Remakes of Early Bond in Later Bond Films

BuilderPlumber

Looking at some Bond films in the middle and later times shows many are remaking earlier entries. Never Say Never Again may be obviously intended as a Thunderball remake but was it the first remake of an earlier Bond? Here are some clear examples of Bond films that remade large parts of an earlier entry in the franchise:

The Spy Who Loved Me & Tomorrow Never Dies: An attempt to start a war by a villain between superpowers by capturing vehicles belonging to them and putting the blame on each other. A showdown between 2 large armies in a well-protected premises where Bond stops the evil plan. Where did we see this before? You Only Live Twice. The director of Spy also was you guessed it the director of You Only Live Twice. Tomorrow Never Dies returned to this and was a remake of these films too only replacing Russia and America with China and the UK. The teaming of Bond with the Chinese agent is a copy of the teaming of Bond with the Russian agent in Spy.

Moonraker: Moonraker is a lot of things, including a lot better than many care to remember. It has been accused of being a copy of Star Wars and Spy, but while the basic plot of its predecessor is there with a similar villain replacing the ocean with space as his paradise, it is arguably the first return to Thunderball. The stealing of Moonraker is akin to the stealing of the nukes in that earlier film, and the time Bond is left at the mercy of the machine in the space centre is like the 'rack' in Thunderball's health clinic. The climax in space is an update on Bond's underwater climax in Thunderball and the Mardi Gras scenes are also similar.

For Your
Eyes Only: This veers a lot into hints of On Her Majesty's secret service. Columbo is very like Draco. The contessa getting killed. The ski shootouts and chases. The opening scenes with the visit to Tracy's grave and Blofeld. The contessa also echoes the English girl in Blofeld's clinic too as well as Tracy. The fighting over an electronic device is borrowed from From Russia With Love.

A scene that is updated a few times in the series too is Goldfinger's golf scene. It becomes a dice game in Octopussy and a rather silly sword fight in Die Another Day.

A View To A Kill: The plot is pure Goldfinger. Replace Goldfinger with the deranged Zorin, replace Fort Know with Silicon Valley and replace nuclear bombs with a man made earthquake. The scene where Goldfinger dispatches with Mr Solo is updated to Zorin arranging a reluctant investor in his plans to drop out of his plane into the ocean.

Another theme that goes through the Bond series is updates of the car chase with the supercar first seen in Goldfinger. We get updates in You Only Live Twice (with a super small helicopter), The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies and infamously (complete with invisible car!!) in Die Another Day.

Die Another Day: A disguised villain hellbent on world domination via a device powered by illegal diamonds who turns out to be someone from Bond's past. Where did we see this before? Diamonds Are Forever of course. Plus we also get scenes from Dr No replicated and the updates from the other films already mentioned.

Daniel Craig's SPECTRE sort of brought back the supercar bit but with a twist. Things in it did not work! But where are things going from here? An On Her Majesty's Secret Service update if Blofeld is still around most likely.

Mickeroo

Wouldn't call them remakes, just a combination of lack of imagination on the part of the film makers and the use of tropes that are the bread and butter of a traditional bond/spy movie.

BuilderPlumber

Mickeroo wrote: »

Wouldn't call them remakes, just a combination of lack of imagination on the part of the film makers and the use of tropes that are the bread and butter of a traditional bond/spy movie.

I think that as the series went on, the templates from either Goldfinger, Thunderball or You Only Live Twice were used over and over. Ideas of a villain hiding behind another persona was introduced in Diamonds Are Forever but was used if I recall 3 more times.

Whatever way, Bond films remain entertaining fare with the best and most innovative of them introducing new ideas. The rest can vary these ideas and still deliver.

Hande hoche!

Yeah in terms of reoccurring trends, one is Bond constantly going rogue.

Sad Professor

All sequels are derivative of the film that inspired them, though some more than others. Even when the whole plot isn't getting rehashed, the same scenarios tend to play out again and again but in a different form. That's what a sequel is: more of the same. It doesn't make them remakes. They can be just as entertaining if not more so than the original.

BuilderPlumber

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Yeah in terms of reoccurring trends, one is Bond constantly going rogue.

This has happened in a variety of ways or was hinted at. Bond (and sometimes with M's approval and involvement) has often gone rogue. For example:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Bond resigns from the secret service (Moneypenny organises it as leave instead to M's relief!) and tracks down Blofeld. He comes back to M and gets reassigned.
Diamonds Are Forever: It is implied that Bond has spent 2 years presumably rogue chasing Blofeld and thinking he has killed him. M then assigns him to assignment unknown to either that Blofeld is involved in.
The Man With The Golden Gun: Not really going rogue but Bond suggests going it alone 2 times to track down Scaramanga.
For Your Eyes Only: Bond does more than he is told to do in Spain at the start.
Licence To Kill: Bond goes 100% rogue here and disobeys his orders to seek revenge for a friend.
Die Another Day: Bond breaks out of the hospital treating him for his post POW ailments against M's wishes.
Casino Royale: Like in For Your Eyes Only, Bond does more than he was asked to in Madagascar. His revenge focus against those who killed Vesper end out this film and seep into the next.
Skyfall: Bond with M's backing decides to go rogue and head out of London for Scotland to set up the enemy.
SPECTRE: Bond with the aid of a video from the deceased former M decides to go to Mexico and then Italy to track down villains she told him to watch out for. Bond and the new M both go rogue against the new Blofeld puppet in the secret service codenamed C.

BuilderPlumber

Sad Professor wrote: »

All sequels are derivative of the film that inspired them, though some more than others. Even when the whole plot isn't getting rehashed, the same scenarios tend to play out again and again but in a different form. That's what a sequel is: more of the same. It doesn't make them remakes. They can be just as entertaining if not more so than the original.

That is true. Dr No introduced a lot of what we have come traditionally to expect from Bond films. The sequels improved on things with From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice all setting in stone what was to be expected from then on.

There has been some excellent Bond films from every era adapting to different actors portraying Bond and the fact that the series is still going strong after 55 years shows that it has successfully navigated eras. The fact that those early 1960s Bond films remain very enjoyable to this day show how ahead of their times they were.