Ian Fleming's James Bond novels were adapted to the silver screen in 1962, beginning with the famed Dr. No, starring the late and legendary Sean Connery. As the series progressed throughout the 1960s, it also tried to outdo itself when it came to gadgets, spectacle, and craziness, and that's part of the fun of the early franchise films.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service was an attempt to ground Bond closer to his novel source material counterpart, and that involved putting George Lazenby in 007's shoes. The film was regarded as a letdown, but it's gained remarkable respect and cult status in recent years, due to its memorable set pieces, action scenes, and story elements.
The Beach Rescue
The opening act of the film finds Bond in yet another Aston Martin–one of the best cars in the entire franchise–when he's passed at high speed by a mysterious woman driving a red Mercury Cougar. He eventually finds the car half-parked on the side of the road, leading to a remote beach where the woman begins wading into the water.
Bond surmises that she's about to commit suicide, and rushes into the water to save her. After bringing her ashore, he's held up by two armed thugs who seem intent on kidnapping the woman. Bond fights them both off, only to watch the mysterious woman drive off, creating quite an impression in the process.
The Hotel Fight
Bond does a little digging and determines that the mysterious woman he saw on the beach is actually Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo or "Tracy" for short. She's the daughter of Marc-Ange Draco, a syndicate boss with uncomfortable ties to the worldwide criminal organization known as SPECTRE.
Tracy invites Bond back to her hotel room, but he arrives to find a large and capable henchman who attempts to kill him. The fight is unusually brutal for a film from 1969, but it ends relatively bloodless, with Bond knocking him out before grabbing some caviar on the way out of the hotel room.
The Safe Crack
In an effort to track down the infamous and intelligent SPECTRE head Blofeld, Bond decides to pay a visit to the office of Gumbold, a lawyer based in Switzerland who keeps secret files locked in a safe. Bond uses one of MI6's nifty little gadgets to crack the safe code while having a peek at a men's magazine.
The entire office raid goes smooth as silk, with Bond cracking the safe, copying a series of documents implicating Blofeld and the London College of Arms, and finally tossing the evidence into a crane bucket so it can be retrieved by another agent. All in all, a fine day's work, and not a shot fired.
Bond Meets Blofeld
After determining the whereabouts of Blofeld and his connection to the London College of Arms, Bond heads to the Swiss Alps while posing as Sir Hilary Bray, a genealogist whom Blofeld has called on. He wishes to claim the title of Count Balthazar de Bleuchamp, which gives Bond the perfect infiltration guise.
Their first meeting is brief but eventful. These two characters would share a long and storied history together in one form or another. In this first meeting, Blofeld reveals that he's working on a series of vaccines mixed with psychological treatments to cure people of their allergies, but it's obvious that's just a ruse.
The Ski Chase Escape
A minor slip-up gives Blofeld all he needs to out Hilary Bray as James Bond, and from there, the relationship switches fully to hero and villain dynamic. Blofeld even tells Bond of his plan to enact bacteriological warfare on the world by using a series of former female patients as brainwashed carriers.
Bond is thrown into a maintenance room for the institute's cable car mechanism, but he manages to escape by strapping on a pair of skis and soaring down the side of the mountain. Blofeld and his men give chase in one of the coolest sequences of the entire film. He barely makes it off the mountain alive, killing several members of Blofeld's crew in the process.
The Car Race Slip
Bond ends up finding Tracy at the nearby town of Lauterbrunnen, but Blofeld's men are hot on his heels, led by the fearsome Ima Blunt, his female enforcer. Bond attempts to contact London to warn them of Blofeld's plan, but he's fired upon by Ima and her crew, triggering a chase.
Tracy ends up driving into the middle of a car race off the main highway, but Blunt isn't about to give up the chase. The two end up causing chaos on the track, knocking out several vehicles before Tracy ends up sidelining Blunt's car, causing an explosion. After escaping the race, she jokes about not sticking around to get their prize.
The Ski Chase Escape, Part II
After camping out in a barn for the night to escape a massive blizzard, Bond and Tracy awake the next morning and decide to ski down the mountain. Unfortunately, Blofeld and his men anticipated the move, and give chase in a cool, but altogether nonsensical action scene that would later become a staple of the franchise.
It's an exhilarating chase sequence with a few notable moments, such as when one of Blofeld's men misses a jump and ends up getting caught in the grinding jaws of a snowplow, which pumps bloody chunks of snow into the air. Blofeld ends the chase by triggering a massive avalanche, burying Bond, and kidnapping Tracy in the process.
The Assault On The Institute
After Blofeld takes Tracy hostage, Bond launches a daring rescue plan against M's orders by teaming up with Draco and his men, instead. The two have a mutual interest in seeing Tracy returned safely, not to mention payback for Blofeld's malfeasance, and his plot to destroy the world's agriculture resources.
Bond also takes the time to take snapshots of Blofeld's "Angels of Death," his twelve former female patients who have been brainwashed to carry a dangerous bacteriological agent to different spots around the world. Draco and his men set charges and blow the entire complex to smithereens, while Bond purses Blofeld on a bobsled.
The Bobsled Chase
It's one more grand chase before Bond can wrap up the case, and it involves chasing down Blofeld in a bobsled. As the two soar around icy twists and turns, Bond attempts to gun Blofeld down. Meanwhile, Blofeld barely manages to lob a grenade out of his own bobsled, and the explosive force derails Bond.
Not to be outdone, Bond manages to cut Blofeld off at the pass, and leap onto his bobsled. They engage in a brutal brawl while the bobsled careens out of control, but Bond manages to get the upper hand when he knocks Blofeld upwards into an overarching tree branch, snagging him by the neck and leaving him to hang.
Tracy's Execution
After defeating Blofeld, Bond immediately decides that it's time to hang up his fornicating ways and settle down with Tracy, whom he has fallen in love with. He even refuses her father Draco's promise to give him a million pounds if he marries her, remaining quite content with her as his wife.
The two enjoy a lavish wedding ceremony with friends and family, including a tearful Moneypenny, in one of her best franchise scenes. Afterward, they drive off and begin talking about their future together, including plans for a very large family. Unfortunately, it all comes to a halt when Bond stops to remove the decorative flowers from his car, allowing an injured Blofeld and his accomplice Ima to perform a drive-by shooting. Tracy is murdered, leaving Bond in complete denial as to what just happened. It's possibly the most tragic ending of any Bond film, besides Casino Royale.