Line #3 Trivia/Octopussy


1	* ActorSharedBackground: Vijay loves tennis. He's played by Vijay Amritraj, who was a pro tennis player. He also shares his actor's fear of snakes, where Vijay (the actor) reportedly finds it difficult to hold the snake's basket while filming his scenes).
2	* CaliforniaDoubling:
3	** Kent doubles for Cuba in TheTeaser. In fact, this was the site where Fort Knox was built for ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''.
4	** In some scenes, the UK also doubled for Germany.
5	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
6	** ''007 Against Octopussy'' (Brazil)
7	** ''007 - Operation Tentacle'' (Portugal)
8	** ''Octopus'' (Finland)
9	** ''Operation Octopus'' (Italy)
10	** ''007 Averts the Plot'' (China)
11	** ''007 Against the Deadly Girls'' (Mexico)
12	* TheDanza: Bond's ally Vijay, played by Vijay Amritraj.
13	* DevelopmentGag: Octopussy's father being a leading authority on octopi and her nickname being his pet name for her was most likely a nod to Creator/IanFleming, who owned a pet octopus, which served as the inspiration for [[Literature/{{Goldfinger}} Pussy Galore]].
14	* DuellingMovies: The duel between Creator/EonProductions' ''Octopussy'' with Creator/RogerMoore as Bond and ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' with Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, being dubbed "The Battle of the Bonds", was one of the most publicized in movie history. Neither film really wowed critics, with ''Never Say Never Again'' edging out a bit among them. ''Octopussy'' won by a tight margin at the box office. The Eon series has continued to this day and even managed to get all the remaining Bond rights that they didn't have in the meantime, whereas ''Never Say Never Again'' remained a StillbornFranchise.
15	* FakeBrit: Swedish actress Creator/MaudAdams plays an Englishwoman.
16	* FakeNationality: Kamal Khan, the exiled Afghan prince, is played by French actor Creator/LouisJourdan.
17	* FakeRussian: English actor Creator/StevenBerkoff and German actor Creator/WalterGotell play Russians. [[note]] Justifiable in Berkoff's case, as he's of Russian Jewish background. [[/note]]
18	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Vijay Amritraj plays a snake charmer. In reality, Amritraj is terrified of snakes and was virtually unable to take part in any of the action. His character mentions this while disposing of the cobra in the basket by telling Bond "This was the wrong cover. [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes I hate snakes]]."
19	* NoStuntDouble: Creator/KristinaWayborn as Magda says a romantic au revoir to James Bond by way of an elegant elegiac window exit. She actually performed this stunt herself, swirling down to the ground, her dress acting as her support and being unwound as she alighted safely to the ground. Weyborn's departure was filmed in two different locations: her fall from the balcony was filmed at Creator/PinewoodStudios in England and her landing was filmed on location in India.
20	* OnSetInjury:
21	** Creator/RogerMoore's stunt double, Martin Grace, had a serious accident while filming on the train. Hanging on the side of it, the train went into a non-assessed area of the track and he rammed into a pylon, seriously damaging his leg and hip and hospitalizing him for several months. He made a full recovery.
22	** The actor who uses the buzz saw yo-yo broke his arm when he fell over the balcony onto Octopussy's bed. Despite his injury and having to wear a cast, he insisted on completing the rest of his scenes.
23	* TheOtherMarty: Bond was originally to be played by Creator/JamesBrolin in this film as a replacement for an aging Creator/RogerMoore and actually filmed some scenes in India. Then producer Creator/AlbertRBroccoli felt the pressure of using an established Bond actor against the return of Creator/SeanConnery in ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' and brought Moore back.
24	* PropRecycling: In the scene where Octopussy's circus was walking down the street, there is a brief glimpse of a performer on stilts wearing a skull mask which looks like the one from ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch''.
25	* RecycledScript: The plot is ''very'' reminiscent of ''{{Film/Goldfinger}}'', with Auric Goldfinger's role played by Kamal Khan, Oddjob's by Gobinda, Pussy's by Octopussy, her flying circus by an actual circus, a RenegadeRussian in place of Goldfinger's backing from Red China, and a backgammon game mixing the gin rummy and golf scenes, down to Oddjob/Gobinda crushing the golf ball/dice. The very next film, ''Film/AViewToAKill'', is ''another'' ''{{Film/Goldfinger}}'' remake.
26	* RefittedForSequel:
27	** Many production and story ideas and elements not used in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' ended up being utilized for this film. These included the knife throwing twins, the casting of Creator/LouisJourdan as the villain and the Acrostar Bede jet sequence. The backgammon game was originally intended to take place in Max Kalba's club in ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''.
28	** The scene where Bond is pursued by villains riding elephants is as close as we got to Harry Saltzman's planned elephant chase in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.
29	* ThrowItIn: The bicyclist seen passing in the middle of a sword fight during the tuk tuk chase sequence was in fact a bystander who passed through the shot, oblivious to the filming; his intrusion was captured by two cameras and left in the final film.
30	* TroubledProduction: The film had problems in the writing phase after initial writer Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser's draft contained several scenes that were ludicrously infeasible to film, in addition to generally lacking the feel of a Bond film, necessitating a rushed overhaul of the screenplay by veteran Bond writer Richard Maibaum and producer Michael G. Wilson. Casting the title character also proved difficult, with close to two dozen actresses being screen-tested before the producers finally threw their hands up and cast Creator/MaudAdams, who had previously been the secondary Bond Girl in ''The Man with the Golden Gun'', while lifting some details from the original Ian Fleming story (the script having been an InNameOnly adaptation until that point) to explain her non-Indian appearance. Then, during filming Creator/RogerMoore's stunt double was severely injured after an accident while filming the train sequence, which affected morale for the rest of the shoot.
31	* UncreditedRole:
32	** Creator/IngridPitt as the uncredited voice of a Galley Mistress.
33	** Creator/EugeneLipinski as the Head VOPO.
34	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/JamesBond Enough for its own page]].
35	* WordOfGod: When asked why Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince, speaks with a French accent, Creator/AlbertRBroccoli suggested that he went to school in France.
36	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser chose India as a setting because of his extensive research for ''Literature/{{Flashman}}''.
37	* YouLookFamiliar:
38	** Creator/MaudAdams had previously played Andrea Anders in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.
39	** M is played by Robert Brown, who previously played Admiral Hargreaves in ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. A common {{Fanon}} theory is that they are the same person (especially after ''Film/GoldenEye'' canonically confirmed that the title of "M" can be passed to another individual).
40	** Albert Moses, who plays Sadruddin, previously played a bartender in ''The Spy Who Loved Me''.

Context Trivia / Octopussy