Die Another Day is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It was directed by Lee Tamahori, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. The fourth and final film starring Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, it was also the last with Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny. Halle Berry co-stars as Bond girl and NSA agent Jinx. In the film, Bond attempts to locate a traitor in British intelligence who betrayed him and a British billionaire who is later revealed to be connected to a North Korean operative who Bond seemingly killed. It is an original story, although it takes influence from Bond creator Ian Fleming's novels Moonraker (1955) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), as well as Kingsley Amis's novel, Colonel Sun.
Die Another Day was released on 20 November 2002 internationally by 20th Century Fox and in the United States two days later by MGM Distribution Co. under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer label. The film also marked the James Bond franchise's 40th anniversary, and includes references to each of the preceding films. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Tamahori's direction, but criticised the reliance on CGI, product placement, plot and villain. Nevertheless, the film was a box-office success, grossing $432 million worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2002.
The next film in the series, Casino Royale, was released in November 2006, which also served as a reboot of the franchise with Daniel Craig replacing Brosnan as Bond.
Plot
MI6 agent James Bond infiltrates a North Korean military base where Colonel Tan-Sun Moon is trading weapons for African conflict diamonds. After Moon's right-hand man, Zao, receives notification of Bond's real identity, Moon attempts to kill Bond, and a hovercraft chase ensues, ending with Moon's craft tumbling over a waterfall. Bond is captured by North Korean soldiers and imprisoned by the Colonel's father, General Moon. After 14 months of captivity and torture at the hands of the Korean People's Army (KPA), Bond is traded for Zao in a prisoner exchange across the Bridge of No Return. He is taken to meet M, who informs him that his status as a 00 Agent has been suspended on suspicion that he leaked information to the North Koreans under duress. Bond is convinced that he has been set up by a double agent in the British government. After escaping MI6 custody, he finds himself in Hong Kong, where he learns from Chang, a Chinese agent and old colleague, that Zao is in Cuba.
In Havana, Bond meets NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson and follows her to a gene therapy clinic, where patients can have their appearances altered through DNA restructuring. Jinx kills Dr. Alvarez, the clinic's leader, while Bond locates Zao inside the clinic and fights him. Zao escapes, leaving behind a pendant which leads Bond to a cache of conflict diamonds bearing the crest of the company owned by British billionaire Gustav Graves. Bond learns that Graves appeared only a year prior, apparently having discovered a diamond vein in Iceland, which led to his current wealth and celebrity. At Blades Club in London, Bond meets Graves along with his assistant Miranda Frost, who is also an undercover MI6 agent. After a fencing match that escalates into a claymore duel, Graves invites Bond to Iceland for a scientific demonstration. M restores Bond's Double-0 status, but warns him that MI6 has other priorities and Q issues him an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish with active camouflage.
At his ice palace in Iceland, Graves unveils a new orbital mirror satellite, Icarus, which is able to focus solar energy on a small area and provide year-round sunshine for agriculture. Frost seduces Bond, and Jinx infiltrates Graves's command centre but is captured by Graves and Zao. Bond rescues her and discovers that Graves is Colonel Moon, who has used gene therapy to change his appearance and amassed his fortune through conflict diamonds, using them as cover. Bond confronts Graves, but Frost arrives to reveal herself as the traitor who betrayed him in North Korea, forcing Bond to escape from Graves's facility. He returns in his Vanquish to rescue Jinx, who has been recaptured in the palace. As Graves uses Icarus to melt the ice palace, Zao pursues Bond into the palace using his Jaguar XKR. Bond kills Zao by shooting an ice chandelier, which falls onto him and revives a nearly drowned Jinx in a hot pool.
Bond and Jinx pursue Graves and Frost to the Korean Peninsula and stow away on Graves's An-124 cargo plane. Graves reveals his identity to his father, and the true purpose of the Icarus satellite: to cut a path through the Korean Demilitarised Zone with concentrated sunlight, allowing the KPA to invade South Korea and unite the peninsula. Horrified, realizing this could provoke the U.S. and U.N. to respond, restart the Korean War, and possibly escalate it into World War III, General Moon rejects the plan, but Graves kills him. Bond attempts to shoot Graves, but is blocked by a soldier. During their struggle, a gunshot pierces the fuselage, causing the plane to decompress and descend rapidly.
