The World is Not Enough (1999)
d. Michael Apted, 128 minutes

Opening Credits, Title Sequence

After Bond shot inside the gunbarrel, the dot moved up to the upper right of the picture, and opened up on a view of Bond's face. This was the first time that the first image in a Bond film was of Bond himself. Main Title Sequence: Designed by Daniel Kleinman Title Song: "The World Is Not Enough" (sung by Garbage)

Film Plot Summary

The lengthy pre-title credits sequence opened in Bilbao, Spain, where Bond (Pierce Brosnan) met with Swiss banker Mr. Lachaise (Patrick Malahide). He was there to retrieve vast funds that belonged to British industrialist-mogul and oil tycoon Sir Robert King. As he received the bank statement from shapely secretary Giulietta da Vinci (who had also presented him with cigars, and was known as Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta)), Bond was asked: "Would you like to check my figures?" He quipped: "I'm sure they're perfectly rounded." Bond then stated he wasn't there for the briefcase of money, approximately £3 million pounds. He claimed the report that Sir Robert had bought (later revealed to be top secret documents) was stolen from an MI6 agent (agent 0012) who was murdered for it: "I want to know who killed him." When threatened, Bond detonated his exploding Walther P99 (sitting on the desk) activated by a transmitter in his glasses' hinge, and fought off Lachaise's henchmen, killing one of them (# 1 death, # 1 Bond kill). At gunpoint, as Lachaise was about to divulge the name of the agent's murderer to Bond, he was killed by the Cigar Girl - with a knife to the back of his neck (# 2 death). After she fled from the office, an unknown sniper's bullet (with laser-scope) killed a second bank assistant (# 3 death), who was about to shoot Bond. [Spoiler: The killer was later revealed to be the film's villain Renard, who actually saved Bond's life - because Bond was unwittingly assisting him by helping to deliver a deadly briefcase of cash back to his rival, Sir Robert King.] The 007 agent fled with the case of money by crashing through the upper-story window and suspending himself by rope (using the body of one of the downed henchmen as a counter-weight) until he reached the street-level, to evade the Basque police.

At MI6 Headquarters in London, England, Bond presented Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) with a cigar case - she joked: "How romantic. I know exactly where to put that" and promptly tossed it into her trash-basket. He responded: "The story of our relationship: Close, but no cigar." In boss M's (Judi Dench) office, he briefly met with Sir Robert King (David Calder) - he and M had "read law at Oxford together...a man of great integrity." The stolen report was classified - from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. King had believed the secret report identified terrorists who'd attacked his new oil pipeline along the southern edge of the Caspian Sea (it was a rival pipeline to Russian ones further north). As he drank from a cool glass, Bond instantly suspected that the pile of cash that he had delivered to King was disguised and rigged to be a deadly bomb. He rushed to the vault, but it was too late. King's lapel pin was actually a transmitter that detonated the money - and he was killed by a massive blast (# 4 death, plus other deaths unknown). Through a gaping hole in the side of the building, Bond noticed a Sunseeker yacht-speedboat observing the damage from the nearby Thames River - onboard was King's female assassin, the Cigar Girl, aiming to kill him with her scoped rifle.

He pursued in "Q's" (Desmond Llewelyn) unfinished, rocket-propelled jet boat, and had to evade the larger boat when the pretty sniper fired machine-gun, grenade launcher and bazooka rounds at him. After a lengthy chase sequence (during which Bond submerged his boat for a dive under a lowered bridge, and also emerged on land and crashed through a wharf-side restaurant as a short-cut), the two ended up at the Millennium Dome, where the Cigar Girl attempted to escape in a hot-air balloon after her boat was torpedoed. Bond sailed through the air and grabbed onto the balloon's safety line as it ascended, while MI6 surrounded them by helicopter, and Bond offered to protect her if she cooperated: "Listen to me. You can't get away. We can make a deal. Just tell me who's behind this? Who are you working for? Don't do it! Don't blow us up. I can protect you! Do you understand? I can protect you!" - but she refused ("Not from him!"). She decided to suicidally kill herself by blowing up one of the helium gas tanks on the balloon (# 5 death, # 2 Bond kill), as Bond lept from the safety line, fell onto the roof of the Dome, and survived although he suffered a dislocated left collarbone.

