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♫ We're an all time high
We'll change all that's gone before... ♫

"Mr Bond is indeed of a very rare breed… soon to be made extinct."
Kamal Khan

The one where Bond disguises himself as a clown to disarm a bomb hidden in a circus cannon, thus preventing the Cold War from catching ablaze. It Makes Sense in Context.

Octopussy is the thirteenth James Bond film in the Eon Productions series, the second to be directed by John Glen and the sixth to star Roger Moore, coming out on June 6, 1983. The Title Theme Tune, "All Time High", was performed by Rita Coolidge.

After a replica Fabergé egg is found on an assassinated agent, James Bond is sent to India to infiltrate a gang led by Octopussy (Maud Adams). 007 soon discovers a connection between the priceless Fabergé egg, shady Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), an elaborate smuggling operation and a meeting with a mad Soviet general, Orlov (Steven Berkoff), who plans on detonating a nuclear device at Octopussy's circus as part of his plan to, he thinks, force an American withdrawal from their bases in Western Europe, allowing the Soviets to dominate the continent (or, more likely, causing World War III).

The non-Eon Bond film Never Say Never Again, with Sean Connery, came out the same year, though there hasn't been a Bond film from any company other than Eon since.

Despite the title, it has surprisingly little to do with a popular subject of Japanese pornography.

Preceded by For Your Eyes Only and followed by A View to a Kill.


This film contains examples of:

  • Action Girl: Octopussy and Magda; both come to face the villains together with Bond at the climax.
  • Action Prologue: The movie's opening has Bond on a mission in an unnamed South American nation. This is, to date, the last time that the prologue is independent of the main plot, as every subsequent opening has some sort of link to the plot.
  • Actor Allusion: Vijay plays tennis on his spare time and fights off some goons with a tennis racquet. He's played by a tennis player. This leads to a Visual Pun of an Indian crowd watching Vijay fighting with the tennis racket as if they were watching a tennis match. He also notes as part of his infiltration, he posed as a tennis instructor.
    Vijay: I tailed him all the way to the tennis club this afternoon.
    Bond: Did you learn anything?
    Vijay: My backhand's improved.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Jim Fanning's equivalent in "The Property of a Lady" was named Dr. Fanshawe.
  • Adaptation Amalgamation: Octopussy's backstory is directly taken from the titular short story, while the scene at Sotheby's and the Faberge Egg is taken from the short story "Property of a Lady", which gets name-checked. Also, the backgammon game was taken from the bridge game in Moonraker, with Khan's warning to Bond being the same as Drax's.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • The film is actually designed as a sequel to the short story (which is completely explained by the title character, so viewers wouldn't need to do homework).
    • The part with the auction of the Faberge eggs is taken from another short story, "The Property of a Lady".
  • Affably Evil: Kamal, especially when discussing Bond's torture.
    Bond: Well, supposing, for argument's sake, l don't feel like talking?
    Kamal: Don't worry, you will.
    Bond: Let me guess. Thumbscrews and hot coals?
    Kamal: (insulted) Hardly. We're much more sophisticated than that.
    Bond: Sodium Pentothal?
    Kamal: A bit crude. Very unreliable. We prefer curare with an effective psychedelic compound. Guaranteed results.
    Bond: But with permanent brain damage.
    Kamal: An unfortunate side effect.
  • After Action Patch Up: After the final action set-piece, Bond is seen recuperating from his wounds in a large rowboat, and Octopussy comes along to check up on him, where it's revealed he isn't that badly injured...
  • Age-Gap Romance: Octopussy is not much younger than Bond, and one of the few Bond girls too old to be his daughter, especially in the Moore-Era. She's only 18 years his junior, as opposed to the whopping 30 that Carole Bouquet was in For Your Eyes Only, or what Tanya Roberts would be in A View to a Kill. It also helps that the actress Maud Adams had already played a Bond girl opposite Moore eight years earlier in The Man with the Golden Gun. Octopussy is also rare in that she's mature not just in years. She's been through a lot, unlike most Bond girls who are innocent and/or naive. She's a smuggler who is able to control a powerful man (Kamal), and has enough foresight to also branch out into legitimate operations, making her a successful businesswoman as well.
  • All Part of the Show: Bond disguises himself as a clown to escape pursuit, but then struggles to convince circus goers that there really is a nuclear weapon about to detonate unless he can get to it.
  • Amazon Brigade: Octopussy's circus troupe.
  • And This Is for...: Doubled.
    Mishka: And this [prepares to throw knife at Bond] is for my brother! [throws knife at Bond, but misses]
    James Bond: [throws the knife back and impales him] And that's for 009!
  • Animal Reaction Shot: A camel does one after Bond and Vijay jump their minicab over its head.
  • The Anticipator:
    • Bond introduces himself at the reception of an Indian hotel and is told, "We've been expecting you," which is, fortunately for James Bond, more positive than the other appearances of this trope in the other Bond films.
    • More appropriate for this trope, Octopussy observes Bond sneaking into her lair on her CCTV cameras, right up to the moment he enters her boudoir. It turns out she has her own personal reasons for knowing who Bond is.
      Octopussy: Good evening. (Face-Revealing Turn) I wondered when you might arrive.
      Bond: So you are the mysterious Octopussy.
      Octopussy: And you are James Bond, 007, licensed to kill.
  • Armour-Piercing Question: After Bond confronts Orlov about his plan and asserting the detonation of a nuclear warhead on an American base will simply lead to the Americans and NATO retaliating, Orlov smiles and asks "Against whom?" Thinking about the answer leads to Bond's Oh, Crap! realization.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Kamal Khan is an exiled Afghan prince living in India, but is in cahoots with General Orlov, who wants to trigger a nuclear war in Western Europe. To finance their Evil Plan, the duo hatch a scheme to generate funds by stealing jewellery from the Kremlin's state armoury and selling them on the black market, while replacing them with fakes. Using Octopussy's circus troupe as a cover, they then plan to smuggle a bomb into a US military base in West Germany and detonate it, hoping that NATO would be disbanded and that this would enable the Warsaw Pact to invade and conquer Western Europe without fear of retaliation. In turn, Kamal Khan, who is getting paid from the sale of the jewellery, hopes to kill Octopussy in the process and take over her organization afterwards.
  • Ascended Extra: Q plays a much larger role than usual. Besides appearing in the obligatory gadget giving scene, he also acts as a field agent supporting Vijay during a stakeout of Octopussy's island and pulls off a heroic rescue in the final action sequence. Of all Desmond Llewelyn's appearances in the Bond series this is second only to Licence to Kill in screen time.
