At headquarters, Steele encounters an old agency nemesis, Norm Coleman, and flirts with the Director's adoring secretary, referred to as Miss Cheevus.

On the job, Steele is assisted by an agent named Kabul, who gives him rides in a never-ending variety of specially designed cars.

Everything comes to an explosive conclusion at the General's remote fortress, where Steele rescues both Barbara Dahl and Miss Cheevus and launches a literally disarmed Rancor into outer space, saving mankind.

It is a parody of title sequences from the James Bond films designed by Maurice Binder, specifically 1965's Thunderball, complete with multiple coloured backgrounds, silhouetted figures, women dancing with guns, and "wavy" text.

Additionally, an urban legend states that during the recording of the theme to Thunderball, Tom Jones held the song's final note long enough to pass out.

The site's critics consensus states: "Leslie Nielsen's comic gifts are undisputed, but Spy Hard's lazy script and slapdash direction fail to take advantage of them.

[7] James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote: "Director Rick Friedberg [...] has crafted a dreadfully unfunny comedy that takes Naked Gun-like sketches and rehashes them without a whit of style or energy.

However, while Spy Hard might have worked better with, say, Roger Moore in the title role (his 007 was a parody towards the end, anyway), Nielsen's performance is only a small part of a massively-flawed production.

"[8] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Spy Hard is never funnier than during its opening credit sequence in which "Weird Al" Yankovic bellows his parody of the brassy theme song from Goldfinger, while obese cartoon silhouettes swim across the screen.

... Around the halfway point, Spy Hard begins to run out of ideas and becomes a series of crude, rambunctious parodies of other films.

Spy Hard relies on silly slapstick, takeoffs of recent films and the shock effect of celebrity cameos.

All I know is that she was supposed to be sexy, and I don't know if she even was.In the decades since its initial release, director Rick Friedberg has spoken at length about his unhappy experience with the film, alleging rampant interference on the part of Disney that led to an "eviscerated" [13] final product.

Friedberg was forced to cut or rewrite entire set-pieces if Disney deemed them "too sophisticated" for young audiences.

[15] Recalling his exchanges with Disney executives, Friedberg said, "The primary thing they did which is the most painful was that they cut all of the good dialogue and all the story.

[14] Late in production, with the film one day behind schedule, Friedberg claims Disney removed him as director and hired a replacement to conduct reshoots.

Following advice from Naked Gun co-screenwriter Jim Abrahams, Disney was determined to bring Spy Hard in at a lean 84-minute running time.

[14] Friedberg says Disney refused to budge from this number and made extensive cuts to his 96-minute original version, resulting in continuity errors and a lack of narrative comprehension.

Interviewed on a 2022 podcast, when asked to name his favourite moment or scene from the film, Friedberg admitted, "I don't think there is a single one.