Die Another Day (2002)

The James Bond marathon continues, but an era comes to an end (both for Pierce Brosnan and the James Bond franchise as a whole) with today's film: Die Another Day (2002).

SYNOPSIS:
James Bond pursues a corrupt North Korean officer, Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee), who is illegally trading African conflict diamonds for weapons.  Bond succeeds in killing the man, but is captured by his father, General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), who proceeds to torture Bond for 14 months in a North Korean concentration camp.  Bond is released in exchange for Zao (Rick Yune), Colonel Moon's right-hand man.  Despite his 00 status being revoked, Bond escapes MI6's security and goes rogue, pursuing Zao.  The trail leads him to British billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who is about to unveil a massive satellite called Icarus that, using diamonds, can concentrate the sun's rays to provide sunlight 24/7 on a particular location.  Or refract light like a magnifying glass on an ant...

REVIEW:
This is the 20th official James Bond film, which released during the 40th anniversary of the franchise.  As such, it is littered with tributes to previous James Bond films.  We get everything from glimpses of old gadgets, to musical cues from the classic films, to reinvented classic weapons.  Even the plot is partially recycled from the old Diamonds Are Forever (1971) film, where stolen diamonds are being turned into a satellite doomsday weapon.  But instead of creating a high-tech laser weapon using the sun like that film, this new film just refocuses the sun into a powerful mile-thick death ray.  I could write several pages explaining all the tributes and easter eggs in this film, but I won't because I already have a lot to discuss.  You can look up all the connections to previous Bond films elsewhere on the Internet.  I'm sure there are lists made by hardcore fans out there.

The character Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) was originally supposed to make her return in this film.  As a matter of fact, Barbara Broccoli, the producer who currently owns the movie rights to James Bond, wanted a whole spin-off espionage series focused on her, but MGM Studios eventually pulled the plug on the idea, insisting that EON Productions press forward with the next Bond film instead of worrying about spin-off titles.  Barbara was apparently furious at the decision, but tried to get Wai Lin back into the franchise in the Hong Kong scene in Die Another Day (2002).  But the idea fell through at some point, and they created a new Chinese Intelligence agent to assist Bond instead.

You could've had a female Asian James Bond-type!  But nooo...

R (John Cleese) from the previous film has now taken over Q-Branch as the new Q; suggesting that the former Q (Desmond Llewelyn) has officially retired.  You may remember from my previous review, the 85-year old actor passed away in a traffic collision shortly after The World is Not Enough (1999) released.  The new Q provides Bond with a sonic agitator ring that can shatter glass when twisted.  He also provides a new car.  Going back to the classic brand name, Bond gets an Aston Martin Vanquish V12; dubbed the "Vanish" by Q.  It's decked out with optic camouflage, allowing it to literally become invisible to the naked eye. (Yes, Bond now drives the car version of Wonder Woman's invisible jet. Strap in; we're just getting started with the over-the-top antics.)  It also comes with hood-mounted guns that track and shoot any fast-moving projectiles in front of it, front-firing rockets, and as a tribute to the classic Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger (1964), an ejector seat on the passenger side.

Q introducing Bond to his new car.  No, really.  It's right there, on the platform.

When Bond gets around to using his car's gadgets, it's against Zao, who is driving a Jaguar XKR with almost identical weaponry as Bond's car.  Except he also gets to launch mortar shells.  They literally have a shoot-out while spinning and sliding and flipping their cars around on ice.  Probably the craziest car chase scene in any Bond film so far.  They even drive them through the villain's lair, which is a literal ice palace, while the villain is attempting to melt it with his solar beam.

