Criminally Underrated - Bondathon: The World is not Enough

Tomorrow Never Dies…it was a rather standard Bond adventure, everything was rather basic and it was just another story about saving the world. People were still rather happy, but they wanted the type of flair they had gotten with Goldeneye. Something to usher in the new millennium with. A new Bond. Brosnan also wanted something that he could dig his acting chops into, moreso than the last two entries. So, the studios delivered…making a movie that’s so much more than most Bond films (up until the Craig era at least).

Yet, why is it so hated? God only knows…but I disagree. Here’s 1999’s The World is not Enough, which is only barely beaten by Licence to Kill to be the most underrated movie in the franchise.

So, the movie starts out with a rather long pre-credits scene, spanning a good chunk of the movie and setting up a lot of valid and large plot points. We first see Bond in Bilbao, where he’s visiting a Swedish banker to retrieve the money for Sir Robert King. However, things go wrong quickly, as Bond has to use his final option (an explosive within the room) to make the banker and his guards kill off. However, the explosion gathers the attention of a sniper who kills the banker, planning to frame Bond for it. Bond escapes just as the police arrive and then makes his way to London with the money. When he arrives, King himself is just leaving M’s office, grabbing the money from Bond on his way out. As Bond and M settle for a drink in her office, Bond notices acid on the ice he’s using, and sprints after King, fearing his life is in danger. His premonition proves true, sadly, as an explosion in the money set off by King’s lapel pin instantly kills him.

Bond looks through a hole in the wall to spot the same laser pointer coming from the sniper in Bilbao. He sees it coming from a boat in the Thames River, and the sniper, the girl who offered him a cigar in Spain on board. She takes a shot, misses, and immediately attempts to escape. Bond runs to Q branch as soon as possible to grab Q’s latest creation: a small speedboat with weaponry and gives chase. I absolutely love this scene, honestly. You don’t get very many plot-crucial scenes with Bond in London, it’s usually a meeting with M and a flirt with Moneypenney and he’s gone. But, not here, as Bond chases the girl on the boat through the canals and the river, using the few gadgets whenever he can. The chase ends at the Millenium dome, as the girl hops off her boat and commandeers a nearby hot air balloon. Bond grabs onto a tethering rope, the girl threatens suicide, and Bond swears that he can protect her. The girl, however, isn’t convinced, and blows herself up while Bond falls, dislocating his shoulder in the process, and the credits sequence finally happens.

After the credits, we open up with Robert King’s funeral. Bond, M, and pretty much the rest of MI6 are in attendance, and are all walking back to their cars afterwards, when Bond spots a girl soaking up condolences. She turns out to be King’s daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceau), who was recently held captive for ransom. Afterwards, Bond and M return to MI6’s backup HQ, located in a Scottish castle. MI6’s chefs of staff Tanner and Robinson are lecturing the 00 agents on the death of Robert King. They speculate that there may have been an inside man who placed a duplicate of King’s pin with the transmitter inside, and that their top priority is to find this inside man, for they’re trying to use MI6 as the scapegoat. Bond, however, is angered at the fact that he hasn’t received a dossier for the mission. Tanner explains that M has placed Bond on medical leave until the doctor orders he’s fine, due to the dislocated shoulder. So, he uses his classic Bond charm to seduce the doctor, and he’s cleared in no time. M gives Bond the mission of keeping an eye on Elektra, and before heading out for his mission, stops by Q branch and meets Q’s soon-to-be replacement, played by John Cleese. Q gives Bond his last gadgets (A loaded BMW Z8 and a jacket featuring a releasable protective shell) before telling Bond that he always wanted him to learn two things: “Never let them see you bleed,” and, “always have an escape plan.” Q then sinks into the basement below, a fitting goodbye for the character considering that Desmond Llewellyn died in a car crash a short time after the film’s release.

Bond drives out to Azerbaijan to meet Elektra. There he witnesses as she talks to a local priest and agrees to move the King oil pipeline that is set to be constructed, as to calm down the locals’ protests. Him and her converse about her father’s demise, and he tells her that her life might be in danger once again, as Bond discovered the money he received for King was the exact amount that was needed to pay for Elektra’s ransom, likely placed there by her kidnapper, Renard (Robert Carlisle). Elektra is off-put at first, stating that her family put too much trust in MI6 before, and she wouldn’t be making the same mistake again, but Bond persists. She then leaves to ski around the nearby mountains and check all the pipeline mains, and Bond tags along. While there, men on flying snowmobiles attack Bond and Elektra and Bond retaliates, telling Elektra to go ahead to the bottom. It’s another exhilarating chase scene, which actually reminds me a good bit of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, another Bond film with a great snow action set piece. After Bond deals with the last snowmobiler, he meets up with Elektra just as the snowmobile explodes into the ground, causing an avalanche. Bond acts quick, pulling the cord in his jacket to activate the protective shell. Inside, Elektra suffers a panic attack brought on by when she was in captivity.

