James Bond movie/novel differences (Spoilers)

Blood_StoneBlood_Stone Posts: 183MI6 Agent
edited June 2011 in James Bond Literature
Casino Royale

The book begins with Bond being in Royale-Les Eaux (Montenegro in the film) already and ends with "The bitch is dead."

Le Chiffre doesn't have the cool scar nor does he cry blood, but I like that change.

Bond meets Vesper at the park with with Rene Mathis.

In the movie, Bond's game with Le Chiffre is interrupted when the martini he drinks is poisoned. In the book, one of Le Chiffre's hitmen gets behind Bond's chair and tells him to pull out of the game before he wins all the money or he will be shot. Bond then flips the chair over backwards onto the man and gets up as if he just fainted with the bottom of the chair missing. They bring him another chair as the hitman gets away.

In the movie, Bond crashes his Ford Ashton Martin trying to avoid running over a tied up Vesper. In the book, his convertible Bentley crashes when it hits steel spikes set up on the road by Le Chiffre.

In the book, Vesper kills herself by OD'ing on sleeping pills. Bond finds out she was a traitor when he reads the letter she left behind informing him of everything.

Mathis is Bond's friend and does not betray him.

Also, Bond doesn't catch Le Chiffre's killer.


Live And Let Die

There is no killing of MI6 agents at the beginning. The book starts off with Bond being in New York City already.

In the book, Mr. Big (acronym for Buonapart Ignace Gallia, his real name) was still a big crime lord, but instead of a major drug operation he was smuggling gold coins and financing SMERSH. He is bald and has grayish skin due to him suffering from chronic heart disease. He is not a diplomatic representative. He doesn't have a PH D. either so there's no second identity as Dr. Kananga.

Mr. Big's eatery in Harlem is called The Boneyard, not the Fillet of Soul.

Tee Hee (just a regular guy, no mechanical arm crap) actually does break Bond's pinky finger unlike in the movie. Bond kills him shortly after that so no climatic final fight on a train as seen in the film.

He had a live dangerous fish-trade operation in gulf-coast Florida (he hid the gold coins beneath the tanks) where he fed Leiter to sharks (used in "License To Kill")

No idiot Caucasian sheriff, no Rosie Carver, and no Baron Sademi

Solitaire has black hair and it is revealed that her real name is Simone Latrelle. IIRC, she doesn't use tarot cards thus eliminating my favorite scene in the movie with Bond pulling off the switch! Bond also doesn't sleep with her due to his finger injury.

No bus, airplane, or boat chases

Strangways and Quarrel are introduced here when Bond arrives in Jamaica (San Monique in the film). Strangways also has an eyepatch.

When Mr. Big caught Bond in his Caribbean lair, he had him and Solitaire tied together and dragged them behind his boat through a reef to be shark food (used in "For Your Eyes Only").

Bond saves himself and Solitaire when the mine that Bond placed earlier on Mr. Big's boat goes off and causes it to sink.

Mr. Big dies when he gets eaten by a group of sharks. Bond takes recreational leave at the end and shares it with Solitaire.


Moonraker

Bond comes across Drax when M has Bond expose him as a card cheat. Drax has red hair, that covers scarring on his face.

The Moonraker is a missile instead of a space shuttle.

Jaws, Corinne, or Chang are not in the book.

CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead is instead a Scotland Yard agent named Galatea "Gala" Brand.

Drax turns out to be a Nazi named Graf Hugo von der Drache, and the Moonraker is secretly aimed to hit London.

Drache captures James and Gala and plans to cook them with the Moonraker's rockets. James changes the gyros, then he and Gala hide in the shower turned on full blast. Drache escapes in a Russian submarine, but a reprogrammed Moonraker is aimed at him and he is killed in the explosion. Bond and Gala are exiled to France until the event blows over. Bond tries to get with Gala, but she informs him that she's engaged and they part ways.


Diamonds Are Forever

Bond goes up against a major diamond smuggling operation run by a syndicate called "The Spangled Mob" led
by the Spang brothers, Jack and Serafimo. There's no Blofeld.

