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As for the questions...
1) No, I don't think that it's the best. My vote would go to FRWL or CR. It's entertaining (for the most part) but it goes on for too long. The fact that they had to combine two different sequences together because the original version of the PTS was lacking says a lot in my opinion. This film has major flaws.
2) Honestly, I think that the detractors go a little overboard with this overacting criticism. I will admit that Pierce does seem to be overdoing it slightly with his "pain face" but other than that I don't see what the problem is. I still feel that this was his best performance in the role even though it's certainly not his best film.
3) I think that they succeeded for the most part. It's clear that she is using him to make her pipeline into a monopoly and that she controls him sexually. Bond orders Elektra to call Renard off just before he shoots her so it is implied that he takes orders from her.
4) It was an irrational decision and a contrived way for the script writers to give M more screen time. I don't have a problem with giving M a bigger role (in this film) but they handled it the wrong way.
5) I would say D. They wanted to bring Coltrane back because he was so memorable and he did help to inject some humor into the film. The circumstances fit the decision. It's one of the few things that the writers did well!
1. No and I think as others have pointed out already, the PTS of the likes of GF, TSWLM, MR, OP, GE are far more exciting and enjoyable. The problem with TWINE's PTS is it's just far too long (even SF is probably pushing it but at least that's one whole sequence). With TWINE, we essentially get two PTS - the banker's office and the Thames chase. My opinion of the latter sequence has diminished over the years. I don't think it's half as good as it thinks it is.
2. I'm one of those in the minority that thinks Brosnan gave his best performance here. Yes there are a few, shall we say 'dodgy' deliveries of some lines, but generally I think Pierce is very good here (he is even better in The Thomas Crown Affair, which was released in the same year).
3. If it was the screenwriters/producers intention to make Elektra that central villain, then they failed miserably. It as always my understanding that when the 'twist' came, she was no more than Renard's partner in crime. If Elektra was indeed to have been the chief baddie, then scenes with her giving Renard orders should have been filmed. It was a good idea but poorly executed in the end.
4. It's clear M was making her decision to fly out to Baku made on empathy rather than one based on rational (which seems totally at odd with her earlier decision not to pay the ransom, so why she let's her emotions get the better of her now is anyone's guess). My question is what the hell are Tanner, Robinson and the rest of her security detail doing to allow her to go in the first place. Surely their remit is to protect her at all times, even from herself when she makes such lousy decisions.
5. Definitely a big D.
2) Again, no. I think his best performance is in TND, but this performance isn’t bad. The “painface” detractors may want to spend some time in a similar machine with a camera recording their facial reactions, and then they can judge Pierce’s performance a little more accurately. Any weakness in the Baku scene should be laid at the feet of the writers rather than the actor or director. Same for my own personal peeve, the scene with Bond touching the TV screen showing Electra’s return from her kidnapping ordeal, and deciding that he was in love with her before they’d even met.
3) My perception is they were working together. I do think the script should have made their relationship clearer. Part of the audience’s uncertainty, I think, is because we expect a Bond movie to have a Main Villain, a Big Bad that Bond can trade blows with near the film’s climax. Only a few movies don’t conform to that format, and this is one of them. Renard is clearly being manipulated by Electra, but she also clearly has feelings for him as well. He is possibly the only other person in the world she DOES have feelings for!
4) Yes, it is an irrational decision on M’s part, but No, I don’t think there was
a grand master plan here. I think they tried something that worked for their purposes – that is, beefing up Dench’s role in the series – and since it worked they kept doing it. By “worked,” I mean it worked for Eon's purpose in getting more use out of a top-flight actor that they were probably paying quite handsomely. I don’t think it worked for the logic of the series – Dench's M had issues with Bond that are clearly established in Goldeneye, but those are papered over for TND. They briefly resurface here, but Bond is shown to be correct and M is behaving very unprofessionally. Her trust issues in DAD are actually fairly reasonable, as it is entirely likely from what she can see that Bond has cracked. Her issues during Craig’s tenure is a whole ‘nother matter that I’ll be dealing with in coming weeks – but suffice it to same, those trust issues come and go depending on the needs of the scriptwriters.
5) D. Coltraine's presence in the movie is one of its most enjoyable points!
1. Casino Royale- 4.33
2. Goldfinger- 4.30
3. From Russia With Love- 4.26
4. Skyfall (6/7 reviews)- 4.17
5. The Living Daylights- 4.11
6. Thunderball- 4.09
7. The Spy Who Loved Me- 4.06
8. Licence To Kill- 4.03
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service- 3.99
10. For Your Eyes Only- 3.91
11. You Only Live Twice- 3.90
12. Live And Let Die- 3.81
13. GoldenEye- 3.80
14. Octopussy- 3.73
15. Tomorrow Never Dies- 3.71
16. Dr. No- 3.57
17. Quantum Of Solace- 3.42
18. A View To A Kill- 3.31
19. The World Is Not Enough- 3.20
20. The Man With The Golden Gun- 3.09
21. Diamonds Are Forever- 2.99
22. Moonraker- 2.96
23. Die Another Day- 2.70
Good afternoon fellow originals and guests! After @BeatlesSansEarmuffs recent review of The World Is Not Enough came in with a score of 34 out of 50, the rating made a slight jump from 3.17 to 3.20, enough to keep it in the #19 spot out of 23 official EON produced films.
My continuous thanks to everyone who has participated in the thesis questions. Participation was excellent this week, and I hope to see it continue.
Regarding the polling of the 5 The World Is Not Enough thesis questions, here's the consensus-
1. The PTS of the film is the longest in the series history before the titles kick in, lasting between 14-15 minutes. In your opinion, is it the best PTS in the series history?
While everyone felt that the PTS was quite enjoyable and definitely one of the better ones in the series, it's length didn't guarantee that and no one voted it as their personal favorite. I must agree with the sentiments expressed here. Aside from the underwater tie straightening, obviously done for a lighter moment in a long and fairly intense series of scenes, for me it is quite excellent and one of the highlights of the film, the only thing I would have done differently is to include the deleted scene where you hear Renard speaking to the Cigar Girl assassin and you can see the fear on her face- I feel Apted really dropped the ball on that one.
2. As a reader of many posts here in the MI6 Forum, it is clear that Pierce Brosnan has a certain segment of fans that feel gave his best performance here. Those who prefer other Bond films of his often remark that he is guilty of overacting here. In your estimation, do the detractors have a valid defense to make when criticizing scenes such as his first confrontation with Elektra in her Baku villa regarding Renard using her motto and the "shoulder line" as just one example of why he was better in other movies, or show these examples be blamed on the director and laid at the feet of Michael Apted rather than Pierce himself?
A very mixed reaction. But by a narrow 5-4 vote, people felt Pierce's performance in the majority of the scenes showed them that Apted and the script were to blame for the scenes where his performance was questionable to most. I was one of the large minority here. GE and TND showed me that he was capable of better than this, and while I don't disagree that Apted and the script did him no favors, I felt some of the lines he was given and the way he delivered them were things that were in his control.
3. We know that the scriptwriters and director intended to make Elektra King into the first female lead villain in the series. Did the filmmakers (a) succeed in their aims, or (b) do the many scenes that show that she and Renard are clearly working together per the correct medical definition of "Stockholm Syndrome" as stated in the next question, and none showing her actually giving him orders, valid reasons to say that the concept as it was realized on screen was at best not made clear, or at worst an outright failure? Choose one answer, and if your answer is premise (a), where exactly did the script show how Renard answered to Elektra as a henchman as opposed to agreeing with her aims as said active partner?
By a margin of 7 votes to 2, the majority opinion here was that there appeared to be a clear partnership between Elektra and Renard, and at worst, if one of them was supposed to be more dominant than the other, it was not made clear. And some felt that Renard was the main villain. Two voters indicated that Elektra's sexual control of Renard and her last words before Bond shot her dead were enough to convince them she was in charge. I am among the majority- for me, she didn't have the know-how to pull off what she wanted to do without partnering with him for his expertise, and it's not like he wasn't committed to doing acts of terror, after all that's what he did. I interpreted her final word "Dive!" to him as her defiant determination not to allow her enemy, in this case Bond and MI6, to ruin her plans rather than showing me Renard answered to her.
