GUN BARREL OPENS ON -
MI6 Headquarters, London
M hears about some potentially catastrophic event that requires the attention of one his best men - he presses the button on the intercome to speak to Moneypenny. "Moneypenny, where the hell is Bon -" He catches himself before he says the name, correct himself: "Moneypenny, get me 008 -" The secretary acknowledges the order, her expression betrays the fact that she is missing Double-Oh Seven.
MI6 Training Centre, Falkland Islands
Double-Oh Seven is overseeing the training of potential future members of the Double-Oh Section. The first scene that we see is like something out of Basic Instinct, with a handsome tuxedoed trainee (Clive Owen, fresh from filming the first season of Chancer) trying to get information out of a stunning blonde woman (a cameo appearance by supermodel Christie Brinkley) and failing abysmally - the scene playing out in front of a bearded Bond who watches it from behind a two-way mirror whilst smoking a cigarette. He stubs the cigarette out in an ash tray when the trainee crashes and burns, walking into the training room and absolutely berating the trainee - who leaves, suitably cowed.
Bond flirts with the blonde woman (revealed to be a low level MI6 operative named Suzie) but this is more out of obligation than actual want and she politely passes over the overtures that Bond has made. Bond leaves the training centre, which is on West Falkland, and climbs into his Range Rover and heads to the cottage he currently calls home - it's a far cry from his apartment in London and there's something of the semi-vagrant about it, M casting him into a proverbial 'no man's land' for the past eighteen months since the events of 'License to Kill' has had a real effect on Bond.
He is welcomed at his cottage by a golden retriever, it's obvious the Double-Oh and the dog have become each others lone companions. Bond takes the dog out for a walk, smoking a cigarette as he does so - when he spots a parachutist coming into land on the islands. Bond approaches the parachutist once they touch down - revealing that it is a beautiful Puerto Rican woman, who identifies herself as Lydia. She claims that she was aiming for Argentina, but missed when she was blown off course - this impresses Bond, she is clearly no amateur to have made a jump from the height where she could concievably be blown that far off-course.
Such skill would also make being blown off-course highly unlikely. Bond suspects that the girl is lying and is exactly where she wants to be. The conversation between the pair - a curious mix between interrogation and outright mutual flirtation - is interrupted by the arrival of another 4x4 that drives to run the two down. Bond throws Lydia and himself out of the way - which allows the girl to make an escape - whilst he stays and takes on the driver of the 4x4.
The driver is one of the drug lords who entered into a business transaction with Franz Sanchez and he fights Bond with a knife. During the fight, Bond manages to toss the knife away from the drug lord. This gives Bond the upper hand, but only momentarily - and soon it looks like the drug lord is going to throttle the life out of the secret agent.
Just as Bond seems to have lost - the golden retriever drops the knife into Bonds hand, having chased after it and returned it to Bond like the stick we saw the Double-Oh throwing for it minutes earlier. Bonds hand clamps round the knife, swings it round and plunges it into the drug lords chest - the mans eyes go wide and his body goes limp. Bond pushes the corpse of him, rubs his dogs ears in thanks - and heads back to his cottage where he finds that Lydia has let herself in. "I hopeyou don't mind."
She's run a bath for the two of them. Bond strips and joins the sexy parachuter in the bath as his dog curls up under the dining table. In the bath, Lydia reaches for the gun she has hidden underneath a towel - but Bond easily disarms her, sending the gun skidding across the bathroom floor. He pushes her head under the water -
Lydia gasps as he releases his grip and she surfaces - she admits that she was sent to kill him by a loose coalition of drug lords in Isthmus City, upset that he killed Sanchez and lost them millions. Bond makes a comment about this, then swings the situation into a romantic interlude when he suggests that: "I ought to check you for any other hidden weapons -"
With that, we transition into another TITLE SEQUENCE designed by Maurice Binder (which, unfortunately, will end up being his last) accompanied by a rhythmic themetune sung by Michael Jackson. The title sequence is much the same as those of 'The Living Daylights' and 'License To Kill' but with a running motif of computer components and electronic circuitry, coupled with Bond walking along the edge of a knife.
CB.n PRESENTS
TIMOTHY DALTON
as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007
in
CBN MEMBERS'
FOR TOMORROW WE DIE
Joan Chen
Iman Abdulmajid
Wilhelm von Homburg
Edward J. Olmos
Christopher Greener
Rachel Ticotin
Christie Brinkley
Clive Owen
Bill Paxton
John Rhys Davies
Geoffrey Keen
Lois Maxwell
Desmond Llewelyn
with
Robert Brown as M
"For Tomorrow We Die" sung by Michael Jackson
"For Tomorrow We Die" written Michael Jackson, with Tangerine Dream
"It's a Sin" sung by The Pet Shop Boys
"It's a Sin" written Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe
Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream
Directed by John McTiernan
Titles Designed by Maurice Binder
Isthmus City, South America
In the eighteen months since the death of Franz Sanchez, Isthmus City was become a political time bomb: President Hector Lopez has been shown to be a weak and ineffective leader, his political rivals are pushing for the country to be assimilated into neighbouring Honduras, several drug barons have tried to stake their claim in the power vacuum that exists because of Sanchez' death and the likelihood of a military coup increases with every day that passes.
