Octopussy (1983)

One more installment in the James Bond series with Roger Moore playing the famed British agent

Summary

-James Bond is off on his next mission. This one involves a fake Faberge egg, a fellow agent's death and a nuclear attack on NATO being disguised by an international jewel-smuggling ring

Cast

-Roger Moore: James Bond

-Maud Adams: Octopussy

-Louis Jordan: Kamal Khan

-Kristina Wayborn: Magda

-Kabir Bedi: Gobinda

-Steven Berkoff: Orlov

Did You Know?

-In a book called As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride, Cary Elwes says that prior to becoming an actor, he worked as a production assistant on this movie. One of his tasks was ferrying Sir Roger Moore around. He states he was a "nervous wreck" when he had to drive. He was constantly afraid of getting into a wreck and killing them both. On one occurrence, Roger Moore looked up from the paper he read and said "You can speed up a little if you want to."

-While filming this movie, a doctor had misdiagnosed Roger Moore with heart problems. Maud Adams had a boyfriend, who was a doctor, check him out and state that Moore was medically fit and that there were no heart problems

-Robert Brown's first appearance as M. He replaced Bernard Lee, who had passed away between 1979's Moonraker and 1981's For Your Eyes Only

-The blue-ringed octopus, which is featured in this movie, is a highly poisonous sea creature. It produces something called a tetrodotoxin, which is also found in puffer fish. It's a deadly neurotoxin causing paralysis and then death. There is no known antidote for it and one milligram can kill a person

-A list of several actors was compiled to do screen tests as James Bond. The reason for this is because Roger Moore was fifty five at the time and some felt he was too old. But producers ignored this and decided to retain Moore so the film could go up against 1983's Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery

-Kabir Bedi is the only actor out of Bollywood to earn a role in a James Bond film

-Vijay Amritaj is a professional tennis player trying to make a break into acting. Parts of the role he plays included inside jokes to his tennis career

-While filming in India, most of the cast and crew had diet problems

-A location in India had been chosen initially for 1973's Live and Let Die, but had not worked out. Later on, it became a possibility and even chosen as the location for this movie because location scouts discovered the city of Udaipur and were stunned by the beauty of the area and the architecture

-In the game Texas Hold 'Em, a hand of cards with a pair of eights is called an octopussy

-The island Octopussy lives on is located in Udaipur, India. It's the Jag Mandir or "Lake Garden Palace"

-Producer Albert Broccoli first met Vijay Amritaj at a Wimbledon match when Amritaj was still playing tennis

-In the scene where a fight breaks out in Octopussy's bedroom, a man is thrown into the aquarium where a blue-ringed octopus lives. It attaches to the man's face and is almost the size of his head when in reality, the species of octopus is actually the size of a golf ball

-This is the second film with Roger Moore to be filmed in India. The first was 1980's Sea Wolves, along with David Niven and Gregory Peck. As an interesting side note, Roger Moore's mother was born in Calcutta (Kolkata), India

-For this film, Roger Moore had to grow out and lighten his hair to make him appear younger

28 International Police Uniforms

Every police department around the world has a unique uniform signifying them as police. And usually one big indicator is either a windbreaker that says POLICE on it, a Kevlar vest with POLICE or if it's the case of a foreign language, the word POLICE will be in that language. For example, in Columbia, the police that patrol the Jose Chavez International Airport have jackets saying Dirandro on them, meaning they are the police of the airport. Or at Fumacino Airport in Rome, the police wear jackets with POLIZIA on them.

1. Japanese police - Himeji, Japan

2. Italian Carabinieri

-It seems like even being a police officer in Italy is fashionable...

3. Britain - Constables / "Bobbies" (London Police)

-It's only in London that the nickname "Bobbies" are used. Everywhere else in Britain, the more common "police constable" or "PC" is used

4. Private First Class in People's Armed Police Guard - China

5. Garda Siochana - Ireland's National Police

6. Australian Federal Police

7. Bundespolizei - Austrian Federal Police

8. Royal Canadian Mounted Police aka "Mounties"

9. Royal Bahamas Police Force Band

10. Punjabi Police - Punjab, India

11. Belgian Federal Police

12. Gendarmarie Nationale - One of two police forces in France

13. IPS - Indian Police Service

14. Bundespolizei - German Federal Police

15. Russian Police

16. North Korean Police

17. South Sudan Police

18. Palacio de Carabineros - Chilean Police

19. NYPD - U.S.

-Like most if not all countries, police can even look like soldiers with Kevlar vests and helmets, but only in tactical situations

