'''Die Another Day''' is a
2002 spy film. It is the 20th
film in the
James Bond series and the fourth and final to star
Pierce Brosnan as
MI6 agent
James Bond. In the film, Bond is betrayed after killing a rogue
North Korean
Colonel and captured. Once released in a prisoner exchange, he must follow a trail of clues in an effort to reveal the MI6 leak and soon learns that the villain he is pursuing is the same North Korean Colonel he supposedly killed. Bond then must prevent a
satellite from igniting a war between North and
South Korea.
''Die Another Day'' was produced by Bond veterans
Michael G. Wilson and
Barbara Broccoli. ''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.
Plot
Bond and two South Korean men infiltrate an organization of
Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, a
North Korean army officer who is illegally selling military weaponry in exchange for
African conflict diamonds. Bond plants two blocks of
C4 in the briefcase of diamonds and inserts the
detonator from his
wristwatch. He meets
Zao, a Korean operative working for Colonel Moon and the Colonel himself. After Bond hands over the diamonds, Zao discovers Bond's true identity and informs Moon. Colonel Moon destroys the helicopter that Bond arrived in preventing the agent's escape.
General Moon, Colonel Moon's father, calls and tells him that he will arrive shortly. Colonel Moon orders his men to kill Bond and boards a large
hovercraft. Bond detonates the C4 in the briefcase, embedding a number of diamonds in Zao's face and causing complete
mayhem. Bond escapes in a hovercraft and chases after Colonel Moon. During the chase, Colonel Moon is 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.
Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Giacinta Johnson - known as Jinx (Halle Berry) meet in Cuba.
Bond is released in exchange for Zao, captured during Bond's imprisonment. Because the government believes Bond has been giving the North Koreans secret information, he is disavowed by his superiors upon his release, and his status as Double-0 Agent suspended by
M. Bond quickly escapes captivity and sets out to find the mole on his own. Bond meets up with Mr. Chang at a hotel in
Hong Kong and offers to find Zao, as Zao had killed three of Chang's men trying to bomb a summit between
South Korea and
China before he was caught. Chang locates Zao in
Cuba and kindly tells Bond, "If you find him, say goodbye from us." Bond meets
Raoul who tells him that Zao has been located on a nearby island called Isla Los Organos, a Gene Therapy Clinic in which patients have their
appearance and identity changed. On the coast, Bond meets
NSA agent
Jinx (
Halle Berry), and follows her to the clinic, where she kills one of the doctors and locates Zao's room.
Bond, however, is already there. Holding Zao at gunpoint, and torturing him briefly, Bond is unsuccessful in extracting information from him about his capture in North Korea. A fight breaks out and Bond seizes a bullet-shaped pendant hanging around Zao's neck. Zao escapes the room and Jinx goes after him. Bond gives chase as Jinx pursues Zao to the outer wall of the clinic — only to watch Zao escape in a helicopter. Jinx dives off the wall backwards to escape the armed security guards, and is met by a waiting speedboat. Bond opens the object he snatched from Zao, and finds a cache of diamonds. With the help of Raoul, Bond learns the diamonds are conflict diamonds from Africa, but bear the crest of
Gustav Graves' company.
Bond tracks Graves back to
London, where the billionaire businessman (known as "The King of Diamonds"), arrives outside
Buckingham Palace by
parachute. Bond seeks out Graves at a fencing club in London. The two men engage in a fierce duel of
swords. At the conclusion, Graves invites Bond to a party he is holding in
Iceland for a scientific
demonstration. During the same scene, Bond meets to Graves' fencing partner,
Miranda Frost, who icily rebuffs his verbal advances.
In an abandoned
underground train station, M restores Bond's Double-0 status and offers MI6 assistance in the investigation. Bond learns that Miranda Frost is a mole for MI6. She has failed to deliver the goods on Graves, to the annoyance of M. After receiving equipment from
Q, Bond sets out to Iceland where the party is being held in an
Ice Palace. During the party he encounters Jinx.
Graves makes a splashy presentation about giving the planet something in return for all it has given him. Using the controls in a high-tech
suitcase on the podium, Graves activates a
satellite in
outer space that reflects the
Sun's rays onto the Ice Palace — turning night to day. Everyone applauds at the spectacular results and Graves announces, "I give you
Icarus!" Graves' scheme, reminiscent of ''
Diamonds Are Forever'', ''
Moonraker'' and ''
GoldenEye'', involves an
orbital mirror system made of diamonds that will focus solar energy on a small area to light the Arctic nights and provide year-round sunshine for crop development. In truth, the orbital mirror system is a super weapon. Bond deduces Graves' true identity; he is Colonel Moon, surgically altered via
gene therapy.
Jinx attempts to infiltrate Graves' command center in the ice palace, but is waylaid by Zao. After being rescued by Bond, she sets off for backup, but instead is trapped in an ice cave. Bond continues exploring the facility. He confronts Graves where he discovers that Frost is a double agent and betrayed Bond in Korea.
