The World Is Not Enough
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The World Is Not Enough is a 1999 spy film and the nineteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Bruce Feirstein. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The title is taken from the Bond family coat of arms taken from English heraldic Arms and seen first in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
The film's plot revolves around the assassination of billionaire Sir Robert King by the terrorist Renard, and Bond's subsequent assignment to protect King's daughter Elektra, who had previously been held for ransom by Renard. During his assignment, Bond unravels a scheme to increase petroleum prices by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul.
Filming locations included Spain, France, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the UK, with interiors shot at Pinewood Studios. Despite receiving mixed reviews, with the plot and Denise Richards' casting being frequently targeted for criticism, The World Is Not Enough earned $361.8 million worldwide. It was also the first Eon-produced Bond film to be officially released under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer label instead of United Artists, the original owner and distributor of the film franchise.
Plot
In Bilbao, MI6 agent James Bond meets a Swiss banker to retrieve money for Sir Robert King, a British oil tycoon and friend of M. Bond asks who killed an MI6 agent. The banker threatens Bond, but Bond overpowers him. The banker is killed by his assistant, and Bond escapes with the money but it is revealed to be booby-trapped.
King is killed by an explosion inside MI6 headquarters in London. Bond chases the assassin by boat on the Thames to the Millennium Dome, where she attempts to escape via hot air balloon. Bond offers her protection, but she refuses and blows up the balloon at the cost of her life.
Bond traces the recovered money to Renard, a KGB agent-turned-terrorist. Following an earlier attempt on his life by MI6, Renard was left with a bullet in his brain which is gradually making him immune to pain. M assigns Bond to protect King's daughter, Elektra; Renard previously abducted and held her for ransom. Bond flies to Azerbaijan, where Elektra is overseeing the construction of an oil pipeline. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra are attacked by a hit squad in armed, paraglider-equipped snowmobiles.
Bond visits Valentin Zukovsky at a casino to acquire information about Elektra's attackers; he discovers that Elektra's head of security, Sasha Davidov, is secretly in league with Renard. Bond kills Davidov and boards a plane bound for a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan. Posing as a Russian nuclear scientist, Bond meets American nuclear physicist Christmas Jones. Renard removes the GPS locator card and weapons-grade plutonium from a nuclear bomb. Before Bond can kill him, Jones blows his cover. Renard steals the bomb and flees, leaving everyone to die. Bond and Jones escape the exploding silo with the locator card.
Back in Azerbaijan, Bond discloses to M that Elektra may not be as innocent as she seems, and hands her the locator card as proof of the theft: an alarm sounds, revealing that the stolen bomb from Kazakhstan is attached to an inspection rig heading towards the oil terminal. Bond and Jones enter the pipeline to deactivate the bomb, and Jones discovers that half of the plutonium is missing. They both jump clear of the rig and a large section of the pipe is destroyed. Bond and Jones are presumed killed. Back at the command center, Elektra reveals that she killed her father as revenge for using her as bait for Renard. She abducts M, whom she resents for advising her father not to pay the ransom money.
Bond accosts Zukovsky at his caviar factory in the Caspian Sea and they are attacked by Elektra's helicopters. Zukovsky reveals his arrangement with Elektra was in exchange for the use of a submarine captained by Zukovsky's nephew, Nikolai. The group goes to Istanbul, where Jones realises that if Renard were to insert the stolen plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, the resulting nuclear meltdown would destroy Istanbul, sabotaging the Russians' oil pipeline in the Bosphorus. Elektra's pipeline is planned to go around Istanbul, dramatically increasing the value of her own oil. Bond gets a signal from the locator card from the Maiden's Tower – just before Zukovsky's henchman Bull blows up the command center. Zukovsky is knocked unconscious, and Bond and Jones are captured by Elektra's henchmen. Jones is taken aboard the submarine, which was seized by Renard's men. Bond is taken to the tower, where Elektra tortures him with a garrote. Zukovsky and his men seize the tower, but Zukovsky is shot by Elektra. The dying Zukovsky uses his cane gun to free Bond. Bond frees M and kills Elektra.
Bond dives after the submarine, boards it and frees Jones. The submarine's hull ruptures as it bottoms in the Bosphorus. Bond fights Renard and kills him. Bond and Jones escape from the submarine, leaving the flooded reactor to detonate underwater.
