Synopsis
(Dr. No)

Jamaica: British agent Strangways is gunned down by assassins and a file marked Doctor No is stolen from his home. Secret Agent James Bond is called away from the casino where he is wooing Sylvia Trench for a briefing with his boss, M. On the way in, he flirts with M's secretary Miss Moneypenny. M briefs Bond on Strangways' apparent disappearance and Bond learns that Strangways was looking into the mystery of why American space rockets are being sent off course by mysterious interference.

Bond is dispatched to Kingston, Jamaica where he deftly avoids having his photograph taken by a suspicious looking young woman.He's met by Jones, a chauffeur from Government House and is watched by CIA agent Felix Leiter. But Jones is an enemy agent and Bond tries to interrogate him. The bogus chauffeur commits suicide by biting on a cyanide capsule hidden in a cigarette.

Bond meets with local governor Pleydell-Smith, metallurgist Professor Dent and General Potter who regularly played cards with the missing Strangways. He learns of Strangways' recently acquired passion for big game fishing and that Strangways had hired his boat from a local named Quarrel. Bond tracks down Quarrel who proves uncooperative and sets burly barman Puss-Feller onto the inquisitive British agent. But Bond outsmarts them and almost gets away when he's caught by Leiter - it turns out that Quarrel and Puss-Feller both work for the CIA.

Leiter and Quarrel fill Bond in on the background to the case, particularly that the interference that is supposedly causing the rocket accidents seems to emanate locally. Leiter also tells Bond about the island of Crab Key and its mysterious owner - an overflight of the area revealed nothing there but a mine, yet Quarrel admits to being terrified of the place and local fisherman won't go there now after some of the disappeared. Strangways had collected some rock samples from the island but Quarrel can't explain why he wanted them. Leiter then tells Bond the name of the island's Chinese owner - Doctor No. Leaving Puss-Feller's Bond narrowly avoids an attempt on his life by the same assassins who murdered Strangways.

The Following day, Dent reveals that Strangways had brought some rocks to him insisting that they were valuable but they turned out to be worthless iron ore. Dent insists that the rocks couldn't have come from Crab Key as Bond suggests as that would be "geologically impossible." But Dent is up to no good and is soon on Crab Key being given a dressing down by a disembodied voice in a large, stark room. Dent's warns that Bond suspects that the rock samples came from the island and could be on his way to investigate. The voice directs Dent to take a small glass case containing a tarantula and simply tells him: "Tonight..."

That night, Bond turns in early but is disturbed by something moving beneath his bed sheets - the tarantula is crawling up his arm, getting closer and closer to his face. When the spider crawls onto his pillow, Bond leaps out of bed and batters the creature to death with his shoe. Next day, Bond catches Pleydell-Smith's secretary, Miss Taro, eavesdropping on his conversation and, never one to turn down a golden opportunity, arranges a date. He meets with Quarrel and Leiter and shows them the contents of a parcel recently arrived from London - a bulky Geiger counter which registers wildly when Bond waves it over the spot on Quarrel's boat where Strangways placed the rocks from Crab Key.

Bond wants Quarrel to take him to Crab Key, but the fisherman is terrified of a supposed dragon that lives there. Leiter assures Bond that it's just a rumour circulated by No. Quarrel eventually - and reluctantly - agrees to accompany Bond and Leiter to the island later that day.

Miss Taro arranges to meet Bond at her apartment in the mountains. En route, Bond is menaced by the assassins who pursue him in a hearse. Bond escapes under a crane parked in the road as the pursuing hearse plummets over a cliff and explodes.

Taro is startled to find Bond on her doorstep and later takes a call from someone who wants her to keep him there for a couple of hours. Bond, naturally, finds the perfect way to kill the time then sets Taro up to be arrested by the local police superintendent! He stays in Taro's house until her mystery contact arrives - Dent. The professor fires several shots into the bed in which Bond has arranged some pillows so as to make it appear as though he is sleeping there. Bond takes Dent captive and when he tries to escape, Bond cold-bloodedly guns him down.

Later that day, Bond, Quarrel and Leiter set off in Quarrel's boat for Crab Key. Bond sends Leiter back to the main island and presses on aboard a smaller sailing dinghy with Quarrel, finally coming ashore in an isolated cove where they decide to rest for a while.

