It’s been a long time since I saw this one. Wikipedia summary it is. Followed by my thoughts.
International criminal organisation SPECTRE seeks revenge against MI6 agent James Bond for the death of their agent Dr. No in Jamaica.[Notes 1] SPECTRE’s chief planner, Czechoslovak chess grandmaster Kronsteen, devises a plan to lure Bond into a trap, using as bait the prospects of procuring a Lektor cryptography device from the Soviet Union‘s consulate in Istanbul. SPECTRE operative Rosa Klebb, a former head of SMERSH (Soviet counter-intelligence), is assigned to oversee the mission and chooses trained killer Donald Grant to assassinate Bond at the right moment. To set the trap, Klebb recruits a cipher clerk at the consulate, Tatiana Romanova, to unwittingly assist in the plan, tricking Romanova into believing Klebb is still working for SMERSH.
In London, Bond is called to a meeting with M and informed that Tatiana has requested Bond’s help to defect to the West, in exchange for providing British intelligence with a Lektor. Exactly as Kronsteen predicted, M suspects a trap but decides to honour Tatiana’s request. Before departing, Bond is equipped with a special briefcase from Q Branch, containing several defensive gadgets and an ArmaLite AR-7 sniper rifle, to help on his assignment. Upon arriving in Istanbul, Bond works alongside the head of MI6’s branch in the city, Ali Kerim Bey, while he awaits word from Tatiana. Grant is shadowing Bond to protect him until he steals the Lektor. During this time, Kerim Bey is attacked by Soviet agent Krilencu. After an attack on the men while they hide out at a gypsy settlement, Kerim Bey assassinates Krilencu with Bond’s help before he can flee the city.
Eventually, Tatiana meets Bond at his hotel suite, where she agrees to provide plans to the consulate to help him steal the Lektor. The pair spend the night together, unaware that Klebb and Grant are filming them. Upon receiving the consulate’s floor plans and a description of the Lektor from Romanova, the latter which MI6 confirms, Bond and Kerim Bey make and execute a plan to steal the Lektor, before all three make haste to escape the city aboard the Orient Express. Aboard, Kerim Bey and Bond subdue Commissar Benz, a Soviet security officer. While Bond returns to Tatiana to wait for their rendezvous with one of Kerim Bey’s sons, Grant kills both Kerim Bey and Benz. Angered, Bond questions Romanova’s true motives.
When the train arrives in Belgrade, Bond informs one of Kerim Bey’s sons of his father’s death and receives instructions to rendezvous with a British agent named Nash at Zagreb. However, Grant overhears the conversation, kills Nash and assumes his identity. He drugs Tatiana at dinner and overpowers Bond. He reveals that Tatiana was a pawn in SPECTRE’s plan; he intends to kill both her and Bond, staging it as a murder-suicide and leaving behind faked blackmail evidence which will scandalise the British intelligence community. Bond tricks Grant into setting off a booby trap in Bond’s attache-case before the two engage in a fight and Bond kills Grant. Taking the Lektor and the film of their night together, Bond and Romanova leave the train in Istria, Yugoslavia and use Grant’s escape plan. They evade helicopter and boat attacks by SPECTRE agents before reaching safety.
Learning of Grant’s death and Bond’s survival, SPECTRE’s enigmatic chairman, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has Kronsteen executed for his plan’s disastrous failure. As the organisation promised to sell back the Lektor to the Russians, Klebb is ordered to recover it and kill Bond. Klebb reaches the pair, while they are resting in a hotel in Venice, and comes to their room disguised as a maid. Klebb orders Tatiana to leave the room while holding Bond at gunpoint. Tatiana then re-enters, tackling Klebb and knocking the pistol to the floor. Klebb and Bond struggle as Klebb attempts to stab Bond with a venom-tipped blade in one of her shoes. Tatiana picks up the pistol and kills Klebb. With their mission accomplished, Bond and Tatiana spend some time on a romantic boat ride.
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- Upon reading this plot summary I believe I slept through most of this.
- Same plot as last time.
- More gadgets
- Good use of time for napping.