  • Auction: Bond attends an auction at Sotheby's for a Faberge egg. Besides driving up the price to see how badly Khan wants it, he also manages to palm the thing and substitute a fake. This section of the film is based on the short story "The Property of a Lady", which has a somewhat different outcome.
  • Award-Bait Song: "All Time High", sung by Rita Coolidge.
  • Banana Republic: The Teaser takes place during a Bond mission to destroy an experimental fighter jet in an unnamed South American country. Given the movie came out the year after The Falklands War, it's probably meant to be a No Communities Were Harmed Argentina.
  • Banister Slide: Bond slides down a banister while firing a Kalashnikov rifle, sees the newel post at the end, and blows it off just in time to avoid a ballistic groin impairment.
  • Batman Gambit: Orlov's plan; explode a nuke at an American base, and the public, assuming it was an accident with an American weapon, will pressure the US to withdraw from continental Europe.
  • Bedlah Babe: Some of Octopussy's female minions dress like this during the infiltration/attack against an enemy stronghold. Somewhat justified in that they're circus performers wearing their costumes, but it doesn't explain why they're dressed that way for a surprise attack on the villain's base, although a few of them use it as a Show Some Leg gambit to distract the guards.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: Magda uses a variation of this to escape from Bond: she ties one end of the sari she's wearing to a balustrade and jumps off the balcony, "riding" the garment down to safety as it unravels.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: General Orlov and Kamal Khan.
  • Bland-Name Product: The fictional US Air Base is in the fictional German city of Feldstadt which is the literal German translation for Field City. Feld and Stadt are common suffixes for city names (Bielefeld, Darmstadt, etc.)
  • Blatant Lies: When an enraged Octopussy confronts Khan after he leaves her to be blown up by a nuclear bomb, he blames Orlov and says he betrayed them both, that he knew nothing about the bomb, and that he was coming to get her so they could flee.
  • Body Bag Trick: Bond pulls this off to sneak out of Kamal Khan's palace. He scares the crap out of the people carting the supposed corpse off.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Zig-zagged.
    • Averted earlier in the film: After learning Bond has escaped from his palace, Kamal Khan goes on a literal manhunt after him, and he almost succeeds before Bond gets away with some tourists that happened to be passing by.
    • Downplayed later on, when General Orlov and Kamal have snuck a nuclear warhead into an US Air Force base in West Germany and have set it to detonate. After Kamal and Gobinda have left, they see Bond hurriedly driving to the base to try to prevent it from detonating. However, they let him him go since the German police are pursuing him, thus believing he'd fail to make it there in time. And considering what they need to get away from, they're completely justified in wanting to run for it no matter what.
  • Book Ends: The film starts with 009 in a clown costume and winds up with 007 in a clown costume.
    • Also, the film begins with James Bond piloting a mini-jet and ends with him hanging on to the outside of a plane in flight.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Bond scores three headshots on Orlov's soldiers.
  • Break the Fake:
    • General Orlov smashes a real (in-universe) Fabergé egg, having been inadvertently tricked by James Bond, who switched a real and a fake much earlier in the film. The jewelsmith flinches at the sight, but since Bond had planted a bug in the real one, it's not an entirely unproductive move on Orlov's part.
    • A Russian jewellery expert shatters a replica of the Romanov Star during his audit after discovering that it is a forgery.
  • Brownface: Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan Prince, was played by the white Frenchman Louis Jourdan; we are told that he is an Afghan, and thats it, no Brownface, no Ethnic Dress, no accent even.
  • Call-Back:
    • Bond running on top of burning coals looks similar to how he ran on top of crocodiles at Kananga's farm in Live and Let Die.
    • Bond disarming the nuclear warhead by removing the detonator is identical to what he did to the nuclear warhead onboard Stromberg's tanker in The Spy Who Loved Me.
  • Captain Obvious: 'It's not really in the wrist, you know...'
  • Carload of Cool Kids: Bond encounters some of these. They drive off when he needs a ride to the circus where an atomic bomb is about to be detonated. note 
  • Car Skiing: Bond does this while chasing the train, using the car's underside to block bullets fired at him.
  • Cars Without Tyres Are Trains: This happens after Bond drives across some "severe tyre damage" spikes on the Russian/Eastern bloc border. He then drives the car along the tracks to chase Octopussy's circus train. He manages to jump from the car to the train just before the car is struck by a train coming the other direction.
  • Cassandra Truth: When Bond tries to warn a US general about a nuclear bomb hidden in a circus cannon. Then again, being disguised as a clown probably didn't help matters either. It's a good thing Octopussy believed him.
  • Catch and Return: The knife-throwing twins use this as part of their circus act. Naturally it is later utilized in their fight against James Bond.
  • Censored Title: The movie was sometimes advertised as "Octocat".
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Bond subtly reveals Kamal Khan's attempts at cheating in backgammon, beating him with his own loaded dice.
  • Checkpoint Charlie: The film partially takes place around the border sections near Karl-Marx-stadt (Chemnitz). 009 and General Orlov get killed trying to cross it.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The cash Bond wins ends up saving his life, both when a henchman tries to stab him, and later when he tosses it at the people, enabling him to escape.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Those circus skills come in useful for Storming the Castle.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Points have to be given to Steven Berkoff as General Orlov through combining this with the speech patterns of William Shatner and a ludicrously over-the-top Russian accent to turn a simple military briefing into a gloriously hammy rant against Western decadence and spinelessness, not to mention calling out his top colleague as a coward for not following his maniacal plan.
    • This is actually fairly standard for Berkoff. His whole idea of theatre is that it has to be overstated, over the top acting.
  • Circus of Fear: Octopussy uses a circus as a cover for her criminal activities as well as using circus acrobats and aerialists to commit crimes for her, while General Orlov plants a nuke in her circus. Not necessarily evil, but initially misguided.
  • Clothing Combat: Magda uses the sari as a weapon against Kamal's goons.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Bond's ally Vijay (played by real-life Indian tennis star Vijay Amritraj) reports that he's gotten a job at the Big Bad's sports club.
    Bond: Have you learned anything?
    Vijay: Well, my backhand's improved...note 
    (Bond grins.)
  • Confronting Your Imposter: In the opening teaser, Bond impersonates Colonel Luis Toro, only to be captured and brought to the real Toro.
    Bond: (unfazed) Well, it's a small world. You're a Toro, too.
  • Cool Car: The Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV Bond steals to reach the airbase stands out as one in a film where none of Bond's more iconic rides are present. Impressively, it manages to stay well ahead of the pursuing West German police as Bond races against the clock.
