April 17, 2025
This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997, directed by Roger Spottiswoode)
OK, who wouldn’t be excited for a film that paired James Bond and Michelle Yeoh? I mean seriously. Yeoh was still more known as a Hong Kong action star and was three years from 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but this pairing was inspired. Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan’s second 007 film (and the first after producer Cubby Broccoli’s death) is another post-Cold War blockbuster that ramps up the violence and pits James against a megalomaniac media mogul who is probably supposed to be Rupert Murdock, if Rupert Murdock thought nuking Beijing could improve ratings.
The casting of TND (the title inspired by the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”) is mostly spot on. Bond “girl” Michelle Yeoh, as ass-kicking Chinese agent Wai Lin, is genius. Terri Hatcher, hot off Lois & Clark, as a past “love” interest of James, grabs the screen. Judi Dench is in full command as M. Joe Don Baker is back as CIA agent Jack Wade. Desmond Llewelyn is hilarious as Q (“Grow up, 007”). There’s a funny bit with Vincent Schiavelli (Mr. Vargas in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as a professor/assassin. But Jonathan Pryce’s portrayal of evil media magnet Elliot Carver is so cartoonish, it kills the good versus evil paradigm. More like, good versus goofy. (Anthony Hopkins was offered the role but declined in favor of making The Mask of Zorro.)
The writing is much sharper than GoldenEye, including James’ quips. Even Miss Moneypenny gets in the action. “You always were a cunning linguist, James.” And the action is bigger. There are a lot of explosions in this film. A lot. The direction by Roger Spottiswoode (Turner & Hooch, 1989) is meant to fill the wide screen with non-stop action. Apparently, Michelle Yeoh wanted to do all her own stunts but Spottiswoode had to hold her back for liability concerns.
Tomorrow Never Dies has lots of Bond staples; 007 in a tux, 007 scuba diving, 007 flying a plane that’s not his, 007 not being struck by any of the thousands of bullets being fired at him. And he’s got a woman in every port. Most of the film takes place in Hamburg, Germany, Saigon, Vietnam, and the South China Sea. Bookended with theme songs by Sheryl Crow and k.d. lang, it’s Bond carving out space in a woman’s world. “Never argue with a woman,” he says in the film.
Let’s plug Tomorrow Never Dies into our matrix.
Driver of Action – The second half of this film actually feels like a buddy film. Once Michelle Yeoh drops into the plot, there are two action stars on the screen. I don’t know if Eon Productions magically knew that Yeoh would become one of the biggest movie stars of the 21st century, but she’s driving a lot of the action at the end of the film. She has to do a bit of time as a damsel in distress to justify the sexual chemistry (Bond still can’t have a woman who is an equal), but, so far in the franchise, this is close to a screen share as we’ve seen.
Role of Violence – Bond with a machine gun and hand grenades is a killing machine. It’s another bloodbath. It’s so far removed from Connery’s Bond, it’s hard to believe it’s the same character. The climatic finale, where he kills Carver with a giant drill, used to sink battle ships, is particularly gruesome. But Wai Lin is wailing away as well, mostly using marital arts, so there’s a female balance to 007’s orgy of violence.
Vulnerability – Brosnan’s Bond is zipped up like Moore’s but there is the tiniest glimpse of humanity this episode. It’s established that he has a history with Carver’s wife, Paris (Terri Hatcher). When she appears in his Hamburg hotel room, he’s drawn to her but expresses some guilt over abandoning her. “What happened, James? Did I get too close?” He says yes and they “reconnect.” Carver finds out and has her killed and then Bond confronts the man who killed her and shoots him in the head at point blank range.
Sexual Potency – We’re back to the criteria of 3. After the opening titles, we find James in bed with a beautiful Oxford University professor (yeah, right) “brushing up on a little Danish” after sex. Then, after reconnecting with Paris, he slips her dress off that they have sex (which gets her killed). And then he ends up with Wai Lin. Despite changing social norms, you get the feeling the Eon just gave up and let Bond be Bond.
Connection – Until Wai Lin shows up, we don’t get much connection. James has no scenes with M and only briefly with Moneypenny. He softens up around Paris but she is killed before he has a chance to rescue her. Wai Lin falls back into the Damsel in Distress mode when Carver throws her into the water tied to a massive chain and she appears to drowned. James saves her with a long underwater kiss, blowing air into her lungs. But the connection between James and Wai seems more about a celebration of having just saved the world from Rupert Murdoch than anything romantic. Although they do end the film KISSING IN A RAFT in the South China Sea while the British Navy looks for them. Traditions matter!
Toxic Masculinity Scale: 5
Summary Scarface Sex Fiend Bond is somewhat balanced out by a strong female M (although Dench as a maternal concern for our man James) and a scene-stealing action star doubling as this episode’s Bond girl. Q’s tech plays an outsized role with a remote controlled BMW 750 that has a scene all to itself, and a fully-loaded cell phone (meh). Both Bond and Carver play their sexism cards. When Carver catches Wai on his stealth ship, he dangles her in front of 007 and says, “And it seems you can’t resist any woman in my possession.”
Something that stands out are the henchmen in TND. They have really cool outfits and a loaded armory, but I was left with two questions. Where are all the henchwomen? And how does one go about acquiring the job henchman? I’m assuming Carver paid top salary. Regardless, his massive stealth ship made a great stand-in for an underground lair, especially when it got blown up.
Tomorrow Never Knows premiered December 9, 1997, the same week as the Kyoto Protocol, the first global attempt to address climate change. The film was a massive success, earning a Golden Globe nomination, but kept out of the #1 spot by the behemoth that was Titanic. Its release was also timed to coincide with United Artist’s parent company, MGM, becoming a publicly traded corporation, making James Bond a massive cash cow at the end of the century.
Next: The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The James Bond Project #19: GoldenEye (1995)
The James Bond Project #18: License to Kill (1989)
The James Bond Project #17: The Living Daylights (1987)
The James Bond Project #16: A View to a Kill (1985)
The James Bond Project #15: Never Say Never Again (1983)
The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy (1983)
The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)
The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)
The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)
The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)
The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)
The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)
The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)
Watching the Wheels 
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