Synopsis
(Octopussy)

Cuba: towing a horse truck behind him, James Bond arrives at an equestrian event being held at an air base where a bearded, cigar smoking and suspiciously familiar looking general is in attendance. Changing into a military uniform, and assisted by an attractive young female agent, Bond adopts the guise of one Colonel Luis Toro and gains access to a hanger where a new, top secret aircraft is being readied for a demonstration flight. Before he can plant his explosive charges, however, he is captured by the real Toro and taken away in a truck to be interrogated. But his assistant is in hot pursuit and uses her charms to distract the guards long enough for Bond to operate their parachutes and escape from the truck.

Bond enters his horse trailer which contains an Acrostar jet fighter [disguised as the arse end of a horse!] in which he makes good his escape from pursuing Cuban guards. When the Cubans try to shoot him down with a heat-seeking missile, he leads it back to the air base and into the hangar where the missile destroys the new aircraft. With the Acrostar low on fuel, Bond is forced to put down in a small town where he pulls into a gas station and demands that the baffled owner "Fill her up please!"

East Berlin: a man dressed as a clown is being pursued through a forest, hotly pursued by another circus performer who seems intent on killing him with a knife. The assassin seems to be able to move with incredible speed and we soon learn that the man is being pursued by twins. He almost reaches safety when he is hit ion the back by a thrown knife. He falls into a fast flowing river and, mortally wounded, manages to struggle onto the bank and from there to the nearby residence of the British Ambassador where he dies from his wounds. He's carrying an ornately tooled Faberge egg...

London: Bond arrives for a briefing with M and meets Moneypenny's glamorous new assistant, Penelope Smallbone and spends some time flirting with Moneypenny. In M's office he is introduced to Jim Fanning, MI5's art expert and learns that the egg is a fake, the genuine article being readied for sale at auction later that day. M believes that the fake egg is part of a plan to raise currency for Russian agents in Britain and also learns that it was 009 who was killed trying to get the egg out of East Berlin.

Meanwhile in Moscow, a high level meeting at the Kremlin discusses the ongoing mutual strategic weapons reduction treaties. General Gogol is pressing for a dove-like approach to the talks while the fanatical General Orlov is more hawkish, recommending that Eastern Bloc forces launch a pre-emptive strike against Europe, using superior Soviet ground forces to sweep them to victory. The antagonism between the two general's increases until their bickering is halted by the President. Orlov receives a whispered message from a secretary.

Later, at the Kremlin Art Depository, the two men who killed 009 are awaiting Orlov's arrival with a nervous treasurer. Orlov learns of the loss of the fake egg and also that an inventory is looming. He has been selling off the genuine items from the repository and replacing them with well crafted fakes. To keep his duplicity a secret, he needs to get the real egg back and sets his agents in motion.

At the auction, Bond and Fanning see an attractive young woman arrive and join a man whom Fanning identifies as Kamal Khan, an art collector with "dubious sources." To Fanning's amazement, Bond joins in the bidding, deliberately pushing the price much higher than it's really worth to see how much Khan really wants it. During the excitement, he replaces the real egg with the fake captured by 009. After the auction, M is furious with Bond for joining in the auction, but he's rather less angry when Bond reveals that he now has the real egg. M sends Bond to India in pursuit of Khan.

Bond arrives in Delhi and is met by a young snake charmer, in fact 'Universal Export's' Indian agent Vijay who escorts him to his hotel and fills in background details on Khan. He shows him Khan's huge palatial home high on a mountain top. In his hotel room, after chatting up the chambermaid, Bond quickly searches his room for bugs then, from his window, spots the woman he saw at the auction getting off a boat.

At a local casino, Bond watches Khan beating a man at backgammon and realises that he is cheating. He briefly flirts with the woman from the auction who snubs him and returns to Khan's side. Bond steps in to take over the backgammon game and turns the tables on him, showing off the Faberge egg and using the loaded dice to win 200,000 rupees from the art collector. Bond leaves after a brief display of strength from an angry Khan's huge bodyguard, Gobinda.

On the way back to the hotel, Bond realises that they are being tailed and Vijay, using a souped up electric taxi presumably supplied by Q, manages to give them a slip after a lengthy and violent chase through the bag streets of Delhi. He and Vijay end up in Q Branch's Indian laboratories, where Q himself is unhappy at having been sent halfway round the world. He implants a tiny homing device in the egg and equips Bond with a pen full of acid and fitted with a bugging device. Bond can trace the homing device through his wrist watch. Before leaving, Bond plays with Q's latest
invention, a tiny, wrist mounted TV screen.

That evening, Bond is surprised to find that dinner has been arranged for him and meets Khan's female associate who identifies herself as Magda. She bears an offer from Khan - in exchange for the egg, Khan will spare Bond's life. Realising that the direct approach won't work, Magda seduces Bond and that night, he sees a tattoo of an octopus on her back ["that's my little octopussy"] which he recognises as the symbol on the side of Khan's yacht.

Early the next morning, Magda tries to sneak off with the egg and Bond activates the homing device. Magda makes an unorthodox exit from a window where she hands the egg over to Khan. Bond is knocked unconscious by Gobinda.

Khan takes the egg to his partner, an unseen female named Octopussy who is familiar with Bond's name. Bond meanwhile has come round in Khan's mansion just in time to see his captor returning with the egg. That evening, Bond is taken to dinner with Khan where he is served a whole stuffed sheep's head. Later, he manages to escape from his room and spies on a meeting between Khan and Orlov and overhears the General taking possession of a consignment of forged jewellery. He also hears mentions of Octopussy and of a plot involving Karl Marrxstadt in Berlin. Not realising that he is now in possession of the real thing. Orlov angrily destroys the fake egg, revealing the hidden homing device.

