Spy Who Loved Me, The: Film – Trivia- The hull number on the sail of the U.S. submarine in Stromberg’s supertanker is 593. This is the number of the USS Thresher, lost in 1963 with all hands off the Massachusetts coast.
- The closing credits say, “James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only (1981)” but, because of the successes of Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Moonraker (1979) was chosen.
- First James Bond film to be filmed in Dolby Stereo.
- The only James Bond film in which M’s (Bernard Lee) first name – Miles -is said.
- Harry Saltzman sold his interest in James Bond during December 1975 while this film was in pre-production.
- “The Spy Who Loved Me” was the tenth James Bond novel to be written by Ian Fleming. It was first published on 18 April 1962. The only common story elements between the novel and the film are its title and two henchman Jaws and Sandor who are loosely inspired by the book’s villains Horror and Sluggsy. The film is considered as the first Bond film whose story is completely original. Fleming only allowed this interlude novel’s title to be used as it was unpopular and told in the first person of a bond girl character. The novelisation of the film by screenwriter Christopher Wood was called “James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me” so as to distinguish it from Fleming’s novel.
- Tenth James Bond film in the EON Productions James Bond film series. Third James Bond film to star Roger Moore as James Bond.
- In his audio-commentary, Roger Moore comments on the opening parachute ski-jump that could have gone horribly wrong for stuntman Rick Sylvester. After the jump, a disengaged ski clipped the unopened chute as it was falling. The ski could could easily have prevented the chute from opening. It can still be seen in the final footage that the ski clips the about-to-open parachute.
- First James Bond film to feature an actor playing James Bond to appear as part of the opening titles sequence itself. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), footage from previous films including an actor playing James Bond was edited into the opening sequence.
- The film received Three Academy Award Nominations – the most ever received by a James Bond film to date. These were for Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Score, and Best Song – “Nobody Does It Better”.
- Vehicles featured included a white Lotus Esprit S1 turbo sports car adaptable Perry submarine-car, which was also known by the production as Margie Nixon and Wet Nellie; a Arctic Enterprises Wetbike hydrofoil water motorcycle; Jaw’s Telephone Service gray Sherpa Van; a yellow and black Kawasaki Z900 motorbike with sidecar; Hovercraft Speedboat jettisoned from Atlantis; a black and yellow Shark Hunter mini-submarine; a black and yellow Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter; black Ford Taunus car; the Liparus oil tanker which includes a Mini Moke; Westland HH-3 Sea King and Westland Wessex HC Mk 2 helicopters; 1977 Ford Cortina 2.3 Ghia; USS Wayne and Russian Potemkin Submarines; a Stromberg Enterprises company motorboat; a small bus and a spherical underwater escape pod from Atlantis.
- The chase sequence in Sardinia involving the Lotus Esprit runs for seven minutes.
- The Carl Stromberg character in this film actually has webbed hands. But they can go unnoticed by viewers on video and DVD compared to when the film was released in cinemas.
- Cameo: [Michael G. Wilson] Man in the Audience at the Pyramid Theatre. He is sitting in the row behind Fekkesh and Agent Triple-X at the Pyramid Show.
- Since Ian Fleming only allowed the title of his novel to be used, this stands as the first wholly original James Bond film – the last until GoldenEye (1995), since Moonraker (1979) at least used a couple of concepts and character names. The book “The James Bond Legacy” by John Cork reveals, however, that the character of Jaws was inspired by a thug in Fleming’s novel named Horror who had steel-capped teeth, while the bald assassin Sandor was similarly inspired by another thug in the novel called Slugsy.
- The Aquapolis, the enormous Japanese floating sea structure, was considered as an exterior set for the Stromberg Marine Research Laboratory, Atlantis. It resembled an oil rig (something which had already been used in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)), had a gigantic three-tiered deck which was also a helicopter pad measuring 100 m2, and was supported by about a dozen major pillars. It cost 13 billion yen and had been built in Hiroshima in 1975 then transported to Okinawa for the International Ocean Exposition. Depending on weather conditions, it could partially rise or submerge into the ocean, in a similar fashion to the Atlantis setting of the film’s script. At the time of the location scout, it was incomplete and after attempts to make the mega-structure work, production designer Ken Adam felt that it lacked the right creative elements for the nautical villain’s lair. Disappointingly, the floating sea city was rejected as an exterior location for Atlantis and the filmmakers decided to go with a model. Sadly, it was closed to tourist visits in 1993 and in 2000, after twenty-five years, the real-life floating city in the ocean was sold for scrap after the company that owned it went bankrupt.
