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The Man with the Golden Gun Trailer

Brief Synopsis:

• A golden bullet arrives at MI6 with "007" inscribed on it. Only one man was known to favor gold bullets: Scaramanga, the world's deadliest assassin. Bond sets aside his current assignment - searching for a missing solar-energy scientist called Gibson - to get Scaramanga before he gets him. A bullet in a belly dancer's navel supplies one clue and Scaramanga's girlfriend Andrea provides another. However, Bond soon realizes that he is not Scaramanga's prime target after all. Scaramanga is more interested in obtaining the Solex Agitator--a device that could convert the sun's radiation into a deadly weapon. And he will kill anyone in his way.

Release Date:

• December 19, 1974

Plot:

• The theft and misuse of a Solex Agitator (solar energy device).

Box Office Results:

• $97.6 million

Running Time:

• 2 hours, 6 minutes

Issued Sidearm:

• Walther PPK

Gadgets:

• Scaramanga's Golden Gun
• Solex Agitator
• Camera Rocket Gun

Director:

• Guy Hamilton

Screenplay:

• Richard Maibaum
• Tom Mankiewicz

Starring:

• Roger Moore as James Bond

Villain:

• Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga

Henchmen:

• Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack
• Richard Loo as Hai Fat
• Yiu Lam Chan as Chula

Bond Girls:

• Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight
• Maud Adams as Andrea Anders

Supporting Cast:

• Soon Taik Oh as Lieutenant Hip
• Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper
• Bernard Lee as M
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q
• Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny

Vechicles:

• Scaramanga's Yacht
• MGB
• AMC Hornet
• Flying Matador
  

Filming Locations:

• Scaramanga's Island, Chinese waters; London, UK; Beirut, Lebanon; Macau, China's Guangdong Province; Hong Kong; Bangkok, Thailand.

Best Quotes:

• Bond: "I've never killed a midget before, but there can always be a first time!"

• Bond: "Who would spend one million to kill me?"

M: "Jealous husbands. Outraged chefs. Humiliated tailors. The list is endless."

"Bond... James Bond": When Bond finds Lazar in Macau.

Best Mistake: (According to mi6.co.uk)

• At the start, a rival assassin attaches a silencer to his gun, yet when he fires it the gun sounds normal.

Distinguishing Feature (According to mi6.co.uk)

• Christopher Lee was a distant cousin of Ian Fleming and had originally been asked to play Dr. No.

Vital Statistics: (According to mi6.co.uk)

• Conquests: 2
  
• Martinis: 0
  
• Kills: 1
  
• "Bond, James Bond": 2

Trivia:

• Third Bond film not to have Bond himself in the pre-credits sequence.

Detailed Synopsis:

The movie opens as Francisco Scaramanga, a professional assassin who charges a million dollars a kill, and his love slave, Andrea Anders, are relaxing on the beach of Scaramanga’s private island. Nick Nack, Scaramanga’s butler and assignment manager, meets with Rodney, an assassin who he hired to try and kill Scaramanga. Scaramanga and Nick Nack have agreed that Nick Nack will take control of Scaramanga’s island and all of his assets in the event of Scaramanga’s death. One of Nick Nack’s duties is to find assassins from around the world to try and kill Scaramanga in his island training room, which converts to a kind of funhouse, complete with mirror mazes and trick staircases. Unarmed, Scaramanga arrives in the training room and he and Rodney stalk each other. Scaramanga eventually gets to his Golden Gun, a gun made of 23 carat gold that can be disassembled into a fountain pen, cigarette lighter, and cigarette case. The Golden Gun can only carry a single round in the chamber, but Scaramanga is extremely skilled and enjoys the challenge of killing his targets with only one shot. Once he has the Golden Gun, he shoots Rodney in the head, killing him.


We first meet Bond in M’soffice. M asks Bond what he knows about Scaramanga. Bond gives an extensive background on Scaramanga, chronicling his birth into a circus family, his work with the KGB, and his subsequent move to become the world’s leading independent assassin. Scaramanga’s identity or whereabouts are unknown, primarily because all of his contracts are negotiated through Nick Nack. Bond also reveals that Scaramanga has a superfluous third nipple. M tells Bond that he received a golden bullet with the number ‘007’ engraved in it. M is concerned that while Bond working on his current assignment, facilitating the defect of a scientist working for the Chinese on an alternative form of solar energy, Scaramanga will assassinate him, hence compromising the mission. M orders Bond to go on leave. Bond decides to try and find Scaramanga first, so that Bond has the advantage. Bond talks to Moneypenny and finds out that Scaramanga had killed another Double-O agent, Bill Fairbanks in 1969 at a cabaret in Beirut. Bond decides to begin his search for Scaramanga there.

Bond heads to the cabaret and finds the dancer with whom Fairbanks was last seen. After talking with her, Bond finds out that she wears the bullet that killed Fairbanks as a lucky charm made into belly button ring. As Bond is kissing her stomach, the bouncers from the cabaret enter the dancer’s dressing room and Bond accidentally swallows the luck charm. After returning to MI6 and getting the bullet out of his stomach, Q figures out who made the bullet, Lazar, a Portuguese munitioner living in Macau. Bond heads to Macau and convinces Lazar to let him accompany him when he delivers the bullets. Lazar goes to a local casino and deposits the bullets into one of the money collection baskets. Anders picks up the bullets and Bond follows her. They board a hydrofoil and head to Hong Kong but Bond loses her at the port.


