BIG BAD FILM

Tomorrow Never Dies is an unsung entry in the James Bond franchise, one burdened with following GoldenEye’s perfection, the passing of mastermind producer Albert R. Broccoli, and a growing sense that 007 may have lost his relevance after the end of the Cold War. 

But this film has everything a Bond fan could want: arch one-liners, Vincent Schiavelli as a hitman and chakra-torture aficionado, “techno-terrorist” Ricky Jay, CIA liaison Joe Don Baker, inspired gadgets, Philip Kwok and his Hong Kong stunt team, a remote-controlled BMW chase — and all of it lensed beautifully by DP Robert Elswit. It balances wry humor and fun with emotional weight and depth that’s best expressed in the film’s Bond girls: Teri Hatcher’s Paris Carver, a woman 007 once loved, and Michelle Yeoh’s Wai Lin, a Chinese spy every bit his equal. It also boasts one of Bond’s most prescient villains, just the kind of update the franchise needed: Jonathan Pryce’s megalomaniacal media mogul Elliot Carver, who screenwriter Bruce Feirstein based loosely on Robert Maxwell.

Yeoh considered her character Bond’s female counterpart; she’s actually the first woman in Bond history given her own standalone action sequences. Another action legend dreamed up the centerpiece chase for her and Bond: second-unit director and stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong. Director Roger Spottiswoode and Armstrong endlessly storyboarded this sequence, which features Pierce Brosnan’s Bond and Wai Lin fleeing Carver’s Saigon headquarters under threat of chakra torture. Handcuffed together, the pair speed through the crowded city on a giant motorcycle.

In GoldenEye, Bond flattened St. Petersburg in a tank, so Spottiswoode wanted something different that would leave Bond more vulnerable. The obvious answer: a motorcycle. Armstrong loved the BMW R1200C because it was so impractical; he hated seeing characters commandeer a motorcycle in a movie, and it conveniently happens to be a motocross bike ideal for jumps and tricks. The cruiser was a powerful machine, heavy and unwieldy, a nightmare for a quick escape — just what this chase needed. 

Bond and Wai Lin have to outrun Carver’s goons, hurtling through hazy, narrow alleyways, then through buildings and over bridges, rooftops, and balconies, even crashing into a brothel. They agree on nothing: which getaway ride to steal, which direction to flee. They’re accustomed to being in the driver’s seat; as rival agents employed by rival world powers, tension and suspicion are baked into their nascent relationship. But the pair “seem to have developed a certain attachment to each other,” and the cuffs force them to get acquainted at lightning speed. Their survival requires functioning as a single unit. Wai Lin holds onto Bond with one arm, the other working the clutch; the chase heats up when she has to straddle Bond to assess their pursuers. “Don’t get any ideas,” she warns. But Bond wouldn’t dream of it.

Armstrong agonized over finding the perfect stuntman for Brosnan; he always prioritized safety on set, but it was especially crucial here since his wife Wendy Leech would be doubling Yeoh. French stunt-driver and coordinator Jean-Pierre Goy came highly recommended, but so did several other professionals. Just before filming started, though, Armstrong turned on the television to see Goy riding a motorcycle up and over the handrail of a 180-foot bridge. It felt like a clear sign from the universe. Goy was the man for the job.

The chase becomes David against Goliath when the helicopter appears. Like a monster terrorizing the city, the low-flying machine’s spinning blades shred everything in its path. The crowning glory of this sequence is the 45-foot jump between buildings over the chopper, a leap of faith figuratively and literally for Bond and Wai Lin. Armstrong had considered using CG, but Goy made good on his promise he could do it for real, without cables. Armstrong also thought the bike was too long and cumbersome for a wheelie, but Goy proved him wrong there, too — as evidenced by Bond riding the bike on its rear wheel with Wai Lin on the handlebars.

When the chopper corners Bond and Wai Lin, she says, “We’re trapped.” He replies, “Never.” This is the fantasy of 007 in brief, a tidy encapsulation of who James Bond is, the way he makes the impossible possible. His ingenious solution to their quandary: Bond slides the bike sideways beneath the helicopter, yet another seemingly supernatural feat performed by Goy. When they throw a clothesline into the rotors, they deliver the deathblow, finally in sync. 

This might just be the sexiest chase in cinematic history. Tomorrow Never Dies’ visceral ride is really a love scene: a fireworks-igniting exercise in building trust and intimacy that concludes with our heroes playfully showering together. Wai Lin insists she works alone as she cuffs Bond to a pipe, but ultimately she realizes joining forces with “a decadent agent of a corrupt Western power” has its rewards.