Wint and Kidd are some of their hitmen. Wint is afraid of flying, and carries a card with his blood type on it when he has to fly. "Shady" Tree is a red haired hunchback, and a small time mobster in New York. He is not killed.

Peter Franks looks somewhat like Bond, and Bond never meets him so no awesome elevator fight.

Felix Leiter now has prosthetic limbs from being attacked by a shark in "Live And Let Die". Once in Las Vegas, Bond is taken to "Specterville", a ghost town in the desert that Serafimo has bought. There, Wint and Kidd stomp on him with cleats, but Bond survives.

At the end, Bond derails a train full of baddies, but only Serafimo dies. and has a massive face-off with Wint and Kitt on a voyage on The Queen Elizabeth ship back to England. Bond winds up killing both of them in a gunfight after they kidnap Tiffany. Then he goes to Africa with the troops to stop Jack Spang, who was meeting the dentist in a chopper in a remote area. Jack kills the dentist, because he knows the government is onto him, and as he attempts to escape in his helicopter, Bond shoots the chopper down using a heavy artillery gun.

Also, Tiffaney Case was a hard-boiled, intellegent, blonde. Not a dumb bimbo.


From Russia With Love

Almost half of the novel is about SMERSH planning the assassination of James Bond after his past interferences in the past that resulted in the deaths of Le Chiffre and Mr. Big, two of their operatives.

SPECTRE is not involved at all and it wasn’t even invented until several years later when the novel “Thunderball” was written. Grant has these urges to kill during a full moon. He fulfills these urges at first by killing small animals then larger animals until he finally starts murdering people. With talents like that, he is the perfect candidate for the execution branch of SMERSH and eventually becomes their Chief Executioner. He does not kill a Bond-alike. He gets brass knuckled punched in the stomach by Klebb in her office. The watch that he wears with the garrote wire is something the film makers came up with. He does not appear again until meeting Bond for the Orient Express ride. There is also no mention of him being "Bond's protector".

Rosa Klebb is even an more frightening character as the head of the execution branch for SMERSH. When she interviews Tatiana Romanova it is at her apartment and Klebb makes sexual advances towards her and after leaving the room comes back wearing a negligee, the sight which has Tatiana fleeing from the room in horror. Thank goodness they didn’t film that scene.

Bond doesn't show up until the second half of the book. He is equipped with the attaché case, but not the AR-7 folding sniper’s rifle, it also does not come with an explosive device attached. Kerim Bey has his own cane gun and takes care of Krilencu in a similar way as in the movie. The assassination attempt on Kerim with the bomb at his office happens before Bond gets to Turkey. Bond wasn't at the Russian embassy when it explodes. Kerim got Tatiana out of there with the Spektor (Lektor in the movie) cipher machine. There are not any boat chases or helicopters chasing Bond around.

Grant tells Bond he is going to kill him by shooting him in the heart as soon as they pass through the tunnel. He also informs Bond that the Spektor is booby trapped with a bomb as insurance policy in case SMERSH's plot fails so that way the Spektor is useless to the British once they get their hands on it. Bond asks to smoke before he is killed. Grant allows it. Bond smokes and places his metal cigarette case in front of his heart. The lighter blocks the bullet, saving Bond's life. He plays dead until Grant is not looking. Then Bond gets the knife from the case and slashes Grant in the leg. They have a brief scuffle before Bond gets a hold of a gun and shoots Grant to death.

Kronsteen is not killed off.

Bond encounters Klebb at a hotel in Paris because Grant was suppose to meet her there as he told Bond this. Bond traps her against the wall with a chair (because she's trying to kill him with a poison-tipped knitting needle) until Rene Mathis and his men come to the rescue. Bond gets kicked by the shoe tip because he or Mathis didn't see it come out. Klebb is stuffed into a laundry basket as they take her into custody (she just dies in her imprisonment in the Dr. No novel, not being fatally shot like in the FRWL movie). The book ends with Bond "dying" so he doesn't ride off into the sunset with Tatiana.