4. In previous films, we have seen the character of M out of his/her office on occasion. In this film however, M puts herself and her treasure trove of vital national security information in harm's way to try and protect her friend Sir Robert King's daughter, as well as to perhaps try to make up for advising him not to pay the ransom her kidnappers had demanded. This concept has been heavily criticized by the fan base as an irrational and dangerous decision that a real life intelligence chief would have never done, and one that would have been left to subordinates. Answer "yes" if you agree that it was an irrational decision that should been kept out of the script, or "no" if you feel it was necessary in this case, why it was, and perhaps was it purposely written to establish the beginning of trust issues that would establish Dench M's relationship with Bond for the remainder of her tenure?
Everyone agrees that this was a bad decision and part of the reason the detractors have for not feeling the movie succeeded. I agree with this. To sum up my view, the script fails to establish the aim and premise of the Stockholm Syndrome idea, and to make Elektra the main villain they intended. The character and worse, the competency of M is also undermined. Poor direction from Apted and some dodgy acting by nearly every main character also affected my view. One important theme I'd also like to note regarding M- indeed I also believe that this is where the producers decided Dench needed to be doing more to justify her pay and gave her an expanded role as such. And I'd also say that it also undermined the competency of Bond, I could never understand why she would not trust Bond and any support she sent. He clearly hadn't done anything to warrant her personal supervision, let alone disregard his thoughts and suspicions that she might be working with Renard like Patty Hearst worked with the SLA after developing her case of Stockholm.
5. Now for a true multiple choice question. The character of Valentin Zukovsky is often cited as the funniest and most beloved support character in the Brosnan tenure by fans and critics. And yet if you compare him to other popular characters reprised during the Connery and Moore eras, he had far less scenes. There are myriad reasons he might have been reprised. Was it (a) a producer decision as made by EON due to popularity and a tradition of doing so as a type of glue to define certain movies and eras, (b) that because the story partially took place in a former republic of the USSR and it was a natural circumstance that made the producers think this was an ideal circumstance for a reprise, (c) a case of necessity in order to inject some humor in a script that otherwise lacked it, or (d) all of the above.
Unanimously as well, option D. It's very clear the originals and our guests love Valentin Dimitrovich Zukovsky, and that all of the reasons were good ones to bring him back.
That will wrap up our look back at The World Is Not Enough, and next we will revisit the final film from the Brosnan era in Die Another Day. It's a film that is not completely without some good scenes and characters, but is undoubtedly the film most cited as the worst in the series, and the point gap between it and the #22 in Moonraker is much too far apart for Beatles' review to change that. Therefore, ergo, and thus, I will strap myself in my computer chair and prepare for what I expect, especially if it's anything like his Moonraker review, will be a round of laughter and one of possibly epic proportions. Have a great weekend everyone!
Oh, the pressure you all place upon me! Will I be able to find something, anything, to redeem this unloved mongrel of a film? Will I at least be funny in flaying it into little pieces? No, and let’s hope so…
Let’s get a few matters out into the open right away: the script to this film is incredibly weak, with more than a few totally unbelievable gimmicks underlaying the exceptionally poor gags. The director for this movie was poorly chosen, and the CGI that he apparently approved isn’t even up to the standards that were current more than a decade ago. Finally, the 40th Anniversary homages that continually pop up throughout the film should have been left on the cutting-room floor, as they serve no purpose other than to remind the audience of the glories that this once-proud franchise once held…and thankfully, will again, once this poor excuse for a Bond film has died its hideous death.
BOND: 3/5 I have finally come to a conclusion regarding Brosnan’s tenure as Bond: he precisely meets the level of his material and his co-stars. Unfortunately, this is not a good characteristic for a top-flight Bond. The great Bonds, like Connery and Dalton, are able to lift a weak script or a less than competent supporting actor out of the mire of mediocrity. In DAF, Connery made the silliness of his script actually amusing; in YOLT he was somehow able to elevate the performances of his co-starring actresses, for whom English was a second language. In LTK, Dalton similarly made the audience take the moderately competent actress Talisa Soto seriously; when he told her it was time for her to find a new boyfriend , the audience was entirely in sympathy with her in that goal. Brosnan, unfortunately, does not seem to have that ability. When he is given a strong script and a fine actress to work with, as in GE, the result is brilliant. Here, he is given a totally unbelievable script, an unsuitable director…and Halle Berry. He has a few moments to shine early in the film…but once Brosnan’s Bond meets Berry’s Jinx, those moments are few and far between. Like many Bond fans, I wish Pierce had been given a better script for his final entry into the franchise
WOMEN: 2.5/5 Halle Berry can deliver a very strong performance with the right material; she totally deserved her Oscar for Monster’s Ball. This is not that movie; in DAD hers is not an award-winning performance. She is beautiful, no two ways about that. But she shows little real interest in her character or in this storyline; in truth, I haven’t seen a performance from Berry in a genre film (X-Men, Catwoman) that indicates that she has any respect for this type of material. If that is indeed the case, she ought to tell her management that she refuses to take such roles in the future. She doesn’t need them and they don’t enhance her prospects for future employment. Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost goes about as far as any actress can in terms of redeeming this category for this film. She’s gorgeous, engaging, and mysterious. I’m sure I was not alone in rooting for her over Berry in their final confrontation aboard the airplane. And finally, I expect I was also not alone in wanting to see more of Rachel Grant’s Peaceful Fountains of Desire character. I’ll give one full point each for Frost and Grant, and ½ point for Berry.
VILLAINS: 2/5 Likewise, 1 point each for Toby Stevens as Gustav Graves and Will Yun Lee as Colonel Moon. Or should that be 1 point each for Rick Yune as Zao and Michael Gorevoy as Popov? One thing’s for sure, NO POINTS for Mr. Kil! Seriously, though: the whole Gene Conversion Therapy shtick which turns a Korean General’s son into an Englishman eligible for knighthood even though he just popped up out of thin air a year ago, totally sinks this movie for me. I can suspend my disbelief as well as any comic book fan and better than some -- but this ludicrous central point totally invalidates much of the movie for me. Will Yun Lee gave a great performance in his brief PTS appearance, and I’d have been happy to see him pop up later in the movie as the secret backer of a more believable plot. Toby Stevens…not so much. He was just too smarmy for my tastes. Rick Yun was a fine henchman as Zao -- but I had a few problems with his diamond-encrusted face. Sure, it’s a cool visual, but again there are some problems with believability. First of all, he is not actually NEAR ENOUGH to the diamonds when the briefcase holding them explodes. There are at least two other people closer than him, if I’m seeing the critical scene correctly. Why don’t THEY have diamond-studded faces? Finally, the VALUE of those diamonds ought to be great enough that somebody would have plucked them out of Zao’s mug long ago!
HUMOR 1/5 Yo Mama, Purvis & Wade.