- None of the original novel was supposed to be used except its title due to a clause in the arrangement between the owners of the works of Ian Fleming and the filmmakers. It was not a James Bond novel that Fleming particularly liked and James Bond does not feature prominently in the story until late in the piece. However, the two henchmen in the film, Jaws and Sandor are loosely based on the henchmen from the novel, Horror and Slugsy respectively. In the novel, Horror has metal braces. The idea of the Jaws villain with metal teeth belonged to producer Albert R. Broccoli, inspired by the Fleming character Horror.
- A piece of music composed by Mozart inspired the title song ‘Nobody Does It Better” composed by Marvin Hamlisch. Indeed, the film includes in its score a number of pieces of classical music by such composers as Johann Sebastian Bach (Air in Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068), Frédéric Chopin (Nocturne No. 8 in D-Flat, Op. 27 No. 2), Camille Saint-Saëns (The Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals) and also by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Andante second movement of Piano Concerto No. 21 Elvira Madigan.
- Albert R. Broccoli once named this film along with From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964) as his three favorite James Bond films, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter’s Robert Osborne on 12 April 1982.
- A Minolta logo appears on the microfilm capsule.
- During the Egyptian shoot, the catering didn’t arrive. Producer Albert R. Broccoli jumped into action and took a jeep and some crew, went into town and got some tomatoes, pots, pans and pasta was flown in from Cairo. Broccoli, well known as an amateur chef at home, cooked up a feast for the cast and crew, served by him and Roger Moore. A sign was painted in the mess-room: “Trattoria Broccoli.”
- The licenses plate number of the Lotus Esprit car was PPW 306R.
- Though the last James Bond film which was co-produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli was The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), the dissolution of the partnership did not occur until after that film was released. Saltzman was actually involved with the The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) during early pre-production of the film, as was the original director Guy Hamilton.
- Guy Hamilton was the original director of this film.
- A number of writers contributed to the script during its development. These included directors John Landis and original director Guy Hamilton; script writers Richard Maibaum, Stirling Silliphant, Cary Bates, Tom Mankiewicz and Anthony Barwick; and authors ‘Anthony Burgess’ , Ronald Hardy and Derek Marlowe. In total, twelve scriptwriters worked on the script which went through to fifteen drafts.
- The delay in production of this film was contributed to by legal issues to do with the script. Thunderball (1965) co-writer and producer Kevin McClory brought a suit against the production stating that his script “Warhead” had been allegedly plagiarized. This was due to the similarity in story-lines involving nuclear submarines. The injunction was ultimately rejected and EON productions could proceed. However, the original name of the villain was changed from Stavros to Stromberg, due to the similarity between Stavros and the middle name of Ernest Stavro Blofeld, the use of this character legally belonging to McLory. Interestingly, apparently in a very early version of the script, it was intended to have Blofeld return as the villain.
- Jaws actor Richard Kiel could only keep the metal teeth in his mouth for about half a minute at a time due to the excessive pain and discomfort. He often had to show comic expressions which was quite contradictory to the way he was feeling wearing the extremely uncomfortable braces.
- In one scene amongst the pyramids when Jaws is trailing a hiding agent 007, a still photograph of Roger Moore was used when they needed to have him in the shot. Hardly anyone noticed this during the film’s release. Further, all the shots of pyramids used were actually models.
- Both the first film and first James Bond film produced solely by Albert R. Broccoli as a single producer. All his previous films had been co-produced with either ‘Irving Allen (I)’ or Harry Saltzman or other producers. Saltzman, His former James Bond producing partner, left the series during pre-production of this film.
- $1 million of the $13.5 million budget was spent by production designer Ken Adam on building the largest sound stage in the world: 336’x139’x44′. The set was used for the interior shots of Stromberg’s supertanker. The tank had a capacity of 1.2 million gallons.
