James Bond Movie - You Only Live Twice

Regulars

Character	Actor
James Bond	Sean Connery
M	Bernard Lee
Q	Desmond Llewelyn
Miss Moneypenny	Lois Maxwell
Blofeld	Donald Pleasence

Plot

Two American and Russian space capsules are hijacked in outer space, by a larger craft that intercepts them and swallows the smaller capsules into its large hull. The American and Russian governments each assume that the other was responsible, and fear that a war may break out.

The UK government however believes that the craft landed in the sea of Japan, and they send James Bond to investigate. Bond goes to meet Dikko Henderson, a fellow MI6 agent who has a theory about who really hijacked the capsules. But just before he reveals the information, he is stabbed by a masked henchman.

Bond kills the henchman, takes his coat and surgeons mask, and gets into the enemy agents car, pretending to be hurt. He's driven to Osato Chemicals, but his cover is blown after he gets inside. Bond manages to escape, taking some secret papers from the company safe before leaving. As he leaves the building, he is rescued by Aki, who takes Bond to the head of the Japanese Secret Service, Tiger Tanaka.

Bond and Tiger study the stolen documents, which reveal that a tourist was liquidated for taking a picture of the Ning-Po cargo ship. Bond travels to the docks to investigate, and discovers that the ship was carrying liquid oxygen, a rocket fuel oxidizer. He reports back to Tiger, and the two realize that SPECTRE is behind the hijacking, and is attempting to start a war between the Americans and the Soviets.

Bond trains with Tiger's elite ninja force and gets ready to search for Blofeld's base. While he is training, Aki is mistakenly killed in an assassination attempt against Bond. Bond sets out with one of Tanaka's students Kissy Suzuki, who tells him that a villager had died when rowing into a cave near the mountains. They investigate, and discover a volcano in the mountains, with an iron roof.

Bond sneaks into the hollowed out volcano, sending Kissy to get backup from Tiger. The USA has launched another capsule into space, and Blofeld prepares to send his craft up after it. Bond locates one of the astronauts and knocks his unconscious, intending to take his place on the flight. However, when he gets to the space craft, he breaks a procedure by putting his air-conditioning unit in before him. Blofeld notices the mistake and imprisons Bond in the control room.

Tiger's ninja team try to storm the volcano roof, but it is too strong for them to penetrate and many of the men are killed by Blofeld's crater turrets. Bond uses a missile cigarette he got from Q, to cause a distraction for long enough for him to operate the crater door lever. Blofeld quickly regains control and closes the door, but one of Tigers men manages to slip in, and blows a hole in the structure with a limpet mine. Tigers men storm the volcano and Blofeld is forced to escape, losing his prisoner in the process.

Bond kills a henchmen and takes a key that will initiate the self-destruct sequence on Blofeld's space craft. He turns the key just in time, rescuing the American capsule and preventing a full scale nuclear war. Before he gets a chance to celebrate, Blofeld reappears and initiates the self-destruct sequence for the volcano. Bond and Kissy manage to escape just in time, and climb into a life raft that Tiger had arranged for. Just as the two start to get comfy, M's submarine rises below them and Miss Moneypenny is sent out to ruin the mood.

Music

You Only Live Twice was John Barry's fourth time around as the lead composer for the 007 series. The title track was a phenomenally beautiful piece, with soft precise strings building up to the full expanse of John Barry's orchestra. The soundtrack was given an authentically influenced Japanese theme, and was a perfect match for the soft and harmonic vocals of Nancy Sinatra.

It has often been said by many fans, to be one of John Barry's best works. However, surprisingly, the soundtrack had very low sales when it was initially released. But it has since risen in popularity, and the main title song has been covered by many artists and musicians, including, many years after her Bond contributions, Shirley Bassey.

I have quite an interesting story for those who question how authentically Japanese the album really is. I was once up late watching TV with some friends, when a relatively new, but low budget, Japanese fighting film came on. The scores were quite traditional, and I have to say, better than the film itself. But imagine my surprise when during the dramatic closure, the You Only Live Twice theme itself came blasting from the TV! Can't say any fairer than that.

Track #	Song	Author
1	You Only Live Twice (Main Title)	Nancy Sinatra, Leslie Bricusse, John Barry
2	Capsule in Space	John Barry
3	Fight at Kobe Dock/Helga	John Barry
4	Tanaka's World	John Barry
5	A Drop in the Ocean	John Barry
6	The Death of Aki	John Barry
7	Mountains and Sunsets	John Barry
8	The Wedding	John Barry
9	James Bond - Astronaut?	John Barry
10	Countdown for Blofeld	John Barry
11	Bond Averts World War Three	John Barry
12	You Only Live Twice (End Title)	Nancy Sinatra, John Barry
13	James Bond in Japan	John Barry
14	Aki, Tiger and Osato	John Barry
15	Little Nellie	John Barry
16	Soviet Capsule	John Barry
17	Spectre and Village	John Barry
18	James Bond - Ninja	John Barry
19	Twice Is the Only Way to Live	John Barry

Goofs

Every movie has a few interesting and sometimes funny mistakes, but most lists of movie goofs are full of duplicates, and pick apart the tiniest details, like a speck of dandruff disappearing between shots! Here we try to list the best of the bunch, short and sweet.

• When Aki is fleeing from Osato's henchmen, the car's speedometer reads 0.
• The cave that leads up to the volcano is full of poisonous gases that killed one of the villagers. Yet, in the films conclusion, Bond and the ninjas escape through the same cave, unscathed.
• When Bond and Kissy climb up to the volcano, Bond's Japanese makeover disappears half way through and never returns.
• One of the ninjas blows a hole in the volcano roof, so that the rest of the squad can get in. Yet in later shots, the roof is fully intact.
• Near the end of the film when Blofeld is about to shoot Bond, a ninja star is thrown at his hand and the gun goes off. When the gun lands on the floor, it goes off again. But that is impossible, as the gun would need to be recocked, and in any case, the trigger couldn't have been pulled by dropping the gun on the floor.
• When the American rocket is shown taking off, it is actually a Russian rocket. And when the Russian rocket is shown, it's actually an American one.
• When Tiger's helicopter grabs the henchman's car with a large magnet, Aki and Bond watch a long aerial shot of the action on a small screen in their car. But where is the camera? There would have had to have been a second helicopter just to film it.

Trivia

• When the submarine comes up at the end of the film, just under Bond's life raft, the sequence was actually being played backwards. When it was shot, the raft was placed on the submarine, which then dived.
• You Only Live Twice is the only James Bond film to date, where 007 doesn't drive a vehicle.
• You Only Live Twice was the first 007 film who's premiere was attended by the Queen.

Box Office

Opened in # Theatres	Unknown
Production Budget	$9.5 Million (~$61.3M with inflation)
Worldwide Gross	$111.6 Million (~$720.4M with inflation)

Crew

Director	Lewis Gilbert
Editor	Peter Hunt
Producers	Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli
	Harry Saltzman
Writers	Ian Fleming (Original Novel)
	Roald Dahl (Screenplay)
	Harold Jack Bloom (Aditional material)
Musicians	John Barry
Production Designer	Ken Adam

Awards

• The film won a Golden Screen award in 1967
• Ken Adam was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best British Art Direction (Colour) in 1968
• Nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Classic DVD Release in 2004, alongside From Russia with Love, Thunderball and others