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The James Bond series of novels and films feature some of the most memorable titles in entertainment history. They typically include some sort of reference to the title within the adventure, sometimes resorting to clever (and occasionally awkward) lengths to do this. Here are some of the title references:
[edit] Ian Fleming titles
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- Casino Royale
- Fleming's novel, Casino Royale, as well as its three screen adaptations: the 1954 television episode, the 1967 film spoof, and the 2006 film, all take place at the "Casino Royale." With the exception of the 2006 film, the casino is located in the fictional town "Royale-les-Eaux," which is located in Northern France. The casino in the 2006 film is located in Montenegro. The first U.S. paperback edition of Casino Royale was retitled You Asked For It; there is no reference in the story to this title.
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- Live and Let Die
- In the novel the title is mentioned by Bond when Captain Dexter says their policy on Mr. Big, the villain, is "live and let live". Bond retorts saying that in his business it's "live and let die". At one point Fleming favoured the title "The Undertaker's Wind", which later became the title for the seventeenth chapter. The film doesn't really make any reference to the title, however, during a scene in the film when Bond is at the Fillet Of Soul restaurant, a woman performs the theme song, "Live and Let Die", on stage.
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- Moonraker
- Moonraker wasn't the first choice by Fleming for this adventure. In fact Fleming first suggested: "The Infernal Machine", and later "The Inhuman Element", or "Wide of the Mark". The publishers, however, favoured "The Moonraker Sense", "The Moonraker Plan", or "Bond & The Moonraker". Other titles that are known to have been suggested include: "Mondays are Hell", "Hell is Here", "The Moonraker", "The Moonraker Plot", "The Moonraker Secret", "Out of the Clear Sky", and "Too Hot to Handle". Ultimately, it was Fleming who settled on "Moonraker". For unknown reasons, Moonraker's title for the first U.S. paperback publication by Permabooks in 1956 was changed to Too Hot to Handle, one of the working titles; there is no reference to this title in the story. In the novel, Moonraker is Hugo Drax's missile project that is being built to defend Britain against its Cold War enemies. In the film, it is the name of Drax's space shuttle fleet. Upon the film's release, a novelisation by Christopher Wood was released titled James Bond and Moonraker.
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- Diamonds Are Forever
- In the novel, the title are words that are engraved on a gold tablet that is on display in a window of the London branch of the Spangs' "House of Diamonds". The title is actually not used in the film, but the phrase does appear on a magazine Bond reads in Die Another Day.
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- From Russia with Love
- The title is actually not used in the novel, although it does reference Russia's attempt at luring Bond to Istanbul where they would exact their revenge. The film makes a more blatant reference, first as a song playing over a radio, and later Bond writes the phrase on a photograph of Tatiana Romanova for Miss Moneypenny as he is leaving the office. The video game adaption also mentions the title as Bond says "I'll bring it back, from Russia with love."
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- Dr. No
- For both the novel and the film, Dr. No, the title comes from the villain Dr. Julius No. In the latter, the title is first seen on a file folder and first spoken later by Felix Leiter. In the May 1962 issue of Stag, the story was serialised as "Nude Girl Of Nightmare Key." According to Henry Chancellor, the original title was "The Wound Man."[1]
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- Goldfinger
- For both the novel and the film, the title comes from the villain Auric Goldfinger. The character is actually a jab at the architect Ernő Goldfinger who had built his home in Hampstead next door to Fleming's; Fleming disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and "destruction of Victorian terraces" and decided to name a villain after him. The original title for the novel is said to be "The Richest Man in the World", a reference to Goldfinger's ambition of stealing all the gold in Fort Knox which would have made him the richest. In the novel, Goldfinger is the richest man in the UK.
