar included. Bond asks her
about her relationship with Largo. She describes herself as his “kept woman”.
So she’s his mistress.
She happens to mention her brother, François. Bond looks
uncomfortable for a moment, wondering whether to share the news of his death. Domino
changes the subject, however, and asks to dance.
As they dance, she talks more about François. She clearly
thinks the world of her brother. Knowing that he’s been killed would devastate
her, so Bond instead asks for more information about Largo. As if on cue, said
eyepatched personage arrives. Bond quickly finds out from Domino that she and
Largo will be sleeping onboard his yacht, and that they will be leaving the
Bahamas is two days. That fits in with the schedule SPECTRE announced for the
bombs. Now Bond has enough reason to suspect that Largo is involved.
Largo, of course, is no idiot. He wants to keep his eye on
Bond, and invites him to lunch at Palmyra, his villa. Bond agrees. Largo
departs with Domino, questioning her about Bond.
Bond returns to his hotel room. Last time, he used a hair
and some talcum powder to determine if someone had been snooping. This time, he
has something slightly more sophisticated:
It’s a tape recorder hidden inside a book. Hey, Bond
invented the audiobook! Listening to it, he discovers that someone has indeed
been in his room – and that they’re still there. Whoever it is must be hiding
in the bathroom.
Just then, there’s a knock at the door. Bond opens to reveal
a guy in shades (who, unknown to Bond, had been watching him earlier). The guy
says, “Well, hello, double-oh-s…” when Bond punches him in the stomach. He
pulls the guy into the room and tells him to keep quiet. He then goes to the
bathroom and flushes the sneak out.
At this point, we find out who the guy in the shades is.
It’s yet another incarnation of Felix Leiter, one of the better ones.
Bond grabs the sneak (an underling called Quist) and tells
him to make sure Largo knows what happened. He then tosses him out of the room.
Bond pours himself and Felix a drink.
Quist arrives at Palmyra. He meets Largo beside a pool. But
not just any pool:
Largo starts a proud tradition for villains by having a
literal shark pool in his villa. Largo asks Quist about Bond, and quickly
deduces that Quist has failed him. Taking a cue from his own boss, Largo then
has Quist tossed into the shark pool. The rest of Largo’s mooks look on as the
water turns red.
Back in town, Bond and Leiter meet up with Paula and Pinder,
a local agent. Pinder takes them to the MI6 safehouse, where a familiar face is
waiting for Bond:
It’s Q! Rather than being stuck in his lab back in London,
he’s made the trip to the Bahamas to give Bond his gadgets. This time, we have:
a Geiger counter watch; a camera that is both waterproof and infrared, meaning
it can take pictures in the dark underwater; a miniature flare gun; and this:
It’s called a rebreather,
and provides an emergency air supply underwater, while being small enough to be
kept in your pocket. Such was the ingenuity of this gadget, that in real life,
the military expressed interest, asking how the filmmakers had developed it.
They were dismayed to be told that it was in fact a fictional gadget that
didn’t work in real life. Oh well.
Q also provides Bond with a “harmless” radioactive pill.
Bond looks confused as to how “harmless” and “radioactive” can be in the same
sentence, but Q insists it’s safe. If Bond swallows the pill, he’ll turn
himself into a temporary GPS signal, allowing MI6 to find him. Bond does not
look enthused about this gadget.
Bond and Leiter make plans to spy on Largo’s yacht.
Meanwhile, back in London, SPECTRE issue their demands regarding how the ransom
must be paid. The government is of the opinion they should pay up, but M has
faith in Bond.
But will Bond come through for him?
Screencaps courtesy of
Screenmusings.org
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