GoldenEye

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For other uses, see GoldenEye (disambiguation).

GoldenEye
Promotional poster for GoldenEye
James Bond	Pierce Brosnan
Also starring	Sean Bean Izabella Scorupco Famke Janssen
Directed by	Martin Campbell
Produced by	Barbara Broccoli Tom Pevsner Anthony Waye Michael G. Wilson
Novel/Story by	Michael France
Screenplay	Jeffrey Caine Bruce Feirstein
Cinematography by
Music by	Eric Serra
Main theme
Composer	Bono The Edge
Performer	Tina Turner
Distributed by	MGM/UA Distribution Co.
Released	November 17, 1995
Running time	130 min.
Budget	$60,000,000
Worldwide gross	$353,400,000
Admissions (world)	81.2 million
Preceded by	Licence to Kill
Followed by	Tomorrow Never Dies
IMDb profile

GoldenEye is the 17th James Bond film and the first to star Pierce Brosnan in the role as the British secret agent. The film follows Bond as he battles to prevent an arms syndicate from using the GoldenEye satellite weapon against London. It is an original screenplay (not based on a work by Ian Fleming) conceived and written by Michael France, although refinements were made by several other writers. The film was made by Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions, directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, due to Albert Broccoli's failing health.

The first Bond film made four years after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, GoldenEye was released in 1995 after legal troubles forced a six-year hiatus in the series, during which time Timothy Dalton resigned as Bond and was replaced by Pierce Brosnan and Judi Dench became the first female M. GoldenEye was lauded by most critics and performed well at the box office, considerably better than Dalton's films; despite this, it did not win any awards. Critics viewed it as a modernisation of the series with Brosnan a definite improvement over his predecessor. The film was the basis for GoldenEye 007, a flagship video game for the Nintendo 64 and revolutionary first-person shooter developed by Rareware.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Timothy Dalton's third film 3.2 A Different Direction 4 Release and critical reaction 5 Music 6 Vehicles, gadgets and guns 7 Censorship 8 Locations 9 Other media 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Plot

The story begins with Bond infiltrating the Arkangel chemical weapons facility in the Soviet Union, with his friend and fellow agent Alec Trevelyan, 006 (Sean Bean). Trevelyan is captured and shot by Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov (Gottfried John), but Bond escapes and blows up the facility.

Nine years later (after the collapse of the Soviet Union), General Ourumov and Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), a member of the Janus crime syndicate, steal the prototype Tiger helicopter and fly it to the GoldenEye satellite weapon control complex in Severnaya, Russia (depicted as a village in central Siberia). There, they kill the programmers and steal the control disk for the weapon. To cover the theft, they fire one of the two GoldenEye satellites, causing an electromagnetic pulse that destroys the base. They leave with a programmer who works for Janus, Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming), in the completely unaffected helicopter. Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), another programmer, is the only other survivor; however, she arranges to meet with Grishenko in St. Petersburg, where he betrays her to Onatopp.

Once assigned to the case, Bond uses his CIA contact Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker), to meet Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), a Russian Mafia head, in St. Petersburg. Zukovsky arranges for Bond to meet the head of Janus, who reveals himself to be Trevelyan, having faked his death at Arkangel. He wants revenge for his Lienz Cossack parents, who were betrayed by the British to the Soviets at the end of World War II. His plan involves detonating the second GoldenEye satellite over London, which will hide his own theft of money from the Bank of England. Bond is then knocked out and finds himself tied up in the Eurocopter with Simonova. The Eurocopter was programmed to fire two missiles at itself to kill them, but they escape using the chopper's ejection system.

Bond and Simonova are then arrested by the Russian government and interrogated by the Minister of Defence, Dmitri Mishkin (Tchéky Karyo). During the interrogation, Ourumov enters, and Simonova accuses him of being involved in the incident at Severnaya. Ourumov kills Mishkin and escapes with Simonova in a car.

Bond pursues him in a tank to an armoured train, where he meets Trevelyan and Onatopp. After a tense stand-off, Bond kills Ourumov to save Simonova, but allows Trevelyan and Onatopp to escape. Before the train explodes, Simonova traces the train's remote control signal to Cuba, and the two escape.

