This article is about the 1995 James Bond film. For the Nintendo 64 game based on the film, seeGoldenEye 007. For other uses, seeGoldeneye (disambiguation).
GoldenEye
British theatrical release poster byTerry O'Neill, Keith Hamshere and George Whitear
GoldenEye is a 1995actionspy film, the seventeenth in theJames Bond series produced byEon Productions, and the first to starPierce Brosnan as the fictionalMI6 agentJames Bond. Directed byMartin Campbell, it was the first in the series not to use any story elements from the works of novelistIan Fleming.GoldenEye was also the firstJames Bond film not produced byAlbert R. Broccoli, following his stepping down from Eon Productions and replacement by his daughter,Barbara Broccoli (along withMichael G. Wilson, although Broccoli was still involved as a consultant producer; it was his final film project before his death in 1996).[4] The story was conceived and written byMichael France, with later collaboration by other writers. In the film, Bond fights to prevent rogue ex-MI6 agentAlec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) from using a satellite weapon againstLondon to cause a global financial collapse.
MI6 agentsJames Bond andAlec Trevelyan infiltrate a clandestine Soviet chemical weapons lab inArkhangelsk. After witnessing Trevelyan being seemingly executed by the facility's commanding officer, Colonel Arkady Ourumov, Bond destroys the site and escapes in a stolen aircraft.
Nine years later, following thedissolution of the Soviet Union, Bond attempts to preventXenia Onatopp, a member of the Januscrime syndicate, from stealing aEurocopter Tiger attack helicopter during a military demonstration inMonte Carlo, but is unsuccessful. Returning toMI6 headquarters in London, Bond joins MI6 staff monitoring an incident inSevernaya,Siberia, after the stolen helicopter turns up at a radar site there. Anelectromagnetic pulse blast suddenly hits the site, destroying it and several Russian fighter aircraft, while knocking out some satellite systems in orbit.
The newly appointedM assigns Bond to investigate, after it is determined that the blast came from a Soviet-era satellite armed with anuclear electromagnetic pulsespace-based weapon, codenamed "GoldenEye". Although Janus is suspected of initiating the attack, Bond suspects that Ourumov, now a general, was involved, because the weapon system required high-level military access. Travelling toSaint Petersburg, Bond contactsCIA operative Jack Wade, who advises him to meet the formerKGB agent turned gangster, Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, and have him arrange a meeting with Janus. Escorted to the meeting by Onatopp, Bond discovers that Janus is led by Trevelyan, who had faked his death. He learns that Trevelyan seeks vengeance for his parents,Lienz Cossacks who were betrayed by the British by being repatriated to the Soviet Union after collaborating with theAxis powers during World War II.
Bond is sedated and trapped in the stolen Tiger alongside programmerNatalya Simonova, a survivor of the Severnaya attack. After escaping the helicopter before it explodes, the pair are taken into custody and interrogated byRussian Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin. Natalya affirms Ourumov's involvement in the use of GoldenEye, and that fellow programmer Boris Grishenko survived along with her and is now working for Janus in operating a second GoldenEye satellite. Before Mishkin can act on the information, Ourumov kills him and takes Natalya to a missile train used by Trevelyan and Onatopp. Bond pursues Ourumov in aT-55 tank, which he uses to derail the train. Once onboard, Bond kills Ourumov while Trevelyan rigs the train to explode and flees in a helicopter with Onatopp. Bond and Natalya escape just before the explosion.
Bond and Natalya travel toCuba, after Boris is traced to a location within the island's jungles by Natalya. While flying over the area, the pair are shot down. Onatopp is lowered from a helicopter and attacks them, but Bond destroys the helicopter and snaps her spinal column killing her in the process. The pair uncover a hidden base beneath a large artificial lake, concealing a satellite dish. Bond is captured while setting explosives and learns from Trevelyan that he intends to steal money from theBank of England and use GoldenEye to erase its financial records and conceal the theft. Bond surmises that Trevelyan intends for the electromagnetic pulse to trigger a globalfinancial meltdown andsocial collapse, causing the United Kingdom to "reenter theStone Age".
Natalya hacks into the satellite and reprograms it to initiateatmospheric re-entry and thus destroy itself. She is then captured as well. While trying to undo her programming, Boris nervously presses on a pen confiscated from Bond, activating a grenade concealed in the pen byQ Branch. Bond knocks the pen from Boris's hand and into a puddle of chemicals that were spilled during an earlier firefight, causing achemical explosion that allows Bond and Natalya to escape.