- Rick Sylvester was paid $30,000 for the skiing stunt in the opening sequence.
- An advertisement inspired the famous opening skiing sequence. It was for Canadian Club Whisky and featured Rick Sylvester jumping off Asgard in Greenland. The ad had actually been staged elsewhere and had really been performed off the El Capitain Peak, Yosemite Valley, California. The ad read: “If you Space Ski Mount Asgard…before you hit the ground, hit the silk!”. Sylvester performed the stunt for the film which famously ended with a parachute of the Union Jack opening. This opening sequence was recently parodied in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and was imitated with the air balloon in Octopussy (1983) and paid homage to in the Gustav Graves parachute drop in Die Another Day (2002). Sylvester also did the Meteora mountain fall in For Your Eyes Only (1981).
- The Lotus Esprit underwater spy car had the following features and gadgets: A periscope; convertible dashboard-control panel; oil release, harpoon and cement guns; retractable turning wheels; hydroplanes; protective louvres; television monitor; rudder and propulsion units; submarine activator; rocket missiles and missile firing control.
- The Lotus submersible (the Lotus Esprit underwater car or Lotus submarine car) was code named Esther Williams in an early draft of the script and was also nicknamed by the crew as Wet Nellie (after the mini-helicopter in You Only Live Twice (1967)).
- Jaws was played by Richard Kiel, who played an almost identical part a year earlier in Silver Streak (1976).
- After the film’s release, demand for white Lotus Esprit cars surged to the point that new customers had to be placed on a three-year waiting list.
- The character of Major Boothroyd is addressed as such by Barbara Bach for one of the only times in the film series. Boothroyd (played by Desmond Llewelyn) is the head of Q branch, but the name Q stuck to the character.
- The original M’s first name is heard for the only time in the film series when Gogol refers to him as Myles (in the books, his name was Admiral Sir Myles Messervy and was only ever mentioned in the novel “The Man With The Golden Gun”). In addition, Bernard Lee’s M calls Bond by his first name for the only time in the series. The last time Q was referred to by his real name (Major Geoffrey Boothroyd) was in Dr. No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963).
- General Gogol’s first name is also heard for the only time in the series. M refers to him as Alexis.
- Character actor Shane Rimmer, who plays an American submarine captain, makes his third appearance in a Bond film, after playing bit parts in You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
- The eyesight of cinematographer Claude Renoir was failing at the time and he could not see to the end of the massive supertanker set. As a result, he could not supervise the lighting. Ken Adam turned to his friend Stanley Kubrick, who under the condition of complete secrecy supervised the lighting.
- Producer Albert R. Broccoli saw a photo of a skier jumping out of a helicopter and insisted on recreating the stunt for the opening of the film.
- This film marks the debut of a more modern version of the gun-barrel opening sequence. It features a closer shot of Roger Moore against a more colored background.
- In the scene in which Bond and his compatriots are looking at the tracing of the submarine’s course, the first few notes of the James Bond theme are played when the line is drawn onto the map.
- Michael Billington, who played Sergei Barsov, Anya’s lover in the KGB, was under consideration for 007 and played him during the casting of the leading ladies.
- The famous Union Jack parachute ski jump stunt during the film’s pre-title sequence was originally suggested by former Bond star George Lazenby to be used in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), but the necessary equipment to film it was not available then. The Bond producers thought it was a great idea, and later added the Union Jack to the parachute and used it in this film.
- Victor Tourjansky, uncredited as the man with the bottle who wonders whether he’s drunk at seeing the Lotus Esprit drive out of the water, played the same man in the following two films: in Moonraker (1979) he is drinking in Venice when Bond drives his gondola out of the water, and in For Your Eyes Only (1981) he is a patron of the lodge that Bond skies off the table at. He is better known as an assistant director.
- The warship that appears at the end is the HMS Fearless.
- One of the models seen during the opening credits was named Penelope Smallbone. A character in Octopussy (1983) would be given this name.
- The metal teeth worn by Richard Kiel were so painful that he could only wear them for about 13 seconds. He only wears the teeth when his mouth is actually open.
