The World Is Not Enough

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The World Is Not Enough

The World is Not Enough film poster
James Bond Pierce Brosnan
Also starring Sophie Marceau
Denise Richards
Robert Carlyle
Goldie
Judi Dench
John Cleese
Michael Kitchen
Robbie Coltrane
Samantha Bond
John Seru
Victor LeBlanc
Directed by Michael Apted
Produced by Barbara Broccoli
Michael G. Wilson
Novel/Story by Neal Purvis
Robert Wade
Screenplay Neal Purvis
Robert Wade
Bruce Feirstein
Cinematography by {{{cinematography}}}
Music by David Arnold
Main theme  
Composer David Arnold
Don Black
Performer Garbage
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released November 19, 1999
Running time 128 min.
Budget $135,000,000
Worldwide gross $362,000,000
Admissions (world) 77.1 million
Preceded by Tomorrow Never Dies
Followed by Die Another Day
IMDb profile

The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth official James Bond film made by EON Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was released in 1999, and produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The film's story and screenplay was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who later teamed again for 2002's Die Another Day and 2006's Casino Royale. This film would end up being the last to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q, as he died in December 1999.

The title comes from the English translation of the Bond family motto, Orbis non sufficit (in Latin), which was established and adopted by James Bond in the novel and film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond


Contents

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A British oil tycoon, and friend of M, Sir Robert King, is assassinated in an attack on MI6 Headquarters itself, by an agent of Renard, an international terrorist. M assigns James Bond to protect King's daughter, Elektra King, from Renard, who previously had kidnapped her. She assumes control of her father's oil business at a pivotal time, taking over responsibility for an oil pipeline through the Caucasus, from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Prior to the events in the film, M sent 009 to assassinate Renard. 009 failed, only wounding Renard by leaving a bullet lodged in Renard's brain. The bullet is slowly working its way towards the cerebral cortex. As it moves, it eliminates his senses of pain and touch, enabling him to physically drive himself beyond normal human limits. This will in turn allow him to continually gain strength until the bullet inevitably kills him.

Renard steals a quantity of weapons-grade plutonium from a former Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan, there encountering Bond. After Bond escapes from a booby-trapped missile silo with American nuclear physicist Christmas Jones, the two return to the King pipeline, discovering that Renard has set a nuclear bomb in a section of the pipeline in a cleaning rig headed towards the pipeline's control center. They enter the pipeline, catching up with the bomb in a spare cleaning rig, to attempt to defuse the bomb, but find that Renard only used part of the plutonium. Bond allows the bomb to explode, which makes Jones angry. He and Jones jump off the rig inside the pipeline seconds before the explosion and survive. When Bond radios in that he survived, he discovers that M has been kidnapped.

Bond quickly surmises that Elektra is operating with Renard; Renard has hijacked a Russian Victor III class nuclear submarine. Eventually, when Bond confronts Elektra, he finds she had made a professional and romantic alliance with Renard during captivity (see: Stockholm syndrome). Their plan is to introduce the remaining plutonium to the submarine's nuclear reactor, overloading it and causing a nuclear meltdown in the Bosporus at Istanbul killing countless numbers of people and contaminating the Bosporus for decades. The effect would prevent shipment of Caspian Sea petroleum through any existing route for tankers through the Bosporus. The only alternative would be the King pipeline.

Bond teams up with Valentin Zukovsky to track Renard and Elektra. One of Zukovsky's trusted henchmen, Bull, plants a bomb in his boss' operations room; Bond, Zukovsky and Dr. Jones manage to escape severe injury but are captured by Elektra. Bond is taken to King's hideout and tortured for King's pleasure at his rejection. "We could have had the world," she tempts "The world is not enough," Bond responded citing the movie's title and the Bond family motto, revealed in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Jones is given to Renard and taken aboard the submarine. Zukovsky arrives at Elektra's hideout, demanding to know where the hijacked submarine is; his nephew is the captain. Seeing his nephew's naval hat on a nearby table, he realizes that the man is dead. Elektra shoots Valentin and continues to torture Bond. Before he dies, Zukovsky regains consciousness and shoots one of the bands holding Bond to the torture device. Bond escapes and chases Elektra through her headquarters, pausing momentarily to free M. Bond catches up with Elektra, and, despite her taunting and signal to Renard to begin his mission, kills her.