What, you want a more detailed critique? Okay, fine: we expect something a little more sophisticated from a Bond script. When “Fidel Castrato” is as grown-up as the gags get, I for one am substantially disappointed. Okay, caveman Bond checking into the Hong Kong hotel was kind of amusing, but “kind of amusing” really doesn’t cut it for a big deal 40th Anniversary spectacular. That one point I’m giving out for this category is a pity point. Don’t make me think about it any further…
ACTION 2.5/5 You know, the first quarter or so of this movie is actually fairly good. The hovercraft roaring through the minefield…the tension of Bond’s release from his North Korean captors, when we expect him to be gunned down from behind at any moment…the Cuban scenes, just prior to Jinx’s CGI high-dive…but then: the CGI high dive. And it was all downhill from there. Or maybe that should be: straight off the cliff, backwards, into the poorly-realized computer-generated water. Okay, the sword fight between Bond and Graves was pretty dramatic, and sure, the auto chase on the ice was fairly cool, and yes, I was even a little worried for Jinx in the melting ice palace, but come on! The CGI parasailing was just SO BAD that even I couldn’t forgive it…in fact, the ice palace itself strained my credibility so badly that I might have forgotten about the Gene Conversion therapy if the psychedelic Dream Mask wasn’t there in the Ice Palace to remind me. And then we have the orbiting laser from DAF/GE on steroids, and the disintegrating airplane, with Bond vs. Moon/Graves and Jinx vs. Frost with the Art of War as a sidebar…and an extended homage to Bond’s escape from a crashing plane in TLD as the finale to this film. Are we really supposed to be taking any of this seriously? It happens because the scriptwriters tell us it’s happening, and we accept it out of respect for the series that we’ve loved for 40 years. Only we don’t accept it, not really, and it’s out of a sense of tough love that we have to tell the fine folks at EON productions: no more of this. Up your game, or don’t expect us to come back.
SADISM 4/5 The Title Sequence has a nice bit of storytelling all its own, giving us a sense of the torture Bond undergoes in the hands of his North Korean captors. High marks for using this sequence as a device for advancing the plot, let’s call it 3 points on its own. Another point for Col. Moon’s treatment of his Anger Therapist early on in the film. 4 points is the highest we’re going in ANY category for this film, so don’t expect any more from me here…Insert gratuitous joke about the use of Madonna and move along…
MUSIC 3/5 Yes, David Arnold did another splendid job on the soundtrack. See @SirHenry’s review of this movie for further elucidation on this topic, insert gratuitous insult regarding Madonna’s alleged theme song, toss a 3 on the board and move along some more…
LOCATIONS 3/5 With footage shot in Spain, Iceland, Hawaii, and at various places in England including Pinewood Studios, the production is exquisite. The Spanish environs evoke their supposed Cuban location quite nicely, and the ice of Iceland is white, pristine, and quite stunning. Too bad they had to go and ruin it with all the CGI of ice palaces and parasailing and whatnot. Seriously, I started out with a 4 for this category, then marked it down from the memory of the rotten CGI ruining so much of this film…
GADGETS 3/5 I could go higher for this category because there’s just so MUCH gadgetry on display here…but then I think of the gratuitous and pointless use of the jetpack from TB, or the stiletto shoes from FRWL, and I just get annoyed. Unlike many reviewers, I don’t have a problem with the Aston Martin “Vanish” -- I accepted invisible cars back in 1967, when Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. got one, and I suppose 35 years is long enough of a wait for Bond to get one of his own. His glass-breaking ring is a nice tool, used to good effect. I don’t quite understand why Gustav Graves has a high-speed ice buggy other than because the scriptwriters thought it would be cool…but then we get into Graves’ gadgetry and I just get annoyed all over again. The Dream Mask is there…why exactly? Graves says it’s to keep him sane, but hey, sanity went out the window for him back when he still looked Korean. His Robocop suit may have made him more of a match for Bond physically in the film‘s climactic moments, but it does nothing to help the movie’s believability. And let’s not get started on his array of lasers; we aren’t given any reason for them that I can remember but it’s no use really, we all know that the real reason for the lasers is to evoke a famous scene in Goldfinger. Argh. Which brings us, finally, to Q’s virtual reality goggles. The only reason for them is so that we can fantasize about what might have happened someday at MI-6 HQ. Nothing to see here. Move along…
SUPPORTING CAST 3/5 Again, Judy Dench’s M puts herself into a dangerous position for no good reason I can think of other than the scriptwriters thought it would be cool. Again, we have John Cleese as Q, reminding us that he shouldn’t have been cast as Q in the first place. Again, we have Colin Salmon doing a competent but thankless job providing exposition as Charles Robinson. And finally, we have Samantha Bond being lovely and talented and hideously poorly scripted as Miss Monneypenny. You deserved better, Samantha. Sometimes being in the Bond series just isn’t fair, especially around this point in time. To off-set whatever goodwill our recurring cast has accumulated, we have Michael Madsen as Falco, warming us up for the substantial dislike we will begin to feel for American intelligence operations in QoS. Seriously, Falco is such an ass I think he’s the precursor to Leiter’s boss in the second Craig Bond film. Did I mention Madonna in this category yet? No? Good. Finally, since the rest of this category has been such a wash, we shall award one point each for Kenneth Tsang as General Moon, who did a fine job in the nearly impossible task of humanizing the Korean military…for Emilio Echevarria, a welcome presence as Raoul, the sleeper agent in Cuba…and for Ho Yi as Mr. Chang, the helpful Chinese agent in Hong Kong. Congratulations, gentlemen, you have achieved the nearly impossible: you have acquitted yourselves well in the midst of a disaster movie.
TOTAL AND RECOLLECTIONS: 27/50 As the 40th Anniversary release, this film should have been so much better. As the final entry in Pierce Brosnan’s resume’ as Bond, it really should have been substantially better. And just as any old Bond film, we’ve seen better and we expect better. Personally, I place substantial fault with the scriptwriters, the director, and the CGI team. Special raspberries can be awarded to the casting director, for putting the likes of Rachel Grant, Kenneth Tsang, and Emilio Echevarria in the minor roles while filling the important roles with the likes of Halle Berry and Toby Stephens. And a final brickbat must be shared by both Pierce Brosnan and the team at EON. It wasn’t your fault that this film was released on the heels on 9/11, when the world was suddenly no longer of a mood to welcome a popcorn film on the subject of international espionage…but it WAS your fault that the popcorn you presented was so stale and poorly seasoned. On behalf of your audience, let me just say: you can do better. We are eagerly looking forward to Another Day, when we are going to get it…
THE END of this review
But BeatlesSanEarmuffs will be in a much better mood
When he returns to review Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond
in Casino Royale
:))
Actually, now that I see that the accumulated score for DAD was already 2.70 -- I think you're probably right, @Willy! I'll go back through & see if I can subtract another point with another gratuitous Madonna joke.... ;)
Otherwise, there's very little if anything I could add to what's been written. For a movie which had that extra year to develop that many seem to think is so critical, and no less one that was only delayed to try and cash in on a relatively unimportant anniversary, the film is an overall unmitigated disaster. Even more unbelievable, there are actually people who feel this was a better film than Skyfall. People like this, for me, really don't get Bond as much as they think they do. I do try not to abuse their opinion if I can avoid it, after all they are fellow Bond fans who didn't turn on the franchise and disqualify themselves from the right to call themselves a fan, but you can bet everything you own that I agree with and quietly support those who do abuse them. Bond movies should always be within the realm of possible and using CGI to make that happen on screen really does betray that. DAD deserves every public flogging it receives, but at least one positive came out of it- a valuable Moonraker-like lesson was learned. But really, shouldn't Barb and Mike have learned from that mistake long ago? I suppose the large box office washed some of that criticism away, unlike Cubby, they weren't saddled with debt that would affect all of the 80's films down the line.
@soundofthesinners- while I completely agree with any sentiment that AVTAK and TMWTGG aren't among the better Bond films, I still find more value in them due to their more believable plots and their awesome villains. So as much as I appreciate what Yun Lee and Pike were able to bring, they can't compare to the amazing duo of Chris'- both of whom were better than anything in DAD. TWMTGG was a rush job that tried to cash in on LALD's success, but compared to DAD's production time, it at least has an excuse of sorts. Yes indeed, Moore was way too old in AVTAK, no argument there, but again I find it far more enjoyable.
The thesis questions should be a lot of fun, though. Can't wait to read my fellow MI6-ers tear it apart.
I remember a friend of mine saw it and said, "An invisible car?! Geez, come on ...!" and I said, "The invisible car I could buy, that was the least of problems. Everything else was crap." So those were our first voiced thoughts - even though DAD has a few good moments (PTS and the first half basically: sword fight, Cuba scenes before Jinx.) Pity. So glad we are not sitting here with that one being the latest Bond film; I would be depressed.