To prevent Boris from regaining control of the satellite, Bond sabotages the dish's antenna by jamming its gears. Trevelyan tries to intercept him, and the ensuing fight between the two culminates in Trevelyan being dangled below the antenna. Bond then drops Trevelyan into the bottom of the dish, badly injuring him. The GoldenEye satellite is subsequently destroyed. Natalya soon rescues Bond in a commandeered helicopter, moments before the antenna malfunctions and explodes, destroying the base. The debris falls onto Trevelyan, crushing him to death, and Boris dies from an explosion caused by ruptured liquid nitrogen canisters. After landing in a meadow, Bond and Natalya prepare to enjoy some solitude together but are interrupted by the arrival of Wade and a team ofU.S. Marines, who escort them toGuantanamo Bay Naval Base.
Pierce Brosnan asJames Bond (007), an MI6 officer assigned to stop the Janus crime syndicate from acquiring "GoldenEye", a clandestine satellite weapon designed and launched by the Soviets during the Cold War.
Sean Bean asAlec Trevelyan (006), initially another00 officer and Bond's close friend, he fakes his death at Arkhangelsk and then establishes the Janus crime syndicate over the following nine years.
Izabella Scorupco asNatalya Simonova, a programmer at the Severnaya lab. She is the sole survivor of the GoldenEye attack on its own control centre.
Broccoli's stepsonMichael G. Wilson contributed a script, andWiseguy co-producer Alfonse Ruggiero Jr. was hired to rewrite it.[15] Filming was set to begin in 1990 inHong Kong, for a release in late 1991.[16] A 17-page treatment, dated May 1990, featured James Bond on a mission in East Asia, where he must investigate why an unknown entity caused a chemical plant in Scotland to explode inexplicably and a threat ordering the British and Chinese to relinquish their authority over Hong Kong. Bond would be aided by an ex-CIA freelance thief named Connie Webb and a senior spy named Denholm Crisp, with the trail leading towards a corrupt technology magnate called Sir Henry Lee Ching. It also would have featured the ChineseMinistry of State Security.[17][18][19]
Wilson and Ruggiero revised the plotline further in a script dated July 1990. It changed the opening to show Bond using a hang-gliding competition as cover to infiltrate a chemical weapons plant, where he must fend off a deadly security robot. The film proper begins in the South China Sea, where a BritishHarrier jet malfunctions, ejects its pilot, starts flying on its own, and then crashes into a village in China. MI6 subsequently learns that many British military technology manufacturing plants have been recently broken into and Bond is sent to track down the burglar. This draft also featured a climax in which the villain survived the destruction of their lair and subsequently attempted to kill Bond.[citation needed]
In January 1991, the script was further rewritten byWilliam Osborne andWilliam Davies.[17] After theGulf War, the chemical plant opening from the prior script was revised to take place inLibya. The film would then have focused on the theft of a high-tech stealth fighter byAmerican mobsters, with Bond trying to find it, first inVancouver and then inLas Vegas. The aircraft is subsequently secured by a Hong Kong-based industrialist, Sir Henry Ferguson, who wants to use it to allow a Chinese military general to stage a nuclear attack andcoup d'état againstMainland China, with the general then leaving the industrialist in control ofHong Kong.[20]
Dalton declared in a 2010 interview that the script had been ready and "we were talking directors" before the project entereddevelopment hell caused by legal problems betweenMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, parent company of the series' distributorUnited Artists, and Broccoli'sDanjaq, owners of theBond film rights.[21] In 1990, MGM/UA was to be sold for $1.5 billion toQintex, an Australian-American financial services company that had begun making television broadcast and entertainment purchases. When Qintex could not provide a $50 million letter of credit, the deal fell apart. Italian financierGiancarlo Parretti, CEO ofPathé Entertainment (unrelated to the French studioPathé) quickly moved in to buy MGM/UA for $1.2 billion and merged the companies to createMGM-Pathé Communications. Parretti intended to sell off the distribution rights of the studio's catalogue so that he could collect advance payments to finance the buyout. This included international broadcasting rights to the 007 library at cut-rate prices, leading Danjaq to sue,[22] alleging that the licensing violated theBond distribution agreements the company made with United Artists in 1962, while denying Danjaq a share of the profits.[23] Countersuits were filed. When asked what he would do following resolution of the lawsuits, Dalton told Broccoli that it was unlikely that he would continue in the role.[24]
