Bond Revisited

Die Another Day (2002)
Bond 20

James Bond is assigned to a rendezvous with a North Korean army officer, Colonel Moon, in his investigation of a North Korean terrorist, Zhao, but the mission is betrayed and despite a spectacular escape attempt, Bond is captured and subjected to vicious North Korean torture, before being released in an exchange of prisoners. MI6 work him back to health but James is relieved of all duties because he is blamed for leaking information leading to several agents' deaths while in custody. Determined to clear his name and avenge himself on Zhao, James escapes and extracts information from a known Chinese intelligence officer on Zhao, leading to Cuba and a meeting with a mysterious diver known only as Jinx, and eventually to a meeting with mysterious British billionaire Gustav Graves, who has perfected a spaceborne mirror designed to beam solar light and heat anywhere in the world for peaceful purposes. But James uncovers mysterious genetic conversion equipment and also finds the solar mirror is in reality a laser cannon that can destroy almost anything in its path on Earth. James now must rescue Jinx (who is conducting her own, identical, investigation of Graves) and learn the truth about Graves' laser cannon, leading to a violent showdown as the weapon is fired onto Earth and begins slicing open a gigantic line of destruction. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The motto of the American Intelligence Organization in the film was Wisdom - Strategy - Strength. The character Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), was originally supposed to make her return, aiding Bond in Hong Kong, but no arrangement could be worked out with the actress and she was replaced by Chinese Intelligence agent (and hotelier) Chang. Wai Lin's presence is confirmed by an extra on the DVD release concerning the writing of the script: Barbara Broccoli is shown leafing through an early script, and it clearly contains lines for Wai Lin. The Ice Palace in the film was inspired by the real life Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Kiruna, Sweden. Producer Barbara Broccoli first saw a photo of it in a magazine while traveling on a plane and thought it would make a good set-piece for a Bond movie. The actual location is two hundred kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Ice Hotels or similar structures like an Ice Palace, Ice Museum, Snow Castle or Ice Castle have existed in Norway, Finland, Canada, Romania and Russia but never such a building has existed in Iceland where some of the ice palace environs were shot. Bond (while talking to Q), refers to what looks like a fatal injury to M in a simulation program as a "flesh wound" - in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Cleese refers to the cutting off of various body parts in a battle with Graham Chapman as "merely a flesh wound." It's a common enough phrase, but the Python connection does give it more resonance.

First time that James Bond sports a beard in a James Bond movie. When confronting Bond, Miranda Frost says "I know all about you, 007. It's Sex for dinner and death for breakfast." The line "Death for breakfast" is the title of Chapter 11 in the Ian Fleming novel "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The R1 DVD release commentary reveals that the movie was inspired by the original Fleming novel of "Moonraker". The only element of the novel to survive to the end, after a fashion, was the duel between Bond and Graves in a club called Blades. In the original novel, Bond and villain Drax have a different sort of duel in Blades - a game of cards. This is the first Bond film since Licence to Kill (1989) to take inspiration from a Fleming novel. The character of Miranda Frost was originally named Gala Brand. This was the name of the Bond girl in Ian Fleming's novel "Moonraker". The film also contains references to the novels in several points: the cigarette poster of a sailor seen behind John Cleese is referenced in "Thunderball", the basic plot is from "Moonraker" and the sheet of protective glass between Bond and M references "The Man With The Golden Gun". In the scene where Jinx first appears, Bond claims that he is there on account of birdwatching. Ian Fleming was a keen bird watcher, and the name James Bond was inspired by an American bird watcher of the same name. Following her Best Actress win at the 2002 Oscars, Halle Berry became the first Academy Award-winner to be a "Bond Girl", although only just - she won the award while shooting this movie. (Kim Basinger (Never Say Never Again (1983)) won her Oscar for L.A. Confidential (1997) long after she had been a Bond Girl, and Never Say Never Again isn't part of the official Bond series anyway).

The Characters:

• James Bond - Pierce Brosnan returns as Bond for the forth and final time.
• Gustav Graves - Toby Stephens. Graves was born Tan-Sun Moon, son of General Moon. When first seen, he is a Colonel in the Korean People's Army. He studied at Oxford and Harvard and was intended to become a bridge between the West and the East. Instead, he became a weapons smuggler, exchanging weapons for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, intent on the invasion and conquest of South Korea. MI6 became aware of his activities, however, and dispatched three agents, including James Bond, to shut him down. The mission was a success, and Moon was believed to have died when his hovercraft fell off a cliff. Moon survived, however, and fled to Cuba, where he underwent DNA replacement therapy to alter his appearance. He then reinvented himself as Gustav Graves, a billionaire adventurer who worked in diamond mines in Argentina and later discovered a great mine of diamonds in Iceland — in reality the conflict diamonds he had been dealing with originally. He assumed a new personality modeled on James Bond: sophisticated, sarcastic and, by Graves' own admission, arrogant. With his new wealth, he built the Icarus, a huge articifial satellite capable of harnessing solar energy and focusing it on any part of the world he wished.
• Zhao - Rick Yune. He was originally an employee of Colonel Tan-Sun Moon as the Colonel illegally dealt in arms in the Demilitarized Zone of North Korea. Bond, posing as diamond smuggler van Beerg, infiltrated Moon's base as part of a MI6 operation, hoping to exchange diamonds for arms and expose Moon. The case of diamonds was rigged with explosives and blew up, embedding several stones in Zao's face (which Jinx later dubbed "expensive acne"). Moon was supposedly killed in the assault. Zao went rogue, killed three Chinese agents, and was later found and arrested by the UN forces in Korea. Bond was held captive by Moon's father, General Moon. Zhao is one of the more recognizable henchmen due to an injury he received when Bond blow up a briefcase full of diamonds. 15 to 20 diamonds embedded themselves into his face and are still visible.
• Miranda Frost - Rosamund Pike. Miranda Frost is a Harvard-educated, gold medal-winning Olympic fencer (trained by Madonna's character, Verity) posing as Graves' publicist and fencing partner. She won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She is sent by M to work alongside Bond, but does not approve of Bond's methods. However, when Bond is about to be caught spying around the ice palace in Iceland, It is later revealed that she is the sought-after traitor who partnered with Colonel Moon in the West and compromised Bond's identity during his mission to kill the dictator, which resulted in his capture. According to M she discovered that Frost and Moon were both teammates on the Harvard fencing team. On board Graves's plane, Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson kills her by stabbing her in the chest with a knife skewered through Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
• Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson - Halle Berry. Jinx, so nicknamed because she was born on Friday the 13th, is a spy for the National Security Agency. She first meets agent 007 in Havana, where they are both tracking the North Korean terrorist, Zhao. The two spies end up working together against Gustav Graves, who is trying to take over the world with a giant laser. She initially becomes his lover merely to find out how MI-6 is involved in the investigation of Zao, but she truly returns his advances after the mission succeeds.
  She is instrumental in the success of the mission, killing Graves' henchwoman, Miranda Frost, by impaling her with a throwing knife stabbed through a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Her introductory scene, as well as her orange bikini, is a homage to Honey Ryder in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No. The portrayal of Jinx as a spy for the NSA is technically inaccurate; the real NSA is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications (which includes codebreaking) to produce signals intelligence information, not physical operations. It should be noted, however, that this misconception is common in fiction. It is also interesting to note that she plainly states that the NSA has been evesdropping on Zao's communications. Thus, the writers tried to connect her actions to the NSA's primary responsibility.

The Theme Song:

The title song for Die Another Day was written and sung by Madonna. Madonna also had a small cameo in the movie as Verity, a leather-clad fencing instructor. Although the Bond films have a long-standing connection with the pop music world, the choice of Madonna's song, coupled with the use of The Clash's "London Calling," proved controversial with some fans who felt the two pieces of music were inappropriate for a Bond movie. "London Calling" was used briefly in the film as Bond returns to England via British Airways. At the time, the airline was using the song in American radio and television commercials. Madonna's theme song was unusual in that it was presented in a credit sequence that actually moved the film's plot along (as opposed to all previous Bond film titles which are standalone set pieces — exceptions being the third segment of the Dr. No titles and the GoldenEye titles, which depict the dismantling of the Soviet Union that takes place between the time frame of the opening sequence and the rest of the film). The concept of the song/title sequence was that it represented Bond trying to keep his sanity during 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans. The divided opinion over the "Die Another Day" theme is evidenced in that it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song as well as for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song (2002). However in a MORI poll for the Channel 4 programme "James Bond's Greatest Hits" it was voted 9th out of 22 and was voted an "overwhelming number one" by under-24 year olds.

The Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin V12 Vanquish — The car is equipped with all the usual refinements including forward-firing rockets concealed behind the grille, hood-mounted shotguns with an automatic targeting system similar to the British Missile defence systems "GoalKeeper" and "Phalanx", and passenger ejector seat in homage to the original Aston Martin DB5 driven by Bond in Goldfinger. The car was also equipped with an adaptive camouflage system that allowed it to become Near-invisible to the naked eye at the push of a button. Q jokingly referred to the car as the 'Aston Martin Vanish'. Q suggested that Bond read through the Vanquish's dictionary-sized instruction manual but much to Q's annoyance, he simply tossed the book in front of the car to be obliterated by the hood-mounted guns.
• Jaguar XKR — Not technically a Bond car, this car was driven by the villain Zhao. It was equipped with a rear-mounted minigun, missiles concealed behind the front grille and in the sides of the car, a retractable battering ram, and it could launch mortar shells from the trunk.
• Ford Thunderbird — Although only in the movie for a short period of time, the vehicle was marketed as a Bond car. Jinx drives the 007 Ford Thunderbird to the entrance of Graves Ice Palace and Mr Kil's PA drives it away.
• 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible — When Bond departs Raoul's villa, he borrows his convertible when 007 requests a "fast car."
• Switchblades — The Switchblade is essentially a one-man glider shaped like a fighter jet. It features retractable wings that control the speed and trajectory of the craft. Fitted with the same material that makes a stealth bomber radar-invisible, the switchblade allows Bond and Jinx to enter North Korea undetected. The switchblade is based on a workable model called "PHASST" (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport).
• Glass Shattering Ring (AKA, "Ultra-high Frequency, Single-Digit, Sonic Agitator Unit" according to Q) — This ring, given to Bond by Q-Branch, emits a high-pitched frequency that shatters any glass in its range.
• Rebreather — Seen only briefly (when Bond is swimming under the ice), the rebreather is based on the same design as the one in Thunderball, allowing the user a short supply of oxygen.
• Omega Seamaster watch — Seen first in the pre-title sequence, the watch included a concealed explosives detonator, activated by turning the bezel. Later in the movie he receives another watch (his "20th" according to Q, a reference to this being the 20th official Bond film), which is revealed to contain a laser powerful enough to cut a hole in the frozen surface of a lake.
• Surfboard — Also seen in the pre-title sequence, Bond's surfboard includes a hidden compartment housing a Walther P99 (and silencer), two bricks of C4 explosive and a GPS equipped knife.
• GPS knife — Bond uses this gadget in North Korea. When the knife is driven blade-first into the ground a small satellite transmitter unfolds from the handle, sending a false homing signal to an enemy helicopter. [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

The film opens with Bond infiltrating the organization of Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, a North Korean army officer who is illegally selling military weaponry in exchange for African conflict diamonds. Bond is betrayed by an agency mole, resulting in a massive shootout/chase around the area. Colonel Moon is apparently killed after falling over a waterfall, and Bond is captured by the North Korean military, where he is tortured for fourteen months. The torture was followed through the title sequence and ended when Bond was exchanged for Zhao at the border.

Bond's 40th Anniversary

In honor of the franchise's 40th anniversary, there are references to each of the previous 19 Bond films, including:

• Dr. No (1962): Jinx (Halle Berry) walking out of the sea in a bikini, wearing a white belt and a diving knife. The synthesizer sounds from the opening credits play when Bond escapes the MI6 hospital. The gun that Jinx has to surrender to Miranda on board the plane is a Beretta Cheetah. In Dr. No, the Armorer remarks to 007 that the Beretta made a good woman's pistol. During the "Kiss Of Life" scene, David Arnold's film score includes samples of the same electronic sounds heard in the gun barrel sequence of Dr. No. In Dr. No, Bond asks if the government house sent him a car; he uses the name "Universal Exports" in order to be patched through. In this movie, Bond claims he is from Universal Exports asking about the Delectados (cigars) in order to gain access to the contact in Cuba.
• From Russia with Love (1963): The shoe with the poison-tipped blade is seen in Q's station laboratory. There is a knife concealed in a briefcase. In the ice palace sequence, there is a game board (the chess match). Enemy spies are behind a one-way mirror in a hotel room with cameras. Graves' engineer is seen holding the Icarus control and petting it like it is a cat. When they first meet, Jinx tells James her name, and adds, "My friends call me Jinx." Bond replies, "Mine call me James Bond." In From Russia with Love, Tatiana Romanova introduces herself and adds, "My friends call me Tania," and Bond gives the same reply.
• Goldfinger (1964): Jinx is nearly cut with a laser in Mr. Kil's laboratory. The rest of the fight scene is also a tribute. Bond once again drives a gadget-laden Aston Martin, specifically with a passenger ejector seat. The new Q comments that, as he learned from his predecessor, "I never joke about my work, 007." The scene where Bond and Graves fence for money, only to see Bond up the stakes for one of Graves' diamonds, is suggestive of the golf match between Bond and Auric Goldfinger. The golf match had originally been for money, until Bond throws down a gold brick to "up the stakes". Bond is threatened with death in a depressurizing plane. Bond and Jinx receive electric shocks from a villain. Oddjob was killed by electrocution. In the pre-title sequence, Bond removes a wetsuit to reveal ordinary clothes underneath.
• Thunderball (1965): The jet-pack in Q's workshop. Bond uses a pen-like underwater breathing system. After Bond comes through the window of the medical facility in Cuba, he grabs a few grapes as he did before making his exit from a room in the medical center in Thunderball.
• You Only Live Twice (1967): Scenes of the Icarus unfolding in space are shown on screens in the Ice Palace. Jinx descends from the ceiling of the fake diamond mine on a rope system similar to that of the ninjas in the volcano crater lair. The name of the ship Bond is on: the HMS Tenby. The use of Japanese swords in the films. Bond's death is faked (or exaggerated) in both films to free up 007's maneuverability.
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): Bond's office is seen for only the second time in the series, the first time was in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. "OHMSS" written on a CD on Moneypenny's desk as she types a report at the end of the film. Bond escapes from another huge avalanche. During the ice field car chase, the score references the opening to this movie's theme.
• Diamonds Are Forever (1971): While fencing with Bond, Graves says, "Well, diamonds are for everyone." Much of the plot includes diamonds. A large satellite is uncovered in space and has the power to harness the sun's rays and project them as a fine laser to destroy any given target. In the "High Life" magazine article for Gustav Graves' diamond company, the caption at the bottom says, "Diamonds are forever, but life isn't" A villain changes his appearance. One character calls another "Bitch!" in a single line, this was, famously, the first strong curse word used in a Bond film.
• Live and Let Die (1973): The laser causes row upon row of explosions across a vegetated area, in this case detonating thousands of land mines, and is reminiscent of the extermination of Kananga's poppy fields. Bond uses the same revolver used on the island of St. Monique.
• The Man with the Golden Gun (1974): The corridors in the secret area of the Gene Technology department in the Cuban hospital contain rotating mirrors and objects, much like Scaramanga's Fun Palace. The Field office of MI6 is on a ship. Bond retrieves a diamond from Jinx's navel (bullet in the belly-dancer's navel). There is a solar-powered superweapon.
• The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): Graves uses a Union Jack parachute. The Ice Palace resembles in some ways Stromberg's Atlantis hideout. When Madonna's character is introduced, a few bars of "Nobody Does it Better" is heard.
• Moonraker (1979): Moon's hovercraft falls down by a large waterfall in a manner similar to Jaws' boat going over the Iguaçu Falls. Bond surfaces in a bubbling pool of water surrounded by much interior vegetation, similar to the scene with the water python in Drax's headquarters. Both movies have spies named Chang. Bond's sword fight with Graves was much like the fight with Chang in the glass factory. Bond and a villain fight over a parachute.
• For Your Eyes Only (1981): The scene as Bond hangs onto the ice cliff (before it collapses) resembles the climax near the monastery, especially as the rope slips and Bond drops some distance further down the cliff, although this time it was all performed from a vehicle. The yellow diving helmet in Q's lab.
