The Many Disguises of James Bond in Octopussy

    James Bond, as a secret agent at the disposal of Her Majety’s Secret Service, holds probably the toughest job in the world – to stay unknown and in stealth mode while doing whatever task is at his hands (or lips, *wink*).

    With that, we saw Bond do different disguises and covers throughout the 24 Bond films up until    “Spectre” (2015), the latest as of writing. There was Mr. and Mrs. David Somerset in “From Russia with Love””, Peter Franks in “Diamonds are Forever”, and Sir Hillary Bray in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, among many other covers. Ironically though, these covers often get blown eventually.

    From all he 24 Bond films that we have as of writing, there is one film that boasts the greatest number of disguises and covers, and that is “Octopussy” with Sir Roger Moore as James Bond.

    “Octopussy” was released in 1983 and had the trouble of going up against another 007 movie in the form of Sir Sean Connery’s return to the role with “Never Say Never Again”. However, that would have to be a story for another time. Although it was still campy and there were cringe-worthy moments (*Tarzan yell*), “Octopussy” was one of the better Moore Bond films. From the seven, I would rank it in the middle for “Octopussy” had equal portions of the seriousness of “For Your Eyes Only” and the breathtaking, big-budget stuff that “The Spy Who Loved Me” had. It had neither Sir Paul McCartney nor Duran Duran though.

 

    With that, let’s get on with the list.

 1. Col. Luis Toro

Right from the start, we are graced with Bond’s first disguise – Col. Luis Toro. This was back when pre-title sequence had no significant relation to the actual film’s plot and the introduction had one of my favorite one-liners from the Moore era (even better than the “Fill her up please” moment later on in the pre-title sequence) – “Toro, sounds like a load of bull”.

Bond and Col. Toro, small world

2. Dead Body

While infiltrating Kamal Khan’s castle, Bond had to disguise as a lifeless human in a body bag to not get seen by Kamal’s henchman, Gobinda. During the transport, Bond escaped. Luckily, there were only low-level guards who were easily scared by Bond’s ghost-like scream.

Bond hidden in a body bag

3. Crocodile

Bond infiltrated Octopussy’s castle disguised in a Crocodile-like submarine. This was Moore’s version of the bird-like disguised used by Connery in the pre-title sequence of ‘Goldfinger” (1964).

Bond swimming his way to Octopussy's castle

4. Circus Worker

While in East Berlin, Bond put on a workers’ uniform for Octopussy’s Circus to investigate further on the anomalies between Kamal Khan, Octopussy and General Orlov (who delivered a SUPERB performance in this film as a secondary villain). 

Bond doing heavy lifting as a Circus worker

5. Mischka

Bond encountered one of the twin knife-throwing acts of the Circus, who were the murderers of 009 as seen in the opening sequence of the movie. After a brief fight, Bond took Mischka’s dress as his own to disguise which led him to his face off with General Orlov who then revealed the true plans of him and Kamal Khan.

Bond and General Orlov at gunpoint, with Bond dressed as the knife-throwing villain

6. Gorilla Suit

The Circus was indeed like a walk-in closet for Bond in this film. He had lots of choices for disguise, which made hiding very convenient for him. In another scene, Kamal, Gobinda, and Grischka were together in the same carriage with Bond and he had no time to move out of the carriage. Thanks to a Gorilla suit large enough to fit him, he had bought time before he could escape.

Promotional still of King Kong doing a cameo role in "Octopussy"

7. Circus Clown

This would have to be the most unexpected out of the bunch. Bond in a clown uniform, complete with makeup. But then again, Sir Roger Moore was able to pull it off without being cringe-worthy. Two notes though, why couldn’t Bond just told the authorities and even Octopussy about the bomb? And last, the more explosive question, how the hell could Bond have prepared the complete clown uniform and makeup within the time left before the bomb would go off? 

News reports placed Christopher Reeve with Sir Roger Moore in the same filming location in Pinewood Studios for Superman 3. Apparently, it was the Joker that had a meet-cute with Clark Kent.

Just James Bond things, I guess.