Parretti's behaviour led to the bankruptcy of MGM-Pathé, and additional lawsuits eventually resulted in a foreclosure by financial backerCrédit Lyonnais in 1992. TheBond rights lawsuits were settled in December 1992, and the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, now run by a Crédit Lyonnais subsidiary, began to explore further development ofBond 17 with Danjaq in 1993. Dalton was still Broccoli's choice to play Bond, but the star's original seven-year contract with Danjaq expired that same year. Dalton has stated that the delay to his third film effectively ended the contract in 1990.[24][25]
In May 1993, MGM announced that a seventeenthJames Bond film was in pre-production, to be based on a screenplay byMichael France.[26] France studied for his script by travelling to Russia to interview former KGB agents and visit nuclear research laboratories.[27] With Broccoli's health deteriorating (he died seven months after the release ofGoldenEye), his daughterBarbara Broccoli described him as taking "a bit of a back seat" in the film's production.[28] Barbara and Michael G. Wilson took the lead roles in production, while Albert Broccoli oversaw the production ofGoldenEye as a consulting producer, credited as "presenter".[29][30] Wilson wanted to frame the film in thepost-Cold War era and the aftermath of thecollapse of the Soviet Union, when there were concerns about proliferation ofweapons of mass destruction.[27] Broccoli contacted Dalton, to ask again if he would come back, and now found him open to the idea.[24]
In August 1993, France, having turned in his first draft, continued to work on the script.[16] In further discussion with Broccoli, Dalton expressed excitement over taking the best elements of his previous two films and combining them as a basis for one final film. Broccoli stressed that, after the long gap without a film, Dalton could not come back and just do a single film but needed to return for multiple films.[24] Although France's screenplay was completed by January 1994, production was pushed back with no concrete start. In April 1994, Dalton officially resigned from the role.[31][32] In a 2014 interview, Dalton revealed that he agreed with Broccoli's expectation but could not commit to appearing in four or five more films.[24]
Further work was done on the screenplay throughout 1994. France's screenplay introduced the character of "Augustus Trevelyan", Bond'sMI6 superior and a defector to Soviet Union, as the main villain. As in the completed version, his scheme involved a stolen orbital EMP weapon. The first draft started with an Aston Martin car chase aboard ahigh-speed train. However, Barbara Broccoli was concerned that France's screenplay was still too unstructured and brought inJeffrey Caine to rewrite it.[33][34] Caine kept many of France's ideas but added the prologue before the credits and rewrote Trevelyan closer to his iteration in the final film.Kevin Wade did a three-week rewrite andBruce Feirstein added the finishing touches.[35][36] In the film, the writing credit was shared by Caine and Feirstein, while France was credited with only the story, an arrangement he felt was unfair, particularly as he believed that the additions made were not an improvement on his original version.[37] Wade did not receive an official credit, but was acknowledged in the naming of Jack Wade, the CIA character he created.[38]
The opening scene, in which an admiral is seduced and then killed, had to be rewritten following a demand from the US military, after which the nationality of the admiral was changed from American to Canadian.[39]
AlthoughGoldenEye was released only six years afterLicence to Kill, world politics had changed dramatically in the interim. It was the firstJames Bond film to be produced after the fall of theBerlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of theCold War, and there was doubt over the character's relevance in the modern world.[44] Some in the film industry felt it would be "futile" for theBond series to make a comeback, and that the character was best left as "an icon of the past".[45] The producers even thought of new concepts for the series, such as a period piece set in the 1960s, a female 007, or a black James Bond. Ultimately, they chose to return to the basics of the series, not following the sensitive and caring Bond of the Dalton films or thepolitical correctness that started to permeate the decade.[46] The film came to be seen as a successful revitalisation, and it effectively adapted the series for the 1990s.[7] One ofGoldenEye's innovations includes the casting of a female M. In the film, the new M quickly establishes her authority, remarking that Bond is a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur" and a "relic of the Cold War". This is an early indication that Bond is portrayed as far less tempestuous than Timothy Dalton's Bond from 1989.[47]