As day breaks, Bond is woken by the sound of a woman singing and is startled to see an attractive blonde emerging from the sea in a very brief bikini. The woman, Honey Ryder, is searching for shells to sell to the tourists and Bond realises that if she used the sail on her dinghy all the way to the shore, the local radar will have picked it up. Bond, Quarrel and Ryder are forced to take cover when a power boat cruises into the cove. The crew of the boat open fire with a machine gun trying to flush the intruders out but leave when they are unable to find them.

Ryder tells Bond that she's seen the island's legendary dragon and both she and Quarrel want to leave. Bond persuades them that the 'dragon' is nothing but a myth but are soon startled by approaching guards. Ryder leads them to a hiding place , but the guards catch up with them and they are forced to hide in a leech-infested lagoon using bamboo stalks as breathing apparatus. Escaping their pursuers, they press on, unaware of a sign reading "Danger."

Bond tells Ryder that he's come to help arrest Dr No and she in turn reveals that her father, a marine biologist, vanished while exploring around Crab Key. Quarrel suddenly announces that the 'dragon' is approaching. Bond investigates and, as night falls, is indeed confronted by something that appears to be 'breathing' fire. But Bond recognises it as a machine of some sort and shoots it in the 'eye', in fact a headlight. Quarrel is burnt to death by the flame-thrower and Bond and Ryder are captured by the vehicle's drivers, two men in strange anti-radiation suits.

Bond and Ryder are taken to a vast base hidden in the mine where they are stripped naked ("Do the girl first," insists Bond) and forced to shower until they are clean and free from radioactive debris that apparently litters the island. They are shown to their 'cell', a luxurious hotel suite where Bond insist that they eat and drink the breakfast provided, much to Ryder's amazement.

Ryder suddenly passes out and Bond realises, just before he too collapses, that their coffee has been drugged. As they sleep, they are visited by a mysterious figure with black gloves whose simply looks at Bond. When they come round, they dress for dinner and finally get to meet Doctor No, an dapper Oriental who wears black gloves... Over dinner, No reveals that he was once the head of a powerful Chinese Tong and escaped to America with $10 million of their gold, allowing him to finance his spectacular base and its nuclear power source.

Bond tries to call No's bluff and tells him that he has filed a full report on him, but No is having none of it. Bond then tries to secure Ryder's freedom and No agrees, having her taken away by the guards who he is sure "will amuse her." Realising that he may have doomed Ryder to a fate worse than death, Bond tries to attack No but is subdued.

Bond wants to know what No is up to and the Doctor happily obliges. He is working for a global criminal organisation called SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) and is sending US missiles off course in a bid for world domination, playing east against west in revenge for their refusal to recognise his genius. To show his physical strength, he crushes a metal statue with his prosthetic hands.

No prepares to sabotage another rocket launch and Bond is given a brutal beating by the Doctor's henchmen. When he comes to, he is lying on a bunk in a small, metal cell. An attempt to escape through a grille is initially thwarted by a massive electric shock, but Bond uses the rubber sole of his shoe to protect himself, smashes down the grille and gains entrance to an eerie network of air ducts. The ducts (some of which are red hot. others flooded with water) eventually lead Bond to the decontamination area where he is able to overpower a worker and steal his anti-radiation suit.

Bond makes his way to the nerve centre of No's operations, a vast control room where technicians are monitoring television broadcasts s from Cape Canaveral. Bond is mistaken for a technician known to No and is sent to work on the device controlling No's nuclear reactor. As No and his scientists prepare to "topple" another rocket using a special radio beam, Bond forces the reactor core to overload. A fight breaks out as Bond tries to escape and No tries to shut down the out-of-control reactor.

Bond and No engage in hand-to-hand combat, No trying to batter Bond to death with the metal hands he's had implanted to replace his own lost in accident. But Bond gets the better of him and throws him into the reactor's coolant tank. As the core gradually inches closer to critical mass, a battered and bruised Bond frantically searches for Ryder, eventually finding her strapped to a rock in an underground cave awaiting death by drowning as sluice gates are opened. Together they flee the area as the island descends into chaos. Bond commandeers a motor boat and they manage to escape just as No's base spectacularly self-destructs.

Some time later, the fuel has run out and the boat is drifting out of control. When Leiter and his men find them, it's obvious that Bond and Ryder have found a perfectly acceptable way of passing their time at sea. In fact Bond is enjoying himself so much that he deliberately lets slip the tow rope from Leiter's boat, again leaving he and Ryder with plenty of time to be alone...