Tomorrow Never Dies

 “The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”  Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies

Be warned, spoilers of the film are discussed.

These stark words, uttered by Tomorrow Never Dies’ villain, media mogul Elliot Carver could be a philosophy of any successful person who might operate outside social norm.  I’ll withhold a Trump comment just this once but the words invite a deeper examination.  Carver owns a newspaper called “Tomorrow” and he so determined to come in ahead of his rivals (who seem to think little of him) that he actually wants to create the news.  Carver’s plot in the film is start a war between Great Britain and China which will both boost his own ratings since he will have a front door look at it, in much the way the Gulf War helped establish CNN, and give him an opportunity to set up a new Chinese Prime Minister which will give him broadcasting rights in that big market. 

The quote indicates that once a person is willing to abandon oral quandaries the limitations of reaching success become less restrictive.  Of course starting a war and killing political leaders, along with innocent Chinese and British pilots and sailors is extreme.  The suggestion that a media leader would be that greedy is an interesting concept.  The presentation of Carver and settings makes it clear that he is a cold character.  Carver always wears a black Nehru jacket and his office in Hamburg in dark and modern with a lot of huge computer screens.  Regular Bond production Peter Lamont was working on Titanic while this film was in the designing phase so Allan Cameron took over for this film and gave it a very different look.  Interestingly both films were released the same day: Friday, December 19, 1997.

Jonathan Pryce, an accomplished and respected actor from Wales, is becoming the person I think of who is not the first choice but always delivers a solid and committed performance.  It took Glenn Close years to get financing for her film “The Wife” because she could not find someone willing to play the crucial role of her character’s husband until Pryce stepped in.  For Tomorrow Never Dies, the producers went after Anthony Hopkins, who chose instead to make The Mask of Zorro (for GoldenEye director Martin Campbell) and Amistad, a well-intentioned but plodding slavery film directed by Steven Spielberg in which Hopkins has a juicy role as John Quincy Adams. 

There is no question that Hopkins would have found an interesting approach for Carver, but there is no reason to not appreciate Pryce’s energetically big performance.  After all I doubt Hopkins would have delivered lines like “There’s no news like bad news” with the same gusto.  Pryce gets a lot of screen time and even makes awkward lines like the one in which he mentions the mad cow disease story work.  As such Carver is a megalomaniac but also feels like a real human, helped by the storyline that includes his wife Paris.  Pryce does have a racially insensitive moment which plays as foolish when he imitates Wai Lin’s martial arts, but it did get a big laugh in the theatre, I think because it was so unexpected. 

These ideas are all in Tomorrow Never Dies but the message is delivered in between spates of frequent gunfire.  As with Daniel Craig’s sophomore Bond film, Quantum of Solace, (following a successful Martin Campbell helmed debut) Tomorrow Never Dies was rushed into production before the script was ready to make a preset box office date and as a result a lot of compelling ideas were underdeveloped and replaced by an excess of action scenes.  Obviously action is part of the appeal of the Bond films but Tomorrow Never Dies is clearly using them to fill narrative holes .

I recall reading an article in early 1997 about several writers being flown to London for a weekend to do a brainstorming session.  Among them was Nicholas Meyer (of Star Trek II, IV and VI fame) who produced a draft that incoming director Roger Spottiswood approved of but the producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson disliked.  Eventually Bruce Fierstein, who had written the final draft of GoldenEye, and an earlier draft of Tomorrow Never Dies, was rehired and worked throughout production, which began in earnest in April for the release date in December.  Interestingly, the first half of the film is well structured and has excellent dialogue.  The second half is the more problematic as it devolves into a standard 90s action film.  I would have liked to see the news be used as more of a weapon. 

Spottiswood, whose resume includes And the Band Played On (excellent), Turner and Hooch(entertaining thanks to Tom Hanks), Stop or My Mom Will Shoot (silly), Air America (boring), the 6^th Day (excessive) brings a 90s action thriller approach with a lot of machine guns, occasional slow motion (perhaps from his time working as Sam Peckinpah’s editor) and rapid pacing, although the film is not edited as tightly as GoldenEye even though it is about 10 minutes shorter.  Some of the close-ups are shot from the chest up and seem very tight. 

