55 replies to this topic

[tdalton]

I doubt that a Lazenby-led Diamonds are Forever would have been any better than what we got with Sean Connery.  It really is amazing that On Her Majesty's Secret Service is as good as it is, given a poor performance from the film's lead as well as some very questionable editing.  EON would have had to develop another very strong story and then gotten another exceptional cast to have a similar result, as it's Fleming's story as well as the talents of Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas that carry On Her Majesty's Secret Service. 

[ChrissBond007]

I think with Lazenby it certainly would have been quite different. I can't imagine they would ignore the events of OHMSS as they finally did if Lazenby's Bond would be facing Blofeld again two years later. There defenitely would've been emotional continuity.

With the return of Connery they pretty much decided to continue where they left off the last time he played Bond. DAF actually makes a lot of sense as a follow up to YOLT and it's like OHMSS is from another unniverse. It's a shame because OHMSS really deserves a great follow up story like in Fleming's novels. When I watch it it always leaves me desired for more. Just the fact that Fraulein Bunt is never mentoined again is quite ridiculous since she actually was the person that shot Tracy. Although I don't think more of a revenge minded story would be really believeable with different actors (Connery and Gray instead of Lazenby and Savalas). Then again, I think the whole ''SPECTRE-era'' defenitely deserved a better ending than the laughable finale on the oil platform.

Apparently Peter Hunt would probably have stayed on as director had Lazenby continued in the role. If that would've happened then the movie would certainly have had a darker tone and it would have been more in the style of OHMSS, whether that would've been DAF or another movie.

One can only imagine what could've been. I certainly find this the most interesting ''what if'' in the series. I enjoy DAF as a standalone adventure, it's fun movie, but it could've been so much more interesting.

[Bond of Steele]

I agree with you, tdalton.  

 

Myself and a group of friends are currently in the middle of a weekly Sunday Bond marathon and we just watched OHMSS a couple of Sunday's ago.    We (the group watching) all agreed that Lazenby was the weakest link, especially with the delivery of lines and what seemed like awkward moments (ex. look of extreme fear when surprised by the bear mascot, but a look of confidence when shot at on the ski slopes).  But, boy oh boy, the action in OHMSS was pretty stunning, and was the best in the series up to that point.  

 

In comparison, the action in DAF is quite disappointing, however the movie is still well paced, and we were surprised the 2 hours were up when the film was finished.  Although a Hunt/Lazenby DAF film may have had more action, and probably a conclusive end to Blofeld, I think that Laz's shortcomings would have been even more exposed.  Especially, tdalton, as you say, without the ensemble cast present in OHMSS.

[tdalton]

 Especially, tdalton, as you say, without the ensemble cast present in OHMSS.

 

Well, they would have at least probably had a decent head start on accomplishing that with Savalas, assuming that he was game to return and reprise his Blofeld role.  The real key would have been what to do with the lead Bond girl.  The film would have absolutely needed one, even though the storyline might not have necessitated one, to help support Lazenby's performance.  I think an interesting twist there could have been to get an actress who was slightly older than Lazenby, and have her be a character that Bond leaned on during his quest for revenge against Blofeld and Bunt without it ever becoming a romantic relationship.

 

Still, I think that it would have probably been asking alot to try to duplicate the kind of supporting cast that really elevated On Her Majesty's Secret Service into the film that it is.  It would have been interesting to see, but I still think the best bet would have been to have still brought back Connery but place him into a revenge film.

[Call Billy Bob]

There are elements of revenge at the start, albeit in a silly and fun way... that's another interesting possibility - if the character of Bunt was never dropped. Chasing her around the globe (assuming Bond killed Blofeld in the PTS) could have made for a good film.

[AMC Hornet]

Still, I think that it would have probably been asking alot to try to duplicate the kind of supporting cast that really elevated On Her Majesty's Secret Service into the film that it is.

 

It does my heart good to see how OHMSS is being seen in a new light, now (e.g.: decades after) that people have gotten used to the idea that the lead can be replaced and the series can go on in new directions.

 

I was on my own in the 70s and 80s, when people - whether they`d seen the film or not - dismissed OHMSS as lousy, too ``Australian``, not a `real`007 film, non-existent or even the first before Connery was cast and EON got it right.

