This is simply a muddle. Much like earlier efforts which didn't work, this is unnecessarily complicated and messy. Hack out about 1/3 of the sub-plots, several of the gadgets, and it might work. The biggest problems I have are the Crocodile submarine, the bizarre double-theft of the jewellery (it's being stolen from the Soviets by Octopussy, then stolen from her by her henchman I think, but it's not quite clear if that's the case in the story as no one seems to care about that in the end), and the point of the atomic bomb seems a bit of a non-starter as well (other than being an imminent crisis). Additionally, why in blazes does the UK Government give a toss about the Fabergé Egg that starts this off? So what if someone in the Soviet Union, possibly the Government, needs some cash? Great! Let them sell some stuff out of the basement! Who cares? Octopussy's initial consideration as a villain just makes her character's resolution as Bond's alley — and the reason for it — so muddy that you still aren't sure what the point of her being there is, except that she has an all-female army of soldiers, which seems fun. Then there's the circus, and the train-cars getting swapped around, and the re-capture of the 'baddie'... What with all of that, plus a couple of plot points lifted from the book "Mookraker" and a couple of short stories, plus the leftover idea about elephants from the movie for "The Man with the Golden Gun", watching this is like seeing a concept film using a rough edit of a script. It's all good stuff, but it needs a fair bit less of things, and some more of the 'plot' parts. More of the Station "I" agents would have been good: they were awesome fun!