The Spy Who Loved Me

Not to be confused with The Spy Who Dumped Me.

The Spy Who Loved Me
Directed by	Lewis Gilbert
Produced by	Albert R. Broccoli
Screenplay by	Christopher Wood Richard Maibaum
Based on	James Bond by Ian Fleming
Starring	Roger Moore Barbara Bach Curt Jürgens
Music by	Marvin Hamlisch
Cinematography	Claude Renoir
Edited by	John Glen
Studio	Eon Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Running time	125 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
Rating
Budget	$13.5 million
Box office	$185.4 million
Preceded by	The Man with the Golden Gun
Followed by	Moonraker

The Spy Who Loved Me is a 1977 spy film and the tenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. Barbara Bach and Curd Jürgens co-star. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum.

The film takes its title from Ian Fleming's novel The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth book in the James Bond series, though it does not contain any elements of the novel's plot. The storyline involves a reclusive megalomaniac named Karl Stromberg, who plans to destroy the world and create a new civilisation under the sea. Bond teams up with a Russian agent, Anya Amasova, to stop Stromberg.

It was shot on location in Egypt (Cairo and Luxor) and Italy (Costa Smeralda, Sardinia), with underwater scenes filmed at the Bahamas (Nassau), and a new soundstage built at Pinewood Studios for a massive set which depicted the interior of a supertanker. The Spy Who Loved Me was well-received by critics, who saw the film as a return to form for the franchise. The soundtrack composed by Marvin Hamlisch also met with success. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards amid many other nominations and novelised in 1977 by Christopher Wood as James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me.

Plot

A British and a Soviet ballistic-missile submarine suddenly vanish. James Bond MI6 agent 007 is summoned to investigate. On the way to his briefing, Bond escapes an ambush by a squad of Soviet agents in Austria, killing one during a downhill ski chase and evading the others. The plans for a highly advanced submarine tracking system are being offered in Egypt. There, Bond encounters Major Anya Amasova – KGB agent Triple X – as a rival for the microfilm plans. They travel across Egypt together, encountering Jaws a tall assassin with razor-sharp steel teeth{ along the way. Bond and Amasova reluctantly join forces after a truce is agreed by their respective British and Soviet superiors. They uncover evidence linking the plans to shipping tycoon and reclusive scientist Karl Stromberg.

While travelling by train to Stromberg's base in Sardinia, Bond saves Amasova from Jaws, and their cooling rivalry turns to affection. Posing as a marine biologist and his wife, they visit Stromberg's base and discover that he had launched a mysterious new supertanker, the Liparus, nine months previously. As they leave the base, a henchman on a motorcycle featuring a rocket sidecar, Jaws in a car, and Naomi, an assistant/pilot of Stromberg in an attack helicopter, chase them, but Bond and Amasova escape underwater when his car – a Lotus Esprit from Q Branch – converts into a submarine. Jaws survives a spectacular car crash, and Naomi is killed when Bond fires a sea-air missile from his car which destroys her helicopter. While examining Stromberg's underwater Atlantis base, the pair confirms that he is operating the submarine tracking system and evade an attack by a group of Stromberg's minisubs. Back on land, Bond finds out that the Liparus, after being fitted out nine months ago, has never visited any known port or harbour. Amasova discovers that Bond killed her lover Sergei Barsov (as shown at the beginning of the movie), and she vows to kill Bond as soon as their mission is complete.

Bond and Amasova board an American submarine, USS Wayne, to examine the Liparus, but the submarine is captured by the tanker, which is revealed to be a three-bay floating submarine dock that holds the missing British and Soviet submarines. Stromberg sets his plan in motion: the simultaneous launching of nuclear missiles from the captured British and Soviet submarines to obliterate Moscow and New York City. This would trigger a global nuclear war, which Stromberg would survive in Atlantis, and subsequently a new civilization would be established underwater. He leaves for Atlantis with Amasova, but Bond escapes and frees the captured British, Russian and American sailors. They battle the Liparus crew and eventually breach the control room, only to learn from the dying captain of the Liparus that the commandeered British and Soviet submarines are primed to fire their missiles in only a few minutes. Bond tricks the submarines into firing the nukes at each other, destroying the subs and Stromberg's crews. The victorious submariners escape the sinking Liparus on the American submarine.