 

Thanks for being in the same corner, td. There`s room for plenty more!

[Guy Haines]

I've added this on another thread, but OHMSS is a great Bond film - my first Bond film - but set against the rest of the canon it seems to exist in its own place. The leading man being a one off is one reason, but also the closeness to the original novel compared to many of the Bond films and their source books. The tragic ending - only CR 2006 ends similarly, and then is "redeemed" when Bond catches up with and wounds Mr. White. Even the brilliant John Barry music score has a different feel to it. At the time the film makers probably thought this was the start of a new Bond and so the feel of the film should reflect this. In retrospect it is now a historical curiosity, but a brilliant one. And as I commented elsewhere, had CR 2006 been a disappointment rather than a phenomenon, and Daniel Craig had left the role after just one film, we might now be starting to think that way about that film too.

[Bond of Steele]

I like all the films, I'll be the first to admit it, so I find it hard to really criticize them.  However, as good as OHMSS is, the leading man brings it down a notch, and stops it from being a great Bond.  If Lazenby continued, I think he would have been more exposed.

 

I think the opposite of Casino Royale.  I think the movie as a whole is a tad on the weaker side, but Craig elevated it.  Super Cool and Super Smooth he was, coming into the role for the first time and making it his own.  Lazenby just didn't have the acting chops for it, and it showed IMHO.

[tdalton]

I like all the films, I'll be the first to admit it, so I find it hard to really criticize them.  However, as good as OHMSS is, the leading man brings it down a notch, and stops it from being a great Bond.  If Lazenby continued, I think he would have been more exposed.

 

I think the opposite of Casino Royale.  I think the movie as a whole is a tad on the weaker side, but Craig elevated it.  Super Cool and Super Smooth he was, coming into the role for the first time and making it his own.  Lazenby just didn't have the acting chops for it, and it showed IMHO.

 

Couldn't agree more. 

 

I think that On Her Majesty's Secret Service with either Sean Connery or Roger Moore, assuming everything else was more or less the same, would have been remembered as the classic that it almost became anyway. 

[Guy Haines]

I think that if OHMSS proved anything it was that the producers couldn't just cast "tall, dark, handsome..... and unknown" and expect everything else about Bond to fall into place because James Bond rather than the actor playing him is the star. The leading man has got to be able to act.

 

I disagree about CR.  They made a superior "typical Bond movie" out of a story that I understand even Ian Fleming had his doubts about whether it was filmable (Though it didn't stop him letting CBS have a go at it in 1954 - maybe the end result was what made Fleming have doubts?). When I saw the 2006 version for the first time it made me think it was a very superior remake of a 1960s Bond film - save that such film hadn't originally been made, unless one counts the 1967 spoof, and I'd rather not!

 

I agree about Daniel Craig, however. Like Sean Connery, he made the role his own from the first moment.

[Admiral Messervey]

First time posting of course.

 

I do really do think the tone would've been serious had not only Lazenby came back and Hunt was directing but also Malbaum as screenwriter instead of Broccoli and Saltzman hiring Mankiewicz. The transition from OHMSS to DAF as it stands to this day is not only jarring but downright cringeworthy knowing that the audience back in 1971-72 who wanted another Goldfinger were just as guilty of dismissing the former as EON for wanting to Americanize the series even selling its prose soul for camp to recapture its 1964-65 glory given by '71, the world's moved on from the camp of the Adam West Batman, Dean Martin's farcical take on Matt Helm, and Get Smart then a short distant memory. If only that Ronan chap hadn't taken advantage of Lazenby at this most difficult time.....

Edited by Admiral Messervey, 08 December 2014 - 07:57 PM.

[George White]

Here's my attempt. I know Ilse Steppat died in 1969, so let's have her replaced by another actress. 

 

Bond, calm but vengeful walks to a garage/service station/motel on a mountain side, where he sees Blofeld's car. He finds Irma Bunt in a motel room and aims to kill the terrified old woman. Before he fires the gun, she is shot from the behind, through the door. The assassin rises. It is Felix Leiter.

