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
is taken from a line in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
The
World Is Not Enough would be last Bond film to feature Desmond
Llewelyn, the Welsh actor, famous for having played Q in 17 of the
James Bond films between 1963 and 1999.
The film's plot revolves
around the assassination of billionaire Sir Robert King by the
terrorist Renard, and Bond's subsequent assignment to protect King's
daughter Elektra, who had previously been held for ransom by Renard.
During his assignment, Bond unravels a scheme to increase petroleum
prices by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul.
Filming locations included
Spain, France, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the UK, with interiors shot at
Pinewood Studios. Despite mixed critical reception, The World Is Not
Enough earned $361,832,400 worldwide. The World is Not Enough was the
first film in the Eon Productions Bond series to be officially
released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer instead of United Artists, its
original distributor.
Joe Dante and then Peter
Jackson were offered the opportunity to direct the film. Barbara
Broccoli enjoyed Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, and a screening of The
Frighteners was arranged for her. She disliked the latter film,
however, and showed no further interest in Jackson. Jackson, a
lifelong Bond fan, remarked that as Eon tended to go for less famous
directors, he would likely not get another chance to direct a Bond
film 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 descent 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 lacklustre 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 rejected the claims and expressed displeasure with the article.
Initially the film was to
be released in 2000, rumoured to be titled Bond 2000. Other rumoured
titles included Death Waits for No Man, Fire and Ice, Pressure Point
and Dangerously Yours. The title The World Is Not Enough is an
English translation of the Latin phrase Orbis non-sufficit, which in
real life was the motto of Sir Thomas Bond. In the novel On Her
Majesty's Secret Service and its film adaptation, this is revealed to
be the Bond family motto. The phrase originates from the epitaph of
Alexander the Great.
Writers Neal Purvis and
Robert Wade were hired after their work in Plunkett & Macleane.
Dana Stevens did an uncredited rewrite before Bruce Feirstein, who
worked in the previous two films, took over the script.
The pre-title sequence
begins in Bilbao, Spain, featuring the Guggenheim Museum. After the
opening scene, the film moves to London, 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 the 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 wardens was filmed at Wapping and the boat stunts in Millwall
Dock and under Glengall Bridge were filmed at the Isle of Dogs.
Chatham Dockyard was also used for part of the boat chase. Stowe
School, Buckinghamshire, was used as the site of the King family
estate on the banks of Loch Lomond. Filming continued 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 at the Motorola
building in Groundwell, Swindon. 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 750iL in Tomorrow Never Dies) but, due to filming preceding
release of the Z8 by a few months, several working mock-ups and
models were manufactured for filming purposes.
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 this and the song was replaced by a remix of the
"James Bond Theme". "Only Myself to Blame",
written by Arnold and 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
the following film, 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" music polls.
The World Is Not Enough
premiered on November 19th 1999 in the USA and on November 26th 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 opened at the top
of the North American box office with $35.5 million. Its final
worldwide gross was $361 million worldwide, with $126 million in the
United States alone. It became the highest grossing James Bond film
to date until the release of Die Another Day. 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 in the Bond series to win a Golden Raspberry
when Denise Richards was chosen as "Worst Supporting
Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards. Richards and Brosnan were
also nominated for "Worst Screen Couple".
Reception was mixed.
Chicago Sun-Times 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 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution disliked the film, calling it "dated and
confused". Negative criticism was focused on the execution of
the plot, and the action scenes were considered excessive.
Entertainment Weekly said it had a plot "so convoluted even
Pierce Brosnan has admitted to being mystified".
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 one of the worst Bond girls of
all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008. Richards, proving she has a
great sense of humor, would play a parody of herself on an episode of
the TV series 30 Rock (2012) and say, "And idiots can do
anything we put our minds to. I played a nuclear psychiatrist in a
James Bonk movie."
The film was adapted into a
trading card series which was released by Inkworks. 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 (this scene was
also retained in the card series).
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.
The film was released on
DVD and VHS on May 16th 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.
"See Q for any
equipment you need."
