Die Another Day (2002) is
the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and
last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James
Bond. It also featured American actress Halle Berry (who had just won
a Academt Award for Monsters Ball) as NSA Agent Giacinta
"Jinx" Johnson. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a
mission to North Korea, during which he is betrayed and, after
seemingly killing a rogue North Korean colonel, he is captured and
imprisoned. More than a year later Bond is released as part of a
prisoner exchange. Surmising that someone within the British
government betrayed him, he tries to earn redemption by finding his
betrayer and by killing a North Korean agent he believes was involved
in his torture.
Die
Another Day, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and
directed by Lee Tamahori, marks the franchise's 40th anniversary. The
series began in 1962 with Sean Connery starring as Bond in Dr. No.
Die Another Day includes references to each of the preceding films
and also alludes to several Bond novels.
Principal photography of
Die Another Day began on January 11th 2002 at Pinewood studios. The
film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom, Iceland, and
Cádiz, Spain. Other locations included Pinewood Studios'
historic 007 Stage, and scenes shot in 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 Maui,
while the shore shots were taken near Cádiz and Newquay,
Cornwall. Scenes inside Graves' diamond mine were also filmed in
Cornwall, at the Eden Project. The scenes involving the Cuban
locations Havana and the fictional Isla Los Organos were filmed at La
Caleta, Spain.
Gadgets and other props
from every previous Bond film and stored in Eon Productions' archives
appear in Q's warehouse in the London Underground. Examples include
the jetpack in Thunderball and Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoe in
From Russia with Love. Q, now being played by John Cleese (below) of
Monty Python fame, mentions that the watch he issues Bond is
"your 20th, I believe", a reference to Die Another Day
being the 20th Eon-produced Bond film. In London, the Reform Club was
used to shoot several places in the film, including the lobby at the
Blades Club, MI6 Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and
Westminster. Svalbard, Norway and Jökulsárlón,
Iceland were used for the car chase on the ice with additional scenes
filmed at Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway and RAF Little
Rissington, Gloucestershire; Manston Airport in Ramsgate was used for
the scenes involving the Antonov cargo plane scenes. The scene where
Bond surfs the wave that Icarus created when Graves was trying to
kill Bond was shot on the blue screen. The waves and all of the
glaciers in the scene were digitally produced.
The hangar interior of the
"US Air Base in South Korea", shown crowded with Chinook
helicopters, was filmed at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, UK, as were the
helicopter interior shots during the Switchblade sequence although
this took place entirely on the ground with the sky background being
added in post-production using blue screen techniques. Although in
the plot the base is American, in reality all the aircraft and
personnel in the shot are British. In the film, a Switchblade
(one-man glider shaped like a fighter jet) is used by Bond and Jinx
to enter North Korea undetected. The Switchblade was based on a
workable model called "PHASST" (Programmable High Altitude
Single Soldier Transport). Kinetic Aerospace Inc.'s lead designer,
Jack McCornack was impressed by director Lee Tamahori's way of
conducting the Switchblade scene and said, "It's brief, but
realistic. The good guys get in unobserved, thanks to a fast cruise,
good glide performance, and minimal radar signature. It's a wonderful
promotion for the PHASST." Also, Graves' plane was a 20-foot-wide
(6.1 m) model that was controlled by a computer. When the plane flew
through the Icarus beam, engineers cut the plane away piece by piece
so that it looked like it was burning and falling apart.
The sex scene between Bond
and Jinx, the first time onscreen in the series in which Bond is
depicted actually having sex as opposed to a post-coital scenario,
had to be trimmed for the American market. An early cut of Die
Another Day featured a brief moment, seven seconds in length, in
which Jinx is heard moaning strongly. The MPAA ordered that the scene
be trimmed so that Die Another Day could get the expected PG-13
rating. The scene was cut as requested, earning the film a PG-13
rating for "action violence and sexuality".
In
discussing her character, Halle Berry said Jinx is
"fashion-forward modern and the next step in the evolution of
women in the Bond movies." The scene where she emerges from the
ocean in a bikini paid homage to the character of Honey Ryder (Ursula
Andress) from the first Bond film, Dr. No. Despite the bikini and
location of Cuba in the film, the footage of the water and bar scene
was shot in Cadiz and far from the warmth implied in the film; The
location was reportedly very cold and windy, and footage has been
released of Berry wrapped in thick towels in between takes to avoid
catching a chill. Berry was also injured during filming when debris
from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a
30-minute operation.