 

"Sorry, I  was late. M told me." Leiter admits. Leiter and Bond escape the motel, but find that Blofeld's car has driven off. Bond drives off in Leiter's rent-car Volkswagen Beetle and they engage in a car chase. Eventually, the car explodes. Leiter finds the corpse of the driver. It isn't Blofeld. 

 

Cut to Italy, and Teresa's funeral. Bond meets Marc Ange Draco, and his assistant Olympe. Draco offers Bond the job of finding a diamond exporter named Rufus Saye in South Africa. Draco believes that Saye wants to buy out Draco. Bond turns him down. M wants Bond to find what happened to 001, who has gone missing in Las Vegas. Moneypenny tells Bond that she is saddened by the loss, while Q gives Bond a new gadget to cheer him up,  a magnetised hacking device that can be used to change channels on televisions and give free telephone calls in phone boxes. 

 

. Bond arrives in Las Vegas, met by Tiffany Case who claims to be 001's lover. She tells him that she is a diamond smuggler. She gives Bond a bag of diamonds marked "R, Saye". He asks her does she know Saye, who from photos is only ever seen with one particular side of his face covered in shadow. She answers that she doesn't, but her boss, a wealthy Texan casino owner named Jack Spang does. Bond visits Spang's penthouse and meets Spang, an older man in white suit and cowboy suit whom Tiffany considers an "uncle". Spang claims that he has not met Saye, but they are on good terms with Saye's American representatives Wint and Kidd. While in Spang's private aquarium, Bond notices a shark. "Oh that's Seraffimo, named after my late brother." Spang laughs. "He's my pet." Bond notices a human body swimming in the aquarium tank. Spang is horrified. Bond identifies the body as Felix, who is alive but only just. He has a note pinned to his torn clothes. "He disagreed with something that ate him." Meanwhile, gunshots are heard in the casino below. We see 001 undercover, an older agent about to retire, in white linen suit and fedora, disguised as a tourist playing the fruit machines, only to turn and be shot by Wint, a meek mild-mannered young man and Kidd, a corpulent jovial bearded man grinning madly but never speaking. Bond sees them and calls for Spang to help him. Spang falls down a lift shaft, his neck riddled with bullet holes and his skin burnt by neon lights. Bond is helpless, and heartlessly uses 001's body as a shield, As it fills up with bullets, one hits Bond.

 

Bond wakes up unconscious, in a fake ambulance. He finds himself in a desert airfield, being loaded onto a plane against his will. He realises he is going to be put in a cargo crate. The plane lands in South Africa, where Bond, lost and not knowing where he is enters a phone booth and uses the magnetised hacker. He calls M. M tells him that Q will trace the call back. They announce he is in South Africa. Before Bond can answer, the phone box is dragged away onto a truck, driven by Wint and Kidd, laughing at him. The phone box is dumped in a mine shaft. Bond gets out, and finds himself at Rufus Saye's diamond mine. He disguises himself as a miner and finds himself travelling through the mine's headquarters, where he meets Tiffany. She says that she has been looking for him, and M wants Bond. Bond spies through a boardroom door and sees Rufus Saye. It is Blofeld, his face half-changed due to plastic surgery, with hair on just one side.  He then sees Bond. Bond and Tiffany are cornered, by Blofeld, who confirms that it is the perfect trap He throws Bond in a prison with the real Saye, a nervous starved old man with a long beard and wild hair. Bond manages to escape, Saye following him, only for the latter to be shot by Blofeld's guards. There, Bond has a fist duel with Blofeld, and a footchase. Eventually, they find an abandoned abattoir where Bond pushes Blofeld into a mincer, then releasing the livestock trapped in the abattoir, and feeding them the minced up Blofeld. Leiter and Marc Ange Draco and his men arrive and storm the mine, while Bond, tired and free of vengeance escapes with Tiffany and returns to London. 

M is not happy. He may have found 001, killed Blofeld and essentially wiped the slate clean for SPECTRE, but there are still SPECTRE agents out there. Wint and Kidd wait in London, while Bond is wining and dining Tiffany. Bond leaves, and meets Kidd who claims to be Blofeld's successor. Bond has a car chase in his Aston Martin DBS (presented to him by Q, restored, now with bulletproof windows so the second wedding doesn't get ruined and guns in the headlights and battering ams) with Kidd and Wint, in a  white Transit van. Wint and Kidd are  pushed off Tower Bridge and Bond returns to Tiffany. 

