The Incomplete Guide to Tomorrow Never Dies in 2025

In which Vanessa is delighted to see a fleeting visit to her motherland of North Germany

Welcome back to the revival of my James Bond reviews - I apologise for the long lapse, or the return, depending on your feelings about this! You can check out everything I’ve written so far in our Substack archives, comparing how ethically dubious or righteous the films are with today’s views, how realistic their plots are, and how easy it is to follow in Bond’s footsteps.

Sheryl Crow serves with this theme song; it’s very moody, but wait until the next film for really moody music! The opening credits return to a purely abstract visualisation of timepieces, X-rays, motherboards, and of course women, which forecasts the themes ahead.

Carving out their space

Bond continues to professionally surround himself with strong women. M’s lone female presence in command situations has her counterparts underestimating her, but she comes up trumps by avoiding war that her male opposites were rushing to get into. Similarly, Wai Lin’s competence as agent echoes Major Amasova and Dr Goodhead’s appearances. Thus it is more cruel to still see Carver mock her martial arts skills.

Sadly, we fridge another Bond girl associated with the villains. Paris Carver was doomed from the moment Bond walked into the Hamburg reception. Lying about their past compounded her fate, but her husband seemed uninterested in having anything in common with Bond (relishing in a jab about this during their final showdown). Paris didn’t help herself by turning down potential support from James (though we cannot know how this might have gone without Bond taking personal responsibility) as she doesn’t want it if she can’t have him - a narrow mindset to save her own life.

Bond was slammed as a sexist, misogynist dinosaur in GoldenEye, but the franchise made a bit of progress here. (3/5)

Murdoching up trouble

The film starts with M overseeing facial recognition on Bond’s initial mission. Nowadays this is put into practice by smaller fish, such as the monitoring carried out by the Metropolitan Police. Also, don’t be surprised by the confidence of Bond piloting that Russian aircraft. Nearly 50 percent of American men responding to a survey thought they could do so if air traffic control guided them - and Bond already knows his way around a cockpit.

The government being concerned about the optics of taking actions has become ever more relevant since the release of this film - not only does the traditional press have a vested interest, but now that social media users can become citizen journalists, everything is under scrutiny.

The only moment this is undermined is when Bond quips to Rupert Murdoch stand-in Elliot Carver before his final moments about the first rule in journalism. Bond suggests this is “Give the people what they want”; while there is no set rule, I would suggest far more important (and what could have prevented Carver’s fate) is to “never become the story”. (5/5)

From Hamburg with haste

Alas, many of the films locations were shrouded in confusion, filmed in one place, yet set in another. Interestingly, one of these was very familiar for those who have watched The Man with the Golden Gun, as Phang Nga Bay stood in for Ha Long Bay.

But to start at the beginning, Bond finds himself in Oxford after the opening credits, and promises to be at the Ministry of Defense in Whitehall in 30 minutes by car, after Moneypenny cajoles him. The most direct, fastest route for the post-morning commuter traffic would be via the M40 and would take 1 hour and 25 minutes. Some serious speeding rules are being broken!

In Hamburg, Bond ostensibly stays at the Atlantic Hotel, where prices go as low as €208 per night (under £185, currently). Avis will rent you a BMW for around €333 (£291) for the shortest duration I could find for a return booking from Hamburg airport. Finally, if you want that HALO feeling, you could try some Thai skydiving businesses (as the country stood in for Vietnam), though I don’t know if you’ll feel safe paying only 1,250 baht, which is less than £30. (1/5)

Tomorrow eventually comes

The Bond franchise was cashing in on the popularity of Hong Kong action films, casting Michelle Yeoh after the hit Police Story 3, and known for doing her own stunts. Unfortunately, the timing of its release meant that it was in the shadow of Titanic, which would become the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. While Tomorrow Never Dies didn’t perform poorly, it didn’t reach GoldenEye’s heights, signaling a rockier time ahead for Brosnan’s Bond, as producers chased bigger twists and action pieces to capture the movie-going audience. (3/5)

This plot was quite the curveball to the usual James Bond story - did that pull you in more, or put you off instead?