Dr. No

The beginning of the book has Bond recovering from his near death attack. He is investigating the disappearance of Strangways and his secretary. After killing Strangway's assistant, Dr. No's henchmen burn the building down, destroying everything (instead of taking the files on Dr. No as seen in the film)

There is no character named Sylvia Trench so Bond does not go to a casino before going to M's office.

Felix Leiter does not appear at all. Quarrel picks up Bond at the airport thus no Mr. Jones character for Bond to beat up.

Instead of a tarantula, it is a centipede.

Bond does not sleep with Miss Taro nor go to her place so there is no car chase. There is also no Professor Dent character thus eliminating the best scene from the movie with Dent being killed in cold blood.

When he first meets Honey Rider (Honeychile Rider) she comes out of the sea topless. She has a broken nose that was never fixed, from her rape (the one mentioned in the movie).

During Bond's escape, he goes through a maze of different obstacles including heat, extreme cold, a nest of tarantulas, and finally has to fight a giant squid. Honey is tied down and left for the crabs to feast on before she is rescued by Bond.

Dr. No is 6'6'' and has no eyelashes. His hands are like that of mechanical crab claws. He does topple missiles, but not just ones from the USA. He does not work for SPECTRE, but the Russians. He is killed when Bond drops tons of bird **** from a crane on him.

A nuclear reactor is not used so therefore there is no explosion of Dr. No's base. Bond and Honey escape when they hijack the Dragon Mobile. The book ends with Bond going over to Honey's home and becoming her little bitch in bed.


Goldfinger

Auric Goldfinger works for SMERSH and actually intends to steal the gold from Fort Knox. He is a midget as his height is 5'0''.

Bond never sees Jill Masterson covered in gold paint as he is informed by Tilly about it.

The Aston Martin is of a different model and is much simpler with the gadgets. Q is not in the novel.

Pussy Galore is the lesbian leader of an all-female criminal organization from New York City called the Cement Mixers. She is not a pilot.

Also Bond isn't threatened with emuscalation by laser, but by a buzzsaw.

Tilly is killed the same way with her neck getting broken after getting struck by Oddjob's hat, but that actually happens later on in the novel during the Fort Knox robbery.

The name of an actual nerve gas sarin is used in the novel, but is intended to be delivered in the water supply, not by air.

All the mob leaders are shot to death by Goldfinger, not gassed.

Bond does not have a climatic fight with Oddjob. Oddjob is the one who gets sucked out of the airplane window after Bond breaks it with a concealed knife. Goldfinger is killed right afterwards after Bond strangles him to death.


Thunderball

Bond doesn't beat up and kill a transvestite.

Count Lippe works for The Tongs, not SPECTRE. He is killed by a SPECTRE assassin motorcyclist who throws a grenade into his car just as Count Lippe is about to shoot Bond. There's no Fiona!

Domino's real name is Dominetta Petacchi, not Dominique Derval as used in the film version. She is also blonde.

Domino's brother actually sold out to SPECTRE for greed, not being killed and switched with a look-alike as seen in the film version. He is killed in the book when Vargas stabs him under the chin with a knife after landing the plane.

Bond has sex with Domino in a hut on the beach, not underwater like in the film.

Bond's CIA allies come out of a submarine, not by airplane. Felix was part of the underwater battle.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld makes his debut here. He is NOT bald. He has black crew cut hair as depicted in the From Russia With Love film. He also does not have a white Persian cat.

Emilio Largo has long sideburns and black hair. He does not have an eyepatch. He is killed underwater by Domino when she shoots him through the neck using a spear gun while he is attacking Bond so no climatic battle on the runaway boat.

The two bombs are retrieved, the Disco Violante does not blow up.

The book ends with Bond sleeping next to Domino's hospital bed.


The Spy Who Loved Me

The book is about a woman, Vivienne Michel, running a motel in the US. "Sluggsy" Morant (short fat bald guy) and Sol "Horror" Horowitz (big guy with metal teeth), arrive and are going to burn it down so their boss can profit from the insurance. Bond turns up in the last third of the book and saves the day by shooting the two gangsters, screws the girl, and then leaves. The whole book is written from the point of view of the woman.