- The original script called for Jaws to perish after Bond used an industrial magnet aboard the Super Tanker to drop him into the tanker’s furnace. The scene was storyboarded using Richard Kiel and Roger Moore as models, and apparently rehearsed, but ultimately scrapped in favor of bringing Jaws back for the next film. When the film was previewed, audiences cheered when they saw Jaws swimming away in the end.
- The set for Stromberg’s supertanker was named “the Jonah Set”, in reference to the Biblical story of Jonah, who is swallowed by a whale. In the film, the tanker swallows submarines.
- Jack O’Halloran was considered for the role of Jaws before Richard Kiel got the part. O’Halloran would portray Non (a character similar to Jaws) in the first two Superman films (Superman and Superman II). Will Sampson, the Indian from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) was also considered for the Jaws part.
- Gerry Anderson (creator of “Thunderbirds” (1965)) threatened legal action against the producers as he felt the film came too close to a story proposal he had offered the Bond producers in the 1960s. The suit was dropped, though EON Productions ended up purchasing the rights to Anderson’s original proposal.
- Christopher Wood’s novelisation of the film (based on his screenplay) contains information not in the final film. Jaws, for example, is revealed to be Polish and his real name is Zbigniew Krycsiwiki.
- Anya’s music box-transmitter plays Lara’s Theme from Doctor Zhivago (1965).
- Several scenes, including the one where Bond and Anya meet each other in a Cairo bar, were written by an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz. According to him, the scene originally made reference to Tatiana Romanova, the Bond girl in From Russia with Love (1963), but this was cut. If it had been left in, the film would have included direct references to both the Sean Connery and George Lazenby eras of the Bond series.
- First Bond film to make significant references to Bond’s past, including his recruitment to the British Secret Service from the Royal Navy, his “many lady friends”, his marriage and the death of his wife, Tracy.
- After the van breaks down, the theme from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) plays when Bond and XXX walk across the desert.
- James Bond was not prominently featured in Ian Fleming’s novel “The Spy Who Loved Me”. Therefore, Fleming, who realized that a direct adaptation lacked cinematic potential, insisted that production company Eon take the title of his work and create a new storyline.
- Screenwriter Richard Maibaum’s original draft of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) featured an alliance of international terrorists entering SPECTRE’s headquarters and deposing Blofeld before trying to destroy the world for themselves to make way for a New World Order. This script was deemed too political by producer Albert R. Broccoli.
- Producer Albert R. Broccoli wanted Lois Chiles to play the part of Russian agent Anya Amasova. Upon talking to her agent, it was discovered that Chiles had retired temporarily, upset by criticism she had received, and was taking acting lessons. Chiles would become the next Bond girl in Moonraker after sharing a seat next to director Lewis Gilbert.
- Milton Reid, who plays the thug Sandor, had unsuccessfully lobbied for the role of Oddjob in Goldfinger (1964).
- In order to simulate the character’s metal teeth, Richard Kiel’s stunt double Martin Grace used pieces of orange peel wrapped in tin foil.
- According to Richard Kiel, the chain he bites through as Jaws during the Pyramids sequence was made of licorice.
- During the fight scene at the Pyramids between Bond and two KGB agents, Bond at one point delivers a blow that causes one of the men to, in reflex, cross his arms over his chest, making him resemble a character in old Egyptian drawings.
- Some sources claim Charles Dance is in this film.
- The first appearance of recurring character Defence Minister Frederick Gray (played by Geoffrey Keen). While walking along the docks, Bond addresses him as “Freddy” for the only time in the series (in all subsequent films, he uses the more formal address “Minister”).
- Introduced a spy sea scooter known as a “wetbike” (better known now as a jet ski) to the world, sparking a new water-sport industry. This gadget was commonly referred to as the motorbike that rides on water.
- Caroline Munro was dubbed by Barbara Jefford.
- James Mason was considered for the part of Stromberg.
- When James Bond drives the Lotus Esprit up onto the beach, we can see a child pointing out to the car in the water. This child is played by Richard George Kiel, son of actor Richard Kiel who portrayed Jaws
- WILHELM SCREAM: as a nameless soldier is drowning in the burning water during the fight between the escaped sub crews and the evil henchmen.
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