 

Bond - George Lazenby

Tiffany - unknown

Blofeld - Telly Savalas

Wint - Paul Williams

Kidd - Victor Buono

Spang - Ed Begley Jr. 

Leiter - Michael Sarrazin

Marc Ange Draco -Gabrielle Ferzetti

Irma Bunt - Ilse Steppat

M  - Bernard Lee

Q - Desmond Lllewellyn

Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell

[Admiral Messervey]

Here's my attempt. I know Ilse Steppat died in 1969, so let's have her replaced by another actress. 

 

Bond, calm but vengeful walks to a garage/service station/motel on a mountain side, where he sees Blofeld's car. He finds Irma Bunt in a motel room and aims to kill the terrified old woman. Before he fires the gun, she is shot from the behind, through the door. The assassin rises. It is Felix Leiter.

 

"Sorry, I  was late. M told me." Leiter admits. Leiter and Bond escape the motel, but find that Blofeld's car has driven off. Bond drives off in Leiter's rent-car Volkswagen Beetle and they engage in a car chase. Eventually, the car explodes. Leiter finds the corpse of the driver. It isn't Blofeld. 

 

Cut to Italy, and Teresa's funeral. Bond meets Marc Ange Draco, and his assistant Olympe. Draco offers Bond the job of finding a diamond exporter named Rufus Saye in South Africa. Draco believes that Saye wants to buy out Draco. Bond turns him down. M wants Bond to find what happened to 001, who has gone missing in Las Vegas. Moneypenny tells Bond that she is saddened by the loss, while Q gives Bond a new gadget to cheer him up,  a magnetised hacking device that can be used to change channels on televisions and give free telephone calls in phone boxes. 

 

. Bond arrives in Las Vegas, met by Tiffany Case who claims to be 001's lover. She tells him that she is a diamond smuggler. She gives Bond a bag of diamonds marked "R, Saye". He asks her does she know Saye, who from photos is only ever seen with one particular side of his face covered in shadow. She answers that she doesn't, but her boss, a wealthy Texan casino owner named Jack Spang does. Bond visits Spang's penthouse and meets Spang, an older man in white suit and cowboy suit whom Tiffany considers an "uncle". Spang claims that he has not met Saye, but they are on good terms with Saye's American representatives Wint and Kidd. While in Spang's private aquarium, Bond notices a shark. "Oh that's Seraffimo, named after my late brother." Spang laughs. "He's my pet." Bond notices a human body swimming in the aquarium tank. Spang is horrified. Bond identifies the body as Felix, who is alive but only just. He has a note pinned to his torn clothes. "He disagreed with something that ate him." Meanwhile, gunshots are heard in the casino below. We see 001 undercover, an older agent about to retire, in white linen suit and fedora, disguised as a tourist playing the fruit machines, only to turn and be shot by Wint, a meek mild-mannered young man and Kidd, a corpulent jovial bearded man grinning madly but never speaking. Bond sees them and calls for Spang to help him. Spang falls down a lift shaft, his neck riddled with bullet holes and his skin burnt by neon lights. Bond is helpless, and heartlessly uses 001's body as a shield, As it fills up with bullets, one hits Bond.

 