Llewelyn
was chosen for the role of Q because of his work with director
Terence Young in the 1950 war film They Were Not Divided, in which he
played a tank gunner. Beginning with From Russia with Love in 1963,
Llewelyn appeared as Q, the quartermaster of the MI6 gadget lab (also
known as Q branch), in almost every Bond film until his death, only
missing from Live and Let Die in 1973. During his briefing of 007 in
The World Is Not Enough, Q introduces John Cleese's character, R, as
his heir presumptive, and the film alludes to Q's retirement, which
Bond, after seeing Q, expresses his hope that it will not be any time
soon. Q's response is to admonish Bond to "always have an escape
plan", after which he lowers himself through the floor of his
lab. Llewelyn had stated not long before his death 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."
Less than two weeks after
the premiere of The World is Not Enough, at aged 85, Llewelyn was in
a fatal car accident on December 19th 1999, as he was returning home
from a book signing event. Driving alone, his Renault Megane collided
head-on with a Fiat Bravo on the A27 near the village of Berwick,
East Sussex. An inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death and
Roger Moore, who starred with Llewelyn in six of his seven Bond
movies, spoke at his funeral.
In
the next Bond film Die Another Day, John Cleese (Monty Python) is
made the head of Q branch, having inherited the title of
quartermaster from his predecessor. In all, Llewelyn appeared in 17
Bond films, more than any other actor, and worked with the first five
James Bond actors. He also portrayed Q in a 1967 EON-produced made-for-television
documentary entitled Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond, which was included
in the 2006 special edition DVD release of You Only Live Twice.
Although one of British cinema's most recognisable characters and an
important and long-standing element in the 'Bond' franchise, 'Q' did
not make Desmond Llewelyn rich, the actor was merely paid 'by the
day' for his few hours of work on-set, and did not share in the money
made by the films. Nevertheless, because Llewelyn was considered one
of the franchise's major institutions and he was immensely popular
among Bond fans. He also appeared in other films such as the Ealing
comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and the 1981 PBS production of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and he had a small role in the musical
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) which was itself based on a children's
book by Bond author Ian Fleming. He also acted on stage with Laurence
Olivier and Vivien Leigh (appearing as an extra in Olivier's 1948
film Hamlet) and appeared as Geoffrey Maddocks ('The Colonel') in the
British television series Follyfoot from 1971 to 1973. The Bond film
Live and Let Die was filmed during the third series of Follyfoot and
Llewelyn was written out of the series for three episodes to appear
in the film. However, the Bond producers ultimately decided to leave
the character out of the film anyway, much to Llewelyn's annoyance.
Despite playing an inventor in the Bond films, Llewelyn always
maintained that he was totally lost in the world of technology, a
trait that also plagued his successor, John Cleese.
The character of
"Q" never appears in Fleming's novels though Fleming's
first two novels do refer to him; in subsequent Fleming novels, we
read only of "Q Branch". In the sixth novel, Dr. No, the
service armourer Major Boothroyd appears for the first time. Fleming
named the character after Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert who
lived in Glasgow, Scotland. He had written to the novelist suggesting
that Bond was not using the best firearms available.
The
character "Q" does however appear in the novelizations by
Christopher Wood, John Gardner and Raymond Benson. In Gardner's Bond
novels Boothroyd is referenced occasionally but the Gardner preferred
instead to focus on a new character, Ann Reilly, who is introduced in
Licence Renewed and promptly dubbed "Q'ute" by Bond.
Charles Fraser-Smith is
widely credited as being the inspiration for Q due to the spy gadgets
he had built for the Special Operations Executive being called
"Q-devices" after the Royal Navy's World War I Q-ships. In
the Fleming novels there are frequent references to Q and "Q
Branch" with phrases like "see Q for any equipment you
need" (Casino Royale) and "Q Branch would handle all of
that" (Diamonds Are Forever), with a reference to "Q's
craftsmen" in From Russia with Love.
