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GoldenEye
Promotional poster for GoldenEye
James Bond	Pierce Brosnan
Also starring	Sean Bean Izabella Scorupco Famke Janssen Gottfried John
Directed by	Martin Campbell
Produced by	Barbara Broccoli Tom Pevsner Anthony Waye Michael G. Wilson
Novel/Story by	Michael France
Screenplay	Jeffrey Caine Bruce Feirstein
Cinematography by	Phil Meheux
Music by	Éric Serra
Main theme	GoldenEye
Composer	Bono The Edge
Performer	Tina Turner
Editing by	{{{editing}}}
Distributed by	MGM/UA Distribution Co.
Released	November 17, 1995
Running time	130 min
Worldwide gross	$350.7 million
Preceded by	Licence To Kill (1989)
Followed by	Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

GoldenEye, released in 1995, is the seventeenth spy film of the British James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Unlike previous James Bond films, it was not related to the works of novelist Ian Fleming,^[1] although the name "GoldenEye" was taken from his estate in Jamaica. The original story was conceived and written by Michael France, with later collaboration by several other writers, and was directed by Martin Campbell. In the film, Bond fights to prevent an arms syndicate from using the GoldenEye satellite weapon against London in order to cause a global financial meltdown.

GoldenEye was released in 1995 after legal disputes forced a six-year hiatus in the series, during which Timothy Dalton abdicated from the role of James Bond and was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. M was also recast,(last played by Robert Brown in Licence to Kill) with actress Judi Dench becoming the first female to portray the character. GoldenEye was the first Bond film made after the downfall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot.

The film was lauded by most critics and performed well at the box office, considerably better than Dalton's films, without taking inflation into account.^[2] Some critics viewed the film as a modernisation of the series, and felt Brosnan was a definite improvement over his predecessor.^[3][4][5] It also received two BAFTA nominations – "Best Achievement in Special Effects" and "Best Sound".^[6]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Filming 3.2 Effects 3.3 Product placement 3.4 Music 4 Release and reception 5 Appearances in other media 6 References 7 External links

In the prologue, MI6 agents and close friends James Bond and Alec Trevelyan infiltrate an illicit Soviet chemical weapons facility at Arkhangelsk and plant explosive charges. During the operation, Trevelyan is captured and shot by Colonel Arkady Ouromov, while Bond steals an airplane and escapes the exploding facility.

Nine years later, Bond arrives in Monte Carlo to follow Xenia Onatopp, a suspected member of the Janus crime syndicate. The next day, she and Ourumov (now a Russian general) steal a French Tiger helicopter and fly it to a bunker in Severnaya, where they massacre the staff and steal the control disk for the GoldenEye satellite weapon, programming it to destroy the complex with an electromagnetic pulse while they escape with programmer Boris Grishenko, another Janus operative. Natalya Simonova, the lone survivor and witness to the massacre, later escapes from the ruins and arranges to meet Grishenko in St. Petersburg, where he betrays her to Janus agents.

M assigns Bond to investigate the attack, and flies him to St. Petersburg to meet CIA ally Jack Wade, who takes him to meet Valentin Zukovsky, a Russian Mafia head. Zukovsky arranges a meeting between Bond and Janus, who reveals himself as Trevelyan. A Lienz Cossac, Trevelyan faked his death at Archangelsk and vows revenge against Britain for their involvement in his family's deaths. Trevelyan captures Bond and ties him up with Simonova in the Tiger helicopter, now programmed to self-destruct, which they narrowly escape using its ejection system. They are immediately arrested by the Russian police and interrogated by the Minister of Defence, Dmitri Mishkin. Just as Simonova reveals Ourumov's involvement in the massacre of Severnaya, Ourumov bursts into the room, shooting Mishkin and dragging Simonova into a waiting car.

Bond steals a T-55 tank and audaciously pursues Ourumov through St. Petersburg to Janus' train, where he kills Ourumov as Trevelyan escapes, locking Bond in the train with Simonova. As the train's self-destruct countdown begins, Bond slices through the floor with his laser watch while Simonova locates Grishenko's satellite dish in Cuba. The two escape just before the train explodes.

In Cuba, Bond and Simonova fly a plane over the jungle before they are shot down. As they stumble out of the wreckage, Onatopp rappels down from a helicopter and attacks, knocking out Simonova and torturing an already enfeebled Bond. Bond resists and narrowly kills her. Minutes later, he and Simonova watch a lake being drained of its water, uncovering Grishenko's satellite dish. They infiltrate the control station, where Bond is captured by Trevelyan, who reveals his plan of stealing money from the Bank of England before hitting it with the GoldenEye, concealing the theft and destroying England's economy.

