Magda is Kamal Khan's henchwoman, and Octopussy's right-hand woman and her most trusted partner in the Octopus Cult. The character was created specifically for the 1983 film Octopussy and was portrayed by Swedish actress Kristina Wayborn.
Biography[]
Magda works for both Octopussy and Kamal Khan who are partners in a jewel-smuggling operation which also includes Soviet General Orlov who supplies them with jewels from Russia. Orlov has the jewels replaced with fakes. When the fake of a Fabergé Egg named "Property of a Lady" is stolen by British agent 009, Orlov contacts Magda in London and tells her to obtain the real egg which is being auctioned at Sotheby's.
Magda goes to the auction and whispers to Khan to get the egg whatever the cost, in order to then return it to the Russian vaults and cover their operation. James Bond is also at the auction and her sophistication leads him to remark "Now there is a lady". Khan, who usually sells rather than buys, starts to bid for the egg, well beyond its estimated price which is £300,000. Curious, Bond forces him to bid as far as £500,000 before letting him have it — having discreetly replaced it with the fake.
Unaware that they have been tricked, Magda and Khan leave the auction house and get into a limo driven by Khan’s most loyal henchman, Gobinda. Bond signals to another agent, Smithers, to follow them and learns that they have gone to India.
In Udalpur, India, Bond takes a room at the Hotel Casino where he watches Magda, wearing a white dress, get off a large boat which the Octopussy girls power with long oars. A flag flying on the boat has an octopus symbol upon it.
Later, Bond enters the hotel casino where Khan is playing backgammon against another guest, Major Clive, while Magda is by his side. Bond notices that Khan is cheating with loaded dice. Magda is wearing a sheer black dress with patterns on it. Bond follows her to the bar and makes no secret of the fact that they have met previously at Sotheby's. She tells him he has "a very good memory for faces", and Bond responds with "and figures", which appears to flatter Magda. He confirms her suspicion that it is no coincidence that he is also now in India. After returning to the game, Bond takes over for the major and plays against Khan. He shows off the original Faberge egg as collateral, and then uses Khan's "lucky dice" to roll double sixes and win.
Bond's behaviour leads Magda and Khan to believe that he is an adventurer out to make some blackmail money. When Gobinda and other henchmen fail to get the egg back by force, Magda is sent by Khan to seduce Bond and retrieve it. In the evening, Bond and Magda have dinner next to the hotel pool, Bond describing her as the "least lethal and by far prettiest of Kamal's friends". The conversation quickly turns to how long Bond has to live unless he hands over the egg. When a woman photographer takes a picture of him, Bond jokes that Kamal may have already forgotten his face, but Magda answers that it is for her scrapbook(!).
Magda and Bond go back to his room where they make love. Bond notices the Octopus tattoo on her rear end which is similar to the flag of the boat he saw her on earlier. In the early morning, Magda plays into Bond's plans by stealing the egg while she is getting ready to leave. Magda walks out onto the balcony wearing her saree dress. She ties one end of the dress to the railing and tells Bond "I don't know how to say goodbye". "Actions speak louder than words" answers Bond and kisses her, but, using her skills as an acrobat, Magda does a backward flip over the railing. The saree dress slowly unravels and takes her down to a safe and easy landing on the ground below, leaving her wearing only her lavender coloured underwear and silver high heels. She is greeted by Kamal who slips a robe onto her and the two of them pull away in a waiting car. Bond is then knocked out by Gobinda.
After Bond wakes up at Khan's Monsoon Palace, he joins Kamal and Magda for diner, where Khan actually introduces her by name, stating to Bond, "I believe you and Miss Magda have met". Magda is wearing a low cut black dress with sleeves and a white pearl choker necklace with matching bracelets. After dinner, Bond escorts Magda back to her room and asks if he can come in for a nightcap only for Gobinda to indicate that he return to his own room.
Later that night, Bond uses the acid in a special pen to dissolve his way through the steel bars on the window of his room. As he sneaks along the outside balcony, he spies on the gorgeous Magda getting ready for bed in an adjacent room. She is wearing a sexy black silky slip and sits on a couch while taking off her stockings. Magda goes to the window when she hears the helicopter bringing General Orlov on a visit to Khan over the egg. Bond discreetly slips into her room and makes his way through the palace. Magda sees him but does not raise the alarm.
Bond uses a bugging device in order to listen in to Orlov and Khan's conversation, but Magda's use of a hairdryer causes interference and Bond can barely hear them discussing an issue to do with Karl Marx Stadt in East Germany in a week's time.
A week later, Magda is with the Octopussy circus at Karl Marx Stadt in East Germany. She walks through the audience doing magic tricks. She is wearing a top hat and very sexy magician’s outfit that includes fishnet stockings, a white vest and bowtie and a sparkly black coat with tails that hang down to her calves. Bond, who is among the audience, covers his face as she approaches and she fails to notice him.
The next day, as the circus loads up their performers and equipment onto their train, Magda is wearing a khaki coloured turtle neck sweater and tan pants with calf high boots. She has her hair braided to one side of her head and she is wearing a tan coloured winter field cap. The train includes stolen jewels hidden in a human cannonball cannon but, unknown to Magda and Octopussy, they are later replaced with an atomic bomb which Orlov intends to have explode in the middle of a U.S. Air Force Base in West Germany in order to have NATO driven out of Western Europe and thus make it vulnerable to a Soviet invasion.
During the train ride to West Berlin, Magda joins the other performers in the restaurant car. When Gobinda rushes through the coach with a sword in pursuit of Bond, she follows him to Octopussy's private coach where Khan has been shooting at Bond. Claiming not to have recognised him, Khan implies that the intruder is after the jewels and tells Magda to stay with Octopussy while he deals with the intruder.
Later that day, at the U.S. Air Force Base in West Germany, the circus puts on another performance. Magda leads the performers around the ring in the opening ceremony. She again performs magic tricks with the audience, including stealing the General's wallet but returning it when he tells her she faces two years in jail.
She is still with Octopussy and the General when Bond, dressed as a clown, confronts them and claims that there is a bomb in the stunt canon which is about to be used in the show. Magda does not believe him, she thinks that the jewels are still in the canon and urges Octopussy to stop Bond before he ruins the whole smuggling operation. Octopussy, however, takes Bond's claim seriously and helps him expose and disarm the bomb. Octopussy and Magda then leave together in order to find Khan and get revenge.
Back in India, early at dusk, Magda leads a group of girls to Khan's palace. Magda is dressed in a pink belly dance outfit with long skirts and they perform in front of Khan's guards, keeping them distracted while Octopussy and other girl commandos break in on the other side. At a signal from Octopussy, Magda and the girls then proceed to assault the guards and enter the palace grounds. When the alarm is raised, they engage in a full-scale battle with the guards, catching them in various traps they have set them, with Magda even using explosives and showing a skill at martial arts while fighting a guard.
Bond and Q overfly the battle in a hot air balloon. At one point, a guard threatens to shoot Magda and some girls with his rifle, but Q manoeuvres his balloon down and knocks the guard out. Grateful, Magda and the other girls drag Q out of the balloon's basket and proceed to hug and kiss him, much to his embarrassment.
Behind the scenes[]
- She may be a loose adaption of Maria Freudenstein as both are henchman, both have similar names (Ma being the first of five letters, which end in a), and both are involved with Fabergé Egg.
- Fifteen years after the filming of Octopussy, Kristina Wayborn was reunited with Maud Adams on an episode of That 70's Show, playing bridesmaids alongside Barbara Carrera at the wedding of Tanya Roberts' character. This was a likely Bond tribute.
Gallery[]