Octopussy is the thirteenth James Bond film made by EON Productions. It is the sixth to star Roger Moore as the British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. Produced by Albert R Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, it was released in 1983, the same year as the release of the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again.

The film’s title is taken from Ian Fleming’s short story Octopussy, which was published in the March and April editions of Playboy in 1966. The film is loosely based upon that story as well as a second Fleming short story, The Property of a Lady, both of which are included in the collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966).

Plot summary: When a fatally wounded British agent 009 stumbles into the British Embassy in East Berlin with a fake Fabergé egg, MI6 immediately suspect Soviet involvement. Fortunately, the real egg turns up at an auction in London. James Bond is sent to find out who the seller is and subsequently why 009 was murdered. Bond switches the real egg with a fake one at the auction. When an exiled Afghan prince, Kamal Khan, pays £500,000 to buy the egg (following Bond’s own bidding on the object to drive up the price), Bond follows him to his palace in India to find out why.

It turns out that a renegade Soviet, General Orlov, supplies Khan with priceless Soviet treasures, and replaces them in state depositories with replicas. Khan is in turn smuggling them into the west with help from Octopussy, a fabulously wealthy and mysterious woman who lives in a floating palace near Delhi, India, surrounded by women who are members of her “Octopus” cult.

Bond defeats Khan in a game of backgammon while exposing him using loaded dice that always rolled a double-six and, assisted by his ally Vijay, foils Khan’s bodyguard Gobinda’s attempts to kill them. But one of Khan’s associates, Magda, seduces Bond and steals the Fabergé egg. Bond is immediately captured by Gobinda and locked in Khan’s palace, but using a pen containing aqua regia, he cuts a window’s iron bars and escapes. His Seiko watch, fitted with a beacon, traces the Fabergé egg. He hears through a microphone that Orlov is planning to meet Khan at Karl-Marx-Stadt in East Germany, where Octopussy’s circus is scheduled to perform. Khan notices the microphone and orders Gobinda to “Get Bond!” Posing as a corpse, Bond escapes.

Bond infiltrates Octopussy’s island and confronts her, only to find out that she feels indebted to him for letting her father, a British Major, commit suicide rather than face the shame of a court martial when Bond was sent after him for smuggling and murder some years before. Khan now plans to replace the jewellery canister being smuggled through Octopussy’s circus with a nuclear bomb. The warhead is primed to explode during a circus show at a US Air Force base in West Germany.

In East Germany, Bond tries to stop the train with the bomb on board from leaving the Soviet base. He confronts Orlov, who escapes after revealing that the nuclear attack would be interpreted as an accident and Europe would insist on nuclear disarmament, rendering itself defenceless against an attack from Soviet forces.

Earlier in the film, Orlov had proposed to his superiors a military strike in East Germany in order to bring more of the surrounding areas into Russian control, only to be strongly opposed by General Gogol, who stated “I see no reason to risk war to satisfy your personal paranoia and thirst for conquest!” The Chairman of the Russian Military Counsel agreed and rejected Orlov’s proposal. Bond pursues the train in Orlov’s stolen car. Trying to stop Bond, Orlov pursues and runs after the train, past the GDR border guards before the border guards shoot him dead. His final moments are witnessed by General Gogol, who has seized the stolen jewelry from Orlov’s car and considers him disgraced.

Bond finds the bomb inside the Human Cannonball’s cannon, but is attacked by Mischka, one of the two twin knife throwers responsible for the murder of 009. Bond kills Mischka and hides his body inside of the cannon as Gobinda comes into the car to check on the bomb. Bond narrowly escapes being beheaded by Gobinda and escapes to the roof of the train, only to be confronted by Grischka, Mischka’s twin. Bond and Grischka are forced off the train and after a short chase through the woods to an abandoned cabin, Grischka corners Bond, using his knives to pin Bond to the front door by his clothing. Just as he is about to deliver the final blow, Bond manages to open the door, causing Grischka to lose his footing and fall inside long enough for Bond to hurl one of his own knives into his chest.

Bond then pursues the train on foot and by stealing an Alfa Romeo. Khan and Gobinda leave before the countdown runs out, passing Bond by the road on their way out, but Khan thinks that Bond will be too late to stop the bomb. Bond is chased by the police for stealing the car but finally makes his way into the circus disguised as a clown (the very same clown disguise worn by the ill-fated 009). He is captured trying to explain that there is a bomb hidden in the circus’ cannon; but by showing her one of the jewels she was supposed to smuggle, he at least manages to convince Octopussy, who shoots open the canister, revealing the bomb. The guards let Bond go, and he defuses the bomb just in time.

Back in India, Khan is preparing to leave his palace. Octopussy, Magda and their cult members arrive, followed by Q and Bond in a hot air balloon. They launch an assault and overpower the guards. Gobinda and Khan capture Octopussy, escaping to an airplane by horseback. Bond reaches the plane and mounts it just as it takes off and then disables one of the engines. But then Gobinda climbs to the plane roof and ends up falling to his death during a desperate airborne fight with Bond. As the plane loses height, Bond and Octopussy manage to jump onto a cliff before the plane crashes in a mountain. While M and Gogol discuss the return of the jewellery, Bond recuperates with Octopussy aboard her private boat in India.

See also:

• Octopussy: Film - Cast
• Octopussy: Film - Crew
• Octopussy: Film - Goofups
• Octopussy: Film - Locations
• Octopussy: Film - Soundtrack
• Octopussy: Film - Trivia