With the popularity of
Berry's Jinx character, speculation arose in 2003 of a spin-off film
which was scheduled for a November/December 2004 release. It was
originally reported that MGM was keen to set up a franchise and to be
a "winter olympics" alternative to 'James Bond,'. As early
as the late 1990s, MGM had originally considered developing a
spin-off film based on Michelle Yeoh's character, Wai Lin, in 1997's
Tomorrow Never Dies. However, despite much speculation of an imminent
movie, on October 26th, 2003, Variety reported that MGM had
completely pulled the plug on the Jinx project, to the dismay of
Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson of Eon Entertainment, who were
reported to be "clearly furious" about the decision, as
were many Bond fans. MGM were keen to move on with the next film
instead. Jinx was also the first black Bond Girl, hero or villain, in
more than 17 years, since May Day (Grace Jones) in A View to a Kill,
and the first black Bond Girl ever to play the heroine (principal
Bond "good girl").
Untitled
The soundtrack was composed
by David Arnold and released on Warner Bros. Records. He again made
use of electronic rhythm elements in his score, and included two of
the new themes created for The World Is Not Enough. The first,
originally used as Renard's theme, is heard during the mammoth
"Antonov" cue on the recording, and is written for piano.
The second new theme, used in the "Christmas in Turkey"
track of The World Is not Enough, is reused in the "Going Down
Together" track.
The
title song for Die Another Day was written and performed by Madonna,
who also had a cameo in the film as a fencing instructor. This is the
first Bond title sequence to directly reflect the film's plot since
Dr. No; all of the other previous Bond titles are stand-alone set
pieces. The concept of the title sequence is to represent Bond trying
to survive 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans.
Critics' opinions of the song were sharply divided, it was nominated
for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the 2004 Grammy Award
for Best Dance Recording, but also for a Golden Raspberry Award for
Worst Original Song of 2002 (while Madonna herself won the Golden
Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her cameo). In a
MORI poll for the Channel 4 programme "James Bond's Greatest
Hits", the song was voted 9th out of 22, and also came in as an
"overwhelming number one" favourite among those under the
age of 24.
MGM
and Eon Productions granted Mattel the license to sell a line of
Barbie dolls based around the franchise. Mattel announced that the
Bond Barbies will be at her "stylish best", clad in evening
dress and red shawl. Lindy Hemming created the dress, which is
slashed to the thigh to reveal a telephone strapped to Barbie's leg.
The doll was sold in a gift set, with Barbie's boyfriend Ken posing
as Bond in a tuxedo designed by the Italian fashion house Brioni.
Revlon also collaborated
with the makers of Die Another Day to create a cosmetics line based
round the character Jinx. The limited edition 007 Colour Collection
was launched on November 7th 2002 to coincide with the film's
release. The product names were loaded with puns and innuendo, with
shades and textures ranging from the "warm" to "cool
and frosted".
Carrera, a slot car
manufacturer, sold a 1:43 scale slot car set based on the film which
included an Aston Martin Vanquish and a Jaguar XKR as well as track.
Corgi, a British toy car manufacturer, released 1:30 scale replicas
of the Vanquish and Jaguar XKR.
Ford Motor Company released
a "special edition" Thunderbird in 2003. The 11th
generation Thunderbird appeared briefly during the film's Iceland
scenes, driven by Jinx when she arrived at the Ice Palace. Unlike the
car as it appeared on film, Ford's "Bond bird" was coral
pink (colour code CQ) with a white removable hardtop. In the film,
both the car and the hardtop were coral.
Die Another Day had its
world premiere on November 18th 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in
London. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were guests of honour;
it was the second premiere to be attended by the Queen after You Only
Live Twice. The Royal Albert Hall had a make-over for the screening
and had been transformed into an ice palace. Proceeds from the
première, about £500,000, were donated to the Cinema and
Television Benevolent Fund of which the Queen is patron. On the first
day, ticket sales reached £1.2 million. Die Another Day was the
highest grossing James Bond film to date until the release of Casino
Royale. It earned $432 million worldwide, becoming the sixth highest
grossing film of 2002.
