Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Roger Spottiswoode
Bond, James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Arch Rival: Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce)
Bond Girl: Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Pierce Brosnan would don the role of James Bond for the second time in Tomorrow Never Dies. In this part of the series, A Media Mogul named Elliot Carver, whose wife had been one of Bond’s many old flames, plans to induce war between the British and the Chinese governments in order to win the exclusive broadcasting rights of his satellite channel in China, the only country he hasn’t yet been able to get his hands on. He creates his news and executes them, thereby becoming the first one to publish and broadcast them. To gain advantage in China, he rigs up attacks on the defense forces on either country in order to trick them into believe that the other government had started the war. Enter Bond, who teams up with Chinese media official (?) Wai Lin to blow Carver’s cover and destroying his offshore operations and prevent war before things go out of hands.
There is a marked difference between Tomorrow Never Dies and the previous films in the series. Bond undergoes a much needed makeover and it works. The way issues and characters are handled is more refined (save Carver) and so is the suavity. The actions scenes are intact and issues handled are more pertinent to the age. It is refreshing to see no Soviet characters running all over. One of the better films of the series.
The Seventh Art 