John Woo was approached as the director, and turned down the opportunity, but said he was honoured by the offer.[48]Michael Caton-Jones andPeter Medak were also considered.[49] The producers then chose New ZealanderMartin Campbell as the director. Brosnan later described Campbell as "warrior-like in his take on the piece" and said that "there was a huge passion there on both our parts".[50]
To replace Dalton, the producers chose Pierce Brosnan, who, after Dalton had initially turned down the role, had been prevented from succeedingRoger Moore in 1986 because of his contract to continue starring in the television seriesRemington Steele. He was introduced to the public at a press conference at theRegent Palace Hotel on 8 June 1994.[51] Before negotiating with Brosnan,Mel Gibson,Hugh Grant, andLiam Neeson passed on the role.[46] Neeson said that his then fiancéeNatasha Richardson wouldn't marry him if he accepted the role.[52] Broccoli and Campbell met withRalph Fiennes to discuss his taking the part.[53] Fiennes later playedGareth Mallory / M inSkyfall (2012),Spectre (2015), andNo Time to Die (2021).Paul McGann auditioned the role and was the studio's second choice if Brosnan turned it down.[54] Brosnan was paid $1.2 million for the film, out of a total budget of $60 million.[46] The English actressJudi Dench was cast as M, replacingRobert Brown, making this the first film of the series to feature a female M. The decision is widely believed to have been inspired byStella Rimington, who had become head ofMI5 in 1992.[55][56]
The character of Alec Trevelyan was originally scripted as "Augustus Trevelyan" and envisaged as an older character and a mentor to Bond.Anthony Hopkins andAlan Rickman were reportedly sought for the role, but both turned it down.Sean Bean was subsequently cast and the character was rewritten as Bond's peer.[57][58] The character of Natalya Simionova, originally scripted as "Marina Varoskaya", was supposed to bePaulina Porizkova, butIzabella Scorupco was subsequently cast. The character of Boris Griscenko was originally scripted as "Alexei Makvenio", butAlan Cumming was still in the early cast. The character of Valentin Zukovsky was originally scripted as Valentin Kosgyn, aka Romaly. The character of General Ourumov was originally named "Illya Borchenko". The character General Pushkin fromThe Living Daylights appeared in France's initial script, but the character was rewritten as Defense Minister Mishkin.[59][60]
Principal photography for the film began on 16 January 1995 and continued until 2 June.[61] Eon was unable to film atPinewood Studios, the usual studio for Bond films, because it had been reserved forFirst Knight.[62] Instead, with little time to find a space which could hold the number of large scale sets needed for production, Eon found an oldRolls-Royce factory atLeavesden Aerodrome inHertfordshire, which had wide, tall, and open aircraft hangars that were uniquely suited to be converted into stages for a new studio. Eon leased the site for the duration of their shoot, gutted the factory and turned it into stages, workshops and offices, and dubbed itLeavesden Studios.[63] This process is shown on the 2006 DVD's special features.[citation needed]
Thebungee jump was filmed at theContra Dam (also known as the Verzasca or Locarno Dam)[64] inTicino,Switzerland. General Ourumov shooting his nervously-firing soldier in the opening sequence was inspired by the 1969 western filmThe Wild Bunch.[65] The casino scenes and the Tiger helicopter's demonstration were shot in Monte Carlo. Reference footage for the tank chase was shot on location in Saint Petersburg and matched to the studio at Leavesden. The climactic scenes on the satellite dish were shot atArecibo Observatory inPuerto Rico.[66] The actualMI6 headquarters were used for external views of M's office.[67] Some of the scenes in St. Petersburg were shot in London, such as the Royal Box atEpsom Downs Racecourse which was used as the airport front. This reduced expenses and security concerns, as the second unit sent to Russia required bodyguards.[68]
TheFrench Navy provided full use of the frigateLa Fayette and their newest helicopter, theEurocopter Tiger, to the film's production team. The French government also allowed the use of Navy logos as part of the promotional campaign for it. However, the producers had a dispute with the FrenchMinistry of Defence over Brosnan's opposition to French nuclear weapons testing and his involvement withGreenpeace; as a result, the French premiere of the film was cancelled.[69]
GoldenEye's opening title sequence featured a woman destroying thehammer and sickle.