I think we were all depressed after seeing DAD in the cinemas in 2002; I know I was! Having said that, it did get some great reviews from both fans and commentators at the time with some of them even suggesting that it was the best James Bond film of all time.
A little heroin to dull the pain...yes, I could see that working, even for DAD.
Always reminds me of Harry Hill:
"The thing with heroin is.....it's very morish, apparently".
Truth be told...at the time of DAD's original release, I had been dealing with some significant medical issues, and was probably under some sort of of prescription pain reliever when I first saw it. At the time, I just thought it was a middle-of-the-line release. No wonder my opinion has altered since then!
My sentiments exactly. Good job well done @BeatlesSans! Apparently I'm the only one here who's ever seen Tamahori's masterpieces 'Once Were Worrieors'and 'What Becomes of the Broken Hearted'. Two extremely rough and tough films. How he could be the same person making DAD I'll never understand.
Well in 2002 I'm sure you did have your (medical) reasons, @BeatlesSansEarmuffs!
No joke, @Dragonpol. There was a hospital stay involved, and actual Doctors and everything. I really hadn't thought about it in these terms until just now, but yes, my opinion of the film in its initial release was probably somewhat influenced by my physical condition at the time.
Last year, on the eve of the release of SF, I was admitted to hospital as I had a reocurrance of a perianal abscess which required immediate surgery.
I'm almost quite frightened at the thought of Bond 24...
CHARACTER FACTS-
- Pierce Brosnan's final appearance as James Bond. The role was taken over in 2006 by Daniel Craig for Casino Royale.
- Pierce Brosnan's knee injury, which he sustained in the opening hovercraft segment, prompted the production to stop shooting for 7 days. This was the first time any Bond movie has had to shut down production due to injury.
- Some of the actresses mentioned during the production as potential Bond girls were Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, model Kelly Brook, and dancer Jean Butler. Published reports in 2001 indicated that Whitney Houston was being considered for the role of Jinx in this film. At the pre-production stage, Saffron Burrows and Salma Hayek were both considered for roles.
- Following her Best Actress win at the 2002 Oscars, Halle Berry became the first Academy Award winner to be a leading Bond Girl in the EON Productions film series, winning her award while shooting this movie.
- Halle Berry wasn't the only member of the cast and crew to do well at the Oscars during filming. Sound recordist Chris Munro also won the Oscar for Best Sound for his work on Black Hawk Down. The award was presented to him by Halle Berry.
- At the tender age of 33, Toby Stephens was the youngest main Bond villain to date. Stephens was 16 years younger than Pierce Brosnan, who was 49 at the time. This is not the first time a Bond actor was older than the main villain on a age gap. In 1985, Roger Moore at 57 was 15 years older than his main villain Christopher Walken, who was 42 at the time. In Moore's first outing as Bond in Live and Let Die, the main villain was played by Yaphet Kotto who was 36, being the first Bond villain actor to be younger than the Bond actor. Brosnan has been older than all of his main villains, except for Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies.
- First ever villain in a James Bond movie to be played by two actors. Toby Stephens and Will Yun Lee played Gustav Graves and Colonel Moon (aka Colonel Moon-Sun) respectively. They are supposed to be the same person with two manifestations due to the genetic operation.
- Both Yun Lee and Rick Yune, who plays Moon's friend and henchman Zao, are legit martial artists specializing in Tae Kwon Do. Yun Lee's father is a grandmaster and Will received an athletic scholarship to UC-Berkeley as well as his credentials teaching at his father's school. Yune was a serious contender for and nearly made the U.S Olympic team.
- Korean actor In-Pyo Cha was first offered the role of Colonel Moon, but turned it down.
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor screen tested for the role of Miranda Frost.
- Rosamund Pike was finally cast as Miranda Frost 5 days before the start of principal photography. Her very first acting on screen was her scene opposite Judi Dench, something she found to be overwhelmingly daunting. Dench had won an Oscar in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love.
- English actress Rachel Grant, who plays masseuse "Peaceful Fountains Of Desire", is largely of English/Filipino/French Canadian descent and was born in the Philippines. Her British father, a retired doctor, hypnotist and nobleman, is Michael Grant, 12th Baron de Longueuil. As such she is related to British royalty through her grandfather, the late 11th Baron Raymond De Longueuil, who was the second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
- American actor Michael Madsen, who plays Jinx's NSA boss Damien Falco, is in addition to be an actor a producer, director, writer, poet, and photographer. He is the older brother of actress Virginia Madsen, who is perhaps more famous than he is. Married twice, his first wife was Cher's half sister Georgianne LaPiere. His second marriage produced two sons. Since 1996, he has been with Deanna Morgan, who was previously married to musician Brian Setzer of Stray Cats fame. They have 3 sons together, giving him a total of 5.
- Tang Ling Zao ("The Man Who Never Smiles") is the first Korean henchman to appear in the series since Oddjob in Goldfinger.
- Scottish actor Billy Connolly was asked to play the part of a villain in the teaser sequence, but turned it down.
- The character Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies, was originally supposed to make her return, aiding Bond in Hong Kong, but no arrangement could be worked out with the actress and she was replaced by Chinese Intelligence agent (and hotelier) Mr. Chang, played by Hong Kong based Chinese actor Ho Yi. Wai Lin's presence is confirmed by an extra on the DVD release concerning the writing of the script: Barbara Broccoli is shown leafing through an early script, and it clearly contains lines for Wai Lin.
- This is the first time since 1962 (when Peter Burton played "Major Boothroyd" [Q] in Dr. No) when someone other than Desmond Llewelyn has played "Q." Llewelyn passed away in 1999 and John Cleese (who plays "Q's Assistant" in The World Is Not Enough was named as his successor. One of the extras in the fencing scene is Justin Lewellyn, son of Desmond Llewelyn.
PRODUCTION NOTES-
- As always with the James Bond series, several rumors anticipated the making of this movie. Some said that former American president Bill Clinton would play the part of an American politician, and that all the movie would be shot in Ireland, as a kind of tribute to Pierce Brosnan's homeland. In these rumors, the plot would be about the kidnapping of the British Prime Minister in Dublin, and the villain would be an American played by Kevin Spacey. Of course, none of this gossip were proved true. According to television news reports on 11 November 2002, Sean Connery filmed a cameo as James Bond's father. However, this has been denied by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who later said on record it would be pointless to spend the money and effort to get Connery and then not use his scene.
- Alleged working titles included "Cold Fusion", "Black Sun", "Beyond the Ice", and "Final Assignment". The ice theme forms a major part of this movie's marketing yet no such icy wording formed the movie's eventual title. A number of James Bond stories however do evoke snow, cold or ice. These include the 1984 James Bond comic "Polestar" and the John Gardner James Bond novels "Icebreaker" (1983) and "Cold" (1996) whilst episodes of James Bond Jr. are called "James Bond Jr.: Avalanche Run" and "James Bond Jr.: The Thing in the Ice."
- The title is derived from a phrase from the poem "A Shropshire Lad" by A.E. Housman: "But since the man that runs away / lives to die another day".. In the movie, James Bond says to Gustav Graves, "So you live to die another day", because at the start of the movie it was believed that the villain under his alternate persona had been killed.
- According to the book "The Bond Files", a UK actor's strike potentially threatened filming during December 2001. However, EON Productions allegedly struck a deal with the UK Actors' Equity Union which meant that production could proceed regardless of the outcome of the dispute had it not been resolved.
- Brett Ratner, Stuart Baird and Stephen Hopkins were candidates at various times to direct the movie. Pierce Brosnan reportedly lobbied the Broccolis to hire Ratner, but they didn't like his previous work and nixed the idea, allegedly preferred a non-American director. Brosnan later worked with Ratner on the film After the Sunset.
