Die Another Day was released on 20 November 2002 internationally by20th Century Fox and 22 November 2002 in the United States byMGM Distribution Co. under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer label. It marked theJames Bond franchise's 40th anniversary. The film includes references to each of the preceding films. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Tamahori's direction, but criticised the reliance on CGI,product placement, the story and the villain. Nevertheless, the film was a box-office success with it grossing $432 million worldwide, becoming thesixth-highest-grossing film of 2002.
The next film in the series,Casino Royale, was released in November 2006, which also served as a reboot of the franchise withDaniel Craig replacing Brosnan as Bond.
MI6 agent James Bond infiltrates a North Korean military base where Colonel Tan-Sun Moon is trading weapons for Africanconflict diamonds. After Moon's right-hand man Zao receives notification of Bond's real identity, Moon attempts to kill Bond and ahovercraft chase ensues, ending with Moon's craft tumbling over a waterfall. Bond is captured by North Korean soldiers and imprisoned by the Colonel's father, General Moon. After fourteen months of captivity andtorture at the hands of theKorean People's Army, Bond is traded for Zao in aprisoner exchange across theBridge of No Return. He is taken to meetM, who informs him that his status as a00 Agent has been suspended under suspicion of having leaked information under duress to the North Koreans. Bond is convinced that he has been set up by adouble agent in the British government. After escaping MI6 custody, he finds himself inHong Kong, where he learns from Chang, a Chinese agent and old colleague, that Zao is inCuba.
InHavana, Bond meets withNSA agentGiacinta "Jinx" Johnson and follows her to agene therapy clinic, where patients can have their appearances altered through DNA restructuring. Jinx kills Dr. Alvarez, the leader of the clinic, while Bond locates Zao inside the clinic and fights him. Zao escapes, leaving behind a pendant which leads Bond to a cache of conflict diamonds bearing the crest of the company owned by British billionaire Gustav Graves. Bond learns that Graves only appeared a year prior, apparently discovering a vein of diamonds in Iceland leading to his current wealth and celebrity. AtBlades Club inLondon, Bond meets Graves along with his assistant Miranda Frost, who is also an undercover MI6 agent. After afencing match that escalates into aclaymore duel, Graves invites Bond toIceland for a scientific demonstration. M restores Bond's Double-0 status, but warns him that the British Intelligence hasother priorities andQ issues him anAston Martin V12 Vanquish withactive camouflage.
At hisice palace in Iceland, Graves unveils a new orbital mirror satellite Icarus, which is able to focussolar energy on a small area and provide year-round sunshine for agriculture. Frost seduces Bond and Jinx infiltrates Graves's command centre but is captured by Graves and Zao. Bond rescues her and discovers that Graves is Colonel Moon, who has used the gene therapy technology to change his appearance and amassed his fortune from conflict diamonds as a cover. Bond confronts Graves, but Frost arrives to reveal herself as the traitor who betrayed him in North Korea, forcing Bond to escape from Graves's facility. He returns in his Vanquish to rescue Jinx, who has been recaptured in the palace. As Graves uses Icarus to melt the ice palace, Zao pursues Bond into the palace using hisJaguar XKR. Bond kills Zao by shooting an ice chandelier which falls onto him and revives a nearly drowned Jinx in ahot pool.
Bond and Jinx pursue Graves and Frost to theKorean peninsula and stow away on Graves'sAn-124 cargo plane. Graves reveals his identity to his father, and the true purpose of the Icarus satellite: to cut a path through theKorean Demilitarised Zone with concentrated sunlight, allowingNorth Korean troops to invade South Korea and unite the peninsula. Horrified, General Moon rejects the plan, but Graves kills him. Bond attempts to shoot Graves, but is blocked by a soldier. During their struggle, a gunshot pierces the fuselage, causing the plane to decompress and descend rapidly. Bond and Graves engage in a fistfight while Jinx attempts to regain control of the plane. Frost attacks Jinx, forcing her to defend herself in a sword duel. After the plane passes through the Icarus beam and is further damaged, Jinx kills Frost. Graves attempts to escape, but Bond opens Graves's parachute, pulling him out of the plane and into one of its engines, disabling the Icarus beam. Bond and Jinx escape from the disintegrating plane in a helicopter from the cargo hold, with Graves's stash of diamonds. Later, they spend a romantic evening at a Buddhist temple.