King's funeral was held in Scotland, attended by members of MI6, and beautiful Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), Sir Robert's heiress daughter. At MI6 headquarters afterwards, located in a Scottish castle, it was determined that the money was dipped in urea, making it a highly-compacted fertilizer bomb. One of the notes had its anti-counterfeit strip replaced with magnesium, acting as a detonator that was set off by King's lapel-pin (with a radio-transmitter). The culprit was inside King's organization - and it "could be anyone, anywhere." M vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. However, Bond (wearing a sling) was off the active-duty list until cleared by medical personnel. Bond didn't want to abide by the restrictions imposed by the British Secret Service's medical officer, Dr. Molly Warmflash (Serena Scott Thomas), with whom he had a previous liaison. He claimed: "I need a clean bill of health. You have to clear me for duty." Although it wouldn't be "ethical, practical, smart" to be released prematurely, he suggested: "Let's skirt the issue, shall we?" as he seduced her in the examination room and renewed their contact. He unzipped her skirt, helped remove her blouse, and they began kissing as she was coaxed to recommend that he be released - but added that things would be different this time: "You'd have to promise to call me this time...I suppose if you stayed in constant contact...if you showed sufficient stamina, cut out all kinds of 'strenuous activity'..." (# 1 tryst)

"Q" demonstrated more of his techno-gadgets for Bond's use: bagpipes with a machine gun and flame-thrower, and a pool table, that emerged from the floor, with Q's successor: "the young fellow I'm grooming to follow me" - Bond asked: "If you're Q, does that make him R?" R (John Cleese) showed off the features of Bond's BMW ("fully loaded" with multi-tasking heads-up display system, rocket-firing capability, and with 6 beverage cup holders), X-ray sunglasses, and an inflatable ski jacket. When Bond asked about "Q's" retirement, he was told: "I've always tried to teach you two things. First, never let them see you bleed" and "Always have an escape plan." He descended on the pool table's elevator out of view - for the last time.

Bond conducted research in the MI6 video archives to learn about King's oil enterprise, and his daughter (with a "wild-child image"). She had previously been kidnapped and held for ransom for $5 million dollars -- but she escaped from Cyprus after shooting two of her captors dead. Suspicious of the identical amounts of money, Bond calculated that the exchange rate was $5 million = approx. £3 million pounds - the ransom demand was precisely the same amount as the money in King's briefcase. He questioned M about what had happened, learning that she had been involved with King regarding his daughter's fate. On M's advice, King refused to pay his daughter's five million dollar ransom, because she insisted that one must never negotiate with terrorists. Bond deduced: "You used the girl as bait" and declared that the terrorist was warning them that he had returned: "Your terrorist is back." M described who they were dealing with -- Elektra's former kidnapper was Victor Zokas, aka Renard (Robert Carlyle), an anarchist who had operated as a KGB agent in Moscow in 1996, and in Pyongyang, North Korea before that. He had also been spotted in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Beirut and Cambodia - a treacherous, international terrorist. As a favor to King, M sent agent 009 to kill Renard, but Elektra escaped before he could complete his mission. A week later, 009 put a bullet in Renard's head -- the bullet remained in his skull (Renard killed the doctor who couldn't remove it), making him impervious to pain, and causing him to have no sense of touch or smell: "The bullet will kill him, but he'll grow stronger every day until the day he dies."

007 concluded that Renard hadn't quite had full revenge in the King incident, and was still targeting Elektra: "Renard had three enemies in that kidnapping. And there's still one he hasn't touched. Elektra." M assigned Bond to the mission, now off the inactive list (Warmflash announced that Bond had "exceptional stamina"), to which Moneypenny snidely remarked: "I'm sure she was touched by his dedication to the job in hand." He was to be Elektra's protective bodyguard following her father's assassination (to protect her from her former kidnapper Renard). She had taken over construction of her father's oil pipeline in the Caspian Sea area. His objective in his "shadow operation" was to "find who switched that pin," without frightening Elektra. M cautioned: "Remember, shadows stay in front or behind, never on top."

