This review of The World Is Not Enough (1999). is part of a wider rewatch of the James Bond series to mark its 60th anniversary. 007 has always been my favourite movie franchise, and I wanted to see where each film ranks within the series. Please check out the main blog post for my rankings of this and the other twenty-four official films and links to the movie reviews for the rest of the franchise.
Short Review
We join Pierce Brosnan for his third outing as James Bond in The World Is Not Enough. This film has its good points, such as Elektra King (played by Sophie Marceau) starting as the victim and becoming the villain, while also fooling M as she goes and misleading the audience into believing Renard (played by Robert Carlyle) is the main villain. However, it also has its bad points. It took me three days to re-watch this film, as it’s very dialogue-heavy. Yes, there’s amazing action in parts, with the boat chase, parahawk, and caviar factory scenes. It just feels like you’re being talked at constantly. The subplot also adds very little to the film, which is a shame because I love Robbie Coltrane, who plays Valentin Zukovsky. The movie feels too long and a bit over-the-top in places. It’s a real shame because 007, Elektra and Renard are all well-written and acted characters at the top of their game. Sadly, Dr. Christmas Jones is not a well-written character and is a waste of Denise Richards’s talents.
Long Review and Film Summary
The film starts with the pre-titles, and we catch up with Bond wearing glasses in Bilbao, Spain. He arrives at a Swiss bank called La Banque Suisse de l’Industrie and is searched, his gun and throwing knife confiscated. James meets with Swiss banker Lachaise (played by Patrick Malahide), who thinks he’s there to collect the £3,030,303.03. 007 wants the name of the person who killed an MI6 agent for the secret report, which Robert King later bought. Bond presses a button in the hinge of his glasses, which makes his gun on the table explode. He uses the confusion to take down the goons and hold Lachaise at gunpoint. The Swiss banker seems to know the name, but before James can get it out of him, a lady referred to as Cigar Girl hurls Bond’s throwing knife into the back of Lachaise’s neck. 007 hears the police coming down the street, as one of the goons he knocked out earlier wakes up, pulls a gun on Bond, but is taken out himself by a sniper through the window. James takes the cord from the blinds and ties one of the goons to it, using him as a weight so he can abseil down the building. A goon grabs the table leg, leaving 007 halfway down the building, as the leg breaks. Bond reaches the ground to the bemusement of onlookers. This scene was hard to follow. All the goon characters were very generic, so you’re never really sure which one is doing what in the scene. According to From Re-Watch with Love, test audiences also didn’t find this an adequate pre-title. The next part was meant to be shown after the opening titles; instead, it’s shown before – making it the longest pre-titles to date.
James takes the briefcase of money to MI6 HQ and places it into a scanner to inspect its legitimacy. 007 then walks into Moneypenny’s office (played by Samantha Bond) and gifts her a cigar. M (played by Judi Dench) interrupts via intercom and invites Bond in to meet Sir Robert King (played by David Calder), a friend of M. Bond sees the classified stolen report on M’s desk, while Robert thanks him for getting his money back. We find out that Robert wanted it because he believed it was a report on the terrorist who attacked a new oil pipeline he’s building in the region. M starts to quiz James about any leads while Robert is putting ice in his drink. Robert leaves the room. 007 realises the water on his fingers from the ice seems like a chemical reaction; he realises that handling the money must have something to do with it. M immediately requests Moneypenny to stop Robert, as Bond runs through MI6, through Q Branch and down to the vault. He gets there just in time to see Robert’s lapel pin react with the money, and the room explodes, blowing out part of the wall of the building. James sees a speedboat on the Thames and starts being fired at by a sniper; he recognises it’s the Cigar Girl from the meeting in Spain.
