JAMES BOND

James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Eon Productions, which now holds the adaptation rights to all of Fleming’s Bond novels, made all but two films in the film series.This article is about the Bond films themselves. For the production background of the films, see Production of the James Bond films. For the various portrayals of the character, see Portrayal of James Bond in film.In 1961, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased the filming rights to Fleming’s novels.They founded Eon Productions and, with financial backing by United Artists, produced Dr. No, directed by Terence Young and featuring Connery as Bond. Following its release in 1962, Broccoli and Saltzman created the holding company Danjaq to ensure future productions in the James Bond film series.
The Eon series currently has twenty-five films, with the most recent, No Time to Die, released in September 2021. With a combined gross of $7.8 billion to date, it is the fifth-highest-grossing film series in nominal terms.Adjusting for inflation, the series has earned over $19.2 billion in 2022 dollars from box-office receipts alone,[a] with non-Eon entries pushing this inflation-adjusted figure to a grand total in excess of $20 billion.
When Broccoli and Saltzman bought the rights to existing and future Fleming titles, the deal did not include Casino Royale, which had been sold to producer Gregory Ratoff for a television adaptation in 1954. After Ratoff’s death, the rights passed to Charles K. Feldman,who subsequently produced the Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967. A legal case ensured that the film rights to the novel Thunderball were held by Kevin McClory, as he, Fleming and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham had written a film script on which the novel was based.Although Eon Productions and McClory joined forces to produce Thunderball, McClory still retained the rights to the story and adapted Thunderball into 1983’s non-Eon entry, Never Say Never Again.Distribution rights to both of those films are currently held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, which distributes Eon’s regular series.
The films have won six Academy Awards: for Sound Effects (now Sound Editing) in Goldfinger (at the 37th Awards), to John Stears for Visual Effects in Thunderball (at the 38th Awards), to Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Sound Editing, to Adele and Paul Epworth for Original Song in Skyfall (at the 85th Awards), to Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes for Original Song in Spectre (at the 88th Awards), and to Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for Original Song in No Time to Die (at the 94th Awards). Several other songs produced for the films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Original Song, including Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”, Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better”, and Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only”. In 1982, Albert R. Broccoli received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.Strangways, the British Intelligence (SIS) Station Chief in Jamaica, is killed. In response, British agent James Bond—also known as 007—is sent to Jamaica to investigate the circumstances. During his investigation Bond meets Quarrel, a Cayman fisherman, who had been working with Strangways around the nearby islands to collect mineral samples. One of the islands was Crab Key, home to the reclusive Dr. No.

Bond visits the island, where he meets a local shell diver, Honey Ryder. The three are attacked by No’s men, who kill Quarrel using a flamethrowing armoured tractor; Bond and Honey are taken prisoner. Dr. No informs them he is a member of SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, and he plans to disrupt the Project Mercury space launch from Cape Canaveral with his atomic-powered radio beam. Bond and Honey escape from the island, killing No and blowing up his compound in the process.SPECTRE’s expert planner Kronsteen, known as “Number Five”, upon order of the organisation’s Number One, devises a plot to steal a Lektor cryptographic device from the Soviets and sell it back to them while exacting revenge on Bond for killing their agent Dr. No; ex-SMERSH operative Rosa Klebb, SPECTRE’s Number Three, is in charge of the mission. She recruits Donald “Red” Grant as an assassin and Tatiana Romanova, a cipher clerk at the Soviet consulate in Istanbul, as the unwitting bait.

Bond travels to Turkey and meets Ali Kerim Bey, the MI6 officer in Turkey. Between them, they obtain the Lektor, and the three escape with the device on the Orient Express. However, they are followed by Grant, who kills Kerim Bey and a Soviet security officer. Grant pretends to be another British agent and meets Bond. Over dinner Grant drugs Romanova, then overcomes Bond. Bond tricks Grant into opening Bond’s attaché case in the manner that detonates its tear gas booby trap, allowing Bond to attack and kill him. Bond and Romanova escape with the Lektor to Venice. Rosa Klebb, disguised as a hotel maid, attempts to steal the Lektor and kill Bond, but ends up being shot by Romanova.Bond is ordered to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger. He suspects Goldfinger of cheating at cards and foils his scheme by distracting his female accomplice, who is later killed by Goldfinger’s Korean manservant and henchman Oddjob after Bond seduces her. Bond is then instructed to investigate Goldfinger’s gold smuggling operation and he tails the dealer to Switzerland. Bond is captured when he reconnoitres Goldfinger’s plant and is drugged unconscious; Goldfinger then transports Bond to his Kentucky stud farm where he holds Bond captive. Bond escapes briefly to witness Goldfinger’s meeting with US mafiosi, observing secretly as Goldfinger presents to the gangsters his plans to rob Fort Knox by using materials they have smuggled to him and later kills them to avoid paying his dues.

Bond is recaptured after hearing the details of the operation, but he subsequently seduces Pussy Galore, Goldfinger’s private pilot, and convinces her to inform the American authorities. Goldfinger’s private army breaks into Fort Knox and accesses the vault, where Bond fights and kills Oddjob, while American troops battle with Goldfinger’s army outside. Bond’s plane is hijacked by Goldfinger, but Bond struggles with him and shoots out a window, creating an explosive decompression, killing Goldfinger.Bond investigates the hijacking of an Avro Vulcan loaded with two atomic bombs, which had been taken by SPECTRE. The organisation demands a ransom for the return of the bombs. Bond follows a lead to the Bahamas, where he meets up with his CIA counterpart and friend Felix Leiter. The pair suspect a rich playboy, Emilio Largo, who is soon discovered to be SPECTRE’s Number Two, ordered by the secretive Number One to direct the operation, and search the area around his yacht and then the area where they think the yacht may have travelled. After finding the plane—but without the nuclear devices on board—the two agents arrange for Largo’s yacht to be tracked and ambushed once the bombs are being moved by Largo.007 is sent to Japan to investigate the spacecraft theft and astronaut kidnapping in orbit of American Project Gemini spacecraft Jupiter 16 by an unidentified spacecraft. Upon his arrival, Bond is contacted by Aki, assistant to the Japanese secret service leader Tiger Tanaka. Bond established that the mastermind behind the hijacking is SPECTRE’s Number One, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in conjunction with Osato, a local industrialist. Bond follows the trail to Blofeld’s island headquarters and spaceport, while the spacecraft, Bird One, attacks a Soviet capsule. Blofeld explains to Bond that his plot is to fake in front of each superpower that Bird One is an enemy spacecraft to transform the Cold War into World War III.

Tanaka’s ninja troops attack the island, while Bond manages to distract Blofeld and create a diversion which allows him to open the hatch, letting in the ninjas. During the battle, Osato is killed by Blofeld, who activates the base’s self-destruct system and escapes. Bond, Kissy, Tanaka and the surviving ninjas escape through the cave tunnel before it explodes, and are rescued by submarine.

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