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MI6 takes a retrospective look at what could have been the 17th James Bond film and Timothy Dalton's third outing as 007, with a summary of the third act... |
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Bond 17 - Act III
20th August 2006
| MI6 takes a retrospective look at what could have been the
17th James Bond film and Timothy
Dalton's third outing as 007, a very different concept
to what fans of today are familiar with. The world now knows
"GoldenEye" starring
Pierce Brosnan as Bond
17, however at the time of original planning, 007's seventeenth
outing would have looked very different. |
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Hong Kong
Universal Exports "Far East" Offices
Bond is dropped off in down town Hong Kong, where MI6's Far East offices reside. He asks to see Yupland, and is ushered into his office. Yupland informs him of a third letter received that day. They demand that British Intelligence leave Hong Kong immediately.
When Bond explains his findings Yupland gets angry, refusing
to believe that Sir Henry has anything to do with terrorism.
Yupland orders Bond to return to London, but Bond storms
from the office as marines pursue him.
Ching's Penthouse
Ching admires the view from the tallest building in Hong
Kong with his beautiful yet lethal Nan by his side. Sir
Henry watches a video monitor as Bond storms out of the
Universal Exports offices. Ching makes a call and Rodin
dons his motorcycle gear and speeds off into the night. |
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Above: Timothy Dalton, ultimately, played
Bond only twice. |
Streets of Hong Kong
Bond is picked up by Mi Wai outside the offices, but Rodin is
on their tails again. Bond convinces Mi Wai to help him penetrate
Ching's stronghold. Sirens sound and a security detachment is
sent after Bond and corners them. At the request of the officer,
Bond steps from the car - but across the street Rodin aims a missile
launcher. The car explodes and, with Mi Wai still inside, the
car is flipped from the road-side into the sea. With the force
of explosion Bond is knocked into the water as well… he
gathers himself quickly and escapes unseen.
Ching's Penthouse
Sir Henry is informed that Bond is dead, and reports the news
to his girlfriend, Nan, and Connie. He assures her he has plans
for such a beautiful girl as Connie, and that her fate would be
much different to that of 007's. He is summoned away, leaving
Nan to guard Connie.
Above: The busy streets of Hong Kong |
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Universal Exports "Far East" Offices
Yupland, Q and Crisp watch a video monitor as the Aston
Martin DB5 is dragged from the water. Yupland announces
that nobody could have survived that explosion!
Q and Crisp make themselves scarce and return Crisp's apartment,
where they discover Bond. Bond announces that now that he
is "dead" he can get on with the mission. As usual,
Q is able to acquire the necessary tools to infiltrate Ching's
offices.
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Hong Kong Sewers
In the sewer system underneath the city, Bond and Crisp are searching
for the pipe that leads to Ching's office. They are dressed in
overalls and have donned gas masks. Bond finds the tunnel and
shimmies up the pipe. Crisp follows, after passing up a bag of
gear. Bond fetches an acetylene torch from his bag of tricks and
begins to work on cutting through the tunnel door.
Ching's Offices
Once through the door, they find themselves in a maintenance room.
There, Bond adjusts the pressure on the fire hose system and then
makes his way into the corridor. In the lobby, Bond rides the
elevator to the top floor and cracks open a nearby air conditioning
duct.
Ching's Penthouse
Bond crawls through the air ducts of the penthouse until
he finds the room in which Connie is held. To Connie's surprise,
Bond drops from the grate in the roof. They are reunited
but only temporarily, as Nan appears, ready for a fight.
Bond is confidant he can take Nan on, but she quickly delivers
a powerful blow to his chest and 007 flies to the floor.
Next, Connie tries to take Nan on, but she flings her across
the room with one arm. With this maneuver, Nan's outfit
is torn to reveal the complicated workings of a robot. The
struggle continues until Bond dodges a particularly lethal
dive from Nan, and she dives through the penthouse window
and falls to her 'death'.
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Above: Hong Kong skyline at night |
Bond and Connie make a quick escape back through the air duct
and then down the elevator shaft heading for the basement. By
now, alarms are sounding, and in the security centre, Rodin sees
no sign of Connie on the monitors. He dons his helmet and searches
for her on foot. Rodin finds the pair in the elevator shaft so
he boards the elevator and sends it thundering down after them.
Bond and Connie hug the wall, and are barely missed by the elevator.
Suddenly, the elevator stops and Rodin climbs out from the emergency
hatch and pursues Bond and Connie up the shaft.
In the maintenance room, the fire hose system is clogged and the pressure is steadily building. Connie and 007 cannot out-climb Rodin and they are captured.
Ching's Offices
Rodin brings them to Ching's underground control centre. Bond confronts Sir Henry, saying it is only a matter of time until his plans are revealed. Ching laughs and boasts that he can cripple any military defense system from inside his control centre. As a demonstration, he sets a British submarine to fire its warheads at Shanghai.
Meanwhile, the water pressure is building to a climax. Throughout the building, fire sprinklers and hoses explode, flooding rooms throughout Ching's underground complex. The countdown to launch-time continues and Ching is mildly amused by Bond's attempt to thwart his plans. Technicians fight to shut off the water supply, but in their haste they break the manual override. The water continues to flood in.
When the news reaches Sir Henry, he instructs the control operator to speed up the count down. Still the water is flooding in, and when it reaches the roof on one of the top floors, a technician opens the door, and the waters force powers through the building. In a mad panic, control room operators fight to escape the torrent of water and Connie and Bond too, take the chance to escape.
Rodin fights on, and chases after Bond and Connie, pursued of course by the torrent of water. The couple dodge the rush of water just in time, but Rodin is caught in its midst.
The control room is flooded, thus ending the countdown. But Sir Henry is still at large. He dons Rodin's helmet and switches to night-vision. Surrounded by water, Bond grabs the nearest thing, the acetylene torch. Lighting it, he blinds Sir Henry and quickly and gruesomely finishes him off.
Connie and Bond fight their way through the torrent of water and back to the sewer pipe, just in time!
While many details of this abandoned production
are vague, MI6 puts the pieces together to take a look at what
could have been the 17th James Bond picture based on the available
materials.
Stay tuned to MI6 for a series of features
on the ill-fated 3rd Dalton film.
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