007 takes Q’s fishing speedboat through a door in the wall, several storeys up, onto the water to give chase. Q (played by Desmond Llewelyn) doesn’t look happy. Bond activates the jets and catches up to Cigar Girl’s boat. She tries to drive into him, but only manages to cover James in water. They both navigate the bendy river between buildings. Once back in open water, she stops the boat and starts trying to machine-gun 007’s boat. He drives the boat at hers, flying up into the air, and takes out the machine gun, forcing her to take cover. They approach a bridge that’s closing, and her boat makes it through. Bond transforms his into a submarine and goes under the bridge, adjusting his tie along the way. Cigar Girl drives at a police boat, going right through it, causing it to explode. The GPS in James’s boat redirects him around the blaze, soaking some traffic wardens on his way and distorting an LCC shed. His boat takes to the streets, now being chased by police cars, and takes out a whole fish market along with an adjoining restaurant. 007 makes it back to the river, just by the Millennium Dome. He drives towards Cigar Girl’s boat and prepares the torpedoes. She turns away and dumps the boat next to the dome. Cigar Girl steals a hot-air balloon nearby, while Bond uses her boat as a ramp to fly up in the air and take hold of one of the ropes dangling from the hot-air balloon. She shoots at him as a police helicopter approaches. James tries to reason with her: “I can protect you.” She replies, “Not from him,” shoots the propane tanks, and the hot-air balloon explodes. 007 falls onto the roof of the Millennium Dome; he slides down the side trying to grab the cables, hits multiple, and finally manages to get hold of one. In the fall, he dislocates his shoulder, and we move into the opening titles and theme song for the film.
The song is okay; it includes the film name, which is always nice. Definitely better than the one for Tomorrow Never Dies, but not one of my favourites from the franchise. I did, however, like the opening titles. Good use of droplets, psychedelic colours, and oil, which makes it plot-relevant.
The movie begins at the funeral of Robert King in Scotland. Bagpipes play as we see that M, Q, and Tanner (Chief of Staff, played by Michael Kitchen) are in attendance and being greeted by Robert’s daughter, Elektra King (played by Sophie Marceau). Charles Robinson (played by Colin Salmon), Moneypenny, and Bond are also in attendance, along with dignitaries and diplomats.
Later at MI6 Headquarters in Scotland, Tanner gives a briefing about what happened. He states that the money was dipped in urea, making it a highly compacted fertiliser bomb. Having handled the money, the water on 007’s hands when he touched the ice started a chemical reaction. The metal anti-counterfeiting strip in one of the notes had been replaced with magnesium, which acted as the detonator when it came within range of the radio transmitter in Robert’s lapel pin. It must have been swapped by someone in his organisation. Robinson says that due to the size of King’s organisation, it could be anyone, anywhere, and their only lead committed suicide on the hot-air balloon. M says they will not be terrorised by cowards who would murder an innocent man and use MI6 as the tool. Operation packs are given out to the agents at the meeting, apart from James, as he’s off the active-duty list until he’s been cleared by the medic.
In the doctor’s office, 007 is told by Dr Molly Warmflash (played by Serena Scott Thomas) that he has a dislocated collarbone. If any more tendons snap, he’ll be out of action for weeks. Bond throws the X-ray and asks for a clean bill of health, but she says it wouldn’t be ethical, as he undresses her.
James leaves the medical room and comes across Q Branch as they are trying out the new bagpipe machine gun. Q is very angry at 007 for destroying his fishing boat back in London. The floor opens up and Bond is introduced to Q’s successor, known as R (played by John Cleese).
He talks Bond through the additions to his BMW: titanium armour, heads-up display, and six beverage cup holders. R puts on a coat, Q pulls the tabs, and it turns into an inflatable avalanche ball, which makes it a bit obvious what’s to come later. Q escapes Bond’s questions about his retirement by exiting through the floor, as he “always has an exit plan”.
Later, James is looking through some old newspapers, magazines, and TV segments on the Elektra King kidnap ordeal in Cyprus. 007 touches the screen as he watches her plead with her dad to pay the ransom. We learn that she escaped by shooting two of her captors dead. Bond sees that the ransom was $5,000,000 and checks the final statement he got in the pre-titles and sees £3,030,303.03; he checks, and it’s the same amount. James tries to access Elektra’s file but comes up against a “Level 1 Access Required” screen. He goes in search of M, who is with Tanner, Robinson, and others in the main hall.
007 confronts M, as she’s the only one who could seal Elektra’s file. M asks everyone to excuse them and then reads Bond the riot act about insubordination. M tells James that when she was kidnapped, Robert King tried to deal with it on his own with no success, so he came to her. She told him not to pay the ransom, thinking they had time on their side. 007 asks if she used Elektra as bait. She replies, “Yes.” Bond hands her the statement showing the £3,030,303.03 that killed Robert King and tells her the terrorist is back.
