After launching James Bond into the cosmos in Moonraker, 1981’s For Your Eyes Only brought Roger Moore’s 007 back to earth with a classic Cold War mission.
This time around, the super spy was tasked with finding a missile command system before it fell into Russian hands.
The film’s production took the cast and crew to the towering cliffs of Meteora in Greece, where Moore met his match during a particularly daring stunt.
Despite being suspended only four feet above the ground, Moore experienced severe vertigo, while his stunt double, Rick Sylvester, faced a daunting twenty-foot drop.
Sylvester, who had previously executed the iconic ski jump at the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me, admitted even he was petrified by the perilous nature of this stunt.
The Eastern Orthodox monks residing in the monastery atop the Meteora rock formation proved to be quite a hindrance to the production.
The monks were not fans of the violence associated with the James Bond franchise. Despite this, a Greek Supreme Court trial determined that the religious order only owned the interiors of the monastery, while the government owned the exteriors and the surrounding landscape.
Moore attempted to defuse the situation by reminding them of his previous role as The Saint in the TV series of the same name.
In retaliation, the monks did everything they could to disrupt the production. They hung laundry out of the windows, adorned the main monastery with plastic bunting and flags to ruin shots, and even placed oil drums to prevent the crew’s helicopters from landing.
To circumvent these issues, the crew constructed a set on a nearby rock and shot interior scenes back at Pinewood Studios on a set designed by Peter Lamont.
In addition to production challenges, Bernard Lee, who had played M in the Bond franchise since Sean Connery’s Dr No, tragically passed away from stomach cancer in January 1981, after filming had started. In honor of Lee, producer Albert R Broccoli decided not to recast the role and instead expanded Q’s part, altering the script to explain that M was on leave.
As a result, For Your Eyes Only became the only 007 film without Bond’s boss appearing on-screen.
For Your Eyes Only is notably remembered for its opening scene, in which Moore’s Bond drops what seems to be Blofeld, confined to a wheelchair, down a chimney, seemingly ending his arch-nemesis. Due to legal issues, the villain couldn’t be properly named or shown, as Kevin McClory held the rights to Thunderball and claimed exclusive rights to Blofeld and Spectre, a claim disputed by EON.
Nonetheless, Broccoli’s casual disposal of the villain was his way of asserting that 007’s success didn’t hinge on this character.
However, McClory would later produce his unofficial remake of Thunderbolt in 1983’s Never Say Never Again, featuring Sean Connery reprising his role as Bond and Max von Sydow playing Blofeld. The rights issue wasn’t resolved until 2013, after which Christoph Waltz was cast as the villain in 2015’s Spectre and 2021’s No Time To Die, opposite Daniel Craig.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
