James Bond-Octopussy & The Living Daylights: 5 Huge Differences Between The Short Stories & Movies
After the release of the novel The Man With The Golden Gun, the final novel written by Ian Fleming before his passing, Octopussy & The Living Daylights came out. A collection of short stories in the vain of Fleming's For Your Eyes Only, that collected four of Fleming's last Bond tales.
The stories would inspire two Bond movies, Octopussy, which was one of Roger Moore's final Bond films, and The Living Daylights, which was Timothy Dalton's first. That said, there are two other stories in this collection and the ones with titles fans recognize are not what they think they are.
10 007 In New York: Pretty Much Everything
One of the only ties that 007 in New York has to a film is that it loosely inspired the basic premise of Quantum Of Solace (another movie inspired by a short story.) The story that sees James Bond attempt to warn an MI6 agent in The Big Apple that her boyfriend is affiliated with The KGB is kind of an odd way to end Fleming's Bond run.
Another thing that 007 in New York has in common with a Bond film is the name of a woman Bond fancies named Solange, who would appear in Casino Royale as a woman that Bond seduces to gain information. To be frank, 007 in New York's biggest selling point is that it has a recipe for scrambled eggs.
9 Property Of A Lady: The Octopussy Plot
Property of a Lady was written essentially as a puff piece for Sotheby's, the famous auction house. The plot of Property of a Lady was utilized for an auction scene in Octopussy, which just so happens to be one of the best scenes in the movie.
The novel has a plot similar to this scene, but with no connection to anything else in Octopussy. Not to mention, the context of the auction scene in the short story bears little to no resemblance to the plot of the film.
8 Property Of A Lady: Context
The auction scene in Octopussy is all hinged around James Bond outbidding the villain Kamal Khan in order to swap out a false Fabergé egg for one that has a sinister purpose. It isn't exactly out of the norm for Roger Moore's James Bond, but the context is completely alien to fans of the novels.
The novel follows Bond as he tracks down a notable double agent who is auctioning a Fabergé egg at Sotheby's. Bond's only involvement in the auction is to show up at Sotheby's, spot the KGB head based in London who is attending the auction, and leave to have him deported.
7 Property Of A Lady: The Egg
Some would describe the Fabergé egg in Octopussy as a MacGuffin, as in the long run, it doesn't really play a huge role in the plot. The egg in the film is part of a series of artifacts supplied to villain Kamal Khan by an evil Soviet General by the name of Orlov.
The short story gives the Fabergé egg even less importance. In Property of a Lady, the Fabergé egg mostly serves as an item being auctioned at Sotheby's by the double agent Maria Freudenstein, who is being followed by James Bond.
6 The Living Daylights: Setting & Purpose
The Living Daylights began Timothy Dalton's underrated tenure as 007, with his darker take on James Bond being ahead of its time, and far more well regarded in a post-Daniel Craig world. Out of all these stories, The Living Daylights was the most faithfully translated, albeit with some caveats.
While The Living Daylights has Bond's sniper duty take place within The USSR, the short story has the plot take place in East Berlin. Also, the film sees Bond attempting to defend defector Georgi Koslov, whereas the short story has him defending fellow agent 272.
5 The Living Daylights: Kara Milovy Isn't Named
Kara Milovy, the Russian sniper who's gun Bond shoots in order for Koslov to escape, eventually becomes the main Bond Girl. Kara is honestly one of the more forgettable Bond Girls, but in the short story, her role is very different.
In the short story The Living Daylights, Kara is called Trigger, she isn't involved in a greater plot, and she serves as the main antagonist of the story. Trigger is also presumably more skilled with her weapon of choice than Kara is.
4 The Living Daylights: The Trans-Siberian Pipeline Doesn't Appear
After Bond shoots Kara's gun, the plot then veers away from Fleming's plot into a narrative crafted by the screenwriters, all starting with The Trans-Siberian Pipeline. Though Dalton's James Bond was considerably less comical than Roger Moore's, The Living Daylights sadly has moments where an identity crisis is apparent.
Bond takes Koslov to The Trans-Siberian Pipeline, which he uses to smuggle the defector out of The Soviet Union in a scene played for laughs. Roger Moore had vacated the role of Bond, but clearly the writers of the film couldn't shake the camp from his tenure.
3 Octopussy: The Story
The short story version of Octopussy is very different from the movie of the same name. Far more low-key than 007's adventure in India, Octopussy sees Bond track down Dexter Smythe, an old war hero who is living in Jamaica, as Smythe has murdered a man by the name of Oberhauser.
Years prior, Smythe and Oberhauser had found Nazi gold in Austria, with Smythe offing Oberhauser so that he may keep the gold for himself. Though this isn't the plot of the film, the film does acknowledge the plot of the short story as the title character's backstory.
2 Octopussy: The Title Character
Say what you want about Octopussy, but Roger Moore and Maud Adams' interactions in the film are something special, with their chemistry being a highlight of the film. Though if Bond had the same interactions with the literary Octopussy, it would raise many eyebrows.
While the movie showcases Octopussy as the daughter of Dexter Smythe, the short story's Octopussy is a literal octopus. The pet of Dexter Smythe, not only is Octopussy nothing like their cinematic counterpart but is actually responsible for Smythe's death.
1 Octopussy: Dexter Smythe's Fate
In the scene where Octopussy confronts Bond about her father's death, she claims Smythe killed himself in order to avoid a trial. What happens in the short story is similar, but Smythe doesn't actively end his own life.
After Bond leaves Smythe to weigh his options, Smythe is stung by a scorpionfish he intends to feed to Octopussy. As the poison starts to set in, the hungry Octopussy seizes Smythe, pulls him underwater, and devours him on the spot.
from ScreenRant
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