

It’s the twentieth anniversary of Pierce Brosnan’s debut as 007. When GoldenEye was released in 1995, there were questions about whether or not the character was still relevant post Cold War. Many had their doubts that the series should continue. But GoldenEye proved that the James Bond formula could be adapted to a changing political climate. Twenty years later, the series is still going strong. So of course we are going to go back and review the totally awesome facts you need to know about GoldenEye.



GoldenEye ended a six-year hiatus in the James Bond franchise. The previous installment, Licence to Kill starring Timothy Dalton, had been a box office disappointment. But that’s not what caused the delay. In 1990, preparations were underway for the seventeenth Bond movie with Dalton in the lead. Eon productions knew that the series needed some new blood. But what they had in mind was a new writer and director, not a new 007.

A 17-page plot synopsis was written for what would have been Dalton’s third outing as James Bond. The plot involved high-tech robots which were going to be designed by Walt Disney Imagineering. There were rumors that Anthony Hopkins, a friend of Dalton’s would play the main villain. And Whoopi Goldberg, who was dating Dalton at the time, was rumored to be involved as well.

Unfortunately, the series hit a snag over some legal issues. By the time the legal issues were resolved, Dalton’s contract had expired. He was free to return or not as he saw fit. Dalton explained that he felt that too much time had passed for him to reprise the role:

I think I was starting what would have been my third Bond film in ’89 or ’90. It had been written, we were talking directors, and then the lawsuit came. It held for five years, and I certainly didn’t want to carry on after having been associated with Bond for almost 10 years at that point. It brings a big hole into that universe.

Dalton made his announcement from the set of the Gone With the Wind sequel, Scarlet in which he played Rhett Butler. Eon Productions accepted Dalton’s resignation and began the hunt for a new leading man. The two front-runners were Liam Neeson who was hot off Schindler’s List at the time and Pierce Brosnan.



Brosnan had a history with the Bond franchise. His late wife, Cassandra Harris, had played a Bond girl in the 1981 film, For Your Eyes Only. When Roger Moore retired from the role in the mid 80’s, Brosnan was initially offered the part. He had been playing a Bond-like character on the TV show Remington Steele which had recently been cancelled. With the show no loner on the air, Brosnan was free to accept movie roles. However, when news got out that Brosnan might replace Moore as James Bond, the network reconsidered cancelling Remington Steele. Instead, the show was picked up for six episodes as a midseason replacement.

With Brosnan no longer available, the part was offered to Timothy Dalton. But now that Dalton had retired and Remington Steele was long since cancelled, Brosnan was finally available to fulfill his destiny and play James Bond.



While all of this was going on, the script for the seventeenth Bond movie was rewritten several times. Originally, Hong Kong was a central location in the script. But producers decided it was too difficult to shoot in China, so that was changed. The robot plot was also scrapped in favor of a story involving a villain with connections to MI6.

The first draft of the script that would become GoldenEye was written by Michael France. In the original script, the villain was an older man named Augustus Trevelyan. He had been the head of MI6 instead of a double-0 agent. Through flashbacks we learn that Bond passed up a chance to kill him which resulted in the death of two other agents. So he had a score to settle with his former boss.

France’s script also includes a different plan. Trevelyan still utilizes a satellite which fires a magnetic pulse. But in the original script his target was the World Trade Center instead of London. This version of the script was written before Dalton had left the project. When Brosnan was hired, several rewrite followed.

British writer Jeffrey Caine felt uneasy with some of the mystery elements from the original script, so he simplified the story. Caine changed the villain from a former MI6 boss to Bond’s former partner. Kevin Wade and Bruce Feirstein also did some fine tuning. In the end, France received a “story credit” while the other three writers were credited with the screenplay.