In the films, Major
Boothroyd first appears in Dr. No and later in From Russia with Love,
although played by different actors. Desmond Llewelyn stated that
though he was credited as playing "Major Boothroyd", the
original line spoken by M, "Ask Major Boothroyd to come in"
was replaced with "the armourer" as director Terence Young
stated Boothroyd was a different character. Beginning in Guy
Hamilton's Goldfinger and in each film thereafter Major Boothroyd is
most often referred to as Q; however, in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
he is referred to once again as Major Boothroyd in dialogue.
In most films in which Q
appears, he is restricted to a "behind the scenes"
involvement, either based in London or in secret bases out in the
field. Two notable exceptions in which Q becomes directly involved in
Bond's missions occur in Octopussy, in which Q actually participates
in field work - including the final battle against the villain's
henchmen - and Licence to Kill in which he joins Bond in the field
after 007 goes rogue.
In the first film, Dr. No,
Boothroyd is played by Peter Burton (above far left) in only one
scene in which he replaces Bond's .25 Beretta 418 pistol with Bond's
signature .32 Walther PPK handgun. The character later appeared in
From Russia with Love played by Desmond Llewelyn (above second from
left), due to scheduling conflicts that kept Burton from reprising.
Desmond Llewelyn would continue to portray the character in every
official film except Live and Let Die until his death in 1999.
In The World Is Not Enough
an assistant to Q was introduced, played by John Cleese (above with
Brosnan). His real name has yet to be revealed, but he is initially
credited as R in The World Is Not Enough, stemming from a joke in
which Bond asks the elder Q: "If you're Q, does that make him
R?" Following actor Llewelyn's death in the next Bond film, Die
Another Day, Bond at first refers to R as "Quartermaster"
but, silently impressed by the gadgets he is given, calls him
"Q" at the end of their meeting, making Cleese officially
the new "Q". In an interview, Pierce Brosnan was very glad
to rename Cleese's character 'Q', rather than 'R', because his native
Irish accent made it difficult to pronounce 'R' with a convincing
English accent.
The character of Q did not
appear in 2006's Casino Royale nor its sequel, Quantum of Solace
(2008). Bond actor Daniel Craig expressed concern over the
character's absence, and expressed his hope that Q would return in
Skyfall. British actor Ben Whishaw (below with Craig) was cast in the
role and at age 31 (in 2012) became the youngest actor to play the role.
AV
CLUB SLIDESHOW DEPARTMENT
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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 the 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 wardens was filmed at Wapping and the boat stunts in Millwall
Dock and under Glengall Bridge were filmed at the Isle of Dogs.
Chatham Dockyard was also used for part of the boat chase. Stowe
School, Buckinghamshire, was used as the site of the King family
estate on the banks of Loch Lomond. Filming continued 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
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 this and the song was replaced by a remix of the
"James Bond Theme". "Only Myself to Blame",
written by Arnold and 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
the following film, Die Another Day.
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 one of the worst Bond girls of
all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008. Richards, proving she has a
great sense of humor, would play a parody of herself on an episode of
the TV series 30 Rock (2012) and say, "And idiots can do
anything we put our minds to. I played a nuclear psychiatrist in a
James Bonk movie."
Llewelyn
was chosen for the role of Q because of his work with director
Terence Young in the 1950 war film They Were Not Divided, in which he
played a tank gunner. Beginning with From Russia with Love in 1963,
Llewelyn appeared as Q, the quartermaster of the MI6 gadget lab (also
known as Q branch), in almost every Bond film until his death, only
missing from Live and Let Die in 1973. During his briefing of 007 in
The World Is Not Enough, Q introduces John Cleese's character, R, as
his heir presumptive, and the film alludes to Q's retirement, which
Bond, after seeing Q, expresses his hope that it will not be any time
soon. Q's response is to admonish Bond to "always have an escape
plan", after which he lowers himself through the floor of his
lab. Llewelyn had stated not long before his death 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."
The
character "Q" does however appear in the novelizations by
Christopher Wood, John Gardner and Raymond Benson. In Gardner's Bond
novels Boothroyd is referenced occasionally but the Gardner preferred
instead to focus on a new character, Ann Reilly, who is introduced in
Licence Renewed and promptly dubbed "Q'ute" by Bond.