Bond heads out to a local casino owned by our old friend Valentin Zukovsky with a piece of the parachute used by the snowmobilers, one that holds a particular insignia on it. Zukovsky points out that it is the insignia of an old Aerospace division from the Soviet Union days that is now mostly operated by Renard. Just as he receives this information, Bond notices Elektra walking into the casino, which infuriates him. She refuses his protests to go home, and sits down to bet $1,000,000 on one card for the high hand, which she loses, and afterwards, Bond finally manages to take her home and make love to her. Meanwhile, Renard takes Elektra’s bodyguard Davidov into a cave called the Devil’s Breath, which features seemingly eternal flames. He speaks of how old monks used to come here and show their dedication to god by holding the scalding rocks in their hands. Renard, having been shot once before with the bullet seemingly killing his senses, picks one up with no effects, and places it in Davidov’s hand as a way of punishment for letting Bond rescue Elektra from the attackers. He then tells Davidov to meet him later at a Kazakhstan nuclear site later to steal a bomb which he will later use in his master plan.

Bond sneaks out of Elektra’s villa and makes his way to Renard’s airfield, where he takes out Davidov and inserts himself into his place. He later arrives in Kazakhstan posing as a Russian nuclear professor, where he meets Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), a nuclear physicist working on the site. He lowers himself to the bomb labs below, where he meets Renard, who puts out some various actions and sayings that make Bond believe he and Elektra are working together. He’s quickly found out to be Bond, and the fight ensues. Renard makes his way out with the bomb, and sets a smaller bomb off in the lab, trapping him and Jones inside. He reveals his true identity to Jones as they escape, Bond having gained a new ally in Jones. He returns to Elektra’s villa, and, Elektra, furious at Bond for leaving her during the middle of the night. Bond retaliates, asking her if she has anything to do with Renard, and blaming Stockholm Syndrome for it. Elektra is even further disgusted and receives a call that there’s been a murdering at her pipeline, so she sets out to check out the situation as M arrives on the scene.

When they arrive, they find one of the carts used for pipe maintenance to be out of control, zooming through the pipe at 70 mph, and Bond fears that it might have Renard’s bomb placed upon it. He gets Robinson to fly him and Jones out by helicopter to commandeer another cart to intercept the rogue one. As they do, they get to work attempting to disarm the bomb, when Christmas finds that only half of the plutonium needed is actually there, the other half taken by Renard for his future plans. He decides to keep the plutonium removed and to let the bomb explode, faking his death. He and Jones escape and he explains that Elektra now believes that Bond is dead and that she’s gotten away with it all, which is true, as she has taken M hostage and reveals that she was behind her father’s death. Bond and Jones set out to question Zukovsky once more, heading for his caviar factory.

Elektra meets up with Renard at the Maiden’s Tower in Istanbul, where he gives her the other half of the plutonium, and she gives him the captured M. Renard then proceeds to tell her about how he’s going to get back at her, saying that he’s constantly counting down until his death because of the bullet put in his head by 009. So, in return, he places a clock in front of her and says that she will die at noon the next day, along with the rest of the city, and the, “bright, starry, oil-driven future of the west.” Meanwhile, Bond and Jones arrive at Zukovsky’s caviar factory just as Zukovsky gets there. His henchman proceeds to call Elektra to tell her Bond is alive after spotting Bond’s BMW outside the building. Inside, Bond interrogates Zukovsky, asking if he has any business with Elektra, seeing as he didn’t seem alarmed when she lost a million dollars in his casino. His questioning is quickly interrupted, though, as Elektra’s tree trimming, buzzsaw clad helicopters appear, beginning to attack and cut up the caviar factory.

Bond runs outside to the safety of his car, surviving steady attacks by the buzzsaw copters along the way. As one helicopter hovers in front of the car, he backs up a few feet and fires a missile at it, shooting it down. Bond smirks but is cut short, as another helicopter comes behind him and starts sawing the car in half. Bond hops out of the car (“Q’s not going to like this”) and starts using his wit to bring down the remaining helicopter. After doing so, he returns to the remains of Zukovsky’s caviar factory, where Zukovsky is attempting to float in a vat of caviar, ready to blame Bond for the destruction. Bond manages to get him to talk, and he says that Renard’s outfit hired a nephew of his, a Russian Victor III class submarine pilot.