- Four weeks before filming began, the only parts that had been cast were the regulars - Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Colin Salmon and John Cleese
- Editor Christian Wagner is the first non-English editor to work on a Bond film.
- Filming had already begun when Lee Tamahori decided he wanted a car chase through the ice palace set. His set designer Peter Lamont had to rebuild the set with steel girders to support the cars racing around it.
- Rosamund Pike had to leave the film set for one day to go to her English Literature graduation ceremony at Oxford University.
- While the film negative went through the traditional photochemical printing process, the entire first reel, including the opening pre-title sequence, was instead digital graded. The digital lab (Framestore CFC) also worked on the Hovercraft battle sequence, creating a gritty look with enhanced explosions through to Bond's eventual release from captivity as well as a key sequence that would normally have required sky replacements.
- Only the second Bond film to feature James Bond's office. It was last seen in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
- Icarus was originally called Solaris but was changed when the producers found out that another 2002 release called Solaris was in production.
- The uniforms which James Bond and Jinx wear in the climax action sequence have small tags in Korean which says, "Changcheon 1(il) dong dae". It means these are uniforms of Republic of Korea Reserve Forces of Changcheon-dong in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, part of Republic of Korea Armed Forces.
- Will Yun Lee's credit appears after his role in the film has been completed.
- A spin-off was planned, featuring Halle Berry's character Jinx as the lead. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade wrote for two months and even a director was hired (Stephen Frears). However, after the failure of other female-character-driven action films like Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, MGM pulled the plug on the project. Halle Berry has said that she would love to return as Jinx in another Bond movie. She has allegedly said that she would like to do it so much she would do the role for free.
THE PTS-
- For the first time, the famous gun barrel sequence now includes a CGI created bullet zooming by after Bond fires. This idea was suggested by director Lee Tamahori. This is the last Bond film (as of 2012) to use the famous "gun barrel" sequence before a pre-titles sequence as usual.
- The opening surfing sequence was shot off the coast of Maui on Christmas Day 2001. Other sequences featuring the Korean beach were partly filmed at Holywell Bay near Newquay in Cornwall, United Kingdom over several evenings in February/March 2002. The local Holywell surf hut was transformed into a North Korean pill box and a small forest of pine trees were planted in the dunes behind to mimic a remote shore.
- In the first scene at the North Korean beach, two North Korean soldiers are talking. It means "What the hell is the taste of this cigarette? / I can give you Chinese tobacco.
- The North Korean sequences were deliberately bleached of color to emphasize the inhospitality of the location.
- The device Zao uses to identify Bond in the beginning is a Sony Ericsson P800 PDA/Mobile Phone. Though it would require some custom programming to get that fancy look on the screen (not to mention someone on the receiving end making the actual visual match), it is actually possible for it to perform that task.
- The futuristic weapon that Colonel Moon uses during parts of the chase after the opening sequence did really exist when the movie was made, at least in prototype form. It's a Heckler and Koch OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon), a weapon developed as the future's infantry assault rifle as part of the US Army's "Soldier 2000" program. It consist of a grenade launcher mounted on top of a "regular" 5.56mm (.223) caliber assault rifle, as well as a digital camera within the optic sights. This digital camera is supposed to be linked to a display within the soldier's helmet, enabling him to look/shoot around corners, as well as transmitting live footage of a combat situation to his troop commander or a higher superior.
- The large hovercraft in the pre-title sequence is a British-made Griffon 2000TD
- The hovercraft chase sequence was filmed nearby to a working airport. Pilots are understandably nervous about seeing gunfire and explosions at an airport so a schedule had to be worked out whereby filming could take place whenever the airport wasn't too busy.
- Second unit director Vic Armstrong had real trouble finding stunt drivers who were able to handle a hovercraft.
- One of the problems the crew encountered when shooting the North Korean segments in England was that there were only 2 fully qualified Asian stuntmen in the UK. To get around that, they tapped local martial arts clubs for more talent.
- Rick Yune's diamond-encrusted make-up took 3 hours to apply.
- The opening titles sequence, showing Bond's torture by North Korean jailers, is the first ever sequence which is part of the story for a Bond movie and not just a separate aesthetically designed title sequence.
- Pierce Brosnan used a Walther P99 with a fake suppressor and custom-made leather holster. Ten of these models were supplied by Bapty UK, all in the same serial number range. Serial #B8041837, B8041841, B8041852, B8041854, B8041861, B8041868.
HONG KONG PHOOEY-
- First time that James Bond sports a beard in a James Bond movie. Pierce Brosnan is shown having more than just a few day's growth after being held captive for a considerable amount of time. For these scenes, Pierce Brosnan spent 3 hours in make-up every day, having a false beard and long hair applied.
- The name of the hotel that James Bond visits in Hong Kong is "The Rubyeon Royale Hotel- "Ruby" for the 40th anniversary of the Bond film series; "Eon" for EON Productions, producers of the series; and "Royale" for 'Casino Royale' the first Ian Fleming James Bond novel.
CUBA'S NOT COOL, AND APPARENTLY NEITHER IS SPAIN-
- Although the production went to Cuba to source locations they were unable to shoot there due to US legislations, so Cuba was recreated at Pinewood Studios and Cadiz in Spain.
- Halle Berry's bikini scenes were shot in Cadiz and were not sunny and warm as they appeared onscreen but quite the opposite. Berry had to be wrapped up in thick towels in between takes to avoid catching a chill.
- Debris from a smoke grenade landed in Halle Berry's eye during filming. The actress required a 30 minute operation to remove it.
- The book that 007 picks up from the Cuban sleeper along with a revolver, is Fleming's inspiration "A Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies", written by James Bond. Brosnan is seen with the book in hand when he meets Jinx, hence his reference to being an ornithologist.
- Jinx aka Jacinta Johnson's medical file at the Cuba DNA Replacement Clinic names her as Jacinta Jordan and born in 1973 making her age approximately 29 years in the film.
LONDON CALLING-
- Sequences where James Bond travels in 1st Class aboard a passenger plane, and where he holds onto the front wheel of the plane as the landing gear deploys, and finally walks from the aircraft after it has landed, were filmed in March 2001 in British Airways engineering bases at Heathrow Airport, using green screens and a fan.
- The magazine with the picture of Gustav Graves that Bond reads on the British Airways flight is the real in-flight magazine for British Airways. Called "High Life", the edition seen was for the month of November 2002. The Magazine in fact interviews the actor playing Graves about his part and includes an article on all previous Bond Movies and their respective stunts.
- For the sword fight, film makers decreased the film speed to make it look as if the actors were moving faster than they actually were.
- The painting that gets slashed during the swordfight between Bond and Graves is a reproduction of Thomas Gainsborough's famous "Blue Boy" from 1770. The original "Blue Boy" hangs in the Huntington Library (San Marino, Calif.) The reproduction was hand-painted by Lyons Corner House Fine Art Reproductions in London.
- The fictional station for abandoned spies on the London Underground where Bond meets M, Vauxhall Cross, is a reference to the address of the real MI6 headquarters in London, located at 85 Vauxhall Cross (approximately five minutes' drive from where Bond enters the station). The tube station platform is not a real one. It was simply too difficult to transport all the necessary equipment down there, so production designer Peter Lamont built one on a soundstage.
- The route diagram on the station wall in the disused tube station where Q introduces Bond to the new Aston indicates that the station is on the Piccadilly line and that the next station is Hyde Park Corner followed by Knightsbridge etc. Reference to the current tube map suggests that this station is Green Park (the station before Hyde Park Corner). However there is a real disused station on the Piccadilly Line between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. It was called Down Street and was closed in the 1930s. It was used during the war as a temporary Cabinet War Rooms, and later by the Railway Executive as offices. Even today, much of the internal infrastructure is complete, but it could not be used in the way shown in the film because, although the station is closed, the tracks through it are still in normal daily use by Piccadilly line trains.
- Q says he believes the watch he gives Bond for the assignment is his twentieth. This is a reference to the fact that the film was the 20th James Bond movie in the EON Produced series.
