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"And you are James Bond. 007, licensed to kill. Am I to be your target for tonight?"
― Octopussy's first encounter with James Bond.[src]

Octopussy is a fictional wealthy businesswoman and jewel smuggler leading the Octopus Cult. A primary Bond girl but also a secondary antagonist portrayed by Swedish actress, Maud Adams, she appeared in the 1983 James Bond film, Octopussy, and was also seen in the 1986 James Bond 007 tabletop role-playing game.

The character of Octopussy was created for the 1983 film adaption of Ian Fleming's short story. In the Fleming story, Octopussy, Octopussy was the name of the pet octopus that Major Dexter Smythe loved. The role of Octopussy was heavily symbolic and, towards the end of the film, a key element in the story.

Biography[]

Background[]

Octopussy is a jewel smuggler based in India, who lives a life of luxury and works alongside with exiled Afghan prince, Kamal Khan and corrupt Soviet military officer, General Orlov. Octopussy's father, Dexter Smythe studied octopi, thus; the nickname "Octopussy". Her favourite octopus is the Blue Ringed Octopus which she keeps as a pet and which has enough venom to kill up to 50 people. Octopussy owns her island, the "floating palace" in which she lives with many beautiful women, including her second-in command, Magda, who are members of her Octopus Cult. She is also an extremely successful businesswoman who owns many legitimate enterprises in shipping, hotels, carnivals and circuses. Together with Magda and Kamal she tries to get a fake Fabergé Egg for General Orlov, and participate in what she thinks is a jewelry contraband, switching the real items for fakes and moving them through her circus.

Octopussy (film)[]

Octopussy is first seen when Khan shows her the egg. Her face is not seen as Khan tells her about Bond. He insists on killing Bond but Octopussy says not to. The back of her head is also seen briefly when she is seen skinny dipping and exiting the pool when Bond infiltrates her floating palace using the crocodile disguise and he sees her whilst hiding.

When Octopussy meets Bond, she reveals that she feels indebted to him; her british father was a traitor that Bond exposed; she wished to meet Bond to thank him for delaying the arrest of her father; long enough for him to save face by committing suicide before he could be arrested and convicted. Octopussy declares Bond her ally in front of Khan and after unsuccessfully trying to bribe him, the two make love in the evening. The following night, they defend her palace against assailants. During the fight Bond fakes his death and leaves for Karl-Marx-Stadt, having discovered that Octopussy's circus will perform there, and learning the mercenaries who attacked the palace to be Khan's men.

Octopussy, along with Orlov and Kamal Khan, schemes to smuggle the originals of the faked jewelry from East Germany to Switzerland using her circus. Orlov and Khan, however, would use the contraband as a disguise for detonating a nuclear bomb inside a US airbase on their route through West Germany, provoking a mass disarmament of the United Nations. Bond follows her to the circus and tries desperately to stop the bomb which Octopussy is unaware of. When he tells Magda and Octopussy who he is (disguised in a clown suit), and that they had been betrayed by Orlov and Khan, Octopussy grabs a gun and shoots off the lock on the case holding the bomb. With seconds to spare Bond disarms the bomb.

Back in India, Octopussy's group raids Khan's palace to get revenge for Khan's betrayal, but she is kidnapped and knocked unconscious by Gobinda. She wakes up in Khan's private plane and as she sees Gobinda go out to kill Bond she slaps him but gets knocked back into her seat. After Khan loses control of the plane, Bond saves Octopussy and jumps out leaving Khan to crash but Octopussy nearly falls off the cliff, but she is saved again by Bond. They make love in the end on board Octopussy's boat during his recuperation.

Alternate continuities[]

James Bond 007 (role-playing game)[]

Octopussy sends Kamal Khan to acquire Fabergé's egg with the aim of making it the last attraction in his circus but is unaware that General Orlov replaced the object with a counterfeit containing a miniature neutron bomb. The corrupt military planned to detonate the device during a circus performance in Belgrade in the hope of destabilizing NATO (he intends to "prove" that the bomb is American, which would help him to convince his superiors to invade Europe). As in the film, Bond is brought in to investigate the Russians' intentions with the Egg and the rest of the mission reflects the events of the feature film.

Henchmen & Associates[]

Behind the scenes[]

Sybil Danning was announced in Prevue magazine in 1982 as being Octopussy, but was never actually cast, later explaining that Albert R. Broccoli felt "her personality was too strong".[1] Faye Dunaway was deemed too expensive. Barbara Carrera said she turned down the role in order to play Fatima Blush in the competing Bond film Never Say Never Again. Casting director Jane Jenkins revealed that the Bond producers told her that they wanted a South Asian actress to play Octopussy, so she looked at the only two Indians in predominantly white Hollywood, Persis Khambatta and Susie Coelho. Afterward, she auditioned white actresses, like Barbara Parkins and Kathleen Turner,[2] who she felt could pass for Indian. Ironically, Parkins had appeared with Roger Moore in the 1977 film Word of a Man. Finally, Broccoli announced to her that they would cast Swedish-born Maud Adams, who had been played Andrea Anders in The Man with the Golden Gun, and had been recently used by Eon to screen test the potential Bonds. To acknowledge the nationality, Adams had her hair darkened, and a few lines were added about how she was raised by an Indian family. A different plotline, with Adams's British father exposed as a traitor, was used instead.[3]

Gallery[]

Octopussy (Maud Adams)/Gallery

Trivia[]

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Octopussy drawn with multiple arms.

  • Octopussy is shown as having eight arms in the film poster like an octopus (plus two legs). This is also similar to the usual portrayal of various Indian deities as having multiple arms.
  • Many of the locals, including the mercenaries, seem to respect and even fear Octopussy, not wanting to interfere with her or having intention to get on her island.
  • Fans consider her to be the least malevolent female villain, as she had no desire to harm anyone but was simply a jewel smuggler, who started out as an antagonist to Bond's mission. She was also furious with Kamal for leaving her to die along with thousands of innocent people.
  • Octopussy is often mistaken for being the main villain of the film.
  • Octopussy has some similarities to Pussy Galore, both in her name, and also being the leader of an all female criminal gang disguised as a kind of circus.

References[]

  1. 11 Questions With Sybil Danning. Battle Royale With Cheese (7 May 2012).
  2. Field, Matthew (2015). Some kind of hero : 007 : the remarkable story of the James Bond films, Ajay Chowdhury. ISBN 978-0-7509-6421-0. OCLC 930556527. 
  3. Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins (2007). A Star is Found: Our Adventures Casting Some of Hollywood's Biggest Movies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 35–7. ISBN 978-0547545264. 

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