The Man with the Golden Gun (Blu-ray)

The Man with the Golden Gun

The pre-title sequence opens with an international assassin, Scaramanga, relaxing on a tropical beach with a woman, Andrea Anders, his lover. Scaramanga and Anders leave the beach, a short time later a gangster, Rodney, arrives and is met by Nick-Nack, a dwarf who works as a servant for Scaramanga. Rodney has been hired by Nick-Nack to kill Scaramanga, who has promised to leave everything he owns to his small servant. The gangster stalks Scaramanga through a funhouse-like wing of his home. Scaramanga has been caught without his gun and must find it first. He does so and is able to kill his would-be assassin first. Nick-Nack jovially tells Scaramanga he will find an adversary that will beat his master; the two seem to have an unspoken agreement that humors them both. Scaramanga picks up the gangster's gun and turns suddenly, shooting the fingers off a nearby wax dummy of James Bond.

MI6's top agent, James Bond, has been called to the office of his boss, M. M asks what Bond knows about Scaramanga, to which Bond recites a laundry list of characteristics, the most important being that Scaramanga charges $1 million per assassination, uses gold bullets marked with then name of his target and is known as "The Man with the golden gun." M shows Bond a gold bullet, assumed to be one of Scaramanga's, marked with Bond's service number, "007" and a partial fingerprint of the villain's. Bond is puzzled as to why anyone would want him killed and M orders him to travel to Beirut.

In Beirut, Bond speaks with an exotic dancer who is the last person to see a fellow agent 002 alive who had allegedly been killed by Scaramanga. Bond finds that the woman has kept the gold bullet since her lover's death and uses it as a lucky charm which she holds in her navel. A small group of thugs break into her dressing room and Bond, in the middle of kissing the woman's abdomen, swallows the bullet. He takes it back to Q who, along with an metallurgist, is able to identify the manufacturer, a man named Lazar who lives in Macau. Bond is sent there to investigate and, while threatening Lazar, is shown an order for more golden bullets to be delivered shortly. Bond accompanies Lazar to the drop point, a local casino, where they are picked up by Andrea Anders.

Bond trails Anders to Hong Kong but loses her at the hydrofoil port. He meets his assistant, Mary Goodnight. Bond finds out where Anders is staying and enters her hotel room and roughly interrogates her, citing the bullet sent to MI6 with his number on it. She admits she works for Scaramanga, both as a courier but also as his lover; Scaramanga, like a bullfighter, uses her for sex before he makes a kill. Bond also finds out that Scaramanga is due to be at the Bottoms Up exotic dancers club that night. While staking the club, Bond sees Nick-Nack nearby. As he watches, a man exits the club and is immediately shot by Scaramanga, who is hiding nearby. The man, Gibson, is a solar energy expert. Bond is arrested by Lieutenant Hip as a suspect in the murder. Hip takes Bond to the rusted hulk of the RMS Queen Elizabeth (actually ruined by fire in 1972) in Hong Kong harbor, which turns out to be MI6's base of Asian Operations; M is there. Bond is informed that Gibson's invention, the Solex Agitator, a small but powerful device used to convert solar energy into electricity, had been stolen from him immediately after the shooting. Scaramanga had been hired to kill Gibson by a Chinese gangster, Hai Fat. Because Fat had never met Scaramanga face-to-face, Bond is able to impersonate the killer; he even has Q supply him with a fake third nipple, one of Scaramanga's known physical characteristics.

Bond travels to Bangkok and Fat's home. Fat invites Bond back to his house for dinner that evening, however, Bond is unaware that Scaramanga himself is has already met with Fat in person. Fat arranges for Bond to be killed when he arrives. When Bond shows up at Fat's place, he is subdued and captured by Nick-Nack & two sumo wrestlers. Nick-Nack nearly stabs Bond but is stopped by Fat, who sends Bond to a nearby martial arts dojo. The class' best student engages Bond in combat but Bond defeats him and jumps through a window. Hip arrives with his nieces, who beat the students with their own skill at martial arts. When they jump in Hip's car, they take off without Bond, who must escape using a high-powered canal boat, chased by Thai long-tail boats, and comically assisted by a chance run-in with Sheriff Pepper (from Live and Let Die) who is vacationing in Thailand with his wife.

Back at Hai Fat's house Scaramanga kills the gangster (the gun he uses is assembled from personal items such as a ball point pen, cigarette lighter and a cuff link) and takes control of his assets. Bond plans to spend a romantic evening with Goodnight at their hotel room but they are interrupted by Anders. Bond sleeps with her and she confesses she is afraid of Scaramanga. She asks Bond to kill him. Bond says he will do so but only in exchange for the Solex. Bond goes to a kickboxing match where Anders is waiting. She is dead, having been killed in public by Scaramanga, who had discovered her betrayal. Scaramanga introduces himself to Bond, while Nick-Nack covers him with a tiny pistol. Scaramanga tells of his circus up-bringing, and warns Bond not to follow him, while Bond locates the Solex on the floor among the spilled contents of Anders' purse, and covertly passes it to Hip, disguised as a peanut seller. Hip passes the Solex to Goodnight, waiting outside. Scaramanga and Nick-Nack leave the arena, but find Goodnight trying to plant a tracking device in Scaramanga's car and lock her in the trunk. Bond pursues in a stolen car. He chases Scaramanga along a canal and nearly loses him when Scaramanga mysteriously appears on the other side of the water. Not able to find a suitable bridge nearby, Bond drives his car across a wrecked bridge, executing a corkscrew jump and landing on the other bank. Meanwhile, Scaramanga reaches a barn where his car is converted into a plane and takes off, Goodnight still in the trunk.

Goodnight's tracking unit informs MI6 and Bond that Scaramanga has returned to his private island off the coast of China (actually the Khao Phing Kan archipelago on the west coast of Thailand). Bond flies there under radar and lands. He is met by Nick-Nack and Scaramanga and given a tour of the facility. Scaramanga shows how the Solex provides power for his compound. Though he doesn't understand the science involved, Scaramanga knows the applications can extend to weapons; he destroys Bond's sea plane with a blast from a laser weapon in his control room. Scaramanga plans to hand over the Solex technology to whomever pays him the highest price for it. He also reveals that he has long desired to duel with Bond to see whom is the better marksman. Bond agrees to the match.

The two face off with Scaramanga stalking Bond through his compound and Nick-Nack keeping tabs on the match from a control console. After several minutes of both gunmen evading each other, Bond gains the advantage by taking the place of the wax dummy that resembles him; Scaramanga enters the room and is shot dead by Bond. In the meantime, Goodnight has subdued the bodyguard Scaramanga had posted in the electric generator room and the man falls into a vat of liquid nitrogen. The change in temperature upsets the balance needed to maintain production and the compound begins to self-destruct. Bond is able to regain the Solex and he and Goodnight escape the compound before its destruction.

To reach civilization, Bond takes Scaramanga's personal junk and leaves the island with Goodnight. On the boat, finally able to enjoy some romantic time alone, they are attacked by Nick-Nack, who begins a surprisingly furious battle with Bond. Bond is able to trap the diminutive servant in a suitcase and takes him on deck. When he returns, Goodnight is horrified, thinking that Bond threw the midget overboard, however, Bond has locked him in a small cage. As they begin their romantic encounter again, Bond and Goodnight are once again interrupted by a call from M, which the two ignore.