GoldenEye is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the series not to use any story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming. GoldenEye was also the first James Bond film not produced by Albert R. Broccoli, following his stepping down from Eon Productions and replacement by his daughter, Barbara Broccoli (along with Michael G. Wilson, although Broccoli was still involved as a consultant producer; it was his final film project before his death in 1996). The story was conceived and written by Michael France, with later collaboration by other writers. In the film, Bond fights to prevent rogue ex-MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) from using a satellite weapon against London to cause a global financial collapse.
GoldenEye was released after a six-year hiatus in the series caused by legal disputes, during which Timothy Dalton's contract for the role of James Bond expired and he decided to leave the role, being replaced by Brosnan. M was also recast, actress Judi Dench becoming the first woman to portray the character, replacing Robert Brown. The role of Miss Moneypenny was also recast, Caroline Bliss being replaced by Samantha Bond. Desmond Llewelyn was the only actor to reprise his previous role, as Q. It was the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot. Principal photography for GoldenEye took place from January to June 1995 in the UK, Russia, Monte Carlo, and Puerto Rico; it was the inaugural film production to be shot at Leavesden Studios. The first Bond film to use computer-generated imagery (CGI), GoldenEye was also the final film in the career of special effects supervisor Derek Meddings, and was dedicated to his memory.
The film accumulated a worldwide gross of over US$356 million, to become the fourth-highest grossing film of 1995. It received positive reviews from critics, with Brosnan viewed as a worthy successor to Sean Connery's portrayal as Bond. It also received award nominations for Best Special Visual Effects and Best Sound from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It was followed by Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.
Plot
MI6 agents James Bond and Alec Trevelyan infiltrate a clandestine Soviet chemical weapons lab in Arkhangelsk. After witnessing Trevelyan seemingly being executed by the facility's commanding officer, Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, Bond destroys the site and escapes in a stolen airplane.
Nine years later, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Bond attempts to prevent Xenia Onatopp, a member of the Janus crime syndicate, from hijacking a Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter during a military demonstration in Monte Carlo, but is unsuccessful. Returning to MI6 headquarters in London, Bond joins MI6 staff monitoring an incident in Severnaya, Siberia, after the stolen helicopter turns up at a radar site there. An electromagnetic pulse blast suddenly hits the site, obliterating it and several Russian fighter jets, while knocking out some satellite systems in orbit.
The newly appointed M assigns Bond to investigate, after it is determined that the blast came from a Soviet-era satellite armed with a nuclear electromagnetic pulse space-based weapon, codenamed "GoldenEye". Although Janus is suspected of initiating the attack, Bond suspects that Ourumov, now a general, was involved, because the weapon system required high-level military access. Travelling to Saint Petersburg, Bond contacts CIA operative Jack Wade, and is advised to meet the former KGB agent turned gangster, Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, and have him arrange a meeting with Janus. Escorted to the meeting by Onatopp, Bond discovers that Janus is led by Trevelyan, who had faked his demise. He learns that Trevelyan seeks vengeance for his parents, Lienz Cossacks who were betrayed by the British by being repatriated to the Soviet Union after collaborating with the Axis powers during World War II.
Bond is sedated and trapped in the Tiger alongside computer programmer Natalya Simonova, a survivor of the Severnaya attack. After escaping the helicopter before it explodes, the pair are taken into custody at the Military Archives and interrogated by Russian Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin. Natalya affirms Ourumov's involvement in the use of GoldenEye, and that fellow programmer Boris Grishenko survived along with her and is now working for Janus in operating a second GoldenEye satellite. Before Mishkin can act on the information, Ourumov kills him and takes Natalya to a missile train used by Trevelyan and Onatopp. Bond pursues Ourumov in a T-55 tank, which he uses to derail the train. Once onboard, Bond kills Ourumov while Trevelyan rigs the train to explode and flees in a helicopter with Onatopp. Bond and Natalya escape just before the explosion.
Bond and Natalya travel to Cuba, after Boris is traced to a location within the island's jungles by Natalya. While flying over the area, the pair are shot down. Onatopp is lowered from a helicopter and attacks them but Bond shoots down the helicopter she is still tethered to, and gets pulled into the branches of a tree, the force of the helicopter weight kills her in the process. Bond and Natalya watch a hidden base with satellite dish reveal itself when it drains a large artificial lake. They gain entry but Bond is captured while setting explosives. Trevelyan tells Bond that he plans to embezzle money from the Bank of England then use the remaining GoldenEye to erase its financial records and conceal the theft. Trevelyan expects the electromagnetic pulse to trigger a global financial meltdown and social collapse, causing the United Kingdom to "re-enter the Stone Age".
Natalya hacks into the satellite and reprograms it to initiate atmospheric re-entry and thus destroy itself, while changing the access codes. She is then captured as well. While trying to undo her programming, Boris nervously presses on a pen confiscated from Bond, activating a grenade concealed in the pen by Q Branch. Bond knocks the pen from Boris's hand and into a puddle of fuel that were spilled during an earlier firefight, causing a chemical explosion that allows Bond and Natalya to escape.