Kenneth Tsang as General Moon, Colonel Moon's father. He assists in Bond's release back to the West. The North Korean general wishes for a peaceful reunification of Korea, whereas his son is bent on war.
Michael Gorevoy as Vladimir Popov, Gustav Graves's personal scientist.
Ho Yi as The Hotel Manager andChinese special agent Mr. Chang, a colleague of Bond's. In early drafts of the script, it wasWai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) who aided Bond in Hong Kong, but the idea fell through due to scheduling conflicts with Yeoh producing another film and Chang was created to replace her.[7][8][9][10]
Rachel Grant as Peaceful Fountains of Desire, a Chinese agent working for Mr. Chang, undercover as amasseuse.
Tamahori confirmed toTotal Film in 2002, having pitched a scene where Brosnan's 007 meets an older, former 007 in Scotland played bySean Connery but was advised it was "too dangerous" to have two 007s in one movie.[11]
The scenes featuring Berry in a bikini (designed to resembleUrsula Andress's swimming costume inDr. No) were shot inCádiz. The location was cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels between takes to avoid catching a chill.[15] Berry was injured during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a 30-minute operation.[16] Brosnan also sustained a knee injury during the shooting of an action scene inCornwall.[17]
The film includes references to each of the preceding films.[18] Gadgets and other props from every previousBond film and stored in Eon Productions' archives appear in Q's warehouse in theLondon Underground. Examples include the jetpack inThunderball andRosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoe inFrom Russia with Love.[19] Q mentions that the watch he issues Bond is "your 20th, I believe", a reference toDie Another Day being the 20th Eon-produced Bond film.[20] In London, theReform Club was used to shoot several places in the film, including the lobby and gallery at the Blades Club, MI6 Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Westminster.Jökulsárlón, Iceland was used for the car chase on the ice. Four Aston Martins and four Jaguars, all converted to four-wheel drive, were used (and wrecked) filming the sequence. A temporary dam was constructed at the mouth of the narrow inlet to keep the salty ocean water out and allow the lagoon to freeze.[21] Additional chase footage was filmed atSvalbard, Norway,Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway, andRAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.[14]Manston Airport inKent was used for the scenes involving the Antonov cargo plane scenes.[22] The scene in which Bond surfs the wave created by Icarus when Graves was attempting to kill Bond was shot on theblue screen. The waves, along with all the glaciers in the scene, are computer-generated.[23]
The hangar interior of the US Air Base in South Korea, shown crowded withChinook helicopters, was filmed atRAF Odiham in Hampshire, UK, as were the helicopter interior shots during the Switchblade sequence. These latter scenes, though portrayed in the air, were actually filmed entirely on the ground with the sky background being added in post-production using blue screen techniques. Although the base is portrayed in the film as a US base, all the aircraft and personnel in the scene are British in real life. In the film, Switchblades (one-person gliders resembling fighter jets in shape) are flown by Bond and Jinx to stealthily enter North Korea. The Switchblade was based on a workable model called "PHASST" (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport). Kinetic Aerospace Inc.'s lead designer, Jack McCornack was impressed by director Lee Tamahori's way of conducting the Switchblade scene and commented: "It's brief, but realistic. The good guys get in unobserved, thanks to a fast cruise, good glide performance, and minimal radar signature. It's a wonderful promotion for the PHASST."[24]
Madonna performing the eponymous theme song in 2004.
