The 1990s were a time of transition, and the James Bond franchise showed evidence of this fact.  For example, there were only three entries in the series, with the longest break between films of six years as from Licence to Kill (1989) to today’s entry, GoldenEye (1996).  The 1980s witnessed the change from Roger Moore as the renowned military intelligence, section six (MI6) operative, to Timothy Dalton.  Though that started promising with The Living Daylights (1987), it proved to be more of a lateral move by Licence to Kill.  Thus, the character got a fresh take with Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye finally filling the role apparently destined for him after Moore’s departure.  There were some other firsts in it, such as the use of computer-generated images (CGI), all of which contributed to it being a hit and once more breathing life into the famous British spy.  However, if you are around my age, you know the real reason why it has remained popular: the video game of the same name for the Nintendo 64.

What is very much not a video game is the mission that James is on at the beginning of GoldenEye.  He is infiltrating a chemical plant in the Soviet Union, joined in this endeavor by 006, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), also of MI6.  Though they are successful in blowing up the building, Alec is captured and executed with James witnessing the death.  James barely gets away himself, having to jump off a cliff and freefall onto a pilotless plane to survive.  We then move ahead some years and he is up to his usual womanizing antics while racing another fetching lady in a sports car, speeding along the Mediterranean coast near Monte Carlo.  The woman in the other car is Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), a former Soviet fighter pilot, who kills men in the boudoir by suffocating them with her legs.  She also seems to take some strange pleasure from doing so, and that is all I shall say on the matter.  She uses this, er, ability to gain access to the unveiling of a new, high-tech attack helicopter, codenamed “Tiger,” and steal it.  James is on hand to watch the theft take place, having been tailing her since the previous night.  Not that kind of “tailing.”  He goes back to London and is in MI6 headquarters when they get an alert from their satellites monitoring Russia.  It is at a remote space monitoring outpost that the Tiger is next spotted.  Underneath a large antenna works a team of Russian programmers, including Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) and her lewd colleague Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming).  In the course of their daily work, their lab is attacked by Xenia and her co-pilot, General Ourumov (Gottfried John).  They are not there just to cause mayhem, but to steal a device of the same name as the film.  It controls a weapon stationed in orbit that can launch an electro-magnetic attack on a given target, rendering all electronics in a thirty-mile radius useless, and causing a significant amount of physical damage.  Natalya hid shortly after General Ourumov and Xenia entered the building, surviving them shooting all her co-workers, and making it out after the blast.  Back in London, James witnesses a form, which turns out to be Natalya, stagger out of the wreckage.  Thus, the MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) orders James to St. Petersburg, Russia, to begin a search for answers to this new threat.  This is where he hopes to find the person suspected to be behind this devastation, a new player in global espionage going by Janus.  James has an old contact in the form of Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who knows how to find Janus.  Unfortunately, this means having to go through Xenia, but he is able to get the upper hand.  The rendezvous takes place in a dumping ground for Soviet monuments, and it turns out that Janus is actually Alec.  The former British agent harbors a grudge against James for leaving his partner to die.  Also, as a person of Cossack lineage, Alec blames the British government for betraying his people at the end of World War II.  His interactions with James are the one silly part of the film as their multiple run-ins lead to many chances for the villain to kill the hero, but in classic Bond villain fashion, Alec opts for the convoluted plan that gives James and Natalya, who had also been captured, time to get out of the predicament.  After being picked up by the Russian authorities, General Ourumov intervenes and kidnaps Natalya, leading to James having to save her through the use of a tank.  Alec and Xenia eventually get away, too, but not before Natalya learns of the general area from which Alec plans to make his next strike.  It happens to be Cuba, and with some assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), they are able to get onto the island nation.  There is a great deal of shooting and explosions, the long and short of all of it being that James and Natalya are able to prevent the eponymous weapon from hitting London.  There is the obligatory final showdown between Alec and James, which takes place at the dizzying heights of a massive satellite dish, the real location for which can be found in Puerto Rico, by the way.  James and Natalya end up in each other’s arms, but are interrupted from any further activities by the appearance of the United States Marine Corps (USMC).  The end.

My description of the plot to GoldenEye may make it sound like it is nothing too different from any of its predecessors, which you might recognize if you have been following along with my coverage of the series.  In applying my Catholic analysis to these all too familiar tropes, I am also going to return to an aspect that I have also covered in previous Bond iterations.  Specifically, I would like to talk about duty.  When Alec first confronts James about what had happened to them during their joint mission, Alec mocks James’ fealty to queen and country.  Natalya underscores this point when she talks about James being cold.  He responds that doing so is what keeps him alive.  I would suggest to you that Faith offers an alternative.  Another word for this is loyalty, and being loyal to God means using all your feelings and senses in order to serve God.  Happiness, and sadness as well, can both be tools in letting His graces abound in this world.  I get what James means, however.  Somebody in his line of work has to have two faces, which is ironic given it is the codename the villain gives himself.  More generally, a spy must treat those he loves coolly not only for his safety, but for theirs.  If not, such a person should avoid attachments all together.  There are hints here and in other Bond movies of the toll this takes on James.  Luckily, such people make up a small portion of our population.  One does not have to be robotic in order to be loved by God, or loving Him in return.  Everything we do should be with that principle in mind and at heart.  Thus, when I see the kinds of things James goes through in pursuit of his so-called duty, it makes me that much more thankful that I have God instead.

One could make the argument that if you wanted to get a sense of all the Bond movies, you would start with Dr. No (1962), and then skip all the way to GoldenEye.  I assure you, based on recent experience, you are not missing much by doing so.  I anticipate smooth Bond sailing from here until I complete this task.