Over the next few months, MI6 will explore the scenes where James Bond is at his most cold-blooded and hardcore across all 23 adventures to date. Voting will then open to find 007's most brutal moment in the series.
Despite "Octopussy" being remembered by Bond aficionados as one of the most light-hearted in the series - telling tigers to "sit", Tarzan roars in the jungle, etc - the film enjoys a darker moment or two as Bond journeys behind the Iron Curtain to stop a maniacal Soviet General and his comrades. One moment in which 007 shows little mercy is when he is offered the chance to avenge the death of a fellow 00-agent.
Bond heads off in hot pursuit of the Octopussy circus as it rumbles through the East German countryside, casually smuggling jewels - and more! - across the world's most heavily guarded border. In his efforts to discover Kahn's merciless plan and thwart the scheme, Bond stows away as a circus crewmember. It is not long before 007 is being hunted by Mischka and Grischska, the identical dagger-wielding, circus performing twins.
After Bond fights with Mischka in the train - and in the midst of the struggle drops the barrel of a heavy circus cannon onto the goon's head - his brother, Grischska, peruses Bond to the exterior of the train, battling unwieldily on its roof. In the struggle both 007 and Grischska are thrown from the speeding Octopussy train, deep into the German forests. Here, Grischska's knifemanship comes into play. Bond, as was his colleague, 009, is now being hunted through the woods by the lethal circus performer.
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Grischka: This is for my brother...
Bond: And that's for 009.
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Bond is caught in Grischska's trap and pinned to a wooden cabin door by the goon's throwing knives. In a spur of the moment manoeuvre, so as to dodge the fatal blade, 007 opens the door behind him and swings out of the knife's path. Grischska, disorientated, stumbles headlong into the cabin and Bond removes another of the blades and flicks it skilfully into the villain's stomach, seeking revenge for his slain colleague, 009, who lost his life at the hands of Kahn's twins.
Much of the sequence was shot in the appropriately named Black Park, just down the road from Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, UK. The park has been extensively used by 007 productions. For instance, the location also doubled as the Ugandan camp that Mr. White and Le Chiffre visit in 2006's "Casino Royale".