Bond escapes from Graves and the ice palace despite the full power of Icarus being used against him. He returns to the ice palace as Graves and Frost escape. Bond defeats Zao in a battle of armed cars, and then rescues Jinx from the melting ice palace, after a blast to the structure from Icarus.
Zao's Jaguar XKR
Bond and Jinx return to South Korea and are deployed behind enemy lines to assassinate Graves. They
HALO jump into North Korea and plan to kill using a sniper rifle. They miss their chance to kill Graves and must stowaway on a plane with Graves, his lieutenants and General Moon. Until now General Moon has been unaware of his son's new identity. Graves is using a
remote control arm band to control Icarus as it clears a path through the minefield in the
demilitarized zone that separates
North Korea from
South Korea. After the mine field of the DMZ is destroyed North Korea will invade South Korea,
Japan, and other surrounding nations. Icarus can also defend North Korea, by destroying any
ballistic missile or
nuclear warhead fired on the country or their troops, foiling any large scale retaliation from their enemies. He is repulsed by his son's appearance, disgusted by his plans, and turns on Graves. Disappointed by his father's response, Graves shoots him.
Bond advances to shoot Graves but is thwarted when one of his men pushes Bond, causing him to shoot a window and cause the plane to
decompressurise (reminscent of ''
Goldfinger''). Jinx manages to stabilise the plane, but is confronted by Miranda with a sword, and forces her to put the plane onto
auto-pilot before escorting her out of the cockpit. Unbeknowest to them, the auto-pilot is flying the plane directly towards the Icarus Beam.
Bond battles Graves in the plane's command center while Jinx battles Miranda. In the process, the plane flies into the Icarus beam and is severely damaged. Both Bond and Jinx defeat their respective opponents and escape the plane in a helicopter stowed in the back.
Meanwhile at MI6, Moneypenny tests Q's virtual glasses gadget, she imagines kissing Bond for perhaps the first time. Q comes in and finds her laying down on the floor in a comical way. The movie cuts to James and Jinx in a secluded tropical villa. They lie in bed surrounded by an uncountable number of diamonds as the credits roll.
Cast
Main articles: List of James Bond henchmen in Die Another Day ,
List of James Bond allies in Die Another Day
Vehicles and gadgets
Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles,
List of James Bond 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". It also has a 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.
Q jokingly refers to the car as 'The Vanish'
Jaguar XKR - Not technically a Bond car, this car was driven by the villain Zao. It was equipped with a rear-mounted minigun, thermal imaging device, missiles concealed behind the front grille and in the sides of the car, a retractable battering ram, and mortar shells launched from the trunk.
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).
[3]
The opening big wave surfing sequence shot at
pipeline on the north shore of
Oahu December 2001
Glass Shattering Ring - This ring, given to Bond by Q-Branch, emits a high-pitched frequency that shatters any glass in its range.
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 houses 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.
Production
''Die Another Day'' departs from the traditional Bond formula in a number of ways. The film's opening action sequence concludes with Bond being imprisoned and tortured for fourteen months by the
North Korean People's Army. It is also the final Bond film to feature the original series' James Bond.(1962-2002)
The film elicited poor opinions across the
Korean peninsula and the rest of the world. North Koreans were unhappy with its portrayal as a brutal, war-hungry state. 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 defense of their own homeland.
[4]
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,
[5] although ''
USA Today'' reported that number to be as high as $100 million.
[6] 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.
Although the basic plot and the title do not derive from any James Bond novel, this is the first film since 1989's ''
Licence to Kill'' to include notable elements from the Bond books. In particular, the North Korean villain Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, has a similar name to that of
Colonel Sun, the villain in
Kingsley Amis' Bond novel of the same name.
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 weapon; a villain supposedly killed by Bond in the opening scenes who returns as a millionaire) as well as the Bond film ''
The Man with the Golden Gun'' (Icarus is a weapon that can harnass the power of the sun as does the Solex Agitator in ''Golden Gun''.)
''Die Another Day'' was the first movie since ''
Live and Let Die'' not to feature
Desmond Llewelyn, who had died in a car crash on December 19th 1999 just days after the release of ''
The World Is Not Enough''. Instead,
John Cleese 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''), Q even states that he learned from his predecessor that he never jokes about his work, this line is a tribute to
Desmond Llewelyn who made it clear to Bond that never joked about his work in 1964's
Goldfinger.
Locations
The film was primarily shot in various parts of the
United Kingdom,
Cadiz,
Spain and
Iceland.
Shooting locations included
Pinewood Studios including
Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage,
Maui,
Hawaii — ''surfing scene off Pukch'ong Coast, North Korea'',
Holywell Bay, near
Newquay,
Cornwall, UK — ''North Korean beach'', and
Cádiz,
Spain (
Beach of La Caleta) — ''Havana, Cuba and Isla Los Organos, Cuba''.
In London the
Reform Club was used, with ''interior of the lobby at the Blades club'' and the ''MI6 Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Westminster''.
Svalbard,
Norway was used for the ''Car chase on the ice'' and
Jökulsárlón,
Iceland — ''car chase on frozen lake near Graves' ice palace''.
