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The World Is Not Enough
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The World Is Not Enough (1999) is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
The title The World Is Not Enough traces its origins to the English translation of the Latin phrase Orbis non sufficit, revealed in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service and its film adaptation to be the Bond family motto.
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Encyclopedia
The World Is Not Enough (1999) is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
The title The World Is Not Enough traces its origins to the English translation of the Latin phrase Orbis non sufficit, revealed in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service and its film adaptation to be the Bond family motto. The film's plot revolves around the assassination of Sir Robert King by Renard and Bond's subsequent assignment to protect King's daughter, Elektra, who had previously been held captive by Renard. During his assignment, Bond unravels a scheme to increase petroleum prices by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul.
Despite the film's mixed critical reception, it earned over $361 million worldwide.
Plot
The pre-title sequence finds Bond at a Swiss bank in Bilbao, Spain, retrieving a large sum of money that belongs to Sir Robert King, a British oil tycoon and personal friend of M. Upon arrival in London, King is killed by a bomb inside MI6 Headquarters; the recovered money had been rigged to explode, detonated by King's lapel pin. Bond immediately hastens to catch the perpetrator—the cigar girl from the Swiss Bank in Bilbao—in a boat on the Thames. The chase ends at the Millennium Dome, where the assassin attempts to escape via hot air balloon. Bond offers MI6's protection in return for her cooperation, but she refuses and detonates the balloon, killing herself in the process. Bond lets go of the safety line, falling a short distance onto the dome and sustaining a shoulder injury as he tumbles down the side.
After King's funeral, Tanner informs Bond that he is off active duty until he is cleared by a physician. Bond earns his reinstatement in classic Bond fashion (romancing his female doctor), then sets out to learn who was behind King's assassination. He traces the recovered money to Renard, a KGB agent-turned-terrorist. Following an earlier attempt on his life by MI6, Renard was left with a bullet lodged in his brain; the bullet is gradually killing off Renard's senses, effectively making him immune to pain. M assigns Bond to protect King's daughter, Elektra; as Renard previously abducted and held Elektra for ransom, MI6 believes that he is targeting her a second time.
Bond flies to Azerbaijan, where Elektra is overseeing the construction of an oil pipeline which will travel through the Caucasus, from the Caspian Sea to Turkey. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra are attacked by paragliders in armed snowmobiles. After fending off the hit squad, Bond visits a casino owned by his acquaintance, Valentin Zukovsky, to acquire information about Elektra's attackers; he discovers that Elektra's head of security, Davidov, is secretly in league with Renard. After stowing away in Davidov's car to a nearby airstrip, Bond kills him and boards a plane bound for a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan. There, Bond poses as Russian nuclear scientist Mikhail Arkov to enter the silo and find out why Renard's men are there. He is tailed closely by Dr. Christmas Jones, an American nuclear physicist who is suspicious of his identity. Inside the silo, Bond watches as Renard removes the GPS locator card and a half quantity of weapons-grade plutonium from a bomb. Before Bond can kill him, Renard steals the bomb and flees, leaving everyone to die in the booby-trapped missile silo. Bond escapes the exploding silo with Jones in tow, but not before retrieving the locator card.
Back in Azerbaijan, Bond discloses to M that Elektra may not be as innocent as she seems, and hands her the locator card as proof of the theft. The pair are interrupted by a surprise attack on the pipeline: the pilfered bomb from Kazakhstan is attached to an observation rig heading toward the pipeline's oil terminal. Bond and Jones enter the pipeline, ahead of the bomb, on a separate rig. In the process of defusing it, Jones discovers that half of the plutonium is missing. Bond, realizing they have been duped, instructs her to jump clear of the rig. In the wake of the explosion, Bond radios in and learns that M has been abducted. Elektra and Renard rendezvous at Maiden's Tower in Istanbul, where he exchanges the remaining half of plutonium. In return, Elektra presents a gift of her own: M, imprisoned in a small cell. Renard sets an alarm clock a few feet from M, promising she will die next day at noon.