Bond and Simonova go to Cuba to find the dish needed to use the second satellite. When their light aircraft is shot down in the jungle, they are attacked by Onatopp who is eventually killed. They make their way into the dish's control station, and Simonova programs the satellite to initiate re-entry, so it will burn up in the atmosphere. Bond jams the moving gears of the cradle, so that Grishenko will be unable to reposition it and regain control of the satellite. After a fight with Bond, Trevelyan falls to the bottom of the dish and is crushed by the collapsing cradle. Bond escapes on a helicopter that Simonova commandeered and is met on the ground by Wade, with a group of marines.

[edit] Cast

• Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (007): In interviews, Barbara Broccoli seemed pleased to have Brosnan playing Bond, saying "I think we've hit it absolutely on the button with him".^[1] It has been alleged that his contract included a clause forbidding him to appear wearing a tuxedo in any other film, and that he avoided breaking this in The Thomas Crown Affair by keeping his tie undone.^[2] However, Brosnan is also seen wearing a tuxedo in 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces, in which he has a smaller role..
• Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan (006): This was the first Bond film where another of the 00-agents took a major role, although minor roles and verbal references have occurred throughout the films and books.^[3] Before being cast as Trevelyan, Bean had auditioned for the role of Bond and said of the matter, "It would have been nice to have played him, but it was just exciting to be involved with a Bond film."^[4]
• Izabella Scorupco as Natalya Simonova: Simonova is the leading Bond girl in the film, and was actor Scorupco's first major role.
• Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp: Onatopp was the other main Bond girl and a sidekick to Trevelyan. She was voted second-best Bond girl in an Empire magazine poll, behind Honey Ryder.^[5]
• Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade: Wade is the CIA contact for Bond, and a replacement for Felix Leiter who was injured in Licence to Kill; Wade would appear again in Tomorrow Never Dies. Baker had previously appeared in Bond film The Living Daylights as villain Brad Whitaker. He had also played a similar character, another CIA agent, for director Campbell in the 1985 BBC television drama Edge of Darkness.
• Judi Dench as M: This was the first film featuring a female M, and the decision is widely believed to be inspired by Stella Rimington becoming head of MI5 in 1992.^[6][7] Dench would reprise her role as M in the next 4 films.
• Gottfried John as General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov: Ourumov was another sidekick to Trevelyan (along with Onatopp), and the insider who had access to GoldenEye.
• Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky: Zukovsky is a Russian gangster and ex-KGB agent whom Bond uses to arrange a meeting with Janus (Trevelyan), despite previously having shot him in the leg.
• Alan Cumming as Boris Grishenko: Grishenko was a programmer at Severnaya who secretly worked for Trevelyan. He survived the telescope cradle destruction and fall, but died when a vat of liquid nitrogen exploded and froze him.
• Tchéky Karyo as Defense Minister Dmitri Mishkin: Mishkin was the Defense Minister and the person to whom Ourumov had to report. Ourumov shot and killed Mishkin after Simonova revealed the true events at Severnaya.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q: Llewelyn was the only character to reprise a role from a previous Bond film.
• Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny: Samantha Bond made her first of four appearances as Moneypenny in the Bond films.

see List of James Bond henchmen in GoldenEye

[edit] Production

[edit] Timothy Dalton's third film

Timothy Dalton was contracted to make three James Bond films; the third, intended for release in 1991, was rumoured to be named The Property of a Lady, although the title itself has nothing to do with the story outlined by Michael G. Wilson and Alfonse Ruggiero. In fact, a more apt title that was reported by the TV Times in 1990, would have been Colonel Sun, where the beginning of the story shared a number of similarities. This third Dalton film would have taken place in London, Hong Kong, as well as Tokyo, and dealt with the aftermath of the destruction of a chemical weapons laboratory in Scotland. It has been reported that the story was to involve robots (to be constructed by Walt Disney Imagineering) and a terrorist attempting to force the British out of Hong Kong by threatening to paralyse the British military with a computer virus.^{[citation needed]}

Since Licence to Kill had performed disappointingly at the box office (taking inflation into account, it had the lowest worldwide gross of any Bond film^[8]) Albert R. Broccoli parted ways with John Glen (director of the previous five Bond movies) and Richard Maibaum (long-time writer for the series).^[9] Danjaq sued MGM/UA, the distributor of the movies, because the Bond back catalogue was being licensed to Pathé in a deal that they alleged was unfavourable. These legal battles delayed the film for several years.^[10]