Bond and Graves engage in a fistfight while Jinx attempts to regain control of the plane. Frost attacks Jinx, forcing her to defend herself in a sword duel. After the plane passes through the Icarus beam and is further damaged, Jinx kills Frost. Graves attempts to escape, but Bond opens Graves's parachute, pulling him out of the plane and into one of its engines, disabling the Icarus beam and killing Graves/Moon. Bond and Jinx escape from the disintegrating plane in a helicopter from the cargo hold, with Graves's stash of diamonds. Later, they spend a romantic evening at a remote Buddhist temple hut.
Cast
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, MI6 agent 007. Halle Berry as Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson, an NSA agent. Retrieved 28 March 2008 Before Berry's casting Salma Hayek, Saffron Burrows and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were also considered for the role. Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves, a British entrepreneur and the alter ego of Colonel Tan-Sun Moon. Graves was modelled after Hugo Drax in Ian Fleming's original Moonraker. He was also modelled after Uday Hussein and Richard Branson. Will Yun Lee as Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, a rogue North Korean army colonel and the original persona of Graves Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost, undercover MI6 agent and double agent Rick Yune as Tang-Ling Zao, a North Korean terrorist working for Moon and living as an exile Judi Dench as M, the head of MI6 John Cleese as Q, MI6's quartermaster and armourer Michael Madsen as Damian Falco, Jinx's superior in the NSA Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson, M's Deputy Chief of Staff Kenneth Tsang as General Moon, Colonel Moon's father Michael Gorevoy as Vladimir Popov, Gustav Graves's personal scientist Lawrence Makoare as Mr. Kil, one of Gustav Graves's henchmen Ho Yi as Mr. Chang, a Chinese special agent, undercover as a hotel manager. In early drafts of the script, it was Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) who aided Bond in Hong Kong, but the idea fell through due to scheduling conflicts with Yeoh producing another film and Chang was created to replace her. Rachel Grant as Peaceful Fountains of Desire, a Chinese agent working for Mr. Chang, undercover as a masseuse Emilio Echevarría as Raoul, the manager of a Havana cigar factory, and a British sleeper agent Other actors in the film include Simón Andreu as Dr. Álvarez, the director of the Cuban gene therapy facility; Vincent Wong as General Li, one of Graves/Moon's co-conspirators; Joaquin Martinez as the elderly cigar factory worker, Mark Dymond as Van Bierk, a diamond smuggler whose identity Bond steals at the beginning of the film; and Oliver Skeete as the concierge at the fencing club.
Cameo appearances in the film include Madonna as Verity, Graves's and Frost's fencing instructor; producer Michael G. Wilson as General Chandler, the senior commander of American forces in South Korea; and Deborah Moore (the daughter of former Bond actor Roger Moore) as a British Airways hostess.
Production Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson asked Michael Apted, who directed The World Is Not Enough, to return for the next instalment. Although he accepted, they rescinded the offer after incoming MGM executive Chris McGurk told Broccoli and Wilson that he wanted more action and spectacle than romance and intrigue. Tony Scott and John Woo were approached, but they both declined. Scott claims to have suggested Quentin Tarantino as director, although Wilson denies any formal negotiations were held with him. Pierce Brosnan suggested John McTiernan, Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese as potential choices, and informally discussed the idea of directing a Bond film with Scorsese on a flight. Brett Ratner, Stephen Hopkins and Stuart Baird were later in negotiations to direct, before Lee Tamahori was hired. When asked why he accepted the job, Tamahori joked: "I thought of Bond as the great last gasp of British filmmaking and it's the duty of a good ex-colonial to come and take the job of a local British director!"
Tamahori confirmed to Total Film that he had pitched a scene where Brosnan's 007 meets an older, former 007 in Scotland played by Sean Connery, but was advised it was "too dangerous" to have two 007s in one movie.
The film's title comes from a line in the poem "The Day of Battle" by English poet A.E. Housman, which was part of his 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad.
Filming
Principal photography of Die Another Day began on 11 January 2002 at Pinewood Studios. The film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Cádiz, Spain. Other locations included Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage and Maui, Hawaii, in December 2001. Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama and Darrick Doerner performed the pre-title surfing scene at the surf break known as "Jaws" in Peahi, Maui, while the shore shots were taken near Cádiz and Newquay, Cornwall. Scenes inside Graves's diamond mine were also filmed in Cornwall, at the Eden Project. The scenes involving the Cuban locations of Havana and the fictional Isla de Los Organos were filmed at La Caleta, Spain.
The scenes featuring Berry in a bikini (designed to resemble Ursula Andress's swimming costume in Dr. No) were shot in Cádiz. The location was cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels between takes to avoid catching a chill. Berry was injured during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a 30-minute operation. Brosnan also sustained a knee injury during the shooting of an action scene in Cornwall.