Mission
James Bond must recover the ATAC missile launching system before the Soviets can obtain it and use it to destroy Western nuclear submarines. He is aided by Melina Havelock, who has her own motive: avenging the murder of her parents.

Release Data
UK: 24th June 1981 (PG)
USA: 26th June 1981 (PG)
World Premiere: 24th June 1981 (Odeon Leicester Square London, UK)
UK TV Premiere: 31st August 1986, ITV
US TV Premiere: 27th January 1985, ABC

Running Time: 127 minutes
Classification: PG (UK), PG (US)
Budget: $28m
Worldwide Box Office: $194.9m
US Box Office: $52.3m
US Admissions: 22.4 million
UK Box Office: N/A

Production
Producers: Albert R. Broccoli
Director: John Glen
Screenplay: Richard Maibaum, Michael G. Wilson
Composer: Bill Conti

Locations
London, UK; Ionian Sea off Albania; Albania; Moscow, Russia; Corfu, Greece; Madrid, Spain; Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; Albania itself.

Pre-Credits Sequence
Whilst visiting his wife’s grave, Bond is unexpectedly picked up by a helicopter sent from Universal Exports (a cover name for MI6). Unfortunately for Bond and the pilot, the helicopter has been tampered with. In the next cut we see and man in a wheel chair who looks strikingly like Blofeld, stroking a cat. The pilot is dispatched remotely with an electric shock, leaving just Bond alive inside the chopper. The villain taunts Bond whilst flying the helicopter via remote control. Bond throws out the dead pilot and takes the controls, picking up the wheelchair along with both occupants on the skid and dropping them down a large chimneystack.

Cut Scenes & Alternate Versions
Two scenes were shot but cut from the final film. The first involved a scene on the Havelock’s boat just before Bond starts working with Melina on the case. Melina tells Bond that she tried to call him at his hotel room, to which he replied that he didn’t make it back last night. His sex life is mentioned by both characters before Bond asks that they work together. Director John Glen cut the scene as he felt it did not fit Melina’s character.

The second major cut was to the ice hockey fight sequence. The action was originally longer, featuring more stunts and Bond taking control of a Zamboni ice rink machine. The scene in the final film ends at the third period buzzer, but extra shots were filmed of Bond dumping snow from the machine on the three goons trapped in the net, and a final reveal shot of actor Charles Dance as one of the skaters.

A line of dialogue was cut just before filming which would have clearly identified the pre-credits sequence villain as Blofeld, commenting that his torture of Bond was a tenth anniversary celebration since their last meeting ("Diamonds Are Forever" in 1971).