Bond traveled to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, then drove his BMW sportscar along the coastline marked by oil-wells and pumps, and into a heavily-wooded area. He noticed one of King's helicopters with a series of buzz-saws hanging below trimming the trees. At the pipeline construction site, chief of security Sasha Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen) told him that Elektra was at the office in Baku, although she was simultaneously arriving by helicopter with her ever-present personal bodyguard Gabor (John Seru), landing amidst a group of local village protestors. She ordered changing the routing of the pipeline (to save a church and avoid bloodshed), and then met Bond, already aware that M was going to send someone because her life might be in danger. She explained her objective - to build an 800-mile pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Turkey, past the terrorists in Iraq, Iran and Syria. In a northern area, the Russians already had three competing pipelines. Elektra claimed she had bigger problems than the threat on her life: "My father was murdered, the villagers are rioting, and you, Mr. Bond, have come all this way to tell me that I might be in danger." He suspected an insider, showing her the lethal duplicate lapel-pin that had killed her father. She told how her family had relied twice on MI6, but she wouldn't "make that mistake a third time" -- she denied wanting Bond's help.

He joined her to check the survey lines high up in the snowy Caucacus mountains, where they were dropped from a helicopter. After some downhill skiing, he asserted: "You seem to enjoy being chased, probably happens all the time." They looked down upon where the two ends of the pipeline were joined - she called it: "My family's legacy to the world." They were suddenly ambushed from the sky by four Parahawks (hybrid paraglider-snowmobiles) piloted by armed henchmen shooting at them and hurling grenades. The two skiers separated and Bond led the airborne parahawks into the trees - where one crashed and burned (# 6 death, # 3 Bond kill), while two others landed and cut their glider sails to continue the chase on land. One of the snowmobiles exploded (# 7 death, # 4 Bond kill), while Bond sent the second snowmobile sailing off the edge of a cliff, although it deployed its glider sail and was saved. Bond skillfully executed a ski jump and sliced its paraglider sail, causing it to lose control and crash into the second airborne parahawk (# 8-9 deaths, # 5-6 Bond kills). The two remaining hit-squad henchmen were killed, although the explosion caused a deadly avalanche, engulfing and burying both Bond and Elektra. He inflated his protective snow-bubble ski jacket to protect them, and they crawled out of the snow to safety.

In her villa at Baku in Kazakhstan, Elektra was treated for bruises but otherwise was fine. When she asked Bond: "Who's trying to kill me?", he claimed he didn't know, but would find the culprit. She said: "Not good enough." After the kidnapping, she vowed that she would not live in fear and hide in the shadows. She alluringly asked: "Don't go. Stay with me. Please?" but Bond insisted on leaving, and claimed: "You'll be safe here." She replied: "I don't want to be safe." As he left, she tempted him: "Who's afraid now, Mr. Bond?" At the local casino, Bond used his X-ray sunglasses to spot weapons hidden under clothing (and sexy undergarments of two ladies at the roulette wheel). After ordering a vodka martini, "shaken, not stirred," he was led by gold-toothed bodyguard Mr. Bullion or "Bull" (Goldie) to a backroom to meet up with an acquaintance of his, Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who was amusing himself with two females, Nina and Verushka. Zukovsky was now a "legitimate businessmen," the rich owner of the casino and 'Zukovsky's Finest' caviar factory (since his appearance as an ex-KGB agent in GoldenEye). Bond showed him a torn patch of paraglider sail from one of the parahawks, identified as coming from "Russian Special Services - Atomic Energy Anti-Terrorist Unit." Bond claimed Renard was behind the attempted assassination of Elektra King. Zukovsky disclosed that Renard was an ex-KGB agent, but now worked free-lance. There were four competing pipelines, and the King pipeline was not very popular in that area.

As they talked, Elektra entered the casino, a stunning appearance in a low-cut red gown, claiming to Bond that she was also "looking for the people trying to kill me" and did not want to appear afraid. She was invited by Zukovsky into a private betting room (where her father also bet). She casually made an exorbitant wager of $1 million dollars, for a simple game of "one card, high draw." Although Bond protested, she insisted ("There's no point living if you can't feel alive") and lost (Queen of hearts vs. Ace of clubs) (her loss was revealed later to be payment for services). As they left the table, she romantically challenged Bond ("Shall we?") to the same game of "high draw," but he said he couldn't afford to play her game.

