'Tomorrow Never Dies' Celebrates 10 Years

‘Good morning, my golden retrievers. What kind of havoc shall the Carver Media Group create in the world today?’

10 Years Of Tomorrow Never Dies

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the world premiere of Pierce Brosnan’s second James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. This 007 film first reached audiences at it’s premiere on Tuesday, 9 December 1997 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

Going on general release three days later on the 12th in the UK and the following Friday (the 19th) in the US, the film proved to be yet another box office blockbuster in the series–amassing a worldwide gross of more than $335 million dollars.

Taking into account the 10th anniversary of the film (and following up similar articles featured on CommanderBond.net for The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights earlier this year), CBn asked forum members to recall their first (or most memorable) time seeing Tomorrow Never Dies…

Tomorrow Never Dies – PrinceKamalKhan

I saw it on opening night. I picked Bond over Titanic, easily. I generally enjoyed it and knew it would be an enjoyable film from the wonderful pre-title sequence with its terrific music. It was for me the experience I was hoping for when I first saw GoldenEye which somewhat disappointed me. I saw it with 2 friends, including one who years later would actually pay twice for the first time to see a Bond film after he saw Casino Royale. My initial reaction to Tomorrow Never Dies was ***1/2 out of **** although I’ve since tempered that to a solid ***. My only disappointment was Teri Hatcher’s Paris dying so early in the film since I’d hope she be a Bond girl for at least 2 years prior to it. I was a big Lois & Clark fan at the time which is probably why I never became a big Wai Lin fan.

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it. I need to rewatch and see how I feel about it post-Casino Royale.

Tomorrow Never Dies – J.C.D’Arc

Well, it has been ten years, but I recall being left a bit flat by Tomorrow Never Dies.

I thought the title silly, I didn’t like the pre-title sequence (they lost my willing suspension of disbelief with the aerial combat, and it wasn’t done all that well. Aerial combat can be far more exciting than that on film). I didn’t like the song, either.

I liked Michelle Yeoh. She managed to finally be the “equal-to-Bond” female that the producers had been trying to give us all these years, and she managed it by not running around with her nose in the air spouting Women’s Lib slogans but just by being her own genuinely badass self. I also liked the hacker henchman. I think he would have made a better overall villain. He was more believably dangerous than Carver. He had actual ability. He wasn’t the type to begin his campaign to achieve world domination by taking a meeting.

Carver and Stamper seemed like even I could have whupped their heinies. (A few rounds from a Browning Hi-Power and Stamper’s had it and then just pistol-whip Carver back into line. Or maybe just apply an aluminum baseball bat to the problems…) It seemed like sending James Bond after them was a waste of his time and talent, he was out of their league. Stamper could have been dealt with by an armed 7-11 clerk and Carver would have gone down to two muggers in Central Park.

I had problems with the ship-sinking scene’s mechanics and also the motorcycle/helicopter chase. A lot of was it-doesn’t-work-like-that stuff, like the helicopter tilting forward to chop things up and still hovering or moving forward at only a few feet per second, not accelerating. It just doesn’t work like that.

Another thing that bothered me was Band seducing Carver’s wife. It didn’t ring true, somehow. Not that Bond doesn’t chase married women, but the villain’s own wife? He’s rather too obviously putting her at grave risk. Especially since he’s known her before. It’s not a huge problem for me, but still, I’m not so sure about it.

Concerning Brosnan, I’ve always felt he did a really good job of playing James Bond. He’s just an actor and has to abide by the script and what the director tells him to do, but he always impressed me as someone who understood the character and did his best to portray the man that Ian Fleming wrote about all those years ago. I enjoyed the scene where he has a shot of vodka in his room. In other words, the problems I have with the movie aren’t Brosnan’s fault.

Overall, although I was a bit underwhelmed by Tomorrow Never Dies, I didn’t feel like I wanted my 7 bucks back or that I’d just wasted 2 hours of my life. It was mildly entertaining, but it didn’t set my world on fire.

Ever the years, my opinion hasn’t changed. I never bothered to purchase the video or the DVD.

Tomorrow Never Dies – Turn

Seeing Tomorrow Never Dies on Saturday, December 20, 1997 was one of my most memorable Bond premieres. I always go on the second day of the release as my tradition.

It was the first day of my vacation as my work shut down for two weeks. And I had a new Bond film. What more could you want? I couldn’t get my wife to commit to seeing the film, so I ended up going with my brother and my best friend at the time at an evening showing.