  • Cool Plane: Bond's miniature jet (a BD-5 Acrostar) in the prologue. And yes, the Bede BD-5 is quite real.
  • Cool Train: Octopussy's circus train. The locomotives used are a Danish DSB S Class 2-6-4T tank engine No.740, which was renumbered 62 015 for filming, Swedish SJ B Class 4-6-0 No.1697, disguised as 38 243 which collides with the Mercedes, and Swedish SJ S Class 2-6-2T No.1178. Justfied, as the East German railways (Deutsche Reichsbahn) used steam locomotives on line service until 1988. The rolling stock are former LMS wagons painted in circus scheme.
  • Creator Cameo: Producer Michael G. Wilson appears as a member of the Soviet Politburo at the beginning of the film. He is also on the tour boat that Bond escapes to in that scene (he's the one with the camera).
  • Cutlass Between the Teeth: Done briefly by Gobinda when he goes after Bond on Kamal's plane.
  • Deadly Euphemism: Orlov asks Khan if a pair of servants can be trusted, to which Khan reassures him that their silence will be guaranteed. Bond later finds their bodies hanging on meathooks.
  • Death Glare: Gobinda seems to be a master of quiet menace.
  • Diabolical Mastermind: The main villains are a Russian general, and an Afghan smuggler and prince living in India, respectively.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Vijay introduces himself by playing a bar of the James Bond theme on a snake charmer's pipe.
  • Dirty Communists: General Orlov is a full-fledged communist villain seeking to be a hero of the Soviet Union, but General Gogol contrasts this by investigating him in unwitting parallel to Bond's mission. The result of that was Gogol attempted to arrest Orlov before the East German border guards shot the renegade general dead and it's fairly obvious that if Gogol had learned Orlov's whole scheme, he would have raced to warn NATO.
  • Disney Villain Death: Gobinda gets a airplane antenna in the face courtesy of 007, causing him to lose his grip and fall off the top of the plane.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Played with. Bond tries to avert a nuclear attack, but a woman hogs the only phone booth. Bond promptly steals her car, instead.
  • Double Entendre: Bond watches Q trying to mimic the famous Indian rope trick, but the rope just keels over when climbed.
    Q: Blast!
    Bond: Having problems keeping it up, Q?
  • The Dragon: Gobinda to Kamal Khan, Magda to Octopussy.
  • Dramatic Chase Opening: Following the opening credits, we cut to 009 on the run from the knife-throwing twins.
  • The Dreaded: Octopussy, who has a fearsome reputation. So much so that local assassins are extremely wary of her. Though this contradicts her organizations' reluctance to kill anyone, knocking out mooks with tranquilizer darts or clubs.
    Assassin: We don't want to make enemies with the Woman.
  • Easy Come, Easy Go: Bond wins a lot of money beating Kamal Khan at backgammon, but then loses it all during a car chase. In the first instance, an enormous wad of rupees in his jacket pocket protected him from a large dagger, and in the second, he had to throw the winnings at a throng of people to make them crowd and block his pursuers' path. He quotes the trope name verbatim.
  • Egg MacGuffin: The forged (and real) Fabergé egg in the first half.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: There is a shot of Bond's helicopter flying in front of the Taj Mahal, although Agra is not on the way to his destination (Udaipur, where the film is set and was filmed, is over 600 kilometers South-West from Agra). The director felt that he needed to insert a shot of the Taj Mahal because it was so beautiful, and they were in India anyway.
  • Escalating War: Orlov's plan to invade Western Europe is villified by the Politburo. Gogol and another official state that the Soviet military is for defending the Motherland.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Gobinda shows just how much of a silent menace he is by crushing ivory dice with his fist while giving a wordless Death Glare to Bond.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Upon hearing about Orlov's power-hungry plans to invade NATO, the Soviet Politburo immediately react with disgust, knowing that it's tantamount to war and would leave no victors on either side. Gogol even calls him out for this by telling that NATO will not take this lightly.
  • Evil Is Petty: Kamal Khan likes to supplement his wildly lucrative villainy by cheating at backgammon.
  • Evil Plan: General Orlov wants to detonate a nuclear warhead on an American base (making it seem like an American accident), forcing the US to pull out of Europe and leaving it vulnerable to Soviet conquest. He is in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Kamal Khan who is getting paid for it, and hopes to kill Octopussy in the process and take over her organization afterwards.
  • Excuse Me, Coming Through!: Subverted when James Bond cleverly throws money to the crowd so that they block the people chasing him.
  • Exploding Fish Tanks: Octopussy is shown feeding her poisonous blue-ring octopus early in the film. Later, the aquarium is destroyed when James Bond rams an assassin's head into it (and said assassin ends up with the octopus wrapped around his face).
  • Expy: The "Property of a Lady" egg is based on the real Imperial Coronation Egg.
  • The Faceless: Octopussy's face is obscured when Kamal Khan goes to see her early in the movie. Only her hands are shown as she feeds her pet octopus while talking to Khan. This, plus the way he takes orders from her and the fact that the movie is named after her made it seem like she would be the Big Bad and not him.
  • Fake Food: According to Roger Moore, the sheep's eye that Kamal eats was actually made of marzipan.
  • Fakin' MacGuffin: The villains create fake Russian national treasures such as a Faberge egg and the Romanov Star to swap out for the real ones they are selling to finance their schemes. After it becomes necessary to reclaim one of the real eggs, Kamal Khan claims it is one of the fakes only to wince in horror as his partner General Orlov smashes it.
  • False Flag Operation: General Orlov attempts to smuggle in and detonate a nuclear bomb on a US military base in West Germany. Since there will be no detected missile launch, he hopes it will be assumed the explosion was an accident and that the European powers will respond by demanding removal/disarming of all stockpiled nuclear weapons. Once they are gone, Orlov plans to launch a massive land-based invasion of Western Europe, confident that without nukes, NATO will be powerless to stop him.
  • Fatal Flaw: General Orlov's Hair-Trigger Temper causes him to snap at people while arguing with them, seen most prominently in his confrontations with both General Gogol and James Bond. And he was also an insane psychopath, not caring that millions would die in the ensuing mayhem due to his plan to invade Western Europe, and had a manic fixation of the Warsaw Pact gaining full control of Europe and isolating the United States. Add in the fact that he clearly doesn't understand that the United States would retaliate equally, resulting in World War III, which would basically leave no winners.
  • Fixing the Game: Bond notices Kamal Khan taking a British gent for all he's worth in backgammon. He quickly figures out that Khan is using loaded dice that always come up double sixes (how nobody else caught on is a mystery). He offers to play him for double-or-nothing. Khan agrees. Bond invokes the "player's privilege" and uses Khan's dice to win. Instead of letting his Sikh dragon beat up Bond (and cause a scene), Khan pays Bond but warns him to spend the money quickly.