During this time, Timothy Dalton was still expected to play Bond in the new movie as he had originally signed up for a 3-film contract (albeit one that expired in 1993). In an interview in 1993, Dalton said that Michael France was writing the story for the film, due to begin production in January or February 1994.^[11] However, the deadline was not met and in April 1994, Dalton officially resigned the role.^[12] The producers cast Pierce Brosnan (whom they had tried to get after Roger Moore retired, but he was contract-bound to Remington Steele^[13]) as Dalton's replacement.^[14]

[edit] A Different Direction

France penned the original story, then Jeffrey Caine was brought in to rewrite it,^[15] maintaining many of France's ideas but adding the prologue prior to the credits. Kevin Wade polished the script and finally Bruce Feirstein added the finishing touches.^[16] The screenplay credit was shared by Caine and Feirstein while France was credited with only the story, an arrangement he felt was unfair^[17] particularly as he believed the additions made were not an improvement on his original version.^[18] Wade did not receive an official credit, but was acknowledged in the naming of Jack Wade, the CIA character he created. While the story was not based on a work by Ian Fleming, the title GoldenEye comes from Fleming's Jamaican estate where he wrote the Bond novels. Fleming claimed a number of origins for the name of the estate including Carson McCullers' Reflections in a Golden Eye^[19] and Operation Goldeneye, a contingency plan Fleming himself developed during World War II in case of a Nazi invasion through Spain.^[20][21]

With Albert Broccoli's health deteriorating (he died in 1996), he was described by his daughter Barbara as taking "a bit of a back seat" in the production of GoldenEye, but still as having "a lot of influence".^[1] In his stead, Barbara and Michael G. Wilson (Albert Broccoli's step-son) took the lead roles in production, and selected New Zealander Martin Campbell as director, who would go on to direct Casino Royale in 2006. Brosnan later described Campbell as "warrior-like in his take on the piece" and said "there was a huge passion there on both our parts".^[22]

They were unable to film at Pinewood Studios, the usual location for Bond films, because it had already been booked. Instead they had to convert an old Rolls Royce factory at Leavesdon Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, into a new studio; this worked out well as the producers later said Pinewood would have been too small.^[1] A mixture of other locations were used: the casino scenes were shot in Monaco; reference footage for the tank chase was shot on location in Saint Petersburg and matched to the studio at Leavesden; the final scenes on the radio telescope were shot at Arecibo Observatory.^[23]

GoldenEye opens with a 220 m bungee jump, shot at the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland. This stunt, performed by Wayne Michaels, was voted the best movie stunt of all time and set a record for the highest bungee jump off a fixed structure.^[24] The largest stunt sequence in the film was the tank chase, shot partly on location in Saint Petersburg and partly at Leavesden, and taking about six weeks to film.^[25] Daniel Kleinman took over from Maurice Binder (who had died in 1991) in designing the opening credits which show icons of the Soviet Union being destroyed and collapsing. In an interview, he said they were meant to be "a kind of story telling sequence" showing that "what was happening in Communist countries was Communism was falling down".^[26]

[edit] Release and critical reaction

GoldenEye premiered on November 13, 1995, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and went on general release in the USA on November 17; the UK premiere followed on November 22 with general release two days later.^[27] Brosnan boycotted the French premiere to support Greenpeace's protest against the French nuclear testing program, causing the première to be cancelled.^[28] It made over $26 million during its opening weekend in the USA, and during its release made around $350 million worldwide.^[29] It had the 4th highest worldwide gross of any film in 1995^[30] and, taking inflation into account, was the most successful Bond film since Moonraker.^[8]

The critical reception of the film was mostly positive with the film review collection website Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 83% Fresh approval,^[31] although similar site Metacritic gave it only 65%.^[32] In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4-stars, and said Brosnan's Bond was "somehow more sensitive, more vulnerable, more psychologically complete" than the previous ones, also commenting on Bond's "loss of innocence" over previous films.^[33] James Berardinelli described Brosnan as "a decided improvement over his immediate predecessor" with a "flair for wit to go along with his natural charm", but added that "fully one-quarter of Goldeneye is momentum-killing padding."^[34] Several reviews praised the new M's appraisal of Bond as a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur",^[35][36][37] with Todd McCarthy in Variety saying GoldenEye "breathes fresh creative and commercial life" into the series.^[36] However, Richard Schickel in Time wrote that after "a third of a century's hard use", Bond's conventions survived on "wobbly knees",^[38] while in Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman thought the series had "entered a near-terminal state of exhaustion."^[39]