A handful of the drug barons have formed a rough coalition in the belief that together they will be able to prop up the ineffective Lopez, prevent a military coup and stop the assimilation of the country into neighbouring Honduras. It is this coalition that sent Lydia to attempt to kill Bond in the Falkland Islands - and, upon his arrival in Isthmus City, slipping into the country from neighbouring Nicaragua, it is them who Bond tries to track down in the seedier bars of the country.
During his attempt to track down the leadership, Bond meets and has sex with Chun Qiao in a rundown motel. He suspects she has some connection with the coalition because of how she acted in the bar in which they met - but when he leaves the room to use the shower, she escapes the room and then vanishes into the foot traffic outside.
Instead of using his new friend to contact the coalition, Bond plans to allow himself to be captured by the coalition of drug lords - but stumbles upon, and threatens to derail, a joint CIA/DEA operation that his friend Felix Leiter, now using a walking cane to support himself, has been brought in to consult on. Because his pursuit of the coalition threatens to derail the operation, Felix has Bond handcuffed to a chair in the safehouse that the CIA have set-up.
The operation is this:
A rogue Hong Kong born (and therefore British citizen) computer hacker Chun Qiao is in Isthmus City to make contact with Everett, her contact in the CIA, with whom she has made a deal: she will exchange Corinthian, a computer virus designed to remotely access and deploy automatic weapons systems like missile bases, for the freedom of Sienna Lauder, a human rights activist who the US dumped in a Burmese prison through the process known as rendition. But Everett betrays Chun and she is captured by the joint CIA/DEA team.
Los Angeles, California, USA
Bond and Chun are taken to Los Angeles where Bond awaits repatriation and Chun extradition to London via a chartered Concorde jet. Bond meets Chun shortly before they board the jet, recognising her as the woman he met in Isthmus City. As the concorde taxi's down the runway, Everett is seen to make a phone call - but we do not see who this is to.
Intercut with this: A forty-something man with a moustache in a suit is brought before a table of white haired men in a villa in Isthmus City - these are the senior figures in the coalition of drug barons, the figures that Bond was trying to contact. The man in the suit is called Morales and he is the senior enforcer of the coalition - after the failture of Lydia and Bonds attempt to seek them out, the senior figures of the coalition charge Morales with eliminating Bond - once and for all.
Monument Valley, Utah, USA
The flight back to London takes the concorde across the USA - but because of the law, the concorde may not go supersonic whilst it is over American soil. As the jet passes through Monument Valley in Utah, it becomes harried by helicopters: this sequence involves the jet weaving around the actual monuments. Bond tries to help the pilot (played by Michael Jackson) take the jet up to supersonic speeds, but the gunners in the helicopters strafe the jet with gunfire - smashing the windshield and forcing the aircraft to put down on one of those famously-long highways.
Before the concorde is harried by the helicopters, Bond makes his way down the aisle of the jet and sits next to Chun. He discovers that she is a computer hacker - he confronts her about his suspicions that she is dealing with the coalition of drug barons, she admits that they helped get her into Isthmus City.
When the jet lands on the highway, the passengers must evacuate - in the confusion, Chun Qiao is able to slip into the background and vanish into the wasteland. Thugs wearing desert camouflage emerge from the helicopters that have landed nearby and begin searching through the passngers, looking for someone - these thugs have the air of ex-professional soldiers and Bond quickly realises that they are not after any of the crew or the government contingent onboard, they are looking for Chun Qiao.
This realisation comes too late to save the life of a member of the concordes crew who is shot by one of the thugs. The thugs are led by the mute Savatier, a tall man with a scarred throat. When they realise that Chun has vanished, they decide that everyone else is a liability - but the deaths of the passengers and crew is prevented by a flyby from a pair of USAF jets.
Savatier and his thugs scramble to escape before rescue arrives. As the passengers and crew are loaded into a Chinook, Chun Qiao watches from the shade of a rock formation before turning on her heel and vanishing into the wasteland.
MI6 Headquarters, London
M greets Bond when he arrives back at MI6 Headquarters. He hopes that Bond has now learned his lesson - that (to use a now cliche phrase) with great power comes great responsibility. Bond reports on his experiences in Isthmus, the way that the concorde was attacked and the reason Bond believes the concorde was attacked.