  • Flung Clothing: Magda whips off her sari to use as a weapon against Kamal's goons. She doesn't put it back on, thereby keeping the fetish appeal burning.
  • Follow That Car: A Soviet military driver is rather disconcerted to be told to follow Bond's car along a railway line.
  • Foreign Queasine: Sheep's eye, anyone? Bond actually manages to get in a good Double Entendre, when he complains that he loses his appetite when he's being watched (both the meal and Gobinda, who is intently watching him.)
  • For Want Of A Nail: When Bond eavesdrops on Orlov and Khan plotting, he can't hear a crucial part of their plan because of the noise from Magda's hairdryer next door.
  • General Ripper: Orlov. An unprovoked peacetime nuking of West Germany is just step one of his grandiose plan.
  • Giving Them the Strip: Magda uses a combination of this with Bedsheet Ladder to escape from Bond: she ties one end of the sari she's wearing to a balustrade and jumps off the balcony, "riding" the garment down to safety as it unravels.
  • A Glass in the Hand: Not quite a glass but the same general idea: Gobinda crushes dice in his hand.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Orlov smiles and states with a huge sense of pride that tomorrow he will be a hero of the Soviet Union as he passes away
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Initially it is Octopussy, who gives orders to the films Big Bad (Khan) from behind the scenes, never even showing her face. She eventually fully enters the plot and becomes an Anti-Hero after being betrayed by her associates.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: Octopussy comes to Bond's aid by knocking out one of the assassins with a bottle.
  • Groin Attack. Narrowly averted — Bond is sliding down a stairway railing, blazing away at mooks with a captured AK-47. He then quickly uses the rest of the magazine to shoot off the knob at the end of the railing. Prior to that however Bond - dressed as a clown - kicked a security guard at the circus in the groin while trying to get to the bomb. Also during the raid Octopussy and her girls stage on Kamal's stronghold at least one, maybe two, of his thugs get kicked in the groin.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: Kamal doesn't mind that his guards are Distracted by the Sexy because it gives him and Gobinda a chance to sneak away without being noticed. Unfortunately the dancing girls are part of Octopussy's Amazon Brigade, currently sneaking into his palace. Another guard is drinking on duty, and has a No More for Me moment as he looks over the wall and sees a female circus acrobat standing on the head of an elephant.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Gogol vs. Orlov in the briefing room.
    Gogol: NATO WILL COUNTERATTACK with nuclear weapons!
    Orlov: NEVER! The West is DECADENT and divided! It doesn't have the stomach to risk our atomic reprisals!
  • Heel–Face Turn: Octopussy and her group were part of Kamal Khan's Fabergé Egg-smuggling plot (and in fact, Octopussy seemed to be his boss), but when he teams up with General Orlov who plans to engineer a nuclear explosion and Octopussy realises that she, her crew and thousands of innocents would have been blown up, they turn against him.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: Bond steals the car of a woman in a phone booth in order to get to an American airbase in Germany in time to stop a warhead from detonating. He was hoping to call the base, but the woman beat him to the booth. This actually backfires on him rather badly, as by the time he actually reaches the airbase there's an APB out for him. The MP guarding the gate was already less than impressed with 007's frantic demands to see the commander, and the arrival of several German police cars didn't help his credibility.
  • Hey, Catch!: Bond does this to distract a henchman during the marketplace chase sequence before then punching him out.
  • High-Altitude Battle: Bond against Gobinda on top of a plane.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Octopussy turns against Khan after she realises that she, her crew and thousands of innocents would have been killed in Orlov's plotted nuclear accident.
  • High-Speed Missile Dodge: 007 is in a small jet in hostile territory and the enemy launches a surface to air missile at him. With the missile chasing him, Bond heads for the hangar where he was caught trying to destroy a plane. The commander realizes what he is about to attempt and orders the hangar doors closed. But it's too late, Bond successfully flies through the hangar just in time while the pursuing missile collides with the interior and destroys the hangar.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Colonel Toro and his radar prototype get blown up by the guided missile that Toro's base launched after Bond, due to Bond maneuvering his Acrostar minijet right into the base and getting out of it on time.
  • Home by Christmas: General Orlov tells the Politburo that, according to his computer simulations, the Red Army can defeat NATO in a conventional war within five days.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Kamal and his mooks' hunt for tiger on elephants after Bond escapes the Monsoon Palace. Bond is the tiger of course.
    Kamal: Let the sport commence!
  • I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: The plot kicks off when 009, clutching a priceless Faberge egg, bursts into the British embassy in East Germany with a throwing knife stuck in his back.
  • I'm Not Hungry: Bond finds his sheep's head a little too exotic.
  • Improperly Placed Firearms: The East German guards have AK's, but for some reason Orlov's personal bodyguard are carrying Austrian Steyr AUG's.
  • In Name Only: The short story shares no plot with the film, but does provide the backstory to the title character, as revealed in a somewhat shoehorned-in dialogue sequence.
  • Inconvenient Parachute Deployment: Bond is captured and sitting in the back of a truck being guarded by two soldiers wearing parachutes. As the truck is driving, Bond's accomplice drives alongside the truck and performs a Show Some Leg. While the guards are Distracted by the Sexy, Bond reaches out and yanks the ripcords on the soldiers' chutes. The chutes deploy and the soldiers go flying off the back of the truck.
  • Instant Leech: Just Fall in Water!: Happens to James Bond, among several other animal encounters. He uses a cigarette lighter to make it let go.
  • Ironic Echo/Dark Reprise: Vijay's "No problem!", uttered by Bond after Vijay's corpse is found. Later, when another character randomly uses the same phrase, Bond clearly winces, reminded of his friend.
  • Jurisdiction Friction:
    • Implied when Orlov chases the train as it crosses the inner-German border. He apparently thinks that, as a Soviet General, the GDR border guards would let him through. They shoot him.
    • Averted when the German policemen chase Bond into the American military base, then assist the military policemen in searching the compound.
  • Just Plane Wrong: Those Franco-Soviet Alouette helicopters.
  • Karma Houdini: Octopussy and her minions do not appear to get any consequences for their smuggling operation which unintentionally nearly led to a US Air Base and the surrounding German city being obliterated by a nuclear bomb.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: During the backgammon scene when Bond wins 200,000 Rupees from Kamal Khan, Khan starts writing him a cheque when Bond tells him quietly "I prefer cash".