The film was the last one of special effects supervisorDerek Meddings, to whom it was dedicated. Meddings' major contribution was miniatures.[73] It was also the first Bond film to usecomputer-generated imagery with effects provided byCinesite andMoving Picture Company (MPC). Among the model effects are most external shots of Severnaya, the scene where Janus' train crashes into the tank, and the lake which hides the satellite dish, since the producers could not find a round lake in Puerto Rico. The climax in the satellite dish used scenes in Arecibo, a model built by Meddings' team and scenes shot with stuntmen in Britain.[68]
Stunt car coordinatorRémy Julienne described the car chase between theAston Martin DB5 and theFerrari F355 as between "a perfectly shaped, old and vulnerable vehicle and a racecar." The stunt had to be meticulously planned as the cars are vastly different. Nails had to be attached to the F355 tyres to make it skid, and during one take of the sliding vehicles, the two cars collided.[74]
The largest stunt sequence in the film was the tank chase, which took around six weeks to film, partly on location in St. Petersburg and partly on the old de Havilland runway at Leavesden.[75] According to second-unit directorIan Sharp it was thought up by special effects supervisorChris Corbould, during a pre-production meeting that lasted only ten minutes. Parts of the tank chase were filmed at the backlot ofLeavesden, parts on location in St. Petersburg. The whole chase was storyboarded very carefully, said Sharp.[76] A RussianT-54/T-55 tank, on loan from the East England Military Museum, was modified with the addition of fake explosivereactive armour panels.[61] To avoid destroying the pavement on the city streets of St. Petersburg, the steel off-road tracks of the T-54/55 were replaced with the rubber-shoed tracks from a BritishChieftain tank.[68] The T-55 tank used in the film is now on permanent display atOld Buckenham Airfield, where the East England Military Museum is based.[77]
For the confrontation between Bond and Trevelyan inside the antenna cradle, director Campbell decided to take inspiration from Bond's fight with Red Grant inFrom Russia with Love. Brosnan and Bean did all the stunts themselves, except for one take where one is thrown against the wall. Brosnan injured his hand while filming the extending ladder sequence, making producers delay his scenes and film the ones in Severnaya earlier.[68]
The opening 220 m (720 ft) bungee jump at Arkhangelsk, shot at the Contra Dam in Switzerland and performed byWayne Michaels, was voted the best movie stunt of all time in a 2002 Sky Movies poll, and set a record for the highest bungee jump off a fixed structure.[78][79] The ending of the pre-credits sequence with Bond jumping after the aeroplane features Jacques Malnuit riding the motorcycle to the edge and jumping, and B.J. Worth diving after the plane – which was a working aircraft, with Worth adding that part of the difficulty of the stunt was thekerosene striking his face.[80]
Thedissolution of the Soviet Union is the main focus of the opening titles, designed byDaniel Kleinman (who took over fromMaurice Binder after his death in 1991). They show the collapse and destruction of several structures associated with the Soviet Union, such as thered star, statues of Communist leaders—notablyJoseph Stalin—and thehammer and sickle. In an interview, Kleinman said they were meant to be "a kind of story telling sequence" showing that "what was happening in Communist countries was Communism was falling down".[81] According to producer Michael G. Wilson, someCommunist parties protested against "Socialist symbols being destroyed not by governments, but by bikini-clad women", especially certain Indian Communist parties,[82][83][84] which threatened to boycott the film.[68]
The film was the first one bound byBMW's three-picture deal,[85] so the producers were offered BMW's latestroadster, theBMW Z3. It was featured in the film months before its release, and a limited edition "007 model" sold out within a day of being available to order. As part of the car's marketing strategy, several Z3's were used to drive journalists from a complimentary meal at theRainbow Room restaurant to its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall.[86]
For the film, aconvertible Z3 is equipped with the usual Q refinements, including a self-destruct feature andStinger missiles behind the headlights. The Z3 does not have much screen time and none of the gadgets is used, which Martin Campbell attributed to the deal with BMW coming in the last stages of production.[68] The Z3's appearance in the film is thought to be the most successful promotion throughproduct placement in 1995.[87] Ten years later,The Hollywood Reporter listed it as one of the most successful product placements in recent years. The article quoted Mary Lou Galician, head of media analysis and criticism atArizona State University'sWalter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, as saying that the news coverage of Bond's switch fromAston Martin to BMW "generated hundreds of millions of dollars of media exposure for the movie and all of its marketing partners."[88]
