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Die Another Day is a James Bond film made by EON Productions and the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming's James Bond. It was released in 2002 and produced by Bond veterans Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. It was the third Bond film not to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q, and the first not to feature him since Live and Let Die (1973). Die Another Day, being the twentieth Bond film and also being released the year of the Bond film franchise's "40th Anniversary," pays homage in previous James Bond films[2] and additionally references several Fleming novels as well as novels by other official Bond authors.
Overview
The film elicited poor opinions across the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world, with the North unhappy with its portrayal as a brutal, war-hungry state, while many South Koreans were offended by a romantic scene conducted in a Buddhist temple and a scene where an American officer issues orders to the South Korean army in the defence of their own homeland.[3] The amount of product placement was also a point of criticism, specifically from various news outlets such as the BBC, Time and Reuters who all used the pun "Buy Another Day". Reportedly 20 companies paying $70 million had their products featured in the film, a record at the time,[4] although USA Today reported that number to be as high as $100 million.[5] By choice the number of companies involved in product placement was dwindled to only eight for the next Bond film Casino Royale in 2006.[6] Due to one product tie-in there are two versions of Die Another Day. In the United States, one scene has Bond shaving with a Norelco Spectra shaver and in some prints outside the U.S. Bond uses a Philishave Sensotec shaver. Despite these criticisms Die Another Day was, until the release of Casino Royale, the highest grossing James Bond film without adjusting for inflation. It took in $160,942,139 in the United States and $432 million in sales worldwide.
A number of elements from Fleming's original novel Moonraker are also included. In that novel, a Nazi adopts a new identity and becomes a popular British multi-millionaire. He then donates millions to create a "Moonraker" missile which is supposed to be for Britain's protection but is actually meant to destroy London. The parallels between that plot and Die Another Day's plot are apparent. In addition, the club called Blades, a fencing club in this film, was featured as a card club in Moonraker. The character of Miranda Frost was originally named Gala Brand, the same name as the Bond girl in the original Moonraker novel. This movie also gets a small part of its plot from the film Diamonds are Forever (diamonds being used for a satellite laser). Die Another Day was the first movie since Live and Let Die not to feature Desmond Llewelyn, who had died in 1999 just after the release of The World Is Not Enough. John Cleese, formerly of Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, took over the role of Q. It is, however, clear that he is playing a different character (who had been introduced as Q's assistant "R" in The World Is Not Enough). Plot summarySpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Image:GravesDAD2.jpg Toby Stephens as Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Gustav Graves) 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. Colonel Moon is apparently killed after falling over a waterfall, and Bond is captured by the North Korean military, and remanded to prison where he is tortured for fourteen months. Disavowed by his superiors upon his release, and his status as Double-0 Agent suspended by M, Bond sets out to find the mole on his own. Uncovering evidence that overtakes his personal vendetta, M restores his Double-0 status and offers MI6 assistance to help him uncover what he's found. After receiving equipment from Q, he sets out to find where this evidence leads. His search eventually leads to billionaire businessman Gustav Graves, who is actually Colonel Moon surgically altered via gene therapy (the film's title, Die Another Day, refers to Colonel Moon surviving his first encounter with 007. Upon meeting him later in the film Bond comments, "So you lived to die another day."). Graves' scheme, reminiscent of Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker and GoldenEye, involves Icarus, an orbital mirror system made of diamonds that will supposedly focus solar energy on a small area to light the Arctic nights and, if the investment goes well with buyers, provide year-round sunshine for crop development. In truth, the orbital mirror system is actually a superweapon. It is first used to clear a path through the minefield in the demilitarized zone that separates North Korea from South Korea. North Korea would be able to invade South Korea, Japan, and other surrounding nations. Icarus would also be used to defend North Korea while it invades, by destroying any ballistic missile or nuclear warhead fired on North Korea or their troops, foiling any large scale retaliation from their enemies. Bond, with the aid of NSA agent Jinx (played by Halle Berry), defeats Gustav Graves, whose other major techno-toy is an exoskeleton equipped with a high-voltage electric weapon, and prevents global catastrophe. Frost, Graves' assistant, who is purportedly working for MI6, is eventually revealed to be the mole within the agency. Spoilers end here.
Cast & charactersImage:HalleB.jpg Halle Berry's introductory scene and orange bikini are a homage to Honey Ryder in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No.
Crew
Vehicles & gadgetsSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Image:Die another day jaguar xkr.jpg Zao's Jaguar XKR
Spoilers end here.
LocationsLocations Depicted in the Film
Shooting locations
Italics indicate the locations in the movie portrayed by each shooting location. SoundtrackImage:007DADsountrack.jpg Original Die Another Day soundtrack cover 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. The soundtrack was composed by David Arnold, his third outing as the composer for a James Bond movie. Arnold again made use of electronic rhythm elements in his score, and included two of the new themes he created for The World is not Enough. The first, originally used as Renard's theme for the previous film, is heard during the mammoth "Antonov" cue on the recording, and is written for piano. The second new theme, most easily described as Bond's romance theme, was used in the "Christmas in Turkey" track on the The World Is not Enough soundtrack, and is heard here on the "Going Down Together" track. The soundtrack was released on Warner Bros. Records, which is also Madonna's label. Prior to Madonna's title song being chosen, Arnold, along with lyricist Don Black began work on their own title track titled "I Will Return". It was never finished. 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.[8] Track listing
NovelizationImage:DieAnotherDayBook.jpg 2002 British Coronet Books paperback edition. The novelization to Die Another Day was written by the then-current official James Bond writer, Raymond Benson based on the screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Like the movie, the novel has many references to past Bond movies and novels. Months after its publication, it was announced that Benson was retiring as the official James Bond novelist, and Ian Fleming Publications (owner of the literary franchise) announced that the series was on hiatus. A new series of James Bond novels, by Charlie Higson was launched in 2005, although it focuses on Bond's adventures as a teenager (Young Bond). As a result, Die Another Day, the novel, is for the time being the final literary adventure featuring Bond as originally conceived by Ian Fleming, although the publisher is reportedly planning another "adult Bond" novel to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth in 2008.
Jinx spinoffBerry's performance was heavily criticized by many reviewers and fans, though she won an Academy Award for Best Actress (for Monster's Ball) in the midst of filming, making her only the second actor after Christopher Walken to be an Oscar-winner at the time of their appearance in an official Bond film (Judi Dench also won an Oscar in 1999 as well as Benicio Del Toro in 2000, but this was after their debut in the series). Regardless of these criticisms, the character of Jinx was nonetheless considered popular enough for MGM to announce plans for the first-ever James Bond spin-off movie based upon the character and starring Halle Berry. Stephen Frears was attached to direct and actor Colin Salmon was set to portray his Bond character, Charles Robinson, as Jinx's mission director. MGM abruptly cancelled production in late 2003 to focus on the next James Bond film, Casino Royale. Some film critics have speculated that the cancellation may have been connected to the box office underperformance of several female-led action films in 2003, most notably Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Berry's own 2004 flop, Catwoman, most likely did not help matters. References to other James Bond filmsTo acknowledge that this movie marked the 40th anniversary of the Bond films, the producers incorporated references to every one of the preceding 19 films.
Trivia
See alsoNotes and references
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