Never Say Never Again

SmokeScreeners review: 

Year of Release:  1983

MPAA Rating:  PG

Director:  Irwin Kirschner

Distributor:  Warner Brothers

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel on 6/2/2008.

Dr. Barry Hummel posted the following additional comments:

"In 1983, while Roger Moore continued his tenure at the official 'James Bond', Sean Connery was hired to reprise his role in an unsanctioned remake of Thunderball called Never Say Never Again.  And while Roger Moore's Bond continued his abstinence of tobacco, Sean Connery's 'Bond 2.0' fell right back into the role as a cigarette user.

That is not to say that tobacco got a free pass in the movie.  The plot revolves around an attempt to steal a nuclear device by giving someone a retinal transplant designed to fool a security system that uses retinal scans to grant indivdual access.  In this clip, we see the transplant recipient, who recovering from his surgery, smoking.  The nurse is Fatima Blush, one of the film's villains, and she is there to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the transplant. 

[youtube:4_8FfEoSAPQ]

As expected, Fatima is not too happy when she realizes that her patient is putting the operation at risk by smoking.  'Smoking is dirty,' she says.  'It gets in Jack's eye.'

Of course, the reality of tobacco use always plays second fiddle to the images that make smoking or tobacco use look so cool in the movies.  For example, here is another scene in which James Bond uses his tobacco paraphernalia as a tool:

[youtube:IwXry8oPmwI]

Who in the world, other than James Bond, carries a silver cigarette case anymore?"