Later, M and 007 hold a briefing, sharing information about Victor Zokas, a.k.a. Renard, the anarchist. He was operating in Moscow in 1996, and in Pyongyang, North Korea, before that. He’s been spotted in many Middle Eastern countries. His only goal is chaos. M shares that when Robert King came to her, she sent 009 to kill Renard. Before he completed the mission, Elektra escaped. A week later, 009 put a bullet in Renard’s head, and the bullet is still there. Dr Warmflash tells us that the doctor who saved Renard couldn’t get the bullet out. It’s moving through the medulla oblongata, killing off his senses. He feels no pain and can push himself harder. The bullet will kill him, but he’ll grow stronger every day until the day he dies. Bond tells everyone that Renard hasn’t finished having his revenge. There were three enemies in that kidnapping, and one he hasn’t touched: Elektra.
Moneypenny passes the medical report on James to M, showing that Dr Warmflash has cleared him for active duty. Everyone seems to know Bond slept with her for it. Moneypenny seems to have the knives out for her, which is a bit weird because Moneypenny is usually trying to block 007’s advances—mixed signals. M sends Bond to Elektra in the Caspian Sea, where she’s taken over the construction of her father‘s oil pipeline. He needs to find out who switched that pin, as Elektra will be the next target.
In Azerbaijan, Bond drives his BMW through a vast flooded valley, oil derricks, and forest towards the oil pipeline. He sees a helicopter above with a giant set of five cutting discs; he sees it trimming the trees nearby. Chief of Security, Davidov (played by Uprich Thomson), tells James to leave; the area is closed. 007 insists he’s here to see Elektra; he’s from Universal Exports. Elektra’s helicopter lands, and she is surrounded by angry locals who are against the location of the pipeline. She meets with the religious leader to discuss and agrees to send the pipe around the village instead of through the Church. A huge cheer goes up. The Foreman (played by Omid Djalili) isn’t happy and explains that it will take weeks and cost millions; her father approved the route. Elektra tells him her father was wrong and that he should just do it.
Elektra speaks to Bond about the funeral; M told her she was sending someone, and they talk about the pipeline. James tells Elektra her life is in danger. She laughs and shows Bond the countries her 800-mile pipeline is going through: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria. Russia has three competing pipelines, and they will do anything to stop her. Her father was murdered, villagers are rioting, and James thinks her life “might” be in danger. 007 shows her the duplicate pin that killed her father and says there might be an insider. Elektra tells him that her family has relied on MI6 twice and she won’t make that mistake a third time.
Outside, she tells Bond that she’s going to finish building the pipeline, and she doesn’t need his help. She goes off to check the survey lines, which is not something the boss would do, but okay. James picks up some skis and says he’s always wanted to check the survey lines. Elektra says, “You don’t take no for an answer,” and she hopes he knows how to ski.
In a helicopter over the snow-covered mountains, the pilot holds the aircraft steady while Elektra and 007 jump out and ski down the hill to see where the two ends of the pipeline will meet. This whole scene gives me OHMSS ’60s Bond vibes. In the distance come four parahawks. Elektra states that she isn’t expecting anyone. James tells her to go to the gully, and he will lead them into the trees. One of them throws a grenade at 007, as another crashes into the trees, hits the ground, and explodes. Two more land and chase Bond while the one remaining parachuting snowmobile drops more grenades. This is a fun scene. Some say it’s a bit over the top, but it’s still very entertaining. Another snowmobile crashes and explodes. The last remaining parahawk flies over the edge, deploying its parachute. James ducks out of the way as it comes back around for another go at him. A fifth parahawk comes from a distance as 007 jumps off the edge through the parachute, leaving a big hole in it. The parachuting snowmobile loses control and hits the last remaining parahawk, and they both explode. The explosions cause part of the snow to collapse, sending Bond and Elektra into an avalanche. Luckily, James has that inflatable coat from Q Branch and saves them both from certain death. Elektra starts to freak out, probably having flashbacks to being in captivity. 007 cuts through the inflatable ball, digs through the snow, and gets them both out.
