When discussing The World Is Not Enough (1999), I started off by pointing out some of the things you can expect with any James Bond film.  I focused on the more popular ones, like his familiar introduction “Bond.  James Bond,” and his go-to cocktail, vodka martini, shaken, not stirred.  One that I did not mention are the opening credits sequences.  They are in every one, and the overwhelming majority of them feature scantily clad women that are meant to give you an idea of the famous military intelligence, section six (MI6) operative’s modus operandi when it comes to members of the fairer sex.  Today’s entry in the series, Die Another Day (2002), aside from being Pierce Brosnan’s last in the role, has a unique treatment of this scroll.  There is some titillation, which should be no surprise, but it also serves a purpose to the plot.  The rest of the movie is par for your 007 course, but you will see in a moment how this fits with the arc.

Speaking of unique, I do not recall James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) starting off a film as he does in Die Another Day by surfing onto his target.  That goal lies in the demilitarized zone above the 38^th parallel.  That is North Korea, kids.  He trades places with a diamond merchant sent to rendezvous with Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee), a North Korean officer who studied in the West and is considered a maverick officer amongst peers.  To the West, primarily MI6, Colonel Moon is a threat, and James is there to assassinate him.  Before this can take place, Colonel Moon’s main lieutenant, Tang Ling Zao (Rick Yune), receives information that their visitor is in fact James Bond.  James must now attempt to fight his way to freedom, and he watches as Colonel Moon goes over a waterfall at the end of a chase.  This is when Colonel Moon’s father, General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), catches up with James and imprisons the MI6 agent.  Insert here the aforementioned opening credits sequence when we see James being tortured for information.  Fourteen months pass in this manner before James is exchanged with Tang.  This had been the result of an American intelligence officer being given away, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranging James’ release for fear that he is the source of the leak.  He had told the North Koreans nothing, but his MI6 boss, M (Judi Dench) will not listen to him.  She tells him that his espionage days are over, and he responds by breaking out of the hospital ship on which he had been recuperating, which is in Hong Kong Bay.  Despite his disheveled appearance, he calmly walks into the lobby of a swanky hotel he once frequented, and the manager, Mr. Chang (Ho Yi), affords James every courtesy.  Mr. Chang does this because he is working for Chinese intelligence and wants to know what James is up to in this part of the world.  James mentions Tang’s name, which gets Mr. Chang’s interest due to the problems the North Korean terrorist has caused the Chinese government.  Thus, Mr. Chang directs James to Cuba.  Once in the Caribbean island nation, James liaises with British sleeper agent Raoul (Emilio Echevarría) at the Cuban national’s cigar factory.  From Raoul, James learns that Tang is at a high-tech medical facility situated in an old fort off the coast that specializes in facial reconstructions.  While scouting this location, James encounters Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson (Halle Berry), an undercover agent for the American National Security Agency (NSA).  This becomes apparent when he infiltrates the clinic and finds that she is also after Tang.  Unfortunately, Tang gets away, and so does Jinx, but James comes away with a diamond with the initials “GG” carved into it.  This marks the gem as having come from Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a recent member of the billionaire club thanks to a precious stone mine he unearthed in Iceland.  James arranges to meet Gustav at a fencing club where the gem magnate is learning to handle a sword from Olympic gold medalist in the sport Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike).  Gustav and James have an increasingly deadly duel as James attempts to unsettle Gustav.  Doing so puts him back into M’s good graces, who orders James to continue investigating Gustav by accepting an invitation to Iceland to Witness the unveiling of Gustav’s new invention, called Icarus.  From a giant satellite orbiting the Earth, Icarus can concentrate the sun’s rays and beam them anywhere on the planet.  While delving deeper into this situation, James comes into fuller contact with Miranda, who also works for MI6.  If you are familiar with these films, you will understand what “fuller contact” really means.  Once more, Jinx is on hand to attempt to do what she started in Cuba, but is captured.  When it is James’ turn to sneak into Gustav’s labs, he suffers a similar fate after freeing Jinx.  This is when he is hit with two revelations.  First, Gustav is Colonel Moon with a new face.  Secondly, Miranda is actually on the side of the North Koreans.  Yet, through the use of James’ usual array of gadgets, he is able to slip away and rescue Jinx from the melting ice hotel.  Together, they head back across the world to where Gustav and Miranda have landed in North Korea.  They are then ordered to get to Gustav’s base, doing so in time to slip on board the most massive jet liner you will ever see.  From here, Gustav has his father on hand to witness his son using Icarus to blow up the mine field separating North and South Korea as a preamble to invasion from above the 38^th parallel.  Anyway, bang, bang, boom, boom, James and Jinx triumph, and the last we see of them is them alone in a hut with a load of diamonds taken from the plane.

Apparently, there was a lot of criticism of Die Another Day, which is what led to the replacing of Brosnan with Daniel Craig, and adopting a more realistic tone for the franchise.  I cannot imagine why.  I mean, using a helicopter to bail out of a jet liner in the process of disintegrating in midair is totally believable, right?  Anyway, the change was done in response to the popularity of other, less campy spy flicks like The Bourne Identity (2002), which came out the same year as Die Another Day.  In light of this cinematic shake-up, I will alter slightly my Catholic approach to talking about this film.  Usually, I try to stick to more concrete examples, but this one is a little esoteric.  At one point Gustav quotes Sun Tzu’s The Art of War where it talks about how the victorious strategist only seeks battle after it is won.  This got me to thinking about the Spiritual struggles us Christians face.  Indeed, The Legionnaire is a product of the fight against elements in our society that can lead us astray.  You see them on display in the movie.  One thing you can at least give credit to the more modern Bond movies is the fact that they call out James for being a womanizer.  I am not sure there is another, more accurate label for how 007 uses females.  Our culture has seen an uptick in the acceptance of sex and violence, which has also come with fewer people being in pews on Sundays.  To put it in terms that Sun Tzu might use, my fellow Christian warriors are being demoralized from within, and retreating before a seemingly unstoppable enemy.  As such, why do I even bother writing these reviews?  I do so because the quote above can be applied to Jesus.  I fight because I know Jesus has already won the battle, the entire war, really.  Though I cannot save the world, I can at least help point people to the winning side with what I write in relation to these movies.

With the completion of this treatment of Die Another Day, there is only one more installment in the series for me to do. This is because I have already reviewed four of the five times Craig has appeared in as James Bond, the last one being Spectre (2015).  I am thankful for being so close to being done by finishing Die Another Day, another imminently skippable entry.  If you must watch these movies, I recommend seeing only the first time each actor has filled the role, leaving George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Service (1969) out entirely.