Octopussy (character)

Octopussy
Character from the James Bond film series
File:Octopussy by Maud Adams.jpg
Affiliation	Self-employed/Kamal Khan
Portrayed by	Maud Adams

Octopussy (Octavia Charlotte Smythe) is a fictional character in the James Bond film of the same name. She is played by the Swedish actress Maud Adams.

Biography

Octopussy is a jewel smuggler and circus owner who lives a life of luxury in a floating palace on Lake Pichola in Udaipur, India. Her father, Major Dexter Smythe, studied octopi, hence her nickname Octopussy. Her real first name is unknown, but it can be assumed that Smythe is her real last name; however, this is never explicitly confirmed. As a cover for her smuggling activities, Octopussy owns her own circus. Magda, the ring leader of the circus, works with her and, together, they work with Kamal Khan to get a Fabergé egg from General Orlov.

Octopussy is first seen (her face is not shown at this time) when Khan shows her the egg and tells her about Bond. Khan insists on killing Bond but Octopussy says no. Behind her back, however, Khan is determined to kill Bond, though Bond keeps getting away.

She finally meets Bond when he sneaks into her palace. It is revealed that her father stole a cache of Chinese gold several years ago and that Bond had been assigned to find him. He did so and gave Major Smythe 24 hours to settle his affairs before arresting him. However, Smythe chose suicide instead of facing the disgrace of a court martial. Octopussy tells Bond she was hoping to meet him someday, not for revenge as Bond assumes, but to thank him for giving her father an honorable alternative to public disgrace. She and Bond then make love.

Meanwhile, Kamal Khan arranges for a group of assassins to kill Bond, but spare Octopussy. Bond and Octopussy work together to defeat the assassins, but in the course of the struggle, Bond and one of the assassins crash through a window and are apparently attacked and killed by a crocodile. Octopussy is devastated, unaware that Bond escaped safely (the crocodile itself was in fact a tiny submarine built by Q, and the device which had helped Bond reach Octopussy in the first place). It is presumed that the assassin drowned.

Bond follows her to the circus in East Germany and discovers that Orlov (who is gunned down by armed guards when he tries to cross the border into West Germany) has substituted a nuclear bomb for the jewelry without Octopussy's knowledge. Kamal leaves Octopussy and Magda for dead at the circus while he escapes and is hoping to claim the jewellery. At the film's climax, Bond, disguised in a clown suit, tells Magda and Octopussy that they have been betrayed by Orlov and Khan. Magda disbelieves him, but Octopussy grabs a gun and shoots off the lock of the supposed jewelry cache to reveal the bomb. Bond succeeds in disarming the bomb, just one second before it was due to explode - a blast which would have killed thousands of people.

Back in India, Octopussy's circus performers raid Khan's palace to avenge his betrayal, but she is kidnapped and knocked unconscious by Gobinda. She wakes up in Khan's private plane. Bond has managed to jump onto the plane and hang onto it, despite Khan's attempts to shake him off by making the plane fly upside down for a while. Bond finally manages to shut down the engines and shake off Gobinda, who falls to his death. With the engines shut down, Khan loses control of the plane and it begins to plummet downwards. Bond and Octopussy jump out just before the plane overshoots a cliff top and crashes below, killing Khan in the explosion.

After saving Octopussy from a literal cliffhanger, Bond returns with her to her palace. They are last seen kissing on her boat.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly ranked her as the 10th worst Bond girl in one list in 2006, but as the best "babe" of the Roger Moore James Bond films in another list in 2008. Fandango in 2006 ranked Octopussy as one of the top 10 Bond Girls and described her as "a powerful, impressive woman."

Yahoo! Movies had her name included in the 2012 list of the best Bond girl names, commenting, "This Bond girl moniker was so good, they named the film after her! It actually comes from Fleming's last Bond book Octopussy and the Living Daylights, which has little to do with Maud Adams' character."