  • Killer Yoyo: James Bond is attacked by a bunch of Indian mooks. One of them wields a yo-yo buzzsaw.
  • Knife Outline: Not quite an outline, but James Bond ends up pinned to a door thanks to a couple of thrown knives in Octopussy. In fairness though, Grishka was a circus knife-thrower. However the trope backfires when Bond pulls one of the knives free (seeing as it's handily stuck in the door next to him) and uses it to kill him.
  • Knife-Throwing Act: Mishka's and Grishka's part in Octopussy's Circus.
  • Lampshaded Double Entendre:
    Q: 007 on an island populated exclusively by women? We won't see him till dawn!
  • Large Ham: General Orlov. His Chewing the Scenery briefing scene near the beginning of the movie combines the speech patterns of William Shatner, the volume levels of BRIAN BLESSED, and a truly awful accent to form the essence of Ham. This was awesome.
    • "Yes, but tomorrow I shall be a Hero of the Soviet Union!"
  • Leave Behind a Pistol: What happened to Octopussy's father, Major Dexter Smythe. Octopussy is grateful to Bond for leaving him that option, rather than be disgraced by a court martial.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Khan has Gobinda murder a pair of assistants who carry the jewels to Orlov's helicopter to assure their silence.
  • Lemming Cops: Played with. The West German Police tend to spin out a lot while chasing Bond, but up until the absolute end of the chase, they also manage to recover without crashing into anything.
  • Lethal Joke Item: A yo-yo. However, said yo-yo is a circular saw.
  • Lighter and Softer: After the dark tone of For Your Eyes Only, yes.
    • The first two acts feature a lot of the silliness and narm that defined the Roger Moore era. However the third act becomes very serious when Bond realizes that a nuclear bomb is about to detonate on a US Air Base in Germany.
  • Magic Countdown: Used on a detonator instead of an entire bomb (and since Science Marches On, the counter is digital). Bond disarms it right as the timer reaches zero.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: A nuclear accident is the key part of General Orlov's grand plan.
  • Male Gaze: Bond uses one of Q's gadgets to zoom in on a girl's cleavage. Q is not amused, although Vijay is.
  • May–December Romance: Maud Adams was 18 years younger than Roger Moore, but her mature personality and demeanour, coupled with the fact that the couple has several romantic scenes throughout the film, hide this fact. Very different from what happened with Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only and Tanya Roberts in A View to a Kill, where Bond's relationship with them seemed more of father and daughter, with the only sex scene in both cases occurring at the end of the movie.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: Bond's PPK is replaced with the Walther P5 in this movie as part of a deal with Walther. Most people didn't notice, because not only do they look similar, but also Bond refers to having "mislaid my PPK" in spite of using a P5 for the entirety of the film.
  • Midair Repair: Bond is clinging to the outside of an airplane. Kamal Khan sends Gobinda out to kill Bond before he disables both engines and kills them all.
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Smuggling stolen Faberge Eggs and murdering a British agent → nuclear sabotage, wiping out an American military base along with nearby cities and WW 3.
  • Money to Throw Away: After a wad of cash saves Bond from a dagger during a Chase Scene, he tosses the damaged dough aside, where it lands in a beggar's bowl. He finally evades his pursuers by throwing the rest of his gambling wins up in the air, causing the crowd to block the road.
    Bond: (to Vijay) Easy come, easy go! (both grin)
  • Mood Whiplash: The movie bounces between the campier elements of Moore's tenure (uncovering a smuggling ring run by circus people and an all-girl army) with the darker tone created by the previous film, For Your Eyes Only (a mad Soviet general wants to start World War III).
  • Motive Misidentification:
    • Octopussy reveals that her father had been a British major who stole a sum of gold and vanished. Bond tracked him down, gave him 24 hours to settle his affairs and prepare to be arrested, but the man killed himself. Bond assumes Octopussy wants to avenge his death. Instead, she reveals that she wanted to thank Bond for letting her father die with honour rather than suffer the disgrace of a public trial.
    • Gogol thinks Orlov is just a corrupt officer involved in smuggling Soviet national treasures.
      Gogol: A common thief. A disgrace to the uniform!
      Orlov: (Go Out with a Smile) Yes, but tomorrow, I shall be a hero of the Soviet Union.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Madga, played by Kristina Wayborn - especially the way she escapes Bond.
  • Multi-Track Drifting: Inverted with a Mercedes-Benz sans its tyres, which have been shot to pieces. Bond has to catch up with a circus train. Cue train approaching from the opposite direction. He, naturally, makes the jump before the inevitable collision. Mercedes-Benzes are not frequently made in track gauges, so the special effects crew had to improvise one.
  • My Car Hates Me: Played with. When Kamal is leaving the Circus at the US army base to escape the bomb blast, he's visibly worried when Gobinda can't get the car started. To their mutual relief the second try is more successful.
  • Mystical India: Partly set in India, and features snake charmers, sword swallowers, fire breathers, fire walkers, beds of nails... the lot.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Bond encounters a snake charmer (Vijay) using a flute to play none other than the James Bond Theme. This may actually be a meta gag — composer Monty Norman says he recycled the tune from an earlier piece of his in a Hindu-themed musical. Hear it here.
    • Kamal notes that Bond is fond of eggs. In the books, Bond's Trademark Favourite Food is eggs.
  • Never Smile at a Crocodile: Bond has a vehicle with an appearance of a crocodile. Later one, when his fight with the yoyo mook moves to water, a crocodile appears to the dispatch the villain.
  • Nice Kitty...: Bond commands a tiger to "Sit!" (in Barbara Woodhouse's distinctive tone). And it does.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Soviet chairman at the beginning of the film is obviously supposed to be Leonid Brezhnev (who actually died before the film was released).note 
  • No More for Me: A guard looks over the wall and sees a couple of elephants and some female circus acrobats forming a human ladder. He looks at the bottle in his hand in confusion, before Octopussy knocks him out with some hurled bolas.
  • No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Kamal serves a dinner to Bond when he is imprisoned in the Monsoon Palace.
  • Non Violent Initial Confrontation: The auction scene and backgammon game between Bond and Khan.
  • No One Sees the Boss: Used for a Bait-and-Switch; at first the unseen 'Lady' is presented as Blofeld-type supervillain. When Bond finally meets her face-to-face, Octopussy is merely a jewel smuggler who has no interest in harming Bond.
  • Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: While driving away from the base, Khan and Gobinda happen to spot Bond driving in the other direction. Khan says to keep going, boasting that they'll soon be rid of him anyway when the bomb goes off.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Octopussy argues they are "two of a kind" (after all, it's in the title song) when trying to recruit Bond for her own organisation. Bond doesn't take offense this time and even agrees with her—admittedly, Octopussy is hardly the amoral world-threatening supervillain who usually makes this remark. Plus he's trying to get into her pants.