Meanwhile, an unnoticed Simonova programs the satellite to initiate re-entry and burn up in the atmosphere. As Trevelyan captures Simonova and orders Grishenko to save the satellite, Bond triggers an explosion with his Parker Jotter pen grenade and escapes to the antenna cradle with Simonova, followed by Trevelyan. Bond sabotages the antenna, preventing Grishenko from regaining control of the satellite, before turning and facing Trevelyan. In the ensuing fight, Bond shoves Trevelyan off the antenna and into the dish hundreds of feet below, before escaping aboard a helicopter commandeered by Simonova. The cradle malfunctions and collapses, crushing Trevelyan and rupturing liquid nitrogen tanks in the station that freeze Grishenko to death. Meanwhile on the surface, while finding solace in each others arms, Bond and Simonova are rescued by Wade and his platoon of U.S. Marines.

• Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (007): An MI6 Agent assigned to stop the Janus crime syndicate from acquiring "GoldenEye", a clandestine satellite weapon designed and launched by the Soviets during the Cold War.
• Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan (006): Initially another double-0 Agent and Bond's friend, he fakes his death at Arkangel and then establishes Janus in the following nine years.
• Izabella Scorupco as Natalya Simonova: The only innocent survivor and eyewitness of the attack of GoldenEye on its own control center at Severnaya. A skilled programmer, she helps Bond in his mission and follows him to Cuba to disarm the GoldenEye.
• Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp: A lust murderer and Trevelyan's henchwoman. A sadist and masochist, she enjoys crushing and asphyxiating her enemies between her strong thighs.
• Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade: A veteran CIA agent on the same mission as Bond. He later appears in Tomorrow Never Dies.
• Judi Dench as M: The strict head of MI6.
• Gottfried John as General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov: A renegade Russian general who nefariously misuses his authority and position for helping Janus gain access to the GoldenEye. He is forsaken to die at Bond's hands on learning that Trevelyan is a Cossack.
• Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky: a Russian gangster and ex-KGB agent through whom Bond uses to arrange a meeting with Janus (Trevelyan).
• Alan Cumming as Boris Grishenko: a computer programmer at Severnaya secretly affiliated to Janus.
• Tchéky Karyo as Defense Minister Dmitri Mishkin: The Defense Minister and the person to whom Ourumov had to report. Ourumov shoots him when Simonova reveals the events at Severnaya.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q: Llewelyn was the only actor to reprise a role from a previous Bond film.
• Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary. Samantha Bond made her first of four appearances as Moneypenny.

The preceding Bond film, Licence to Kill, had underperformed at the American box office.^[7] Also, in 1989, MGM/UA was sold to the Australian based broadcasting group Quintex, who wanted to merge the company with Pathé. Danjaq, the Swiss based parent company of EON, sued MGM/UA because the Bond back catalogue was being licensed to Pathé, who intended to broadcast the Bond series on television in several countries across the world without the approval of Danjaq.^[8] These legal disputes delayed the film for several years.^[9]

While the legal disputes went on, Timothy Dalton was still expected to play Bond in the new film, as he had originally signed up for a three-film contract. In an interview in 1993, Dalton said that Michael France was writing the story for the film, which was due to begin production in January or February 1994.^[10] However, the deadline was not met, and in April 1994, Dalton officially abdicated from the role.^[11][12] To replace Dalton, the producers cast Pierce Brosnan, who had been prevented from taking over the role from Roger Moore in 1985 because of his contract with Remington Steele.^[13][14] Judi Dench was cast as M, thus making GoldenEye the first film of the series featuring a female M. The decision is widely believed to be inspired by Stella Rimington becoming head of MI5 in 1992.^[15][16]

GoldenEye was produced by Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions. With Albert Broccoli's health deteriorating (he died seven months after the film's release), his daughter Barbara Broccoli described him as taking "a bit of a back seat" in the production of the film, but still having a lot of influence.^[17] In his stead, Barbara and Michael G. Wilson took the lead roles in production. The producers then chose New Zealander Martin Campbell as the director. Brosnan later described Campbell as "warrior-like in his take on the piece" and that "there was a huge passion there on both our parts".^[18] Campbell would go on to direct Casino Royale in 2006. The producers also chose not to use Richard Maibaum, long-time writer for the series.^[8][19] After Michael France wrote the original screenplay, Jeffrey Caine was brought in to rewrite it.^[20] Caine kept many of France's ideas but added the prologue prior to the credits. Kevin Wade polished the script and Bruce Feirstein added the finishing touches.^[21] In the film, the writing credit was shared by Caine and Feirstein, while France was credited with only the story, an arrangement he felt was unfair,^[22] particularly as he believed the additions made were not an improvement on his original version.^[23] Wade did not receive an official credit, but was acknowledged in the naming of Jack Wade, the CIA character he created.