Bond meets up with Mary Goodnight, an assistant from MI6. They figure out that Anders is staying in the Peninsula Hotel. Bond enters Anders’ room and convinces her to tell him that Scaramnaga will be at the Bottom’s Up Club that night. Bond goes the club, and as he’s waiting outside, Scaramanga assassinates someone else, namely Gibson, the solar energy expert who wanted to defect from Bond’s postponed assignment. Bond is suspected of the murder and is taken into custody by Lieutenant Hip, who was escorting Gibson. As Hip is transporting Bond on a police boat, Bond escapes onto a partially sunken ship in the middle of Hong Kong harbor, which turns out to be MI6s secret base.


It turns out that Hip was tasked with taking over Bond's previous assignment, and was meeting with Gibson to help facilitate his defection. According to Hip, when Gibson was in the club, he had in his possession the Solex Agitator, a device integral to the new solar technology. However, when Hip checked Gibson after Gibson was killed, the agitator was gone. Bond and Hip figure out that Scaramanga was hired by Hai Fat, a Chinese billionaire based out of Bangkok, Thailand. Bond surmises that because of Scaramanga’s history, Hai Fat never met Scaramanga, so Bond plans to impersonate Scaramnaga by having Q create a superfluous third nipple and meet with Hai Fat.

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Bond goes to Hai Fat’s compound and is invited to come back later for dinner. It turns out that Scaramanga was already at Hai Fat’s compound and alerted him to Bond’s impersonation. Bond arrives at Hai Fat’s compund later that evening and is attacked by two Sumo wrestlers and knocked unconscious by Nick Nack. Bond awakens at Hai Fat’s martial arts training school and is forced to fight his best students. As Bond is escaping, Hip arrives with his nieces who are trained in martial arts, and they defeat Hai Fat’s students. In the excitement, Hip accidentally leaves Bond behind, but Bond escapes on one of the school’s boats.

Back at Hai Fat’s compound, Scaramanga kills Hai Fat and takes control of his assets, including the Solex Agitator, which he was hired by Hai Fat to steal from Gibson. Bond meets Goodnight for dinner and finds out that Hai Fat has disappeared. Bond returns to his room to find Goodnight waiting for him. As Bond and Goodnight go to bed together, Anders walks in. Bond tells Goodnight to hide in the closet. Anders tells Bond that she’s scared of Scaramanga and that she wants Bond to kill him. Bond agrees, if she’ll bring him the agitator. Two hours later, she leaves and bond gets Goodnight out of the closet.


The following day, Bond arrives at a kickboxing areana and meets Anders. He’s supposed to pick up the agitator. By the time he arrives, Anders has been killed. Bond searches her purse for the agitator but it’s not there. While he’s searching, Scaramanga sits down beside Bond and introduces himself. As bond and Scaramanga are talking, Bond glances down to see the agitator on the floor. He orders some peanuts from Hip, disguised as a peanut vendor, takes the nuts and slips the agitator to Hip. Hip gives the agitator to Goodnight and returns to help Bond. As Goodnight is calling the police, she sees Nick Nack leave the arena and follows him. As Goodnight is trying to plant a tracking bug on Nick Nack’s car, Scaramanga arrives and pushes her into the trunk. Bond calls Goodnight and she tells him that she’s locked in Scaramanga’s trunk. Bond steals anAMC Hornet and, with J.W. Pepper along for the ride, pursues Scaramanga.


Scaramanga pulls into a garage and converts his car into the Flying Matador by attaching wings and an jet engine onto the car. As Bond arrives, Scaramanga escapes in the Matador. Bond returns to the MI6 base in Hong Kong harbor and informs M of the status of Goodnight, Scaramanga, and the agitator. They trace the homing device to an island off the coast of China. Bond departs for the island. Scaramanga gladly welcomes him and tells Bond of his admiration for him. Scaramanga has taken advantage of Hai Fat’s assets to make his island completely energy self-sufficient. Scaramanga’s plan is to sell this technology to the highest bidder. He’s also managed to develop a way to use the energy collected via the Solex Agitator to power a giant laser. He plans to sell this technology as well.





Scaramanga tells Bond that he wants to have a duel, pitting his Golden Gun against Bond’s PPK. As they pace off for the duel, Bond turns at twenty paces to find the Scaramanga has disappeared. Bond searches the island looking for Scaramanga. Nick Nack leads Bond to Scaramanga’s training room. Bond impersonates a statue of himself in the training room and kills Scaramanga. Goodnight knocks her guard into one of the liquid helium vats that facilitates the conversion of the collected solar energy into electricity. Because the vats must remain at a constant temperature, they begin to become unstable and cause a reaction that will quickly destroy the island. Bond and Goodnight find the agitator and escape the island on Scaramanga’s yacht, just before the island explodes. As Bond and Goodnight are sailing away, Nick Nack emerges from his hiding place aboard the yacht and begins to throw champagne bottles at Bond. Bond traps Nick Nack in a suitcase, and then ties him to the mast, saving the world, and yes, getting the girl.