Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Roger Spottiswoode
The Plot
Someone is trying to sell news by creating them. Who else could it be but a media magnate, with the power and resources of small country behind him - hey, stealth ship, anyone? I mean, what audacity - to spark a war between the Brits and the Chinese (set prior to the 1997 Hong Kong handover). And it does make sense - consolidating and restricting the flow of information (the Internet was still foreign to the masses then) can make you a god. Utterly delicious.
Grade: A
"I'm James Hong, and this is my associate, Miss Kong."
Locales
Russia, Hamburg, Vietnam, South China Sea
Grade: B+
The Man
Pierce Brosnan
Brosnan fully settles into the Bond role, smoothly making the character his own as well keeping up with the mannerisms that it called for. He even renews his verbal jousting with Ms Moneypenny. The world is in good hands.
Grade: A
The Villain(s)
Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) - Hello, Mr. Robert Maxwell! Hello, Mr. Ted Turner! Hello, Mr. Rupert Murdoch! Hello, Mr. Roger Ailes! For those not in the know, those names are giants who built media empires. These personalities, plus a huge does of megalomania, have melded into the Bond villain of the piece. Carver, who heads the slyly-named CMGN (Carver Media Group Network), aims to use the powers of the Fourth Estate, technology and plain old skullduggery to achieve global domination of information. I mean, they were Fox News before we even hated Fox News. And as usual with these 'geniuses', their egos become their downfall. Even M makes a sly analogy to Maxwell, who perished at sea in 1991. Pryce, true to his strong theater background, effortlessly plays Carver like a slightly demented child excited with his toys and the malicious things he could do with them.
"And the heat is on in Saigon ... wait, am I in Vietnam right now?"
Mr. Stamper (Götz Otto) - German colossus who eerily looks like Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love. Stamper is the henchman who's assigned to terminate Bond but keeps letting the peons do the dirty work. Never gets to torture Bond like he promised, especially after Bond kills his assassin mentor. At the least he didn't endure a slow death, buying it in the the destruction of Carver's stealth ship.
Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) - Gupta is Carver's techno-wizard, doing everything from programming nuclear warheads, selling arms to terrorists and eavesdropping on his employer's wife. Too bad he makes the wrong choice in bosses, as Carver nonchalantly shoots him when Bond takes him hostage. Trivia note: Jay is a noted magician, and served as consultant for two recent magic-themed films, The Illusionist and The Prestige.
Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli) - Self-styled master of torture and assassination, and mentor to Stamper. Last contract gets him killed. There's even a slightly funny exchange between him and Bond as he holds off shooting him because Stamper called and needed the information to open Bond's car - the assassin gets slightly embarrassed with this development.
Grade: A-
The Girl(s)
Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) - It's about time we had Asian women kick ass along with Bond (the two bitches from You Only Live Twice don't count)! Yeoh more than acquits herself with the stuntwork, and her character's written intelligently - she even finds the sunken British frigate even without Bond's intel or help.
Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher) - Fresh off Lois and Clark, Hatcher snares a plum role (even if she was alive barely 24 hours in film time) as Elliot Carver's wife, and an ex-girlfriend of Bond. If it didn't get her killed the first time around, it sure did this time.
To Botox or not to Botox ... that is the question!
Trivia note: Italian screen goddess Monica Belucci also tested for the part - imagine that!?
Prof. Inga Bergstrom (Cecilie Thomsen) - Danish language professor at Oxford, tutor to James Bond at odd hours. Prime candidate for appearing at sci-fi/fantasy conventions in later years for achievement as a (part-time) Bond girl. That and having been Bryan Adams' girlfriend.
P.R. Lady (Daphne Deckers) - Carver's publicist gets fired on the spot when the mogul gets cut in midst of his worldwide network broadcast debut. Another girl who would parlay her appearance for potential future earnings. Beaten out of the Paris role by Hatcher. At least already has 1996 Wimbledon champ Richard Krajicek for a husband.
Grade: A
Gadgets
The best gadget, perhaps even with the rest of the Bond arsenal, is the multitool that an Ericsson cell phone can be - it functions as a lock pick, a fingerprint scanner and a stun gun. But hold on - it can even drive Bond's new BMW (the franchise ditched the Aston Martins in the last film and replaced it with BMWs)! The new 750iL earns its price tag by saving Bond with its usual tricked-out enhancements like rocket launchers, spikes, re-inflatable tires, hood wirecutter, tear gas dispensers and electrified protection. Q gave him only one major gadget in this film and he makes do.