Jostedal National Park,
Norway and
RAF Little Rissington,
Gloucestershire, UK was used for additional scenes for the frozen lake car chase. Other location sites included
The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK for ''interior of Iceland diamond mine'',
RAF Odiham, Hampshire, UK — ''United States Army Command Bunker, Korean DMZ'',
RAF Manston,
Kent, UK — ''North Korean Airbase'',
Burnham Deepdale,
Norfolk, UK ''South Korean paddy fields and farm'' and
Penbryn beach,
Ceredigion, Wales UK for the ''South Korean beach closing scene''
The
Bridge of No Return was shot at
Church Crookham,
Hampshire, UK.
Reaction
''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. Despite this however the film receives major criticism from many online polls, considering it the weakest movie in the franchise, reasons for this include the under-development of several characters, poorly executed
CGI sequences and the direction of
Lee Tamahori. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film with a 59%
[8] freshness rating.
Soundtrack
Original Die Another Day soundtrack cover
The
title song for ''Die Another Day'' was written and sung by
Madonna, who 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 directly moved the film's plot along (as opposed to all previous Bond film titles which are mostly standalone set pieces). 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.
[9]
Novelization
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, was the final literary adventure featuring Bond as originally conceived by Ian Fleming until the announcement of a special novel featuring the adult Bond scheduled for publication in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth, ''
Devil May Care'' by
Sebastian Faulks.
Jinx spinoff
Berry'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 ''. Berry's own 2004 flop, ''
Catwoman'', most likely did not help matters.
References to other James Bond films
To acknowledge that this movie marked the 40th anniversary of the Bond films, the producers incorporated references to every one of the preceding 19 films. There are several appearances of
Bond gadgets in MI6's laboratory, such as the shoe-blade which appeared in ''
From Russia with Love'', the jet-pack in ''
Thunderball'', and the jet and alligator submarine from
Octopussy.The scene of Bond's fencing fight with Graves, wherein they destroy display cases and other valuable artefacts, was lifted from ''
Moonraker''; he encounters a female agent with a gun holstered to her thigh, as in ''
Licence To Kill'';
★ Like
Honey Rider in ''
Dr. No'', Jinx is first seen rising out of the sea, wearing a bikini, knife, and belt;
★ Jinx's near death by laser beams, and Bond's battle with them, recalls the laser scene in ''
Goldfinger''; Also, Graves being sucked out of the plane echoes Auric Goldfinger's death in the film.
★ The smuggling of diamonds and the use of a
satellite with a powerful laser comes from ''
Diamonds Are Forever''. The clear, ovate, cross-hatched floor in Graves' office was seen in
Blofeld's Whyte House lair in that film as well. Graves also says the line "Diamonds are for everyone";
★ The
magnetic resonance imaging machine that grabs metal objects functions much like the magnetic watch in ''
Live and Let Die'';
★ Bond is taken to
MI6 field offices, in a British ship located in the waters off
Hong Kong like in ''
The Man With The Golden Gun'';
★ The Union Jack parachute that Graves uses echoes Bond's in ''
The Spy Who Loved Me'';
★ Bond's fencing fight with Graves, wherein they destroy display cases and other valuable artefacts, resembles his fight with Chang in ''
Moonraker'';
★ The People spying on Bond behind the mirror in the hotel suite is an homage to ''
From Russia With Love'' in which
S.P.E.C.T.R.E films Bond and Tatiana.
★ Bond and Jinx's escape from the plane mirrors Bond and Kara's from ''
The Living Daylights''.
★ Two main Bond girls: One tries to help him, the other tries to kill him. Notable examples include ''
Thunderball'', ''
You Only Live Twice'', ''
The Spy Who Loved Me'', ''
A View to a Kill'', ''
GoldenEye'' and ''
The World Is Not Enough''.
★ Graves returning under the identity of a millionaire is a reference to ''
Diamonds Are Forever''.
★ The revocation of Bond's license to kill and his loss of Double-O status mirrors ''
Licence To Kill''.
★ The bullet zooming through the gunbarrel during the gunbarrel sequence mirrors the openning credits of
Pierce Brosnan's first outing as 007, ''
GoldenEye''.
In addition to these mission-specific references, the film also references the creation of the name "
James Bond". When the spy picks up the book ''Birds Of The West Indies'', it is a nod to the author of the book,
James Bond, whose name
Ian Fleming used for the name of his superspy.
References
1. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dieanotherday.htm
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246460/trivia
3. Bond Flies PHASST
4. Both sides of the DMZ irked by James Bond
5. New Bond film 'a giant advert'
6. Bond reunites with Smirnoff
7. Bond reunites with Smirnoff
8. Rotten Tomatoes
9.
External links
★
★
★
★ http://www.jamesbond.com/ James Bond Official site (note that this just takes you to the Casino Royale site now)
★
The New York Times Review
★
Movie Tour Guide.com - Maps and directions to Die Another Day Filming Locations
★
Locations site
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