The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth film in the EON Productions James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007. Released in 1974, it was the fourth and final film in the series to be directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film was produced by Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was the final Bond film to be co-produced by Saltzman as his partnership with Broccoli dissolved after the film’s release. Saltzman’s 50% stake in EON Productions parent company, Danjaq, LLC was then purchased by United Artists. The resulting legalities over the Bond property delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me for three years. The interval had been the longest break in the series until the six-year gap between Licence to Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995).

Plot summary: In London, a golden bullet with James Bond’s code “007” etched into its surface is received by MI6. It is believed that Francisco Scaramanga has been hired to assassinate Bond and has sent the bullet to intimidate him. Bond’s mission revolves around the work of a scientist named Gibson, thought to be in possession of information crucial to solving the energy crisis by inventing a new technique of harnessing the sun’s power. But because of the perceived threat to the agent’s life, M, his boss, forces him to go on a leave. Bond sets out unofficially to find Scaramanga.

After tracking the bullet via a belly dancer in Beirut and an expert gunsmith in Macau, Bond sees Andrea Anders, Scaramanga’s mistress, collecting golden bullets at the Macau casino. Bond follows her to Hong Kong and after encountering her in the shower and a brief fight, pressures her to tell him about Scaramanga, his appearance and his plans. He is led to a strip club but unknown to him, this is the location of Scaramanga’s next ‘hit’. The target is Gibson who is shot while leaving the club. Before Bond can assert his innocence, however, Lieutenant Hip whisks him away from the scene as the police arrive. Scaramanga’s understudy Nick Nack steals the “Solex Agitator” needed for operating a solar power plant from Gibson’s pocket. Bond is ferried out of Hong Kong; inside the shipwreck RMS Queen Elizabeth, he meets M and Q and also learns that Hip is their ally.

Bond’s mission is now to retrieve the solex agitator in the face of the energy crisis and assassinate Scaramanga. He travels to Bangkok to meet a Thai entrepreneur, Hai Fat, who is suspected of hiring Scaramanga to murder Gibson, speculating that they never met personally. Bond uses a fake, synthetic nipple to make him look as if he has three nipples (Scaramanga is known to have three himself) and meets Hai Fat at his estate. Hai Fat, however, having already met with Scaramanga, captures and places Bond in his personally owned dojo, instructing his fighters to kill the agent. Bond escapes with the aide of Lt Hip and his karate-adept nieces, who defeat the entire dojo. Bond speeds away by boat on a Bangkok canal and reunites with his British assistant Mary Goodnight during dinner.

Mary Goodnight about to get into the thick and thin of things.

Later, Anders enters his room, revealing that she had sent the bullet to London and wants Bond to kill Scaramanga. In payment, Anders promises to hand over the Solex to him at a boxing venue the next day. Instead of spending the night as he promised with Goodnight (whom he hid in a closet), Bond spends the night with Anders. At the match, Bond discovers that the mistress has been quietly shot and meets Scaramanga for the first time. Bond is able to smuggle the Solex from Anders’ purse away to Hip, who passes it to Goodnight waiting outside. Attempting to place a homing device, she is locked into Scaramanga’s car, an AMC Matador, as he drives away. Bond follows him in an AMC Hornet ‘X’ with Sheriff JW Pepper at his side — whom he encounters when acquiring the vehicle — and a car chase across Bangkok ensues, concluding at a barn in the countryside outside the city with Scaramanga’s car transforming into a plane and flying away to his island in the Yellow Sea near China.

Picking up Goodnight’s tracking device, Bond flies a Republic RC-3 Seabee into Red Chinese waters low under radar, and lands in his seaplane at Scaramanga’s island. On arriving, Bond is welcomed by Scaramanga and is shown the high-tech solar power plant that Scaramanga has taken over by killing Hai Fat. He is also shown the solar gun operated by the Solex, which “comes with no extra charge” that is powered by a receptor hidden in a mushroom-shaped rock nearby. Bond’s plane is destroyed by the gun, much to his annoyance and Scaramanga’s enjoyment. They then enjoy a brief meal prepared by Nick Nack, until Bond becomes angered by Scaramanga’s belief that they both enjoy killing in their profession. Scaramanga proposes a pistol duel with Bond on the beach, a “duel between titans”. The two men stand back to back and are ordered by Nick Nack to take twenty paces, but when Bond turns and fires, Scaramanga has vanished.

Nick Nack leads Bond into the Funhouse. After a few minutes, Bond poses as the replica of himself while Scaramanga walks by, taking him by surprise and killing him, but not before Goodnight, in waylaying a henchman into a pool of liquid helium, upsets the balance of the solar plant, which gradually goes out of control. Bond retrieves the Solex unit at the last moment just before the island explodes, and they escape unharmed in Scaramanga’s Chinese junk. While trying to take some relaxation on the ship, however, they are attacked by Nick Nack, who is out for revenge for being deprived of his inheritance. He is put out of commission by Bond, who stuffs him into a wicker cage strapped to the mast, and the ship sails off into the sea.

See also:

• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Cast
• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Crew
• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Goofups
• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Locations
• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Soundtrack
• Man with the Golden Gun, The: Film - Trivia