20. Denmark Police

21. The police of Jordan

-It's interesting to see that, even in Jordan, women who are police observe the custom of wearing a hijab

22. Police of Iceland

23. Swedish Police

24. SAPS - South African Police Service

25. Vietnam People's Public Security

26. Spanish Police

27. Serbian Police

28. Federales - Mexican Federal Police

-These are the ones you usually see patrolling around Mexico, usually around the border crossing. They're usually armed with military-issue M16 rifles

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The first James Bond film of the 1980s

Summary

-James Bond is off on his next mission, which involves finding a missing British ship armed with a weapons encryption device and keeping it from falling into the hands of enemies

Cast

-Roger Moore: James Bond

-Carole Bouquet: Melina

-Topol: Columbo

-Lynn-Holly Johnson: Bibi

-Julian Glover: Kristatos

-Cassandra Harris: Lisl

-Jill Bennett: Jacoba Brink

-Michael Gothard: Locque

-John Wyman: Erik Kriegler

-Jack Hedley: Havelock

-Lois Maxwell: Miss Moneypenny

-Desmond Llewelyn: Q

-Geoffrey Keen: Minster of Defence

-Walter Gotell: General Gogol

Did You Know?

-Towards the end, when Bond is climbing a mountain, he uses his shoelaces to create a Prusik knot, which attaches himself to his climbing rope. This is an actual technique used by mountain climbers to add additional safety. This technique was created by an Austrian mountain climber named Karl Prusik

-During the bobsled chase scene, a 23 year old stunt man named Paolo Rigoni died during the filming. The track was poorly designed in that it had a severe turn. He was not the only person to die there. One other person died there as a result of that severe turn during an actual bobsled race. The track was later changed to make the turn less dangerous

-On the tombstone of Bond's wife is the phrase "we have all the time in the world". These were the last words uttered to Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service

-With Roger Moore suffering from vertigo, the rock climbing scenes were made more difficult. He had taken a Valium and drank a large beer before filming. Stuntman Rick Sylvester dangled over a twenty foot drop while Roger Moore only dangled over a four foot drop

-Cassandra Harris, who plays Countess Lisl, was married to Pierce Brosnan at the time of filming. He would later go on to play James Bond. Five years later, he was offered the part of James Bond, specifically for the 1987 film The Living Daylights. He had to refuse the offer because of scheduling conflicts with the 1982 TV program Remington Steele

-At the time of filming, United Artists was all but bankrupt. The studio had just completed filming on the 1980 film Heaven's Gate, which was a commercial failure. For Your Eyes Only raked in $195 million and saved United Artists from bankruptcy. The people there decided to focus way less on personal movies and focus more on movies that would be successful

-In the film, James Bond rejects advances from Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson), due to the presumable assumption she is too young for him. He later has a relationship with Melina (Carole Bouquet), who seems much older than Bibi. In reality, both actresses are a year different in age

-The final scene with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher marks the first time a government official appeared in a film, especially a James Bond film. Thatcher was played by Janet Brown, who was known for her accurate impressions of Thatcher

-Prior to the credits, the helicopter scene was filmed at the Beckton Gas Works. When Stanley Kubrick filmed his 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, he used this location to transform it into a Vietnamese village

-According to Sir Roger Moore, of all the cars he's driven in the Bond films, the one he states is his favorite is the Citroen 2CV

-Despite being a highly skilled cross country skiier, Roger Moore was not injured from skiing. Stunt man Willy Bogner handled any dangerous stunts

-The name of the main Bond girl, Melina, is a reference to Honey Rider from 1962's Dr. No. In Greek, "melina" means "honey"

-During the ice rink brawl scenes, replica jerseys of hockey teams were used. They included replica jerseys of the Montreal Canadiens as well as other U.S. and Swedish hockey teams with their logos removed

-The character Milos Columbo was named after Gioacchino Columbo, who designed the Ferrari engines, specifically the engines for Ferrari 125, which Ian Fleming was fond of

14 Weird Stories from Librarians

Librarians have probably seen it all. They deal in books, CDs and media of all sorts and while checking these items back into the system to be used by others, they've probably seen it all. And who's to say librarians can't be shocked by things that happen in that hush hush world?

1. Cat in a box

-I work at a public library in an urban area. One day a man brought in a tomato box that contained a dying cat. He put it on our circulation counter and asked us if we could watch his cat for a few minutes while he went outside. So that was a thing.

2. Color Me Confused

-My current job, in an academic library:

Patron: "I chose color on the copier. Why didn't it print it in color?"