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- "From a View to a Kill"
- The title to Fleming's short story which is found in the For Your Eyes Only collection is taken from a version of the words to a traditional hunting song, "D'ye ken John Peel?": "From a find to a check, from a check to a view,/ From a view to a kill in the morning". In the story, it is a reference to Bond hunting down a Russian agent who had killed a dispatch-rider from SHAPE. Originally, it is said that it was to be titled "The Rough with the Smooth" (the original title of the collection), and by some accounts there is evidence of this in Fleming's typescript that was eventually deleted for the final published story. The title, "From A View to a Kill" was later used for the 1985 Bond film, A View to a Kill. Originally, the film was to be titled the same as the short story, but was changed just prior to release. The title is actually stated in the film and is considered one of the most awkward incorporations of a Bond film title to date. From an airship the henchwoman May Day looks down at San Francisco (Silicon Valley) and says: "Wow! What a view!" The villain Max Zorin follows this up with the line: "To a kill!", a reference to the fact that Silicon Valley is the target in their scheme.
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- For Your Eyes Only
- For Your Eyes Only is both the title of an Ian Fleming short story and the title for a short story collection. The collection was initially titled "The Rough with the Smooth". Additionally, the collection is subtitled "Five Secret Occasions in the Life of James Bond" in the UK and "Five Secret Exploits of James Bond" in the U.S. The short story itself was originally titled: "Man's Work", and later "Rough Justice" and "Death Leaves an Echo". The first unused title, "Man's Work", is in reference to Bond being asked by M to voluntarily kill Herr von Hammerstein for killing a Jamaican couple who were close friends of his. When Bond arrives to do just that, Judy Havelock, the couple's daughter is there and eventually kills Hammerstein. In the film, the title is seen on a file folder. It is later said by Melina Havelock before she and Bond go skinny dipping.
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- "Quantum of Solace"
- Another short story. It is a reference to an anecdote that Bond hears at a dinner party. Basically, it is defined as the last remaining element in a relationship after love has died, before the inevitable split. This is the title of the twenty-second Bond film.
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- "Risico"
- Another short story, the title has never been used for a film, although the story itself was used in the film For Your Eyes Only. It was originally spelt: "Risiko." It is used in the opening line of the short story by Aristotle Kristatos, who says: "In this pizniss is much risico."
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- "The Hildebrand Rarity"
- Another short story, the title has never been used for a film. The title is in reference to a rare fish that Bond attempts to find with Milton Krest, his wife, and Bond's friend Fidele Barbey while on holiday in the Seychelles Islands.
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- Thunderball
- In both the novel and the film, M dubs the mission to retrieve two stole atomic bombs "Operation Thunderball".
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- The Spy Who Loved Me
- In the novel, which is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of the lead female character, Vivienne Michel, Bond is "the spy" and "me" refers to the Bond girl. The title is not used in the film except as a lyric in the theme song, although the theme song itself breaks tradition by being the first since Dr. No used an opening medley to have a different title to that of the film. This was done again for Octopussy (title song: All Time High) and once more for Casino Royale (You Know My Name). In the film of The Spy Who Loved Me, "the spy" and "me" alternate as references to either Bond or his Russian counterpart, Anya Amasova – he being the spy in the song lyrics, while the accompanying title sequence is clearly showing it the other way round. Upon the film's release, a novelisation by Christopher Wood was released titled James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me.
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- On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- The title is an obvious reference to the secret service, however, the story was at one point to be titled "The Belles Of Hell". In both the novel and the film Bond uses the phrase "her Majesty's secret service" when he is dictating his resignation from the secret service to Miss Moneypenny, and his father-in-law to be, Marc Ange Draco, similarly refers thus to MI6 later on in the film. The title, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is said to have come from a nineteenth century sailing novel seen by Fleming's friend Nicholas Henderson on a stall in the Portobello Road.
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- You Only Live Twice
- The title of the novel is often mistaken as being the work of a Japanese poet named Matsuo Bashō, however, the unique title comes from a haiku that James Bond writes for his friend Tiger Tanaka. In the novel it is mentioned that it isn't a haiku at all, that in actuality it is a failed attempt by Bond after being taught the basics for creating one. In the epigraph (and explained in the novel), the haiku is listed as being "after Basho", meaning written in the poet's style: "You only live twice: / Once when you're born, / And once when you look death in the face." For the film, Ernst Stavro Blofeld utters the phrase when he captures Bond. In this context it is a reference to Bond's faked death at the start of the film.
