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You Only Live Twice is a novel by Ian Fleming featuring spy James Bond. It is also the fifth movie in the James Bond franchise, released in 1967 and starring Sean Connery. It was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was made by EON Productions. The screenplay was written by Roald Dahl.
The film was the first Bond movie to deviate heavily from the source material. Other than the setting of Japan and several of the characters, the two stories are very different.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Bond, his career fading following the murder of his wife by Blofeld, is given the choice of being fired or promoted to a special branch of the MI6. He is given the new number 7777 and assigned a "milk run" assignment in Japan. While there, he discovers the whereabouts of his nemesis Blofeld, who is operating a "Garden of Death" where people come to commit suicide, whether they want to or not. Bond ultimately defeats Blofeld, but suffers an injury that leaves him with amnesia and the rest of the world believing he's dead as the novel ends. It has been suggested that Fleming had chosen to retire Bond with this novel, but later changed his mind and wrote The Man with the Golden Gun.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
A mysterious spacecraft captures and steals manned spacecraft from both the United States and the Soviet Union. Thinking that each other is the cause for their loss, the world is thrown to the brink of war. However, the UK government believes the mystery craft landed in the Sea of Japan which indicates that a Japanese element may be involved instead.
James Bond, after participating in a charade to fake his death, is sent to Japan to investigate this suspicion in conjunction with the Japanese intelligence service led by "Tiger" Tanaka in an effort to stave off possible nuclear war. Together, the combined service find the real villain behind this plot is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his evil organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. with Red China providing financing in an effort to have the super powers destroy each other so the plotters can rule supreme over what survives.
Bond manages to infiltrate the secret launch base hidden in a hollowed out volcano, while his female partner is sent back to alert Tanaka. However, Bond is caught before he could stop the final phase of the plan, and is brought before Blofeld. Meanwhile, Tanaka and his elite force of ninjas attempt to enter the base through the volcano's upper crater hatch. Unfortunately, they are spotted and Blofeld has the crater's sentry guns open up on them. All seems hopeless until Bond manages to open the crater hatch, allowing Tanaka's troops enter in force for an all out attack on the base.
In the ensuing battle, Bond manages to enter the launch control and destroy the SPECTRE craft before it could capture another US capsule and spark a war.
Although the film is not the first completely original Bond film (elements such as Bond's infiltration of a Japanese fishing village, and much of Tanaka's character come directly from the book), the film is the first Bond movie to diverge in a substantial way from the original book; the screenplay was written by Roald Dahl.
The soundtrack was composed by Bond veteran, John Barry. At the time, this was his fourth credited Bond film. The theme song, You Only Live Twice, was sung by Nancy Sinatra.
The film also included Charles Gray who played the role of Dikko Henderson. Charles Gray would later go on to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever.
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