Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies
Directed by	Roger Spottiswoode
Produced by	Michael G. Wilson Barbara Broccoli
Written by	Bruce Feirstein
Starring	Pierce Brosnan Jonathan Pryce Michelle Yeoh Teri Hatcher Joe Don Baker Judi Dench
Music by	David Arnold
Cinematography	Robert Elswit
Editing by	Michel Arcand Dominique Fortin
Distributed by	United Artists
Release	6 December 1997 (London, premiere) 12 December 1997 (UK)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$110 million
Gross revenue	$333,011,068
Preceded by	GoldenEye
Followed by	The World Is Not Enough

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, with the screenplay written by Bruce Feirstein, the film follows Bond as he attempts to stop a power-mad media mogul from engineering world events to initiate World War III.

The film was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and was the first James Bond film made after the death of producer Albert R. Broccoli, to whom the movie pays tribute in the end credits. Filming locations included France, Thailand, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Tomorrow Never Dies performed well at the box office and earned a Golden Globe nomination despite mixed reviews. While its performance at the domestic box office surpassed that of its predecessor, GoldenEye, it was the only Pierce Brosnan Bond film not to open at number one at the box office, as it opened the same day as Titanic, but instead at number two.

Plot

MI6 sends James Bond, agent 007, into the field to spy on a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Via television, MI6 and the Royal Navy identify several wanted men, including the American "techno-terrorist" Henry Gupta, who is buying a GPS encoder made by the US military. Despite M's insistence to let 007 finish his reconnaissance, British Admiral Roebuck launches a missile attack on the arms bazaar. Bond then discovers two Soviet nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros, and as the missile is too far along to be aborted, 007 hijacks the L-39 and flies away seconds before the bazaar is struck. Amidst the confusion, Gupta escapes with the encoder.

The media baron Elliot Carver, head of the Carver Media Group Network (CMGN), soon begins his plans to use the encoder to provoke war between China and the United Kingdom, hoping to replace the current Chinese government with one more supportive to Carver's plans of exclusive broadcast rights in their country. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the British frigate HMS Devonshire off-course into Chinese-held waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Mr. Stamper, sinks the frigate with a sea drill and steals one of its missiles, while shooting down a Chinese J-7 fighter jet sent to investigate the British presence, and killing off the Devonshire's survivors with Chinese weaponry. After reading a CMGN report of the incident as a Chinese attack, the Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the British Fleet to recover the frigate, and possibly retaliate, while leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking.

M sends Bond to investigate Carver, due to Carver Media releasing their news articles with critical details hours before the events had become known, along with MI6 noticing a spurious signal from one of his CMGN communications satellites when the frigate was sunk. Bond travels to Hamburg and seduces Carver's wife, Paris, who is also Bond's ex-girlfriend, to get information that would help him enter Carver's newspaper headquarters. He also kills three of Stamper's men and cuts Carver off the air while he is giving a speech during the inaugural broadcast of his newly completed satellite network. After Bond steals back the GPS encoder, Carver orders Paris and Bond killed. Paris is murdered by Dr. Kaufman, Mr. Stamper's teacher on Chakra Torture, but Bond kills Kaufman and escapes, protecting the encoder. Bond, after visiting the Americans and learning that the encoder had been tampered with, goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck (which was actually in Vietnamese waters), discovering one of its cruise missiles missing. He and Wai Lin, a Chinese spy on the same case, after avoiding being trapped in the sunk ship, are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Ho Chi Minh City, but soon escape and decide to both collaborate on the investigation.

The two contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme; Carver plans to use the stolen missile to destroy the Chinese government, and allow a Chinese general to step in and stop war between Britain and China, although not before both sides destroy each other at sea. They find Carver's stealth ship, which had been built with stolen stealth material, in Ha Long Bay, and board it to prevent him from firing the stolen British cruise missile at Beijing. During the attempt, Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract." Despite this, Bond detonates an explosive which damages the ship, causing it to be visible to radar both Chinese and British navies, who had just been warned of the plot, and thus making it vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, and is captured by Stamper, Bond attempts to halt the missile. After killing Carver with his own sea drill, Bond attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper appears and attacks him after sending Wai Lin into the waters to drown. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and dives to save Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin survive amidst the wreckage as HMS Bedford searches for them.

Cast

James Bond
(Pierce Brosnan)

M
(Judi Dench)

Miss Moneypenny
(Samantha Bond)

Q
(Desmond Llewelyn)

Elliot Carver
(Jonathan Pryce)

Wai Lin
(Michelle Yeoh)

Stamper
(Götz Otto)

Jack Wade
(Joe Don Baker)

Paris Carver
(Teri Hatcher)

Charles Robinson
(Colin Salmon)

Henry Gupta
(Ricky Jay)

Dr. Kafuman
(Vincent Schiavelli)

Admiral Roebuck
(Geoffrey Palmer)

General Chang
(Philip Kwok)

Tom Wallace
(Michael G. Wilson)

Inga Bergstorm
(Cecilie Thomsen)

• Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, MI6 agent 007.
• Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver, a psychopathic media mogul who plans to provoke global war in order to boost sales and ratings of his news divisions.
• Michelle Yeoh as Colonel Wai Lin, a skilled Chinese spy and Bond's ally.
• Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver, a former girlfriend of Bond who is now Carver's trophy wife.
• Götz Otto as Richard Stamper, Carver's henchman, who is skilled in the art of Chakra torture.
• Ricky Jay as Henry Gupta, an American "Techno-terrorist" in the employ of Carver. Bruce Feirstein said he named this character after a Gupta Bakery, which he passed on the way to the studios.
• Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade, CIA liaison, reprising his role from GoldenEye.
• Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman, a professional assassin used by Elliot Carver.
• Judi Dench as M, reprising her role from GoldenEye.
• Desmond Llewelyn in his penultimate appearance as Q.
• Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny.
• Daphne Deckers as PR person of Carver Media Group Network.
• Geoffrey Palmer as Admiral Roebuck, M's contentious military contact.
• Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson, M's Chief of Staff.
• Julian Fellowes as the British Minister of Defence, who orders Admiral Roebuck to send the fleet to the China Sea. He is the successor to Sir Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen).
• Cecilie Thomsen as Professor Inga Bergstrom.

External links

• Tomorrow Never Dies at the Internet Movie Database

Vincent Schiavelli films

Ghost (1990)  · Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)  ·