Sir Frederick Gray, the Minister of Defence, comments that the body of Agent Everett has washed up on the beaches of Malibu - it is the belief of the CIA that he betrayed the flight plan of the concorde to the people that attacked it. Whomever is responsible for the attack on the concorde clearly has a lot of money.
Using Bonds description of Savatier, Q uses identification software to learn that he is associated with a radical luddite organisation. This worries M: he orders Bond to investigate what the luddite organisation is up to. The trail of Savatier picks up in Rome.
Q equips Bond with the red cigarette flares, the rosary beads and a stunning Aston Martin Virage - with all the usual refinements that one would want on the continent. Bond visits the locker room where he bumps into the recruit that he trained in the Falkland Islands, then shaves to remove the beard that he grew whilst on assignment there -
As he climbs into the Virage, Bond is back to the secret agent we know and love. He revs the engine of the Aston Martin - it's a long drive to Rome.
Rome, Italy
In Rome, Bond is able to track Savatier down to an underground club where something akin to a rave is being held. Looking conspicously out of place, he is quickly noticed and ends up facing the host of the event in an illegal bare-knuckle boxing match. Bond wins the match and is introduced to his opponent, the blonde behemoth Moritz Stahl, heir to a West German electronics fortune who rebelled against his background through boxing, turning semi-professional, and (ironically) computer espionage, where his main virtues lie in financing and supporting more talented hackers than himself.
Savatier appears to be in Stahl's employ.
In the aftermath of the fight, Bond notices Chun from across the dancefloor and approaches her - she was tracked down in Nice by Stahls men and has been forcibly brought to Rome. Stahl was the person who sponsored the creation of Corinthian and he isn't happy that Chun tried to betray him and hand Corinthian to the American authorities in exchange for the release of Sienna Lauder.
Bond suggests that he may be able to help Chun out, with the British taking posession of Corinthian in return for arranging the release of Sienna Lauder and amnesty for both of them. The pair develop a mutual respect - and a mutual interest. Bond can respect Chun's desire to bring down corrupt organisation - but questions her methods. She, in turn, questions the way he is used as a blunt instrument by the government.
Chun invites Bond to her chique top floor apartment that night, where he discusses taking her in.
Bond wakes the next morning handcuffed to a bedpost with Sienna gone, Savatier heading out of the window - and the carabineri hammering on the door to be let in. Bond uses a gadget or brute strength to get out of the handcuffs and, still only half-dressed, evades the police and pursues Savatier across the rooftops of Rome. Bond corners Savatier - but the mute thug turns the situation on him and Bond is knocked out.
He wakes in a chateau in the Italian Alps, dressed in a pair of silk pyjamas - he is brought before Stahl who is sat at a table full of breakfast food. Stahl offers Bond coffee and says that he should help himself to the pastries, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, hash browns, tomatoes - "Eat, drink and be merry, Mister Bond, for tomorrow we die ..." Bond fills his plate as Chun, similarly clothed, is brought into the room.
Things take a change of direction when Bond and Chun have taken their seats - halfway through the meal, Savatier enters and holds a gun to Bond's head. Stahl threatens to have Savatier fire unless Chun gives him access to Corinthian.
Somewhat to Bond's surprise, Chun hands over her necklace, the pendant on which is revealed to be a data container, along the lines of a 1990 USB stick. But Stahl has no intention of letting them go. "I confess you hurt my pride," he says to Bond. "I can be petty about such things. Kill them." Despite the best efforts of Savatier and the other thugs, Bond and Chun manage to escape. On skis, they are pursued by a logging helicopter equipped with deadly sawblades that Savatier has commandeered. Having made their way down to slopes and through treacherous hazards, Bond is eventually able to destroy the helicopter.
Back in Rome, Bond and Chun Qiao plot their next move. He teams up with the carabinieri to investigate the legal front of Stahl Dynamics. He finds zero evidence of Corinthian and Stahl brushes the investigators off (much like the scene with Drax in Venice in Moonraker) which frustrates Bond. Later, Bond and Chun realise that they are being stalked by a mysterious figure - whilst Chun escapes through a crowded restaurant, Bond allows the stalker to follow him and takes the pursuit into the catacombs of the city - the figure turns out to be Morales who fights Bond with a knife, he's deadlier and stronger than the drug baron who attacked Bond in the Falkland Islands. Bond tries to escape - but Morales pursues. The fight takes another twist when Savatier grabs Morales, his hand shooting out of the darkness and grabbing the South American around the throat, dragging him into the darkness.
The corpse is dumped into the light by Savatier, who takes over the pursuit - which ends with a car chase (with Bond in the Visage) through the streets of Rome. The chase ends up with the Visage being near written-off but Bond survives - a bit battered and bruised, but alive. He rendezvous with Chun at the Trevi fountain where she tells Bond about the Burmese prison where her friend Sienna is being held captive. From what Stahl said, Chun suspects that the main transmitter for Corinthian is housed in the same prison. Chun gives Bond two old Chinese coins, "A good luck charm for you, and a bad one for our enemies".