Me: "Your original is black and white."

Patron: "So?"

Me: "It can't print what's not there."

Patron: "But I chose color."

Me: "So how does the printer know which colors to use if you just put a black and white picture in there. It can't fill it in like a kid with a crayon."

Patron: "Oh."

Still looking slightly bewildered, she walked away - I don't know if she ever truly got it.

3. Weird with a capital W

-Another time, two kids came into the library one with a harmonica and the other with one of those aboriginal instruments and they played it for a solid 40 seconds in the center of the library and then left. this was at about 9 pm at night, midterm week, so it was very busy, soooo weird.

4. Can I get yo number?

-I worked for a library in a rural community when I was 16-17. On one occasion when I was closing for the evening, a man (~25) hid between the shelves while we were locking all of the main doors. He revealed himself right before I left. He must have wanted my full attention when he asked me "Can I have your number?" I was very taken back and complied (which I do not think I would have done if I hadn't been surprised). Nothing bad came out of my experience, but be careful to sweep for people before locking yourselves in, guys!

5. Regular Joe or Tommy

-In my library, I have Tommy. Who comes in every day with a stack of copies of a newspaper article about a boxer (supposedly him) who won a fight against Muhammad Ali, will corner anyone he can to tell them about it.

6. Gang of weirdoes

-People are very interesting in libraries. Oh, these chaps...

Bag Man - a guy with an external borrower membership who regularly turns up with his blazer pockets filled with plastic carrier bags leaving a trail of stink in his wake.

The Alcoholic - the weekend team has to deal with this guy more often - he turns up stinking of vodka and just rumbles around talking/shouting at himself.

"Vicky Pollard" - this young lady is a curious one; never wants to leave, gets argumentative, drags her heels, and has often been seen wearing very weird attire (pajamas, slippers, leggings/tights with holes in [in the butt area]) and generally has a pretty far-away look plastered across her face at all times.

7. Heavyweight Champ

-Oh man, the urban libraries!

Yesterday I had to tell a former middleweight boxing champion that he couldn't come into the library drunk asking for cash.

A few hours later a patron informed us that our steel grating had been removed. It's like 200 plus lbs. Definitely swiped for scrap metal cash.

Just a TYPICAL DAY!

8. Anger management anyone?

-I work the evening/night shifts at a university library and we have many regulars and two stick out in my mind at the moment. Firstly, Baking Tray Fort Man. When clearing the building one evening (at about 23:50 or so - we shut at midnight) I wandered up some steps to a mezzanine level to tell a chap I'd spotted that we were closing up. It was only halfway through my sentence that I noticed he'd built a little fort of baking trays around the study carrel he was in, then as he turned to acknowledge me I saw he was also hugging one across his midriff. My colleagues didn't quite believe me until someone else spotted him doing the exact same thing a week later.

The second guy is much more irritating. He's obstreperous and combative all the time; started an argument with me because I refused to let him plug a two-pin international plug into our UK 3-pin sockets. Early in January, we were tasked with closing at 9 pm because of the "extreme weather" (some snow) and this was publicized all over the uni website, Twitter, Facebook as well as physical posters and announcement boards in the library lobby informing everyone of this. Simple, right? But, nay, an angry man came and tried to chew me out when the closing bell rang at 20:45. He wanted us to just lock him in and leave him until midnight as it was his "human right" to stay until midnight. Security had to remove him and he later threatened a manager that he'd call his embassy because we'd closed three hours early. Needless to say, he's not banned and still regularly skulks around as I secretly glare at him when he's not looking

9. You Got Any Hard Drives?

-There was this one time a woman who was down on her luck (was struggling with job searches, a divorce, hospitalizations, etc.) came in and asked me if we had a spare hard drive she could have, since her computer had passed the night before. You know, just one lying around that we weren't using.

10. The Mysterious Rapper

-There are A LOT OF crazies where I work as well, one of our homeless people in town writes raps. When I was a shelver, I would watch this guy and observe his behaviors. He would place his unfinished raps in our teen area in a graphic novel. I observed also that all the guy reads are M.C. Beaton mystery novels... lol he’s just one special character. 

11. How does that song go?

-I shelve books in the children’s section at a public library, so nothing too wild happens. But there is this one older guy who comes in a few times a week asking the librarians if they can help him figure out the title of a song. Sometimes he isn't even sure what the lyrics are but has a general idea. The librarians are super nice and try to help him every time.

12. A movie just waiting to be made...

-I've worked at a few branches of a well-known library, and every branch has the strange.