While the story was not based on a work by Ian Fleming, the title GoldenEye traces its origins to the name of Fleming's Jamaican estate where he wrote the Bond novels. Fleming gave a number of origins for the name of his estate, including Carson McCullers' Reflections in a Golden Eye^[24] and Operation Goldeneye, a contingency plan Fleming himself developed during World War II in case of a Nazi invasion through Spain.^[25][26]

Since Licence to Kill, the world had changed drastically. GoldenEye was the first James Bond film to be produced since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This cast doubt over whether James Bond was still relevant in the modern world, as many of the previous films pitted him against Soviet villains trying to take advantage of the Cold War.^[27] Much of the film industry felt that it would be "futile" to make a comeback for the Bond series, and that it was best left as "an icon of the past"^[28] However, when released, the film was viewed as a successful revivification and it effectively adapted the series for the 1990s.^[4][29] One of GoldenEye's more modern aspects was the casting of a female as M, the first James Bond film to do so. In the film, the new M quickly establishes her authority, remarking that Bond is a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur" and a "relic of the Cold War". This is an early indication that Bond is portrayed as far less tempestuous than Timothy Dalton's Bond from 1989.^[30]

Principal photography for the film began on January 16, 1995 and continued till June 6, 1995.^[31] The producers were unable to film at Pinewood Studios, the usual location for Bond films, because it had been reserved. Instead, an old Rolls Royce factory at the Leavesdon Aerodrome in Hertfordshire was converted into a new studio.^[32] The producers later said Pinewood would have been too small.^[17] The film's casino scenes were shot in Monte Carlo, as was the Tiger helicopter's demonstration. Reference footage for the tank chase was shot on location in St. Petersburg and matched to the studio at Leavesden. The climactic scenes on the satellite dish were shot at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.^[33] M's office was located at MI6's headquarters, next to the River Thames in London.^[34]

The producers gained the assistance of the French Navy, which provided full use of the frigate FS La Fayette and the navy's newest helicopter, the Eurocopter Tiger. The French government also allowed the use of Navy logos as part of the promotional campaign for the film. However, the producers had a dispute with the Ministry of Defence over Brosnan's opposition to French nuclear weapons testing and his involvement with Greenpeace; as a result, the French premiere of the film was cancelled.^[35]

The tank chase scene was performed with the use of a Russian T-55 tank from a British military rental firm and modified with the addition of fake explosive reactive armor panels (chronologically appropriate to a modern upgraded T55 equipping the Russian Army Reserve of the period, such as as the T-55M5). In order to avoid destroying the pavement on the city streets of St. Petersburg, the steel off-road tracks of the T-55 were replaced with the rubber-shoed tracks from a British Chieftain tank. A rectangular viewport was cut in the glacis plate and covered with tinted Perspex, allowing a trained driver to maneuver the tank from a prone position inside the driver's compartment while Pierce Brosnan sat in the (modified) driver's seat with his head protruding from the driver's hatch, creating the illusion he was driving the tank "unbuttoned".^[36]

The sequences involving the armoured train were filmed on Nene Valley Railway, near Peterborough in the UK. The train comprised a British Rail Class 20 diesel-electric locomotive and a pair of BR Mk 2 coaches. All three were heavily disguised to resemble a Soviet armoured train.^[37][38]

The opening 220 m bungee jump at Archangel, shot at the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland and performed by Wayne Michaels, was voted the best movie stunt of all time as of 2002 and set a record for the highest bungee jump off a fixed structure.^[39] The largest stunt sequence in the film was the tank chase, which took around six weeks to film, partly on location in St. Petersburg and partly at Leavesden.^[40] The tank used in the chase was on loan from the East England Military Museum.^[31]

The fall of communism in Russia is the main focus of the opening titles, designed by Daniel Kleinman (who took over from Maurice Binder after his death in 1991). They show the collapse and destruction of several structures associated with the Soviet Union, such as the red star and hammer and sickle. In an interview, Kleinman said they were meant to be "a kind of story telling sequence" showing that "what was happening in Communist countries was Communism was falling down".^[41]

GoldenEye was the first film bound by BMW's three picture deal,^[42] so the producers were offered BMW's latest roadster, the BMW Z3. It was featured in the film months before its release, and a limited edition "007 model" sold out within a day of being available to order. As part of the car's marketing strategy, several Z3's were used to drive journalists from a complimentary meal at the Rainbow Room restaurant to GoldenEye's premiere at Radio City Music Hall.^[43] For the film, a convertible Z3 is equipped with the usual Q refinements, including a self-destruct feature and Stinger missiles behind the headlights.^[44]

The Z3's appearance in GoldenEye stands out as the most successful promotion through product placement in 1995.^[45] Ten years later, The Hollywood Reporter listed it as one of the most successful product placements in recent years. The article quoted Mary Lou Galician, head of media analysis and criticism at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, as saying that the news coverage of Bond's switch from Aston Martin to BMW "generated hundreds of millions of dollars of media exposure for the movie and all of its marketing partners."^[46]

GoldenEye was the first James Bond film in which Bond does not wear a Rolex. Brosnan wore an Omega watch to help modernise Bond's image. Lindy Hemming, the film's costume designer, told The European Magazine Rolex had "become a bit ordinary".^[47] The producers also wanted to work with a company that would cooperate in cross promotions, which Rolex did not wish to do. Omega produced a limited edition "James Bond" variation of the watch used in GoldenEye.^[48] In the film, Bond's watch, standard issue for MI6 agents, can remotely detonate mines and has a built-in laser that can cut through metal.

Further information: List of James Bond vehicles, List of James Bond gadgets, and List of James Bond firearms

Main article: GoldenEye (soundtrack)

The theme song, "GoldenEye", was written by Bono and The Edge, and was performed by Tina Turner.^[49] As the producers did not collaborate with Bono or The Edge, alternate versions of the song did not appear throughout GoldenEye, as was the case in previous James Bond films.^[50]

The soundtrack to GoldenEye was composed by Éric Serra. Prolific Bond composer John Barry said he was offered it by Barbara Broccoli, but turned it down.^[51] Serra's score has been heavily criticised: Richard von Busack, in Metro, wrote that it was "more appropriate for a ride on an elevator than a ride on a roller coaster",^[52] and Filmtracks said Serra "failed completely in his attempt to tie Goldeneye to the franchise's past."^[53]

Later, John Altman provided the music for the tank chase in St. Petersburg. Serra's original track for that sequence can still be found on the soundtrack as "A Pleasant Drive In St. Petersburg".^[54] Serra composed and performed a number of synthesizer tracks, including the version of the James Bond Theme that plays during the gun barrel sequence,^[55] while John Altman and David Arch provided the more traditional symphonic music.^[56]

GoldenEye premiered on November 13, 1995, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and went on general release in the USA on November 17, 1995. The UK premiere, attended by Prince Charles, followed on November 22, 1995 at the Odeon Leicester Square, with general release two days later.^[57] Brosnan boycotted the French premiere to support Greenpeace's protest against the French nuclear testing program, causing the premiere to be abrogated.^[58] The film was later released in a further 31 countries, under three alternate titles.^[59]

The film earned over $26 million during its opening across 2,667 theaters in the USA. Its worldwide sales were about $350 million.^[60] It had the fourth highest worldwide gross of all films in 1995^[61] and, was the most successful Bond film since Moonraker, taking inflation into account.^[2]

The critical reception of the film was mostly positive with the film review collection website Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 84% Fresh approval,^[62] although a similar site, Metacritic, gave it only 65%.^[63] In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, and said Brosnan's Bond was "somehow more sensitive, more vulnerable, more psychologically complete" than the previous ones, also commenting on Bond's "loss of innocence" since previous films.^[64] James Berardinelli described Brosnan as "a decided improvement over his immediate predecessor" with a "flair for wit to go along with his natural charm", but added that "fully one-quarter of Goldeneye is momentum-killing padding."^[65]

Several reviewers lauded M's appraisal of Bond as a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur",^[66][4][67] with Todd McCarthy in Variety saying GoldenEye "breathes fresh creative and commercial life" into the series.^[4] John Puccio of DVD Town said that GoldenEye was "an eye and ear-pleasing, action-packed entry in the Bond series" and that the film gave Bond "a bit of humanity, too".^[68] Ian Nathan of Empire said that GoldenEye "revamps that indomitable British spirit" and that the Die Hard movies "don't even come close to 007". Tom Sonne of the Sunday Times considered GoldenEye the best Bond film since The Spy Who Loved Me. Jose Arroyo of Sight & Sound considered the greatest success of the film in modernising the series.^[29]

