# Did Bond ever beat Blofeld? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491 "2002-06-11T18:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JamesGrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JamesGrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JamesGrey)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/1 "2002-06-11T18:02:39Z")
I was talking with my driving instructor about the James Bond film, and it occured to me that I don’t remember the Bond/Blofeld struggle ever climaxing. Most of the old one focus on SPECTRE and Blofeld’s plans, the new ones focus on non-recurring megalomaniacs. But since I’ve never really made a point of seeing them all, Im just wonering is there a film where Bond finally stuffs Blofeld’s cat down his throat? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/2 "2002-06-11T18:10:29Z")
I don’t think he does in the films. In the book You Only Live Twice\*\*, Bond strangles Blofeld with his bare hands. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/3 "2002-06-11T18:18:42Z")
At the beginning of “For Your Eyes Only,” Bond is visiting the grave of his deceased wife, Tracy. (From “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”) Blofeld attempts to kill bond using a remote-controlled helicopter while observing from a nearby site. Bond commandeers the 'copter, picks up Blofeld in his wheelchair on one of the skids, and drops him from a great height into a factory smokestack. Never to be heard from again, one assumes. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/4 "2002-06-11T18:42:59Z")
What **pldennison** said. Quite a scene, that. The cat got away, though. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/5 "2002-06-11T19:00:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\*At the beginning of “For Your Eyes Only,” Bond is visiting the grave of his deceased wife, Tracy. (From “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”) Blofeld attempts to kill bond using a remote-controlled helicopter while observing from a nearby site. Bond commandeers the 'copter, picks up Blofeld in his wheelchair on one of the skids, and drops him from a great height into a factory smokestack. Never to be heard from again, one assumes. \*\* The story behind this scene: Kevin McClory, who co-wrote _Thunderball_, owned the rights to the character of Blofeld and SPECTRE, had sued to allow UA to let him do his own Bond movie, and won. His movie was _Never Say Never Again_ - notice that it’s basically a remake of _Thunderball_. So the Bond producers killed off Blofeld at the beginning of _For Your Eyes Only_ as a slap in the face to McClory, to show that the series didn’t need SPECTRE nor Blofeld and could continue without them. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/6 "2002-06-11T19:19:41Z")
As I should be strangled for not using Preview. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/7 "2002-06-11T19:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > The story behind this scene: Kevin McClory, who co-wrote _Thunderball_, owned the rights to the character of Blofeld Which is why [John Hollis was uncredited](http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0082398) in the role; if only to forestall yet another lawsuit from McClory, the bald man in grey with the white Persian cat is technically never acknowledged to be Blofeld. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/8 "2002-06-11T19:34:58Z")
Wow! he was Lobot also? cool! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/9 "2002-06-11T19:45:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > **His movie was _Never Say Never Again_ - notice that it’s basically a remake of _Thunderball_.** This was due to one of the clauses in the settlement of the case-the movie that McClory made had to be based on _Thunderball_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/10 "2002-06-11T20:07:53Z")
Just a couple of added details: 1.) The villain in **The Spy Who Loved Me** was supposed to be Blofeld, back for another try, until they stumbled over the legalities again, so the name was changed to Stromberg. 2.) You can assume, if you wish, that Blofeld was killed at the end of **Diamonds Are Forever** , when Bond slammed his mini-sub into the side of the buildings on the pseudo-drilling rig. Of course they never _said_ he was killed, but it seems likely. 3.) Robert Benton, who has been continuing the Bond series of books, and who wrote **The James Bond Bedside Companion** , is of the opinion that the opening of **For Your Eyes Only** was meant to be a sort of “Dream Sequence”. This would make #2 above plausible. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/11 "2002-06-12T00:09:16Z")
Hey, does Blofeld’s cat have a name, by the way? Is that ever mentioned in the books? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/12 "2002-06-12T00:55:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > \*\*Hey, does Blofeld’s cat have a name, by the way? Is that ever mentioned in the books? \*\* Dunno, but do you suppose Blofeld had his henchmen feed him Fancy Feast catfood out of those crystal goblets? 😛 > [@](#): > > Wow! he was Lobot also? cool! Not only that, but I see Jeremy Bulloch was also uncredited as “Smithers” - maybe they were starving-UK-extras buddies… ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/13 "2002-06-12T01:27:32Z")
In the books Blofeld does not have a cat (at least it’s never mentioned.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/14 "2002-06-12T17:14:52Z")
Major spoilers ahead. Ernst Blofeld only appears in three novels. He is introduced as the commander of SPECTRE in _Thunderball_, but stays in the background, never becoming directly involved or meeting James Bond. The actual field operation (stealing a pair of A-bombs) was controlled by Emilio Largo. The next book, _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, opens with Bond taking part in an international manhunt for Blofeld and becoming so disenchanted with it, he considers resigning (this was reversed in the movie, in which Bond threatens to resign if he’s ordered _not_ to continue the search). Along the way, Bond meets Theresa (Tracy) Draco and eventually goes undercover at Blofeld’s Austrian allergy clinic. In true Hamlet style, Bond doesn’t just shoot Blofeld on sight, but hangs around long enough to catch wind of the larger plot. As in the movie, Blofeld escapes down a bobsled run (though unlike the movie, he is not injured in the process) and in the final pages, Blofeld machine-guns Tracy shortly after her marriage to Bond. _You Only Live Twice_ opens with Bond being suitably devastated and his work all going to hell. M sends Bond to Japan on what is considered a fairly easy assignment, but once there, Bond uncovers Blofeld living under the name of Shatterhand (no, really). Seeking revenge, Bond ninjas his way into Blofeld/Shatterhand’s medeival castle, strangles Blofeld and manages to blow the whole place up. In the process, Bond receives a head injury and amnesia (no, really) and at the end of the book, he has a compulsion to travel to nearby Vladivostok because the name is familiar to him. _The Man With the Golden Gun_ opens with Bond’s return to England. The Soviets picked him up and realizing that his head injury made him open to suggestion, programmed him to assassinate M. M narrowly avoids death and instead of having Bond imprisoned or killed, has him undergo extensive psychotherapy to return him to more-or-less normal. This is the last Fleming novel published, though it would be followed by _Octopussy and the Living Daylights_, a set of 3 short stories, none of which mention Blofeld. At no time in any novel was a cat or any other pet associated with Blofeld. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/15 "2002-06-12T21:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > **Hey, does Blofeld’s cat have a name, by the way?** No. Blofeld is menacing enough, and the cat doesn’t really need a name to be menacing. The _Austin Powers_ films poke fun at this by giving the Blofeld-like villain’s cat the ridiculous name of “Mr. Bigglesworth.” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/16 "2002-06-12T22:06:37Z")
“When I get angry, Mister Bigglesworth gets upset. [sub]::mrrrrorw::[/sub] And when Mister Bigglesworth gets upset…people **DIE!!!** ” 🙂 My favorite line in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bond-ever-beat-blofeld/113491/17 "2002-06-12T23:17:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > … _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_ … Bond … eventually goes undercover at Blofeld’s Austrian allergy clinic. **Switzerland**! **Not** Austria! :mad: