The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Bond 19
When oil tycoon Sir Robert King is assassinated in a bombing at M:I-6 headquarters, after recovering $3 million British pounds from a Swiss Bank in Bilbao, Spain, British secret agent James Bond 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is injured in the line of duty trying to pursue the assassin. Fearing Sir Robert's beautiful daughter and heiress Elektra King's (Sophie Marceau) life is in danger, M assigns 007 to protect her as Elektra has inherited her father's legacy, has taken over the business, and is constructing a new oil pipeline. Bond learns a evil terrorist known as Renard (Robert Carlyle), who has a bullet in his head that cuts off his senses so he can't smell, touch or feel pain. Renard was responsible for the assassination of Sir Robert. With help of nuclear scientist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) and former enemy, Ex KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky, Bond sets out to foil Renard's plan as he plots to wipe out Europe with a nuclear bomb. Hilarity ensues for James Bond as he not only tries to stop Renard, but also begins to question Elektra's motives.
Trivia: The briefing at the Scottish Castle where Bond does not get an assignment due to his injury is the first time that every 00 in the service is seen in one place since 1965's Thunderball- however in the days of the cold war, there was a full complement of nine 00s, whereas in 1999, there are only four (according to Fleming, there is never more than nine 00s at any given time). This also marks the first time that the faces of more than two 00s are seen in the same shot. This film is notable as being one of the few Bond movies in which James himself kills a leading female character. An early version of the script has Bond shoot King in cold blood before she attempts to contact Renard. A long-standing stereotype regarding James Bond is that 007 routinely kills women he beds; in truth, the death of Elektra is the only occasion in the Bond film series in which this undeniably occurs. (It is debatable whether Bond actually kills Fiona Volpe in Thunderball or if she is a victim of her men's poor shooting skills; in GoldenEye Bond causes Xenia Onatopp to be killed by a helicopter, but technically kills only the pilot of the craft himself - and it's debatable whether his earlier encounter with her in the film counts as "bedding". There is some debate whether Elektra, and not Renard, should be considered the central antagonist – and therefore whether she is the first female Bond villain – as it is clear that much of the plot is orchestrated by her, and by the fact that she stood to gain enormously from the whole scheme, while Renard fully expected to die. Indeed, much is made of Bond's slowly coming to suspect that she has been 'turned' by Renard while kidnapped (see above), only to learn from her that it was the other way round. That Bond has fallen in love with her is strongly suggested, and there are subtle connections made between her character and that of the Bond character's late wife from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Originally, the British government objected to filming the actual MI6 Headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, citing a security risk. However, then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Robin Cook said, "After all Bond has done for Britain, it was the least we could do for Bond."
This was Desmond Llewelyn's last appearance as "Q" before his death in December, 1999. The film also introduced "Q"'s successor, credited as "R", played by John Cleese. The name "R" is a joke in the film made by Bond upon their introduction. In future movies, he takes over the job of Quartermaster, thus taking on the title "Q". In Llewelyn's final scene, his "Q" is lowered into the ground while quipping: "Always have an escape plan". It was stated in promotional interviews at the time that this was not intended to be Llewelyn's final appearance onscreen, that he was going to continue with Cleese as his assistant. The scene turned out to be prophetic, as the actor died in an automobile accident only a few weeks after the film's release, at age 85. Llewelyn was the stalwart of the Bond Franchise appearing in 17 of the 19 Bond films before his death, the two he was not in were Dr. No the first Bond film where Major Boothroyd, eventually called Q, was not played by Llewelyn, and Live And Let Die, the first Roger Moore Bond film, where Q does not appear at all. John Cleese will take over the role in the next two movies (at least).
The Characters:
- James Bond - Pierce Brosnan returns as Bond for the third time.
- Elektra King - Sophie Marceau. Elektra is the daughter of oil tycoon Sir Robert King, whose mother's side of the family is of Azeri descent and fled the country immediately after the Soviet Union was established. It is hinted that Elektra harbored some resentment toward her father, as Elektra's grandfather had no sons, Sir Robert became the de facto male heir when he married into the family. She was kidnapped as a teenager by the terrorist Renard, and her father refused to pay the ransom on the advice of family friend (and James Bond's boss) M. Embittered, she became Renard's lover and participated in his scheme to bilk money from her family (going so far as to mutilate her ear so Renard could send it to her father as a warning) but pretended to have been traumatized by the kidnapping (Bond thought she suffered from Stockholm syndrome, but may have been blinded by his affection for her.) Ten years later, she secretly collaborated with Renard to blow up her family's oil pipeline and get revenge on her father and M, whom she blamed for her father's betrayal in not paying her ransom years earlier. She and Renard arrange an attack on MI6's London office hoping to kill her father and M. The attack is only partially successful, as M survives. Despite being injured in the attack, Bond decides to offer his services to protect Elektra, believing that Renard will target her next. To throw off suspicion, Elektra accepts Bond's offer and even becomes his lover. When Renard publicly threatened to destroy the pipeline, however, she showed her true colors and kidnapped M. The pipeline destruction, however, proved to be a diversion to further throw off suspicion to her real plan: contaminating the Bosporus with a nuclear meltdown, forcing oil traders to use her family's pipeline to transport the fossil fuel (the rest of the oil routes terminate in the Black Sea, meaning that tankers needed the Bosporus for transport).
- Dr. Christmas Jones - Denise Richards. Relatively little is known about Dr. Christmas Jones; she is an American nuclear physicist working in Kazakhstan to dismantle nuclear warheads so as to reduce the Russian inventory in line with treaty obligations. A young and highly attractive woman with a penchant for wearing revealing and tight clothing, she attracts much gawking from men, something she dislikes. As a result, Christmas tends to be rather defensive and even aggressive towards the men she meets. She particularly dislikes jokes being made about her forename. On their initial encounter Christmas distrusted Bond, who was working undercover to investigate Renard's presence at a Russian missile facility. Some fans speculate that the American Jones may have attended a British university, as she knew enough about British culture to realize that Bond was lying to her, but this is not supported by the film. When Christmas realized that Bond was not who he claimed to be, she alerted both the authorities and, unintentionally, Renard; as a result, Renard was able to escape with a nuclear warhead. Once she learned of Renard's plot to destroy the pipeline, Christmas assisted Bond in his mission. In classic Bond-movie fashion, she became highly attracted to him, and they consummated their romantic relationship after the end of the mission, prompting Bond's comment "I thought Christmas only comes once a year."
- Viktor Lavrentievich Zokas, AKA Renard, the Anarchist- Robert Carlyle. Renard was trained by the KGB as an assassin, but was let go because of his mental instability. With the cessation of the Cold War, the political climate changes, and he becomes a terrorist. During a mission to thwart one of Renard's plots, MI6 agent 009 tracked him down and shot him in the head. Renard survived the attack, but the bullet could not be removed from his head, and was steadily working its way through his brain toward the cerebral cortex. As it moved, it steadily deprived Renard of his ability to taste, smell, and, most notably, feel. At some indeterminate time, the bullet would reach his cerebral cortex and kill him, but he would continue to function, and indeed grow stronger, until his death, as his inability to feel pain allowed him to drive himself far beyond ordinary physical limits. His unique physical prowess is demonstrated in a grisly scene where he handles scalding pieces of volcanic rock in his hand without so much as flinching. He kidnapped Elektra King, a billionaire heiress, and held her for ransom, which her father refused to pay. Elektra, who was suffering from Stockholm syndrome and so believed herself to be in love with Renard, was infuriated and joined forces with him, mutilating her own ear so he could send a piece of it to her family as a warning. She then "escaped" and remained her former captor's lover in secret. Ten years later, he joined forces with Elektra in a scheme to take control of the world's oil market. In a bold move, they launched an attack on MI6 (a first for the series), which kills Elektra's father, who was visiting the facility. Originally, it is thought their target was her family oil pipeline, but it is later revealed that they damaged the pipeline to cover their real target: all oil supplies except for those belonging to the King family. Renard hijacked a Russian nuclear submarine and intended to introduce weapons-grade plutonium into the sub's nuclear reactor, causing a nuclear meltdown. This would happen in the Bosporus at Istanbul; the ensuing "accident" would contaminate the city and the Bosporus for decades, preventing any shipping from the Black Sea — including shipments of Caspian Sea oil via all existing pipelines except for the King pipeline, which terminated on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.
The Theme Song:
The theme tune "The World Is Not Enough" was performed by Garbage. This is the second James Bond soundtrack composed by David Arnold. Arnold breaks with tradition by not ending the film with a new song or a reprise of the opening theme. Originally, Arnold was going to use the song "Only Myself to Blame" at the end of the film, however, it was replaced by a techno remix of the James Bond theme. "Only Myself to Blame", sung by Scott Walker, and written by David Arnold & Don Black, does appear on the soundtrack album. This is actually the fifth Bond song Black has contributed to. Other films with songs he's contributed to include Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Tomorrow Never Dies.
The Vehicles & Gadgets:
- BMW Z8 — Loaded with several Q refinements including ground to air missiles, a key chain that can control the car remotely, and as R proudly points out, six cup holders. It was later sawn in half and destroyed during a battle at Zukovsky's caviare factory.
- Q Boat — Was an unfinished "fishing boat" created by Q for his retirement. It includes torpedoes and a GPS tracking system. It could also submerge, although this feature wasn't quite finished when Bond took it (the windshield probably hadn't been installed at that time) and forced him to hold his breath while underwater.
- Omega Watch — Bond's watch has the ability to shoot a grappling hook.
- Protective Jacket — Q gives Bond a jacket, that when deployed encloses Bond and potentially another person inside a ball. Bond uses it to survive an avalanche when out skiing with Elektra. This gadget appears to be based on the Zorb.
- X-ray glasses — which Bond uses in the casino to locate the guards' weapons and occasionally see women's underwear. [Source]
The Pretitle Sequence:
We follow Bond to a swiss bank in Bilbao, Spain where upon after retrival of three million pounds a siege takes place. Bond barely escapes the local police, leaving them questioning the mysterious shooting that occured minutes ago. The next day, at the MI-6 Headquarters in London, Q calls Bond in first to meet Sir Robert King then to report on the mission. It was then that Bond discovers that the three million pounds was, in fact, a bomb, but is to late to warn King. The bomb detonates which destroys the Headquarters and kills King. Bond's only suspect happens to be the woman from the swiss bank who blows herself up from a hot-air balloon rather then give herself up after a long boat chase sequence.
Again, it's a Bond movie, it is what it is. There is nothing extraordinary that distinguishes this from the 18 previous ones, although the Elektra King situation was pretty cool. By the way, the worst Bond girl outfit, at the caviar factory, Christmas Jones' purple tight yet frumpy miniskirt thing with white tennis shoes?
Up Next: Die Another Day, Bond 20, It's up to James Bond to discover the connection between a North Korean terrorist and an adventurous diamond broker whose looks may be deceiving.
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