CHILLING OUT IN ICELAND-
- Although a quarter of the film is set in Iceland, none of the main cast actually went there. Only the second unit and stunt crews did.
- The Ice Palace in the film was inspired by the real-life Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, Sweden. Producer Barbara Broccoli first saw a photo of it in a magazine while traveling on a plane and thought it would make a good set piece for a Bond movie. The actual location is 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Ice hotels or similar structures like an Ice Palace, Ice Museum, Snow Castle or Ice Castle have existed in Norway, Finland, Canada, Romania and Russia, but such a building has never existed in Iceland, where some of the ice palace environs were shot. Despite it's name, Iceland is not cold enough to support such a structure.
- Iceland had a noticeable increase of tourist interest in year following the film's premiere, mostly from people seeking to stay in an ice hotel such as shown in the film.
- The ice palace took approximately 6 months to construct.
- The scene where Gustav Graves first demonstrates Icarus to his party guests required the most amount of lights ever required in a British film, a 20,000 watt array which took a week to construct.
- Gustav Graves' diamond mine/giant greenhouse was partly filmed at the Eden Project in Cornwall and a recreation at Pinewood which housed 5000 plants. They had to be watered twice a day.
- The frozen lake in Iceland that is the location for some car chases, does not freeze very often naturally. This is due to its closeness to the sea and its high salt content. When the filmmakers had troubles getting the Icelandic lake to freeze properly, they considered filming the car chase scenes on ice in New Zealand. To rectify this situation the river that links the lake to the sea was dammed and within two days the entire lake was frozen to a depth of over 2 meters. Once they solved that problem, filming could take place in Iceland as planned.
- SFX Supervisor Chris Corbould ensured that no part of the real forest in Iceland was destroyed by explosions - the trees his team used were unsold Christmas trees.
- The name of the flying activity that James Bond performs to escape from the vehicle stranded on the iceberg cliff is known as kite-surfing.
- The idea of the car chase inside the Ice Palace was an idea conceived by director Lee Tamahori. He believed such a fantastic set should not be wasted and thought why not conduct a car chase through it.
VANISHING VANQUISHES AND OTHER VEHICLES-
- This is the first Bond film to feature an Aston Martin as the Bond car since The Living Daylights.
- When Q explains how the Vanquish works, he is explaining technology that the U.S Air Force is actually developing for use in a new "daylight" stealth aircraft. However, the "invisibility" capability is only useful at extreme distance (miles), and would not in any way be as good as depicted on the car in this film.
- Vehicles featured included a silver Aston Martin V12 Vanquish also an invisible car in the movie; a Russian Antonov An-124 airplane; Jinx's drives a red 2003 coral Ford Thunderbird in Iceland; 007's drives Raoul's brown & white Ford Fairlane in Cuba; Zao's green Jaguar XKR for car chases in Iceland; two Switchblade Gliders (aka PHASST - Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport); a Sunseeker 48-50 speedboat; an Ilyushin Il-76 airplane; Gustav Grave's Ice Dragster; a black Notar MD-600N helicopter for an escape from the Antonov; Osprey Hovercraft; and black and yellow Bombardier Ski-Doo MX ZREV snowmobiles.
- Only five cars in the entire movie do not belong to either Ford or Ford's Premier Automotive Group (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo). There are two Ferrari F355's, a Porsche 911, a Mercedes SL and a Lamborghini Diablo. All of these cars (except possibly the Merc) get damaged, destroyed, or dropped out of the back of a plane. It is also worth noting that none of the other manufacturers' cars are examples of the latest models, whereas Ford is using all of its latest or prototype models.
- Both the Aston Martin and the Jaguar were completely stripped of engine and running gear. These were replaced by the Ford V8, 4WD kit and 4spd Auto 'box from Ford's Explorer. All the Aston Martins used in the ice high speed chase had to be converted to four wheel drive to help them perform on ice.
- The green Jaguar driven by Zao in Iceland is not a production car, but only a prototype supposedly showcasing the next generation XKR. The design has now been changed, however, so the car in the film will never see production.
- The V12 engine in the Aston Martin Vanquish was switched with a small block Ford V8 to make room for machine guns etc. The 6-speed sequential transmission was also changed to a 3-speed auto transmission.
PROMOTIONAL NOTES-
- Until the release of Casino Royale in 2006, this was the highest-grossing James Bond film.
- According to the book "The Bond Legacy", it was decided to delay production of Die Another Day in order to have a 2002 release date, to coincide with both the 40th anniversary of the first James Bond film (Dr. No) and the 50th anniversary of the writing of the first Bond novel (Casino Royale).
- The first Bond movie to open on an even-numbered year (2002) since The Man with the Golden Gun.
- The first Bond movie to be released on a 2-DVD pack.
- Except for original Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan all attended the film's premiere, seeing as it was the series' 40th anniversary. Roger Moore actively voiced his displeasure with the film, citing the invisible car and the weak CGI as being a low for the series.
- After the release of this movie, Pierce Brosnan was approached by a man in a Dublin bar who asked to shake his hand. Brosnan complied and then cracked up when the man quipped,"That's the closest my hand will ever get to Halle Berry's arse".
- The Royal Charity World Premiere of Die Another Day was held on November 18, 2002 at London's Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England. The venue was transformed into an ice palace for the night. The Gala Charity Premiere Benefit was also the The Royal Annual Film Performance of 2002, the 56th and the first ever for a Bond movie. It was also the second to be resided over by Queen Elizabeth II who had attended the premiere thirty-five years earlier for You Only Live Twice. The Gala Charity Premiere Benefit was held in aid of the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF) of which the Queen is patron. A parallel premiere was also held on the same night at London's Leicester Square's Empire UCI Theatre.
- The date for the film's theatrical opening in the US, coincided with the 39th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A 1960 Playboy Magazine interview with Kennedy, in which he said he read the James Bond novels is credited for boosting Bond's popularity, leading to the making of the movie series.
- Trailers for Die Another Day were played at screenings of "Austin Powers in Goldmember" due to an out-of-court settlement among MGM, Danjaq and New Line. All promotional materials (including online trailers) bearing the movie's original title were withdrawn in late January 2002. MGM and Danjaq, which control the James Bond license, obtained a cease-and-desist order from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) arbitration panel on the grounds that New Line was attempting to trade on the James Bond franchise (specifically Goldfinger) without authorization. The matter went to arbitration and the film was known briefly as "The Third installment of Austin Powers" until the matter was settled on 11 April 2002. MGM agreed that New Line could use the original "Goldmember" title on condition that it had approval of any future titles that parodied existing Bond titles.
- Although it ranked fifth in the box office on its opening weekend in South Korea, there was protest at the movie's depiction of Americans giving orders to the South Korean military. Yet another reason why the film didn't go down well with the South Koreans was a lovemaking scene set close to a statue of Buddha.
The film dropped out of the top ten by its second week and one theater in Seoul pulled it from the screens in response to the protests. Some smaller theaters that usually get second-run movies refused to pick it up.
- The literal translations of some of this film's foreign language titles include "Death Can Wait" (Finland and Italy); "A New Day To Die" (Brazil), "You Die in Another Day" (Portugal); "Another Day To Die" (Argentina, Peru & Venezuela); "Death Comes Tomorrow" (Poland); "Don't Die Today" (Czech Republic) and "Die, But Not Today" (Russia).
- 20 companies paid $70 million to have their products featured in the film, a record at the time.
- The movie set a new record for merchandising, with $120 million worth of deals with 24 various companies for product placement and/or tie-ins. These included vehicles Aston Martin Vanquish, Jaguar XKR convertible, 2003 James Bond Edition Ford Thunderbird and Ski-Doo snowmobile; drinks Bollinger champagne, Finlandia vodka, Heineken beer, 7 Up, and Ty Nant curvy PET bottles; Revlon cosmetics 007 Color Collection; Brioni suit tailoring; Electronic Arts video game 007: Nightfire; British Airways and Samsonite luggage; Mattel 007 Barbie Collector's Edition set; Omega Seamaster Swatch watches; Phillips Electronics Philishave Sensotec and Norelco Spectra shavers; Kodak cameras; Vodaphone and Sony Ericsson mobile phones; VISA credit cards; Energizer batteries; Phillips heart rate monitor; Sony security systems, TV cameras and laptop PCs; and retail outlets Circuit City and Best Buy.
