You Only Live Twice

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

Eon Productions 1967
Directed by: Lewis Gilbert
Produced by: Harry Saltzman
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hr, 56 min)

Mission Date: 06-13-67
Mission Objective(s): Discover who is hijacking US and Russian space rockets while in orbit and why.
Mission Status: SPECTRE trying another plan at world domination. This time, by capturing space capsules, inducing Russia and the U.S. to enter World War III.

PRIMARY TARGET - ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD
STATUS - Unknown

We cannot get rid of this guy. Blofeld returns with a more daring scheme in You Only Live Twice. Played by Donald Pleasence, we finally see the face of this criminal mastermind. It only took five movies, but we finally see him. Blofeld still has his cat, and now he also has a pool of piranahs. (Why do super-villians always like piranahs?) Blofeld almost succeedes at his plan, but again, Bond's smarts are too much for him.

SECONDARY TARGET - MR. OSATO
STATUS - Fired from his post

Head of Osato Chemicals, Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada) supplies all the fuel needed for Blofeld's rockets. He is rather a puny sort of fellow compared to other henchmen, but he is necessary for Blofeld's operation. He has a very prestigious lifestyle, and a magnificent office, which we see rather early, even before we see Mr. Osato. You can tell something is fishy when you see the office the second time. At the end, all of Mr. Osato's fuel and assistance cannot keep Blofeld's operations running, and he is fired, rather quickly, I might add.

ASSOCIATE - AKI
STATUS - Drank something that disagreed with her

Aide to both Mr. Henderson and Tiger Tanaka, Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is Bond's guardian angel in Japan, helping him escape imminent doom in her Toyota GT 2000 convertable. She lures Bond into Tiger's headquarters fairly easily, and stays with Bond until a hired Japanese assassin misses his target, Bond, and instead, gets Aki.

You Only Live Twice MP3 (331,848)- Composed by John Barry, sung by Nancy Sinatra

Q Branch:

Safecracker

Little Nellie

Rocket guns

Cigarette rocket guns

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

1. The budget was $9.5M ($1M spent on the crater set by Ken Adam.) The CBS production of Casino Royale, however, had the even higher budget of $25M, yet it did worse at the box office.

2. For the first time, the story of the 007 movie beared little resemblance to the novel it was based on.

3. The face of Ernst Stavro Blofeld is revealed for the first time. (See above)

4. This is the only movie where Bond has a vodka martini, stirred not shaken, when it is given to him by Mr. Henderson.

5. The book title comes from a 17th century poem by Basho:

You only live twice;
Once when you are born,
And once when you look death in the face