The Mission: A British warship is sunk in the South China Sea, putting Britain and China on the brink of war. When M finds a link to media baron Elliot Carver she sends Bond to investigate due to his close connection with Carver’s wife.
Locales: Afghanistan and Pakistan, China, Germany and Vietnam.
Gadgets: The big item of the day is Bond’s gadget packed Sony Ericsson mobile phone. It’s equipped with a stun gun, a fingerprint scanner and a remote control for his car. The Omega watch returns complete with a detachable remote mine. A lighter doubles as a grenade.
Vehicles: The BMW makes it’s first appearance in the field and is well armed with stinger missiles, secret compartments, high voltage security systems, razor blades instead the hood emblem, re-inflating tires and other tricks.
Sidekicks: Chinese Intelligence Agent Wai Lin first meets Bond while they are both undercover at Elliot Carver’s party. She soon becomes his ally for most of the mission. Wade from the CIA makes another appearance providing his ‘unofficial’ support from the US.
The Girls: Paris Carver, Eilliot’s wife and Bond’s former lover, becomes his ally when their meeting re-sparks their feelings for each other.
The Enemy: Elliot Carver, evil media and software baron.
Evil Plot: Manipulate Great Britain and China into an escalating conflict that would ultimately put his ally, General Chang, in power. From there Carver would have exclusive broadcast rights in China. Possibly inspired by Rupert Murdoch’s dealings with the Chinese government.
Distinguishing Features: Looks like a squirrily version of Murdoch being given fashion advice by Steve Jobs.
Secret Lair: Carver has a number of building and offices around the world, but his villainous schemes are based out of his stealth boat.
Henchmen: Richard Stamper works as Carver’s personal bodyguard and assassin, and is versed in Chakra torture. His mentor Professor Kaufman is brought in to fake a murder suicide involving Bond and Paris. Techno-terrorist Henry Gupta takes care of the computer decoding.
Facts About the Movie
Politically Incorrect Behaviour: Although he does act in response to his heart rather than his junk, sleeping with a married woman is uncool.
Notable Firsts: Bond takes a BMW into the field for the first time. Tomorrow Never Dies is the first Bond film to feature no references whatsoever to Ian Fleming.
Random Trivia: Teri Hatcher claims to have regretted taking the role of Paris Carver saying that playing such an artificial character lacks job satisfaction. Initially she only accepted the role because her husband ‘wanted to be married to a Bond girl’. Brosnan would later say that Monica Bellucci had screen tested for the part but ‘the fools said no’.
Michelle Yeoh was considered for the role of Wai Lin after the director’s sons pointed her out in a Jackie Chan movie. Yeoh was insistent about performing her own stunts but was not permitted to do so. Producers did discuss continuing the character of Mei Lin in a spin-off, but it never happened.
Although some critics mocked the ‘stealth ship’ as being unbelievable, it is not fictional. After a prototype was built the Navy decided against producing them.
The real deal.
Originally the film was to be set during the handover of Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese with Carver as a zealot intent of destroying the small nation rather than loose it to China. The films political consultant, Henry Kissinger, advised against this as if something did happen during the handover it would make the film look ‘silly’.
The opening theme song was originally composed and performed by Pulp, but eventually rejected. Pulp released the song under the title ‘Tomorrow Never Lies’.