Wayne is ordered by the Pentagon to destroy Atlantis but Bond insists on rescuing Amasova first. He confronts and kills Stromberg but again encounters Jaws, whom he drops into a shark tank. However, Jaws kills the tiger shark and escapes. He is later seen swimming away from the carnage.

Bond and Amasova flee in an escape pod as Atlantis is sunk by torpedoes. Amasova picks up Bond's gun and points it at him, but then chooses not to kill him and the two embrace. The Royal Navy recovers the pod and the two spies are seen in an intimate embrace through its port window, to the astonishment of their superiors on the ship.

Cast

• Roger Moore as James Bond, British MI6 agent 007, assigned to investigate the theft of two submarines.
• Barbara Bach as Anya Amasova, a Soviet KGB agent XXX, also investigating the theft. Bach was cast only four days before principal photography began, and performed her audition expecting just a supporting role in the film.
• Curt Jürgens as Karl Stromberg, a megalomaniac planning to trigger World War III and destroy the world, then recreate a new civilisation underwater. Jürgens's casting was a suggestion of director Lewis Gilbert, who had worked with him before.
• Richard Kiel as Jaws, Stromberg's seemingly indestructible juggernaut of a henchman, afflicted with gigantism and having a set of metal teeth.
• Caroline Munro as Naomi, Stromberg's personal pilot and a would-be assassin. Munro's casting was inspired by an advertisement campaign she had made. Her voice was dubbed by an uncredited Barbara Jefford, who had previously dubbed Daniela Bianchi in From Russia with Love.
• Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray (credited as Minister of Defence). Keen would reprise the role in five more Bond films.
• Edward de Souza as Sheikh Hosein, an Arab sheikh and old friend of Bond; they were students at Cambridge University
• George Baker as Captain Benson, a British naval officer stationed at the Royal Navy's Faslane Naval Base in Scotland.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
• Walter Gotell as General Gogol, the head of the KGB and Amasova's boss. Gotell previously played Morzeny in From Russia with Love. Gotell would also reprise this role for five more Bond films.
• Vernon Dobtcheff as Max Kalba, an Egyptian nightclub owner and black market racketeer who possesses the microfilm and tries to encourage Bond and Amasova to bid for it.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q, MI6's head of research and development. He supplies Bond with unique vehicles and gadgets. Amasova refers to him as Major Boothroyd.
• Michael Billington as Sergei Barsov, Russian agent and Anya Amasova's lover. Billington had previously screentested for the role of Bond.
• Bernard Lee as M, the head of MI6.
• Shane Rimmer as Commander Carter, commanding officer of USS Wayne.
• Bryan Marshall as Commander Talbott, commanding officer of HMS Ranger.
• Nadim Sawalha as Aziz Fekkesh, a middle-man on the trail of the stolen microfilm.
• Robert Brown as Admiral Hargraves, a British Royal Navy official. Brown would later play M in four films from Octopussy to Licence to Kill.
• Sue Vanner as Log Cabin Girl, a Russian agent who sets a trap for 007 in the pre-credit sequence.

Other actors in smaller roles include Sydney Tafler as the Captain of the Liparus, Eva Rueber-Staier as Rubelvitch, General Gogol's secretary; Milton Reid as Sandor, one of Stromberg's thugs; Olga Bisera as Felicca, Fekkesh's glamorous associate; Valerie Leon as the hotel receptionist in Sardinia, Cyril Shaps as Professor Beckmann, Milo Sperber as Dr. Markovitz, Albert Moses as an Egyptian bartender, and Marilyn Galsworthy as Stromberg's treacherous secretary.

Nicholas Campbell, Bob Sherman, Murray Salem, John Truscott, Vincent Marzello, Garrick Hagon, Ray Jewers, and George Mallaby appear as USS Wayne crewmen. Kevin McNally, Jeremy Bulloch, Sean Bury, David Auker, Keith Buckley, and John Salthouse appear as HMS Ranger crewmen.

The assistant director for the Italian locations, Victor Tourjansky, had a cameo as a man drinking his wine as Bond's Lotus emerges from the beach. As an in-joke, he returned in similar appearances in another two Bond films shot in Italy, Moonraker (the Venice gondola sequence) and For Your Eyes Only (during the ski chase).