Bond pressuring Zao, while their cars shoot at each other

Like I mentioned in the previous review, '90s action films were big on topping their previous film with the next one, and with this one being barely into the 2000s, it still had that same vibe.  To date, I'd wager it's the most over-the-top spectacle in a Bond film.  Definitely out-does any previous films on extreme action scenes.  There's a scene where Bond tries to out-run the space sunbeam in a jet-powered ski rocket, inadvertently setting a land-speed record.  When he runs out of flat space to travel on, and as the sunbeam quickly cuts a chunk of the glacier off, causing a massive tidal wave, Bond pulls a long panel off the rocket, pulls out the reserve parachute inside, and basically goes kite-surfing on the tidal wave to escape.

Looks more like an amateur DeviantArt painting than a big-budget CGI film

The CGI effects for that whole scene are a mess, and this film overall got a lot of negative attention.  Roger Moore, who previously played James Bond in the '70s-'80s, went on record saying, "I thought it just went too far – and that's from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!"  Still, despite the negative press, this film ended up the most successful James Bond film up until that point (adjusted for inflation).  And random trivia: the flight attendant who serves Bond his drink on his flight to London is played by Roger Moore's daughter, Deborah Moore.

Deborah Moore, Roger Moore's daughter.

Adding to the ridiculousness of this film is Zao, the North Korean who literally has shards of diamonds embedded in his face due to Bond blowing up a suitcase of them nearby Zao in the intro.  He attempts to go through reconstructive gene therapy, which will change his appearance and alter his DNA so that he's unrecognizable - the perfect way to blend in and disappear.  He answers to Gustav Graves, a British billionaire diamond mogul who is an adrenaline junkie and literally doesn't sleep, save an hour of rest under some bizarre light-emitting face mask every now and then.  The villains are just getting more and more extreme in their back stories.

Zao and Gustav Graves

This film actually introduced me to the whole Korean conflict.  I had just joined the US military a few months before this film released.  I had no idea that there was an ongoing conflict between the two Koreas until I heard about North Korea protesting this film for showing them as villains.  After watching the film, I thought the claim was absurd, considering the North Koreans were shown as very honorable, respectable people, while only two specific North Koreans ended up being the villains.  Innocent, young Coby didn't realize the extremes that North Korea goes to in order to preserve the perception of being absolutely perfect in every way!  6 years later, I would be stationed in South Korea and get the full history lesson on the Korean War and the armistice (a.k.a. temporary truce) that persists, even to this day.

And it's suiting that I'm reviewing this film today, as North Korea's current leader, Kim Jong-un is potentially in grave danger of dying after a cardiovascular surgery.  We'll see what new conflicts may arise if he passes away without a successor lined up.  It's gonna be absolute chaos in his isolated little police-state nation if he dies.  But I digress...

One very interesting addition to this film was the torture scenes.  James Bond is always cool and collected, finding his way out of trouble every time, but this film decided to show the reality of an agent caught by an oppressive nation.  Bond spends 14 months being tortured for information, abandoned by his own agency (as is standard policy; disavow all knowledge).  The only reason MI6 came to trade his life for another was due to intel claiming state secrets were being leaked from Bond's prison cell while he was the only inhabitant living there.  Assuming he cracked, they decided they needed to get him out of there.  Despite the grueling torture and the long, greasy hair and beard, Bond actually looks pretty damn good for spending over a year in a concentration camp.  I guess CGI wasn't good enough yet to make him look scrawny and malnourished.

Even I don't look this good, and I'm IN the military!

Once again, the soundtrack for this film is written by David Arnold.  The self-titled theme song is performed by Madonna and is quite different from other Bond film songs.  We also see Bond's torture scenes continue throughout the title sequence; the first time I can think of where a Bond film continued its story through its theme song.  It's also unique in that Madonna gets a brief cameo in the film as a fencing instructor.  You can watch the film's opening title sequence here:

RECOMMENDATION:
As previously stated, this celebration of the 40th anniversary of James Bond is also the end of an era.  The continuing storyline that's lasted these four decades comes to a halt (not an end) with this final film.  The next film will reboot the series, bringing a fresh new take to the classic 00 agent.  Watch this film if you want to see the most outrageous action flick in the entire Bond franchise!