Bond boards the submarine and, after a brief battle with Renard's men, sabotages the controls and scuttles it on the bottom of the channel. He and Renard briefly fight. Bond delivers a few blows to various parts of Renard's body. Renard, who didn't feel the hits, gains the upper hand. But Bond manages to overpower Renard, impaling the villain with the same plutonium rod he planned to use to cause the meltdown, but is too late to stop a small explosion in the reactor room. Bond and Dr. Jones escape to the surface before the sub explodes.

Later, MI6 tries to locate Bond with a thermal-imaging satellite, they discover Bond and Christmas in a compromising position. R quickly shuts down the viewer and quips "Must be some premature form of the Millennium Bug."

The skiing and glider scenes were shot in Chamonix France
The skiing and glider scenes were shot in Chamonix France


This was Desmond Llewelyn's last appearance as "Q" before his death in December, 1999. The film also introduced "Q"'s successor, credited as "R", played by John Cleese. The name "R" is a joke in the film made by Bond upon their introduction. In the following movie, Die Another Day, he takes over the job of Quartermaster, thus taking on the title "Q". In Llewelyn's final scene, his "Q" is lowered into the ground while quipping: "Always have an escape plan". It was stated in promotional interviews at the time that this was not intended to be Llewelyn's final appearance onscreen, that he was going to continue with Cleese as his assistant. The scene turned out to be prophetic, as the actor died in an automobile accident only a few weeks after the film's release, at age 85.

Spoilers end here.

Goldie as Zukovsky's assistant
Goldie as Zukovsky's assistant
Henchmen in The World Is Not Enough

  • BMW Z8 — Loaded with several Q refinements including ground to air missiles, a key chain that can control the car remotely, and as R proudly points out, six cup holders. It was later sawn in half and destroyed during a battle at Zukovsky's caviar factory.
  • Q Boat — Was an unfinished "fishing boat" created by Q for his retirement. It includes torpedoes and a GPS tracking system. It could also submerge, although this feature wasn't quite finished when Bond took it (the windshield probably hadn't been installed at that time) and forced him to hold his breath while underwater.
  • Omega Watch — Bond's watch has the ability to shoot a grappling hook.
  • Protective Jacket — Q gives Bond a jacket, that when deployed encloses Bond and potentially another person inside a ball. Bond uses it to survive an avalanche when out skiing with Elektra. This gadget appears to be based on the Zorb.
  • X-ray glasses — which Bond uses in the casino to locate the guards' weapons and occasionally see women's underwear.
  • Zukovsky's Cane — Not used by Bond, the cane contained a small-caliber pistol in the head.

The SIS building featured in the intro
The SIS building featured in the intro

The World Is Not Enough was met somewhat harshly by many critics: Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film with a 53%[1] freshness rating, while IMDB has an average rating of 6.3[2]. Of most concern in the film was the script, which critics note was not complex enough to warrant the abundant action in the film, as well as the casting and acting of Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones. However, other critics have praised the script for bringing the Bond formula successfully into a modern context, as well as giving acclaim to Pierce Brosnan's and Robert Carlye's performances as Bond and Renard, respectively.

Baku and the Caspian Sea
Baku and the Caspian Sea

Italics indicate the locations in the movie portrayed by each shooting location.

1999 British Coronet Books paperback edition.
1999 British Coronet Books paperback edition.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The World is Not Enough was adapted by then-current Bond novelist Raymond Benson from the screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It was Benson's fourth James Bond novel and followed the story closely, except in some details. For example, Elektra does not die immediately after Bond shoots her; instead, she begins quietly to sing. The novel also gave the Cigar Girl a name: Giulietta da Vinci, and retained a scene between her and Renard that was cut from theatrical release.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao featured in the opening to the film
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao featured in the opening to the film


Author: Publisher: Hardback: Paperback: Alternate titles:
Raymond Benson Ian Fleming Publications (UK) 1999 | (U.S.) None (UK) 1999 | (U.S.) 1999
Preceded by: High Time to Kill
Followed by: "Live at Five"

Nintendo 64 box art for The World Is Not Enough video game
Nintendo 64 box art for The World Is Not Enough video game

The movie was adapted into a video game of the same name by Electronic Arts for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation.

