Because of Sir Sean Connery's high fee, the special effects budget was significantly scaled back. Connery was reportedly paid $1,250,000 to return as James Bond, a figure unheard of in those days.
During a late 1990s airing of the movie on TBS' "Dinner and A Movie", Bruce Glover recalled that while filming their scenes together, he and Putter Smith had Sir Sean Connery convinced that the two were actually openly homosexual. Glover added that a few years later, while on an airline flight, he was flirting with a stewardess when he suddenly heard a male Scottish-accented voice saying, "You son of a bitch". Glover turned around and saw that the man was Connery.
Sir Sean Connery made the most of his time on-location in Las Vegas: "I didn't get any sleep at all. We shot every night, I caught all the shows and played golf all day. On the weekend I collapsed, boy, did I collapse. Like a skull with legs." He also played the slot machines, and once delayed a scene because he was collecting his winnings.
Instant mashed potatoes were used to replicate the consistency of the brown substance mud bath featured in the opening teaser. What the producers failed to take into account was that after twenty-four hours, and under all the hot lights, mashed potatoes emit an almost unbearable smell.
During Bond's briefing with M and Sir Donald Munger at the beginning, Munger refers to Bond having just been on holiday, and M later quips how the Service had managed well during Bond's absence. These were inside jokes referring to Sir Sean Connery's absence in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).