Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Director: Roger Spottiswoode
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”
★★☆☆☆
The eighteenth James Bond film, and the second of four Bond pictures to star Pierce Brosnan, Tomorrow Never Dies is the first Bond film to be made after the death of famous Bond producer, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli in 1996. The film marks a passing of the torch as a new generation, Cubby Broccoli’s daughter Barbara Broccoli, took the reins of Eon. However, this was a rushed, troubled production behind-the-scenes. Amusingly, Tomorrow Never Dies was the only one of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond films not to open at number one at the box office (it was released the same day as James Cameron’s Titanic). Like many Bond films, Tomorrow Never Dies is fairly underwhelming as a standard, box-checking action film. At least its title is a nice reference to the Beatles song “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
The film opens with James Bond investigating a terrorist arms deal along the Russian border when the British Royal Navy decides it can wait no longer. They launch missiles at the site which leads M (played by Judi Dench) to abort Bond’s the mission. But before he can leave, Bond realizes there are nuclear weapons attached to a jet at the site. He quickly commandeers the jet after knocking unconscious its passenger and flies away seconds before the missiles hit the site and ignite a massive nuclear holocaust. However, Bond is chased by an enemy jet, and in one of the most ludicrous Bond stunts ever, he covertly flies below the enemy jet and Bond ejects his awakening enemy passenger from his jet up into the passenger seat of the enemy jet now above him.
We then turn to Eliot Carver a media mogul with plans to cause international chaos (perhaps modeled on Steve Jobs or Rupert Murdoch, played by Jonathan Pryce). Using a cyber-hacker, Carver orchestrates a British frigate to be steered off course in the South China Sea where Carver’s stealth ship attacks the frigate and also shoots down a Chinese plane, making it seem as if Britain has started a war with China. Britain, predictably, decides to send in forces to recover their frigate. Meanwhile, M and British intelligence send Bond to investigate Carver because his empire has released news of the attack hours before MI6 even knew about it. Bond travels to Hamburg where Carver is unveiling his products in a live broadcast, and he meets Carver’s wife, Paris, an old girlfriend of Bond’s (played by Teri Hatcher). Bond is taken and attacked by Carver’s men, but he escapes and cuts the power for Carver’s broadcast. Bond and Paris reconcile, but upon discovering the history between Bond and Paris, Carver orders them both killed. Bond infiltrates Carver’s headquarters and recovers Carver’s encoder device, but Paris is killed. The device has been tampered with so Bond goes to China to investigate the wreck of the frigate, where he overlaps with Wai Lin, a Chinese agent on the case as well (played by Michelle Yeoh). Together, they discover a missing missile from the sunken ship, and they also discover that Carver’s plan is to ignite a war between Britain and China, and destroy the Chinese government, in order to gain exclusive broadcasting rights in China. But they are captured aboard Carver’s ship, and Bond uses his watch to detonate explosives that then allows the Chinese and British governments to gain visibility on the stealth ship, and Bond kills Carver with a massive drill (in another ridiculously absurd scene of escape). In the end, Bond and Wai Lin flee the stealth ship.
Tomorrow Never Dies is another mostly forgettable Bond film, filled with ridiculous stunts, deus ex machina gadgets, and truly awful one-liners. Again, the plot for this film is complex and difficult –for example, is there truly no other way for a media mogul like Eliot Carver to gain exclusive broadcasting rights in China other than to launch a massive stealth war? Unfortunately, there are better Bond films than Tomorrow Never Dies and it makes sense that the production was marred from the start with pressures to quickly release a new Bond film after the success of Goldeneye, and also the cast and crew apparently faced constant in-fighting with director Roger Spottiswoode among other interpersonal troubles. This film is for only the true Bond completionists.
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- James Bond actor: Pierce Brosnan
- Director: Roger Spottiswoode
- Producers: Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
- Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein
- Cinematography: Robert Elswit
- Editors: Michel Arcand and Dominique Fortin
- Gun Barrel Sequence: performed by Pierce Brosnan
- Villain(s): Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), Richard Stamper, Carver’s henchman (Götz Otto), Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay), Dr. Kaufman, a professional assassin used by Elliot Carver (Vincent Schiavelli)
- Bond Girl(s): Paris Carver, a former girlfriend of Bond who is now Carver’s trophy wife (Teri Hatcher)
- MI6: M (Judi Dench), Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond), Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon)
- Bond Gadgets: Encoder, Lighter Bomb, Stealth Boat, Ericsson JB988, Bracelet Piton
- Allies: Wai Lin, a Chinese agent (Michelle Yeoh), Jack Wade, Bond’s CIA liaison (Joe Don Baker)
- Score: David Arnold
- Theme Song: “Tomorrow Never Dies” by Sheryl Crow
- Locales: the Russian border, the South China Sea, Hamburg, Germany, Okinawa, Saigon, Beijing, England