Tomorrow Never Dies

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Tomorrow Never Dies movie poster
Tomorrow Never Dies
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Writer: Bruce Feirstein
Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Music: David Arnold
Composer: Sheryl Crow
Mitchell Froom
Performer: Sheryl Crow
Distributor: United Artists
Released: 1997
Runtime: 119 min.
Preceded by: GoldenEye
Followed by: The World Is Not Enough
Budget: $110,000,000
Worldgross: $346,600,000
Admissions: 75.5 million


Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth James Bond film made by EON Productions, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was released in 1997, by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and was also the first Bond film made after the death of veteran producer Albert R. Broccoli. The film is dedicated to his memory, and beginning with this production and in each subsequent Bond film, the first credit reads: "Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions Ltd. presents..."

Plot summary

The film begins at a terrorist arms bazaar somewhere on the Russian border. MI6 has sent 007 into the field to survey trades and purchases by the terrorists. One terrorist identified, Henry Gupta, has purchased an American GPS encoder. Upon viewing the evidence of these transactions taking place Admiral Roebuck overrules M's insistence of further examination of the situation and orders a missile strike upon the position, however, it is later discovered that the terrorists have a Soviet nuclear torpedo setup on a plane which threatens a disastrous radioactive contamination of the area. Bond, using diversionary tactics, steals the plane with the torpedo and escapes before the missile hit, as does Gupta with the GPS encoder.

The encoder is later used by evil media mogul Elliot Carver, as an attempt to start a war between the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom as an exclusive marketing device to launch his new worldwide television network. The encoder is used to send a British frigate, the HMS Devonshire, off course in the South China sea where Carver's own stealth ship, based on a Navy concept ship, the USS Sea Shadow, sinks it while also shooting down a Chinese fighter plane sent out to investigate the stray warship. When the recovered bodies of the sunken frigate's crew are found to have been killed using Chinese ammunition, a Royal Navy task force is sent to the region.

As tensions between the two countries mount, Bond is sent by M to investigate Carver after MI6 identifies a spurious signal sent from one of Carver's communications satellites at the time the warship was sunk. During the investigation, Bond seduces Carver's wife, his old flame Paris Carver, as a result of which her husband orders her death. Meanwhile, Bond is both rivalled and assisted in his mission by the Chinese secret agent Wai Lin. They work together in order to prevent Elliot Carver from starting the war between the two conflicting nations. The finale includes the Chinese and British fleets approaching to attack each other, but the two agents board Carver's stealth ship and plant an explosive on it, in order to highlight it on the radars of the two fleets. The fleets realise they have been played off against each other in this conflict by Carver and attack his stealth ship. Wai Lin and James Bond manage to escape the vessel as it is destroyed. Carver dies by the very drill he used to sink the H.M.S. Devonshire at the beginning of the film.

Cast & characters

File:TNDVillainElliotCarver.jpg
Villain:Elliot Carver
File:Stamper1.jpg
Stamper

The Women of Tomorrow Never Dies

Picture Name Actress
100px Wai Lin Michelle Yeoh Wai Lin is the lead Bond girl of Tomorrow Never Dies. An agent from the Chinese People's External Security Force, Wai Lin was sent to investigate Elliot Carver's role in trying to start a war between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China. Along the way she met Bond, and like Anya Amasova and Holly Goodhead before her, Lin does not fully trust Bond. After the two joined forces and stopped Carver, Lin, like her predecessors, gave in to Bond and remained undercover a bit longer.
100px Paris Carver Teri Hatcher Paris Carver is the wife of Elliott Carver, and the obligatory sacrificial lamb in Tomorrow Never Dies. She previous had a romantic relationship with Bond (like all former girlfriends, i.e. Mary Goodnight, Pola Ivanova, unkown). Paris was emotionally torn between loyalty to husband and her love for James Bond. In the end, she gave Bond the information he needed, thus assuring her death.
100px Professor Inga Bergstrom Cecilie Thomsen Professor Inga Bergstrom is the pre-mission Bond girl of the movie, seen engaged in a passionate embrace with 007 when Moneypenny called. Bergstrom is supposed to be a language professor and to her delight, Bond turns out to be quite a "cunning linguist".

Crew

Soundtrack

File:007TNDsoundtrack.jpg
Cover of the Tomorrow Never Dies soundtrack extension

David Arnold composed the score of Tomorrow Never Dies, his first full Bond soundtrack. Arnold came to the producer's attention due to his successful cover interpretations in Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project — which featured major artists performing classic James Bond title songs. Sheryl Crow sings the main theme, "Tomorrow Never Dies", and the end titles feature k.d. lang singing "Surrender," a bold, classic-style James Bond theme song. Both songs have the phrase "tomorrow never dies", making this the only film with two, legitimate theme songs. Arnold originally proposed "Surrender" as the main theme to be played during the title credits, but this was changed at the last minute in favour of Crow's theme.