On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Bond wants to be relieved of Operation Bedlam and when he isn't, he contemplates resignation. Bond had believed that Blofeld must be dead and SPECTRE gone.

Mary Goodnight is introduced here and she is far from being the dumbshit broad in the film version.

Bond doesn't save Tracy from suicide until after they have met at the casino.

No epic fight on the beach

Bond meets Blofeld for the first time. Blofeld has white hair now (think Charles Gray in the DAF film).

Bond only sleeps with one Piz Gloria patient

Bond fled Blofeld's lair before being found out.

Tracy was not kidnapped and so she was not involved in the Piz Gloria assault.

No epic bobsled fight. Blofeld escapes after leaving a grenade in the path of Bond's bobsled. Bond has to jump to avoid being killed.

Bond and Tracy are shot at while the car is in motion instead of being parked to the side. Blofeld is the one who pulls the trigger, not Irma Bunt, that results in Tracy's death.


You Only Live Twice

Bond is not "killed off" at the beginning and the plot has nothing to do with the kidnapping of space capsules.

Bond's career is fading following the wedding day murder of his wife, Tracy. He assigned on a diplomatic mission and temporarily gets a new number, 7777.

Dikko Henderson is featured a lot more and is not killed off.

Bond did not go through a fake marriage with Kissy Suzuki as in the movie. His cover simply operated on the assumption that he was an Ama fisherman, and had been living with her and her family for an indeterminate period of time.

There is no Aki character.

Bond is asked by Tiger Tanaka to kill Dr. Guntram Shatterhand (who operates a politically embarrassing "Garden of Death" where people go to commit suicide) in exchange Tiger will provide information about an informant within the Soviet Union.

Bond accidentally discovers that Shatterhand is actually his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld (now sporting a drooping mustache), and gladly takes the mission, keeping his knowledge of Blofeld a secret so that he can exact revenge for his wife's death.

After breaking into Blofeld's castle, Bond kills him and Irma Bunt. Blofeld is strangled to death after a swordfight. While escaping, Bond suffers a head injury from an explosion, leaving him an amnesiac living as a Japanese fisherman with Kissy, while the rest of the world believes him dead. Kissy becomes pregnant so there is a James Bond Junior!

At the novel's end, Bond finds a paper slip with the name Vladivostok written on it, making him wonder if the far-off Russian city is the key to his missing memory.


The Man With The Golden Gun

After making it to Russia, Bond is brainwashed by the Russians and is sent back to England to assassinate M for them. The plan fails. Bond is deprogrammed and is eager to prove his worth as a member of the 00 section before retiring. M assigns him to Jamaica to locate, gain the confidence of, and finally kill Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, an assassin known as "the man with the golden gun" (because of his golden revolver) who is believed to have killed several secret agents.

Scaramanga is a Caribbean gunman who often works for Fidel Castro's secret police instead of a high priced assassin.

No Andrea Anders, no Nick Nack, no Thai island, no fun house, no Solex Agitator crap.

Bond catches up with Scaramanga, where Bond pretends to be a freelance security officer, and Scaramanga hires him to guard an upcoming meeting of gangsters. During the meeting, a KGB officer blows Bond's cover, subsequently pitting Scaramanga and Bond in a shootout. Bond wounds Scaramanga, but before he can finish the gunman off, Scaramanga shoots Bond with a poisoned bullet from his backup weapon, a golden Derringer. Bond returns fire, killing Scaramanga instantly; soon thereafter, a policeman finds the nearly dead Bond in time to save him.

Mary Goodnight invites a hospitalized Bond to finish his recuperation at her place. Bond also is offered knighthood, but he refuses it.


If there's anything I missed, feel free to add!

Comments

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,329MI6 Agent
    Yeah, you missed Never Say Never Again as a reference!

    I found this post brilliantly entertaining, with a real dry wit. {[] I especially like the Thunderball opener.

    Thunderball
    Bond doesn't beat up and kill a transvestite.

    :D
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
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