Bond rescues Zukovsky out of his caviar and they travel to a former KGB outpost in Istanbul. While looking at the map, the three deduce that Renard and Elektra’s bomb, if placed on that submarine, would wipe out the entire city, making oil shipments be sent to King’s pipeline instead. Suddenly, they receive a tracking device signal set up by M. They pinpoint the signal to the Maiden’s tower, and are just about to leave when a bomb set up by one of Zukovsky’s henchmen goes off. They survive, but Zukovsky is knocked out, leaving Bond and Jones to head to the island. When the two arrive, they’re captured, with Jones being taken down to the submarine below, and Elektra strapping Bond into her torture chair, which strangles whatever person is inside of it every time the torturer turns a giant wheel on the back.

Elektra taunts Bond, saying she could have given him the world (“The world is not enough.” “Foolish sentiment?” “Family motto.”), but Bond persists, refusing to crack under being strangled. She gets down to the last screw before being distracted by a ruckus outside, caused by Zukovsky and a small army of men overtaking the island. He gets inside, shoots the betraying henchman who set the bomb, and pauses out of the shock of seeing his nephew’s captain’s hat on the table next to the torture chair. Elektra grabs it and offers to give it to Zukovsky, but instead she shoots a gun from behind it, fatally wounding Zukovsky. He uses his last bit of energy to shoot the gun in his walking cane to free Bond from the torture chair, which Bond uses as an opportunity to get up and give chase up the tower after Elektra, freeing M in the process.

Bond chases Elektra to the top and points a gun at her, giving her the chance to call the submarine off. The next scene that transpires is probably one of the darkest scenes in the whole franchise, as Elektra tempts Bond saying that he would never kill her.

“You wouldn’t kill me…you’d miss me.”

Elektra raises the walkie-talkie and tells Renard to go ahead, as soon as she does, Bond raises his gun and shoots her dead.

“I never miss.”

Bond gives her one last kiss as M enters the room, heartbroken over seeing her dead, yet knowing that she deserved it. Not taking too long to mourn, Bond takes off his jacket and dives into the water below, gaining access into the sub and killing his way until he finds Christmas and Renard, who is putting a nuclear rod into the sub’s reactor cooler, which would end up making the sub melt down. Bond and Renard fight for a while, becoming more intense after Renard finds out that Elektra is dead. He attempts to lock Bond out of the room as he finally pushes the rod in, but Bond manages to gain access to the reactor’s control panel, singling out the hole which the rod is in and makes the rod be jettisoned out into Renard’s chest, killing him. He grabs Jones and gets out of the submarine just before it explodes (in a rather anti-climactic explosion, and I like that…too many big booms in movies these days) and the movie ends (I’m not talking about the ending scene because it’s just cringeworthy…why would you end such a great movie like that Jesus Christ).

You know, I’m willing to defend this movie to the lengths that I defended Licence to Kill. The World is not Enough is not perfect by any means, but it is not bad enough to justify being the bottom of any best to worst list. This one is very much darker than Tomorrow Never Dies ever tried to be, and it shows. A more down-to-earth plot and a back to basics feel? Hell yes. A few of the things I love the most are the female villain and the M getting captured plot point…something we don’t see often (and you’ll see even more gushing over this when Skyfall comes around).

Now time for the usual guff. Brosnan wanted to act more, and it shows. If he had given this type of dedication to the role more often, he would have lasted way longer than he did…no wonder he’s my third favorite of the actors to play Bond. Sophie Marceau is sexy and menacing, yet still pulls off the shy and helpless damsel-in-distress feel…a perfect femme fatale. But that’s it on the good cast front, as I can’t really say much about anyone else. But I can say that Denise Richards has no business playing a nuclear physicist.

Like TND’s Roger Spottiswoode, I’ve never seen anything else Michael Apted has made, but he did a very good job on this film. I think it would have been easy to make the film arguably grittier and darker, but the cinematography still stays rather saturated and yet still fits the plot’s tone and everything. I’ve heard rumors that Peter Jackson was offered the director’s spot, and while that would have been interesting, I think I’m fine with the movie we got.

So, TWINE is hardly that bad, it’s actually pretty damn good for what it is. I’m honestly going to give it a generous 4 out of 5 stars. It could improve on some areas like casting and maybe some screenwriting, but otherwise than that, it’s pretty much next to perfect. Unlike the next film, which is an imperfect, franchise-killing mess, so get ready for a rant as I talk about the steaming pile of crap known as Die Another Day.