Bond escapes from the mansion. but Khan organises a hunt, tracking Bond down on an elephant as the agent tries to flee through the jungle. Menaced by spiders, leeches, alligators and tigers and pursued by a small army of Khan's bearers, Bond barely escapes with his life, finally being picked up by a pleasure craft full of holidaymakers.

Back at Q's base, Bond learns more about Octopussy, that she lives on a remote island surrounded only by women. Using a fake crocodile built by Q, Bond sneaks onto the island and comes face to face with Octopussy herself. It turns out that she is the daughter of a man who Bond had once been charged with arresting and she is pleased with Bond for having allowed her father the chance to take his own life rather than face the court martial that was awaiting him back home. He learns that she is involved in smuggling gold and jewellery under cover of her legitimate business, a circus.

Khan arrives and is astonished to find Bond alive and wants to "take care of him personally" but Octopussy won't allow it. A furious Khan leaves again and Bond is invited to stay the night. Unwilling to let Bond go so easily, Khan hires a gang of assassins armed with deadly yo-yos to attack the agent, but stresses that Octopussy is not to be harmed. Octopussy herself tries to hire Bond to work as her paid assassin and is angry with him when he refuses. But she gives in to his sexual advances quickly enough and they spend the night together.

Meanwhile, Vijay is murdered by the assassins who then proceed on to Octopussy's mansion. But their approach is signalled by the panicked flight of birds from their nests and Bond is on his guard when they arrive. He makes short work of the gang, but falls into the river and is presumed dead, killed by the crocodiles that infest the waters. But he uses his fake crocodile to escape and teams up with Q, learning of Vijay's death.

Bond sets of for Karl Marxstadt where Octopussy's circus has set up camp. He briefly meets with M before setting off for the circus where he hides from Gobinda by sitting in seats surrounded by Russian soldiers. He then spots Khan, Orlov and Magda in the audience and, disguised as one of the circus crew, sets off after them. He follows them to a rail carriage while back in Moscow, Gogol has begun to uncover Orlov's plot. Spying on Orlov's men, Bond realises that they are about to double cross Octopussy - she believes that the container she is smuggling into West Germany aboard her train is full of jewels when in fact it contains a primed nuclear weapon rigged to look like an American device.

Bond sneaks aboard the train and tries to find a way to disarm the bomb. There, he confronts Orlov who reveals his insane plans: once the bomb has been detonated, he believes that NATO will panic and demand unilateral disarmament of US weapons in Europe, leaving the way clear for his own invasion forces. A fight breaks out and Bond is forced to flee. He doesn't give up, however, and pursues the train aboard a stolen car which even takes to the tracks in a effort to keep up! Bond eventually gets back on board the train just another train, coming from the opposite direction, destroys his car.

General Gogol, meanwhile, is on Orlov's trail and has tracked the whereabouts of his car. Bond meanwhile has escaped detection at the border check point by hiding in a gorilla costume. Gogol catches up with Orlov and watches helpless as the border guards gun him down as he tries to flee to the West. Gogol is equally unable to do anything about the train, which has now entered the American sector of West Berlin.

Bond again makes a narrow escape when Gobinda realises where he is hiding and is pursued the length of the train by the Indian assassin. He tries to get into Octopussy's private carriage but is seen off by Khan and the chase is on again. Bond fights with Gobinda on the roof of the train before being pitched off by one of the knife-throwing twins who uses his skills to pin him to a wooden door. But Bond again makes good his escape and, in a stolen car, continues on to the American air force base at Feldstadt where the circus is getting ready to give its performance.

With the police in hot pursuit, Bond arrives at the Air Force Base just as Khan and Gobinda are making good their escape. Bond's cavalier behaviour wreaks havoc on the base which goes on full alert, all security forces mobilised to catch the intruder. Bond disguises himself as a clown and, while trying to stave off fellow performers who think he's part of the act, and security forces who want to arrest him, tries to alert the base commander about the bomb. When no-one believes him with just 90 seconds left, Bond tries to disarm the bomb himself, provoking a mass brawl in the ring. Octopussy saves the day by blowing open the stage prop in which the bomb has been hidden, allowing Bond to remove the detonator with literally less a second to spare. Octopussy learns from Magda that Khan is heading back to India and sets off after him.

Khan, meanwhile, is preparing to flee with his booty and with plates for forging every major currency in the world. Unknown to him, however, Octopussy is outside with her female army. Swiftly and expertly disabling the guards, Octopussy's agents use their circus skills to infiltrate Khan's mansion. Octopussy confronts Khan and angrily accuses him of selling her out. He tries to worm his way out of it and overpowers Octopussy when Gobinda notices the missing guards and raises the alarm.

As a massive fight breaks out in the mansion and its grounds, Bond and Q arrive aboard a Union Jack hot air balloon and Bond leaps into the fray, looking to rescue Octopussy. He uses Q's wrist mounted TV monitor to watch out for Khan and spots him trying to sneak Octopussy out of the back door. Q himself lands the hot air balloon and is immediately swamped by beautiful young women who want to lavish their attention on him!

Bond steals a horse and sets off after Khan who is trying to escape aboard an aircraft. He leaps aboard the plane just as it takes off and has to fight his way aboard at several hundred feet up. He pitches Gobinda over the side to his death and is almost consigned to the same fate when Khan goes into a sudden dive. Octopussy and Bond jump to safety when Khan makes a clumsy crash landing and Khan himself is killed when the plane plummets over a cliff and crashes.

Later. Gogol and M are enjoying drinks, Gogol denying that anything untoward has happened. Bond meanwhile, his injuries apparently so serious that he can't travel, has made a remarkable recovery and is enjoying the company of Octopussy aboard a huge galleon powered by a crew of female oarsmen.