- Due to Philips products being known as Norelco in the USA, the Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care (DAP) unit of Philips provide Bond shaving with a Philishave Sensotec shaver in non-USA prints and a Norelco Spectra shaver for the USA.
- Less than a month after the film's release, UK fencing clubs saw an increase in the number of people interested in taking up the sport.
MUSIC AND GAMING NOTES-
- After the David Arnold/Garbage theme for the prior film failed to chart in the United States, MGM/UA sought out and obtained the services of Madonna, who according to then executive vice president of MGM Music Anita Camarata "had an extraordinary track record of success" in producing songs for movie use, most recently a 1999 Grammy for U.S top 20 hit "Beautiful Stranger" from the Austin Powers film "The Spy Who Shagged Me". Some sources suggested that between her song, acting cameo, video, and other rights, the studio may have paid upwards of 1 million dollars for her participation. The result though appeared to have worked out for all involved, as her title song reached #8 on the U.S charts, and to #3 on the UK charts, making it the most successful Bond theme since Duran Duran's 1985 "A View To A Kill". MGM failed to get the song nominated for the Oscar Best Song Category, but did manage to get it nominated for a Golden Globe and 2 Grammys. Conversely, the song also earned a Razzie nomination for Worst Song, Madonna won the Razzie Worst Supporting Actress award for her appearance, and the vast majority of newspaper and music magazine critics had little good to say about her effort.
- Arnold and lyricist Don Black had begun very early work on their planned title song called "I Will Return", but when the early decision to go with Madonna was made, they shelved the unfinished song. Madonna also declined to collaborate with Arnold on her song. Arnold had completed two thirds of the score before the finished product was made available for him to listen to, and after hearing it, he likewise declined to use any of it in his soundtrack. Allegedly, the melody of "I Will Return" can be heard somewhere in one of Arnold's themes, but no one to date has identified where.
- The second signature James Bond theme, the 007 theme composed by John Barry had not been heard since Moonraker until this movie. An electronic version of the 007 Theme was re-worked by composer David Arnold and was heard during the car chase on ice sequence.
- One of the few Bond films to openly use alternate source music - in this case, The Clash's "London Calling". The previous film to do this was A View to a Kill which utilized The Beach Boys' "California Girls"
- Brosnan's final appearance as Bond with his voice and likeness is in the Bond video-game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing.
- A video game tie-in was planned but never made. However, a "Die Another Day" mission is included in the later James Bond video-game 007 Legends first published a decade after the movie.
FLEMING AND OTHER REFERENCES-
- When confronting Bond, Miranda Frost says, "I know all about you, 007. It's sex for dinner and death for breakfast." The line "Death for Breakfast" is the title of Chapter 11 in the Ian Fleming novel "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Other novel references: the cigarette poster of a sailor seen behind John Cleese is referenced in "Thunderball", the basic plot is from "Moonraker" and the sheet of protective glass between Bond and M references "The Man With The Golden Gun".
- There is a James Bond novel by Kingsley Amis, written (under the pseudonym Robert Markham) shortly after Ian Fleming's death, entitled "Colonel Sun". It was Amis's only Bond novel. The full name of Colonel Moon is Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, making the connection to Amis' novel even more explicit.
- Lead villain Toby Stephens has played James Bond in three BBC Radio adaptations of Ian Fleming Bond novels: Dr. No (2008, opposite David Suchet as Dr. No), Goldfinger (2010, opposite Sir Ian McKellen as Goldfinger and Rosamund Pike as Pussy Galore) and From Russia with Love (2012).
- This is the third Bond movie with the word "Die" in it. The other two films are Live and Let Die and Tomorrow Never Dies.
- The R1 DVD release commentary reveals that the movie was inspired by the original Ian Fleming novel "Moonraker", as the previous adaptation of Moonraker left out many elements from the book. The only element of the novel to survive to the end, after a fashion, was the duel between Bond and Graves in a club called Blades. In the original novel, Bond and villain Drax have a different sort of duel in Blades - a game of cards. This is the first Bond film since Licence to Kill to take inspiration from a Fleming novel. The character of Miranda Frost was originally named Gala Brand. This was the name of the Bond girl in Fleming's novel "Moonraker". Other than the duel between Drax and Bond surviving into "Die Another Day" from Moonraker are: the theme of the villain having plastic surgery to conceal his real identity (in the novel, a grenade exploded in Drax's face) and the villain posing as a patriot by creating a space device claiming to help the government when it is actually a weapon.
CAMEOS-
Madonna: As Verity, the fencing instructor, making this the first Bond film to feature a cameo by the performer who sings the theme song. Her uncredited cameo was the final scene shot during principal photography. When James Bond introduces himself to Gustav before they fight, Madonna was originally to introduce him with the catchphrase, "Bond. James Bond." However, it was later decided that fans would prefer the line coming from Pierce Brosnan.
Michael G. Wilson: General Chandler. This is Wilson's first credited cameo performance in a Bond film. He can also be seen in an uncredited cameo as a man leaning against a car in Cuba. Wilson has made an uncredited cameo in every EON Productions Bond movie since The Spy Who Loved Me as well as an early one in Goldfinger. His first ever screen credit for acting though was not for this movie but for All the Way Home.
Deborah Moore: The daughter of former James Bond actor Roger Moore makes a brief appearance in the film as an Air Hostess on the British Airways flight.
Oliver Skeete: The West Indian born show-jumper as a Concierge at the Blades Fencing Club.
FILM BY FILM 40TH ANNIVERSARY NODS-
In honor of the franchise's 40th anniversary, there are references to each of the previous 19 Bond films-
DR.NO-
1. Jinx (Halle Berry) walking out of the sea in a bikini, wearing a white belt and a diving knife.
2. The synthesizer sounds from the opening credits play when Bond escapes the MI6 hospital.
3. The gun that Jinx has to surrender to Miranda on board the plane is a Beretta Cheetah. In "Dr. No", the Armorer remarks to 007 that the Beretta made a good woman's pistol.
4. During the "Kiss Of Life" scene, David Arnold's film score includes samples of the same electronic sounds heard in the gun barrel sequence of "Dr. No."
5. In that film, Bond asks if the government house sent him a car; he uses the name "Universal Exports" in order to be patched through. In this movie, Bond claims he is from Universal Exports asking about the Delectados (cigars) in order to gain access to the contact in Cuba.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE-
1. The shoe with the poison-tipped blade is seen in Q's station laboratory.
2. There is a knife concealed in a briefcase.
3. In the ice palace sequence, there is a game board (the chess match).
4. Enemy spies are behind a one-way mirror in a hotel room with cameras.
5. Graves' engineer is seen holding the Icarus control and petting it like it is a cat.
6. When they first meet, Jinx tells James her name, and adds, "My friends call me Jinx." Bond replies, "Mine call me James Bond." In "From Russia with Love", Tatiana Romanova introduces herself and adds, "My friends call me Tania," and Bond gives the same reply.
GOLDFINGER-
1. Jinx is nearly cut with a laser in Mr. Kil's laboratory. The rest of the fight scene is also a tribute.
2. Bond once again drives a gadget-laden Aston Martin, specifically with a passenger ejector seat.
3. Original "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn) tells James Bond (Sean Connery) that he never jokes about his work while introducing the ejection seat feature of the "first" Aston Martin. His successor here (John Cleese) also reminds James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) that "like his predecessor" never jokes about his work while introducing the invisibility feature of the "newest" Aston Martin.
