Film — Novelisation — Soundtrack — Song — Characters Miranda Frost: "This is crazy. You're a double O." James Bond: "It's only a number..." ―James Bond and Miranda Frost. Die Another Day is the twentieth James Bond series made by EON Productions and the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as MI6 agent James Bond. It was released in 2002 and produced by Bond veterans Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. It is the first film not to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q since Live and Let Die (1973) after his death from a car accident in 1999, days after The World Is Not Enough was released. Die Another Day, being the twentieth Bond film and also being released the year of the Bond film's "40th Anniversary," pays homage in some sort of way to every previous official James Bond film [1]. It also additionally references several Ian Fleming novels as well as novels by other official Bond authors. The story begins in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea with a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase and continues via Hong Kong to Cuba and London where Bond meets up with the two ladies who are to play such important and differing roles in his quest to unmask a traitor and to prevent a war of catastrophic consequence.
Hot on the trail of the principle villains, Bond travels to Iceland where he experiences at first hand the power of an amazing new weapon before a dramatic confrontation with his main adversary back in Korea where it all started. The film is also the last of the original timeline of the franchise, before the series was rebooted in 2006 with Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig as Bond. The plot, reminiscent of Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever and GoldenEye, involves billionaire businessman Gustav Graves, who through Cuban genetic engineering, is actually a North Korean Colonel (Colonel Moon) who in the pre-title sequence was supposedly killed by Bond. The film's title, Die Another Day, refers to Colonel Moon surviving his first encounter with 007. Upon meeting later in the film Bond comments, "So you live to die another day." Graves' scheme involves the construction of an orbital mirror system made of diamonds that will supposedly focus solar energy on a small area to light the Arctic nights.
In truth the orbital mirror system is actually a superweapon designed to clear a path through the minefield in the demilitarized zone that separates North Korea from South Korea. Bond, with the aid of NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson, defeats Gustav Graves, whose other major technology is an exoskeleton equipped with a high-voltage electric weapon, and prevents global catastrophe. Along the way, he beds both Jinx and Graves' assistant, the blond "ice queen" Miranda Frost. Frost, in a succession of twists, is first revealed to be working for MI6, then later as a double agent for Graves. Unbeknownst to Graves, Bond had not only survived their encounter, but had covertly boarded the plane in North Korea. Following the murder of General Moon, Bond's attempt to shoot Graves is foiled by a henchman whose interference leads to him shooting a window; causing the plane to depressurize. Donning mechanical armor, Graves and Bond fight hand-to-hand as the aircraft spirals out of control.
After seemingly defeating Bond by electrocution, Graves attempts to evacuate the plummeting aircraft by parachute. Bond reaches out and yanks the parachute's release cord; causing Graves to be pulled through a hole in the fuselage. As Moon desperately clings onto the edge of the chassis, Bond reaches out and activates the suit's electric defenses causing Moon to shock himself. He loses his grip and is sucked - along with the controls for the Icarus - into the plane's jet engine. The movie departs from the usual Bond formula in several ways. Die Another Day begins with an action set-piece which, instead of a comic ending, ends with Bond captured by the North Korean army, after which he is tortured for fourteen months, depicted in a stylized manner through the title sequence. The movie also shows some attempts to improve the appeal of Bond to a younger audience, featuring two separate scenes of Bond surfing, a more contemporary soundtrack (by David Arnold), and extensive use of The Matrix-style slow-motion pans.
Critical reaction to the film was mixed, even allowing for the typical disdain of action films (and of sequels) held by many reviewers. Many saw it as a retread of old ideas from the Roger Moore era that did not mesh with more "modern" takes on the genre such as 24 and The Bourne Identity, and scoffed at the attempts to appeal to a younger audience; supporters of the film counter that the so-called "retread of old ideas" was simply the film paying homage to earlier Bond films, adding that Bond's incarceration and torture at the start of the movie sufficiently broke the pattern of recent Bond films. Some also felt that the extensive use of CGI special effects detracted from one of the major appeals of the older films—that the stunts, however preposterous, were actually performed. The quality of the CGI effects in some scenes was also criticized; compare the action sequence at the beginning (Bond's near-escape in Northern Korea using hovercrafts) and the parachute-assisted surfing stunt at the end.
Marketing for the film was also criticized by some fans. In previous Bond films (with the exception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service) the actor to portray Bond is undoubtedly the top-billed star with all other actors in a supporting role; however with Die Another Day Bond girl Halle Berry had been elevated to co-star status with Pierce Brosnan; at least one of the film's posters gives Berry equal billing with Brosnan. The film also elicited poor opinions across the Korean peninsula, with the North unhappy with its portrayal as a brutal, war-hungry state, whilst 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. Regardless of these criticisms, Die Another Day took in $456 million in ticket sales worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Bond film until Casino Royale was released in 2006. 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; however, it is clear that he is playing a different character (who had been introduced as Q's assistant in The World Is Not Enough). Cleese's Q refers to "his predecessor" in one scene. James Bond(Pierce Brosnan)Jinx(Halle Berry)Gustav Graves(Toby Stephens & Will Yun Lee)Miranda Frost(Rosamund Pike)Zao(Rick Yune)General Moon(Kenneth Tsang)Raoul(Emilio Echevarría)M(Judi Dench)Q(John Cleese)Miss Moneypenny(Samantha Bond)Charles Robinson(Colin Salmon)Vlad(Mikhail Gorevoy)Mr. Kil(Lawrence Makoare) See: Die Another Day (soundtrack) Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets See Die Another Day (novelisation) Berry's performance was heavily criticized by many reviewers and fans, though ironically 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, but this was after her 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. 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. However, according in some interviews Berry has not ruled out a possibility of Jinx spin-off. Being released on the 40th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, there were many references to the past 19 James Bond movies in Die Another Day. Die Another Day was the first (and so far only) Bond film in which the bullet fired from Bond's Walther PPK in the gun-barrel sequence is visible. Die Another Day (2002) - pre