That night, Bond accosts Zukovsky at his caviar factory in the Caspian Sea, believing he is working for Elektra. As Bond and Jones interrogate him, the factory is suddenly assailed by Elektra's helicopters, confirming Bond's suspicion. Zukovsky insists their arrangement was in exchange for a Victor III class submarine, currently being captained by Zukovky's nephew, Nikolai. If Renard were to insert the stolen plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, the resulting meltdown would level Istanbul, sabotaging the Russians' oil pipeline in the Bosporus. Elektra's pipeline is set to go around the ruins of Istanbul, dramatically increasing the value of her own oil. After poisoning Captain Nikolai and his crew, Renard and his men seize their submarine and begin processing the plutonium. M, still carrying the locator card, snatches the alarm clock and uses its battery to power the card's transmitter, revealing her location to Bond.
No sooner does Bond detect her signal than Zukovsky's underling, Mr. Bullion, leaves behind an explosive to kill him. Bond and Jones emerge unscathed, but are captured by Bullion and several of Elektra's henchmen, who leave Zukovsky for dead. Before leaving, Renard gives Nikolai's captain's cap to Elektra as a farewell gift. Bond is restrained in an ancient Spanish torture device, the garotte, while Jones is taken aboard the submarine. An injured Zukovsky storms into the room where Elektra is torturing Bond, demanding to know where his nephew is. Bond gestures to the table on which Elektra has placed Nikolai's cap; Zukovsky, realizing Nikolai is dead, is fatally shot by Elektra. With his dying breath, Zukovsky uses his cane—a concealed gun—to shoot at Bond's restraints, freeing him. Bond chases after Elektra, pausing momentarily to release M, then kills Elektra after she refuses to call off the plan.
Onboard the submarine, Bond has a brief battle with Renard's men and, in the confusion, causes the submarine to dive rather than surface. The submarine hits bottom, driving its nose into the sea floor and causing its hull to crack. Bond catches up to Renard, who is busy shoving the tip of a plutonium rod into the reactor. Bond hoists himself up to the pressure release, then reconnects the pressure hose and causes the reactor to backfire, impaling Renard with the rod. Bond and Jones escape using a torpedo tube, leaving the flooded reactor to detonate safely underwater. That evening, Bond and Jones enjoy some champagne and intimate time together in Istanbul. M, along with Q and others in the Secret Service, spot the two of them in bed together with a thermal imaging camera.
Cast
- Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (007): British Secret Agent and protagonist
- Sophie Marceau as Elektra King: An oil heiress who wants to make her mark on the world by sealing an oil trade route with a nuclear explosion.
- Robert Carlyle as Renard: A Soviet terrorist, Elektra's kidnapper and her father's killer.
- Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones: a nuclear physicist assisting Bond in his mission. The name follows in the tradition of other Bond girls' names that are double entendres. Richards stated that she liked the role which was "brainy", "athletic", and had "depth of character, in contrast to Bond girls from previous decades."
- Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Zukovsky: a Russian mafia head who aids Bond in order to rescue his nephew from Renard's captivity.
- Judi Dench as M: The strict head of MI6.
- Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q: MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful for the latter's mission. In an interview on the DVD release of the film, Llewelyn stated that he had no plans to retire and that he would continue playing Q "as long as the producers want me and the Almighty doesn't." Ironically, this movie marks Llewelyn's final appearance as Q before his death on 19 December 1999.
- John Cleese as R: Q's assistant and successor. The character is never formally introduced as "R" - This was simply an observation on Bond's part: "If you're Q....does that make him R?"
- Maria Grazia Cucinotta as Giulietta da Vinci (Cigar Girl): An assassin working for Renard.
- Goldie as Bullion: Valentin Zukovsky's bodyguard.
Production
Joe Dante and then Peter Jackson were offered to direct. Barbara Broccoli had enjoyed Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, and a screening of The Frighteners was arranged for her. She disliked that, and showed no further interest in Jackson. Jackson, a lifelong Bond fan, remarked EON tended to go for less famous directors and he would certainly not be entitled a chance to direct after The Lord of the Rings.