In addition, all computers in the film were provided byIBM, and in some scenes (such as the pen grenade scene towards the end), theOS/2 Warp splash screen can be seen on computer monitors. During the Q Lab scene, James Bond can be seen using an IBM ThinkPad laptop ignoring Q's instructions on the use of a leather belt modified with a piton gun. This moment was not present in early drafts of the film, but it is understood that director Martin Campbell had 007 fiddling with the keyboard of this computer as a way to show Bond was visibly ignoring the Quartermaster, but also as a way increase IBM's product placement arrangement.[89]
A modifiedOmega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M wristwatch features as a spy gadget device several times in the film, concealing a cutting laser and detonator remote. This was the first time Bond was shown to be wearing a watch by Omega, and he has since worn Omega watches in every subsequent production.[90][91] While the scene of the tank running through a truck full of drinks was storyboarded with aPepsi truck,Perrier signed in a deal to be featured, providing around 90,000 cans for the scene.[92]
As James Bond entered in the 1990s, hand-painted poster designs were eschewed in favour of cutting-edge photomontage tools, promoting the return of 007 portrayed by Pierce Brosnan. Under the direction of John Parkinson and Gordon Arnell from the marketing department of MGM, many posters were produced for the film designed by Randi Braun and Earl Klasky with photographs taken by John Stoddart, Terry O'Neill, Keith Hamshere and George Withear. In the United States, an advance poster featured a gold-hued close-up on Bond's eyes pointing his Walther PPK handgun towards the viewer. The logo of the film was not displayed, only a tagline: "There is no substitute" and the 007 gun logo, in red. For the international market, a different advance poster was issued on which Pierce Brosnan appeared in black dinner jacket holding his silenced PPK gun, next to a 007 logo and under a different tagline: "You know the name. You know the number". This time, the film's logo was introduced, using the MatrixWide typeface (earlier versions of this logo used a modified FrizQuadrata typography). The theatrical artwork had two variations: both retained the same black background and action scenes collage surrounding the three principals (Pierce Brosnan, Izabella Scorupco and Famke Janssen), but the International poster had James Bond in tuxedo while in the American version only had the secret agent's face emerging from the shadows. The American variant was used for the cover artwork of the film'ssoundtrack and the box of theNintendo 64 video game adaptation released in 1997.[93] On a 2015 interview regarding his take on theGoldenEye poster campaign, photographer John Stoddart (who previously worked with Brosnan for aBrioni photoshoot) said his only directive was "Bond, girls and guns"[94]
In July 1995, a teaser trailer forGoldenEye was attached to prints ofRoger Donaldson's filmSpecies after its debut on the syndicated American television programExtra,[89] followed by a more generic theatrical trailer which revealed Bond's confrontation with agent 006. Asked about the inclusion of this spoiler in a 2019 interview, former MGM/UA Vice-president Jeff Kleeman pointed out that he felt "the idea of 006 vs 007 was a selling point".[95] Both trailers were directed by Joe Nimziki.[89]
The theme song, "GoldenEye", was written byBono andthe Edge, and was performed byTina Turner.[96] As the producers did not collaborate with Bono or the Edge, the film score did not incorporate any of the theme song's melodies, as was the case in previous James Bond films.[97] Swedish groupAce of Base had also written a proposed theme song, but labelArista Records pulled the band out of the project, fearing the negative impact in case the film flopped. The song was then rewritten as their single "The Juvenile".[98]
The soundtrack was composed and performed byÉric Serra. Prolific Bond composerJohn Barry said that, despite an offer by Barbara Broccoli, he turned it down.[99] Serra's score has been criticised:Richard von Busack, inMetro, wrote that it was "more appropriate for a ride on an elevator than a ride on a roller coaster",[100] andFilmtracks said Serra "failed completely in his attempt to tieGoldenEye to the franchise's past."[101]
Martin Campbell would also later express his disappointment with the score, citing budget constraints and difficulty working with Serra, who became uncooperative when asked to re-score the St. Petersburg tank chase after Campbell rejected his submitted track.[102]John Altman would later provide the music for the sequence,[103] while Serra's original track can still be found on the soundtrack as "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg".[104]
Serra composed and performed a number of synthesiser tracks, including the version of the "James Bond Theme" that plays during thegun barrel sequence,[105] while Altman andDavid Arch provided the more traditional symphonic music.[106] The end credits song, Serra's "The Experience of Love", was based on a short cue Serra had originally written forLuc Besson'sLéon one year earlier.[citation needed]