To prevent Boris from regaining control of the satellite, Bond sabotages the dish's antenna by jamming its gears. Trevelyan tries to intercept him, and the ensuing fight between the two culminates in Trevelyan being dangled below the antenna on a transmitter. Bond then drops Trevelyan into the bottom of the dish, severely injuring him. The GoldenEye satellite subsequently disintegrates. Natalya soon rescues Bond in a commandeered helicopter, moments before the antenna malfunctions and explodes, destroying the base. The debris falls onto Trevelyan, killing him, and Boris is frozen solid by a cascade caused by ruptured liquid nitrogen canisters. After landing in a meadow, Bond and Natalya prepare to enjoy some solitude together but are interrupted by the arrival of Wade and a team of U.S. Marines, who escort them to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
Cast
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (007), an MI6 officer assigned to stop the Janus crime syndicate from acquiring "GoldenEye", a clandestine satellite weapon designed and launched by the Soviets during the Cold War. Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan (006), initially another 00 officer and Bond's close friend, he fakes his death at Arkhangelsk and then establishes the Janus crime syndicate over the following nine years. Izabella Scorupco as Natalya Simonova, a programmer at the Severnaya lab. She is the sole survivor of the GoldenEye attack on its own control centre. Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, a lustful Georgian fighter pilot and Trevelyan's henchwoman. Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade, a veteran CIA officer on the same mission as Bond. Baker previously played the villainous Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights (1987) and would reprise the role of Wade in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, a Russian gangster and ex-KGB officer through whom Bond arranges a meeting with Janus. Tchéky Karyo as Dimitri Mishkin, the Russian Defence Minister. Gottfried John as General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, a Hero of the Soviet Union, Commander of Russia's Space Division. He is secretly an agent of Janus, who abuses his authority and position to obtain control over GoldenEye. Alan Cumming as Boris Grishenko, a geeky computer programmer at Severnaya, later revealed to be an affiliate of Janus. Michael Kitchen as Bill Tanner, M's chief of staff. Serena Gordon as Caroline, an MI6 psychological and psychiatric evaluator whom Bond seduces at the beginning of the film. Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the head of Q Branch (research and development division of the British Secret Service). Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary. Judi Dench as M, the head of MI6 and Bond's superior. Minnie Driver as Irina, Zukovsky's tone-deaf mistress.
Other actors in the film include: Billy J. Mitchell as Chuck Farrel, a Royal Canadian Navy admiral whom Xenia seduces and kills in order to facilitate the theft of the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter; Wayne Michaels, who was Brosnan's stunt man, appears as a Tiger Helicopter Pilot, Michelle Arthur as Anna, Natalya's co-worker in Severnaya; Simon Kunz as the Severnaya duty officer, and Constantine Gregory as a Moscow computer salesman. Producer Michael G. Wilson makes his requisite cameo appearance as a member of the Russian Security Council.
Development Following the release of Licence to Kill in July 1989, pre-production work for the seventeenth film in the James Bond series, the third to star Timothy Dalton (fulfilling his three-film contract), began in May 1990. A poster for the then-upcoming movie was even featured in the Carlton Hotel during the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. In August, The Sunday Times reported that producer Albert R. Broccoli had parted company with screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who had worked on the scripts of all but three Bond films so far, and director John Glen, responsible for the previous five instalments in the series. That same year, Broccoli met with potential directors, which included John Landis, Ted Kotcheff, Roger Spottiswoode (who would later direct Tomorrow Never Dies), and John Byrum.
Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson contributed a script, and Wiseguy co-producer Alfonse Ruggiero Jr. was hired to rewrite it. Filming was set to begin in 1990 in Hong Kong, for a release in late 1991. A 17-page treatment, dated May 1990, featured James Bond on a mission in East Asia, where he must investigate why an unknown entity caused a chemical plant in Scotland to explode inexplicably and a threat ordering the British and Chinese to relinquish their authority over Hong Kong. Bond would be aided by an ex-CIA freelance thief named Connie Webb and a senior spy named Denholm Crisp, with the trail leading towards a corrupt technology magnate called Sir Henry Lee Ching. It also would have featured the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Wilson and Ruggiero revised the plotline further in a script dated July 1990. It changed the opening to show Bond using a hang-gliding competition as cover to infiltrate a chemical weapons plant, where he must fend off a deadly security robot. The film proper begins in the South China Sea, where a British Harrier jet malfunctions, ejects its pilot, starts flying on its own, and then crashes into a village in China. MI6 subsequently learns that many British military technology manufacturing plants have been recently broken into and Bond is sent to track down the burglar. This draft also featured a climax in which the villain survived the destruction of their lair and subsequently attempted to kill Bond.