Bond wakes up unconscious, in a fake ambulance. He finds himself in a desert airfield, being loaded onto a plane against his will. He realises he is going to be put in a cargo crate. The plane lands in South Africa, where Bond, lost and not knowing where he is enters a phone booth and uses the magnetised hacker. He calls M. M tells him that Q will trace the call back. They announce he is in South Africa. Before Bond can answer, the phone box is dragged away onto a truck, driven by Wint and Kidd, laughing at him. The phone box is dumped in a mine shaft. Bond gets out, and finds himself at Rufus Saye's diamond mine. He disguises himself as a miner and finds himself travelling through the mine's headquarters, where he meets Tiffany. She says that she has been looking for him, and M wants Bond. Bond spies through a boardroom door and sees Rufus Saye. It is Blofeld, his face half-changed due to plastic surgery, with hair on just one side.  He then sees Bond. Bond and Tiffany are cornered, by Blofeld, who confirms that it is the perfect trap He throws Bond in a prison with the real Saye, a nervous starved old man with a long beard and wild hair. Bond manages to escape, Saye following him, only for the latter to be shot by Blofeld's guards. There, Bond has a fist duel with Blofeld, and a footchase. Eventually, they find an abandoned abattoir where Bond pushes Blofeld into a mincer, then releasing the livestock trapped in the abattoir, and feeding them the minced up Blofeld. Leiter and Marc Ange Draco and his men arrive and storm the mine, while Bond, tired and free of vengeance escapes with Tiffany and returns to London. 

M is not happy. He may have found 001, killed Blofeld and essentially wiped the slate clean for SPECTRE, but there are still SPECTRE agents out there. Wint and Kidd wait in London, while Bond is wining and dining Tiffany. Bond leaves, and meets Kidd who claims to be Blofeld's successor. Bond has a car chase in his Aston Martin DBS (presented to him by Q, restored, now with bulletproof windows so the second wedding doesn't get ruined and guns in the headlights and battering ams) with Kidd and Wint, in a  white Transit van. Wint and Kidd are  pushed off Tower Bridge and Bond returns to Tiffany. 

 

Bond - George Lazenby

Tiffany - unknown

Blofeld - Telly Savalas

Wint - Paul Williams

Kidd - Victor Buono

Spang - Ed Begley Jr. 

Leiter - Michael Sarrazin

Marc Ange Draco -Gabrielle Ferzetti

Irma Bunt - Ilse Steppat

M  - Bernard Lee

Q - Desmond Lllewellyn

Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell

 

Perfection

[willdj]

I think the casual inclusion of the Live and Let Die scene is a bit much and then Leiter would definitely not be raiding mines in South Africa straight after. I also don't think Leiter would take Bond's revenge nor would Bond or Leiter kill a "scared old woman" - but otherwise the rest of it sounds alright

[Admiral Messervey]

I think the casual inclusion of the Live and Let Die scene is a bit much and then Leiter would definitely not be raiding mines in South Africa straight after. I also don't think Leiter would take Bond's revenge nor would Bond or Leiter kill a "scared old woman" - but otherwise the rest of it sounds alright

 

Bottom line is Bunt may have been the first to be killed as Bond went through her and the rest of Blofeld's connections to get to the man himself. Mr. White, she's not.

[seawolfnyy]

I kind of think that regardless of who was playing Bond in Diamonds are Forever, the plot still wouldn't have been great. The reception for On Her Majesty's Secret Service wasn't great and I think the producers wanted a tonal shift, which in turn led to the light-hearted Moore era. In a perfect world, Diamonds are Forever would've more resembled what we got in Quantum of Solace, albeit that was also a poor revenge tale, but the tone would've fit better following OHMSS. Alas, we'll never know. Here's a strange idea though, what about Roger Moore in Diamonds are Forever?

[dtuba]

Roger in DAF would have been okay. Younger (looking) and fitter than Connery, I don't know if he would have done the light hearted bits as well. Connery did have some great lines in DAF. But I think Roger could have easily done a scene similiar to the one in FYEO where he's putting flowers on Tracy's grave. Put that in the beginning of the film, and make it obvious that several years haved passed since the events of OHMSS.

 

But then we still have to deal with the revenge angle, right? I think if they weren't going to clearly resolve the Tracy/Blofeld storyline, they should have made the villains the Spang brothers as in the book. That would have left the matter unresolved, which would have not been much less satisfying than what we got.

[Bond of Steele]

For me, I've always thought Moore in OHMSS would have been the way to go.   In his own films they went from a slightly more serious tone, if we can even call it that, to the outlandish and the not take too seriously films.  

[Admiral Messervey]

Roger in DAF would have been okay. Younger (looking) and fitter than Connery, I don't know if he would have done the light hearted bits as well. Connery did have some great lines in DAF. But I think Roger could have easily done a scene similiar to the one in FYEO where he's putting flowers on Tracy's grave. Put that in the beginning of the film, and make it obvious that several years haved passed since the events of OHMSS.