Elektra's head of security for King Industries, Sasha Davidov, met secretly with Renard and Russian Atomic Energy Department nuclear scientist Dr. Mikhail Arkov (Jeff Nutall) at the Devil's Breath (a place of holy pilgrimage where the flames never died). Renard demonstrated how he felt no pain by grasping scalding hot rocks. Renard was angered that Davidov's "best men," supplied with Arkov's "latest weapons" (the Parahawks), had failed to kill Bond. He forced the incompetent Davidov to hold one of the rocks: "It was wrong of me to expect so much of you," but then had his henchman shoot Dr. Arkov (# 10 death), because he had "failed his test of devotion" - he had urged Renard to "scrub the rest of the mission." Renard then ordered Davidov to take Arkov's place and ID, for an evening plane flight.

With chilled Bollinger champagne and a candle-lit bedroom atmosphere, Elektra was naked in bed with Bond at her Baku villa, telling him: "I knew when I first saw you. I knew it would be like this." They shared an ice-cube kiss, as Bond suggested: "Enough ice for one day," and they made love. (# 2 tryst) Afterwards, he asked about her kidnapping escape: "How did you survive?" She told him: "I seduced the guards. Used my body. It gave me control. And the rest. I got a gun and started shooting." She asked him the same question and he responded: "I take pleasure in great beauty." After spending the evening with Elektra, Bond snuck away and broke into the King Industries' security office on the grounds with his Visa credit card lock pick. When Davidov returned to his office and entered, Bond left through a window and hid in Davidov's car parked outside, where he found the stashed corpse of Dr. Arkov. After Davidov drove to the airstrip, stowaway Bond shot and killed him (# 11 death, # 7 Bond kill), dumped his body in a dumpster, and boarded the Russian propeller plane in his place, impersonating Dr. Arkov. The plane's destination was a Russian ICBM nuclear clean-up site in Kazakhstan in Central Asia where Arkov was tasked with observing the clean-up for Renard. There, Bond met buxom IDA (International Decommissioning Agency) nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) who was cleaning up (decommissioning) older Russian nuclear weapons at test sites. Bond was cautioned that Jones was "not interested in men" - and she appeared immediately suspicious of his identity.

Inside the mine where workers were extracting weapons-grade plutonium from the old nuclear missiles, Bond noticed that Renard was supervising. He held Renard at gunpoint and threatened to kill him. It was then that Bond learned that Renard had spared Bond's life in the Swiss banker's office ("I couldn't kill you. You were working for me. You delivered the money, killed King. And now you brought me the plane"). Renard taunted Bond: "Go ahead, shoot me. I welcome it," and threatened that if he didn't make a phone call in 20 minutes, Elektra would die. He revealed that he was Elektra's lover: "She's beautiful, isn't she? You should have had her before, when she was innocent. How does it feel to know I broke her in for you?" Bond was incensed and struck Renard on the forehead, but then suspected that Renard was working with Elektra when he used her motto (“There’s no point living if you can’t feel alive”). Suddenly, Christmas arrived with military guards and exposed Bond as an imposter ("Dr. Arkov is 63 years old"), although the agent claimed that Renard was the real 'imposter' and was stealing one of the nuclear missiles. Bond was forced to surrender his weapon. He watched the removal of the GPS locator card from the bomb. Renard also grabbed Bond's injured shoulder and squeezed - another indication of his knowing ties to Elektra.

In an exciting gunfight sequence, Renard and his henchmen opened machine-gun fire and killed the military guards (# 12-13 deaths, possible), then attempted to seal Bond and Christmas inside the missile silo. Bond activated his Omega wrist-watch's grappling hook to hoist himself to an upper level, and was able to pursue Renard and kill one of his henchmen (# 14 death, # 8 Bond kill). Bond retrieved the GPS locator card from the dead man's pocket. Frustrated by Bond, Renard murdered one of his own men (# 15 death) and Bond killed the last remaining henchman (# 16 death, # 9 Bond kill), but Renard was able to escape with the missile, leaving Bond in the booby-trapped silo with Christmas. When the explosive device went off, Bond managed to escape its impact by hurtling himself beyond a closing seal. Renard and three others murdered workers on the surface level (number of deaths unknown, probably five more # 17-21 deaths) as they fled in a Jeep (carrying the nuclear weapon) to the awaiting propeller plane (that had brought Bond there). Bond and Christmas escaped from the exploding underground complex, evading a chain-reaction series of blasts that completely destroyed the facility.