GoldenEye premiered on 13 November 1995, at theRadio City Music Hall, and went on general release in the United States on 17 November 1995.[107] The UK premiere followed on 21 November at theOdeon Leicester Square, with general release three days later.[108] The film also had its German premiere on 5 December, at which Brosnan was present, at Mathäser-Filmpalast (de) inMunich, with general release on December 28;[109] and the Swedish premiere on 8 December, attended by Brosnan and Scorupco, at Rigoletto (sv) inStockholm, with general release on the same day.[110][111] The after-party took place at Stockholm'sGrand Hôtel.[110] Brosnan boycotted the French premiere to supportGreenpeace's protest against the French nuclear testing program.[112]
The film earned over $26 million during its opening across 2,667 cinemas in the United States and Canada.[113] In the United Kingdom, it grossed a record $5.5 million for a non-holiday week from 448 theatres and was the third biggest in history, behindJurassic Park andBatman Forever.[114] It had the fourth-highest worldwide gross of all films in 1995,[115] and was the most successful Bond film sinceMoonraker, taking inflation into account.[5]
The film was edited to be guaranteed aPG-13 rating from theMotion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and a 12 rating from theBritish Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The cuts included the visible bullet impact to Trevelyan's head when he is shot in the prologue, several additional deaths during the sequence in which Onatopp guns down the workers at the Severnaya station, more explicit footage and violent behaviour in the Admiral's death, extra footage of Onatopp's death, and Bond knocking her out with arabbit punch in the car.[63] In 2006, the film was remastered for the James Bond Ultimate EditionDVD in which the BBFC cuts were restored, causing the rating to be changed to 15. However, the original MPAA edits still remain.[116]
The critical reception of the film was mostly positive. Film review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes holds it at an 80% approval rating with an approval rating of 7.1/10, based on 85 reviews. The website's critics consensus states: "The first and best Pierce Brosnan Bond film,GoldenEye brings the series into a more modern context, and the result is a 007 entry that's high-tech, action-packed, and urbane."[117] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[118] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[119]
In theChicago Sun-Times,Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, and said Brosnan's Bond was "somehow more sensitive, more vulnerable, more psychologically complete" than the previous ones, also commenting on Bond's "loss of innocence" since previous films.[120]James Berardinelli described Brosnan as "a decided improvement over his immediate predecessor" with a "flair for wit to go along with his natural charm", but added that "fully one-quarter ofGoldenEye is momentum-killing padding."[121]
Several reviewers lauded M's appraisal of Bond as a "sexist,misogynist dinosaur",[7][122][123] with Todd McCarthy inVariety saying the film "breathes fresh creative and commercial life" into the series.[7] John Puccio of DVD Town said that it was "an eye- and ear-pleasing, action-packed entry in the Bond series" and that the film gave Bond "a bit of humanity, too".[124] Ian Nathan ofEmpire said that it "revamps that indomitable British spirit" and that theDie Hard movies "don't even come close to 007". Tom Sonne ofThe Sunday Times considered it the best Bond film sinceThe Spy Who Loved Me. Jose Arroyo ofSight & Sound considered the greatest success of it was in modernising the series.[125]
However, the film received several negative reviews.Richard Schickel ofTime wrote that after "a third of a century's hard use", Bond's conventions survived on "wobbly knees",[126] while inEntertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman thought the series had "entered a near-terminal state of exhaustion."[127]Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times said that it was "a middle-aged entity anxious to appear trendy at all costs".[128] David Eimer ofPremiere wrote that "the trademark humour is in short supply" and that "Goldeneye isn't classic Bond by any stretch of the imagination."[125]
Often ranked as Brosnan's best Bond film and one of the best films in the entire series,GoldenEye's reputation has further improved since its release. It is ranked high on Bond-related lists;IGN chose it as the fifth-best movie,[129] whileEntertainment Weekly ranked it eighth,[130] and Norman Wilner ofMSN as ninth.[131]EW also voted Xenia Onatopp as the sixth-most memorableBond girl,[132] whileIGN ranked Natalya as seventh in a similar list.[133] The film enjoys a large and enthusiastic following among Bond fans, especially those who grew up with theGoldenEye 007 video game.[134][135] In a 2021Yahoo survey consisting of 2,200 scholars and Bond superfans,GoldenEye was voted as the best Bond film, followed byDaniel Craig'sCasino Royale andGeorge Lazenby'sOn Her Majesty's Secret Service.[136]
GoldenEye was the second and final Bond film to beadapted to a novel by novelistJohn Gardner. The book closely follows its storyline, but Gardner added a violent sequence prior to the opening bungee jump in which Bond kills a group of Russian guards, a change that would be retained and expanded upon in the video gameGoldenEye 007.[141]
