Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

• Add

Overview

Title Card

With the death of Albert R. Broccoli and the success of Goldeneye the Bond franchise continued on. When a British ship being mysteriously sank James Bond is sent to investigate with Pierce Brosnan in his second outing in the title role.

Plot Synopsis

Bond saving the day

On a survalliance mission on a Arms Bazaar near Russia James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) finds an American Encoder brought by Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay). Back at MI6 M (Judi Dench) protests the launching of a missile to wipe out the entire bazaar. Bond points out that there are several nuclear torpedeos that could be set off by the missile. With the missile out of rage to abort Bond storms the bazaar and takes off in the plane that the torpedoes are attached too.

Elliot Carver

In the South China Sea Elliot Carver’s (Jonathan Pryce) stealth boat convinces a British destroyer and Chinese fighters that they are in each other’s territory by using the American encoder with the help of Gupta. On board the stealth ship Stamper (Gotz Otto) fires at the fighters and the British ship. Using a remote control torpedo Stamper cuts through the ship sinking it completely. With some of the sailors still alive Carver orders Stamper to kill them using Chinese ammo and to come back with a body caught so that he can write a proper headline. Divers are then sent to retrieve the ships missiles.

M briefing Bond

Back in London Bond is enjoying his day off with Professor Inga Bergstrom (Cecilie Thomsen). With the fleet being sent to China Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) calls Bond to the situation room. Believing that the British ship was attacked unprovoked, and that it was in international waters, the admiralty wants to start a war however M wants to investigate. Bond arrives with a Carver newspaper with leaked information about the incident. With no other choice the fleet is sent in and Bond is given two days to find out what happened and to track the mysterious GPS signal that was sent to the British ship.

During M’s briefing with Bond she reveals that they knew where the signal was actually coming form, one of Carvers satellites. On top of that the Veitnamese government only found the bodies three hours earlier so Carver already knew the story. With Carver married to one of James Bond’s old lovers, Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher), M orders to get any information he can out of her and to look into Carvers empire for any clues on where the British ship sank. With a cover ID Bond is sent to a party in Hamburg for the Carver media group celebrating their ability to broadcast to every person on earth except for China who refuse to sell broadcast rights to Carver.

Bond about to make his twenty-billionth quip

In Hamburg Bond picks up his new BMW 750 from Q (Desmond Llewelyn) and a special cell phone remote controller. At the party Bond meets Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) who says she’s from the Chinese News Agency. As Wai Lin and Carver speak Bond and Paris catch up on old times. When Carver witnesses the Bond and Paris talking he grows suspicious of Bond and has Stamper kidnap Bond and beat him in a soundproof room as Carver gives his presentation at the party. Overcoming his captures Bond shuts down the power to Carver’s presentation.

Dr. Kaufman

With Carver angry Paris visits Bond at his hotel and sleeps with him. Gupta informs Carver that Bond is most likely a secret agent sent to investigate Carver and on top of that Paris has had a past relationship with Bond. Carver sends out Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli) to kill them both. The next morning Paris leaves Bond and tells him about a secret lab in Carver’s office building.

Paris Carver

Bond sneaks into the office building and hacks into Gupta’s safe and retrieves the American Encoder. While exiting though he runs into Wai Lin who is also sneaking into the building. The two of them set off the alarms however and are chased by Carver’s men. Bond and Wai Lin escape seperately and Bond returns to his hotel to find Paris dead on his bed. Dr. Kaufman demands the return of the Encoder but Bond tells him that it is locked in his car. Using the cellphone Q gave him Bond gets the drop on Kaufman and kills him. Bond retreats to his BMW and avoids capture by more of Carver’s men.

On a nearby American Air Base Bond meets up with Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) who brings a GPS expert. The expert plugs in the retrieved encoder and finds out where the British ship sank. Bond gets a crash course on a HALO jump. Once underwater Bond finds the ship and discovers that several missiles had been taken out. While underwater Bond meets up with Wai Lin who is also investigating the missing ship. Once they surface Stamper is waiting for them and takes them to Carver’s building in Vietnam.

Wai Lin

As Bond and Wai Lin are handcuffed together they pass a Chinese general while entering Carver’s office. Before Stamper can torture the two agents Bond and Wai Lin escape into the streets of Saigon. After ditching Bond Wai Lin goes to a secret hideout she has but is followed by Bond. Wai Lin finally reveals that she is a Chinese agent investigating the Chinese general that they saw earlier since stealth materials were missing form his base which lead her to Carver. Together they decided to team up and take down Carver before he shoots down Chinese fighters using British missiles. With a full blown war Carver would make millions by broadcasting it around the world. The two agents send messages to their respective governments telling them to look for a stealth boat.

Carver's stealth boat

That night the two of them find the stealth boat, board it, and set mines on it as Carver starts instigating a war. On the security camera’s the two agents are found out and Stamper captures Wai Lin. Carver explains that the Chinese general is forming a meeting of all the high ranking Chinese officials. Carver would then send a British missile to the meeting killing them all and leaving the Chinese general in charge and give Carver exclusive rights to broadcast in China for the next hundred years. Bond captures Gupta and attempts to trade him for Wai Lin however Carver shoots Gupta.

Bond kills Carver

With that Bond activates an explosion on the hull revealing them to the Chinese and British navy’s. Wai Lin and Bond fight their way through the ship: Wai Lin to destroy the engines and Bond to stop the launch of the missile. Meanwhile the British navy begins firing at the stealth boat. While Stamper captures Wai Lin again Bond kills Carver with the underwater drill. With Wai Lin tied up underwater Bond attatchs Stamper to the missile that is no programmed to destory the stealth boat. Underwater Bond breaths for Wai Lin while the boat explodes above them.

Production

Brosnan in action

Although long time Bond producer Cubby Broccoli died only six months after the release of Goldeneye the new producers Barbara Broccoli, his daughter, and Michael G. Wilson continued. Goldeneye was a success that no one thought possible in the modern era, for most James Bond was dead but now he was back.

Unable to get Martin Campbell back to direct Roger Spottiswoode was hired to take over even though a script wasn’t finished. All the surviving Ian Fleming novels had already been adapted in some way or another and so an entirely new story and title had to be generated. The script passed through the hands of nearly nine different writers and no one could come to a consensus of how the story would play out. Both Teri Hatcher and Jonathan Pryce nearly left production when they realized how much their characters were being changed from their initial inception.

Storyboards for the jump stunt

The original title of the film was Tomorrow Never Lies which was inspired by the Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows. However during a mistyped fax the title changed to Tomorrow Never Dies. The producers liked the accidentally change so much that they decided to keep it.

At first the film was set to shoot in early 1997 in Vietnam. However two months before shooting the local government took back their permission to shoot there. This forced the team to quickly re plan everything to shoot in Thailand.

Camera rigs on the BMW

For the parking garage scene the team used around seventeen BMW’s to pull off the scene. Many of them were used for crashing or stunt driving. A special rig was made in several of the cars so that the stunt driver could sit on the floor in the back seat giving the effect that no one was at the steering wheel.

The helicopter chase sequence was made possible with several helicopters on crane operated platforms the computer effects. For the safety of cast and crew the blades of the helicopter were removed and replaced digitally.

Reception

Although Tomorrow Never Dies was just as financially successful as Goldeneye the critic reception was slightly different. The second Pierce Brosnan Bond film was congratulated for having a more plausiable villain than usual but many felt that the films plot was too scattered. For Bond fan Tomorrow Never Dies is not nearly one of the worst Bond films but is no where near one of the best.

After the film was released Teri Hatcher was unhappy with her character. She believed that the Paris Carver had no depth at all and was used only as a plot point.