Back at MI6 headquarters in Scotland, Elektra phoned M and summoned her to Baku, after discovering that Bond had disappeared and that her head of security Davidov had been located - murdered at a local airstrip. M agreed, when Elektra claimed her life was in danger. Bond returned to Baku and confronted Elektra about Renard's knowledge of him: "Knew all about us. Knew about my shoulder." He told her to "drop the act" -- "It's over!" He diagnosed her as suffering from Stockholm Syndrome -- common in kidnappings with a "young, impressionable victim. Sheltered. Sexually inexperienced. A powerful kidnapper skilled in torture, manipulation. Something snaps in the victim's mind. The captive falls in love with her captor." She slapped him hard across the face: "How dare you? That animal, that monster? He disgusts me. You disgust me." She accused Bond of using her and lying - all the time knowing that Renard was out there coming after her: "You used me as bait. And you made love to me. What? To pass the time as you waited for him to strike?" She was interrupted by a phone call - it was reported that Renard had struck again and ten men were dead at the pipeline.

After M arrived by helicopter, Bond gave her an update. The GPS locator card had been removed from the bomb so it couldn't be tracked. He also cautioned about Elektra, who he was commissoned to protect: "Perhaps that girl isn't as innocent as you think." He suspected that she had switched her father's lapel pin to kill him. M was incredulous: "She kills her own father and attacks her own pipeline?" Suddenly, at Rig Station 11, an observation rig that traveled inside the pipes looking for cracks reported a problem - Bond surmised Renard's activity - he had attached the stolen nuclear bomb to the inspection rig: "The bomb is in the pipeline," and it was headed for the pipeline's oil terminal where it would do the most damage. Bond suggested a full-scale evacuation of the Ceyhan terminal. Bond added: "He's going for the oil," and M agreed: "The one pipeline the West is counting on to supply our reserves for the next century." Renard was suspected of scheming to monopolize oil production and the world's supply of oil in the Caspian Sea area. With only 78 minutes to spare, Bond and Christmas planned to travel on a second rig to get close to the bomb and defuse it as it hurtled along.

The two were helicoptered to a hatch-passageway in the pipeline, where they entered and Christmas took over driving a second rig ("Doesn't exactly take a degree in nuclear physics"). (M complimented Bond's work, in earshot of Elektra, during the dangerous mission: "If there's even the slightest chance, Bond will succeed. He's the best we have, though I'd never tell him.") When the rig carrying the bomb approached behind them, the two jumped onto the rig, discovering that the controls were jammed and that someone had tampered with the bomb - and half of the plutonium was missing. The dud was still dangerous and would kill both of them if it exploded close to them. Realizing that they had been tricked, Bond instructed Christmas for them to jump clear behind the two rigs, and let the bomb explode rather than use her HP high-tech palm-PC device to diffuse it. As expected, the rigs exploded and a 50 foot section of the pipeline ruptured, but they survived. Bond had deliberately wanted Elektra to believe that they were dead ("she thinks she got away with it"). Bond explained to Christmas: "The explosion covers up the theft of the plutonium, and they make it look like a terrorist attack." He also suspected Valentin Zukovsky's involvement in the plot.

After the explosion, Elektra presented M with a "gift" - repayment for how she had advised her father on "the best course of action" when she had been kidnapped - it was her father's original lapel pin. She had killed her own father: "I just couldn't let it explode with the rest of him." Her bodyguards killed three agents protecting M and a fourth technician (# 22-25 deaths), as she told Bond's boss: "I was very upset when the money didn't kill both of you." She was revealed as the sociopathic villain, orchestrating events, such as blowing up her own pipeline, to make herself look innocent, while working with Renard. Elektra ordered M abducted as a hostage and taken to a helicopter. At around the same time, Bond radioed into headquarters and was told there was a red alert: M was "missing with Elektra," and there were "three men down."

The scene shifted to Istanbul, Turkey, where Elektra happily met up with Renard at the Maiden's Tower in the Bosphorus strait. They exchanged more gifts -- he received the remaining half of the plutonium ("the power to reshape the world") in exchange for an imprisoned M as hostage ("courtesy of the late Mr. Bond") held in a cell. Elektra remained spiteful over her abandonment by M: "Your people will leave you here to rot, just like you left me. You and my father." She believed she was the rightful owner of her father's oil empire: "His kingdom he stole from my mother. The kingdom I will rightly take back." Renard added: "You left her at the mercy of a man like me. You ruined her. For what? To get to me? She's worth 50 of me." The ruthless anti-capitalist was planning a catastrophic event for Istanbul: "You will die along with everyone in this city and the bright, starry oil-driven future of the West." He set a battery-operated alarm clock on a stool a few feet away from M, guaranteeing that she would die at noon the following day. When he left, M noticed the GPS locator in her pocket - a possible way to signal Bond of her whereabouts.

