MovieChat Forums > For Your Eyes Only (1981) Discussion > Frustrating plot holes

Frustrating plot holes

posted 8 years ago by lexusis
4 replies | jump to latest

Just as a preface, I love the old Bond movies. I love this Bond movie. I even love Roger Moore as bond. I am not a troll.

Having watched this movie for the first time in a few years however, I noticed a couple things I had never noticed before which really annoyed me.

The first was when Melina just leaves her SCUBA kit at the archaeological site for no apparent reason and then swims up to the boat. We would learn the reason later as they used it to hide under water waiting for Kristatos to leave.

The second is the ATAC. The British sailors were going to do activate the self destruct but were prevented from doing so by the rushing water. So clearly it was expendable enough that they could destroy it at the first sign of trouble.

Why then, did Bond have to recover it? Why didn't he just adjust the timer a bit and pull the self destruct lever? That way it would have been destroyed just as it should have been when the ship hit the mine at the the beginning of the movie.

Clearly everything was waterproof as the ATAC would have been destroyed just from being submerged. Bond also uses the explosive to kill the man in the underwater diving suit.

If he would have just used the self destruct, the movie would have ended right there.

I just find this made no sense and REALLY frustrated me!

[–] quaddo 8 years ago

- Leaving the scuba-tank behind may be common practice/an extra safety precaution for her (who knows?), and/or anyone working under water.

- Bond was sent primarily to recover the ATAC, not destroy it, as it possibly is very expensive equipment.
Had he known Kristatos knew where the St Georges sank and was simply waiting for them to disarm it, then he would've destroyed it then and there imho.

RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007) http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0007183

[–] lexusis 8 years ago

The first priority was to make sure the ATAC didn't fall in to Russian hands.

Bond was fighting off the henchmen so obviously he knew they were on to him and knew of the location.

[–] quaddo 8 years ago

I don't remember the exact phrasing in the film, but "don't let the russians get it" doesn't automatically mean "destroy it".

I'm not sure, but doesn't Bond disarm the ATAC self destruct mechanism, and then the deep-sea-diver-henchman makes himself known?

RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007) http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0007183

[–] chilone (18322) 8 years ago

Nope. A scuba diver myself, there was absolutely no reason for her to leave her tank there other than for it to be conveniently useful for a later event that she had no way of knowing would happen. Also, James boarded the boat with his. Utter ridiculousness.