The Lost Ending

Bond hunts down SPECTRE’s robot sharks in the NY sewers but henchman Bomba throws him into the water. Bond grabs one of the beast’s fins and is dragged down the sewer at high speed. With a screwdriver Bond opens its control panel and rips out wires and transistors. The shark’s eyes flicker and go dark.

Bond clambers onto a walkway. Bomba attacks again. A vicious fight ensues resulting in Bomba falling and being ripped to pieces by the sharks below. Bond grabs the hammerhead and with his trusty screwdriver renders it and the bomb harmless.

SPECTRE operative Largo, watching on a giant screen, reactivates the bomb. The words WARHEAD ACTIVATED appear on the shark’s control panel. Panic-stricken Bond tries to defuse the bomb. Just when it looks like he’s fighting a losing battle a hand reaches over and switches it off. It’s Q.

Army helicopters then attack the Statue of Liberty. Bond waterskis past the sharks and uses a balloon device to rise into the air and land atop Liberty. There he confronts Largo and a fistfight ensues. Largo escapes down the statue’s arm only to see marines shooting holes through an eye to gain entrance. Largo stabs a couple of them with a stiletto before making off. [Poetically, the script emphasises the fact that blood pours down Liberty’s face, like a sacred Madonna come to life.]

From the sea SPECTRE’s base, the Arkos, rises. Largo slides down a rope to its deck. Bond swims up through its inner pool. Again he confronts Largo and a gunshot shatters a glass panel. The sea starts spilling in. Out of control, the Arkos hits an underwater cliff-face and Domino [the film’s heroine] is thrown on to a control panel. A glass tube rises around Largo and jettisons him into the ocean. We see him descending into the darkness, clawing at the glass. Bond and Domino make their escape in one of Largo’s mini-subs as the Arkos is destroyed.