Later in Baku at Elektra’s villa, the doctor says she is fine, just a few bruises. He goes downstairs and says, “She wants to see you, not you, Davidov, him.” Bond goes to her room, and she asks him who’s trying to kill her. James lies, telling her he doesn’t know, but that he’s going to find out. She says that’s not good enough, and she won’t let fear run her life. 007 says that after he finds him, she won’t have to. Elektra asks him to stay with her, but after some back and forth, Bond leaves. “You’ll be safe here,” he says as Davidov appears at the door.
James visits the L’Or Noir casino and puts on his blue X-ray glasses so he can see who’s carrying weapons and their underwear, everyone is armed. He looks at the Casino Thug (played by Daz Crawford) and asks to see Valentin Zukovsky. He says it’s impossible. 007 orders a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred. Looking back at the thug, Bond says, “Tell him James Bond is here, now.” The thug approaches and tells 007, “I don’t think you heard me.” Bond tackles him, takes the knife from inside his coat, pins his tie to the bar, takes his gun, and swaps it with the bartender for his drink. Mr Bullion (played by Clifford Joseph Price) appears at a nearby door and tells James that Zukovsky will be delighted to see him. 007 puts a gun to his back and says, “After you.” Bond enters the room with Bullion to meet Valentin (played by Robbie Coltrane), who is being entertained by Nina and Veruska. Zukovsky seems very pleased to see James, who tells him to lose the girls. 007 hands Valentin part of the parachute he ripped from one of the parahawks, which tried to kill Elektra King that morning, and he thinks Renard is behind it. Zukovsky tells him that it’s the Russian Secret Service, Atomic Energy Anti-Terrorist Unit. I agree with From Re-Watch with Love that although I love the character of Valentin Zukovsky, this subplot doesn’t add anything and overcomplicates the film. They have a drink together and discuss that after Afghanistan, Renard was a liability for the KGB, who cut him loose, and he now works freelance, which the audience and Bond already knew. They see Elektra enter with Gabor on the security monitor. Bond tries to get her to go home, but she wants them to see she’s not frightened. Valentin offers her a $1 million credit limit and her father’s chair. They enter the private room and play one card, high draw, after all, “there’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive.” Elektra pulls a queen of hearts; Zukovsky pulls the ace of clubs – Electra loses the $1 million.
At the Devil’s Breath, Davidov (who has been given the night off by Elektra) and Dr Ankov (played by Jeff Nuttall) meet with Renard (played by Robert Carlyle). He picks up a scalding rock and feels no pain. He asks Davidov what happened. Dr Ankov supplied the latest weapons, and Bond was unarmed. Dr Ankov has put the next part of the mission in motion but wants it scrubbed, as the parahawks were meant to be returned; people will ask questions of him because of Davidov’s incompetence. Renard agrees he should be punished, picks up the scalding rock, and puts it in Davidov’s hand, the pain clear on his face. Renard tells his guard to kill him. Dr Ankov is shot dead, and Renard says he failed the test of loyalty. Removing the rock, he tells Davidov to take Dr Ankov’s ID and go in his place.
Back at Elektra’s villa, we find her in bed with James, post-coitus. We seem to have missed an entire scene here. When we left them at the casino, this didn’t seem to be on the cards at all. She takes some ice from the champagne bucket and rubs it on his injured shoulder. They start to make out and swap the ice cube between their mouths. The scene cuts to them after more intimacy, as 007 asks her how she survived the kidnapping. She tells him she seduced the guards, used her body, got a gun, and started shooting. She asks Bond how he survives, and he says that he takes pleasure in great beauty.
Later at the dig site, James has left Elektra in bed alone as he scouts the grounds, avoiding security and their dogs. He takes a lock-pick disguised as a credit card and enters the Security Office. He searches as Davidov pulls up in a vehicle. 007 escapes and searches the boot of Davidov’s car, finding the body of Dr Ankov. In the window, we see Davidov taking a picture of himself (probably for the ID). Davidov gets into the car with a briefcase. He drives to an airfield and opens the boot. He lifts the blanket and finds Bond, who kicks him in the face and shoots him. James takes the ID and hides the body in a skip. As he walks away, Trukhin (played by Carl McCrystal) comes up behind him, believing him to be Davidov. He asks what happened to him, and 007 tells him that Davidov is “buried with work.” Bond gets the briefcase and follows him. They head towards a private jet with three other men getting on board. The pilot (played by Patrick Romer) stops James and asks if he brought the grease, a.k.a. the bribe. He opens the briefcase and pulls out trainers; the pilot says, “Excellent.” Mid-flight, Trukhin hands 007 some overalls to put on and tells him to wear the ID. Bond changes and cuts out his Universal Exports picture, inserting it onto Dr Ankov’s ID.