The score itself follows John Barry's classical style in both composition and orchestration, together with modern electronic rhythms present in most cues. In addition, themes from "Surrender" appear in various places throughout the score, mainly in the action cues, but it can also be heard in the dramatic "All In A Day's Work" track.

Original Track listing

  1. "Tomorrow Never Dies" — Sheryl Crow
  2. "White Knight"
  3. "Sinking of the Devonshire"
  4. "Company Car"
  5. "Station Break"
  6. "Paris and Bond"
  7. "Last Goodbye"
  8. "Hamburg Break In"
  9. "Hamburg Break Out"
  10. "Doctor Kaufman"
  11. "*-3-* Send"
  12. "Underwater Discovery"
  13. "Backseat Driver" — feat. Propellerheads
  14. "Surrender" — K.D. Lang
  15. "James Bond Theme" — Moby

A 1999 release removed the theme songs, Moby's Bond theme remix and the "Station Break" track, and had additional music, as well as an interview with David Arnold.

1999 Track Listing

  1. "White Knight"
  2. "Sinking of the Devonshire"
  3. "Company Car"
  4. "Paris and Bond"
  5. "Last Goodbye"
  6. "Hamburg Break In"
  7. "Hamburg Break Out"
  8. "Doctor Kaufman"
  9. "*-3-* Send"
  10. "Backseat Driver" — feat. Propellerheads
  11. "Underwater Discovery"
  12. "Helicopter Ride"
  13. "Bike Chase"
  14. "Bike Shop Fight"
  15. "Kowloon Bay"
  16. "Boarding the Stealth"
  17. "A Tricky Spot for 007"
  18. "All in a Day's Work"
  19. "Exclusive David Arnold Interview"

Vehicles & gadgets

List of James Bond gadgets

  • Aero L-39 Albatros
  • BMW R1200 motorcycle — Stolen in Saigon, Vietnam, for a chase, ridden by both James Bond and Wai Lin.
  • BMW 750i — Used in Germany, the car has a security system allowing access to no-one, without it first being disarmed via the mobile telephone; the glove box security system is fingerprint-controlled. Armament includes sunroof rockets, deployable caltrops (out of rear bumper), re-inflatable tyres, and a wire-cutter hidden under the BMW logo on the hood. The car may be remotely operated via Bond's mobile phone.
  • Ericsson JB988 mobile telephone — Has several functions: a stun gun, a fingerprint scanner, an electronic lockpick, and a remote-control for the BMW 750i, with a small LCD screen for seeing the roadway when operating remotely.
  • Omega scuba diver's wristwatch — Taken from a Chinese safehouse, used to remotely break a glass jar holding a hand grenade.
  • Walther P99 — Taken from the same Chinese safehouse, Bond replaces his trademark Walther PPK with the Walther P99. Since Tomorrow Never Dies Bond has used the Walther P99 in every subsequent film.
  • Gerber Mark 1 — A boot knife that Bond wears on his upper left chest as a backup. He stabs Mr. Stamper with it shortly before chaining him to the firing mechanism of the stealth boat's onboard missiles.

In 1997, BMW offered a special promotion where the 750i and the R1200 could be purchased for $149,000 CAD.

Locations

Film locations

Shooting locations

Italics show the locations in the movie portrayed by each shooting location, plus any extra trivia.