  • Oktoberfest: The portly German couple Bond hitches a ride with tries to stuff him with Bratwurst and Beer.
  • Ominous Multiple Screens: As Bond infiltrates Octopussy's mansion, she watches his progress through multiple security cameras.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • The mooks driving the truck that Bond was held prisoner in are delighted when the female agent drives alongside and smiles at them. Then she drives forward a bit more to reveal Bond, also with a big smile and holding an assault rifle...
    • Fanning when Bond bids on the Faberge Egg.
    • Bond's dawning realization that Orlov's plan isn't insane but will work.
    • Kamal and Gobinda have panicked looks on their faces for a moment when their getaway car meant to escape the nuclear detonation doesn't start on the first try.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Once Bond realizes Orlov's plot is very sound, his tone changes completely. Gone is the lighthearted Roger Moore Bond and he spends the rest of the movie desperately trying to get to the base to prevent the explosion.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The security guard at the US Air Base is presumably African-American, but if you listen closely it's obvious he's Caribbean or African in background.
  • Out with a Bang: Octopussy thinks Bond gets killed after having sex with her (and she looks quite upset about it), but fortunately he survives; this is a much more fortunate outcome than the last time a Bond Girl played by Maud Adams lay with Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun.
  • Operation: [Blank]: The plan to discover what is happening to the stolen Faberge artifacts is codenamed "Operation: Trove".
  • Outside Ride: Bond chases after Khan on a horse and then leaps on to the outside of his plane as it takes off.
  • Performer Guise: Bond disguises himself as a clown so he can infiltrate Octopussy's circus and warn her about the nuclear bomb that is about to destroy the Air Force base where her circus is performing.
  • Pinned to the Wall: Grishka pins Bond by his clothes to a wall and prepares to throw the final knife to Bonds's heart. Bond being Bond, this does not end well for the knife thrower.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: 009 is murdered in East Berlin. MI-6, suspecting Soviet involvement, calls in 007.
  • Pocket Protector: Bond is stabbed in the chest, but is unharmed thanks to a sheaf of bills in his chest pocket.
    Bond: Thank God for hard currency.
  • Pop The Tyres: In the pre-credits sequence, Bond shoots a jeep's tyres, causing it go into a ditch. Later, he drives Orlov's car over spikes, leading him to drive it on the railway.
  • P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: This is the only movie in the series named after the Bond Girl rather than the villain, a motto, the MacGuffin, or an offhand line of dialogue.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Bond uses the sophisticated camera in Q's lab to zoom in on a woman's cleavage. Vijay snickers; Q gets annoyed and orders him to quit fooling around.
  • Pretty Little Headshots: Occurs when Bond shoots a Russian soldier dead, complete with surprised expression on the guard's face.
  • Prevent the War: Or rather prevent a plan to cause nuclear disarmament which will lead to a war.
  • Punny Name:
    • Octopussy. Yeah, no shit.
    • Penelope Smallbone. As if that name wasn't bad enough, at one point, Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) flubbed it and called her Penelope Smallbush. Naturally, Roger Moore wasted no time jumping on that one. This is actually the name of a real person: She's named after one of the models in the opening credits of The Spy Who Loved Me.
    • Bond isn't impressed with impersonating a guy called Toro, saying the name sounds like a load of bull (Toro is Spanish for bull).
  • Pursued Protagonist: 009, in a clown costume, is pursued by Mischka and Grishka, before dying in the British Embassy with the Faberge Egg in his hand.
  • Race Against the Clock: Bond has to get from East Germany to an American air base in West Germany to stop a warhead from exploding at 3:45 pm.
  • Racing the Train: The film does this with a twist: Bond's tyres have just been shot out, so he drives his car onto the rails.
  • Railroad Tracks of Doom: Bond is chasing Khan escaping by train when all the tyres of his Mercedes are shot off. He's in luck since the car's wheels are the exact same gauge of the track the train he is chasing is on; so he proceeds to move the car on to the track and drive on the set of rails next to the escaping train's. Some skidding later, he's making good progress when another train is rushing right at him, so he wisely hops off whilst the Merc gets ploughed right through by the train.
  • Ramp-rovisation: Done in the market chase.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The high ranking Soviets all recognize the madness of Orlov’s plan and are desperately trying to stop him. The US Base commander and other high ranking individuals immediately recognize the seriousness of the situation and allow Bond to proceed.
  • Recycled Premise: It's still a debate how this film's plot is derived from Goldfinger. A pre-title sequence set in an unnamed South American country; Bond bets an item the wealthy Big Bad has an interest in, then one-ups the Big Bad at his own game; a female henchwoman with her own Amazon Brigade falls to Bond's charms; a plot to bomb an American military base; and a climactic fight in an airplane mid-flight where a villain gets thrown out.
  • Renegade Russian: It's emphasized that Orlov is acting independent of the Politburo, and that Gogol and the other Soviet leaders are more interested in making peace with the West. The Brezhnev Expy explicitly states that the Soviet nuclear arsenal is purely defensive. During the final third of the plot, Gogol is pursuing Orlov to stop him, though he isn't aware of the true nature of Orlov's scheme (though he probably would have disapproved of that if he'd known about it).
  • Replaced with Replica: James Bond manages to abscond with a genuine Faberge egg by swapping it with a fake, right in the middle of a Sotheby's auction.
  • Revealing Reflection
    • Bond sees in the mirror that Magda is stealing the Faberge egg but pretends not to notice as it's All According to Plan.
    • Bond sneaks up on Mischka as the latter is examining a stash of smuggled jewelry, but Mischka sees movement reflected in the facets of the jewel he's holding.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: The jewelry smuggling plot was inspired by a scandal in the Soviet Union involving General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev's son Yuri Brezhnev manipulating the Moscow State Circus to smuggle jewellery.
  • Run for the Border: Early in the film, 009 tries to flee across the border from East Berlin into West Berlin, pursued by assassins, in order to deliver a Fabergé egg. He is mortally wounded, but manages to get across the border to deliver the egg before succumbing to his wounds.
  • Safety in Muggles: Bond only escapes Kamal's manhunt when he joins a tourist group which was passing by.
    Tourist: Are you with our group?
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When his plans are ruined Khan makes a hasty retreat back to India where he plans to destroy all the evidence linking him to the plot, swipe everything of value in his palace, and hightail it out of there with Gobinda in the middle of the night while the rest of his men are distracted. He gets caught by Octopussy and Bond before he can make it.