I remember getting a chill with Arnold’s gunbarrel theme after Eric Serra’s poor theme in GoldenEye. In fact, I liked the whole score and still feel this is Arnold’s best. The teaser was fun. I didn’t care much for the theme at the time, but I’ve grown to like it more over the years. I just remember having a great time as Tomorrow Never Dies did for me what GoldenEye didn’t, despite liking the parts after Hamburg a little less.

I was stoked with Bond mania for the next several days, as I always am during the time of a film. I went out a few days later and bought the soundtrack and played it for years after. I would go see Tomorrow Never Dies twice more before it disappeared from theaters and it remains my favorite Brosnan film.

Tomorrow Never Dies – tristanjblythe

Tomorrow Never Dies was the second Bond film I saw at the cinema (first being GoldenEye). I’d seen the teaser trailer at another film a long time before and my friend who was with me had remarked “it looks even better than GoldenEye!”.

When I saw the film I enjoyed it. The pre-title sequence had me on the edge of my seat—I still think its one of the best action bits in a Brosnan movie. The plot was good and I even liked Carver as a villain. I did think it went off a little towards the end—never to keen on the slow-mo moments and the all out action assault on the stealth boat. Oh and the song is bit dull—not bad but not good and not a 007 theme.

Now when I re-watch? Not much changed. I still think its a good plot and with good characters. Some of Brosnan’s best performances are in scenes about his relationship with Mrs Carver (can’t remember her first name which is frustrating me!). I still think it goes over the top at the end and the car chase relies too completely on the gadgets for Bond to get away—but I guess for some this is an essential element of 007.

Tomorrow Never Dies – manfromjapan

I was (and still am) a huge fan of GoldenEye. After being a rabid Bond fan from the age of eight to eighteen, the absence of 007 from our cinema screens and my oncoming adulthood, convinced to me partly ‘put away childish things’. The release of GoldenEye reinvigorated my enthusiasm (or mania) tenfold. it was the best directed, scripted, acted Bond film in many, many years. And I loved Dalton.

I saw Tomorrow Never Dies at a preview at The Odeon, Chester—alone, after college.(I couldn’t wait!)

And man, was I disappointed.

After the careful reintroduction and restatement of James Bond into the Nineties, Tomorrow Never Dies was just one noisy, frenetically edited action set piece after another. The women and the villains were one-dimensional and unimaginative. The story tedious. The drama was non-existent. In short, Eon had played it safe.

After a few marathons of watching each Bond over a month or so in order, the charms of the film are now apparent to me, and I rate the film as one of the better ones. I appreciate the very things I didn’t before—the action is excellent, the editing breakneck and exciting. The women good and interesting, the villains interesting. There were great dramatic moments. It’s one of the purest, most fun, action-packed films in the series. And Brosnan is absolutely superb in it. He exudes the character.

Tomorrow Never Dies – TheSaint

I was able to see a private showing of it in NJ before its premiere, then saw it on the day it opened in NYC. Loved the pre-title sequence, the parking lot sequence, and the music. Disliked the slow motion close ups.

Tomorrow Never Dies – Zorin Industries

I emerged from the film thinking the same today as I did then—that it was Brosnan’s best Bond film by a long mark. It is the only film that all the elements came together with panache and a swagger never seen again in a Brosnan Bond film. The score is the only time—until Casino Royale—that David Arnold sounded like himself and not apeing John Barry. Brosnan was the right age for the part and never looked better (no Melvyn Bragg style coiffured efforts here). The film had a lead female role that wasn’t bashing people over the head with crass notions of sexual equality. And the film tapped into rare territory for 007 : a story line, villain and scheme that was uber-contemporary and not some cold-war hangover shoe-horned into the plot.

Even Teri Hatcher works, Q’s scenes are not bogged down with 1980’s John Glen wit and it was one of the best edited Bond films (but then it should have been if Sam Peckinpah’s editor Roger Spottiswoode was at the helm). It was also well-received in the usually sniffy UK press.

If only Sheryl Crow’s pick-up truck had broken down on the way to the recording studio, we might not have had that dire lament that sounds like a cowgirl stuck in a broken down pick-up truck.

Tomorrow Never Dies – Judo Chop

I caught it on DVD, and that was the last time I missed a Bond in the theaters.

I wasn’t a collector of the films 10 years ago, but it was right at that time that my overzealous fanhood for the series was starting to develop. I was systematically making trips to Blockbuster and renting the Bonds, much to the frustration of my brothers. Tomorrow Never Dies was put off for a while because, for some reason, I thought I had already seen it. But it turned out that I was always getting it confused with GoldenEye, which I had seen. That may sound like it doesn’t make any sense, because it hardly does.

