List of James Bond Title References - Original Film Titles

Original Film Titles

• Never Say Never Again

  Not used per se other than as a lyric in the theme song, but Bond says "Never again" at the end of the film, indicating his intention to retire. The title comes from Sean Connery who after filming Diamonds Are Forever claimed he would never play James Bond again. When he accepted the new offer, Connery's wife, Michelin, told him he should "never say never again." She is credited for coming up with the name in the end titles.

• Licence to Kill

  M revokes Bond's licence to kill. The original title was "Licence Revoked", which was purported to have been changed due to the result of test screenings shown in the United States where the audience apparently misunderstood the use of the word "revoked" in the vernacular of the film.

• GoldenEye

  Codename for a satellite mentioned several times. The name itself was taken from the name of Ian Fleming's estate in Jamaica where he had authored many of the Bond novels. Beyond that there are a number of theories for what his estate is named after including Fleming's own Operation Goldeneye, a strategic plan never used for World War II. It is also a reference to Carson McCullers' novel Reflections in a Golden Eye, which Fleming is said to have read prior to christening his estate, and a reference to "Orcabessa", the location of the estate which means 'head of gold' or 'golden head'.

• Tomorrow Never Dies

  Not used in the film. The original title was to be "Tomorrow Never Lies", which refers to Elliot Carver's newspaper "Tomorrow", which essentially creates the news. The title was changed after a typo on a copy of the script was found. The producers liked the title and decided to adopt the mistake.

• The World Is Not Enough

  The title actually derives from Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service when Bond attempts to search for noble blood in his family line as a cover for his meeting with Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Often mistaken as Bond's family motto, the actual motto in Latin, Orbis non sufficit, belonged to Sir Thomas Bond who was never proven to be of any relation to James Bond. It is assumed that because Bond did like the motto that he adopted it. In the film Bond utters the phrase, explaining that it is indeed his family motto.

• Die Another Day

  Bond says to the main villain Gustav Graves, "So you live to die another day," a reference to the beginning of the film when the villain was thought to have died, also a reference to the poem A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman that includes the line, "But since the man that runs away/Lives to die another day".

• Skyfall

  Skyfall is the name of the residence where Bond grew up and where final battle takes place.