The film's title was a playful jab at Sean Connery himself, who had famously vowed to "never" play Bond again after 1971's Diamonds Are Forever . Lured back by a then-record salary of $3 million and the chance to challenge the official series, a 52-year-old Connery stepped back into the tuxedo.
Thus, Never Say Never Again became a real-life headline masquerading as a movie.
Released in 1983, this James Bond 007 vehicle is not just another entry in the official canon. It is the other Bond film. Produced outside the traditional control of Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, it marked the triumphant return of the original James Bond, , after a 12-year absence. But to understand the chaotic energy, the salty dialogue, and the unique legacy of Never Say Never Again , you have to look beyond the screen and into the boardroom, the courtroom, and the ego of the man who started it all.
However, Kershner clashed constantly with the producers. McClory wanted a pure remake; Connery wanted to deconstruct the myth; Kershner wanted a psychological thriller. The result is a fascinating Frankenstein. The tone lurches violently from cartoonish (Fatima Blush feeding a man to a shark via a waterslide) to grim (Bond strangling a man with a medical respirator).
. Ironically, Connery was three years younger than the "official" Bond of the time, Roger Moore Key Differences from "Official" Bond Films
"Perhaps," Bond conceded, drawing his Walther PPK as the countdown hit ten. "But relics have a habit of outlasting the people who try to break them."