GoldenEye was nominated for two BAFTAs: for "Best Achievement in Special Effects" and "Best Sound", as well as two Saturn Awards for "Best Action/Adventure Film" and "Best Actor" (for Brosnan). It did not win any of the categories.^[40]

[edit] Music

Main article: GoldenEye (soundtrack)

The soundtrack to GoldenEye was composed by Eric Serra (prolific Bond composer John Barry says he was offered it by Barbara Broccoli, but turned it down^[41]). Serra's score has been heavily criticised: Richard von Busack, in Metro, writes it is "more appropriate for a ride on an elevator than a ride on a roller coaster",^[42] and Filmtracks says Serra "failed completely in his attempt to tie Goldeneye to the franchise's past."^[43] The producers later hired John Altman to provide the music for the tank chase in St. Petersburg. Serra's original track for that sequence can still be found on the soundtrack as "A Pleasant Drive In St. Petersburg". Serra composed and performed a number of synthesizer tracks, including the version of the James Bond Theme that plays during the gun barrel sequence, while John Altman and David Arch provided the more traditional symphonic music. The theme song, "GoldenEye", was written by Bono and The Edge, and was performed by Tina Turner.^[44]

[edit] Vehicles, gadgets and guns

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles, List of James Bond gadgets, and List of James Bond guns

• BMW Z3: A convertible, which comes fully loaded with the usual Q refinements, including a self-destruct system and Stinger missiles behind the headlights. The car barely features in the film and Bond ends up trading it for Jack Wade's plane.^[45]
• Cessna 172: Jack Wade's aircraft, which is shot down while searching for the satellite dish in Cuba.
• Aston Martin DB5: The car Bond is seen driving at the start of the film, registration BMT214A. This is not the same car as seen in Goldfinger and Thunderball (that car was registered BMT216A). It appears to be Bond's personal car and reappears in the next film Tomorrow Never Dies (its appearance at Castle Thane in The World Is Not Enough did not make it into the final film). The car is equipped with a refrigerator in the middle armrest to hold champagne and two glasses, and a communications system including voice commands and a fax machine, which prints out of the in-dash CD player.^[46]

• Ferrari F355 GTS: The car used by Xenia Onatopp while racing against James Bond's Aston Martin DB5.

• Eurocopter Tiger: A helicopter stolen from demonstration and used by Onatopp and Ourumov to escape an EMP blast in Severnaya. Later used by Trevelyan in an attempt to kill Bond and Simonova who are trapped inside it by using the helicopter's own missiles.

• MiG-29: Three Russian fighters were scrambled after being alerted from Severnaya but were later destroyed by GoldenEye's EMP blast.

• Tank: Bond steals this from a Russian military building. An older T-55 tank was made up to resemble a T-80BV in the film.^[47]

• Armoured train: The armoured locomotive pulling the train in which Trevelyan escapes St. Petersburg is a British Rail Class 20 No. D8188 (TOPS number 20188, which was owned by music producer and pundit Pete Waterman at the time), with the addition of some plating to give the impression of Russian armour (in the film, Trevelyan mentions that the trains were used to haul mobile ICBMs around the country).^[48]
• Explosive Pen: Q gives Bond a Parker Jotter pen that doubles as a "class-four" (C4) grenade. Three consecutive clicks arms the four-second fuse; another three disarms it. Boris Grishenko unwittingly sets this off at one point, allowing Bond and Simonova to escape.^[49]
• Omega Watch: Bond's watch, standard issue of MI6, can remotely detonate mines and has a built-in laser that can cut through metal.^[49]
• Grapple and Laser Gun: At the start of the film, Bond bungee jumps off a dam, and uses the grapple gun to lock on to the building below. He then uses the gun's built-in motor to pull him down. Once on the building, he uses the laser function to infiltrate the ventilation system.^[49]
• Grappling Belt: Q gives Bond a size-34 belt containing a 23 m rappelling cord and a piton-shooting buckle. When fired, it shoots a grapple attached to high-tensile-strength wire designed to support Bond's weight. Bond uses this to escape from Ourumov and his troops.^[49]

• Walther PPK: Bond's standard issue pistol. Shown in the promotional poster with a silencer. Chambered for the 7.65 x 17mm Browning (or .32 ACP) cartridge.

• Makarov PM pistol: Standard-issue pistol of the Soviet/Russian armed forces. The pistol was used prominently by Ourumov in a number of scenes.