  • The briefing at the Eilean Donan Scottish Castle where Bond does not get an assignment due to his injury is the first time that every 00 in the service is seen in one place since 1965's "Thunderball"- however in the days of the cold war, there was a full complement of nine 00s, whereas in 1999, there are only four (according to Fleming, there are never more than nine 00s at any given time). This also marks the first time that the faces of more than two 00s are seen in the same shot.
  • During filming of the opening boat chase, web cams were set up overlooking the River Thames and Internet users could watch the filming from around the world.
  • This was the first official James Bond film not to be co-produced by United Artists. Its parent company, MGM, had since Tomorrow Never Dies assumed co-production of the Bond films, although the teaser trailer and some early poster artwork feature the United Artists logo.
Eilean Donan castle
Eilean Donan castle
  • The pre-title sequence lasts for about 14 minutes, the longest pre-title sequence in the Bond series to date. In addition, director Michael Apted says in the making of documentaries on the Ultimate Edition DVD release that this scene was originally much longer than that.
  • This film is notable as being one of the few Bond movies in which James himself kills a leading female character. An early version of the script has Bond shoot King in cold blood before she attempts to contact Renard. A long-standing stereotype regarding James Bond is that 007 routinely kills women he beds; in truth, the death of Elektra is the only occasion in the Bond film series in which this undeniably occurs. (It is debatable whether Bond actually kills Fiona Volpe in Thunderball or if she is a victim of her men's poor shooting skills; in GoldenEye Bond causes Xenia Onatopp to be killed by a helicopter, but technically kills only the pilot of the craft himself - and it's debatable whether his earlier encounter with her in the film counts as "bedding". (See also Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me)
  • The Freudian psychology introduced to the Bond films in GoldenEye is more pronounced in this script, as Elektra – named for the character from Greek myth and the Electra complex to which she gives her name – is revealed to have killed her own father and may or may not be mentally disturbed. It may be argued that the portrayal of Bond himself is more clearly as a damaged person (see above), and Stockholm Syndrome also gets a mention.
  • There is some debate whether Elektra, and not Renard, should be considered the central antagonist – and therefore whether she is the first female Bond villain – as it is clear that much of the plot is orchestrated by her, and by the fact that she stood to gain enormously from the whole scheme, while Renard fully expected to die. Indeed, much is made of Bond's slowly coming to suspect that she has been 'turned' by Renard while kidnapped (see above), only to learn from her that it was the other way round. That Bond has fallen in love with her is strongly suggested, and there are subtle connections made between her character and that of the Bond character's late wife from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
The BMW Z8 Bond car driven by Brosnan in Azerbaijan
The BMW Z8 Bond car driven by Brosnan in Azerbaijan
  • The fictional news report which Bond views from the MI6 Archive was provided by BBC News. This was out of date by the time the film was released (November 1999), as the BBC had relaunched its news output in May and Martyn Lewis (the newsreader) had left the corporation at the same time. The footage is archive material within the story, however, and reportedly Lewis and the original set were used deliberately (current BBC newsreaders are contractually forbidden to participate in fiction).
  • The pipeline featured in the film is a thinly disguised fictional version of the real Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean via the Caucasus. Unlike the film's "King pipeline", however, the BTC pipeline is almost entirely underground. As in the film, it is the only land route by which oil can be transported from the Caucasus to the Mediterranean. Some of the pipeline shown in the film is in fact part of a hydro-electric scheme on Snowdon in Wales.
  • Elektra's father is named Robert King. This is also the name of the co-writer of Your Deal, Mr. Bond, a collection of bridge-related short stories that included an unauthorised James Bond story.
  • Bond's Aston Martin DB5, as seen in the previous two films, was due to make an appearance and was filmed driving 007 and M to MI6's castle HQ after the funeral, but this was cut. The only shot in which it appears is a thermal satellite image at the end — Bond apparently having had his car shipped to Istanbul to replace the Q-issued BMW he was driving, but which was destroyed.
  • Months after the release of the film, the SIS Building in London, which features in the Pre-title sequence, was attacked in a similar fashion to that made by the 'Cigar Girl'. At the time the attacked was believed to have been performed by IRA terrorists.[4].

  1. ^ Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ IMDB
  3. ^ Bond is backed... by the government
  4. ^ 'Rocket' theory over MI6 blast

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