Trivia

Template:Toomuchtrivia

  • Upon seeing a several stories-tall image of Elliot Carver adorning his skyscraper, Bond remarks that Carver, "...appears to have developed an edifice complex." This line makes a play on the well known "Oedipus complex" phrase, but the proper diagnosis for someone like Carver would be having a Narcissus complex, an extreme personality disorder of which intense self-worship and undue self-esteem are the primary symptoms.
  • It has been suggested that the character of Elliot Carver is (very loosely) based on Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation exerts power across many continents, and to some degree, Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane, not to mention media magnate Ted Turner. Shamed media baron Robert Maxwell is also a likely influence, and the way Carver's death is reported by MI6 resembles the way that Maxwell died in 1991.
  • A business report from one of Carver's executives about "releasing software full of bugs which will force users to upgrade for years" is a shot against Microsoft and co-founder Bill Gates.
  • When filming began the script wasn't finished, and Jonathan Price has mentioned a certain watering-down of the character he had signed to play, when speaking in interviews. Some light is possibly shone on this by the Raymond Benson novelisation, in which Carver's background is elaborated upon, including the fact that he was the rejected illegitimate son of an ex-pat Brit in Hong Kong who later became a press baron in the UK – his son murdering him and taking over his empire as revenge – some of this has been alluded to by Price. The novel also gives Carver a teeth-grinding compulsion and chronic insomnia (which later crops up as the villain's complaint in Die Another Day) and gives Stamper a freak reversal of the normal human reaction to pleasure and pain (imperviousness to pain being carried instead into the next film, The World Is Not Enough) – explaining why the mismatch-eyed henchman seems to enjoy being injured in some scenes. The scripting problems and possibly related difficulties with the director have also led Pierce Brosnan to say in interviews that making the film was not a pleasurable experience.
  • The film was originally titled Tomorrow Never Lies, a reference to Elliott Carver's newspaper Tomorrow. However, it was then the subject of a typo and the producers liked the alternate title so much they adopted it.[1]
  • This was the final Bond film-to-date to be co-produced directly by United Artists; parent company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would assume co-production beginning with the next film, The World is Not Enough, although United Artists still remains a copyright holder of the offical James Bond films.
  • A March 10, 1997 report in the New York Daily News on the production of the as-yet untitled film (then being referred to as Bond 18) indicated that several titles were being considered for the film, including: Shamelady, Avatar, Shatterhand, Zero Windchill and the title considered most likely — Tomorrow Never Dies [2]. The rumoured title Shatterhand is interesting as this is the alias used by Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Ian Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice which, like Tomorrow Never Dies, also has strong East Asian ties.
  • One of the earliest widespread rumors for the film's plot ended up having many similarities to Raymond Benson's 007 novel "Zero Minus Ten" published the same year (1997). In the book, a British business magnate has lost his business empire in Hong Kong due to the exchange of authority with the Chinese and threatens to destroy it unless it is returned to British control. The early reports for the film though changed the villain's weapon from nuclear to biological and renamed him Dr. Shatterhand in reference to a character from Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice. The idea however never eventuated with the film bearing no resemblance to Benson's book or the earlier rumors, though Benson did wind up doing the novelization of the film.
  • Several inconsistencies exist in the representation of the Royal Navy. Type 23 frigates do not carry land attack cruise missiles as depicted in the first moments of the film; the missile that is fired is fitted to Type 23s but is the Harpoon anti-shipping missile. The encounter with the stealth ship is also of poetic licence, in the real world an aircraft carrier would also have been present, and a wealth of options to engage the stealth ship would have been open to the naval commander. (This stems from only one ship model being built for the movie to save costs and time.) Rather than shelling the stealth ship, he could have also used a helicopter or torpedo attack, both systems being carried by Type 23 frigates.
  • The Harpoon launch footage described above was used again in Die Another Day as a supposed anti-satellite missile launch.
  • According to Pierce Brosnan in an interview published in the December 2005 issue of Playboy, Monica Bellucci tested for the role of Paris Carver.[3]
  • The teaser sequence joins Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer at the same time that As Time Goes By, a British Comedy was in syndication. It can be said that the relationship between M and Admiral Roebuck share a slight reflection of Jean Pargetter and Lt. Lionel Hardcastle, their respective characters.
  • Since Bangkok was used for Ho Chi Minh City, one can see the Thai flag in some scenes and signs with non-Roman characters in the city while Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet.
  • Tomorrow Never Dies is the first James Bond film since 1967's You Only Live Twice to fall below the running time of 120 minutes.

Novelisation

File:TomorrowNeverDiesNovel.jpg
1997 British Coronet Books paperback edition.

Tomorrow Never Dies was the first of three Bond films to be adapted into books by then-current Bond novelist, Raymond Benson. Benson's version of Bruce Feirstein's screenplay is suitably expanded, and includes some nods to past Bond films, including the suggestion that Bond was lying when he said he had taken a course in Oriental languages in the movie You Only Live Twice.


External links


The James Bond films
Official films
Dr. No | From Russia with Love | Goldfinger | Thunderball | You Only Live Twice | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | Diamonds Are Forever | Live and Let Die | The Man with the Golden Gun | The Spy Who Loved Me | Moonraker | For Your Eyes Only | Octopussy | A View to a Kill | The Living Daylights | Licence to Kill | GoldenEye | Tomorrow Never Dies | The World Is Not Enough | Die Another Day | Casino Royale | Quantum of Solace
Unofficial films
Casino Royale (1954 TV) | Casino Royale (1967 spoof) | Never Say Never Again
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