When Soviet cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova contacts British Intelligence, telling them that she has fallen in love with a photo of James Bond and wants to defect, they are understandably suspicious. However, given that she promises to bring a Lektor cryptography machine with her, which would be a massive Cold War coup, they decide that Bond must risk the trap.
Of course, they won't be sending him empty-handed: the boffins in Q Branch have several special gadgets for Bond to help keep him safe, including a collapsible sniper's rifle and an attaché case loaded with a tear gas canister. Will all these gadgets see use before the film is over? I think we can safely say they will!
In any case, Bond heads off to Turkey, where Tatiana Romanova is stationed, to prepare for her extraction, all the while staying alert for any sign that this is a Sovet double-cross. But as it happens, he's looking for entirely the wrong enemy, this time ...
The second Bond film makes significant strides toward the "classic Bond formula" of quips and gadgets, though it's comparatively light on the third pillar of said formula, that of casual sexual dalliances. Heck, at the start of the film Bond is actually spending time with one of the women he casually dated in Dr No. I'm not sure we've ever seen that happen again in the series!
Overall, From Russia With Love is pretty good fun Cold War spy nonsense, though it does of course remain very much a product of its time. Expect lots of casual sexual and racism, in other words.
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