Several of the scenes which were cut from France’s script were later repurposed in The World Is Not Enough. Some of the changes were made due to similarities to James Cameron’s spy movie True Lies. GoldenEye was the first movie in the James Bond series that was written specifically for the screen and not in any way adapted from a literary work. The title came from Ian Fleming’s nickname for his beachfront house in Jamaica.



Director Martin Campbell was brought on board to helm the movie based on his work on the TV series, Edge of Darkness. After a meeting with the most recent screenwriter, the decision was made to make Bond’s boss a woman. The original script hinted that the new M may have had a relationship with Bond in the past. During the scene in which Dench dresses down Brosnan for being a relic, she has a line “…whose boyish charms, although wasted on me…” The line was originally written “…whose boyish charms I might actually have succumbed to ten years ago.”

The stakes were extremely high for the new James Bond. If GoldenEye had flopped, that could have been the end of the long-running series. Producer Cubby Broccoli’s health was deteriorating. Once he had approved Brosnan as the new James Bond, he took a step back and appointed his daughter, Barbara Broccoli and stepson Michael G. Wilson to take control of the franchise. Cubby Broccoli died a few months after the release of GoldenEye. The next Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, was dedicated in his memory.

Joe Don Baker, who had played a villain in The Living Daylights, was cast as CIA agent Jack Wade. Wade was envisioned as a replacement for Felix Leiter who had been badly injured in Licence to Kill and was therefore unfit for service. Of course that only presents a problem if you are following the continuity of the Dalton movies which include Baker playing a completely different character. Regardless of the odd casting, Baker returned as Jack Wade in Tomorrow Never Dies. The character was named after screenwriter Kevin Wade who wrote an unused draft of the script.

Former 007, Roger Moore, paid a visit to the set. His son, Christian Moore, was working on GoldenEye as a third assistant director. While on the set, the retired James Bond quipped that Brosnan’s early screen tests hadn’t worked out, so he was brought back for another try.



The producers wanted to establish early on that the new 007 was an action hero. So they started the movie off with a fantastic stunt. In the movie, Bond bungee jumps off of a dam. The stunt was performed by British stuntman, Wayne Michaels. At over 722 feet, the stunt holds the record for being the highest bungee jump from a structure recorded for a movie. Michaels also appeared later in the film as a helicopter pilot shot by Famke Janssen.

Brosnan suffered a hand injury during filming so in several scenes his son, Christopher Brosnan, subbed in as a hand double. Brosnan’s injuries also delayed shooting of the climactic showdown with Sean Bean. Martin Campbell wanted both actors to perform most of their own stunts in the scene, so shooting was delayed while Brosnan’s hand healed.

Janssen also suffered an injury during the shoot. During her fight with Brosnan in a spa, she insisted that the actor run her into the wall as hard as he could. Brosnan was hesitant to do so, but Janssen insisted that the walls were padded and she would be fine. But Brosnan was right to worry, Janssen ended up breaking a rib.



Six years prior as part of a promotion for Licence to Kill, a contest was held. The winner was promised a non-speaking role in the next James Bond movie. Although it took some time for the winner to collect, she did appear as an extra in GoldenEye. She is behind Janssen in the gold and black dress in the picture above.

Brosnan’s Bond made a lethal debut. He kills 47 people on screen during GoldenEye which remains the highest number of kills in a single James Bond movie. GoldenEye also made a killing at the box office. It opened in first place and ended up grossing over $100 million dollars in the US and over $350 million worldwide. Adjusted for inflation, that made GoldenEye the highest-grossing Bond movie since Moonraker in 1979.

GoldenEye‘s success laid to rest any worries that James Bond was no longer relevant. Brosnan went on to star in three more movies each of which earned more than the movie that preceded it. After the fourth movie, Die Another Day, Brosnan’s tenure as 007 ended. He received word that Eon had decided to take the series in a new direction. He had been fired. While Brosnan says the decision hurt, he’s still thankful for having had the opportunity to be James Bond.

More Facts You Need to Know

Text Directory





0 0 vote Article Rating

Advertisements