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| “ | And you are James Bond. Licensed to kill. Am l to be your target for tonight? | „ |
| ~ Smythe's first encounter with 007. |
Octopussy (born Octavia Charlotte Smythe) is a jewel smuggler who appears in the 1983 James Bond film of the same name, Octopussy. The film's primary Bond girl and titular secondary antagonist turned anti-heroine, she is played by the Swedish actress Maud Adams.
The character of Octopussy was created for the 1983 film adaption of Ian Fleming's short story. In the Fleming story, Octopussy, Octopussy was the name of the pet octopus that Major Dexter Smythe loved. The role of Octopussy was heavily symbolic and, towards the end of the film, a key element in the story.
Biography
Octopussy is a jewel smuggler who lives a life of luxury. Her father studied octopi, hence the nickname Octopussy; her real name is Octavia Charlotte Smythe. Her favorite octopus is the Blue Ringed Octopus which she keeps as a pet and which has enough venom to kill up to 50 people. Octopussy owns her island, the "floating palace" in which she lives with many beautiful women, including Magda, who are members of her Octopus Cult.
Together with Magda and Kamal Khan she tries to get a fake Fabergé egg for Soviet madman, General Orlov, and participate in what she thinks is a jewelry contraband, switching the real items for fakes and moving them through her circus.
Octopussy's circus
Octopussy is first seen when Khan shows her the egg. Her face is not seen as Khan tells her about Bond. He insists on killing Bond but Octopussy says not to.
When she meets Bond she reveals that she feels indebted to him: Her British father was a traitor that Bond exposed; she wished to meet Bond to thank him for delaying the arrest of her father long enough for him to save face by committing suicide before he could be arrested and convicted. The Octopussy declares Bond her ally in front of Khan, and after unsuccessfully trying to bribe him, the two make love in the evening. The following night, they defend her palace against assailants. During the fight Bond fakes his death and leaves for Karl-Marx-Stadt, having discovered that Octopussy's circus will perform there, and learning the mercenaries who attacked the palace to be Khan's men.
Octopussy, along with Orlov and Kamal Khan, schemes to smuggle the originals of the faked jewelry from East Germany to Switzerland using her circus. Orlov and Khan, however, would use the contraband as a disguise for detonating a nuclear bomb inside a US airbase on their route through West Germany, provoking a mass disarmament of the United Nations. Bond follows her to the circus and tries desperately to stop the bomb which Octopussy is unaware of. When he tells Magda and Octopussy who he is (disguised in a clown suit), and that they had been betrayed by Orlov and Khan, Octopussy grabs a gun and shoots off the lock on the case holding the bomb. With seconds to spare Bond disarms the bomb.
Octopussy faces Khan for his betrayal
Back in India, her group raids Khan's palace to get revenge for Khan's betrayal but she is kidnapped and knocked unconscious by Gobinda. She wakes up in Khan's private plane and as she sees Gobinda go out to kill Bond she slaps him but gets knocked back into her seat. After Khan loses control of the plane, Bond saves Octopussy and jumps out leaving Khan to crash but Octopussy nearly falls off the cliff before she is saved again by Bond. They make love in the end on board Octopussy's boat during his recuperation.
Trivia
- Maud Adams has twice played a Bond girl who started out on the villains side and switched over to Bond.
- Initially, Octopussy acted as the Bigger Bad to Khan, as she was giving orders to Khan from behind the scenes and her face wasn't seen for the first part of the film, but obviously, she switched sides after Khan and Orlov betrayed her.