The pre-title sequence lasts for about 14 minutes, the longest pre-title sequence in the Bond series to date. In the "making of" documentaries on the Ultimate Edition DVD release, director Michael Apted said that the scene was originally much longer than that. Originally, the pre-credits sequence was to have ended with Bond's leap from the window and descend to the ground, finishing as Bond rushes away from the area as police cars approach. Then, after the credits the sequence in MI6 headquarters would have been next, with the boat scenes the next major action sequence. However, the pre-credits scenes were viewed as lackluster when compared to ones from previous 007 movies, so the credits were pushed back to after the boat sequence and thus the longest pre-titles sequence in the series was born. The Daily Telegraph claimed that the British Government prevented some filming in front of the actual MI6 Headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, citing a security risk. However, a Foreign Office spokesperson refuted the claims and expressed displeasure with the article.
Initially the film was to be released in 2000 and the title Bond 2000 was a rumoured option. Other rumoured titles included Death Waits for No Man, Fire and Ice, Pressure Point and Dangerously Yours. The actual working title followed the format of all previous "official" 007 films, being dubbed simply Bond 19.
Filming
The pre-title sequence begins in Bilbao, Spain, featuring the Guggenheim Museum. After the opening scene, the film moves to London, England, showcasing the SIS Building and the Millennium Dome on the Thames. Following the title sequence, Eilean Donan castle in Scotland is used by MI6 as a location headquarters. Other locations include Baku, Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Oil Rocks and Istanbul, Turkey, where Maiden's Tower is shown.
The studio work for the film was shot as usual in Pinewood Studios including Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage. Bilbao, Spain was used briefly for the exterior of Swiss bank and flyover-bridge adjacent to the Guggenheim Museum. In London outdoor footage was shot of the SIS Building and Vauxhall Cross with several weeks filming the boat chase on the River Thames eastwards towards the Millennium Dome, Greenwich. The canal footage of the chase where Bond soaks the parking attendant was filmed at Wapping and the boat stunts in Millwall Dock and under Glengall Bridge were filmed at the Isle of Dogs. Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, was used as the site of the King family estate on banks of Loch Lomond. Filming was then shot in Scotland at the Eilean Donan Castle to depict the exterior of MI6 temporary operations centre at "Castle Thane". The skiing chase sequence in the Caucasus was shot on the slopes of Chamonix, France. Filming of the scene was delayed by an avalanche, but the crew wasted no time by helping the rescue operation.
The interior (and single exterior shot) of L'Or Noir casino in Baku, Azerbaijan, was shot at Halton House, the Officer's Mess of RAF Halton, and RAF Northolt was used to depict the airfield runway in Azerbaijan.
Zukovsky's quay-side caviar factory was shot entirely at the outdoor water tank at Pinewood.
The exterior of Kazakhstan nuclear facility was shot at the Bardenas Reales, in Navarre, Spain, and the exterior of oil refinery control centre in Swindon, United Kingdom. The exterior of oil pipeline was filmed in Cwm Dyli, Snowdonia, Wales, while the production teams shot the oil pipeline explosion in Hankley Common, Elstead, Surrey. Istanbul, Turkey, was indeed used in the film and Elektra King's Baku villa was actually in the city, also using the famous Maiden's Tower which was used as Renard's hideout in Turkey. The underwater submarine scenes were filmed in The Bahamas.
The BMW Z8 driven by Bond in the film was the final part of a three-movie product placement deal with BMW (which began with the Z3 in GoldenEye and continued with the 750i in Tomorrow Never Dies) but, due to filming preceeding release of the Z8 by a few months, several working mock-ups and models were manufactured for filming purposes.
Music
The soundtrack to The World Is Not Enough is the second Bond soundtrack to be composed by David Arnold. Arnold broke tradition by not ending the film with a reprise of the opening theme or, as with the previous three films, a new song. Originally, Arnold intended to use the song "Only Myself to Blame" at the end of the film; however, Apted discarded and the song was replaced by a remix of the "James Bond Theme". "Only Myself to Blame", written by Arnold & Don Black and sung by Scott Walker, is the nineteenth and final track on the album and its melody is Elektra King's theme. The theme is heard in "Casino", "Elektra's Theme" and "I Never Miss". Arnold added two new themes to the final score, both of which are reused in Die Another Day.