• Browning DA (double action) pistol: Trevelyan uses this pistol. During the opening infiltration, he uses a Browning Hi-Power Standard, but on the cradle at the end of the film, he is seen with a Browning DA. Both guns are chambered for the 9 x 19mm Parabellum cartridge.

• Kalashnikov AK-74 automatic rifle: The standard-issue assault rifle of the Soviet/Russian armed forces and used in their military service since 1974/1975. Chambered for the 5.45 x 39mm Soviet M74 cartridge. A number of the AK-74 rifles that were used were not real AK-74s but non-Russian made Kalashnikov rifles that were made to look like the AK-74 rifle. The folding-stock variant AK-74 rifles that were seen in GoldenEye were Chinese-made Norinco Type 56/AKM rifles that were fitted with AK-74-style muzzle brakes and Russian-made red bakelite plastic magazines that were made for the AKM rifle in the 1970s. The rifles that were fitted with fixed buttstocks were real, Russian-made AK-74 rifles.

• Kalashnikov AKSU-74 carbine: The standard-issue carbine of the Soviet/Russian vehicle crews and certain internal security forces. The AKSU-74 is the shortened version of the AK-74 for issue to vehicle crews and people operating in confined spaces, it uses the same ammunition as the AK-74. It's also chambered for the 5.45 x 39mm Soviet M74 cartridge.

[edit] Censorship

GoldenEye was edited in order to be guaranteed a PG-13 rating from the MPAA and a 12 rating from the BBFC.^[50] The cuts include the visible bullet impact to Trevelyan's head when he is shot in the film's opening, several additional deaths during the sequence in which Onatopp guns down the workers at the Severnaya station, extra seconds of footage of Onatopp's death, and Bond giving Onatopp a rabbit punch in the car. The latter change was only requested by the BBFC, however, Campbell felt that making two versions of one scene was ridiculous, so he cut the punch in both versions. In 2006, the film was remastered and re-edited for the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVD in which a number of headbutts were restored and some violent sound effects were restored to their original levels, causing the BBFC rating to be changed to a 15.^[50] The Region 1 DVD however, is still the edited original release.

[edit] Locations

• Arkhangelsk Dam, USSR
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• Severnaya, Russia
• MI6 Headquarters, London, United Kingdom
• Monte Carlo, Monaco
• France
• Cuba

[edit] Other media

See also: GoldenEye 007 and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

GoldenEye was the second and last Bond film to be adapted as a novel by then-current Bond novelist John Gardner. The book follows the film's storyline quite closely, however Gardner adds a violent sequence prior to the opening bungee jump in which Bond wipes out a group of Russian guards (the video game, GoldenEye 007, features a similar section). This was also Gardner's penultimate Bond novel: after one more entry in the series (COLD), Gardner retired and Raymond Benson took over.

In late 1995, Topps Comics began publishing a three-issue adaptation of GoldenEye in comic book format. The film script was adapted by Don McGregor with art by Rick Magyar. The first issue carried a January 1996 cover date.^[51] The second issue was delayed due to a racy cover showing Xenia Onatopp straddling James Bond. Ultimately for reasons unknown, Topps cancelled the entire adaptation after only the first issue had been published, and to date the adaptation has never been released in its entirety.^[52]

GoldenEye was adapted into a highly-regarded video game for the Nintendo 64 by Rareware. It was considered a flagship game for the console, and viewed as revolutionary in its development of the first-person shooter format. In a January 2000 poll, readers of the British video game magazine Computer and Video Games voted GoldenEye 007 into first place in a list of "the hundred greatest video games",^[53] and in 2005, a "Best Games of All-Time" poll at GameFAQs placed it at 7th.^[54] It is based upon the film and novel, but many of the missions were extended or modified.^[55]

In fall of 2004, Electronic Arts released GoldenEye: Rogue Agent for Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube and later the Nintendo DS. However, this game bears no relation to the film, and some consider it as an attempt to recreate the success of GoldenEye 007.^[56][57] The game, however, had poor sales figures,^[58] and plans for a sequel were dropped in favor of James Bond 007: From Russia with Love.^[59]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• MGM's official GoldenEye website
• GoldenEye (1995) at the Internet Movie Database
• GoldenEye at All Movie Guide
• GoldenEye at Rotten Tomatoes
• Maps and directions to Goldeneye Filming Locations