The next morning, a Canadian missile base goes haywire and launches against Toronto. The missile is aborted in time, but it is the first test of Corinthian. A first move, and more are coming - as both Russian and American missile bases activate, but don't launch: a warning.
Somewhere In The Jungles of Burma
Bond travels to Burma, where he is arrested by the military junta. Chun Qiao slips away at this point. It is suggested she may have betrayed him to them. Actually it is all part of the plan - one of the coins is actually a homing beacon. Rerouting so as not to be caught herself, she transmits the location of the prison, and the transmitter therein, to the Russian military (represented by General Leonid Pushkin), who, like everyone else, have been plagued by Corinthian.
Bond is put in prison, where he is brought before Savatier. Bond is taken to be executed at the gallows - but manages to convince Savatier to take him down by promising to confess the location of Chun Qiao.
Bond finds Sienna Lauder and together they manage to escape. He sends her off to plug in the other coin (revealed to be a computer bug) to the base's computers, while he himself climbs the transmitter array as the Chinese firebomb the prison. Savatier follows him up, having decided that he has to kill Bond himself. Bond is able to destroy the transmitter array by using the rosary beads to blow it up - the explosion calls the attention of the Russian military. An RPG is fired, hitting the scaffolding surrounding the transmitter and causing it to collapse. Bond is able to make it down, but Savatier is trapped. Bond then sabotages the power array that suppliers the transmitter, overloading it. Savatier is electrocuted in the process and falls into the inferno.
With the Russians withdrawing and the prison burning around them, Bond and Sienna have to find their way through the maze of cell blocks and torture chambers before the prison collapses. They narrowly escape with their lives, and Bond escorts Sienna to the nearest international airport.
Bond joins up again with Chun Qiao and Felix Leiter - Sienna and Chun embrace and kiss, which causes the two men to exchange looks. "Diff'rent strokes," quips Felix. It is revealed that the bug Sienna placed has laid Stahl's systems bare, and revealed activity in an underground base in Rotorua, New Zealand. The bunker is thirty metres below the surface. It was designed as a fallout shelter in the event of a nuclear strike. And it has a transmitter. Chun knows it well - she helped design it; an idealistic fortress that governments could not gain access to. Stahl has subverted its purpose.
Stahl has Luddite sensibilities, a desire to bring down the established order, to destroy man's technological dependency by using that technology against itself. This base, which could withstand almost anything, would be a good place from which to start anew.
Rotorua, New Zealand
Bond and Chun travel through a region of high geothermal activity and infiltrate the base, but they are captured before they can plant their explosives. Seated comfortably across from them in his control centre, computer screens flickering on the wall, Chun's pendant plugged into the mainframe, Stahl explains his extremist Neo-Luddite beliefs and tells the story of Hurutini, from whose death the name of the area is derived. Stahl mentions that nobody will lament their deaths in the way that Hurutini's mother did. "Nobody will mourn your passing, Mr Bond." He then gives the order to launch on London.
But unseen to Stahl, Chun has managed to switch the pendants, planting a new computer virus in the system to destroy Corinthian. Suddenly it all goes wrong for Stahl. The transmission is never made, and Corinthian is irretrievably corrupted. Enraged, Stahl orders Bond and Chun executed - but Bond uses one of his Lark-brand flares ("You wouldn't begrudge a condemned man his last cigarette") to create a diversion. He and Chun then escape the underground base and flee through the geothermal field.
Here Bond has his final, bare-knuckle confrontation with Stahl, who he eventually corners. Bond urges him to give up; there's nothing left. Stahl looks behind him and smiles. "Ah, but there is. The ultimate escape." Bond is too late as Stahl throws himself into a bubbling mud pool. As he immerses himself in the boiling stuff, Stahl's insanely confident grin becomes a rictus mask of pain, projecting inhuman confidence as his lower body is being seared away beneath him. As his neck is being submerged, Stahl lifts his head back, his teeth tightly gritted, and moans. "Help... me..." Bond gets out his gun but Chun grabs his wrist, looks at him with silent intensity. No. Together they watch Stahl slowly disappear into the bubbling mud.
Epilogue
M looks up from the paperwork on his desk - and calls through the open doorway to Moneypenny who is using her computer. He enquires as to where Bond is - Moneypenny replies: "Just cleaning things up in New Zealand ...". Over in New Zealand, Bond and Chun relax in a local nature spa, naked, enjoying the hot springs. Bond uses a soapy sponge to wipe a mud smear from Chun. "You know Chun, I'm still not sure I've got a handle on you" he says, embracing her. "Could've fooled me," is Sienna's reply. And as they kiss, we pan up, fade out, and...
THE END OF
'FOR TOMORROW WE DIE'
BUT
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN
