Live and Let Die

Three MI6 agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in New Orleans, and the small Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga. James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to New York to investigate. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. After Bond arrives, his driver is killed by Whisper, one of Kananga's men, while driving Bond to Felix Leiter of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash. The killer's licence plate leads Bond to Harlem, where he meets Mr. Big, a mob boss who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States, but Bond and the CIA do not understand why the most powerful black gangster in New York works with an unimportant island's leader. Bond meets Solitaire, a tarot reader who has the power of the Obeah and can see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes with the help of CIA agent Strutter. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a local CIA agent. They meet up with Bond's ally Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat near Solitaire's home. When Bond suspects Rosie of being a double agent for Kananga, Rosie tries to escape but is killed remotely by Kananga. Bond then uses a stacked deck of tarot cards that show only "The Lovers" to trick Solitaire into thinking that fate is meant for them; Bond then seduces her. Having lost her virginity and thus her ability to foretell the future, Solitaire realises she will be killed by Kananga, so she agrees to co-operate with Bond. The next day, Bond and Solitaire discover that Kananga has large poppy fields hidden from view. Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by Mr. Big, who removes a prosthetic face and reveals himself to be Kananga. He has been producing heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting the San Monique locals' fear of the occult and the voodoo priest Baron Samedi. As Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. He intends to bankrupt other drug dealers with his giveaway, then charge high prices for his heroin later in order to capitalise on the huge drug dependencies he has cultivated. Furious at Solitaire for having sex with Bond and losing her ability to read tarot cards, Kananga turns her over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Kananga's henchmen, one-armed Tee Hee and tweed-jacketed Adam, leave Bond to be eaten by crocodilia at his farm in the Deep South backwoods. Bond uses the backs of the reptiles to escape to safety. After setting their drug laboratory on fire, he steals a speedboat and escapes, pursued by Kananga's men under Adam's order, and later Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana State Police. Most pursuers get wrecked or left behind, and Adam is killed in a boat crash by Bond. Bond travels to San Monique and with the help of Quarrel Jr. sets timed explosives throughout the poppy fields. He rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice just as the explosives destroy the fields, and whilst fighting Samedi, Bond punches him and he falls into a coffin of venomous snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. However, Bond escapes and forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet used in shark guns, causing him to inflate and explode. Leiter puts Bond and Solitaire on a train leaving for New York. Tee Hee sneaks aboard and attempts to kill Bond, but Bond cuts the wires of his prosthetic arm and throws him out the window. As the film ends, a laughing Samedi is revealed to be riding on the front of the train.

Plot from Live and Let Die (film)CC BY-SA 4.0