The soundtrack was composed byDavid Arnold and released onWarner Bros. Records.[25] He again made use of electronic rhythm elements in his score, and included two of the new themes created forThe World Is Not Enough. The first, originally used as Renard's theme, is heard during the mammoth "Antonov" cue on the recording, and is written for piano. The second new theme, used in the "Christmas in Turkey" track ofThe World Is Not Enough, is reused in the "Going Down Together" track.[26]
Thetitle song forDie Another Day was co-written and co-produced byMirwais Ahmadzai and performed byMadonna, who also had acameo in the film as Verity, a fencing instructor. The concept of the title sequence is to represent Bond trying to survive 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans. Critics' opinions of the song were sharply divided; it was nominated for aGolden Globe for Best Original Song and the 2004Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording,[27] but also for aGolden Raspberry Award forWorst Original Song of 2002 (while Madonna herself won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her cameo). In aMORI poll for theChannel 4 programme"James Bond's Greatest Hits", the song was voted 9th out of 22, and also came in as an "overwhelming number one" favourite among those under the age of 24.[28]
Reportedly, twenty companies paying $70 million had their productsfeatured in the film, a record at the time,[29] althoughUSA Today reported that number to be as high as $100 million.[30]
Theeleventh-generation Ford Thunderbird was featured in the film as Jinx's car, with acoral colour paying homage to a paint option for theoriginal model, and matching her bikini.Ford produced a limited-edition007-branded 2003 Thunderbird as a tie-in for the film, featuring a similar paint job.[31]
Revlon produced "007 Colour Collection"makeup inspired by Jinx.[32] BondBarbie dolls inspired by the franchise were also produced, featuring a red shawl and an evening dress designed byLindy Hemming, and sold in a gift set withKen posing as Bond in formal wear designed by the Italian fashion houseBrioni.[33]
Die Another Day was controversial in theKorean Peninsula. The North Korean government disliked the portrayal of their state as brutal and war-hungry. The South Koreans boycotted 145 theatres where it was released on 31 December 2002, as they were offended by the scene in which an American officer issues orders to the South Korean army in the defence of their homeland, and by a lovemaking scene near a statue of the Buddha. TheJogye Buddhist Order issued a statement that the film was "disrespectful to our religion and does not reflect our values and ethics".The Washington Post reported growing resentment in the nation towards the United States. An official of the SouthKorean Ministry of Culture and Tourism said thatDie Another Day was "the wrong film at the wrong time."[36]
On the first day of release, ticket sales reached £1.2 million at the UK box office.[40]Die Another Day grossed $47 million on its opening weekend in the US and Canada and was ranked number one at the box office.[41] The film competed againstHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets andThe Santa Clause 2 during theThanksgiving weekend. Later on,Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets andDie Another Day would simultaneously reclaim the number one spot at the box office.[42] For six months, they were both the latest films to return to the top spot at the box office, untilFinding Nemo joined the group in June 2003.[43] The film earned $160.9 million in the US and Canada, and $432 million worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2002.[44] Not adjusting for inflation,Die Another Day was the highest-grossingJames Bond film until the release of the nextJames Bond movie,Casino Royale, in 2006.
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 56% based on 220 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Its action may be a bit too over-the-top for some, butDie Another Day is lavishly crafted and succeeds in evoking classic Bond themes from the franchise's earlier installments."[45] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed and average reviews".[46] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.[47]
Michael Dequina ofFilm Threat praised the film as the best of the series to star Pierce Brosnan and "the most satisfying installment of the franchise in recent memory."[46] Larry Carroll of CountingDown.com praised Lee Tamahori for having "magnificently balanced the film so that it keeps true to the Bond legend, makes reference to the classic films that preceded it, but also injects a new zest to it all."[48]Entertainment Weekly magazine also gave a positive reaction, saying that Tamahori, "a true filmmaker", has re-established the series' pop sensuality.[49]A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times called the film the best of theJames Bond series sinceThe Spy Who Loved Me.[46]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times, who gave the film three stars out of four, stated: "This movie has the usual impossible stunts ... But it has just as many scenes that are lean and tough enough to fit in any modern action movie".[50] Kyle Bell of Movie Freaks 365 stated in his review that the "first half ofDie Another Day is classic Bond", but that "things start to go downhill when the ice palace gets introduced."[51]
Several reviewers felt the film relied too heavily on gadgets and special effects, with the plot being neglected.James Berardinelli ofReelViews said: "This is a train wreck of an action film—a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed James Bond into the mindlessXXX mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs." Of the action sequences, he said: "Die Another Day is an exercise in loud explosions and excruciatingly bad special effects. The CGI work in this movie is an order of magnitude worse than anything I have seen in a major motion picture. Coupled with lousy production design,Die Another Day looks like it was done on the cheap."[52] Gary Brown of theHouston Community Newspapers also described the weak point of the film as "the seemingly non-stop action sequences and loud explosions that appear to take centre stage while the Bond character is almost relegated to second string."[53]Roger Moore, who played Bond in earlier films, said: "I thought it just went too far—and that's from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!"[54]
The amount of product placement inDie Another Day had been a contemporaneous point of criticism, with theBBC,Time andReuters referring mockingly to the film using the title "Buy Another Day".[29][30] The producers subsequently chose to limit the number of companies involved in product placement to eight for the next Bond film,Casino Royale, in 2006.[30]
Despite favour from fans who prefer Bond's more "camp" films, a comment piece in 2020 stated that it is "considered by many to be the worst entry in James Bond's canon" and compares unfavourably toThe Bourne Identity (released months earlier), which "ushered in a new era of violent, gritty action-espionage movies" and gave rise to the "stripped-down, no-nonsense" Bond ofDaniel Craig.[55]It often occupies a low rank on Bond-related lists,[56][57][58] and the title song has also received mixed reactions.[59][60][61][62][63] In a 2021Yahoo! survey consisting of 2200 experts and superfans,Die Another Day was ranked as the third-worst instalment afterQuantum of Solace andSpectre. The authors of the study did, however, specify that "every Bond film...is always someone's favourite".[64]
Die Another Day was novelised by the then-official James Bond writer,Raymond Benson, based on the screenplay byNeal Purvis and Robert Wade. An effort is made to depict some of the film's more outlandish elements with more believability, in the style of Fleming's original novels' use of cutting-edge technology. So, for example, the non-bodywork elements of the Aston Martin with its 'cloaking' function (the glass windows and rubber tyres) are described as having retractable covers to achieve the invisibility effect. Fan reaction to it was above average.[65] After its publication, Benson retired as the official James Bond novelist; a new series featuring the secret agent'sadventures as a teenager, byCharlie Higson, was launched in 2005.
007 Legends, released in 2012, features Daniel Craig's James Bond in aDie Another Day level.[66]
Speculation arose in 2003 of a spin-off film concentrating on Jinx, which was scheduled for a November/December 2004 release. It was originally reported that MGM was keen to set up a film series that would be a "Winter Olympics" alternative to the main series. In the late 1990s, MGM had originally considered developing a spin-off film based onMichelle Yeoh's character,Wai Lin, in 1997'sTomorrow Never Dies. The spin-offJinx was announced in December 2002.Lee Tamahori initially wanted to direct, butStephen Frears was ultimately hired. Berry andMichael Madsen were originally going to reprise their roles as Jinx and Falco, while Jinx's lover was going to be played byJavier Bardem. Bardem would later playvillainRaoul Silva inSkyfall (2012). The film would have revolved around Jinx's entry into the NSA, revealing that she had been adopted by Falco after being orphaned in a bombing and being hired by him from theRAND Corporation to do a job at the NSA as a favour.[4][67][68] Wade described the film as "a very atmospheric, Euro thriller, aBourne-type movie."[4] However, despite much speculation of an imminent movie, on 26 October 2003,Variety reported that MGM had cancelled the project.[69] MGM instead decided to reboot the James Bond franchise with the next film,Casino Royale, withDaniel Craig portraying the role of the titular character.[70] In 2020, Berry revealed that the film was cancelled over its $80 million budget, saying: "Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a black female action star."[71][72] Purvis and Wade said that this decision was influenced by the failure of several action films with female stars, includingCharlie's Angels: Full Throttle andLara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, in 2003.[73]
^abcdefgField, Matthew; Chowdhury, Ajay (2015).Some Kind of Hero : 007 : the Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press.ISBN978-0-7509-6421-0.OCLC930556527.
^"Halle's big year".Ebony. November 2002.Of her character, Berry said: She's the next step in the evolution of women in the Bond movies. She's more modern and not the classic villain. She also said that Jinx is fashionable. She's fashion-forward, very sexy and takes fashion risks, and I love her for that.
^"Yahoo! Movies". Archived from the original on 6 December 2003. Retrieved11 January 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Retrieved 28 March 2008
