Bondathon: Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies was a film rushed to capitalise on the success of Goldeneye. It seemed like it could have suffered from the issues that affected The Man with the Golden Gun with it being a notoriously troubled production.

A British warship is sunk in the South China Sea. The British and Chinese dispute the events and look set to go to war. However, M (Judi Dench) believes the British and Chinese are being manipulated by an outside force. She sends Bond to investigate the Carver Media Group and its egotistical owner Elliott Carver (Jonathan Pryce).

Tomorrow Never Dies has a similar premise to You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me because all these films had an outside force trying to provoke World War III. Like You Only Live Twice, the villain’s motivation was profit and MI6 suspicions were raised by a foreign signal. The Spy Who Loved Me had a lot of naval action and Tomorrow Never Dies’ climax was at sea and in both The Spy Who Loved Me and Tomorrow Never Dies Bond had to team up with an agent from a rival nation.

Tomorrow Never Dies did have differences to You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me. In the preceding films the villains were people who grand had plans. In You Only Live Twice SPECTRE wanted to show off how much power they had whilst Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me wanted to start a new civilisation under the sea. Elliott Carver’s ambitions were simpler because the war was good for gaining viewers and selling papers. The grand part of his scheme was getting exclusive broadcasting rights in China for 100 years. He’s just wanted what most major companies wanted to do: break into China.

Elliott Carver’s scheme was one that walked the tightrope between plausible and ridiculous. It’s not a grounded Bond series like From Russia With Love or Casino Royale (2006), but it isn’t outlandish like Moonraker and Die Another Day. He’s a media mogul that manipulated the world so his organisation had the exclusive scoops. It was just one step further to what the actual media would do.

Carver was a parody of Rupert Murdoch, and to a lesser extent Robert Maxell. Carver was a character who relished the power he had. He didn’t need to achieve world domination, he already had it because he could release a story that could cripple a government. Jonathan Pryce was having a blast in the role: he was playing the character like he was in a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. Carver just enjoyed the pain and misery he caused and his introduction in the film ended with him saying ‘there’s no news, like bad news.’ It’s surprising he didn’t break out into maniacal laugher.

Tomorrow Never Dies saw a notable change in tone. Tomorrow Never Dies was much lighter than the previous three films and echoed the Roger Moore era. There were a lot more jokes and Brosnan’s Bond made a lot more jokes and quips during the film, there was more physical humour, like when Bond touched the dragon. Tomorrow Never Dies added more innuendo which was impressive considering the previous film had a character called Onatopp. Moneypenny said to Bond ‘you always were a cunning linguist’ which was a joke that went over my head when I was younger.

Some of the characters’ personalities did change for this film. Judi Dench’s M was hostile to Bond in Goldeneye and called him ‘a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.’ In Tomorrow Never Dies she suggested Bond should pump Carver’s wife for information. Jack Wade seemed like he had a personality transplant because he went from a grumpy bastard in Russia to a more jolly, light-hearted man wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Tomorrow Never Dies did have serious moments. This was shown through Bond’s relationship with Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher). Paris was a woman Bond had a fling with in the past and she helped the agent with his mission. Her involvement ends up in her death and Bond was affected by it. It was like Jill Masterson’s death in Goldfinger because Bond finds both women murdered in his hotel room. Paris’ was potentially more impactful because she had a history with Bond and Brosnan got to show some gentle acting when he kissed her dead body. My colleague Jean was more critical of Tomorrow Never Dies in our podcast because she thought the female characters were disposable and I appreciate Paris’ death could be seen as a ‘women in refrigerators’ situation. But I thought Paris’ death showed a rare moment of vulnerability for James.

Within that same scene Bond had to face Dr. Kaufmann (Vincent Schiavelli), Paris’ murderer. When Bond was able to turn the tables, Kaufmann pleads by saying ‘I’m just a professional doing a job’ and Bond replies ‘me too,’ it gave us an insight into how Bond views his job. It was like Dalton’s Bond said ‘I only kill professionals’ in The Living Daylights.

Tomorrow Never Dies was the first Bond film where Vic Armstrong directed the second unit. Armstrong was a famed stuntman and stunt co-ordinator and for Tomorrow Never Dies he did organise some great action sequences. Tomorrow Never Dies started with a great pre-title sequence where he only had four minutes to hijack a fighter jet with nuclear warheads from a terrorist camp. It was a showcase of Armstrong’s abilities.

The other two memorable action sequences were a car chase in the car park and the motorbike chase around Ho Chi Minh City. The car park chase showed off all of Bond’s car accessories and worked well in its confined space. The chase around the Vietnamese city was a massive event where Bond and Wan Lin (Michelle Yeoh) were riding a motorbike whilst handcuffed together. It was mayhem and the glorious moment was when Bond and Wan Lin had to jump over a helicopter.

Wan Lin was one of the most capable and badass women Bond has teamed up with. She was a Chinese agent so had a similar set of skills to Bond and at the time Yeoh was known for making Hong Kong action films. She kicked a lot of ass in the film and she got to display her martial arts when her safe house was attacked.

Götz Otto as Stamper was in a similar mould to Andreas Wisniewski in The Living Daylights: a big bad German henchman. Stamper was the physical threat in the film and the final boss of the film. Although Stamper was a huge man, he was one of the more vocal henchmen: he wasn’t silent like Oddjob or Jaws. He made a solid henchman.

The issue for Tomorrow Never Dies was it lacked any scene of glamour or luxury. Bond didn’t go to a casino or luxury events, the most he did was go to Carver’s launch party. It was a corporate event if designed by Oceania, fitting considering the film’s production designer worked on 1984. A big portion of the film was set in Hamburg but not much of that city was shown. Bond, Wan Lin, and Carver’s forces smashed up the slums of Ho Chi Minh City during the bike chase. It was like Diamonds Are Forever, it didn’t look like a Bond film.

Tomorrow Never Dies won’t stand with some of the tier Bond films but it is a good pick-up and play film due to its action and light tone. It was a film I watched a lot back on VHS.