Tomorrow Never Dies is Brosan’s best?

Critical reaction for Tomorrow Never Dies was mixed and audiences were disappointed. Box Office results remained relatively stable, dipping only $20 million from Goldeneye, but today it’s a forgotten James Bond film. Not remembered fondly like Brosnan’s first and not the disaster of his next one, it vanished from the popular culture. I genuinely couldn’t remember anything about the plot before watching it, except something about a media mogul being the villain. The only memorable part was Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, and that’s due to my love for 90s show Lois & Clark not this movie. Going in blind may have helped the experience. I have no nostalgic attachment to the film, and I enjoyed Tomorrow Never Dies more than Goldeneye.

The cold open is a tense action scene. Having discovered a secret terrorist meeting, army brass order a missile strike to take them out. The spy who discovered the meeting refuses to leave the site after the strike is ordered. Judi Dench as M supports her field agent. “He’s doing his job.” She knows Bond, despite his bravado, doesn’t do anything without reason. He discovers the terrorists have a nuclear weapon, but it’s too late to stop the missiles. In four minutes, they’ll strike and detonate the nuclear warheads.

Bond steals the jet holding the nuclear weapons and escapes just as the missiles strike. Pursued by a second jet, they engaged in a spectacular dogfight. The budget has clearly gone up from Goldeneye, or a better special effect company was hired, because the planes don’t look like models on strings. They have weight to their movement, which adds to the tension of the scene. You can believe there’s danger to the situation. It sells the illusion. The only downside is the cheesy escape ending. What is with Brosnan’s Bond and ejector seats in jets?

Goldeneye the best Bond theme song ever. If you disagree, it had better make top 5. Tomorrow Never Dies theme is easily bottom 5. Sheryl Crow is wrong for the part, and the song itself is dull. A great montage might have saved the credit sequence, but alas, this is not the case. There’s a few interesting circuit board designs painted on women, but overall it’s unimaginative and fails to create a cohesive visual spectacle.  A disappointment all around. Check out the closing credits for a better song by K.D. Lang.

Moving to the film proper, Tomorrow Never Dies is a great action movie. It took me a while to realize why I enjoyed it above Goldeneye, and I decided it comes down to pacing and organization. Tomorrow Never Dies has a strong filmic structure. Goldeneye had scenes that ran too long or felt disjointed from the narrative. The car chase at the beginning is the perfect example. It could have been shorter and accomplished the same task. Tomorrow Never Dies doesn’t have superfluous scenes during its 2-hour runtime. Everything that happens builds the plot and ends before wearing out its welcome.

The action scenes also benefit from stronger direction and stunt coordination. Bond’s remote control car chase is especially exciting. He uses a cell phone to drive his car from the back seat, while being shot at by dozens of enemies. The film uses the situation to maximum effect, building stakes as gunfire chips away at Bond’s heavily fortified car. When it seems the enemy weaponry couldn’t more formidable, they pull out a bazooka. They fire and the weapon passed through the cars broken windshields and explodes the enemy car chasing Bond’s BMW.

The bazooka could have taken the seen into bad cartoon territory, but it doesn’t. The scene works because of how the story progresses. The bad guys keep escalating their attempts to stop Bond, and it culminates with as big a weapon as you can produce within a parking structure. It’s extreme, but not impossible. Then the joke finishes with Bond completely unharmed, which is to be expected, but happens in such an unexpected way it works as a joke.

Another stand out action scene is Michelle Yoeh and Brosnan’s bike chase. Wai Lin is a badass Chinese spy who proves herself James Bond’s equal a number of times, but this chase is the first big one. I loved Natalya in Goldeneye, but switching to a Bond girl who is literally the equivalent of Bond himself was a smart choice. The motorcycle chase has her and Bond literally bound at the wrist. It’s a perfect expression of their spy skills as they flip over each other, attacking the enemy, and driving a motorcycle through crowded city streets. It’s technically, visually and narratively impressive. Bond and the viewer get a complete sense of Wai Lin’s skill in this scene.

Wai Lin then gets the best fight scene in the whole film when she fights off multiple attackers in an old bicycle repair shop. Michelle Yeoh nails a number of acrobatic fight moves. Scrambling up a ladder, desperately clinging to the top rungs, she kicks at her pursuers and lands each blow. While being choked from behind, she runs up a wall to flip over the man and free herself. Wai Lin is wild in the fight, using anything around her as a weapon. The audience knows for sure she doesn’t need Bond to win a fight. Going back to structure, she makes sure he knows it by telling him.

Unfortunately, Teri Hatcher doesn’t get a similarly strong character. Paris Carver’s introduction is decent. The flirtatious exchange between her and Bond at the bar strikes a good balance between serious and playful. After that, her character betrays her husband for Bond and winds up dead before the halfway mark. It all happens before the audience has a chance to grow attached to Paris. This robs her death of meaning. Teri Hatcher is gorgeous, but that’s all. She never gets an opportunity to make Paris into a person. She’s just a plot point.

Paris’ husband is responsible for her death, and the villain of the story. Elliot Carver is a power hungry and money obsessed media baron. Jonathan Pryce is a great actor, but he can’t save Carver from being dull as dirt. His plan is ridiculous, starting WW3 so he gets exclusive first coverage of the major events. It’s incredibly stupid, but he’s competent which makes him a credible enough threat to drive the action forward. Carver’s not interesting, but the larger international conflict is exciting enough to carry the story.

Carver’s sidekick, Richard Stamper, is even less interesting. He’s a generic thug given a speaking part. He’s only there because Jonathan Pryce poses no physical threat to Bond. Combining the two characters into a physically strong media baron would have simplified the story and provided a better conflict. The same could be done with Henry Gupta, played by magician Ricky Jay, since he doesn’t do much either.

Perhaps a single villain would have allowed Tomorrow Never Dies to match Goldeneye in this department. Carver could have killed Paris with his own hands, which would have added to Bond’s desire for revenge and upped the threat level. It doesn’t fix the villain’s plan being terrible, but it would add more complexity to the relationship between the villain and Bond.  

As it stands, the best villainous character in the film is a bit piece played to perfection by Vincent Schiavelli. His torturer has the best dialogue in the whole film. “This is very embarrassing. It seems there’s a red box they need in your car and they can’t get it open. They want me to get you to tell them how to open it. I feel like an idiot. I don’t know what to say.” He’s funny while proving himself a genuine threat. Schiavelli absolutely nailed this hilarious scene.

Despite these problems with characters, the action film that Tomorrow Never Dies needs to be works. The plot builds logically, and raises the stakes believably. It happens in each action scene, building tension, and in each act. The pacing is brisk, so you’re always entertained. James Bond should be entertaining and Tomorrow Never Dies nails it. If you’re a Bond fan, you owe it to yourself to go back and check it out this underrated gem.