The World Is Not Enough

This article is for the film The World Is Not Enough, for the video game see The World is Not Enough (video game).

The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth James Bond film produced by EON Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as Bond. The film was released in 1999 and was produced by Bond veterans Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. It was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who also wrote Die Another Day. The novelization of The World is Not Enough was written by Raymond Benson.

The film's title is a direct translation of the Latin motto on Bond's family crest, Orbis non sufficit.

Plot summary

A British oil tycoon and friend of M, Sir Robert King, is assassinated by Renard, an anarchist terrorist. M assigns James Bond to protect King's daughter, Elektra King from Renard, who previously had kidnapped and held Elektra. She has taken over her father's major project, the construction of an oil pipeline through the Caucasus from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Renard's distinguishing characteristic is a bullet lodged in his brain, working its way slowly toward the cerebral cortex. As it moves, it eliminates his senses of pain and touch, enabling him to physically drive himself far beyond normal limits; while the bullet will eventually kill him, he will gain in strength until the day he dies.

Renard acquired a substantial quantity of weapons-grade plutonium, and hijacked a Russian nuclear submarine. Bond eventually discovers that during her kidnapping, Elektra had made an alliance, both professional and romantic, with Renard. Their plan is to introduce the weapons-grade material into the sub's nuclear reactor, causing an uncontrollable fission reaction, and then scuttle the sub in the Bosporus at Istanbul. The resulting nuclear disaster would not only kill countless thousands in the Istanbul area, but also contaminate the Bosporus for decades to come. This would prevent the shipment of Caspian Sea oil through any existing route, because all the pipelines from the Caspian region terminate at the Black Sea, requiring that tankers go through the Bosporus. The only alternative would then be the King pipeline.

Although the film does not acknowledge this, it is believed by many fans that the plot element regarding M being kidnapped could have been inspired by a similar storyline in the Kingsley Amis Bond novel, Colonel Sun. Otherwise the only other element taken from any of the original novels is the use of the Bond family motto which is introduced in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Vehicles & gadgets

• BMW Z8 - Loaded with all the usual Q refinements including ground to air missles and a key chain that can control the car remotely.
• Q Boat - used in the opening sequence. Was created by Q for his retirement.
• Omega Watch - Bond's watch has the ability to shoot a grappling hook that can allow him to climb to new heights.
• Protective Jacket - Q gives Bond a jacket, that when deployed encloses Bond and potentially another person inside a ball. This feature appears to be based on the Zorb.

Theme music

The theme tune "The World Is Not Enough" was performed by Garbage. This is the second James Bond soundtrack composed by David Arnold. Arnold breaks with tradition by not ending the film with a new song or a reprise of the opening theme, instead using a new recording of the "James Bond Theme".

Cast & characters

• James Bond - Pierce Brosnan
• Elektra King - Sophie Marceau
• Dr. Christmas Jones - Denise Richards
• Renard - Robert Carlyle
• M - Judi Dench
• Valentin Zukovsky - Robbie Coltrane
• Miss Moneypenny - Samantha Bond
• Q - Desmond Llewelyn
• R - John Cleese
• Coptic Priest - Diran Meghreblian

Director: Michael Apted

Producers: Michael G. Wilson , Barbara Broccoli

Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Cinematography: Adrian Biddle

Composed by: David Arnold.

This was Desmond Llewelyn's last appearance as "Q" before his death in December, 1999. The film also introduced "Q"'s successor, "R", played by John Cleese. The name "R" was a joke made by Bond upon their introduction. In future movies "R" takes over the job of Quartermaster, thus taking on the name "Q". Fans are often disturbed by the death imagery in Llewelyn's final scene, which ends with the actor being lowered into the ground alongside a car. He died in an automobilie accident only a few weeks after the film's release.

Locations

• Bilbao, Spain -- The film begins with Bond in Bilbao, Spain investigating the death of an MI6 agent. (During this sequence, the exterior of the Guggenheim Museum is shown.)
• London, UK - MI6 Headquarters and Millennium Dome
• Scotland, UK
• Baku, Azerbaijan
• Istanbul, Turkey

Trivia

• While the film was in production, several noted gossip columnists reported that the producers planned to include cameos by virtually every surviving former Bond girl actress from Ursula Andress to Michelle Yeoh. Sadly, this rumor turned out to be false, however a young woman seen in the casino scene was played by the daughter of Eunice Gayson who had played the very first Bond girl, Sylvia Trench, in Dr. No.
• During filming of the opening boat chase, Web cams were set up overlooking the Thames River and Internet users could watch the filming from around the world.
• This was the first official James Bond film not to be released by United Artists. In this case, it was MGM, who has since assumed distribution of the Bond films. However, UA still co-owns the copyright (along with Albert Broccoli's company Danjaq, L.L.C.) to both the film and related characters.

External links

• The World is Not Enough (1999) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143145/) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM's official The World is Not Enough website (http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=BOND19)
• "MI6" fan site with many film details (http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/movies/twine.php3)
• The Digital Bits DVD Review (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/worldisnotenough.html)