Anyway, at that time I was all gung-ho about Pierce Brosnan as Bond, thinking he comprised the best of every Bond before him. I already loved GoldenEye, and I remember thinking, “WOW! This one is just as good! Remarkable! He’s the best Bond yet!”

As time went on, I evolved from renter to owner, so that I could give all the films full attention. A few years later, after having watched all of the films multiple times, and just before the release of Die Another Day, I began to realize that I was only partially right in my mind’s assessment of Pierce and his films. Tomorrow Never Dies is just about as good as GoldenEye. I was right about that. Wasn’t right about much else though.

Tomorrow Never Dies – Mister Asterix

My lovely wife and I went together to Tomorrow Never Dies opening weekend despite her being 8 months pregnant and experiencing early labour pains. We worked out a plan that she would touch my leg whenever she had a contraction I would check my watch and hold out the number of fingers to signal her how many minutes apart the contractions were. They started about nine minutes apart and by the time Bond reached Vietnam they were 5 minutes apart.

I was preparing to leave and get her to the hospital right then, but the taps on the leg just stopped.

While leaving the theatre, I told I was glad the contractions stopped. She told me, ‘Oh, they didn’t stop until we stood up to leave, but I wanted to finish watching the film.’

I still contend had we seen Titanic rather than Tomorrow Never Dies that our daughter would have been born that day instead of a month and a half later.

Tomorrow Never Dies – Mr. Somerset

I saw it opening night with a large group of friends. I immediately was disappointed with the gunbarrel re-rrangement feeling it lacked a dynamic punch to open the film. I remember leaving feeling disapointed and that A View To A Kill was quickly gaining competition for my least favourite Bond film.

I saw it again, the next night with another larg group, this time for a James Bond themed party. Far more fun as we all, (well some of us) dressed in tuxes. I enjoyed the film more the second time, but felt it paled in comparison to GoldenEye.

Tomorrow Never Dies – zencat

The night was freezing, the theater screwed me (told on the phone it was on the big screen—it wasn’t), and I was somewhat disappointed in the film. I didn’t have my usual first viewing high that blinds me to all flaws for several months. Of all my opening night experiences, this was one of the weaker ones. But there were moments in the film that I loved and that’s what I focused on in the traditional post viewing dinner conversation. And I have come to like the movie more.

Tomorrow Never Dies – ACE

Tomorrow Never Dies reaches new, but Bondian ground. Gives us what we want but differently. From the lovely way of reintroducing the ‘new’ Bond (Brosnan doesn’t appear until half way through the PTS), the Zeitgeistian plot, the Daimler briefing, Q sequence and media baron villain were terrific. I love Bond films that dare to go to new but Bondian and Flemingesque ground! I LOVED the pre-title and cheered when the afterburners blew away the screen leading to the stunninng Kleinman titles. While Mitchell Froom’s Can-Can production does take something away from Sheryl Crow’s cleverly written title song, I still think it is Bondian.

OK, I first saw this movie at 10.00am the day before or the day of the London premiere in the Royal circle of the Odeon, Leicester Square with a bunch of other fans and press. A friend had given me his press show ticket.

World Charity Premiere (no royals attended this time) was 9th December 1997: 10 years ago to the day! My pals and I were front and centre, outside, by the crash barriers, in front of the Odeon on that cold, wet, windy December night.

Now, remember, Sony had just announced their McClory Bond film plans. So, as Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson decant from their limo, my friend Joe—the Zelig of Bond fans—shouts at the top of his voice “DOWN WITH MCLORY!”. BB and MGW burst into laughter and come right up to us and talk to us. As I shook BB’s hand and told her Cubby would have loved this film, her voice cracked and the hand went soft in mine and she thanked us all. This was their first Bond premiere after Cubby’s death.

We got a policeman to take a photo of a bunch of us (10-11 Bondnuts from all over the world enjoying the Bond craic). Looking at our drenched, bedraggled faces now, I see they are lit with Bond junkie joy. The photo is a treasured possession as are the memories!

Tomorrow Never Dies – Robinson

I actually caught a sneak preview of the film in NYC a couple of weeks before it opened. Not the greatest screens to watch it on but entertaining nonetheless.

I liked the pre-title sequence and Kleinmann’s titles. Loved the production design and Brosnan’s clothes. Michelle Yeoh was the bomb then and still is. The car park sequence and the HALO jump were the high points from an action standpoint. The plot was decent and it moved along at a good clip but by the end it became a generic action flick. Bond with a machine gun and a handgun in both hands? Pryce was a bit over the top but the film was and still is entertaining. Not a top Bond film but an enjoyable one nonetheless.

Oh, and my namesake makes his debut in this film!

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.