You Only Live Twice: Narrative ArcBy Ryan Alford

Status Quo

• An American spacecraft is hijacked, along with a Soviet spacecraft. Both countries put the fault on each other. The world is on the brink of another World War. But MI6 believes the stolen spacecraft to be in Japan.

Trigger

• James Bond is, of course, sent on behalf of England to investigate! He fakes his own death in Hong Kong, being able to investigate freely.

Here is Bond in his “believable” disguise as a Japanese fisherman.

Crisis One

• Bond goes to a Sumo match to investigate, and meets up with Aki, an ally, with intentions of meeting up with Tiger Tanaka. Tanaka is a man that will aid Bond in discovering the mystery. Bond is taken to the estate of Henderson, a former British resident. Henderson tells Bond of Tanaka and of a spacecraft landing, and is all of a sudden assassinated. Bond kills one of the assassins, and steals his identity.

Crisis Two

• Bond is driven to Osato Chemicals, the place where Henderson implies there is information. Bond breaks into an office safe and steals critical documents, then the alarm goes off. Gunfire begins after him and he has to run from the bullets, Aki picks him up. She seems suspicious and flees, while he runs after her he falls into a trapdoor into Tanakas’ office.

Crisis Three

• Tanaka and Bond look over the information, and upon inspection find a picture of a cargo ship named Ning-Po with a microdot full of information. Bond goes back to Osato Chemicals with a disguise on, looking for information. Osato sends his goons to kill him. He narrowly escapes gunfire when picked up in the nick of time by Aki. They are chased on the highway and a helicopter with a magnet picks them up and drops them into Tokyo Bay. He is eventually followed and captured by SPECTRE henchmen.

Crisis Four

• Bond wakes up in Helga Brandt’s, who is a love interest and main henchman, cabin. He talks his way out of imprisonment. The next day Brandt flies Bond to Tokyo in a private plane, but on the way she sets off a flare in the plane and bails out. Bond is able to get out just before the plane explodes. He returns to Tanaka, who gains interest on the grounds of realizing that whatever is on that microdot is worth killing for. Bond inspects Osato’s headquarters, finding rocket fuel. Tanaka and Bond realize that Osato’s boss Ernst Stavro Blofeld under SPECTRE are behind everything.

Crisis Five

• Bond searches for the SPECTRE base in a helicopter, and is attacked by four armed helicopters. He obviously destroys them all.

Crisis Six

• In order to blend in, Bond must do something to change his appearance. He decides to disguise himself as a Japanese fisherman.

Climax

• Bond and Kissy, one of Tanaka’s students, go on a reconnaissance mission to find out more about SPECTRE. Bond slips through a trap door, landing in Blofeld’s lair. He then frees the American and Soviet astronauts. He is caught after this, and sent to Blofeld. Bond asks for a cigarette, which contains a small rocket. He explodes the rocket, freeing himself and disarming the guards.

Resolution

• Blofeld escapes his lair, detonating a timing bomb to destroy the lair. Bond, Kissy and Tanaka escape through a random cave tunnel, swimming to M’s submarine and they are safe. The world is not heading towards war and it is going to be okay.