Die Another Day (2002)

For as long as I can remember watching the James Bond series, the entity or country that has most tried to "Kill Bond!" (as Blofeld shrieks in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) are either the crime organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E or the Soviet Union aka Russia. But with the disintegration of the old Soviet Union into satellite countries during its "glasnost" period in the 90s, the Bond filmmakers were going to have to find some new "bad players" for Bond and MI-6 to tussle with. Enter North Korea. North Korea has been anti-West since the Korean War. It's secretive, isolated, and ruled by a dictatorial family for decades. Only of late has it become a little less shy and a little more saber rattling, threatening the West with ominous threats and launching numerous missile tests near its neighbors Japan and South Korea. China had never been sexy for the Bond filmmakers (except for a lone Chinese representative Burt Kwouk in GOLDFINGER). North Korea was to be the new villain for the 20th film in the Bond series, DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002).

After a positive, exciting start with a brand new James Bond in Pierce Brosnan for GOLDENEYE (1995), the next two Bond/Brosnan films in the franchise were positively disappointing. TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997) and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999) were directed by capable English directors (Roger  Spottiswoode and Michael Apted), had interesting locations (Thailand, Azerbaijian, Turkey), well respected actors as the main baddies (Jonathan Pryce and Robert Carlyle), and pretty, diverse Bond women (Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Sophie Marceau, and Denise Richards). But the stories were tired and uninteresting, the action sequences tepid, and the momentum Brosnan and company brought with GOLDENEYE had evaporated. Luckily, the fourth and last Brosnan entry DIE ANOTHER DAY would end on a slightly higher note with North Korea as the new dangerous adversary, non-stop action, and the lovely Halle Berry as a Bond Girl named Jinx. 

With a screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (who had become the Bond franchise's go to writers) and directed by Lee Tamahori (MULHOLLAND FALLS), DIE ANOTHER DAY opens with Ian Fleming's ageless British agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) surfing onto a North Korean beach at dawn. Bond impersonates a South African diamond courier bringing illegal conflict diamonds to Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee) in exchange for weapons. Moon shows off his fleet of hovercrafts that can float over land mines separating North and South Korea. Col. Moon's trusted associate Zao (Rick Yune) receives notification that Bond is a spy. Bond's arrested and about to be executed when General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), the younger Moon's father arrives. Gen. Moon is unaware of his son's business dealings. Bond sets off a booby trap, exploding the case full of diamonds. Bond escapes on a hovercraft, chased by Col. Moon and his soldiers. Moon's hovercraft goes over a waterfall and is presumed dead. Bond is caught by Gen. Moon and made a prisoner for 14 months, interrogated and tortured. Moon wants to know who corrupted his son. Bond wants to know who betrayed him to the North Koreans. A prisoner swap is arranged. Bond is traded for an incarcerated Zao, now bald with pieces of diamonds imbedded in his face from the earlier explosion.

Recuperating in Hong Kong, Bond's boss M (Judi Dench) is not happy to see Bond. The Americans led by NSA superior Damian Falco (Michael Madsen) believe Bond gave up one of their agents. Bond sneaks away from his confinement, cleans up, and connects with a Chinese agent Chang (Ho Yi) who tells Bond that Zao is now in Cuba. Bond flies to Cuba (actually Spain) and encounters an American NSA agent named Jinx Johnson (Halley Berry). After a frisky one night stand, Bond follows her the next morning to a clinic on Isla Los Organos just off the coast. A Dr. Alvarez (Simon Andreu) is performing extensive DNA gene therapy that can give people new identities. Jinx shoots Dr. Alvarez. Bond finds Zao in the clinic with a gene therapy mask on. Bond and Zao fight. Zao escapes by helicopter and Jinx jumps into the ocean where a boat awaits her. Bond discovers a host of diamonds bearing the insignia of Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a British billionaire who's recently emerged on the world scene for discovering a diamond mine in Iceland. 

Bond returns to London and visits the Blades Club where fencing instructor Verity (played by Madonna, yes that Madonna who also sings the film's title theme song) points Bond to Graves and his personal assistant Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike). Bond and Graves get into a heated fencing duel that evolves into an actual sword fight with real blades. Bond barely wins. Impressed, Graves invites Bond to his Iceland Ice Palace where he plans to make a big announcement. M reinstates Bond to his double O standing. Bond swings by MI-6 to see Q (John Cleese) who updates Bond with a camouflage Aston Martin that can become invisible and some other more useful gadgets. M meets with Frost who's actually an MI-6 agent. M wants Frost to keep an eye on Bond in Iceland. 

