You Only Live Twice

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You Only Live Twice was the twelfth novel by Ian Fleming featuring spy James Bond. It was published in 1964, around the time that Fleming died. It was later adapted as the fifth movie in the James Bond movie franchise, which was released in 1967 and starred Sean Connery as Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was made by EON Productions. The screenplay was written by Roald Dahl.

The film was the first Bond movie to deviate heavily from the source material. Other than the setting of Japan and several of the characters, the two stories are very different.

The novel

Plot summary

1965 paperback edition by Pan Books.

Bond, his career fading following the murder of his wife by Blofeld, is given the choice of being fired or promoted to a special branch of the MI6. He is given the new number 7777 and assigned a "milk run" assignment in Japan. While there, he discovers the whereabouts of his nemesis Blofeld, who is operating a "Garden of Death" where people come to commit suicide, whether they want to or not. Bond ultimately defeats Blofeld, but suffers an injury that leaves him with amnesia and the rest of the world believing he's dead as the novel ends. It has been suggested that Fleming had chosen to retire Bond with this novel, but later changed his mind and wrote The Man with the Golden Gun.

The novel completed what is known as the Blofeld Trilogy which includes Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and in the book series this marked the final appearance of Blofeld. A later novel by John Gardner entitled For Special Services would see the return of Blofeld's organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E..

This is the only Fleming novel in which Bond is given a designation other than 007. He was never again referred to as 7777, and by the next novel had returned to his 00 status.

Near the end of the book is a mock obituary for Bond which features the majority of the biographical background regarding Bond that exists from Fleming. This includes his parents' names and their fate, and background regarding his Royal Navy service. Most notably, the obituary makes reference to a series of "sensationalistic novels" written about his exploits - a clear reference to Fleming's own work, and the source of rumors that Bond was based on a real person. A later book, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 would be based upon this premise.

Decades later, Raymond Benson wrote a short story entitled "Blast from the Past" which was essentially a sequel to this novel.

Comic strip adaptation

Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from May 18, 1965 to January 8, 1966. The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky and was the final James Bond strip for Gammidge, while McClusky would return to illustrating the strip in the 1980s. The strip was reprinted by Titan Books in 2004.

This adaptation features two outstanding elements. During a segment featuring Bond's obituary and the mention of the "sensationalistic novels" written about Bond's adventures (as in the novel's plot summary, above), artist McLusky uses actual covers of Fleming's books. The adaptation also goes beyond Fleming's novel, revealing that Bond fathered a child with Kissy Suzuki during his life in the fishing village. This plot element, something that does not originate in Fleming's work, would be featured by Raymond Benson in his sequel short story, "Blast from the Past" decades later.

The film

Plot summary

A mysterious spacecraft captures and steals manned spacecraft from both the United States and the Soviet Union. Thinking that each other is the cause for their loss, the world is thrown to the brink of war. However, the United Kingdom government believes the mystery craft landed in the Sea of Japan which indicates that a Japanese element may be involved instead.

James Bond, after participating in a charade to fake his death, is sent to Japan to investigate this suspicion in conjunction with the Japanese intelligence service led by "Tiger" Tanaka in an effort to stave off possible nuclear war. Together, the combined service find the real villain behind this plot is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his evil organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. with Red China providing financing in an effort to have the super powers destroy each other so the plotters can rule supreme over what survives.

Bond manages to infiltrate the secret launch base hidden in a hollowed out volcano, while his female partner is sent back to alert Tanaka. However, Bond is caught before he could stop the final phase of the plan, and is brought before Blofeld. Meanwhile, Tanaka and his elite force of ninjas attempt to enter the base through the volcano's upper crater hatch. Unfortunately, they are spotted and Blofeld has the crater's sentry guns open up on them. All seems hopeless until Bond manages to open the crater hatch, allowing Tanaka's troops enter in force for an all out attack on the base.

In the ensuing battle, Bond manages to enter the launch control and destroy the SPECTRE craft before it could capture another US capsule and spark a war.

Although the film is not the first completely original Bond film (elements such as Bond's infiltration of a Japanese fishing village, and much of Tanaka's character come directly from the book), the film is the first Bond movie to diverge in a substantial way from the original book, in part due to the fact that it was produced prior to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The screenplay was written by Roald Dahl.

Cast & characters

• James Bond - Sean Connery
• M - Bernard Lee
• Miss Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell
• Q - Desmond Llewelyn
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Donald Pleasence
• Helga Brandt - Karin Dor
• Aki - Akiko Wakabayashi
• Kissy Suzuki - Mie Hama
• Mr. Osato - Teru Shimada
• Tiger Tanaka - Tetsuro Tamba

The film also included Charles Gray who played the role of Dikko Henderson. Charles Gray would later go on to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever.

Crew

• Directed by: Lewis Gilbert
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Written by: Ian Fleming
• Screenplay by: Roald Dahl
• Cinematography by: Freddie Young
• Composed by: John Barry
• Second unit director: Peter R. Hunt

Soundtrack

Original You Only Live Twice soundtrack cover

The soundtrack was composed by Bond veteran, John Barry. At the time, this was his fourth credited Bond film. The theme song, You Only Live Twice, was sung by Nancy Sinatra. In 1998, Robbie Williams sampled the title song "You Only Live Twice" for his #1 song "Millennium" Williams has often been mentioned by some fans as a possible Bond in future movies.

Track listing

1. You Only Live Twice (Title Song) — Nancy Sinatra
2. Capsule In Space
3. Fight At Kobe Dock-Helga
4. Tanaka's World
5. A Drop In The Ocean
6. The Death Of Aki
7. Mountains And Sunsets
8. The Wedding
9. James Bond - Astronaut?
10. Countdown For Blofeld
11. Bond Averts World War Three
12. You Only Live Twice (End Title) — Nancy Sinatra

Seven tracks were later added to the more recent versions of the soundtrack as bonus tracks.

1. James Bond In Japan
2. Aki, Tiger And Osato
3. Little Nellie
4. Soviet Capsule
5. Spectre And Village
6. James Bond - Ninja
7. Twice Is The Only Way To Live

Vehicles & gadgets

• Toyota 2000GT convertible - Owned by Aki. Two prototype convertibles were built especially for the film; no others were made.
• Little Nellie - A heavily armed gyrocopter that could be transported in several cases and could be quickly assembled in the field.
• Shooting Cigarette - Tiger gives Bond a cigarette capable of shooting a projectile. Used in Blofeld's volcano.
• Safecracker - A small device that can easily be carried in a jacket pocket and works by attaching it to a safe the operator wants to open. With it properly positioned, the user needs only to turn the combination dial and the device would light up a series of lights as each correct number on the combination dial is found until the entire series is revealed to open the safe. However, Bond finds out the hard way that gadget is not designed to defeat a safe's other security functions, such as alarms.

See Also

• List of James Bond vehicles
• List of James Bond gadgets

Locations

• Hong Kong
• Tokyo, Japan
• Hawaii
• Cape Cod

See also

• Hong Kong in films

External links

• You Only Live Twice (1967) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM's site on the movie
• Ian Fleming bibliography of first editions - illustrated

de:Man lebt nur zweimal nl:You Only Live Twice ja:007は二度死ぬ