March 16, 2025
This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.
Never Say Never Again (1983, directed by Irvin Kershner)
Never Say Never Again has everything you want in a James Bond film; exotic locations and women, Blofeld, cool gadgets, stolen nukes, double entendres, sharks, and Sean Connery. After completing Diamonds are Forever in 1971 and saying he would never play 007 again, Connery was lured back into the role by producers Kevin McClory and Jack Schwartzman. Connery, at 52, was still younger than his Eon Productions counterpart Roger Moore, but the non-canonical Bond film, Connery’s last, would poke fun at the aging agent while still delivering classic Bond tropes.
The return of Ernst Blofeld and his white cat, who were killed off in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, serves to remind us that we are not in the official BCU (Bond Cinematic Universe). It does however bring back SPECTRE and the thrill of an evil global plot. Blofeld (played by Max von Sydow) directs billionaire businessman and SPECTRE Number 1 Maximillian Largo (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, who seems to have greatly inspired Elon Musk) to hijack some Navy nukes to extort the world. Sexy assassin SPECTRE Number 12 Fatima Blush is played by Playboy model Barbara Carrera, who passed up a role in Octopussy to work in a Connery Bond film. NSNA’s Bond “girl” was played by Kim Basinger, in the role that launched her career. While NSNA has a less polished feel than the Eon catalog, Irvin Kershner, director of the 1980 blockbuster The Empire Strikes Back, gave the film a tight pace as 007 hops around the world.
The film gives us a younger, more bureaucracy-bound M, and a Q who complains about the bureaucracy. When Bond enters Q’s lab, Q says, “Good to see you, Mr. Bond. Things’ve been awfully dull ’round here. Bureaucrats running the whole place. Everything done by the book. Can’t make a decision unless the computer gives you the go-ahead. Now you’re on this. I hope we’re going to have some gratuitous sex and violence!” And we get that and more, including a return to the Bahamas and the film debut of Mr. Bean’s Rowan Atkinson as Nigel Small-Fawcett.
While not in the “official” 007 catalog, let’s analyze it for fun.
Driver of Action – If you’ve got Sir Sean Connery, you might as well let him drive the whole damn film. From the first jungle battle scene to the last underwater fight scene, this is a James Bond film. We do get the return of CIA agent Felix Leiter (this time played by former San Francisco 49er Bernie Casy) who shows up 57 minutes into the film, but he’s in the usual minor support role. There are no real storylines that compete with the spectacle of 007.
Role of Violence – In the opening scene Bond kills a bunch of dudes with varying means (including a blowdart), but it’s revealed to be a training exercise. He does kill a would-be assassin with his urine (don’t ask) and later blows up Fatima Blush, leaving her smoking high heels on the ground. Old Bond fights a lot but you get the feeling that he’s just not cut out for the fisticuffs anymore.
Vulnerability – Much is made in the start of the film about James advanced age. He laments that M doesn’t have much use for “double O’s” anymore and that he’s “teaching not doing.” M sends him to a health farm to get fit and get rid of his “free radicals,” accusing him of, “too many dry Martinis.” Bond being Bond dutifully goes but smuggles in Beluga caviar, quails eggs, vodka, and foie gras.
Sexual Potency – Sean Connery fans paid for Classic Bond, so the women needed be laid out like a buffet. While the banter with Ms. Moneypenny is tepid (James: Still here, Moneypenny? You should be in bed. Moneypenny: James, we both should be!), James does bed four women in the film. The first is the chiropractor at the health farm, Nurse Patricia Fearing. Then he gets busy with Fatima Blush, on a boat in Nassau. (James: You’re marvelously well equipped. Fatima: Thank you, James. So are you.) Then he’s in the sack with some unnamed woman he met on a fishing boat. Finally, he ends up making sweet love to Kim Basinger’s character, Domino, on a Navy Submarine. In 1983 the AIDS epidemic was still largely confined to gay and IV subcultures, so this was probably our James’ last hurrah.
Connection – In this film we see James Bond wrestling with his age, but still not willing to let his guard down and open up. There is a glimpse at the end. Since two “boat sex” encounters were ticked off in the film, Never Say Never Again ends with James and Domino back in the Bahamas. Domino brings him a fruity drink instead of his martini. He moans and she says, “You’ll never give up your old habits, James.” He replies, “No, you’re wrong. Those days are over.” Is he ready to settle down with the girl from Athens, GA? The film ends with Connery winking at the camera.
Toxic Masculinity Score: 5
Never Say Never Again comes with plenty of Bond cliches, including watches with lasers, a pool full of bikini clad babes, James in a tux, and all his “Is that about sex? quips. (“Going down, one should always be relaxed.”) As a non-Eon film, the score and the theme song suck. But the rocket motorcycle chase in Nice, France and the scene with the sharks (Are those frickin’ lasers on their heads?) are pretty awesome. The film drags a bit with Connery’s lethargy and there is a really weird scene of Bond and Domino dancing a tango after he beats her boyfriend at a video game that seems way too eighties.
Bond as the sexual conquerer is also paired with his role of the rescuer of women. Domino is tied up on an auction block to be sold as a slave in North Africa. James literally rides in on a horse to save the damsel in distress. Fortunately, she saves him later in the film by shooting a speargun into her former lover as he’s about to kill Bond. There’s also the scene where he kills Fatima after commenting on her “hatred of men.” Seemed misogynistic to this viewer.
Never Say Never Again premiered in the U.S. on October 7, 1983, just four months after Octopussy and sold fewer tickets. There had been some talk about bringing Connery back in for a new series of Bond films to rival the Eon franchise, but you could tell that the Scotsman’s heart just wasn’t in it. Connery would go on to star in iconic eighties films like Highlander, The Name of the Rose, and The Untouchables, and leave 007 behind on some boat with some random damsel in distress.
Next: A View to a Kill (1985)
The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy
The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only
The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)
The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)
The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)
The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)
The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)
The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)
The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)
Watching the Wheels 
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