 

But then we still have to deal with the revenge angle, right? I think if they weren't going to clearly resolve the Tracy/Blofeld storyline, they should have made the villains the Spang brothers as in the book. That would have left the matter unresolved, which would have not been much less satisfying than what we got.

 

Shall we campaign for the Spangs for Bond 25/26 then?

[Trevelyan 006]

Well, I may have put some considerable thought into the possibility of George Lazenby starring in Diamonds Are Forever once or twice before...

Edited by Trevelyan 006, 18 December 2014 - 12:28 AM.

[Call Billy Bob]

Well, I may have put some considerable thought into the possibility of George Lazenby starring in Diamonds Are Forever once or twice before...

Right click, Save As.

 

This is great!

[Trevelyan 006]

 

Well, I may have put some considerable thought into the possibility of George Lazenby starring in Diamonds Are Forever once or twice before...

Right click, Save As.

 

This is great!

I made it a few years back, when I was still Photoshop savvy. This isn't even half the original image size (which I have if interested). I believe the film would've been far better if Lazenby would have been in it...

[Call Billy Bob]

 

 

Well, I may have put some considerable thought into the possibility of George Lazenby starring in Diamonds Are Forever once or twice before...

Right click, Save As.

 

This is great!

I made it a few years back, when I was still Photoshop savvy. This isn't even half the original image size (which I have if interested). I believe the film would've been far better if Lazenby would have been in it...

 

I feel the same way. And I'd love that original image, if you didn't mind terribly.

[Trevelyan 006]

I messaged you with a link to the original, Billy Bob. 

 

In the mean time, I personally believe that Lazenby would have gone on and made a great Diamonds Are Forever. Imagine if he stayed far past 1971 and became involved in a closer, true-to-novel adaptation of Live and Let Die! Then imagine if he starred opposite Christopher Lee in The Man With The Golden Gun! 

 

It would have been very interesting indeed, to say the very least...

[George White]

Leiter thinks it is Blofeld behind the door, and his role in the mine-raid was a mistake. I forgot he was maimed.

 

I have slightly rewritten Diamonds.

 

 

Here's my attempt. I know Ilse Steppat died in 1969, so let's have her replaced by another actress.

 

Bond, calm but vengeful walks to a garage/service station/motel on a mountain side, where he sees Blofeld's car. He finds Irma Bunt in a motel room and aims to kill the terrified old woman. Before he fires the gun, she is shot from the behind, through the door. The assassin rises. It is Felix Leiter.

 

"Sorry, I was late. M told me." Leiter admits. Leiter and Bond escape the motel, but find that Blofeld's car has driven off. Bond drives off in Leiter's rent-car Volkswagen Beetle and they engage in a car chase. Eventually, the car explodes. Leiter finds the corpse of the driver. It isn't Blofeld.

 

Cut to Italy, and Teresa's funeral. Bond meets Marc Ange Draco, and his assistant Olympe. Draco offers Bond the job of finding a diamond exporter named Rufus Saye in South Africa. Draco believes that Saye wants to buy out Draco. Bond turns him down. M wants Bond to find what happened to 001, who has gone missing in Las Vegas. Moneypenny tells Bond that she is saddened by the loss, while Q gives Bond a new gadget to cheer him up, a magnetised hacking device that can be used to change channels on televisions and give free telephone calls in phone boxes.

 