Renard caressed the skin of Elektra, but regretted not feeling her warmth or smoothness. He also wondered whether Elektra was missing Bond, now that he was dead, and asked: "He was a good lover?" Her reply ("What do you think? I wouldn't feel anything?") angered Renard who punched through a mosaic-inlaid table-top. She comforted him by lying on the bed and having him put his injured hand on her private parts: "Remember...pleasure?"

At the Caspian Sea, Valentin Zukovsky was driven by Rolls Royce Silver Shadow to his caviar warehouse to check on things. Mr. Bullion noticed Bond's BMW vehicle parked there. Revealing himself as a double-crossing informant, he immediately called Elektra, who then told Renard: "Bond is alive." [She presumably ordered her helicopters to immediately attack their location.] Zukovsky found Christmas in his office, provocatively sitting on his sofa in a skimpy purple skirt. Bond appeared behind the door with a gun, asking: "What's your business with Elektra King?" knowing that she had paid him off with a $1 million bet in his casino. Bond threatened Zukovsky to talk, warning about Elektra and Renard working together in the theft of a nuclear bomb. Zukovsky confessed his involvement as the warehouse came under attack by two of Elektra's Buzzsaw helicopters filled with armed men. Bond was fired upon as he attempted to get to his BMW. He activated the car's remote control, drove it closer so he could safely enter, and set the steering column's display system to launch rockets at one of the helicopters and knock it out of the sky (# 26-28 deaths, # 10-12 Bond kills). The second chopper sawed his BMW in half ("Q's not going to like this") and then proceeded to buzz-saw much of the wooden walkway and the warehouse buildings. Bond shot two more of the men (# 29-30 deaths, # 13-14 Bond kills) and brought down the second helicopter by firing an explosive flare at leaking, pressurized gas vents that engulfed the copter in flames (# 31-33 deaths, # 15-17 Bond kills). Zukovsky was propelled into a large vat of his own caviar, with most of his factory destroyed around him. Bond continued to question the trapped Zukovsky, asking: "What does Elektra King want you dead for?"

Later, at the Soviet FSB (Federal Security Bureau) office, Bond soon learned that Zukovsky was paid the $1 million in his casino for a "special job" - to smuggle "machinery" out of Istanbul, with the aid of his nephew Nikoli (Justus Von Dohnanyi) - who was the captain of a Russian naval submarine, a Victor 3-class vessel. Bond knew that it wasn't any ordinary cargo sub, but a nuclear one: "They want the sub, they want to use the reactor." Christmas confirmed: "Put weapons-grade plutonium in that sub's reactor - instant, catastrophic meltdown." The explosion would be made to look like an accident - the nuclear accidental meltdown onboard the Russian naval submarine would destroy Istanbul, seal the oil pipelines of Elektra's competitors to cripple their business and contaminate the Bosphorus for decades. Then, the only way to get the oil out would be through Elektra's southern pipeline, giving King Industries a virtual monopoly.

As the "machinery" was being loaded onto Captain Nikoli's submarine at Maiden's Tower, the skeleton crew were provided with brandy and refreshments, and poisoned (# 34-36 deaths, additional unknown), and the bodies were tossed into the sea. At 6:30 am that same morning, M was able to use the battery of the alarm clock (which Elektra had arrogantly placed on the cell bars so she could watch the time of her impending death) to power the GPS locator card - and transmit her location (and Renard's) at Maiden's Tower to Bond, who was touring in the nearby FSB safe-house radar station. As the group discussed her rescue, Mr. Bullion set his golden bomb briefcase in the FSB office to explode, and although the blast failed to kill Bond and Christmas as they fled for cover (number of deaths unknown), the two were taken prisoner outside by traitorous Bullion, Gabor, and others, and transported by yacht to Maiden's Tower. Zukovsky was presumed dead for the time being.