They land in Kazakhstan in Central Asia and drive towards a test site at a former Soviet missile site as explosions go off around them. James meets with Colonel Akakievich (played by Claude-Oliver Rudolph), who checks the transport documents. 007 seems to have no idea what he’s doing there, but at least uses a passable Russian accent. Everyone is there to disarm the site. Bond meets with IDA physicist Dr Christmas Jones (played by Denise Richards), introducing himself as Dr Mikhail Ankov from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. She tells him to take the elevator down the hall to meet up with his friends. Dr Jones tells him he’s forgetting something (anti-radiation tag) and that his English is very good for a Russian. She seems a bit suspicious that he isn’t who he says he is.
Dr Christmas Jones is a character who divides Bond fans; some think she’s awesome, and some think she’s awful. I don’t think Denise Richards does a bad job; she is very much let down by the writing. The character was very underdeveloped and went through a few professions, from an insurance investigator to a bounty hunter, before settling on a nuclear physicist. I agree with Calvin: they seemed to want someone more known in America and felt that with Elektra, they were moving too far away from the archetypal Bond Girl. She also had a thriving career of her own, leaving the audience with preconceived notions. Most Bond Girls from the past are best known for being Bond Girls. She is underserved by the writing and has no chemistry with James. I think the production was like, “Well, 007 needs to sleep with someone at the end of the film.”
Bond descends in the elevator and goes down the shaft to where two men are welding. He finds Renard on a moving platform going down to the walkway. James pulls a gun on him. Renard tells 007 he should have a little gratitude, as he did spare Bond’s life at the banker’s office. Renard says James was working for him, delivered the money that killed King, and now he’s brought him the plane. 007 asks Renard what the plan is for the warhead, and they discuss the logistics of Bond shooting him. Usually in these films, you think, the villain should have just shot Bond. In this scene, you wonder, why did Bond not just shoot him? That wouldn’t have made for a good film, but it would have made the most sense, as the situation is currently in Bond’s control. Renard tells him that if a certain phone call isn’t made in 20 minutes, Elektra dies. James thinks he’s bluffing. 007 hits him with the butt of his gun, and Renard boasts about “breaking her in for him.” Bond adds a silencer as Renard repeats a similar line that Elektra said the other day: “There’s no point living if you can’t feel alive.” Colonel Akakievich approaches and tells James to drop the gun, as Dr Christmas Jones says he’s an imposter and Dr Ankov is 63 years old. 007 and the colonel have a standoff. Bond drops the gun and surrenders as he sees a locator card being removed from one of the missiles. Renard taunts James: “You had me, but I know you couldn’t shoulder the responsibility,” and jams his thumb into 007’s injured shoulder. The colonel isn’t happy about all the new faces and won’t let the warhead move until he is satisfied. Renard is thrown a machine gun and starts shooting the colonel’s men. Bond fights back and opens fire, taking Dr Jones to safety and telling her he works for the British Government. Renard moves the missile out as one of his men starts the doors closing to seal them in. James uses the peaton in his watch to abseil towards the doors and jumps through the remaining gap. He hides behind a train car and takes out the worker who removed the locator card from the warhead, pocketing it. Bond injures another worker; Renard finishes him off and takes control of the warhead, pushing it faster away from 007. Another worker tries to close the next set of doors on James, but he manages to edge them open with the train car and gets through. Bond takes out the remaining worker as Renard pushes the missile into a lift and closes the door. James shoots Renard in the head, but the bullet is stopped by the glass of the elevator. He taunts 007 again and points down as he goes up. Bond looks down to see an explosive with just five seconds left. Dr Jones uses a generator to get the control panel back online and opens the doors. James jumps on the carrying mechanism used for the warhead and goes towards Dr Jones. As there’s a fireball behind him from the explosion, he tells her to seal the doors. 007 jumps through just as they close, and he rolls on the floor to put out the fire on his overalls. Renard, the warhead, and his men escape, taking out more of the colonel’s men on the surface. The fireball explosion breaches the doors and starts to torch the room as Bond and Dr Jones use the missile launch track to get away. She asks his name, and as he answers, “The name’s Bond.” The 007 theme plays as they speed up, and once they stop: “James Bond.” The fireball is still coming up the shaft after them as they reach the surface and jump for cover. They look on as Renard’s plane flies by, the test facility explodes, and the remaining people flee. Dr Jones says they won’t get far; every missile has a locator card, which Bond pulls out of his pocket.