In late 1995,Topps Comics began publishing a three-issue comic book adaptation of the film. The script was adapted byDon McGregor with art by Rick Magyar. The first issue carried a January 1996 cover date.[142] For unknown reasons, Topps cancelled the entire adaptation after the first issue had been published, and to date the adaptation has not been released in its entirety.[143]
The film was the basis forGoldenEye 007, a video game for theNintendo 64 developed byRare and published byNintendo.[145][146] It was praised by critics and in January 2000, readers of the British video game magazineComputer and Video Games listed it in first place in a list of "the hundred greatest video games".[147] In 2003,Edge's included it as one of their top tenshooter games of all time.[148] It is based upon the film, but many of the missions were extended or modified.[149]
A version ofGoldeneye was developed as a racing game intended to be released for theVirtual Boy console. However, it was cancelled before release.[150] In 2004,Electronic Arts releasedGoldenEye: Rogue Agent, the first game of the James Bond series in which the player does not take on the role of Bond. Instead, the protagonist is an aspiring Double-0 agent Jonathan Hunter, known by his codename "GoldenEye", recruited by a villain of the Bond universe,Auric Goldfinger.[151] Except for the appearance of Xenia Onatopp, it was unrelated to the film, and was released to mediocre reviews.[152][153][154] It was excoriated by several critics including Eric Qualls for using the name "GoldenEye" as an attempt to ride on the success of Rare's game.[155][156] In 2010, an independent development team releasedGoldenEye: Source, a multiplayer onlytotal conversion mod developed usingValve'sSource engine.[157]
Nintendo announced aremake of the originalGoldenEye 007 at theirE3 press conference on15 June 2010. It is a modernised retelling of the original movie's story, withDaniel Craig playing the role of Bond. Bruce Feirstein returned to write a modernised version of the script, whileNicole Scherzinger covered the theme song. It was developed byEurocom and published byActivision for theWii andNintendo DS and was released in November 2010. Both the DS and Wii versions bear little to no resemblance to the locations and weapons of the original N64 release. In 2011, the game wasported toPlayStation 3 andXbox 360 under the nameGoldenEye 007: Reloaded.[158]
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^Pfeiffer, Lee; Worrall, Dave (2003) [1998]. "GoldenEye".The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007.Boxtree. p. 169.ISBN0-7522-1562-0.
^Michael G. Wilson; Andrew Ackland-Snow; Peter Lamont; Chris Corbould (17 July 2006).Location Scouting with Peter Lamont: GoldenEye (TV Documentary). Cloverland Productions.
^Lee Pfeiffer; Worrall, Dave (2003) [1998]. "GoldenEye".The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007.Boxtree. p. 171.ISBN0-7522-1562-0.
^Lang, Kirsty (3 December 1995). "Bond drops a bomb".The Sunday Times.
^Sinister Class 20 is new James Bond movie starRail issue 250 12 April 1995 page 6
^Lee Pfeiffer; Worrall, Dave (2003) [1998]. "GoldenEye".The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007.Boxtree. p. 176.ISBN0-7522-1562-0.
^Andrew Wright (4 May 2006)."Licensed to Thrill".Historic James Bond Diesel Locomotive to star in evocative branch line weekend.Swanage Railway. Archived fromthe original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved23 June 2007.
^Making It Small in Pictures: Derek Meddings. MGM Home Entertainment.
^Driven to Bond: Remy Julienne. MGM Home Entertainment.
^Michael G. Wilson; Barbara Broccoli; Martin Campbell; Chris Corbould; Pierce Brosnan; Famke Janssen; Izabella Scorupco; Peter Lamont (1994).GoldenEye: Building a Better Bond (Cinema Teaser).MGM Home Entertainment.
^Lee Pfeiffer; Worrall, Dave (2003) [1998]. "GoldenEye".The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007.Boxtree. p. 177.ISBN0-7522-1562-0.
^Kinney, Lance; Sapolsky, Barry (2002). "Product Placement". In McDonough, John; Egol, Karen (eds.).The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising. Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 1285–1287.ISBN978-1-579-58172-5.
^abcSuszczyk, Nicolás (2020).The World of GoldenEye: A Comprehensive Study on the Seventeenth James Bond Film and its Legacy (Updated ed.). Amazon KDP. p. 311.ISBN978-1095078754.
^Lee Pfeiffer; Worrall, Dave (2003) [1998]. "GoldenEye".The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007.Boxtree. p. 175.ISBN0-7522-1562-0.
^Burlingame, Jon (2012).The Music of James Bond. Oxford University Press. pp. 264–5.ISBN978-0-19-986330-3.
^Svetkey, Benjamin; Rich, Joshua (15 November 2006)."Ranking the Bond Films".Entertainment Weekly.Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved5 April 2008.
^Goldeneye 007 Official Player's Guide. Nintendo Power. 1997. ASIN: B000B66WKA.
^McGregor, Don (January 1996) [1995].James Bond 007: GoldenEye. Artwork by Rick Magyar and Claude St. Aubin; Cover art by Brian Stelfreeze. New York City:Topps Comics. Direct Sales 61114 00257.