Early in the film, he also uses a lighter that doubled as a grenade.
Wai Lin also has her own portfolio, like a wrist piton that allows her to scale down walls. Bond also takes his pick from her stash with a new Walther P99 and an Omega watch that also functions as a bomb detonator. Who wants to bet the Brits armed the Chinese with that?
Grade: A-
Bond Moments
Clear winners include showing up Q with his dexterity to use the touchpad on his cellphone to drive the BMW remotely ("oh, grow up, 007!") and using the actual gadget under battlefield conditions - by maneuvering out of a carpark teeming with Carver goons. Bond even shows a moment of schoolboy-ish glee as he drives the car remotely out of the building to crash into an Avis office on the opposite side of the building.
Rivaling that would the helicopter-motorcycle chase through the streets of a Vietnam city (actually Bangkok). After escaping from the Carver building, Bond and Lin decide to take a BMW R1200 (for the first time, product placement money covered the whole $110M budget - and the final worldwide take was a little more than thrice that) and then gets chased by jeeps and a chopper. Director Spottiswoode knew it would be hard to beat the tank scene in GoldenEye, so he settled with a lot of clever stunts with the bike on crowded streets that made the heroes clever with on-the-fly adjustments, and in the process, also produced a noteworthy action sequence.
"There must be a better way to dry your hair!"
There was also the moment in the car with Bond, M and Moneypenny, but I'll leave that in the One-Liners section.
Of course, we always have the usual thrillseeker opener when Bond crashes a terrorist tupperware party (ok, not by choice, the trigger-happy Brits just sent a missile to wipe out the fledgling Al-Qaedas, not knowing that there was a jet with nukes in the same party), creates havoc and commandeers a plane out of there. Oh, did I mention that he got chased by another fighter plane and another bad guy was choking him in the back seat?
And oh, look, there's longtime Bond screenwriter and current producer Michael G. Wilson!
Grade: A-
One Liners
Bond: You were pretty good with that hook.
Wai-Lin: Thanks. It comes from growing up in a rough neighborhood. You were pretty good on the bike.
Bond: Thank you. It comes from not growing up at all.
Admiral Roebuck: With all due respect, M, I think you don't have the balls for this job.
M: Maybe. But the advantage is, I don't have to think with them all the time.
[in Danish]
Inga: I am pleased with your progress, Mr. Bond
Bond: I've always enjoyed studying a new tongue, Professor.
all in a day's work
Q: Will you need collision coverage?
Bond: Yes.
Q: Fire?
Bond: Probably.
Q: Property destruction?
Bond: Definitely.
Q: Personal Injury?
Bond: I hope not, but accidents do happen.
Q: They frequently do with you.
Bond: Well, that takes care of the normal wear-and-tear. Is there any other protection I need?
Q: Only from me, 007, unless you bring that car back in pristine order.
Bond: [in Danish, to Moneypenny] Goodbye, my sweet.
Moneypenny: You always were a cunning linguist, James. [hangs up, then M walks up from behind her]
Moneypenny: Don't ask.
M: Don't tell.
Bond: It won't look like a suicide if you shoot me from over there.
Dr. Kaufman: I am a professor of forensic medicine. Believe me, Mr. Bond, I could shoot you from Stuttgart und still create ze proper effect.
[Bond's video transmission shows Gupta holding a missing American GPS encoding device]
M: I wonder with what'll the CIA be more upset - that they lost it, or that we found it?
Bond: [after throwing a baddie into a printing press] They'll print anything these days.
usually Bond gets it in the kisser
M: Use your relationship with Mrs Carver if necessary.
Bond: I doubt if she'd remember me.
M: Remind her ... then pump her for information.
Moneypenny: You'll just have to decide how much pumping is needed, James.
now that's the Moneypenny we know!
Grade: A
Overall
Originally titled Tomorrow Never Lies (a jab at the errant ways of the Press), a typo convinced producers that it was a better title (which bears little connection to the story). This was the first Bond film which had nothing to do with any Fleming elements but still catered to the legions of fans who wanted their action shaken and stirred. The product placement was a bit hard to ignore, but it paid the bills (thus earning them a tidy little sum). Longtime producer Cubby Broccoli died after the release of GoldenEye, and this was dedicated in his memory. And his beloved franchise still had legs, thanks to Brosnan's cross-strata appeal and Spottiswoode's inventive directing.
Grade: A-
"i can't believe i lost Lance Armstrong to Matt McConaughey!"
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