4. The scene where Bond and Graves fence for money, only to see Bond up the stakes for one of Graves' diamonds, is suggestive of the golf match between Bond and Auric Goldfinger. The golf match had originally been for money, until Bond throws down a gold brick to "up the stakes".
5. Bond is threatened with death in a depressurizing plane.
6. Bond and Jinx receive electric shocks from a villain - Oddjob was killed by electrocution.
7. In the PTS, Bond removes a wetsuit to reveal ordinary clothes underneath.
THUNDERBALL-
1. The jet-pack in Q's workshop.
2. Bond uses a pen-like underwater breathing system.
3. After Bond comes through the window of the medical facility in Cuba, he grabs a few grapes as he did before making his exit from a room in the medical center in "Thunderball".
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE-
1. Jinx descends from the ceiling of the fake diamond mine on a rope system similar to that of the ninjas in the volcano crater lair.
2. The name of the ship Bond is on: the HMS Tenby.
3. The use of Japanese swords in the films.
4. Bond faking his death.
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE-
1. "OHMSS" written on a CD on Moneypenny's desk as she types a report at the end of the film.
2. Bond escapes from another huge avalanche.
3. During the ice field car chase, the score references the opening to this movie's theme.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER-
1. While fencing with Bond, Graves says, "Well, diamonds are for everyone."
2. Much of the plot involves diamonds and smuggling them. A large satellite is uncovered in space and has the power to harness the sun's rays and project them as a fine laser to destroy any given target. The Icarus laser is also seen opening in a similar manner as the Dr. Metz creation Blofeld uses.
3. In the "High Life" magazine article for Gustav Graves' diamond company, the caption at the bottom says, "Diamonds are forever, but life isn't"
4. A villain changes his appearance.
5. One character calls another "Bitch!" in a single line - this was, famously, the first strong curse word used in a Bond film.
LIVE AND LET DIE-
1. The laser causes row upon row of explosions across a vegetated area, in this case detonating thousands of land mines, and is reminiscent of the extermination of Kananga's poppy fields.
2. Bond uses a revolver like he used on the island of St. Monique (in lieu of his traditional Walther-made pistol).
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN-
1. The corridors in the secret area of the Gene Technology department in the Cuban hospital contain rotating mirrors and objects, much like Scaramanga's Fun Palace.
2. The field office of MI6 is on a ship in the Hong Kong harbor.
3. Bond retrieves a diamond from Jinx's navel (bullet in the belly-dancer's navel).
4. There is a solar-powered superweapon.
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME-
1. Graves uses a Union Jack parachute.
2. The Ice Palace resembles in some ways Stromberg's Atlantis hideout.
3. When Madonna's character is introduced, a few bars of "Nobody Does it Better" is heard.
MOONRAKER-
1. Moon's hovercraft falls down by a large waterfall in a manner similar to Jaws' boat going over the Iguaçu Falls.
2. Bond surfaces in a bubbling pool of water surrounded by much interior vegetation, similar to the scene with the water python in Drax's headquarters.
3. Both movies have characters named Chang.
4. Bond's sword fight with Graves is much like the fight with Chang in the glass factory.
5. Bond and a villain fight over a parachute.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY-
1. The scene as Bond hangs onto the ice cliff (before it collapses) resembles the climax near the monastery, especially as the rope slips and Bond drops some distance further down the cliff, although this time it was all performed from a vehicle.
2. The yellow diving helmet in Q's lab.
OCTOPUSSY-
1. Both the crocodile submarine and the AcroStar MiniJet are visible in the background in Q's station laboratory.
2. Upping the stakes on a bet with the villain (see also Goldfinger).
3. Jinx's backward CGI fall to escape echoes Magda's exit from Bond's suite.
4. Q's coil of "magic rope" being kept on the lowest shelf in the Q lab, along with the five-pointed knife.
A VIEW TO A KILL-
1. Bond is suspended over a cliff on the wire and hook much like the Russian guard in the Siberian chase that Bond catches.
2. Bond once again uses a rather unorthodox method of skiing, this time the hatch from the back of the car.
3. Graves watches over the destruction that he wreaks from the front windows of his aircraft in the same way that Zorin watched Silicon Valley from his aircraft before it flooded.
4. The electronic snooper is in Q's lab.
5. Bond's cover is blown by his picture being taken and run through a facial recognition program.
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS-
1. Bond and Jinx exit the rear cargo hold of the plane via car.
2. Bond's Aston Martin had retractable spikes in the tires controlled by a switch labeled traction.
3. When Bond is driving Graves' rocket car, he drives through a patch of trees and bits are sheared off, just as the skis on the Aston Martin are removed by trees in The Living Daylights.
LICENCE TO KILL-
1.The plot idea of Bond going renegade, although this time it is less through choice. M rescinds Bond's licence to kill.
2. Bond uses a rifle as a sniper.
3. When Bond disarms the Chinese "masseuse", she has her weapon concealed in exactly the same fashion as Pam Bouvier.
4. A projectile misses Bond's car when it passes underneath.
5. The hanging yellow laser controller in Kil's lab is the same one that operates the trap door over the shark tank in Krest's warehouse.
6. Bond puts the Alvarez Clinic ticket inside his right jacket pocket, and later pulls it out of the left one. In "Licence to Kill", Bond puts his airplane ticket first into his inner left jacket pocket, only to inexplicably remove it later on from his inner right jacket pocket.
GOLDENEYE-
1. Bond's watch contains a laser, which he uses to cut through a section of ice, reminiscent of his escape from the train by cutting through the floor.
2. Jinx sets the timer for the bomb at the gene therapy lab in Cuba to three minutes, the same three minutes that Bond set the timers for in the chemical weapons lab and later Trevelyan set the timers for on the bullet train.
3. Bond is betrayed by a fellow agent.
4. Zao is killed by a falling ice chandelier, reminiscent of Trevelyan's death in GoldenEye.
5. Bond says to Jinx that "the cold must have kept you alive" - In "Goldeneye" Bond tells Natalya Simonova that being cold is what keeps him alive.
6. The opening title sequences feature a gold eye that opens.
7. Jinx makes a dive from the DNA compound wall into the sea which is very similar to Bond's dive from the dam in "GoldenEye".
8. The US command bunker in South Korea has computer monitors suspended from the ceiling, looking very similar to the monitors suspended from the ceiling in the Severnaya control room in "GoldenEye".
TOMORROW NEVER DIES-
1. Jinx throws a knife straight into a guard's throat just as he comes through a door. This is similar to a scene on the Stealth Ship where Wai-Lin sticks a Shuriken throwing star into a guard's throat just as he finds her (this scene is deleted from the 12-rated "Tomorrow Never Dies" UK releases on VHS and DVD).
2. Remote control car.
3. Bond escapes by being tethered and running down a wall similar to Wai-Lin's escape.
4. There is a fake headline on Moneypenny's computer.
5. In the pre-credits sequence in Korea, Bond jumps onto a hovercraft and spins round firing missiles, much like the pre-credits sequence of "Tomorrow Never Dies" where Bond spins a military jet and uses its guns and missiles.
6. Another Chinese character called Chang.
7. The footage showing a ship launching the anti-satellite missile, is exactly the same footage used in the opening scene of TND, where the ship launches a cruise missile against the terrorist camp.
8. Bond's car "speaks" with the same voice in both films.
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH-
1. Bond dives over Graves as they fence to do a forward roll as he lands, in a manner similar to the shoot-out between Renard's men and himself where he dives through a closing door and rolls the other side.
2. As Bond dives to safety from Moon's flamethrower on the hovercraft, the shot of his dive from in front is almost identical to another scene where Bond is diving from an exploding bomb with Christmas.
3. The use of a geodesic dome.
4. Bond's training program is essentially the same as the second level of the The World Is Not Enough video game.
5. Some of the incidental music (minus of course the James Bond Theme, which is used in every film) is re-used in this film, notably at the end as Bond beds Jinx.
6. The cars Zao owns are all updated models of former Bond cars.