You Only Live Twice (film) manned spacecraft disappear mysteriously in orbit. With each nation blaming the other amidst the Cold War, Bond travels secretly to a remote Japanese island to find the perpetrators and comes face to face with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. The film reveals the appearance of Blofeld, who was previously a partially unseen character. SPECTRE is working for the government of an unnamed Asian power, implied to be the People's Republic of China, to provoke war between the superpowers. During the filming in Japan, it was announced that Sean Connery would retire from the role of Bond, but after
You Only Live Twice (film) accidentally ingests poison that a SPECTRE assassin had meant for Bond to take. Bond quickly moves on and enters into a fake marriage to Tanaka's student, Kissy Suzuki. Acting on a lead from Suzuki, the pair reconnoitre a cave and the volcano above it. Establishing that the mouth of the volcano is a disguised hatch to the secret rocket base, Bond slips in, while Kissy goes to alert Tanaka. Bond locates and frees the captured astronauts and, with their help, steals a space suit in an attempt to infiltrate the SPECTRE spacecraft "Bird One." However, Blofeld spots Bond, and he