Back at MI6 Scotland, M shows a map of the range of Renard’s plane. Tanner says the warhead could be anywhere in Russia, Armenia, Iran, Kazakhstan, or Uzbekistan. Moneypenny interrupts with a call from Elektra King. She tells M that James has disappeared; he left her villa in the middle of the night. Her head of security has been found near a local airstrip, murdered. She asks M to come out to her. Tanner tries to object, but M stops him: “Just get me out there.”
Back at Elektra’s villa, she hears a noise and goes to investigate. 007 has broken into an adjoining room and knocks out Gabor. Elektra asks if he’s crazy. Bond repeats her motto, which was repeated to him by Renard. James is angry that Renard knew they slept together and about his injured shoulder. He tells her to drop the act; he says she has Stockholm syndrome: a young, impressionable victim, a sheltered and sexually inexperienced person manipulated by a powerful kidnapper. She slaps Bond and protests that Renard is an animal, a monster who disgusts her, and that James disgusts her. She says that 007 had a sling on his arm at the funeral; that’s how he knew how to hurt him. Bond is having none of it. She tries to get the upper hand by saying James lied, that he knew who was trying to kill her all along, and that he used her as bait. They are interrupted by a call: Renard has attacked again, ten men dead at the pipeline. 007 insists he comes with her; she doesn’t care what he does. She calls M to come and take charge.
M’s helicopter arrives at the pipeline amid heightened security. Bond gives M an update on the case, as James theorises that the inside man could be an inside woman: Elektra. Part of the pipeline starts to flash on the big screen, and an alarm sounds. They go into the other room to find out what’s happening. An observation rig that travels inside the pipes looking for cracks is activated; 007 tells them to shut it down, but it doesn’t respond. Bond says the nuclear bomb is in the pipeline and that it’s heading for the oil terminal. They have 78 minutes to stop it. Bond plans to use rig station 6 to enter the pipeline and defuse the bomb as it moves. Robinson is going to get James and Dr Jones out there.
Out at the pipeline, Dr Jones takes control of the rig as the bomb approaches. It locks on at around 70 miles per hour. 007 and Dr Jones move across and try the brakes, which are jammed; the screw heads have been stripped. The other rig locks on, and they manage to get the nuclear part out, but some of the plutonium is missing. They remove what’s left. Bond tells her to let it blow. They both jump from the rig, which explodes a part of the pipeline.
In the pipeline control room, they see the pipeline rupture warning, as Elektra gives her condolences to M. She produces a small box, which was her father’s; he would have wanted M to have it, after all, he often spoke of how passionately M advised him during her kidnapping. M opens it to find the original family lapel pin belonging to Robert King. She realises Elektra is the one behind all of this, as her men take out the MI6 guards. Elektra explains that she was upset when the money didn’t kill both of them. She didn’t think she’d get another chance. Then M dropped the answer right in her lap: Bond. M slaps her as Elektra tells her men to take her to the helicopter.
Back at the pipeline, Dr Jones is angry that James let it explode. He tells her that Elektra thinks they’re dead and that she believes she got away with it. The explosion covered up the theft of the plutonium, making it look like a terrorist attack. The remaining six kilos of weapons-grade plutonium are still missing. 007 gets on the radio to Robinson, who tells Bond there’s a red alert: M is missing with Elektra, three men are down, and he should await instructions.