However, the film elicited several negative reviews. Richard Schickel of Time wrote that after "a third of a century's hard use", Bond's conventions survived on "wobbly knees",^[69] while in Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman thought the series had "entered a near-terminal state of exhaustion."^[70] Dragon Antulov said that GoldenEye had a "standard (and rather predictable) series of scenes",^[71] and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said that the film was "a middle-aged entity anxious to appear trendy at all costs".^[72] David Eimer of Premiere wrote that "the trademark humour is in short supply" and that "Goldeneye isn't classic Bond by any stretch of the imagination."^[29] Madeleine Williams said that "there are plenty of stunts and explosions to take your mind off the plot."^[73]

GoldenEye was edited in order to be guaranteed a PG-13 rating from the MPAA and a 12 rating from the BBFC. The cuts included the visible bullet impact to Trevelyan's head when he is shot in the prologue, several additional deaths during the sequence in which Onatopp guns down the workers at the Severnaya station, more explicit footage and violent behaviour in the Admiral's death, extra footage of Onatopp's death, and Bond giving her a rabbit punch in the car.^[32]In 2006, the film was remastered and re-edited for the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVD in which the cuts including headbutts and violent sound effects were restored, causing the rating to be changed to 15.^[74]

See also: GoldenEye 007 and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

GoldenEye was the second and final Bond film to be adapted to a novel by novelist John Gardner, and was to be his penultimate Bond novel. The book closely follows the film's storyline, but Gardner added a violent sequence prior to the opening bungee jump in which Bond kills a group of Russian guards, a change that the video game GoldenEye 007 retained.^[75]

In late 1995, Topps Comics began publishing a three-issue comic book adaptation of GoldenEye. The script was adapted by Don McGregor with art by Rick Magyar. The first issue carried a January 1996 cover date.^[76] For unknown reasons, Topps cancelled the entire adaptation after the first issue had been published, and to date the adaptation has never been released in its entirety.^[77]

The film was the basis for GoldenEye 007, a successful video game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rare and published by Nintendo.^[78][79] It was considered a flagship game for the console, and viewed as revolutionary in its development of the first-person shooter format. In a January 2000 poll, readers of the British video game magazine Computer and Video Games voted GoldenEye 007 to first place in a list of "the hundred greatest video games".^[80] In Edge's 10th anniversary issue in 2003, the game was included as one of their top ten shooters of all time,^[81] and in 2005, a "Best Games of All-Time" poll at GameFAQs placed it at 7th.^[82] It is based upon the film, but many of the missions were extended or modified.^[83]

GoldenEye 007 was modified into a racing game intended to be released for the Virtual Boy console. However, the game was cancelled before release.^[84]

In 2004, Electronic Arts released GoldenEye: Rogue Agent for several platforms. This is the first game of the James Bond series in which the player does not take on the role of Bond. Instead the protagonist is an aspiring Double-0 agent named GoldenEye recruited by a villain of the Bond universe, Auric Goldfinger.^[85] Except the appearance of Xenia Onatopp, the game was unrelated to the film and GoldenEye 007, and was released to mediocre review scores for all its versions — PlayStation 2,[1] GameCube,[2] and Xbox.[3] It was excoriated by several critics including Eric Qualls^[86] for using the name "GoldenEye" as an attempt to ride on the success of Rare's game.^[87]

• MGM's official GoldenEye website
• GoldenEye at the Internet Movie Database
• GoldenEye at All Movie Guide
• GoldenEye at Rotten Tomatoes
• GoldenEye at Box Office Mojo

v • d • e The James Bond Films

"Official" (EON Productions) films Dr. No • From Russia with Love • Goldfinger • Thunderball • You Only Live Twice • On Her Majesty's Secret Service • Diamonds Are Forever • Live and Let Die • The Man with the Golden Gun • The Spy Who Loved Me • Moonraker • For Your Eyes Only • Octopussy • A View to a Kill • The Living Daylights • Licence to Kill • GoldenEye • Tomorrow Never Dies • The World Is Not Enough • Die Another Day • Casino Royale • Bond 22 Non-EON films Casino Royale (1954 TV) • Casino Royale (1967 satire) • Never Say Never Again