  • Secondary Character Title: While several Bond movies have a title in connection to the main villain, this one has the distinction of being the only one named after the Bond Girl.
  • Sexophone: The opening notes to "All Time High" as well as one of the Leitmotifs (probably Octopussy's).
  • Shell Game: After showing Octopussy the container full of smuggled jewelry that's welded into the Human Cannonball cannon, the carriage holding it is backed into a tunnel where the Soviets swap it with an identical carriage holding the nuclear bomb.
  • Shoot Out the Lock: While Bond is struggling with the guards to get to the bomb and deactivate it, Octopussy grabs one of the guards' guns and shoots the lock off the bomb's case so that Bond can get to it and disarm it.
  • Shoot the Dog: Poor Vijay.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Show Some Leg:
    • Bond encourages the two parachutists holding him prisoner in the back of a truck to check out the beautiful woman driving up beside them and pulling up her skirt. The woman is a fellow MI6 agent and Bond seizes the opportunity to pull the rip cords of the guard's parachutes while they're Distracted by the Sexy, causing them to get yanked off the back of the trunk.
    • Octopussy's Amazon Brigade dress up as Bedlah Babes and dance for Kamal's guards so they won't notice their colleagues entering elsewhere. Ironically Kamal's not bothered by his guards being distracted because it gives him a chance to slip out of his palace unnoticed. At the right moment the dancing girls knock out the guards and join the others in Storming the Castle.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Though he later engages in Ham-to-Ham Combat, Gogol literally rolls his eyes when Orlov is describing his invasion plan.
  • Side Boob: The opening segment's Bond Girl gives a healthy amount of this during her Distracted by the Sexy.
  • Skinny Dipping: When Bond first arrives on Octopussy's island, he's able to see her swimming in her pool in the nude.
  • Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Notoriously erratic in its placement. This is the only mass murder plot in the Bond franchise which is actually plausible (this was during a very tense period of the Cold War when Reagan's military buildup gave NATO the advantage, and Orlov is not a megalomaniac bent on world domination but rather a Well-Intentioned Extremist who thinks that what he's doing will legitimately help his country; as a high-ranking official of the Soviet military, he would have access to a nuclear warhead and the method in which it is smuggled in makes perfect sense), but most of the time Bond approaches it with the same silliness common of other Moore-era Bond films. Even during the moments when he genuinely seems to take things seriously, such as the scene in which he defuses the bomb, the seriousness is brought down by other factors; in this scene, it's the fact that he's wearing a clown costume (it completely Makes Sense In Context, and was a legitimate disguise for where he was, what was happening and where he needed to go, but it's still really silly).
  • Smooch of Victory: Q gets showered with kisses when he drops his balloon on a mook about to shoot the Amazon Brigade.
  • Smug Snake: Kamal Khan actually doesn't seem to realize he's just a henchman.
  • Snake Charmer: Bond's contact Vijay is posing as a snake charmer in the marketplace. He then comments that it is a really bad cover, as he hates snakes.
  • The Sociopath: An unhinged brute and maniac to boot, General Orlov isn't bothered by the fact that his intended bombing of a US base will kill thousands of civilians and trigger World War III.
  • Something Else Also Rises: There is a scene where Bond is in bed with a broken leg, which is suspended in the air in a sling. As he and Octopussy kiss, the camera cuts to a shot of his leg slowly rising.
  • Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: General Orlov uses a computer display to show how quickly Soviet forces will be able to overwhelm western Europe if he is allowed to implement his invasion plans. Of course, from Orlov's perspective, this is not a disaster but a triumph, but the rest of the military council thinks he is insane.
  • Stab the Picture: When Kamal Khan hires some thugs to murder Bond, he gives them a photo of Bond, and a thug with a yoyo-buzzsaw shreds the picture with the saw.
  • Steam Never Dies: Octopussy's circus train is pulled by a steam locomotive. The train's origin in East Germany justifies it as the Deutsche Reichsbahn still used steam until 1988, five years after the film's release.
  • Stock Scream:
    • Heard in the Moore-era films. When Bond and Gobinda are fighting outside the plane and uses the antennae to knock him off. This same scream is heard both in A View to a Kill and Moonraker.
    • Another butchered Wilhelm Scream can be heard near the end when Kamal's plane is about to crash.
  • Stop, or I Will Shoot!: Subverted. When General Orlov chases the train over the inner-German border on foot, one of the GDR border guards orders him to stop via megaphone. When he doesn't comply, another guard with an AK-47 immediately shoots him (before being motioned to stop by Gogol). This policy was infamously Truth in Television, by the way; the border was called the 'death strip' for a reason.
  • Storming the Castle: With the Amazon Brigade.
  • Stuka Scream: The BD-5 Acrostar in the opening scene and Kamal's plane at the end.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Bond is attempting to stop a train carrying a nuclear bomb. A fight on top of the train with Grishka ends with them both falling off. Bond survives and disposes of Grishka... except he is now miles away from the bomb and alone without recourse to his usual gadgets and vehicles. He has great difficulty hitching a lift, has no way of contacting any authorities (no-one is going to break off their phone conversation to let a madman raving about a bomb use the public phone) and a botched attempt at carjacking merely brings the West German police force down on him.
    • Orlov chases the train as it crosses the inner-German border. He apparently thought that as a Soviet general, the East German border guards would easily let him through, but they instead mistake him for a defector and kill him.
    • Gogol and the Soviet Politburo criticize Orlov for his plan to invade Western Europe and weaken NATO, aware that NATO wouldn't go down without a fight, and that Orlov's plan would end up annihilating everyone on both sides and leaving no victors in the end. Gogol also holds Orlov in great contempt, feeling that his thirst for power is dangerous even by itself.
  • Suspect Is Hatless: When Bond speeds through the Air Base's security checkpoint:
    Security guard: Captain, some nut went through here in a stolen car! Wants the base commander, and he's wearing a red shirt!
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A new M apparently makes his debut in this story. No-one mentions what happened to the previous one, and no line of dialogue even acknowledges that this M is a different person, which has caused many to claim that this is actually a case of The Other Darrin, and that it's still the original M but with a different actor playing him. There's also the theory that the new M is really Admiral Hargreaves, actor Robert Brown's character from The Spy Who Loved Me. Note that this was because Bernard Lee had died of cancer; his illness had precluded him from appearing in the previous film For Your Eyes Only. M was absent entirely from that one, stated to be on leave, but here they had to get a new actor.
  • Supervillain Lair: The Soviet Politburo's marble conference room, complete with a giant map of the world and rotating table, has to count, even if they themselves are not supervillains.
