[Quick Summary: Bond and a female Russian operative search for missing submarines with nuclear warheads, leading them to the villain's underwater lair.]
I like sight gags, especially when they can be combined with call backs and foreshadowing, so the audience knows more than the characters.
Early in this script, the villain Stromberg fed his traitorous assistant to the sharks.
Later, when Bond meets Stromberg, there is a sight gag (below). It is also:
- a call back to the early scene,
- a foreshadowing of what Stromberg has in store for Bond,
- a clue to Bond there is danger ahead (an increase in the stakes).
INT. SITTING ROOM - ATLANTIS - DAY
...STROMBERG moves slowly round the room. BOND goes with him.
STROMBERG: I'm somewhat of a recluse. I wish to conduct my life on my own terms - and in surroundings with which I can identify. That is a privilege of wealth.
BOND: You don't miss the outside world?
STROMBERG: For me, this is all the world.
He points to a shoal of beautiful, brightly coloured fish in the tank they are opposite.
STROMBERG: There is beauty...
He points to a hideously ugly fish.
STROMBERG: There is ugliness.
We see a fish with a head of a small fish protruding from its mouth.
STROMBERG: And there is death.
As he turns away, the menacing grey shadow of a shark appears behind the glass with a glimpse of murderous teeth. BOND watches it as it swoops down and up again, seeming to direct BOND's attention to the bottom of the tank. Lying there is a female hand with, on it, the rings and bracelets we have seen worn by the ASSISTANT. BOND turns at the sound of STROMBERG'S VOICE behind him.
STROMBERG (overlaid): I think you will find this interesting, Mr. Sterling.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked the multiple layers of meaning to this one sight gag.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)(final shooting script, 8/23/76)
by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum
Based on the novel by Ian Fleming
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