. Bond arrives in Las Vegas, met by Tiffany Case who claims to be 001's lover. She tells him that she is a diamond smuggler. She gives Bond a bag of diamonds marked "R, Saye". He asks her does she know Saye, who from photos is only ever seen with one particular side of his face covered in shadow. She answers that she doesn't, but her boss, a wealthy Texan casino owner named Jack Spang does. Bond visits Spang's penthouse and meets Spang, an older man in white suit and cowboy suit whom Tiffany considers an "uncle". Spang claims that he has not met Saye, but they are on good terms with Saye's American representatives Wint and Kidd. While in Spang's private aquarium, Bond notices a shark. "Oh that's Seraffimo, named after my late brother." Spang laughs. "He's my pet." Bond notices a human body swimming in the aquarium tank. Spang is horrified. Bond identifies the body as Felix, who is alive but only just. He has a note pinned to his torn clothes. "He disagreed with something that ate him." Meanwhile, gunshots are heard in the casino below. We see 001 undercover, an older agent about to retire, in white linen suit and fedora, disguised as a tourist playing the fruit machines, only to turn and be shot by Wint, a meek mild-mannered young man and Kidd, a corpulent jovial bearded man grinning madly but never speaking. Bond sees them and calls for Spang to help him. Spang falls down a lift shaft, his neck riddled with bullet holes and his skin burnt by neon lights. Bond is helpless, and heartlessly uses 001's body as a shield, As it fills up with bullets, one hits Bond.

 

Bond wakes up unconscious, in a fake ambulance. He finds himself in a desert airfield, being loaded onto a plane against his will. He realises he is going to be put in a cargo crate. The plane lands in South Africa, where Bond, lost and not knowing where he is enters a phone booth and uses the magnetised hacker. He calls M. M tells him that Q will trace the call back. They announce he is in South Africa. Before Bond can answer, the phone box is dragged away onto a truck, driven by Wint and Kidd, laughing at him. The phone box is dumped in a mine shaft. Bond gets out, and finds himself at Rufus Saye's diamond mine. He disguises himself as a miner and finds himself travelling through the mine's headquarters, where he meets Tiffany. She says that she has been looking for him, and M wants Bond. Bond spies through a boardroom door and sees Rufus Saye. It is Blofeld, his face half-changed with hair on just one side. He then sees Bond. Bond rips off the half-mask that Blofeld wears claiming that he spent the money intended for plastic surgery. Bond and Tiffany are cornered, by Blofeld, who confirms that it is the perfect trap He throws Bond in a prison with the real Saye, a nervous starved old man with a long beard and wild hair. Bond manages to escape, Saye following him, only for the latter to be shot by Blofeld's guards. There, Bond has a fist duel with Blofeld, and a footchase. Eventually, they find an abandoned abattoir where Bond pushes Blofeld into a mincer, then releasing the livestock trapped in the abattoir, and feeding them the minced up Blofeld. Marc Ange Draco and his men arrive and storm the mine, presenting Bond with Bond's wedding car, Aston Martin DBS, fitted with bullet-proof windows thanks to Q. Marc Ange Draco scrawls on the SPECTRE war-map, "Remember Teresa" in the blood of some SPECTRE goons he has shot. Bond chases Wint through the mine's tunnels, pushing him onto a rock, on which he is impaled and then squashed by an oncoming mine lift. Kidd appears and Bond kicks him away. Bond escapes up in the mine lift, leaving Kidd trapped in the mine shaft as it collapses, yearning he shall come back. More SPECTRE planes are flown in. Arabs, IRA, Communist agents, Japanese yakuza, Chicago gangsters, any SPECTRE ally arrive at the mine. Marc Ange Draco agrees to buy out SPECTRE, and in revenge for them killing his daughter, releases huge chambers of gas onto the masses of SPECTRE agents. As Draco's men evacuate the plant, Draco himself proves to be missing. Has he made a sacrifice? Bond, tired and free of vengeance escapes with Tiffany in the new DBS, as the mine blows up in the distance.

 

I had the idea of perhaps killing Draco off, Draco becoming the new SPECTRE leader, and Bond reluctantly forced to kill him, or even him coming back as the new SPECTRE boss, driven mad by his loss.

Edited by George White, 19 December 2014 - 07:32 PM.

[Admiral Messervey]

There are elements of revenge at the start, albeit in a silly and fun way... that's another interesting possibility - if the character of Bunt was never dropped. Chasing her around the globe (assuming Bond killed Blofeld in the PTS) could have made for a good film.

Regarding Bunt and her fate (barring Benson), who's to say Bond didn't kill her first then go through the list leading up to Blofeld. Or what if Blofeld himself killed her having outlived her usefullness or her failure to kill Bond upon learning (via press) of the bullets hitting Tracy but not him?

Edited by Admiral Messervey, 02 March 2015 - 12:13 AM.