Renard and his men seized the submarine and began to prepare the plutonium rod. Within one-half hour, a helicopter would take Elektra protectively away from Istanbul. She told Renard before kissing him: "The world will never be the same." He presented her with the dead captain's cap as he bid her goodbye: "The future is yours. Have fun with it." Elektra came up to Bond, restrained by her men, and kissed him: "If only you'd kept away, we might've met again in a few years and become lovers once more." She then asked about Bond's relationship with Christmas: "Pretty thing. You had her too? I could've given you the world." Bond replied with the film's title: "The world is not enough." She thought it "a foolish sentiment," although he called it a "family motto."

She uncovered an ancient Spanish torture device - a bench-chair with a neck-breaking garrotte to hold Bond, while Christmas was taken to Renard on the submarine. Bond asked: "All this, because you fell for Renard?" She began to tighten the screw-bolt of the neck garrotte: "Five more turns and your neck will break. I've always had a power over men." She disclosed that she had mutilated her own right earlobe when kidnapper Renard had refused to hurt her, using it to milk more money from her father. And she argued that her father had killed her ("He killed me the day he refused to pay my ransom"). She exclaimed: "It is my oil. Mine, and my family's! It runs in my veins, thicker than blood. I'm going to redraw the map. And when I'm through, the whole world will know my name, my grandfather's name, the glory of my people!" She was deluded and assured of her own success: "You understand? Nobody can resist me." As Bond was on the verge of death, she straddled him. He begged her to reconsider and call off Renard's nuclear launch: "It's not too late. Eight million people need not die." She doubted that he would kill her, especially since she was someone that he had loved: "You should have killed me when you had the chance. But you couldn't. Not me. Not a woman you've loved." She came closer for a kiss. He struggled to tell her: "You meant nothing to me." She tightened the garrotte again, as he strained to say, "One last screw."

They were interrupted by gunfire outside, as an injured Zukovsky and his men launched a counter-attack and at least two men were killed (# 37-38 deaths, plus others possibly). When Mr. Bullion came face-to-face with Zukovsky, thinking he was dead, he anxiously showed delight: "Boss, you're alive, so glad to see you" - Zukovsky answered back "Me too" with point-blank machine-gun fire (# 39 death). He then burst into the room where Bond was being tortured, demanding to know about his nephew. Bond signaled that Nikoli was dead by gesturing toward his captain's cap on the table. Zukovsky was shot and killed by Elektra (# 40 death), who concealed her weapon behind the cap. As he died, Zukovsky triggered his walking cane's hidden pistol to release one of Bond's arm restraints. Bond escaped from the contraption and shot Elektra's bodyguard Gabor dead (# 41 death, # 18 Bond kill), as Elektra fled and yelled down to him from an upper stairwell: "You can't kill me, not in cold blood." Bond pursued Elektra (and freed M from her cell), then confronted Elektra and challenged her to radio Renard and "call him off." Bond was persistent: "I won't ask again." She looked seductively at Bond, hoping to change his mind. She taunted and doubted that he would kill her: "You wouldn't kill me. You'd miss me." When she refused to comply and commanded Renard to "dive," he cold-bloodedly shot her (# 42 death, # 19 Bond kill), then quipped: "I never miss." He leaned over her body lying on her bed - he touched her hair, momentarily sorry for the loss.

From the tower, Bond dove into the water and boarded the descending submarine through a closing hatch, and fought off some of Renard's men. He rescued Christmas ("Thought I'd forgotten you, eh?"), and the two found Renard supervising the plutonium being loaded into the nuclear reactor in the control room. As the sub dove to 100 feet, Bond's plan was to have the sub surface so that it could be detected by a spy satellite and alert the British navy. During a gun battle in the control room, a few of Renard's crew were killed (# 43-44 deaths, # 20 Bond kill), and the controls were damaged, causing the ship to sink even further ("slight miscalculation"). It soon went into a steep dive, crashing its nose into the sea floor and cracking the hull (causing flooding). Bond learned that Renard had locked himself in the reactor room, forcing him to leave the sub in a risky maneuver and return through the room's escape hatch. After they briefly fought together, Bond had to momentarily save Christmas from drowning. Renard was able to load the plutonium rod into the reactor, but Bond manipulated a pressure hose to cause the reactor to backfire (Bond taunted that Elektra was already dead: "She's waiting for you"). The rod was ejected at high-speed, impaling straight into Renard's chest (# 45 death, # 21 Bond kill).