Die Another Day became a
controversial subject in eastern Asia. The North Korean government
disliked the portrayal of their state as brutal and war-hungry. The
South Koreans boycotted 145 theatres where it was released on
December 31st 2002, as they were offended by a scene where an
American officer issues orders to the South Korean army in the
defence of their homeland, and by a lovemaking scene near a statue of
the Buddha. The Jogye Buddhist Order issued a statement that the film
was "disrespectful to our religion and does not reflect our
values and ethics". The Washington Post reported growing
resentment in the nation towards the United States. An official of
the South Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that Die
Another Day was "the wrong film at the wrong time."
AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
Untitled
Die Another Day trailer starring Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007.
The amount of product
placement in the film was a point of criticism, specifically from
various news outlets such as the BBC, Time and Reuters who all used
the pun "Buy Another Day". Reportedly 20 companies, paying
$70 million, had their products featured in the film, a record at the
time, although USA Today reported that number to be as high as $100
million. By choice, the number of companies involved in product
placement was dropped to eight for the next Bond film Casino Royale
in 2006.
Michael Dequina of Film
Threat praised the film as the best of the series to star Pierce
Brosnan and "the most satisfying installment of the franchise in
recent memory." Larry Carroll of CountingDown.com praised Lee
Tamahori for having "magnificently balanced the film so that it
keeps true to the Bond legend, makes reference to the classic films
that preceded it, but also injects a new zest to it all."
Entertainment Weekly magazine also gave a positive reaction, saying
that Tamahori, "a true filmmaker", has re-established the
series' pop sensuality. Dana Stevens of The New York Times called the
film the best of the James Bond series since The Spy Who Loved Me.
Kyle Bell of Movie Freaks 365 stated in his review that the
"first half of Die Another Day is classic Bond", but that
"Things start to go downhill when the ice palace gets
introduced." Die Another Day was strongly criticised for relying
too much on gadgets and special effects, with the plot being
neglected by excessive use of CGI. Roger Moore himself remarked,
"I thought it just went too far – and that’s from me,
the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage?
Please!" Regardless, it was the highest-grossing James Bond film
up to that time not counting inflation.
Die Another Day was written
into a novel by the then-current official James Bond writer, Raymond
Benson, based on the screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Fan
reaction to it was above average. After its publication Benson
retired as the official James Bond novelist and a new series
featuring the secret agent's adventures as a teenager, by Charlie
Higson was launched in 2005. As the novelization was published after
Benson's final original 007 novel, The Man with the Red Tattoo, it
was the final literary work featuring Bond as originally conceived by
Ian Fleming until the publication of Devil May Care by Sebastian
Faulks in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth.
AV
CLUB SLIDESHOW DEPARTMENT
My Neat Stuff Slideshow - Jssor Slider, Slideshow with Javascript Source Code
In
discussing her character, Halle Berry said Jinx is
"fashion-forward modern and the next step in the evolution of
women in the Bond movies." The scene where she emerges from the
ocean in a bikini paid homage to the character of Honey Ryder (Ursula
Andress) from the first Bond film, Dr. No. Despite the bikini and
location of Cuba in the film, the footage of the water and bar scene
was shot in Cadiz and far from the warmth implied in the film; The
location was reportedly very cold and windy, and footage has been
released of Berry wrapped in thick towels in between takes to avoid
catching a chill. Berry was also injured during filming when debris
from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a
30-minute operation.
The
title song for Die Another Day was written and performed by Madonna,
who also had a cameo in the film as a fencing instructor. This is the
first Bond title sequence to directly reflect the film's plot since
Dr. No; all of the other previous Bond titles are stand-alone set
pieces. The concept of the title sequence is to represent Bond trying
to survive 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans.
Critics' opinions of the song were sharply divided, it was nominated
for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the 2004 Grammy Award
for Best Dance Recording, but also for a Golden Raspberry Award for
Worst Original Song of 2002 (while Madonna herself won the Golden
Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her cameo). In a
MORI poll for the Channel 4 programme "James Bond's Greatest
Hits", the song was voted 9th out of 22, and also came in as an
"overwhelming number one" favourite among those under the
age of 24.
MGM
and Eon Productions granted Mattel the license to sell a line of
Barbie dolls based around the franchise. Mattel announced that the
Bond Barbies will be at her "stylish best", clad in evening
dress and red shawl. Lindy Hemming created the dress, which is
slashed to the thigh to reveal a telephone strapped to Barbie's leg.
The doll was sold in a gift set, with Barbie's boyfriend Ken posing
as Bond in a tuxedo designed by the Italian fashion house Brioni.