  • Tap on the Head: Averted. Bond dropping the human cannonball’s cannon onto Mischka’s head proves fatal.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: The American general in the circus tent when the lock is shot off and the nuclear warhead revealed with only 14 seconds left, showing that the madman in a clown outfit was right all along. His expression and demeanour when he orders his men to let Bond try to disarm it shows that he considers himself and everyone around him to already be dead.
  • Thriller on the Express: Bond tries to get to Octopussy, but he gets chased by Kamal Khan's right-hand man, Gobinda.
  • Throwing Off the Disability: Bond, at the very end of the film, when he shows Octopussy that his leg has already healed in his own, Bond-like fashion.
  • Time Bomb: The nuclear warhead, which has a timer attached to it. When Octopussy shoots the lock of the casing off and reveals it to everyone present, the timer has only 14 seconds left.
  • Title Drop:
    • Well, the main Bond Girl's nickname is Octopussy, but the first instance:
    Bond: [looking at Magda's tattoo, on the small of her back] What is that?
    Magda: That's my little Octopussy.
    • The title of the other short story this film is adapted from is also dropped: "The Property of a Lady".
    • Averted with the theme song. The song is titled "All Time High", and the word "Octopussy" cannot be found in the lyrics at all. (Chris Cornell, who wrote a later Bond theme, has declared that "Nobody wrote a song called ‘Octopussy’ but I think that was a mistake! They had a great opportunity and they squandered it." Of course, his Bond title theme, "You Know My Name", did not have the title (Casino Royale) in it either.)
      • The song isn't completely out of place for the movie, however. At one point, Bond mentions to Octopussy that they're "two of a kind"; one of the song's lyrics echos this.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The least Gobinda could do, judging by his expression, was to wear a parachute. That is, of course, if they had one on board...
  • Trademark Favourite Food: Kamal Khan, eater of sheep's eyes.
  • Traintop Battle:
    • Bond has to fight Gobinda and Grishka on top of Octopussy's circus train.
    • While Kamal Khan attempts to flee with Octopussy in a prop airplane, he sends Gobinda outside the airborne craft to dispose of Bond, who is clinging to the outer fuselage in a rescue effort. Gobinda and Bond face off while belly-crawling atop the fuselage.
  • Tranquillizer Dart: Used by Octopussy's mooks. After all, they're thieves, not hardened killers.
  • Translation Convention: The meeting of the Soviet Politburo appears to be conducted entirely in English.
  • Unconventional Vehicle Chase: Bond rides an auto rickshaw through a bazaar in Delhi, chased by Kamal Khan's thugs in a jeep and an auto rickshaw of their own.
  • Understatement:
    • How do you tell the audience of a circus that they were barely seconds from being in the epicentre of a nuclear detonation? "Ladies and Gentlemen, we had an emergency..."
    • Meanwhile, Kamal and Gobinda are advised that it would be a good idea to be at least 20 miles away from the blast. The looks on their faces basically are "No shit, Sherlock".
  • Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Grishka pins Bond down to the wooden door with precise knife throws. When he's about to throw the fatal blade, Bond opens the door, Mishka stumbles and falls, and Bond throws one of his knives at him.
  • Villain Ball: Bond finds himself trapped in a Knife Outline by Grishka, the remaining half of a pair of knife-throwing twins, whose brother Mishka had been killed by Bond earlier. Grishka has one knife remaining, so what does he do? He tells Bond "And this for my brother!", and charges towards Bond! Bond manages to take one of the knives out of the outline and throws it at Grishka, adding "And that's for 009!"
  • A Villain Named Khan: The Big Bad is the Wicked Cultured Kamal Khan.
  • Vine Swing: Bond infamously does this while being pursued by Kamal Khan and his hunting party through the jungle in India, complete with the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan yell.
  • The War Room: We get a rare look at the Soviet War Room.
  • Weapon Running Time: During the Bond Opening Sequence, Bond uses the fact that his jet is almost as fast as the pursuing missile to extend the missile's flight time long enough to guide it into the hangar where the radar unit he was sent to destroy is located. The explosion of the missile accomplishes his mission.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Orlov thinks of himself as a patriot doing what must be done to give his country a major strategic advantage over the West. With his dying words he claims that he will soon be thought of as a Hero of the Soviet Union.
  • We've Got Company:
    Bond: Vijay, we've got company.
    Vijay: No problem, this is a company car!
  • Wham Line: During the confrontation between Orlov and Bond after Bond states there will be a retaliatory nuclear attack for detonating a warhead on an American base in West Germany:
    Orlov: Against whom?
  • Why Won't You Die?: When Kamal encounters Bond at Octopussy's base.
    Kamal: You have a nasty habit of surviving.
    Bond: Well, you know what they say about the fittest.
  • Wicked Cultured: Kamal Khan as the Meaningful Name implies, is a prince and owns a Monsoon Palace.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Orlov and Khan's willingness to see countless innocents killed by nuking a US military base in West Germany by using Octopussy's circus as a cover. The worst part? The potential casualties will include women and children.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Gobinda's reaction, though not uttered literally, to Kamal telling him to go outside the plane to fight Bond while 30,000 feet up.
    Gobinda: Out there?!
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kamal and General Orlov have no intention of telling Octopussy or her girls they'll be ground zero of a nuke they planted.
  • You Have to Believe Me!: Bond is trying to convince the general of the US airbase that he's a British agent and there's a nuclear bomb hidden in the base of the cannon. The fact that he's dressed as a clown and ran the checkpoint at the airbase entrance is not helping, and he's assumed to be a nutcase. Meanwhile Magda is whispering in Octopussy's ear that Bond is trying to expose their smuggling operation. Bond is in the process of being dragged away by base security when Octopussy grabs a gun from one of them and proceeds to Shoot Out the Lock on the cannon's base. The doors fly open, and everyone gasps in horror at the sight of a digital timer counting down.
  • You Killed My Father: Subverted. Octopussy is actually grateful to Bond for allowing her father to commit suicide, as it saved her father the shame of a court martial (Bond was tasked with arresting him, and was giving him 24 hours to clear up his affairs — he might not have known he'd kill himself, but it would have been implied).
  • You're Insane!: When General Orlov discusses his plan to invade Western Europe to his bosses, General Gogol and the Politburo immediately call him out, knowing it'll trigger World War III and that Orlov is only doing it for the sake of personal glory.

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Bond Goes Tarzan

Bond infamously does this while being pursued by Kamal Khan and his hunting party through the jungle in India, complete with the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan yell.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

Example of:

Main / VineSwing

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