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- "Octopussy"
- "Octopussy" is a short story which is combined with another, "The Living Daylights" to form their collection's title: Octopussy and The Living Daylights, although there are currently other stories. The title, "Octopussy" is said to have come from a coracle owned by Blance Blackwell that was given to Fleming at his home in Jamaica. In the short story, "Octopussy" is the name of Major Dexter Smythe's pet octopus. For the film, the Bond girl is actually named "Octopussy", saying it was the nickname for her used by her father (Smythe). Magda, a henchwoman of the title character, also refers to her cult-member tattoo of an octopus as, "My little octopussy".
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- "The Living Daylights"
- For both the short story and the film, "The Living Daylights" is used in a quote by Bond after he shoots a would-be assassin's sniper rifle causing her to miss her mark. Bond says it must have "scared the living daylights out of her". The short story was originally titled "Trigger Finger", a reference to the assassin's nickname that Bond is supposed to kill. "The Living Daylights" has been reprinted at least twice under the title "Berlin Escape". The English idiom "the living daylights" is somewhat archaic and generally not used alone; "daylights" originally was slang for somebody's eyes in the eighteenth century, and the meaning has evolved to mean somebody's consciousness[1].
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- "The Property of a Lady"
- Another short story, the title has never been used for a film, although the story itself was used within the film Octopussy. In both the short story "The Property of a Lady" and the film Octopussy, the property in question is a Fabergé egg by Carl Fabergé that is being auctioned at Sotheby's – in the film, the title is printed on the catalogue and Bond notes, "There is a lady" as Magda enters. In the short story, the "lady" is instead Maria Freudenstein. The original title of the short story was "The Diamond Egg", and later "The Fabulous Pay-Off". The title was rumoured to have been selected as that of Timothy Dalton's planned but never produced third film.
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- "007 in New York"
- Another short story, the title has never been used for a film. Originally titled "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac", it was however first published under the name "Agent 007 in New York" in 1963, a year before being published under the final name.
[edit] Original film titles
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- Never Say Never Again
- Not used per se other than as a lyric in the theme song, but Bond says "Never again" at the end of the film, indicating his intention to retire. The title comes from Sean Connery who after filming Diamonds Are Forever claimed he would never play James Bond again. When he accepted the new offer, Connery's wife, Michelin, told him he should "never say never again." She is credited for coming up with the name in the end titles.
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- Licence to Kill
- M revokes Bond's licence to kill. The original title was "Licence Revoked", which was purported to have been changed due to the result of test screenings shown in the United States where the audience apparently misunderstood the use of the word "revoked" in the vernacular of the film.
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- GoldenEye
- Codename for a satellite mentioned several times. The name itself was taken from the name of Ian Fleming's estate in Jamaica where he had authored many of the Bond novels. Beyond that there are a number of theories for what his estate is named after including Fleming's own Operation Goldeneye, a strategic plan never used for World War II. It is also a reference to Carson McCullers' novel Reflections in a Golden Eye, which Fleming is said to have read prior to christening his estate, and a reference to "Orcabessa", the location of the estate which means 'head of gold' or 'golden head'.
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- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Not used in the film. The original title was to be "Tomorrow Never Lies", which refers to Elliot Carver's newspaper "Tomorrow", which essentially creates the news. The title was changed after a typo on a copy of the script was found. The producers liked the title and decided to adopt the mistake.
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- The World Is Not Enough
- The title actually derives from Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service when Bond attempts to search for noble blood in his family line as a cover for his meeting with Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Often mistaken as Bond's family motto, the actual motto in Latin, Orbis non sufficit, belonged to Sir Thomas Bond who was never proven to be of any relation to James Bond. It is assumed that because Bond did like the motto that he adopted it. In the film Bond utters the phrase, explaining that it is indeed his family motto.
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- Die Another Day
- Bond says to the main villain Gustav Graves, "So you live to die another day," a reference to the beginning of the film when the villain was thought to have died, also a reference to the poem A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman that includes the line, "But since the man that runs away/Lives to die another day".
[edit] References
- ^ Chancellor, Henry (2005). James Bond: The Man and His World. John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-6815-3.
