Diamonds are Forever (with Interview) recap

The Secret Service sends James Bond undercover as diamond smuggler Peter Franks to trace a pipeline running from African mines through London to an American crime syndicate. His contact, Tiffany Case, guides him into the organization, while Felix Leiter helps him investigate a fixed horse race and the mob's interests in Las Vegas. Bond learns that the Spangled Mob, led by the Spang brothers, uses casinos, threats, and the enforcers Wint and Kidd to control the traffic. When his cover fails, Bond is tortured and taken to Seraffimo Spang's desert base, but Tiffany helps him escape; Seraffimo dies during the pursuit. On the voyage home, Bond kills Wint and Kidd when they attack the couple. Tiffany identifies Rufus B. Saye as Jack Spang, and Bond travels to West Africa, where he kills Jack as he attempts to flee by helicopter, ending the smuggling operation.

Previously: James Bond is a British double-0 agent under M who has survived missions against Le Chiffre, Mr. Big, and Hugo Drax.

A tightly controlled pipeline moves stolen industrial diamonds out of mines in West Africa and toward Europe. In London, M summons James Bond and explains that the stones are feeding a major illicit trade whose organization and destination remain unclear. The Secret Service will work with Scotland Yard, using a captured smuggler's place in the chain to put Bond inside it. Assistant Commissioner Ronnie Vallance and M's chief of staff, Bill Tanner, help establish Bond as Peter Franks, a known courier. Bond also visits the House of Diamonds and meets its unnerving American representative, Rufus B. Saye. The early inquiries suggest that apparently respectable diamond business and professional crime overlap, but the people directing the route remain hidden.

Bond contacts Tiffany Case, the guarded American intermediary who prepares the London end of his courier assignment. Before he can leave, the real Peter Franks escapes custody and confronts him. Bond kills Franks in a violent fight and uses the dead man's body to strengthen his own cover, placing the smuggled stones where the organization will recover them. Posing as Franks, Bond flies to New York with Tiffany nearby but maintaining the distance demanded by the operation. The diamonds pass through customs as planned. In New York, a mob figure called Shady Tree accepts Bond's performance and directs him toward an indirect payoff rather than giving him cash, showing that the American end of the pipeline is built to conceal both payment and command.

Shady Tree orders Bond to collect his fee through a rigged horse race at Saratoga. Bond discovers that Felix Leiter, his old friend and former CIA ally, is working as a private investigator on the same criminal network. They coordinate without exposing Bond's identity. The mob's scheme depends on a bribed jockey ensuring the favored horse loses, allowing controlled bets to produce Bond's payment. When the jockey tries to escape the arrangement and Bond interferes, the result threatens the syndicate's confidence in him. Tiffany remains tied to the organization but shows signs that her loyalty is not simple. Bond now knows the diamond traffic is connected to a broader American racketeering operation, and that any apparent mistake will bring violent enforcement.

The syndicate responds to the disrupted race arrangement through Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, a pair of professional enforcers who murder the jockey at a mud-and-sulphur bath. The killing shows Bond and Felix how the organization disciplines mistakes. Bond continues west to Las Vegas under observation. There he is meant to receive his money through gambling at the Tiara, a hotel and casino controlled by Seraffimo Spang. Felix and local driver Ernie Cureo help Bond assess the mob's operations. Tiffany is also in Las Vegas, caught between her position in the organization and her growing concern for Bond. After Bond follows the prescribed casino play, mob gunmen attack his taxi, kill Cureo, and capture him. Bond has reached the heart of the Spangled Mob's western business, but his cover has failed and Tiffany is also in danger.

Bond's cover collapses in Las Vegas. He is captured, brutalized, and taken to Spectreville, Seraffimo Spang's private desert ghost town, where the mob intends to dispose of him. Tiffany turns against the organization and helps Bond get free. They escape using the settlement's railway, while Seraffimo pursues them in an old locomotive. Bond changes the points and the pursuing engine crashes, killing Seraffimo. Felix and Ernie help the fugitives reach safety. Bond has now identified the Spangled Mob as the American power behind the diamond route and survived its attempt to silence him. He and Tiffany leave the United States together, but Wint and Kidd remain at large and the African source of the pipeline has not yet been shut down.

Aboard the Queen Elizabeth, Bond and Tiffany begin to trust one another beyond the necessities of their cover. Wint and Kidd follow them onto the ship and enter their cabin to carry out a final execution. Bond turns the attack back on the assassins, kills both men, and arranges the scene to resemble a private murder followed by suicide. Tiffany reaches Britain alive and tells Bond that Rufus B. Saye is really Jack Spang, Seraffimo's brother. Bond then goes to West Africa to close the pipeline at its source. Watching the smugglers' final transfer, he attacks as Jack tries to escape in a helicopter and kills him, ending the route that carried the stones from the mines to America. With the Spangled Mob's principal figures dead and the traffic disrupted, the assignment is complete.

After escaping the Spangled Mob's western base, Bond and Tiffany sail for Britain aboard the Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd enter their cabin intending to kill them, but Bond defeats both assassins and makes their deaths look like the result of a quarrel. Tiffany reaches Britain safely and reveals that Rufus B. Saye is Jack Spang, Seraffimo's brother and the other leader of the mob. Bond then follows the first stage of the diamond pipeline to West Africa, where the smuggling route begins. He attacks as Jack tries to escape by helicopter and kills him, bringing the operation to an end. The immediate trafficking network is broken, and Bond survives with his cover discarded and his relationship with Tiffany left as a personal attachment rather than part of the mission.