David Arnold comes into the series as a natural successor to John Barry.  Arnold has said that the You Only Live Twice score inspired him to pursue a career in film music and his enthusiasm for Bond and his music is felt throughout.  Arnold uses much more brass and mixes it with more modern electronic sounds.  He liberally uses the James Bond theme, especially the guitar twang.

Pierce Brosnan, playing Bond for the second time, gives a confident performance and has more presence in the role than in GoldenEye, especially in the first half.  Brosnan is particularly strong in the scenes with Paris, playing the uncomfortable ex-boyfriend in the party scene and then the embittered ex-lover when Paris shows up at his hotel room.  Right before Paris arrives there is an excellent shot in which Bond sits in his hotel room waiting for trouble, sore and a little drunk, in a moment reminiscent of many in Fleming’s books.

I understand why a lot of people do not like Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver as the background of the character is vague and her American presence is at odds with the other characters.  I have always had a soft spot for Hatcher and was a fan of Lois and Clark.  Hatcher can play glamorous parts but her strengths come out when she plays someone with a little more comic energy.  However Hatcher and Brosnan look good onscreen together and I loved that Hatcher was playing the rare love interest who really got through to him, and who Bond probably left to ensure she did not get killed.  David Arnold’s score in their two scenes in the hotel room give their moments some extra weight, especially as the second is played in a minor key on strings.

In the first hotel room scene, Bond seems particularly angry and takes several shots of straight vodka until Paris approaches him.  The way Paris comes up to Bond is a little stagey but the payoff is worth it once she gets to him. 

The party sequence, which establishes all the main players, is mostly successful.  My favorite part is the scene when Bond prods Carver about the boat while also suggesting he has been lost without Paris.  The background music is unique as well as Bond addressing Carver by his first name, which seems like an ad lib from Brosnan that lasts throughout the film which brings Carver down to size.

The sequence is brought down a little by Bond being foolish enough to go into a room with a bunch of Carver’s goons.  Although he manages to overcome them the film did not need one more fight and I think if he had somehow slipped away it would be enough motivation for Bond to pull the plug on Carver’s presentation.

The title sequence maintains the news theme and it matches the modern yet powerful song by Sheryl Crow, which foreshadows Paris’ death due to her connection with Bond.  Many fans prefer kd lang’s ending title song Surrender but I prefer Crow’s both for her more powerful voice and the melody.

The scene with the assassin manages to mix both suspense, tragedy, and humor while linking in the news motif.  Spottiswood wisely keeps the camera on Brosnan’s face as Bond finds Paris’ body with the newscast in the background and becomes alert when it announces that his body has been found as well.  The late Vincent Schiavelli brings a comic menace to the overconfident Dr. Kaufmann.  Brosnan has to play Bond’s conflicting emotions as he is trying to figure a way out while also absorbing the shock of Paris’ death.  Bond’s execution of Kaufman with the intense cold look is fitting, and more successful than his look to Alec when he dropped him at the end of GoldenEye.

Michelle Yeoh is impressive as Wai Lin, a female Chinese agent.  At the time a lot of people who worked in Hong Kong cinema were starting to work in the U.S. like Jackie Chan, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping, and Jet Li.  Michelle Yeoh’s hiring was in keeping with the times and appropriate given the Southeast Asia setting of the second half of the film.  Yeoh is a terrific fighter but Wai Lin is also direct and does not suffer fools.  There is no romantic chemistry between her and Bond but they make a good partnership.   Wai Lin is weakened a little as a character in that she is rescued by Bond at least three times in the film when she is clearly at least as competent as he is.    

Carver has two characters working for him that the film misses some opportunities to expand on.  The late magician Ricky Jay plays Henry Gupta, who has some colorful lines (I call it Gupta’s Law of Creative Anamolies….) which somehow work with his emotionless delivery.  There were a couple of scenes that showcased Jay’s unique abilities to throw cards which were cut.  Tomorrow Never Dies also gives Pierce Brosnan a superstrong henchman with Gotz Otto as Stemper.  Stemper appears throughout the film and it seems to constantly tease that Bond will eventually have to fight him.  There was an idea that Stemper would not be able to feel pain that was so underutilized it was recycled and expanded upon in the next film.  The fight between Bond and him feels squeezed in and occurs in a contained area with the threat of Wai Lin drowning.  A bigger set-piece could have been dropped to give that showdown the screentime it deserved, perhaps earlier in the film. 

