* AngstWhatAngst: Domino gets over her private shock and humiliation at having been felt up by Bond in the guise of a masseuse rather quickly. ''With a smile''.
* BillingDisplacement: Creator/MaxVonSydow is billed third, despite only appearing in a handful of scenes. He's billed ahead of Creator/BarbaraCarrera and Creator/KimBasinger, despite both having much more screen time. It's possible the billing was decided before Von Sydow's role was edited to nothing.
* CompleteMonster:
** [[Characters/JamesBondBlofeld Ernst Stavro Blofeld]], ruler of Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion ([[NebulousEvilOrganisation SPECTRE]]), commits the organization to murder, terrorism, and more with a mass body count from all the criminal activity. [[BadBoss Regularly murdering his own minions]], Blofeld is the mastermind of numerous murders to allow Maximilian Largo, his right-hand man in SPECTRE, to obtain nuclear bombs. Blofeld then blackmails the world with the promise that he will [[NukeEm wipe entire cities off the map]] if his ransom isn't met, with full intent to carry out the threat.
** [[TheHeavy Maximilian Largo]] is the bombastic millionaire responsible for carrying out Blofeld's global extortion scheme. To acquire the missiles, Largo has [[DomesticAbuse his mistress Domino]]'s brother hooked onto heroin to make him subservient and has him launch the missiles, later [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness having him killed for serving his purpose]]. Largo would also have an ally of Bond drowned and her corpse left for Bond to discover. Witnessing Bond kiss Domino, Largo retaliates by trying to have her [[SexSlave auctioned to some lecherous Arabs]]. During the film's climax, Largo escapes with the last nuke, leaving his men behind to deal with Bond's allies.
* DirectorDisplacement: Though this is often cited as a Kevin [=McClory=] film, the actual producer was Jack Schwartzman with [=McClory=] receiving an honorary Executive Producer credit, while Irvin Kershner was the director.
* EnsembleDarkHorse:
** Despite the film's overall quality being hotly contested, many people will readily agree that Creator/MaxVonSydow made for a fantastic Blofeld, and wish that he had been able to reprise the role in an official film -- which sadly was rendered impossible not only by legal issues, but by the fact that Blofeld (or rather, a LawyerFriendlyCameo of him) had been KilledOffForReal two years earlier in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''.
** Creator/AlecMcCowen's Q, despite only having a single scene, gets a lot of love for being an entertaining subversion of Creator/DesmondLlewelyn's iconic portrayal, being much more of a KnightInSourArmor that outright celebrates Bond's willingness to misuse his gadgets. A common criticism of the film is that it skims too close to the tropes of the EON series, so this film's version of Q is held up as a good example of how to put a spin on a familiar element.
* FetishRetardant: While "fetish" might not be the exact term, the scene where Bond poses as Domino's masseur to feel her up is played in a playful tone typical of Bond films, but her reaction to finding out he was a fake — tearful and looking as though she feels very violated — makes the scene a lot more uncomfortable. It gives her quick forgiveness of him later all the more MoodWhiplash.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Felix Leiter here is played by a Black actor, Creator/BernieCasey. The Eon film series would later also have Leiter portrayed by a Black actor, Creator/JeffreyWright, during the Daniel Craig era.
** Creator/RowanAtkinson appears as a bumbling [=MI6=] operative. He would go on to parody James Bond with ''Film/JohnnyEnglish''.
** Q offers Bond a pen that shoots miniature missiles. He would eventually update this to a pen grenade in ''Film/GoldenEye''.
** Bond offers a woman foie gras. A [[Creator/RogerMoore different incarnation of Bond]] would [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqI-28WuoYQ not approve]].
** Patricia Fearing, the therapist at Shrublands Clinic, is played by Prunella Gee. After retiring from acting in 2004, Gee has worked as a therapist in real life since 2006.
** One would seem to think that Fatima Blush is a prototype for Xenia Onatopp from ''Film/GoldenEye'' as an AxCrazy FemmeFatale who's obsessed with having her way with Bond, despite being an {{Expy}} of Fiona Volpe from ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''.
** This would not be the last time Klaus Maria Brandauer (Largo) would romance a Bond Girl; he would later play Creator/OttoPreminger in the MadeForTVMovie ''Introducing Dorothy Dandridge'', in which his character has an affair with the title character, played by Creator/HalleBerry, who would later go on to play Jinx in ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.
** This film was intended to have a follow-up called ''S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'', which never came to pass. Many years later, however, we would get a Bond film titled ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' after all.
** For the Italian audience: Largo's voice actor will voice Felix Leiter in ''Film/LicenceToKill'' while Blofeld's will voice Creator/SeanConnery in ''Film/TheRock''.
* JustHereForGodzilla: One of the film's draws is certainly the return of Creator/SeanConnery. Another one is to see the performance of Creator/BarbaraCarrera, who is clearly having an absolute ball playing Fatima Blush, and it shows.
* LoveToHate: Klaus Maria Brandauer's performance as Largo was well-received, with Roger Ebert saying that he brought "poignancy and charm" to the character, and Gene Siskel praising him as a more human character than most Bond villains of the era.
* NarmCharm: Bond blowing up Fatima Blush with the miniature pen missile is ridiculous, and she even has time to see it sparking in her gut; however, literally being blown up in a fireball is still a horrible way to die.
* OvershadowedByControversy: ''Never Say Never Again'' is probably best described as a decades-long legal mess full of personal drama and development troubles, one that eventually managed to produce a viewable film at the end of it.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Bernie Casey, former NFL Pro Bowl player, would later be known for appearing in the ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' movies.
** Nigel Small-Fawcett is played by Creator/RowanAtkinson, a few months after ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' debuted and years before ''Series/MrBean'' made him a household name.
** An {{Uncredited|Role}} Air Force Officer is played by Creator/ChristopherMalcolm, who would later be best known for playing Justin in ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous''.
** General Miller is played by Creator/ManningRedwood, who would later be best known for playing Bob Conley in ''Film/AViewToAKill''.
* {{Squick}}: Largo forcing a kiss on Domino. Why, oh why, did they have to use a take where you can see a string of drool stretched between their lips as he pulls away?
* StrawmanHasAPoint: The audience is supposed to view the new M as an ObstructiveBureaucrat after he chews out Bond for failing a training exercise and orders him to a health clinic. But consider the following: M is dealing with an ageing senior field agent who's gotten careless in his training, who drinks and smokes excessively, gambles frequently, is open to all sorts of [=STDs=] from all his womanizing, and has a diet of "Too much red meat and white bread, and too many dry martinis". No ReasonableAuthorityFigure would allow their field agents to carry on like this, even for James Bond.
* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: The most common complaint about the film is that it's a retread of ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' made by a different studio, thus lacking many of the film series' trademarks.
-->'''[[Website/TheAgonyBooth Mr. Mendo]]:''' [[http://www.agonybooth.com/video286_Never_Say_Never_Again_James_Bond.aspx If this looks like a ripoff of a better Bond film... it's because it is!]]
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The prominence of Creator/{{Atari}} consoles (Yes, really...) in Largo's casino does its share in firmly cementing this as a film of the early Eighties when Atari reached the peak of its popularity. The film came out in 1983, the year of the infamous [[MediaNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 Video Game Crash of 1983]] that nearly sank the entire industry; Atari was the leading developer of that market before the crash and would never regain its former dominance afterward.
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