The Best Bond Movie: Brosnan

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For the overview of these threads, see the above link.

And now, the movies:

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World is Not Enough

Die Another Day

As with the other threads, I will post trivia about the films, and surprising connections back to Ian Fleming's novels and short stories.

GoldenEye marks many firsts for a Bond film, being the first Bond film set after the Cold War, and the first to feature Pierce Brosnan as Bond, not to mention Dame Judi Dench as 'M' and Samantha Bond as Moneypenny. It is also the first Bond film to use computer animation for the opening titles, and the first to be done by Daniel Kleinman, the sucessor to the late Maurice Binder. GoldenEye has no relation to Fleming's work, except in that GoldenEye was the name of Fleming's house in Jamaica, itself named for a possible plan Fleming developed in WW2 when he was part of Intelligence.

I recently purchased "The Bond Pack" of movies with all of them in it... Goldeneye was the first one pulled out to watch

One bit that gets me now (that the movie is in the past) is how quick everything goes on a 14.4k baud modem. I'd even forgotten that people used to say baud when talking about modems. Apart from that I like it because it becomes too comicy for my liking in the later bond films. Tomorrow never dies is alright, but by Brosnan's last one some of the stunts aren't cool, they're just gimmicky. That's my take on it.

Did Bond ever kitesurf a tidal wave in the books?

No, but he....

*Survived getting whacked in the nuts repeatedly with a carpet beater (Casino Royale. In the movie, it is a length of rope)

*Was keelhauled across a reef (Live and Let Die. The incident was put into the movie For Your Eyes Only)

*Was nearly buried alive in a rock-fall engineered by Hugo Drax, a car crash, a brutal beating, nearly getting steam cooked, and finally avoiding the blast from the Moonraker rocket, many of which he survived with Gala Brand (Moonraker)

*Got a beating at the hands (or rather feet) of Wint and Kidd in football boots (an 80% 'Brooklyn Stomping'), and used a handcar to get away along a railroad track, and diverted a train driven by the main villain, a Mob boss called Spang, down a disused mine shaft (Diamonds Are Forever).

*Nearly got killed by Rosa Klebb poisoning him with tetrodotoxin (From Russia With Love)

*Fought his way through a deadly obstacle course designed by Dr No that involved an electric shock on a ventilator grill, heated piping, a smooth tube he could fall down, a room full of tarantulas, and finally, a fight to the death with a giant squid. He later buries Dr No underneath guano (Dr No).

*Ruins a secret surveillance system Goldfinger set up in his mansion in order to entrap Bond. Survives a buzz-saw about to castrate him and a massage from Oddjob. Turns the lesbian p**** Galore straight. (this is considered one of Fleming's weakest plot points in the novel, considering he killed off all the girls beforehand. In the film, p**** Galore's sexuality is left ambiguous. Goldfinger)

*Is nearly stretched to death on a traction machine and being throttled to death underwater by Largo (Thunderball).

*Is blown off a bobsled course (OHMSS).

*Is given make-up to look like a Japanese, tries his hand at fishing, poses as a deaf-mute miner, kills Blofeld, falls off a castle wall into the sea, gets amnesia, goes missing, and gets an obituary (You Only Live Twice).

*Is brainwashed by the KGB, attempts to kill M with a water pistol filled with cyanide, and gets hit by a poisoned bullet wielded by Scaramanga, who is killed by Bond shortly thereafter. (The Man with the Golden Gun)

Wow, bond gets out of more certain death situations the houdini himself!

That was sort of just a summary. He never quite parasurfed a tidal wave, though.

Tomorrow Never Dies was actually called Tomorrow Never Lies originally, but a misprint caused "Dies" to stick with the higher-ups at MGM.

You must really be obsessed with James Bond.

Not really. I went through a phase of obsession, though, and I have been rewatching a few of the Bond movies lately.

GoldenEye

I was always more partial to Goldeneye, and no its not because of the game. I thought it was well written and had some really great action scenes.

Goldeneye and World is Not Enough are my favorites, particularly the latter. i enjoyed Brosnan's take because he came along after the Cold War so his Bond had a lot of pathos and you can see in certain films he questioned the choices he'd made. in Goldeneye you can see the regret on his face. and personally i think Elektra King ranks as one of the best Bond villains ever.

Yeah. Pity they don't have any other main villains who are women.

The World is Not Enough is actually named after Bond's possible family motto. He mentions it to Elektra King in this exchange near the end of the film.

It is also noted for one of the few scenes in the series where Bond unambiguously kills a female villainous character (with the deaths of Fiona Volpe from Thunderball and Naomi from The Spy Who Loved Me in doubt, and Fatima Blush in the non-canonical Never Say Never Again, but the first time this unambiguously occurs is in GoldenEye, where Bond deliberately causes the death of Xenia Onatopp).

Onatopp?

The female baddy in GoldenEye. Played by Famke Janssen, later to play Jean Grey from X-Men.

zomgwtfbbq!?!?! that girl was jean grey?!?!