Die Another Day (2002)

James Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul, who is funding the development of an international space weapon.

Director:

Lee Tamahori

Writers:

Ian Fleming (characters), Neal Purvis

Stars:

Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Rosamund Pike

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 35 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pierce Brosnan	...	James Bond
Halle Berry	...	Jinx Johnson
Toby Stephens	...	Gustav Graves
Rosamund Pike	...	Miranda Frost
Rick Yune	...	Zao
Judi Dench	...	M
John Cleese	...	Q
Michael Madsen	...	Damian Falco
Will Yun Lee	...	Colonel Moon
Kenneth Tsang	...	General Moon
Emilio Echevarría	...	Raoul
Michael Gor	...	Vlad (as Michael Gorevoy)
Lawrence Makoare	...	Mr. Kil
Colin Salmon	...	Charles Robinson
Samantha Bond	...	Miss Moneypenny

Storyline

Pierce Brosnan gives one last mission as James Bond. Starting off in North Korea, Bond is betrayed and captured. 14 months later, Bond is set free, but traded for Zao who was captured by MI6. When back in his world, Bond sets off to track down Zao. Bond gets caught up in yet another scheme which sends him to millionaire Gustav Graves. Another MI6 agent known as Miranda Frost is also posing as a friend of Graves. Bond is invited to a presentation held by Graves about a satellite found in space which can project a huge laser beam. Bond must stop this madman with a fellow American agent, known as Jinx. Whilst Bond tries to stop Graves and Zao, will he finally reveal who betrayed him?

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Plot Keywords:

north korea | iceland | 007 | gadget car | british secret service | 

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Taglines:

Events don't get any bigger than...

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for action violence and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

MGM [United States] Official Site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Korean Cantonese Spanish German Icelandic Italian Arabic

Release Date:

22 November 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

James Bond 20

Filming Locations:

Deepdale Farm, Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$142,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$47,072,040, 24 November 2002

Gross USA:

$160,942,139

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$431,971,116

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions, Danjaq, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sir Roger Moore actively voiced his displeasure with the film, citing the invisible car and the weak CGI as being a low for the franchise.

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Goofs

When Jinx is in the cockpit of the plane, the cockpit is actually that of the An-225 Myria, not the An-124 fuselage/Il-76 nose plane used in the film. This is evident because of the six power levers. The plane in the movie only has four engines.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mr. Van Bierk: [stepping out of helicopter] Look, what is this? I'm supposed to...
[Bond puts a gun to Mr. Van Bierk's head and takes his sunglasses]

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Crazy Credits

In the traditional walk-and-shoot opening, the bullet Bond fires can be seen shooting towards the camera - meaning that Bond has shot up the gun barrel of his opponent!

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Alternate Versions

While their English voices and dialog remained unchanged, all of the Korean spoken by the characters was redubbed in the South Korean release to cover up their poor Korean accents.

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Connections

Referenced in My Weekly Bond: Top 10 Best Bond Theme Versions (2014)

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Soundtracks

London Calling
Written by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer
Performed by The Clash
Courtesy of Epic Records and Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Junk Bonds

I've seen every James Bond film, including the original TV version of Casino Royale and Die Another Day manages to make it into the bottom of the mediocre pile. It's nowhere near as bad as the embarrassing Diamonds are forever, the painful Moonraker, or the nearly unwatchable Man With A Golden Gun, but it's still pretty bad and is probably the worst entry since Octopussy.

For one thing, Bond is thoroughly incompetent throughout the movie. He fails in his mission objectives, he gets captured, he doesn't escape, and he remains clueless as to the identity of his adversaries. Sure, he can surf and handle a sword, but he's a lousy spy.

Most Bond movies have relatively weak plots but this one seems totally rambling and inconsequential. What exactly were the scorpions meant to symbolize? Do we care? And why Iceland? Apparently just because it was cool, since it had no intrinsic meaning to the villain. Then again, this villain is one of the least fleshed out I've ever seen in a Bond movie.

In some ways this was almost a retrospective of Bond movies, as the director tried to lift a scene from all the previous ones. I was slightly reminded of the homage scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but at least there the retrospectives had a narrative point. Here it just feels heavy-handed.

Nobody is going to get any awards for acting in this movie. Halle Barry is miscast as Jinx and serves more as a distraction than a partner. The villain seemed like a pale imitation of John Malkovich's character in Johnny English. Judi Dench can play M in her sleep and it looks as if she's doing so this time. The obligatory Q scene felt forced. And I'm still trying to figure out why they felt the need to humiliate poor Moneypenny at the end.

If Brosnan is going to make another Bond film before he retires the role I hope they get a director who understands the Bond mystique, because this one seems to think it's all about blowing things up while making jokes about your genitals.