• Octopussy (1983): Both the crocodile submarine and the AcroStar MiniJet are visible in the background in Q's station laboratory. Upping the stakes on a bet with the villain (see also Goldfinger). Jinx's backward fall to escape echoes Magda's exit from Bond's suite. Q's coil of "magic rope" being kept on the lowest shelf in the Q lab, along with a lot of the five-pointed knife.
• A View to a Kill (1985): Bond is suspended over a cliff on the wire and hook much like the Russian Guard in the Siberian chase that Bond catches. Bond once again uses a rather unorthodox method of skiing, this time the hatch from the back of the car. Graves watches over the destruction that he wreaks from the front windows of his aircraft in the same way that Zorin watched Silicon Valley from his aircraft before it flooded. The electronic snooper is in Q's lab.
• The Living Daylights (1987): Cars exit the rear cargo hold of the plane. Bond's Aston Martin had retractable spikes in the tires controlled by a switch labeled traction. When Bond is driving Graves' rocket car, he drives through a patch of trees and bits are shorn off, just as the skis on the Aston Martin are removed by trees in The Living Daylights.
• Licence to Kill (1989): The plot idea of Bond going renegade, although this time it is less through choice. M rescinds Bond's licence to kill. Bond uses a rifle as a sniper. When Bond disarms the Chinese "masseuse", she has her weapon concealed in exactly the same fashion as Pam Bouvier. A projectile misses Bond's car when it passes underneath. The hanging yellow laser controller in Kil's lab is the same one that operates the trap door over the shark tank in Krest's warehouse. Bond puts the Alvarez Clinic ticket inside his right jacket pocket, and later pulls it out of the left one. In Licence to Kill, Bond puts his aeroplane ticket first into his inner left jacket pocket, only to inexplicably remove it later on from his inner right jacket pocket.
• GoldenEye (1995): Bond's watch contains a laser, which he uses to cut through a section of ice, reminiscent of his escape from the train by cutting through the floor. Jinx sets the timer for the bomb at the gene therapy lab in Cuba to three minutes, the same three minutes that Bond set the timers for in the chemical weapons lab and later Trevelyan set the timers for on the bullet train. Bond is betrayed by a fellow agent. A man is killed by a falling ice chandelier, reminiscent of Trevelyan's death GoldenEye. Bond says to Jinx that "the cold must have kept you alive", in Goldeneye Bond tells Natalya Simonova that being cold is what keeps him alive. The opening title sequences feature a gold eye that opens. Jinx makes a dive from the DNA compound wall into the sea which is very similar to Bond's dive from the dam in GoldenEye. The US command bunker in South Korea has computer monitors suspended from the ceiling, looking very similar to the monitors suspended from the ceiling in the Severnaya control room in GoldenEye.
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): Jinx throws a knife straight into a guard's throat just as he comes through a door, this is similar to a scene on the Stealth Ship where Wai-Lin sticks a Shuriken throwing star into a guard's throat just as he finds her (this scene is deleted from some Tomorrow Never Dies releases on VHS and DVD). Remote control car. Jinx descends on grappling lines, reminiscent of Wai-Lin's entrance/escape. Bond escapes by being tethered and running down a wall similar to Wai-Lin's escape. There is a fake headline on Moneypenny's computer. In the pre-credits sequence in Korea, Bond jumps onto a hovercraft and spins round firing missiles, much like the pre-credits sequence of Tomorrow Never Dies where Bond spins a military jet and uses its guns and missiles. A Chinese character called Chang. The footage showing a ship launching the anti-satellite missile, is exactly the same footage used in the opening scene of Tomorrow Never Dies, where the ship launches a cruise missile against the terrorist camp.
• The World Is Not Enough (1999): Bond dives over Graves as they fence to do a forward roll as he lands, in a manner similar to the shoot-out between Renard's men and himself where he dives through a closing door and rolls the other side. As Bond dives to safety from Moon's flamethrower on the hovercraft, the shot of his dive from in front is almost identical to another scene where Bond is diving from an exploding bomb with Christmas. The use of a geodesic dome.
• The World Is Not Enough (2000) (Video Game): Bond's training program is essentially the same as the second level of the game. Some of the incidental music (minus of course the James Bond Theme, which is used in every film) is re-used in this film, notably at the end as Bond beds Jinx.
• Die Another Day (2002): The cars Zao owns are all updated models of former Bond cars. Q mentions in his station laboratory as he hands Bond his new watch: "This is your twentieth, I believe," in a nod to this being the twentieth film occurring on the fortieth anniversary.

Bond is Bond, what I want to talk about is Jinx. Is it just me? I don't nessesarily think Halle Barry is really all that she is thought of. Yes, she is beautiful, yes, she is a great actor and she was by far the biggest star to take a role as a Bond girl, but come on, she isn't that good. They actually considered spinning off her character to her own movie. As a Bond girl she is okay but she falls into the same trap pretty much all of the Bond girls before her fell into, they end up having to have Bond charge in as a galant white night and save them.

Up Next: Casino Royale, Bond 21 and currently last film. In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.