Blanket Lady - sadder than anything else. She covers herself with large fluffy blankets I think because she sleeps on the street.

Hoarder Lady - buys lots of discard magazines/books. A coworker carried some of her purchases to her car for her one time and said the car was filled with books/magazines. Every spare inch.

Ninja Dude - a guy in his mid-twenties? who dresses like a ninja in a white outfit. I remember he seemed to love Naruto and never washed the suit.

Buns of Steel - the older dude who used to bike from his house to the library every week to either renew or check-in/out our copy of the Jane Fonda workout VHS. Eventually, it got so warped I don't think he could watch it anymore.

Super Dog - didn't come much but it was always awesome to see this guy roll up with a dog riding in a cage on the back of his bike. He had him set up on this pole so the cage was much higher than the seat.

13. Kids and pickles

-Well… yesterday I had a pickle thrown at me by a kid after signing him up for a card, just because I wouldn't let him check out video games due to his card type.

14. Student aid

-This library is in this slim 8+ floor building near LA. Every time there was a decent-sized earthquake, they'd have to hire a lot of students to help pick up all the books that were thrown to the floor because the building vibrated like a tuning fork.

Moonraker (1979)

A James Bond film involving space

Summary

-James Bond goes on his next mission, involving global genocide and the theft of a space shuttle

Cast

-Roger Moore: James Bond

-Lois Chiles: Holly Goodhead

-Michael Lonsdale: Hugo Drax

-Richard Kiel: Jaws

-Corinne Clery: Corinne Dufour

-Bernard Lee: M

-Geoffrey Keen: Sir Frederick Gray

-Desmond Llewelyn: Q

-Lois Maxwell: Miss Moneypenny

-Toshiro Suga: Chang

Did You Know?

-The cable that Jaws bites was made of licorice

-In the fight scene between Bond and Chang, this movie used a record amount of break away sugar glass

-This was Bernard Lee's final film as M. He died in 1981, when For Your Eyes Only was just getting started

-For the shooting in Rio De Janeiro, Roger Moore arrived a few days late due to some issues with kidney stones in France. While shooting Live and Let Die, he suffered from renal colic. Once in Rio De Janeiro, he walked off the plane and into makeup, hair, got fitted out for filming and went back on the plane to start filming in Rio

-In the novel of the same name, Ian Fleming stated that once Bond reached 45 years of age, he would be taken off of the 00 list automatically and placed into a staff job at Headquarters. Roger Moore was 45 when he appeared in 1973's Live and Let Die

-Roger Moore hates bloodsports and is always hesitant to use guns. He had a genuine distaste for the shooting scenes

-While filming in Venice, the church bells rang so loud it made work impossible. The church bells rang because Pope John Paul I had passed away

-Any scenes at the space center were filmed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

-While filming, Lois Chiles' brother Clay was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. She would return to her native Houston to donate platelets to try and help him every ten days. He died from the disease.

-Lois Chiles was pregnant during the filming process

-Jake Lombard is a professional, veteran skydiver. He was used as James Bond's stunt double because he bore a strong resemblance to Sir Roger Moore, except for the long hair and beard. He had to cut his hair and shave. After this, close ups of Bond in free fall could be done successfully. The pilot was another veteran skydiver named B.J. Worth, along with Jean-Pierra Castaldi being used for studio scenes, because of his resemblance to Mr. Worth

-The boat chase in Venice was made difficult by the fact that the speed limit was five knots

-Three actors who appeared in the 1998 film Ronin made appearances as the main villain in three of the James Bond films. They are: Sean Bean from 1995's GoldenEye. Michael Lonsdale from this movie and Jonathan Pryce from 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies

-This is the final time to date that James Bond can be seen hang gliding, a new activity gaining rapid popularity in the 1970s. The other time is in 1973's Live and Let Die

-Claude Renoir was hired as the director of photography, but he had to back out due to his failing eye sight

-The family performing the high wire act was the famed Traber family, whose talents go back as far as 1512

-Prior to the order of Bond and Holly being executed, Drax tells them "your desire to become America's first woman in space will shortly be fulfilled". 1983 saw Sally Ride becoming the first female American astronaut in space while in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut from the Soviet Union

-In the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal, Michael Lonsdale plays a secret agent trying to stop a British assassin with a high powered rifle. Here he plays an assassin with a high powered rifle trying to stop a British agent. Ironically, Roger Moore had wanted to play the role of The Jackal

-According to Roger Moore, the scene where he and Holly make love in zero gravity was the hardest scene to shoot. Roger stated he felt blood running up to his nose and eyes

Impressive Police Cars

Every country has different models of car that the local police use. Here are some impressive examples of equally impressive cars used by the police.

