Pierce Brosnan starred in fourJames Bond movies, but he never topped his first and best film,GoldenEye. Released in 1995,GoldenEyewas directed by Martin Campbell, and it introduced the world to Pierce Brosnan as the new James Bond.GoldenEyealso starred Sean Bean as the villainous Alec Trevalyan AKA 006, Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, Isabella Scorupco as Natalya Simonova, and introduced Jedi Dench as the new M.GoldenEyewas a box office smash, grossing $356 million worldwide.
After a 6-year interval since the previous James Bond film, 1989’sLicense To Kill,due to a legal battle over the 007 rights between United Artists and MGM,Timothy Dalton bowed out of playing James Bond. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson wisely selectedPierce Brosnan as the new 007.GoldenEyeplunged James Bond into a mission to stop the Janus organization, who had taken control of a Russian satellite called GoldenEye that threatened the world with an electomagnetic pulse that would cripple technology.GoldenEyeproved to be a milestone, and the rebirth James Bond needed.
GoldenEye Updated James Bond’s Formula For The 1990s
Bond Entered The Blockbuster Movie Era
GoldenEyeis an ideal blend of the traditional James Bond formula mixed with 1990s blockbuster action and infused with relevant post-Cold War intrigue.Pierce Brosnan’s James Bondwas the right secret agent for this dangerous new era of duplicitous enemies seeking super weapons for world domination. From the thrilling bungee jump in the flashback prologue that openedGoldenEye,to 007’s destructive tank chase through St. Petersburg, andGoldenEye’s climatic battle atop a satellite dish in Cuba, Brosnan andGoldenEyetook James Bond’s action-adventure to another level.
Every Pierce Brosnan James Bond Movie, Ranked Worst To Best
Pierce Brosnan was the fifth actor to play James Bond, with his run as 007 often considered one of the long-running series most divisive.
Pierce Brosnan was simply born to play 007. Brosnan fused hisJames Bond actorpredecessors, Sean Connery’s elegance, Roger Moore’s wit, and Timothy Dalton’s grit. Pierce’s Bond spied hard and lusted even harder. Yet Brosnan also conveyed that his Bond had a complicated inner life, as if the decades of risks and close calls had taken a toll on him that he powers through for Queen and country. InGoldenEye,Brosnan’s 007 was immediately iconicand effortlessly glides into danger in every exotic port of call he visits.GoldenEyetook James Bond seriously, and audiences instantly believed in 007 once more.
GoldenEye Introduced 2 Classic James Bond Villains
Alec Trevelyan And Xenia Onatopp Are All-Timers
GoldenEyepits James Bond against two all-timegreat 007 villains. As Alec Trevelyan, Sean Bean is arguably the most ferocious and memorable antagonist Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond faced.GoldenEyeingeniously made Trevelyan a former British Secret Service operatve and colleague of Bond’s - codename 006. In Alec Trevelyan, James met his equal in skill and guile, and 006 was a broken mirror reflection of Bond himself.GoldenEyewas the first instance of a Double-0 agent going rogue and menacing the world, and Trevalyan stands as perhaps the toughest foe, physically and mentally, that Brosnan’s 007 faced.
Skyfallwould repeatGoldenEyeby making Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) a former MI6 agent who faced Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp is the only femaleJames Bond henchmanwho measures up to the iconic Oddjob (Harold Sakata) fromGoldfingerand Jaws (Richard Kiel) fromThe Spy Who Loved Meand Moonraker.While other evil women have tried to kill James Bond, Xenia was the deadliest.The ravishingly seductive but deadly Onatopp could crush men between her thighs and, unlike other nefarious Bond Girls who ended up joining forces with 007, Xenia was unrepentant and diabolical to the last.
GoldenEye is stocked with memorable bad guys.
In addition,GoldenEyeintroduced Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, a Russian gangster and former KGB agent James Bond has encountered in the past. Coltrane was so memorable, he returned inThe World Is Not Enough.GoldenEyealso co-stars Alan Cumming as Boris Grishenko, the treasonous Russian computer programmer to helps Alec Trevelyan steal the GoldenEye satellite, and Gottfied John as the Russian General Ourumov.GoldenEyeis stocked with memorable bad guys andthe heavies in Pierce Brosnan’s subsequent James Bond movies don’t quite measure up to them.
Judi Dench Gave James Bond A Modern M
Dench Became M To Two Different 007s
One ofGoldenEye’s best innovations, which had long-lasting implications for the James Bond franchise, was castingJudi Dench as M. James Bond’s MI6 boss, as originated by Bernard Lee, was previously a veteran of World War II.Dench updated M for the 1990s and beyond.Initially introduced as the"evil queen of numbers,“M was a no-nonsense taskmaster who sharply regarded 007 as"a sexist, misogynist dinosaur… a relic of the Cold War.“Bond had to prove himself to the new M before she became James' most ardent supporter.
Judi Dench’s M Was The Real Bond Girl Of Daniel Craig’s Billion Dollar 007 Movie
Daniel Craig’s James Bond romanced several Bond Girls, but M held a special place in his heart as evidenced by what happened in Skyfall.
Judi Dench was so iconic as M that she not only returned for all of Pierce Brosnan’s sequels, butDench’s M was rebooted for Daniel Craig’s James Bond era. Dench played M in four ofCraig’s Bond movies,Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace,Skyfall,andSpectre,developing a more maternal yet still uncompromising relationship with Daniel’s 007. Thanks toGoldenEye, Dench set a new gold standard for M and redefined James Bond’s relationship with his master at the British Secret Service.
Brosnan’s Bonds Got More Cartoonish Over Time
GoldenEyewas an ideal debut for Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond that brilliantly kicked off his 007 era. WhileThe World Is Not EnoughandDie Another DayexceededGoldenEye’s box office, neither they norTomorrow Never Diesclicked the wayGoldenEyedid. 1997’sTomorrow Never Diessaw 007 face media magnate Elliot Carver(Jonathan Pryce), who wanted to use headlines to ignite World War III. Yet despite martial arts sensation Michelle Yeoh joining forces with Bond, and Teri Hatcher’s tragic turn as James' ex-lover, Paris Carver,Tomorrow Never Diesunderwhelmed compared toGoldenEye.
1995
$356,429,933
1997
$339,504,276
1999
$361,730,660
2002
Lee Tamahori
$431,942,139
1999’sThe World Is Not EnoughandDie Another Dayexposed James Bond to the excesses of 90s-era blockbusters.The World Is Not Enoughbenefitted from an intriguing villain, Sophie Marceau’s treacherous Elektra King, but stunt casting Denise Richards as nuclear scientist Dr. Christmas Jones, and a nonsensical plot involving Renard (Robert Carlyle), a Bond villain who feels no pain, sank Pierce Brosnan’s third Bond movie.
11 James Bond Gadgets From Pierce Brosnan’s Movies Ranked
The James Bond gadgets were no more prevalent than during the Pierce Brosnan era of 007 movies, and all of them are great gadgets in their own right.
Despite an intriguingly stark pre-credits sequence where James Bond is captured and imprisoned in a North Korean prison, 2002’sDie Another Dayquickly devolved into a live-action cartoonwhere James Bond drove an invisible car,Halle Berry played a secret agent named Jinx, 007 fought a North Korean who surgically and implausibly turned himself into an Englishman named Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), and Madonna cameoed as a fencing teacher. Pierce Brosnan was a superior 007, but his oeuvre never matched the majesty ofGoldenEye, his enduringly spectacular debut as James Bond.