Renard, his men, and the remaining plutonium arrive by boat at Elektra’s villa. She takes him to see M. They have a heated discussion about Robert King and how he stole his kingdom from her mother, the kingdom she will rightly take back. Renard tries to twist what happened and put the blame on M for leaving her at the mercy of a man like him. He tells M that she will die along with everyone else in the city. He puts a clock on a stool near her cell so she can watch the time tick by until noon tomorrow. Later, Elektra is in bed naked with Renard. She seems unsatisfied by the sex, telling him she can still feel things. They discuss whether Bond was a good lover. He smashes the table and feels nothing. Elektra picks out the shards and adds ice, but he still feels nothing. She takes him to bed and rubs the ice down her body as he watches. M uses a stick to try to pull the clock closer to her, but knocks the stool over.
In the Caspian Sea, Valentin Zukovsky arrives at the caviar factory. Mr Bullion stays in the car and notices Bond’s BMW. He calls Elektra and tells her James is alive. Zukovsky walks into the office and sees Dr Jones being seductive… for some reason. Valentin walks towards her as Bond kicks the door shut, holding the plant manager at gunpoint. “Can’t you just say hello, like a normal person?” James lets the man go and holds the gun up to Zukovsky. “She dropped $1 million in your casino, and you didn’t even bat an eye. What’s she paying you for?” Valentin claims he knew nothing of the warhead being stolen or of Elektra and Renard working together. We can hear a helicopter nearby carrying the tree-cutting blades, which saw through the building, sending everyone flying. It comes back for another pass and opens fire at 007.
Bond uses his car remote to drive his BMW along the bridge towards him (not as fancy as in Tomorrow Never Dies). James gets in and reverses away from the helicopter. He arms the car’s torpedoes and shoots at the helicopter, which explodes. What he doesn’t notice is a second tree-cutting helicopter coming up behind him, which slices through the middle of his car. “Q’s not going to like this.” The helicopter then saws through the bridge as 007 runs away from it, through the office, barely missing Dr Jones and Zukovsky. They get to his car and end up reversing into the water as Bond takes down a few men and sets off a steam vent. He grabs a torpedo gun off the wall and shoots at the valve. The fire rises up the gasoline and explodes the helicopter, sending the saw discs flying. Zukovsky falls into a vat of caviar while running from them. Bond wants to know why Elektra wants Zukovsky dead, and he tells him that occasionally he gets Russian equipment for her. The payoff in the casino was for his nephew, who is in the Navy, smuggling some equipment to Istanbul. The rest of the building falls down. Valentin declares, “The insurance company is never going to believe this.”
Back in Istanbul, Renard is seen looking out at a ship. Under it is a submarine. Later that morning it surfaces. Zukovsky takes James, Dr Jones and Bullion to an ex-KGB Istanbul safe house, now used by the FSB. Zukovsky’s nephew is running the nuclear Victor III; they want the submarine to use its reactor. Dr Jones says that if you add the weapons-grade plutonium to that reactor, it will cause an instant, catastrophic meltdown. Valentin asks why they would do that. 007 explains that the existing pipelines from the Caspian Sea go to the north. The oil is shipped across the Black Sea to Istanbul. The explosion would destroy Istanbul, contaminating the Bosporus for decades. Dr Jones adds that the only way to get the oil out would be down the Mediterranean, via the King pipeline.
Back at the submarine dock, Renard meets with Captain Nikoli (played by Justus von Dohnanyi). He brings him and his men brandy and food while they load the cargo onboard. Gabor and Elektra enter the room with M’s cell in it. Gabor picks up the stool, and she asks Elektra what time it is. She picks up the clock and puts it on the bars: “It’s time for you to die.” They both leave the room. M uses the locator card she got from Bond earlier and wires it up to the clock’s power to send out a location signal.
This comes through on the emergency frequency to the FSB safe house, where Zukovsky, Bond and Dr Jones are. James confirms it’s the locator card. They pinpoint the location as Maiden’s Tower. Mr Bullion scarpers quickly when called by Valentin. 007 sees his gold briefcase on the side ticking and shouts, “BOMB!” Dr Jones and Bond get away and give chase, while Zukovsky is on the floor, presumed dead. They run into an ambush. Gabor, Mr Bullion and their men surround James and Dr Jones with guns drawn.
Back at the submarine, the men have been rendered unconscious by the meal they were served. Renard tells his men to take them up and throw them into the sea. They bring in the plutonium, and his men get to work assembling the plutonium rod.
