The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun, released in 1974, is the ninth film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional British secret agent James Bond. In the film, Bond is sent after the Solex Agitator – a device which can harness the power of the sun. He teams up with agent Mary Goodnight against Francisco Scaramanga – The Man with the Golden Gun. The action culminates in a duel between the two men.
The Man with the Golden Gun was the fourth and final film in the series to be directed by Guy Hamilton. The script was written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant theme in the script — Britain had still not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released on December 14, 1974.
Roger Moore - James Bond:
An MI6 agent.
Christopher Lee- Francisco Scaramanga: An assassin who plans
to misuse solar energy for destructive purposes
Britt Ekland - Mary Goodnight:
Bond's assistant in the Far East.
Maud Adams - Andrea Anders: Scaramanga's
mistress. Dissatisfied with him, she contacts Bond to help her to kill Scaramanga.
Hervé Villechaize - Nick Nack: Scaramanga's servant who fights Bond
till his capture.
Bernard Lee - M: The strict head of MI6.
Lois Maxwell
- Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary
Desmond Llewelyn - Q: Head of MI6 technical
department
Clifton James - Sheriff J.W. Pepper: The Louisiana sheriff from
Live and Let Die who happens to be vacationing in Thailand.
Richard Loo -
Hai Fat: A Thai millionaire industrialist in league with Scaramanga.
Soon-Tek
Oh - Lieutenant Hip: Bond's local contact in Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Spoiler
Plot Summary
In the pre-credit sequence, a midget servant named Nick Nack plans an assassination attempt on his master Francisco Scaramanga with a gangster visiting their secret island. Scaramanga eventually kills the enemy in his hall of mirrors and says that Nick Nack will have to try harder to inherit his fortune. He then shoots the fingers off a life-size replica of Bond.
In London, a golden bullet with Bond's code "007" etched into its surface is received by MI6. It is believed by Military Intelligence that Scaramanga has been hired to assassinate Bond and has sent the bullet to intimidate him. Bond's mission revolves around the work of a scientist named Gibson, thought to be in possession of information crucial to solving the energy crisis by inventing a new technique of harnessing the sun's power. But because of the perceived threat to the agent's life, M, his boss, forces him to go on a leave. Bond sets out unofficially to find Scaramanga.
After tracking the bullet via a belly dancer in Beirut and an expert gunmaker in Macau, Bond sees Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress, collecting golden bullets in a cigarette packet at the Macau casino. Bond follows her to Hong Kong and pressures her to tell him about Scaramanga, his appearance and what his plans are. He is led to a strip club but unbeknownst to him, this is the location of Scaramanga's next 'hit'. The target is Gibson who is shot while leaving the club. However before Bond can assert his innocence, Lieutenant Hip whisks him away from the scene as the police arrive. Nick Nack steals the "Solex Agitator" needed for operating a solar power plant from Gibson's pocket. Bond is ferried out of Hong Kong; inside the shipwreck RMS Queen Elizabeth, he meets M and Q and also learns that Hip is their ally.
Bond's mission
is now to retrieve the solex agitator in the face of the energy crisis and assassinate
Scaramanga. He travels to Bangkok to meet a Thai entrepreneur, Hai Fat, who is
suspected of hiring Scaramanga to murder Gibson, speculating that they never met
personally. Bond uses a fake, synthetic nipple to make him look like having three
nipples (since Scaramanga was known for this trait) and meets Hai Fat at his estate.
However, Hai Fat had already met Scaramanga and captures and places Bond in his
personally owned dojo, instructing his fighters to kill the secret agent. Bond
escapes with the aide of Lt. Hip and his karate trained nieces who defeat the
entire dojo. Bond speeds away by boat on a Bangkok canal. Bond reunites with his
British assistant Mary Goodnight during dinner. Later, Anders enters his room,
revealing that she had sent the bullet to London and wants Bond to get rid of
Scaramanga. In payment, Anders promises to hand over the Solex to him and at a
boxing venue the next day. There, Bond discovers that the mistress has been quietly
shot and meets Scaramanga for the first time. Bond is able to smuggle the Solex
from Anders's purse away to Hip who passes it to Goodnight waiting outside. Attempting
to place a homing device, she is locked into Scaramanga's car, an AMC Matador,
as he drives away. Bond follows him in an AMC Hornet 'X' with Sheriff J.W. Pepper
at his side - whom he encounters when acquiring the vehicle - and a car chase
across Bangkok ensues, concluding with Scaramanga's car transforming into a plane
and flying away to his island in the Yellow Sea near China.
Bond reuniting
with Mary after Scaramanga's death.On arriving at the island, Bond is welcomed
by Scaramanga and enjoys a brief meal prepared by Nick Nack; he also visits the
solar power plant that Scaramanga has taken over by killing Hai Fat. He is shown
the solar gun operated by the Solex which is powered by a receptor hidden in a
mushroom-shaped rock nearby. During the meal Scaramanga proposes a pistol duel
with Bond on the beach but hides when Bond turns back. Then, Nick Nack leads Bond
into the Hall of Mirrors where Scaramanga meets his ultimate demise, but not before
Mary Goodnight, in way-laying a henchman into a pool of liquid helium, upsets
the balance of the solar plant as it gradually goes out of control. The island
explodes as Bond and Goodnight escape unharmed in Scaramanga's Chinese junk ship.
After containing the surprisingly aggressive Nick Nack by strapping him to the
mast, the ship sails away.
Track listing
The Man With The Golden Gun
- performed by Lulu
Scaramanga's Fun House
Chew Me In Grisly Land
The
Man With The Golden Gun
Getting The Bullet
Goodnight Goodnight
Let's
Go Get Them
Hip's Trip
Kung Fu Fight
In Search Of Scaramanga's
Return
To Scaramanga's
End Title - The Man With The Golden Gun
The
film was shot on location in Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok, and Phuket. Studio work
including Scaramaga's solar energy plant and island interior were filmed at Pinewood
Studios. The canal scene where Bond disables the dojo's boat was filmed in Thon
Buri, Thailand.
The scenes featuring the island hideout of Scaramanga were filmed in Phang Nga Province in Thailand, northeast of Phuket on the island of Ko Khao Phing Kan and the adjacent Ko Tapu . Scaramanga's hideout is on Ko Khao Phing Kan, and Ko Tapu is often now referred to as James Bond Island both by locals as well as in tourist guidebooks. Both islands are significant tourists attractions in the area. The site was extremely hard hit by a tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
One of the more interesting locations is the use of a derelict former Atlantic Ocean liner, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, as a top-secret MI6 base in Hong Kong harbour. In the film the announcer on the Hong Kong-Macau hydrofoil ferry announces, when passing the wreck of the Queen Elizabeth, mentions that it sank in 1971. Actually it was January 1972.
The Bottoms Up Club
is a girlie bar in Wanchai, Hong Kong. The bar is famous for its appearance in
the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. The interior of the club evokes
the interior of the club as seen in the film.
At the time of the film, the
club was located in Tsim Sha Tsui and only moved to Wanchai in 2004. This gave
rise to a famous movie blooper when Bond, played by Roger Moore, is picked up
outside the club by British agents posing as police, and told he is being taken
to a police station on the Kowloon side (of Hong Kong harbour), when in fact he
is already there.
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