A brief scene in which Gupta catches Paris on camera asking if Bond still keeps his gun under his pillow includes an image of a man who looks a lot like Roger Moore around the time of A View to a Kill.  I’ve always wondered if the producers somehow snuck a picture of Moore in there or if it is just a random shot.

The film also includes quick visits from Desmond Llewelyn as Q and Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade.  The Q scenes at the Hamburg Airport are fun, especially when they fill out the insurance waiver.  It seems implausible that this slightly daffy man could be designing these intricate gadgets but it is always great to see Llewelyn.  Wade's appearance is so brief I wonder why the producers brought him back.  

Any discussion of Tomorrow Never Dies must include the action moments.  The film definitely more than delivers on that front but as mentioned earlier, at the expense of the plot in the second half.  Also there is an excess of machine gun fire which gets repetitive.  Here are some brief thoughts on the bigger sequences in the film:

Pre-Title sequence: Sets the tone for the film with a shootout at a base in which Bond needs to avoid a disaster initiated by a trigger-happy admiral.  The sequence has a lot of gunplay and an introduction to Bond similar to that in GoldenEye (a punch thrown during the first closeup).  The brief air battle as Bond navigates a fighter jet through mountainous terrain while trying to avoid a second plane and being strangled is a first for the series.  Why does the copilot try to strangle Bond?  Can he control the plane from the back if successful?  The editing covers up the fact that Brosnan was not on set when the base scenes were shot by the second unit before production began and his moments were edited in later. David Arnold gives a bombastic introduction to his new score which I keep on my running playlist.

Warehouse Battle:  An effective sneak in which Arnold scores with energy that matches Bond’s stealthily moving into the rooftop.  The escape is exciting which showcases Brosnan’s good running form with Wai Lin’s quiet escape.  The final moment where Bond exits the warehouse is playful both in the staging and musically.

Garage chase: Delivers on the gadget car chase that people felt slighted not to get in GoldenEye, which heavily promoted the BMW Z3.  The chase is a little machine gun heavy for my taste but it has some creativity with Bond controlling the car from the backseat.  The score feels more like an electronic song but I liked the guitar twang when the hood ornament turns into a saw.  The BMW 750IL is not the most exotic car to have all these weapons. If it did not have the gadgets it would be fine for a standard chase but it seems a little big for Bond, whose gadget filled cars are usually more sporty.

HALO Jump: Strangely this impressive moment is never talked about much as it is buried in an action filled portion of the film.  It is well filmed though obviously was topped by a more ambitious single cut jump in Mission Impossible: Fallout

Building escape: I like Bond and Wai Lin using Carver’s likeness to escape from his headquarters (hinting that they will bring him down) but did not like them kicking in the window as it is not remotely believable.  Bond looks foolish in the purple top.

Motorcycle chase:  I like the score but the chase goes on too long and feels like a BMW motorcycle commercial.  The jump is well executed.  I would have dropped this and the building escape for a longer Stemper battle.

Wai Lin HQ fight: It’s an opportunity to showcase Michelle Yeoh’s fantastic fighting skills but the film needs to catch its breath here.  Also the goons are only appear in this section of the film (I think they had worked on other Yeoh films).

Stealth Boat Battle:  The entire third act is focused on an extended gunfight in Carver’s stealth ship.  There was a similar battle in the third acts of The Spy Who Loved Me but the audience never forgot the goal was to avoid a launch, which ultimately took place in near silence and there were quieter moments afterwards.  The set is impressive but is black, the scene is set at night, and nearly all the characters are wearing black so it is visually monotonous.  Bond looks like a badass when walks toward the control technicians and guns them down but the moment is more fitting for a Stallone type action film rather than Bond. 

Utimately, Tomorrow Never Dies is an entertaining film but its noisier moments override the film’s strengths.  Nonetheless it introduced us David Arnold who stayed with the series for five films.  I also think it is a more fun film than GoldenEye and I would rate it second among Brosnan's films, after The World Is Not Enough. ***