Bond and Jinx arrive at Graves's Icelandic Ice Palace separately. Frost warns Bond not to try to seduce her (it doesn't work but ...). Graves reveals his pet project to the world called Icarus, a giant reflector satellite that can bring intense solar power to areas of the world to help make crops more sustainable. Jinx is caught by Graves and Zao trying to sabotage the device. Bond rescues Jinx and discovers that Graves is really Col. Moon with a new face courtesy of the DNA gene therapy. Bond kills Zao and Graves flees with Frost who turns out to be a double agent, the person who betrayed Bond to the North Koreans. Graves destroys his Ice Palace. Bond and Jinx fly back to the Korean DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea where they are ordered by M and Falco to take down Graves/Moon who unveils his real purpose for Icarus: blast a solar path thru the DMZ so North Korean troops can attack South Korea. Bond and Jinx sneak onto Graves cargo plane for a final showdown with Graves/Moon and Frost.

For Brosnan's final Bond film, the DIE ANOTHER DAY filmmakers pulled out all the stops, some good and some a little too unbelievable even for a Bond film. The good was DIE ANOTHER DAY'S nostalgic nod to past Bond films from Halle Berry's Jinx emerging from the sea like a water nymph similar to Ursula Andress's Honey Ryder introduction in DR. NO (1962) to the facial identity change of Col. Moon to Gustav Graves plot line that echoes THUNDERBALL (1965) when a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent was transformed to look identical to a NATO pilot to steal a nuclear warhead or villain Blofeld duplicating himself two times over in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971). There's John Cleese channeling the recently deceased Desmond Llewelyn as Q (Cleese first appeared as Q's protege R in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH), providing Bond with his favorite, trusty sports car the Aston Martin V12 but with a catch (and the beginning of the unbelievable parts of DIE ANOTHER DAY).

Action set pieces are the norm in any James Bond film. Director Tamahori in DIE ANOTHER DAY stages several fine sequences (assisted by expert 2nd Unit Director Vic Armstrong) including the military hovercraft opening that harkens back to the exciting tank chase in Brosnan's first Bond film GOLDENEYE (1995) and an exhilarating finale in Graves/Moon's out of control cargo plane as it avoids the deadly Icarus ray. Bond action sequences sometimes teeter on the brink of unbelievability but try to stay closer to reality. With the advances of CGI by 2002, DIE ANOTHER DAY pushes that over the limit. First, Bond's Aston Martin has a camouflage device that can make it invisible. It's a little too science fiction even for Bond. A car chase between Bond and Zao that begins on ice and moves inside Graves's Ice Palace lair borders on the THE BLUES BROTHERS absurd. And Bond will be propelled to the edge of an ice shelf, hanging on by his fingernails before wind surfing to safety on a tidal wave caused by the collapsing ice shelf to safety that defies reality. 

Greek mythology plays a part in DIE ANOTHER DAY, raising the quality of this film above the previous two Brosnan/Bond films. Graves/Moon's deadly Icarus Satellite is aptly named. In the Greek myth, Icarus was a young man who escaped King Minos's labyrinth on Crete by making wings out of feathers and wax to fly away. Icarus is warned by his father Daedalus not to fly too close to the sun which Icarus fails to heed, soaring higher and higher until the sun melts his wings, causing Icarus to fall into the ocean and drown. Icarus's tale was a metaphor for overreaching and self-destruction which sums up Graves/Moon. He wants to impress his father General Moon and carve a new path through the DMZ for North Korea to destroy its neighbor South Korea using the sun power of the Icarus satellite. Like Icarus, Graves/Moon overreaches, flying too close to the sun in his cargo plane with the sun represented by the satellite's solar powered laser beam. Graves/Moon is defeated by his own hubris (with some assistance from Bond and Jinx). 

Graves/Moon has an Icarus complex. As the brash young colonel at the beginning of DIE ANOTHER DAY, Moon defies his father like Icarus had with his father Daedalus's warning, trading in conflict diamonds for weapons, the diamonds for a more sinister use.  It's a deal the older, wiser General Moon knows nothing about and doesn't support. After it's revealed young Col. Moon did not perish over the waterfall back in North Korea and has stealthily transformed himself into wealthy entrepreneur Gustav Graves, that metamorphosis courtesy of a gene therapy mask making Graves/Moon even more overconfident and overreaching. Graves/Moon is so wired he never sleeps, making him more violent. A friendly fencing duel for a wager between Graves/Moon and Bond turns into a bar room battle at a posh fencing club. Graves/Moon's recklessness like Icarus will lead to his downfall. 

Pierce Brosnan's run as James Bond was hit and miss over the four 007 films he appeared in but Brosnan never gave less than one hundred percent. For DIE ANOTHER DAY, Brosnan has some added motivation for his character when Bond's betrayed behind enemy lines by someone, leading to over a year of torture and interrogation by the North Koreans before he's released in a spy swap for Zao. We've never seen Bond humiliated like this. Bond's betrayal will fuel him to search for the traitor and regain his reputation in the intelligence community and his license to kill status reinstated by M. Brosnan parlayed his stint as James Bond (after playing a similar suave character on television in REMINGTON STEELE) into a successful film career that's still going strong today with roles in John McTiernan's remake of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999) co-starring Rene Russo, as the bad guy in Edgar Wright's THE WORLD'S END (2013), and most recently playing an M like intelligence bureaucrat in Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG (2025) with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.

