WHAT’S IT ABOUT: We begin in Spain, where Mr. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is on a mission to recover stolen funds from a man named Sir Robert King (David Calder), a close friend of Bond’s boss, M (Judi Dench). And in typical Bond fashion, this involves things going quite badly and though he manages to get out alive with the case of cash, fails to get the name of the man behind the murder of a fellow MI6 agent. Job half done.
Back at London headquarters, things, in typical Bond fashion, go quite badly, and after King is killed, the money lost, and lots structural damage to the building leaving a few holes, Bond needs to find out who’s pulling the strings to this mess. All things eventually lead him to a KGB agent turned international terrorist named Renard (Robert Carlyle) and then King’s own daughter (Sophie Marceau), a wealthy woman Bond is meant to protect. But, in typical Bond fashion, this goes quite badly.
Tasked with connecting the dots and uncovering the truth, Bond is geared up with the latest gadgets and tech toys, globetrotting about in dangerous locales and rubbing elbows (and other naughty parts) with beautiful ladies. Loaded with action, where, in typical Bond fashion, things go … well, you know, it’s a fight to save the world from a madman with a nuclear submarine. Dun da da da daaa dun du … (that’s the Bond theme if you can’t get it).
QUICKE REVIEW: The World Is Not Enough is a movie of vast opposites. Bond has always struggled to keep balance with its 1960s hyper male-centered view of the world in times that increasingly make that obsolete, clinging the sexist rogue hero to outlandish plots and schemes that involve logic-defying action and gobs of sexual innuendo. In 1999, these themes were already threadbare and Bond was in need of some updating, though how to do that and not let go of the formula that has run the franchise for decades? Few have the answer.
That’s really the central problem with the movie, where the Brosnan era tries to keep some of the Timothy Dalton Bond toughness with the goofy comic book action of Bond during the reign of Roger Moore. It leaves the experience more than a little awkward as Brosnan seems up for a gritty fight but set in a world where little makes sense. You have a strong, well developed female character in Elektra King (Marceau) in the same movie as a paper thin cartoon character like Dr. Christmas Snow (Denise Richards – above), a nuclear scientist with all the brain punch of a jelly bean dressed like a Maxim model (not that Richards can’t make that work sometimes).
Either way, there is nonetheless, plenty of fun to be had with this entry in the series, with Brosnan once again outright, bold-faced committed to the part and clearly doing everything he can to make it his own. There’s a lot of creative action and smart direction from Michael Apted, let alone entertaining support from the cast. Not the best in the Bond canon, but still well worth a watch for fans of the genre.
THAT MOMENT IN: As mentioned, there are some truly good set-pieces on the docket here, with Bond absolutely put through the ringer in terms of physical abuse, beaten, punch, dragged, whatever. However, we’re going to focus on the opening sequence, the bit before the credits that is a standard in the series. In embracing the history and panache of the name James Bond, the filmmakers most assuredly did so with this particularly exciting and well-executed snippet that for an astonishing 15 minutes ramps up the pace and continues to escalate.
It’s directly connected to the opening, where Bond retrieves the stolen cache of cash and it gets stored in a vault at MI6 Headquarters, just down the hall from M’s office. It’s here that Bond realizes that there is something ‘off’ with the money because, after he’d handled some of it, his fingers are now filming over. He instantly guesses the bills are coated with a chemical explosive and dashes for the vault where the money’s owner, Robert King is down to collect. Activated remotely to a lapel pin on King’s jacket he didn’t know was embedded with a secret triggering device (by a nefarious sole we meet later), it sets off the explosive and BOOM goes the vault. And part of the exterior wall of the building.
THE CHASE: In the chaos, Bond sneaks a look out the gap and eyes a woman (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) in a high-powered yacht out of the river Thames, aiming a sniper rifle at him and as such, leaps after her. ‘Leap’ isn’t exactly the right word though as he doesn’t just dive out of the hole in the wall but rather heads quickly to the famous Q labs and bursts through an open portal of the building on a modified tiny speed boat dubbed the Q-boat. We’re told by an exasperated Q (Desmond Llewelyn in his final Bond film appearance) that it’s not finished. Doesn’t matter. Bond is on his way.
So already we’ve had a smart little action moment led by a scene that doesn’t hold our hands in figuring out what’s happening (notice how Bond’s discovery of the explosive chemical is done entirely with visuals, never once explaining it to the audience with unnecessary words). It’s fast-paced and compelling, with a dramatic explosion and an angry Bond taking control, his training kicking in and his usual abandonment of self-preservation properly jettisoned. Now we’re on the water, and this is a familiar place for Bond chases, with Apted giving the lengthy run just enough of its own innovation to be significant while homaging a few classic moments from the Bond roots (flippy boats anyone?).
Bond takes the speed boat up and over anything in his path, at one point using its jet power to drive it on land. He even dives under the water, where he takes the time to adjust his tie – easily the best moment in the scene, simply because it’s right at that spot where we know this is all in good fun, a wonderfully-created and well-written ‘Bond-ism’ that just rings perfect in timing and execution.
WHY IT MATTERS: The sequence is hardly done though as Bond chases the yacht all the way to The Millennium Dome, where the assassin beaches her boat and makes off in a waiting hot air balloon because, duh. How Bond gets to that balloon is another terrific stunt that feels totally aligned with the Bond universe, leaving him dangling from the ropes, desperate for her to stop … and this is where we’ll stop, just in case you’ve not seen the film.
The opening credits were supposed to begin far earlier, right after Bond escapes the meeting in Spain, though wisely, it was pushed back after the boat chase, a far more exciting stunt that better sets the tone for the film. Bond at the beginning of nearly all his films, outwits or destroys his enemies, proving his cunning and intelligence, not to mention his physical prowess. The great thing about this opening action scene is that while it adheres to the physicality of it all, Bond is left somewhat beaten back, in the end of it, without all the answers, and worse, injured. It so fully embraces the core of Bond, with its over-the-top momentum, yet still manages to cling to a kind of authenticity, mostly because of how good Brosnan is at keeping it so. That’s him in the boat for much of the action. Watch how he makes that matter. It’s a great movie moment.