Time to focus on the spectacular end sequence! Largo fled back to the Disco Volante and Bond needs to stop him once and for all.
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Well, a really great ending if you ask me! It has some weird and funny aspects, but later more on that.
The speeding Disco Volante is a great thing. Really works well for the action! And Largo VS Bond, both still in wetsuits, on that speeding hydrofoil battling each other….that’s how you do a final fight! Together with that speeding music, it works very well in my opinion!
Interesting aspects, weird stuff, and mistakes in this scene:
1) One of the most unequal navy battles ever!
Largo needs to get away quickly to escape the navy ships. He uses the hydrofoil part of the yacht and has now good chances to get away with it.
The back part of the yacht remains disabled behind. Armed with three machine guns the remaining crew fights back against the Navy that is equipped much, much, much better. Like a guy armed with stones that fights against a tank. Somehow very brave and very stupid. Their fight has no effect at all and the guns of the Navy destroyer (or light cruiser?) destroy them quickly.
2) Most of the fight scene on the Disco Volante was filmed in a movie studio
It is very easy to see that during the fight scene on the Disco Volante they used a studio. Often you can clearly see the background projections-technique. And often these backgrounds doesn’t fit very good to how they steer the ship. But well, back in the ’60s the possibilities were much more limited. And filming that scene on open water would be nearly impossible today too.
But you could use CGI for a much better outside view.
3) Why does no one stops (or slow down) the ship?
They fight on that speeding hydrofoil that is out of control, as no one is steering it (for more than a few seconds). Wouldn’t it be a good idea to stop it? Instead of driving at full speed through all these rocks and small islands? Bond even speeds it up in one scene as someone tries to attack him from behind.
Ok, it is much cooler with that speeding Disco Volante 😉
4) Bond and Largo seem pretty….excited in their wetsuits here and there.
That topic will be presented on a future page. Together with other examples.
5) Domino kills Largo
A really good ending for Largo! Domino gets revenge for her dead brother and the torture by Largo. And I like how Largo is thrilled and happy to finally kill Bond but then is shot in the back. Leaving him very shocked and surprised. And Domino finally has an action scene. And a scene where she really makes the difference.
Funny aspect: You can clearly see some kind of “plate” under his wetsuit where they embedded the spear.
6) Largo jams the controls……?
Well, a fine example when filmmakers need to come up with a pretty …weird explanation. “He jammed the controls!” says Bond.
Largo is finally dead and seems to block all controls with his dead body. Hmh, he can’t just be pulled away from them?
But ok, you need that ….strange…. explanation for Disco Volante to explode on the rocks.
And that explosion delivers a great boooom!
(That was much bigger than expected and destroyed a lot of windows…miles away)
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Some pictures:
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What do you think about this scene?
Leave your comment below!
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