For Fresh Eyes Only: GoldenEye & Tomorrow Never Dies
Finally. Going through this series has not been easy for me, 18 movies of varying degrees of quality that I burnt out hard on somewhere around movie five. It’s been rough, but it’s all been worth it because I’ve finally made it to the Bond that I’ve been most excited to reach, Pierce Brosnan. The whole gimmick of this series of articles is that I have never watched a whole James Bond movie until now, and that is true, but this is where I first became aware of these movies. GoldenEye was the first Bond film to be released after I was born. It would be nearly impossible for a kid like me to get through life without seeing any aspect of a James Bond movie, and this is where that started for me.
I grew up around people watching the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies, I’ve seen bits and pieces here and there, and above all of that, I’ve watched countless hours of the N64 video game version of GoldenEye being played. I play a lot of video games, and while I haven’t actually played GoldenEye myself, it is widely regarded as one of the landmarks of its platform and genre and thus I’ve heard it discussed ad nauseam. The best part is that I actually recognized locations and characters from the game while watching the film. It’s just a great feeling to finally be shoveling context into this big pit of vague second-hand references that I have in my brain from absorbing what has been portrayed in other media throughout my whole life. Even better? GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies both fucking rule.
As soon as GoldenEye started it immediately felt different, like these movies had finally started evolving. Sure, certain key quirks are still here, obviously. There’s still a lot of corny one-liners, there’s still an emphasis on cars, girls, gadgets, and hard liquor, there’s still always a plot involving world domination/destruction, there’s still a lot of casual misogyny (that is getting more and more noticeable), and there’s still the same ol’ lovable Desmond Llewelyn’s Q. But the way that it all feels is radically different. Pierce Brosnan’s performance feels at once staying in line with the old and doing something new. The way that shots are framed and edited is new. The production value has seemingly gone through the roof. Maybe this is just me, but everything, from the action to the scripting, became much easier to follow, and I appreciate the hell out of it.
For those reasons and more, I could not have loved either movie more – especially GoldenEye. The mystery surrounding Sean Bean’s character was phenomenal, adding bits and pieces to James Bond’s backstory like his parent’s death. If they were there before I do not remember it, because again, this was so much easier for me to follow than any previous movie. And the action just took things to another level. After escaping the dam (a level I recognized from the game), Bond jumps off of a cliff without a parachute to catch an unmanned plane in midair and he starts it up just before it crashes. It’s an unbelievable sequence, and it’s only one of a handful that this movie has. It might even have the best tank sequence I’ve ever seen in a non-war movie. And that whole final fight with Bean on the top of that tower over the giant cereal bowl up to the terrifying drop, just pure excellence.
The action scenes in Tomorrow Never Dies were equally extravagant, if not as well filmed. Muddy editing hurt them, but there were enough dumb big explosions to entertain me. There was even a Halo jump, twenty-one whole years before Tom Cruise invented them. What I extra loved about Tomorrow was its villain, a megalomaniacal media mogul who secretly causes wanton destruction around the world to drive his media enterprise’s ratings up. Although he’s obviously way over the top with his villainy, Jonathon Pryce’s Steve Jobs-like Elliot Carver feels real and ahead of its time. His submarine compound and crazy drill weapon maybe less so, but the sub sure does blow up good and the drill definitely does drill Carver’s whole shit up.
This really does feel like an accomplishment. I’m not done yet, but the finish line is in sight and feels more attainable than ever. Not only that, but I’ve reached the films that I’ve been most excited to see, Pierce through Craig, and they are not disappointing. Things are looking up for old Marcus, folks. Thank goodness for that. And thank goodness for these movies! The ones with James Bond in them!
Marcus Irving will return to discuss The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day
