You Only Live Twice - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of You Only Live Twice or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to You Only Live Twice

[jeffrey]

Apart from Julie Rogers, who sang the "original" theme song, other performers considered were Aretha Franklin and The Walker Brothers.

[darrell]

First movie to show James Bond in his Royal Navy uniform and to clearly indicate that he holds the rank of Commander.

[duane]

Much of the plot was inspired by the Cold War related space race of the 1960s, which had captured much public attention. Ironically, this movie was released five months following the Apollo 1 launchpad fire, which resulted in the deaths of three U.S. astronauts and resulted in N.A.S.A.'s suspension of U.S. manned space flight for over a year, which included the time frame of this movie's theatrical showings.

[riley]

In the novel, Ian Fleming describes Blofeld's hide-out as being a castle on the coast. Ken Adam discovered that this could never be constructed: the Japanese never built their castles directly on the coast for fear of typhoons, hence, the creation of the elaborate volcano set.

[beth]

Eon Productions considered hiring Century 21 Productions, the company that made Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation shows including Stingray (1964), Thunderbirds (1965), and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967), to help out with the movie's Special Effects work. It would not be until The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), that Derek Meddings, Chief Effects Technician for the Andersons, would go to work on a Bond movie.

[scarlett]

Nancy Sinatra was reported to be very nervous while recording the title song. First she wanted to leave the studio, then she claimed to sometimes "sound like Minnie Mouse". John Barry declared that the final song used twenty-five different takes.

[chad]

This is the first movie in the franchise where James Bond does not wear his trademark dinner jacket (tuxedo).

[bryan]

Last Bond movie to make extensive use of voice dubbing. In this movie, and most of those made previously, many of Bond's leading ladies and villains were dubbed by other actors and actresses. This practice rarely occurred in future Bond movies.

[liam]

Ian Fleming named the character of Dikko Henderson for his friend, Sir John Nicholas Henderson, who was commonly known as Nicko Henderson.

[sophie]

Lewis Gilbert originally turned down the directing job on this movie. He accepted after Producer Albert R. Broccoli called him, saying: "You can't give up this job. It's the largest audience in the world."

[liam]

The rocket guns were real weapons by the Gyrojet company, but they were never adopted by any real military force. Despite being depicted as wonder weapons in this movie, in reality, they were inaccurate and unreliable, and the ammunition prohibitively expensive.

[sandra]

Richard Graydon: The stuntman as a Russian Cosmonaut.

[liam]

According to the book "James Bond: A Celebration" (1987) by Peter Haining, who passed away in 2007, "Jules Verne's Captain Nemo was the inspiration for (Ian) Fleming's Ernst Stavro Blofeld." The book states that the character "has his origins in Captain Nemo, the hate-fuelled rebel of Jules Verne's classic novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870)." Blofeld was originally intended to be the villain in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

[wallace]

In March 2018, in the week that the real world exterior location of the Spectre lair volcano, Mount Shinmoedake, started having volcanic activity, the U.K.'s ITV4 went ahead with their scheduled broadcast. By coincidence, they showed the original Panavision widescreen aspect ratio version, which meant that viewers could see even more of the actual 1960s condition of the volcano, than the previous 16:9 cropped version. News reports were additionally referencing the Mount Shinmoedake volcano as the one featured in this movie during its march 2018 volcanic activity.

[oscar]

The face of Ernst Stavro Blofeld is shown for the first time in a movie. Of all the many actors who have played Blofeld, it is the interpretation by Donald Pleasence in this movie which is the source for the Mike Myers parody of the character as Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers film franchise. Blofeld appeared in later Bond movies, played by a different actor each time.

[kristina]

One hundred of the four hundred inhabitants of the southern village of Akime appeared as extras in the Ama fishing village scenes.

[linda]

The rocket pistol and cigarette rocket were real-life weapons that were featured after the manufacturer paid for the product placement. It was hoped they would become standard military and intelligence equipment. However, they proved to be too expensive (ammunition cost three times as much as normal ammo), clumsy (useless at any distance under fifteen yards), and unreliable (horribly inaccurate and tended to start fires), and ceased production in 1969.

[liam]

Aerial Unit Cameraman John Jordan lost his leg while working on this movie.

[scarlett]

This was the only Sir Sean Connery Bond movie never to receive any BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) cuts.