007 and Dr Jones are brought to Elektra’s villa by boat. King meets them in the torture room, and she tells her men to take Dr Jones to Renard. She tells Bond that she could have given him the world, to which he responds, “The World Is Not Enough,” a family motto. James is strapped to a medieval torture chair. She gives the neck brace a turn, and 007 struggles to breathe. She tells him that when she realised her father wouldn’t rescue her from the kidnappers, she had to form another alliance, turning Renard. She told him he had to hurt her; he had to make it look real. When he refused, she did it herself. She tells him she’s going to redraw the map, and the whole world will know her name. This torture scene is not as unpleasant as the one in Spectre, which I’m thankful for. Bond is told there will be a nuclear explosion where the Russian pipelines meet, so hers will be the only one. Interrupting Elektra while she’s giving another turn on the neck brace is gunfire coming from outside. We see Zukovsky and his men arrive by boat. They open fire, taking out man after man, including his betrayer, Mr Bullion.
Valentin enters the room and says he is looking for a submarine—it is big, black, and has his nephew on it. He sees the captain’s hat and realises what has happened. Zukovsky says, “Bring it to me.” Electra hides a gun under the Navy hat, lifts it, and shoots Valentin through the fabric. Using his last breaths, he picks up his cane and points it at James, shooting his arm restraint. Electra thinks he hates 007 and was trying to shoot him. She gets on the radio and asks if everything is ready.
She goes to do the final turn to break Bond’s neck, but he removes his arm from the restraint, grabs her arm, and kicks her to the ground. He removes the neck brace, grabs a gun from the floor, and shoots Gabor as Electra escapes. Bond chases her upstairs. He goes after her and hears M. He shoots her locked cell door open and continues pursuing Electra. James corners her in the bedroom and gives her the radio. He tells her to call him off. She says, “You wouldn’t kill me. You’d miss me,” before telling Renard over the radio to “Dive!” 007 shoots her dead; she falls onto the bed as M looks on.
Outside, the submarine is diving. Bond jumps from the window into the water. He climbs on top and then down into the hatch. He pulls a gun on a man and forces him to show the way to Dr Jones. Together they go to the control room. James slowly opens the door as Dr Jones backs away; he holds the men in the room hostage while he manipulates the controls to send the ship up, making it visible to the satellites. However, he pushes the wrong way, and the submarine descends. 007 ends up in a shootout, taking out the controls so they cannot be overridden and using one of the men as a human shield. Bond escapes. Everyone struggles to stay in control of the submarine. One of the men falls through the ceiling and hits the propeller controls, sending it down even faster, hitting the seabed. Renard loses his gun as the vessel moves. Meanwhile, the submarine is flooding from bottom to top. James plans to use the outside hatches to get from where he is to the reactor room. Dr Jones needs to press a button to let him back in. 007 goes outside as the water starts rushing in around Dr Jones, submerging her. Bond enters the hatch to the reactor room as Dr Jones struggles to press the button due to the rush of water. She manages to press it, emptying the airlock. James sees Renard pushing the polonium rod into the reactor. He jumps down, and they fight. He pauses the fight to let Dr Jones in. Renard hits him with the cord and starts to push it in again. Bond attacks him and pulls the rod out, but it fails. Renard and James continue fighting as 007 tells him that Elektra is dead. This enrages Renard, and Bond is pushed into a compartment that Renard locks him into. Pushing the rod back in again, it applies too much force and dislodges one of the hydraulic lines. James grabs it and repositions it. He presses a button and selects which tube to push out. He selects the middle one, and the rod shoots out at high speed, taking out Renard. The reactor begins to stabilise. However, Dr Jones says that the hydrogen gas levels are too high; one spark would cause an explosion. She needs to stop it. They head for the top of the submarine and agree to meet each other at the torpedo bay. Bond says that the reactor is flooded, so it will be safe even if it explodes. They escape via capsule as the submarine detonates, reach the surface, and hail a local boat.
Back at MI6 in Scotland, M enters the room, and Tanner is asked if there has been any contact. He says there is still no word. R tracks his car and uses satellite imagery to locate James and Dr Jones in Turkey. The heat signature becomes increasingly red. R hits escape, the screen goes blank, and he blames it on a premature form of the millennium bug. We cut back to 007, who jokes, “I’ve always wanted to have Christmas in Turkey” and “I thought Christmas only comes once a year”, as the end credits roll and the James Bond theme plays.