To escape the sub before it exploded, Bond and Christmas entered a torpedo bay tube and expelled themselves (tightly gripping each other), as the submarine's reactor harmlessly detonated underwater (number of additional deaths unknown). Later that evening in Istanbul, the two enjoyed champagne in fancy party clothes, toasting themselves amidst fireworks and "Christmas" jokes (Bond: "I always wanted to have Christmas in Turkey"). She asked: "So isn't it time you unwrapped your present?" They were spied upon enjoying intimacy in bed, by "R" and M and other British Secret Service personnel watching from Scotland's castle. The couple was viewed via a thermal imaging camera (their bodies appeared orange in the image, and then turned redder as they had sex). (# 3 tryst) As Bond laid on top of Christmas and kissed her, he told her: "I was wrong about you...I thought Christmas only comes once a year."

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

The 19th film in the series, and the third of four films with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

This was the first Bond film in the franchise in which the major super-villain (Sophie Marceau as Elektra King) was a female. She was the first 'Bond girl' to be shot and killed by Bond himself.

The theme of the film was oil politics, and the idea that a teenaged kidnap victim could be transformed into a terrorist by the so-called "Stockholm Syndrome" (identification with her captor after she failed to be rescued by MI6).

The pre-credits title sequence was the longest, to date, in the franchise, at 14 minutes.

It was the first Bond film to win a Razzie, for Denise Richards' performance as "Worst Supporting Actress" - as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones.

This film featured the 17th and final appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as "Q" - the longest-running cast member and character - who retired in the film itself (with an ingenious "escape plan"), and was grooming a "young fellow" (John Cleese, called "R" by Bond) as his successor. He had been in 17 of the 19 films, from 1963 to 1999 (spanning 36 years). He appeared in every film except Dr. No (1962) (the character was named Major Boothroyd and played by Peter Burton) and Live and Let Die (1973).

With a production budget of $135 million, and gross revenue of $127 million (domestic) and $362 million (worldwide). It became the highest-grossing Bond film of all-time, to date.

Set-pieces: the pre-title credits Thames River boat chase sequence, the paraglider/snowmobile chase sequence in the Caucasus Mtns, the gunfight in the missile silo in Kazakhstan, the high-speed pipeline rig journey to defuse a bomb, the helicopter gunfight at the caviar factory warehouse, and the final to-the-death struggle in the control room of the sunken nuclear submarine.

Bond Villains: Mr. Lachaise (Patrick Malahide), Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), Sasha Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen), Gabor (John Seru), Mr. Bullion or "Bull" (Goldie), Victor 'Renard' Zokas (Robert Carlyle), Dr. Mikhail Arkov (Jeff Nutall)

Bond Girls: Dr. Molly Warmflash (Serena Scott Thomas), Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)

Number of Love-Making Encounters: 3

Film Locales: Bilbao, Spain, London, England, and Scotland, rural Azerbaijan and Baku, Kazakhstan (in Central Asia), Caspian Sea, Istanbul, Turkey

Gadgets: exploding Walther P99 activated by transmitter in glasses, lapel pin radio-transmitter, gadgets in Q's lab (bagpipes with machine gun and flame-thrower, pool table), X-Ray sunglasses, protective inflatable snow-bubble (igloo) ski jacket, Visa credit card lock pick, Omega Seamaster watch (with bright-blue night-light, also capable of firing mini grappling hook), GPS locator card, HP Jornada 430 se high-tech Palm-sized PC device, BMW's remote-control driving device (and rocket-firing display system), Mr. Bullion's explosive briefcase, Elektra's torture chair, Zukovsky's walking stick/cane with pistol

Vehicles: Sunseeker yacht, black Q-boat (a remote-controlled, submersible rocket-propelled Jet boat ('unfinished' fishing boat for his retirement) with heat-seeking torpedoes and computerized display screen), titanium-armored, silver-colored left-hand-drive BMW Z8 sportscar ("fully loaded" with multi-tasking heads-up display system, capable of firing rockets, and with 6 beverage cup holders), Elektra's Buzzsaw helicopters, Parahawks (hybrid paraglider-snowmobiles), Russian propeller plane, pipeline rig, Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, Victor 3-class Russian nuclear submarine

Number of Deaths (Bond Kills): 45 (21)