An American gangster Rodney (Marc Lawrence) visits famed crack shot hit-man Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) (has a 'superfluous papilla', or supernumerary nipple) in order to try to kill him to collect a bounty, but he is directed into a fun-house section of the estate where there are mannequins of gangsters. Scaramanga attacks Rodney with an aim of sharpening his own assassination skills, eventually retrieves his golden gun and shoots the gangster. In London, a golden bullet etched with '007' is received by MI6; it is believed to have been sent by Scaramanga (He was trained by the KGB, but went independent in the 1950's. He charges $1MM per hit), but because no one knows of his appearance outside of having a third nipple, M (Bernard Lee) relieves Bond (Roger Moore) of his current mission involving tracking an energy scientist named Gibson. At a hint from Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) (she tells bond that an agent 002 was found dead in Beirut a few months ago, suspected hit by Scaramanga, but not confirmed since they couldn't locate the bullet), Bond sets out unofficially to locate Scaramanga, first by retrieving a spent golden bullet from a belly dancer (who was with 002 at the time of the shooting) in Beirut. He traces the bullet to a gun maker in Macau (from the Nicole content in the Gold), Lazar (Marne Maitland), and forces him to reveal how he ships the bullets. Bond follows the shipment carried to Hong Kong by Andrea Anders (Maud Adams), Scaramanga's mistress. At her Peninsula Hotel room, he coerces her to expose information about Scaramanga, his appearance and his plans. She directs Bond to the Bottoms Up Club where Scaramanga snipes Gibson when he steps outside, and Scaramanga's dwarf assistant Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) steals a small device called the Solex Agitator (a revolutionary solar energy device) off his body. Bond, who had pulled out his pistol outside the club, is arrested by Hong Kong police lieutenant Hip (Soon-Taik Oh). But instead of going to the station, he is transported to the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in the harbor where he meets M and Q (Desmond Llewelyn), and is assigned to work with Hip to retrieve the Solex. Hip was at the club to make initial contact with Gibson, who wanted immunity in exchange for the Solex, a solar cell which he claims to be 95% efficient. Bond travels to Bangkok to meet Hai Fat (Richard Loo), a wealthy Thai entrepreneur suspected of arranging Gibson's murder. Posing as Scaramanga by showing off his fake third nipple, Bond is invited to dinner, but his plan backfires because unknown to him, Scaramanga himself is operating at Fat's estate. Bond is captured and placed inside Fat's martial arts academy, where the students duel to the death and then are instructed to kill him. Escaping with the aid of Hip and his nieces, Bond speeds away on a motorized sampan along the river, and reunites with his assistant, Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland). Scaramanga subsequently kills Fat with his golden gun and assumes control of his empire and the Solex. Anders reveals to Bond that she sent the bullet to London. She wants him to kill Scaramanga, and promises to give him the Solex. At a Muay Thai boxing event the next day, Bond finds Anders sitting and staring silently, dead from a bullet to the heart. Bond finds the Solex in Ander's bag. Scaramanga arrives and introduces himself to Bond, but Bond is able to smuggle the Solex to Hip, who passes it to Goodnight. When Goodnight follows Nick Nack to place a homing device on Scaramanga's car, Scaramanga traps her in the car's boot. Bond discovers Scaramanga driving off and steals an AMC Hornet from a showroom to give chase, coincidentally with the holidaying J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) (the American sheriff Bond encountered in Live and Let Die) sitting inside. The chase concludes when Scaramanga's AMC Matador hides in a building and then transforms into a plane that flies off. Tracking Goodnight's homing beacon, Bond flies a seaplane to Scaramanga's island in the Red Chinese waters. Scaramanga welcomes and shows Bond the solar power plant facility that he has taken over, the technology for which he intends to sell to the highest bidder. But while demonstrating the equipment, Scaramanga uses the solar-powered energy beam to destroy Bond's plane. After they dine together, Scaramanga proposes a pistol duel with Bond on the beach. With Nick Nack officiating, the two men take twenty paces, but when Bond turns and fires, Scaramanga has vanished. Nick Nack leads Bond into Scaramanga's manor and fun-house section. Bond eventually outwits and kills Scaramanga by posing as his mannequin. Goodnight kills Scaramanga's security chief Kra, but the latter's fall into a liquid helium vat causes the plant's temperature to spiral out of control. Bond retrieves the Solex unit just before the plant is destroyed, and they escape unharmed in Scaramanga's Chinese junk float. After Bond fends off a final attack by Nick Nack, he romances Goodnight.
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