You Only Live Twice (1967) on Netflix
Approved19671h 57mActionAdventureThriller
Spacecraft from the United States and the Soviet Union vanish in orbit, and each nation blames the other. Sent to Japan, James Bond hunts for whoever is behind the hijackings.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.8/10128,810 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
American and Soviet space capsules are being seized in orbit, and with each superpower blaming the other, war is a real danger. British intelligence believes the hijackings come from Japan, so James Bond is sent to Tokyo after a faked death in Hong Kong lets him travel without being hunted. Aki, an agent of the Japanese secret service, takes him to Dikko Henderson, the local British contact, who claims to hold critical evidence but is shot by a hitman before he can say more. Bond kills the attacker and rides in the getaway car to Osato Chemicals, where he breaks into the company president's safe and finds documents naming the cargo ship Ning-Po.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about You Only Live Twice (1967)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The You Only Live Twice production team was booked to fly home from Japan on BOAC Flight 911 on 5 March 1966, but stayed behind after being offered a chance to watch a ninja demonstration; that flight crashed 25 minutes after takeoff, killing everyone aboard.
- While a scene was being filmed from above, the helicopters created a major downdraft and cameraman John Jordan's foot was severed by the craft's rotor. It was surgically reattached, then amputated in London when the surgery was deemed to have been flawed; Jordan continued to work on the Bond series with a prosthetic foot.
- Producer Harry Saltzman originally cast Jan Werich as villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but when Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert saw him on set they thought he looked like "a poor, benevolent Father Christmas"; after several days of filming they judged him not menacing enough and replaced him with Donald Pleasence.
- SPECTRE's volcano base, with an operative heliport and monorail, was constructed on a lot inside Pinewood Studios at a cost of $1 million. The 45 m tall set could be seen from 5 km away and attracted many people from the region.
- Although the villain Blofeld had already appeared as SPECTRE's leader in two earlier Bond films, You Only Live Twice is the first entry in the series to actually show his face on screen.
- Nancy Sinatra sang the theme song only after her father Frank Sinatra passed on the opportunity. She was reported to be very nervous: first she wanted to leave the studio, then she claimed to sometimes "sound like Minnie Mouse". Composer John Barry declared that the final song uses 25 different takes.
- A different title song was originally recorded by Julie Rogers but eventually discarded, with only two lines kept in the final lyrics. In the 1990s another possible theme song, also called "You Only Live Twice" and sung by Lorraine Chandler, was discovered in the vaults of RCA Records.