1. Italy - Lamborghini Huracan LP-640

-Despite the fact that the Italian police keep a hot exotic or two like this in stock for PR and special occasions, these two facts don't apply to this hot exotic. This is a legit police car, with specially included police-issue-only interceptor engine. The driver uses it to issue speeding and other driving-related tickets in and around Turin and Milan

2. Dubai - McLaren MP4-12C

-If you're in Dubai, don't even think about speeding or breaking the law. This police car will be on you in record time!

3. Dubai - Bugatti Veyron 

-Not only is Dubai one of the countries to use Bugatti Veyrons as police cars, several Middle Eastern countries use Veyrons as police cars.

4. United States - Lamborghini Gallardo

-Italy is not the only country to stop law breakers with the famed golden bull. The LAPD uses a Gallardo for PR and occasionally will send people home with selfies, the same people also pulled over by said Gallardo for speeding

5. United Arab Emirates - Lykan Hypersport

-Not surprisingly, the Middle East tends to have a lot of money from oil, diamonds and things. And their police cars are certainly no different. This Lykan Hypersport is $3 million, with diamonds in its headlights. A civilian version was used in one of the Fast & The Furious films

6. United States - MRAP

-Looking like something out of an end-of-the-world apocalypse movie, these 30-ton fully armored vehicles can take a licking and keep on ticking like Timexes. In an act known as the National Defense Authorization Act, departments have to pay $2,000 for vehicle while taxpayers pay a cool $700,000 each

7. United States - Dodge Charger Pursuit Special

-This is one of the most common types of police cars used anymore. This specially made Dodge Charger has everything a police car needs and more, including a highly powerful Interceptor engine

8. Colombia - INKAS Unique Armored Personnel Carrier

-Ironically, it was built by a company called INKAS. This is used by Colombia to patrol the streets and keep trouble at bay; one of those forms of "trouble" being issues with cocaine

9. Germany - Porsche 911

-Leave it to Germany to chase down offenders using one of its own inventions. Forget putting offenders in the back seat; there are none. Hopefully the officer calls for backup...

10. Japan - Nissan Skyline GT-R R35

-This car might not look impressive, but the engine hiding in the car is. The cost of speeding tickets in Japan is ridiculous. You might think you can outrun an officer, but if they are driving this, forget it. Give up!

11. Poland - Ford Armored Sandcat

-This car, simply put, looks ready for all out war to break out

12. United States - Ford Taurus SHO

-One cool thing about Ford-they have a specially built line of cars for our men and women of the police department. Who would ever think they would see the day that the most powerful engine on Earth, a police-issue Interceptor engine, would be put into a Ford Taurus? If you see the flashing lights on this little car, just give up. The fight is over!

13. Argentina - Giant Awesome Terrifying Deathmobile

-This just screams WTF? It almost looks like a military pickup truck. But this is used by Argentina's Federal Police Force

14. Israel - Ford Sandcat

-A slight variation on the Polish Ford Sandcat, this car is used by the Israeli Police Departments. With the interesting terrain Israel has to offer, it's good to have a car built for off road

15. France - Subaru WRX

-It might be not impressive, but small and mighty sometimes prove to be more successful than large and imposing.

16. Australia - Holden Monaro

-Similar to Britain with the checker design on police cars, Australia does the same thing-put a checker design on their police cars. This is said to be the last generation Pontiac GTO. This four door Corvette is called a Monaro

17. India - Hindustan Ambassador

-Starting out life as a British car built in India during the British-ruled days of 1958, this company had done some serious changing over the years, but the Ambassador has not changed. This car is so synonymous with India, it's shocking all of their police cars are not Hindustans

18. Mexico - Chevrolet Colorado Pickup

-Considering the off road-like terrain Mexico has on offer, they're going to need a car, or in this case truck, that can stand up to whatever terrain comes their way

19. Argentina - Police Street Chaser

-Looking more like a meter maid's car than an actual police car, you can laugh all you want. But these small cars are perfectly built for the tightly compacted streets of Buenos Aires

20. Russia - Ford Focus

-Russia might be big, but that does not mean their police cars have to fit that model. Small, yet mighty works fine for them

21. Britain - BMW 3-series, 5-series, X5

-With the size of Britain and the amount of highways, roads the police have to cover, it's a good thing the police have a car with a massively powered engine to keep up. Most if not all of the police in Britain use BMW cars and motorcycles to keep trouble off the streets

BMW X5