The title song, "The World Is Not Enough", was written by David Arnold with Don Black and performed by Garbage. It is the fifth Bond theme co-written by Black, preceded by "Thunderball", "Diamonds Are Forever", "The Man with the Golden Gun", and "Tomorrow Never Dies". Garbage also contributed to the music heard during the chase sequence ("Ice Bandits"), which was released as the B-side to their single release of the theme song. IGN chose "The World Is Not Enough" as the ninth-best James Bond theme of all time. The song also appeared in two "best of 1999" polls: #87 in 89X's "Top 89 Songs of 1999" and #100 in Q101's "Top 101 of 1999".
Release and reception
The World Is Not Enough premiered on 18 November 1999, in the USA and on 26 November 1999, in the UK. At that time MGM signed a marketing partnership with MTV, primarily for American youths, who were assumed to have considered Bond as "an old-fashioned secret service agent". As a result MTV broadcast more than 100 hours of Bond-related programmes immediately after the film was released, most being presented by Denise Richards.
The film grossed $361 million worldwide, with $126 million in the United States alone, becoming the highest grossing James Bond film of all time until the release of Die Another Day. The opening weekend collections in USA were $35.5 million. The film was also selected for the first round of nominations for the Academy Award for Best Special Effects but failed. The film was nominated for a Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film Saturn Award, Pierce Brosnan won both the Empire Award and the Blockbuster Entertainment Award as Best Actor, and David Arnold won a BMI Film Music Award for his score. The film became the first Bond film to win a Razzie when Denise Richards was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards.
The film was released on DVD and VHS on 16 May 2000, and sold over 5 million copies. The initial release of the DVD includes the featurette "Secrets of 007", which cuts into "making of" material during the movie; the documentary "The Making of The World Is Not Enough"; two commentary tracks—one by director Michael Apted, and the other by production designer Peter Lamont, second unit director Vic Armstrong, and composer David Arnold; a trailer for the video game, and the Garbage music video. The Ultimate Edition released in 2006 had as additional extras a 2000 documentary named "Bond Cocktail", a featurette on shooting the Q Boat scenes, Pierce Brosnan in a press conference in Hong Kong, deleted scenes, and a tribute to Desmond Llewelyn.
Reception was mixed—critic Roger Ebert said the film was a "splendid comic thriller, exciting and graceful, endlessly inventive", and gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four. On the other hand, Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution disliked the film, calling it "dated and confused". Rotten Tomatoes gave The World Is Not Enough a 51% "rotten" rating, and Metacritic gave the film a score of 59 out of 100. Negative criticism was drawn at the execution of the plot and action scenes which were considered excessive. Norman Wilner of MSN chose it as the third worst Bond movie, ranking it above A View to a Kill and Licence to Kill, while IGN chose it as the fifth worst.
Richards was criticised as not being credible in the role of a nuclear scientist. Her outfit comprising a tank top and shorts also met a similar reaction. She was ranked as the worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008.
Adaptations
Bond novelist Raymond Benson wrote his adaptation of The World Is Not Enough from the film's screenplay. It was Benson's fourth Bond novel and followed the story closely, but with some details changed. For instance, Elektra sings quietly before her death and Bond still carries his Walther PPK instead of the newer P99. The novel also gave the cigar girl/assassin the name Giulietta da Vinci and retained a scene between her and Renard that was cut from the film.
In 2000, the film was adapted by Electronic Arts to create a first-person shooter of the same name for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. Incidentally, The World Is Not Enough was the last Bond title to appear on either console. The Nintendo 64 version was developed by Eurocom and the PlayStation version was developed by Black Ops. Versions of The World Is Not Enough for the PC and the PlayStation 2 were planned for release in 2000, but both were cancelled. These versions would have used the id Tech 3 game engine. Although this game marks Pierce Brosnan's fifth appearance in a Bond video game, the game includes only his likeness--the character is voiced by someone else.
Trivia
The World Is Not Enough is the actual motto of a large number of English families named Bond and it comes from a Bond mariner who was part of a Buccaneer raid of Santo Domingo. It was requested for use with the Bond coat of arms after being seen on a shield in the Spanish Governor's Palace. The motto was installed there having been used by an early Governor Nicolas de Ovando.
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