One of the delights of DIE ANOTHER DAY is having Bond team up with an American agent to battle Graves, Frost, and Zao. Even better, the American agent Jinx is played by the beautiful Halle Berry. After getting to know each other in bed first (hey, we're talking James Bond here), Bond and Jinx discover they are rival spies fighting against the same common enemy.  Jinx will not be Bond's first interracial relationship. Roger Moore has that honor in LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) when he slept with fellow agent Gloria Hendry. Berry's introduction in a bright orange bikini pays homage to Ursula Andress's white bikini entrance in DR. NO. But Berry is not just a pretty face as Jinx as she punches and kicks the baddies in DIE ANOTHER DAY just as hard as Bond himself.  Berry had been underutilized in films like Bryan Singer's X-MEN (2000) or not used correctly in CATWOMAN (2004). A breakthrough performance and Academy Award for Best Actress winner in Marc Forster's MONSTER'S BALL (2001) starring Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger let the world know Berry is the real deal as an actress. 

It's not uncommon for Bond films to have two actresses involved with Bond. One is usually on the good side and one on the bad side. DIE ANOTHER DAY has the good fortune of not only having Halle Berry but also a fresh, relatively unknown at the time British actress named Rosamund Pike as the other possible love interest Miranda Frost. We're misled at first thinking that Jinx might be the bad apple and double agent Frost who's imbedded with Graves is the good one. But that belief will be turned on its head mid-way through the film.  Like her name, Pike's Frost is icy, remote, possibly a young version of what M (Judi Dench) was like at her early spy beginning, perhaps using sex to further her career no matter the side. Only Frost is a traitor to MI-6. Frost is the one who betrays both Bond to the North Koreans and corrupts North Korean Gen. Moon's son Col. Moon to the possibilities of the decadent West. Pike has become an accomplished actress, in a long line of accomplished British actresses appearing with Brosnan in THE WORLD'S END, as the missing wife in David Fincher's GONE GIRL (2014) with Ben Affleck, and as a war correspondent in Matthew Heineman's A PRIVATE WAR (2018).

Toby Stephens as megalomaniac billionaire Gustav Graves may not be the most well known Bond villain in the series. What the Shakespeare trained Stephens brings to DIE ANOTHER DAY is a youthful energy. Graves is Bond's evil doppelganger. Like Bond, he's dashing in a tuxedo, excellent at most things from setting land speed records in a rocket car to fencing, and easy on the eyes for the ladies (although there's something asexual about him). The fact that Graves is the presumed dead Col. Moon with a new face is a nice touch. Other projects to catch Stephens in include the popular pirate streaming series BLACK SAILS (2014-2017) and Donovan Marsh's submarine thriller HUNTER KILLER (2018). 

As usual, the supporting cast for DIE ANOTHER DAY is eclectic with one mega pop star popping up unexpectedly for a cameo.  Judi Dench (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) returns as MI-6 boss M for the 4th time (just like Brosnan). Dench is so good in the role. We will learn more of M's backstory in future Bond films. Who would have thought Quentin Tarantino's favorite blue collar killer Michael Madsen (RESERVOIR DOGS) would be cast in a Bond film. Yet the gravelly voiced Madsen is perfect as M's American counterpart NSA boss Damian Falco. Monty Python's John Cleese as the new gadget master Q channels the great, late Desmond Llewelyn who had passed away in 1999. Rick Yune is creepy as the man with the diamond studded face terrorist Zao. And yes, that's Madonna as fencing instructor Verity in DIE ANOTHER DAY. Madonna may set the record for the first vocalist to appear in the same Bond film she sings the theme song for. Madonna's song Die Another Day is heavy on the electronics. I needed her credit to tell me she was singing the theme song. 

Some final DIE ANOTHER DAY trivia tidbits. This was Rosamund Pike's feature film debut as Miranda Frost.  There had been plans to make a spinoff movie with Halle Berry's character Jinx Johnson in a solo film.  But the poor box office reception to McG's all girl action film CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE (2003) made MGM Studios change their mind. Toby Stephens who plays the villain Gustav Graves is the son of actress Maggie Smith (THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE) and actor Robert Stephens (THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES). With all its outrageous stunts and CGI, there is one scene at the end of DIE ANOTHER DAY where we think the impossible is finally happening: Miss Moneypenny passionately kissing James Bond, something that has never happened in a Bond film. It turns out Miss Moneypenny is wearing Virtual Reality goggles, playing out her fantasy. She's interrupted by Q. It's a funny scene to end Pierce Brosnan's run as the world's greatest spy. 

I was a fan of the Pierce Brosnan era as James Bond even if some of the films were disappointing. Although not as good as Brosnan's first outing GOLDENEYE and borrowing some plot from other Bond films like DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER and MOONRAKER, DIE ANOTHER DAY is a decent enough sending off for the fifth actor to portray 007. But was James Bond beginning to show signs that the franchise was beginning to show signs of wear and tear? Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli were going to have to find a new Bond and even more, find a way to recharge the series for it to survive in the 21st century.  Little did they know another action film was going to show them the way.