James Bond spends 14 months in a North Korean prison camp in Die Another Day, and the movie never quite recovers from letting him out. The 2002 entry is the fourth and final film with Pierce Brosnan as 007, and it wants to be a grand finale: a globe-trotting adventure, a Cold War relic turned tech thriller, a spectacle that closes the book on a career. It mostly succeeds at spectacle and mostly fails at story. The result is a film that looks expensive and feels hollow.
Lee Tamahori directs, and the action sequences are the film’s clearest strength. The opening chase, set on a hovercraft over a frozen landscape, is genuinely thrilling. The fight on the Bridge of No Return, where Bond trades places with a North Korean soldier to escape, is tense and well-shot. The climax, involving a giant satellite laser in space, is over-the-top in the best way. But these moments are isolated victories. Between them, the plotting stalls.
Trailer, via James Bond 007.
The Setup
Bond begins the film investigating a traitor in British intelligence who betrayed him. That betrayal leads him to a North Korean military base run by Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, where weapons are traded for African conflict diamonds. Moon’s right-hand man, Zao, recognizes Bond’s real identity, and Moon tries to kill him. A chase ends with Moon’s craft falling over a waterfall, and Bond is captured.
He spends 14 months in a North Korean prison, tortured by the Korean People’s Army (KPA). He is then traded for Zao in a prisoner exchange across the Bridge of No Return. Back in Britain, M tells him his status as a 00 Agent has been suspended on suspicion that he leaked information to the North Koreans under duress. Bond believes he has been set up by a double agent in the British government.
After escaping MI6 custody, he finds himself in Hong Kong. There, he learns from Chang, a Chinese agent and old colleague, that Zao is in Cuba. In Havana, Bond meets NSA agent Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson and follows her to a gene therapy clinic where patients can have their appearances altered through DNA restructuring. Jinx kills Dr. Alvarez, the clinic’s leader, while Bond locates Zao inside and fights him. Zao escapes, leaving behind a pendant that leads Bond to a cache of conflict diamonds bearing the crest of the company owned by British billionaire Gustav Graves.
The Villain Problem
Gustav Graves is the film’s main antagonist, and he is a problem. Played by Toby Stephens, he is the alter ego of Colonel Moon, a British entrepreneur who suddenly became wealthy after discovering a diamond vein in Iceland. The twist is that Graves is actually Colonel Moon, hiding his identity. The reveal is meant to be shocking, but it lands flat because the film has spent so long building up a villain who barely gets to exist.
Zao is better. Rick Yune plays him as a North Korean terrorist living in exile, and his presence in the gene therapy clinic gives the middle stretch some urgency. But even he is a sideshow compared to the film’s obsession with Graves. The pacing suffers because the story keeps circling back to him, even as the audience loses interest.
Rosamund Pike plays Miranda Frost, an undercover MI6 agent and double agent who works for Graves. Her scenes are meant to be tense, but they feel like padding. John Cleese returns as Q, MI6’s quartermaster and armourer, and Judi Dench plays M, the head of MI6. Samantha Bond plays Miss Moneypenny, M’s secretary.
The Technical Stuff
The film is a technical showcase. The effects are heavy, especially in the final act, where a satellite laser looms in space. The stunts are big, from the hovercraft chase to the fight on the Bridge of No Return. The production design is elaborate, with the Blades Club in London serving as a centerpiece. The score, composed by David Arnold, is energetic but forgettable.
But the reliance on CGI is a problem. Too much of the action is digital, and it shows. The film is full of wide shots of empty fields and distant explosions that strain credibility. The practical effects, when they exist, are better. The Bridge of No Return is a physical set, and it works. The diamond mine in Iceland is a green screen mess.
“He’s never been cooler.”
That is the tagline, and it captures the tension at the heart of the film. Brosnan is cool, and the film wants to show him being cooler. But coolness is not a narrative, and the script keeps trying to build one around it. The result is a movie that knows how to dress up a story but not how to dress one up well.
The Numbers
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director | Lee Tamahori |
| Writers | Robert Wade, Neal Purvis |
| Runtime | 133 minutes |
| Release date | 20 November 2002 (international), 22 November 2002 (United States) |
| Box office | $432 million worldwide |
| Rank | Sixth-highest-grossing film of 2002 |
The film was a box-office success, grossing $432 million worldwide and becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2002. That success was not matched by critical reception. Reviews praised Tamahori’s direction but criticized the reliance on CGI, product placement, plot and villain. The mixed reviews are fair. The film is entertaining but not coherent.
What Works
The film has its moments. The opening chase is a genuine thrill. The Bridge of No Return sequence is tense. The final confrontation with Zao in the gene therapy clinic is well-staged. Brosnan is still good at playing Bond, and Halle Berry is a strong addition as Jinx, even if her character is underwritten.
The film also marks the 40th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, and it includes references to each of the preceding films. That is a nice touch, though it is easy to miss amid the chaos.
What Doesn’t Work
The plot is the biggest failure. The traitor subplot, the Colonel Moon reveal, the Graves twist — none of it lands. The film is too busy chasing its own tail to let the audience catch its breath. By the time the satellite laser appears, the audience has forgotten why it matters.
The pacing is a constant issue. The film runs 133 minutes, and it feels longer. Scenes drag, and the editing is uneven. Some sequences are sharp and fast; others are slow and bloated. The film cannot decide whether it wants to be a serious thriller or a silly summer blockbuster, and it fails at both.
The Verdict
Die Another Day is a flawed but watchable entry in the James Bond canon. It has its strengths — the action, the sets, the performances — but its weaknesses are structural. The plot is a mess, the villain is a sideshow, and the tone is inconsistent. Brosnan closes out his run with a film that is not his finest hour.
The film is worth seeing for the spectacle, but it is not worth praising. It is a reminder that a big budget and a star cannot save a bad script. Brosnan deserved better than this.
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