Did The Spy Who Loved Me spawn two popular outdoor sports? The opening features a parachute leap similar to BASE jumping. And this was the first film to feature a water bike, years before jet skiing would catch on.
Ian Fleming didn't like this novel-which mostly takes place in a hotel room-so when he sold the rights, he stipulated that only its name could be used.
M gets a first name in this movie. It's "Miles."
The idea for Atlantis came from a Japaneese floating exhibit named Aquapolis used in Expo '75.
The submarine car was nicknamed Wet Nellie, an obvious referance to Little Nellie.
Richard Kiel could only wear the metal teeth for a few minutes at a time because they hurt so much.
This is Roger Moore's Favorite Bond film
After the movie's release, requests for white Lotus Esprits surged to the point that some people had to be put on 3 year waiting lists!
The villain in The Spy Who Loved Me was supposed to be Blofeld (along with SPECTRE), but legal wrangles with Kevin McClory (who was about to embark on the alternate Bond project Warhead, which later became Never Say Never Again) forced Christopher Wood, the screenwriter, to remove any reference to SPECTRE at the last moment. From the outcome of the changes in the screenplay, the megalomaniac villain Karl Stromberg was a direct result of the screenplay changes.
The title is the only part of the original Ian Fleming novel which was used in the film. When Ian Fleming sold the film rights, he only sold the right to the title and not the actual story. This is because the Fleming novel is principally about a female character with Bond only appearing in the final quarter of the novel. Fleming felt that as a result the story would not be appropriate for the film series.
Roger Moore was injured shooting the scene where Stromberg meets his end. If you look closely at the film, you'll see RM's backside/back catch light from where the explosives on his chair exploded prematurely.
There was a line that 007 should have said after shooting Stromberg in his private parts. According to The Essential World of 007 (1995 edition), the line that 007 that was proposed was "Ballseye, Fishfinger", but deemed too vulgar and obscene. If this line made it into the final script, an R rating would have been the end result.
