The World is Not Enough (1999)

[©DURANMANIA Board Team]

Date of Release
World Premiere 8th November 1999, Bruin & Fox Theatres, Los Angeles, USA.

the story

Her mind twisted to the border of insanity by the combination of her brutal kidnap by Renard, a notorious global anarchist, and the discovery that her father allowed the British Secret Service to use her as ‘bait’ to apprehend her captor, Elektra King plans to destroy Istanbul by exploding a nuclear submarine in the Bosphorus, which will force the world to use the oil from the King pipeline.

Bond’s Women
Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)
Dr. Molly Warmflash (Serena Scott Thomas)

Bond’s Enemies
Victor Sokas aka Renard (Robert Carlyle)
Elektra King (Sophie Marceau)
Mr. Lachaise (Patrick Malahide)
Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta)
Sasha Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen)
The Bull/Mr. Bullion (Goldie)
Gabor (John Seru)

Bond’s Allies
Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane)
Sir Robert King (David Calder)
Bill Tanner (Michael Kitchen)
Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon)
‘R’ (John Cleese)
‘M’ (Judi Dench)
Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond)
‘Q’ (Desmond Llewelyn)

Bond's Car
BMW Z8

Bond’s Gadget
Jet powered ‘Q’ Boat

Main Title Music
The World Is Not Enough’ performed by Garbage

End Title Music
‘The James Bond Theme’<br>
Music Score
David Arnold

Production Design
Peter Lamont

Main Titles Designer
Daniel Kleinman

Screenplay
Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein

Editor
Jim Clark

Director of Photography
Adrian Biddle

Director
Michael Apted

Producers
Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli

Filming Locations
Pinewood Studios, London, England, UK
Millennium Dome, London, England, UK
Thames River, London, England, UK
Wapping, London, England, UK
Baku, Azerbaijan (city scenes)
Bardenas Reales, Navarra, Spain
Bilbao, Vizcaya, País Vasco, Spain
Chamonix, France
Cwm Dyli pipeline, Snowdon, Gwynedd, Wales, UK (Brief shot of pipeline)
Hankley Common, Elstead, Surrey, England, UK (Action sequences including pipeline explosion)
Istanbul, Turkey
Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland, UK
Motorola Plant, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK (Oil Refinary)
Stowe School, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
The World Navel base, Chatham, Kent, England, UK

Worldwide Box Office
$352 million

Worldwide Box Office Gross Income 2003 inflation-adjusted
$381 million

Camera
Panavision Cameras and Lenses

Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm

Cinematographic process
Panavision (anamorphic)

Printed film format
35 mm

Aspect ratio
2.35 : 1

REVIEW: There is only one word I can think of to describe The World Is Not Enough: brilliant. Although the box-office responded positively to Brosnan's previous two outings, the producers heard the underlying cries of the fans: bring Bond back to his roots. Bond movies were meant to develop the characters and make the audience interested in them. Recently they have been more about the pyrotechnics and action than the people involved. This movie marks a return to a more classic Bond where you know the people involved. The relationship between 007 and Elektra is slightly reminiscent of On Her Majesty's Secret Service at first. When they meet, Elektra is cold towards Bond and wants nothing to do with him. However, by the time they are skiing together I couldn't help but be reminded of the ski scene with Lazenby and Rigg.

As the movie progresses and we learn that Elektra is in fact the villain, their relationship gets even better. Bond realizes that he is taken in and you can see that he is hurt by it. He realizes that he is indeed human. This brings me to the next point that helped make the movie so good: the fact that Bond actually gets injured. At the end of the pre-title sequence Bond falls onto the top of the Millennium Dome and dislocates his collarbone. After the title sequence he is seen WEARING A SLINGT. This is unheard of in a Bond film and really works. Although he quickly sheds the cast and gets a clean bill of health from his beautiful doctor, he still suffers from pain and Renard uses it against him.

Renard, while he starts out as a very promising villain, winds up being nothing more than a passing memory after the film ends. Elektra is the true villain and pretty much steals the show after that is revealed. Renard turns out to be merely a tool that Elektra uses to get her way.

Perhaps the worst part of the film was Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones. While she may be stunning to look at, her acting is comparable to a cardboard box. Every time she said a line the entire audience began to laugh; needless to say, they were not laughing at what she had to say, rather, how she said it. It was a poor casting call by the producers that reminded me of Tanya Roberts in A View To A Kill.

An excellent call by the producers was the superb usage of M. She went from being a minor role in the past two movies to being a central figure. She also opened up a lot with true emotion. Good examples of this are when she is at Sir Robert King's funeral, when she tells Elektra that "Bond is the best we have, although I'd never tell him that", and when she sees Bond kill Elektra at the end. During all of these scenes you can really see why Judi Dench is one of the most respected actresses of her venue. Also, on a small M related note, another nice touch is Bernard Lee's portrait hanging in the MI6 Headquarters in Scotland.

The end of the movie also contained an excellent scene where Elektra was torturing Bond. As opposed to previous movies where Bond is tied up but ready to get out and in no pain, he was grimacing in this scene. And while Bond riled in pain, Elektra taunted him. This reminded me of the torture scene in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale. Perhaps this is why I liked the movie so much; it brought back so many of the details that made Bond great so long ago. I felt like I was watching a real Bond movie for the first time in years.

BROSNAN: Once again third time is the charm. As was the case with Connery and Moore, Brosnan's third outing is by far his best. Leaving out the fact that he had a much better script to work with this time, he just seemed more in place. His aging also helps; he looked a bit too young in GoldenEye. In Tomorrow Never Dies he didn't seem to have the timing just right. However, in The World Is Not Enough I have absolutely no complaints. Brosnan was gritty enough to inspire fear in the villains while being debonair enough to win Christmas Jones. Once again he kills in cold blood and it is all too believable. Even when he is forced to kill Elektra in the end when she is unarmed, it looks right. Let's hope he stays around for longer than just one more movie.


Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), James Bond (Pierce Brosnan)


Victor Sokas aka Renard (Robert Carlyle)

peace & love
SLIM K