GoldenEye is a Bond film that has changed a lot in my estimation over the years. When I first saw it I was so pleased just to see a new Bond flick that I never thought much about it. The action was great, and Pierce Brosnan personified the cinematic Bond. He even managed to bring a touch of humanity to the character. But as time moved on and I continued to watch it, I realized that it had a few problems. Let’s look at these first.

The first half drags because Bond just isn’t on screen for great chunks of it. The film spends far too long at Severnaya, only to have it all destroyed while Bond sits in London watching it on TV. And after the station is destroyed the beautiful Natalya climbs from the wreckage in the middle of a frozen nowhere. It’s so lucky that after the GoldenEye has disrupted all electronics she just so happens to find a low-tech means to escape… via dog sled!

And the operational status of the Severnaya station is not very clear. MI6 believe that it’s an abandoned station. Yet in the meeting where Ourumov explains who destroyed the station, he talks about the loss in hard-currency earnings from the station. So is the station abandoned or working? And MI6 detects the distress call from Severnaya, but they have never detected any other messages from them, like when Severnaya is controlling satellites. I suspect that its ambiguous operational status is something that has slipped through from numerous script rewrites, but nevertheless it’s in the picture.

The firing capabilities of the GoldenEye satellites are not clear. It seems to be a one-shot weapon, but this is shown mostly through inference. Defense Minister Mishkin is concerned about the existence of a 2nd GoldenEye satellite, and Trevelyan plans to attack only one city – London.

Trevelyan’s plot to rob the Bank of England is given little foreshadowing. The audience is given an inkling with Boris’ games with his spike program and his attack on the FBI website, but his involvement in the plot could just as easily be because of his familiarity with the GoldenEye’s computer systems, rather that for his hacking ability. In fact the spike program is really introduced so that it can be used against him when Natalya tracks him to Cuba. So it’s not until the 3rd act that the actual plot to commit the greatest robbery in the world is properly introduced.

Gen. Ourumov’s actions are not understandable. He destroys the Severnaya station with the 1st GoldenEye supposedly to cover up his involvement in the crime. But until then not even the Russian government seemed to know GoldenEye existed, or if they did then they didn’t know how many there were. The research, building and launching of the GoldenEye satellites seems to have been a totally military operation, and only a select few in the military knew about it. Defense Minister Mishkin suspects there is more than one, and so he questions Ourumov on this point. Later, Mishkin learns the truth from Natalya that there is a second GoldenEye.

Ourumov’s plan seemed to be that he would escape from the crime by blaming Siberian separatists, and then tender his resignation. One assumes he hoped to then disappear into Janus, never to be found again. For surely as soon as the 2nd GoldenEye is used then questions are going to be asked and fingers are going to be pointed at the man who used to be in charge, and who said there were no more GoldenEye satellites.

But if he didn’t care about getting away with his reputation unblemished then he could have simply flown in to Severnaya, killed everyone, then flown out again with the code keys for both GoldenEye satellites. But then he wouldn’t have even needed the Tiger helicopter, and the whole story begins to come undone. Let’s play around with the first half to try and get more Bond.

It’s 9 years in the past and this time Bond and 006 aren’t infiltrating a chemical weapons plant, but a secret Soviet space weapons research base. During the course of the attack Bond notices some embryonic plans for a weapon – GoldenEye. 006 tries to distract Bond from being too interested in the plans, because they are the real reason he’s here. 006 is going to fake his death and become Janus, all the while secretly promoting the development of GoldenEye through his cohort Ourumov. But Bond surruptiously pockets the plans and the pre-title sequence proceeds. Bond blows the weapons research base to kingdom come. You may or may not keep the dive off the cliff to the falling plane as you wish. Personally I’d replace it with another kind of stunt as Bond has already had a realistic and eye-opening falling stunt with the bungee jump.

Present day, and as the sumptuous credit sequence shows, the USSR is a monolith fallen in history. Trevelyan is plotting his revenge against England and Russia – the two countries he felt had a hand in the deaths of his parents. He plans to fire a GoldenEye at London and Moscow, having moments before committed the largest crime in history by robbing the Bank of England and the Bank of Russia. The GoldenEye satellites can fire more than once, so we need only the two satellites.

After Xenia meets Bond at the casino by chance, she reports the info to Ourumov. Ourumov still holds a grudge against Bond for the destruction of the weapons base under his command in the pre-title sequence. He decides to get revenge by setting Bond up for the planned destruction of Severnaya. Ourumov leaves info in a coded form on the Manticore that Severnaya is the destination of the Tiger helicopter. Bond finds this, and after the chopper is stolen Bond has his edgy meeting with M.

His assignment is to follow the helicopter to Severnaya. Severnaya is a commercial satellite tracking station, but MI6 suspects that Severnaya is also used for military satellites. As yet though, no one connects it to GoldenEye, which is a project that MI6 believe the Soviets, based on the plans Bond stole, never had the technical expertise to complete.

Bond arrives in Moscow and has his initial meeting with Wade, who transports him to near Severnaya. Bond travels the final distance by dog sled. Boris and Natalya are introduced working in Severnaya, with Boris using his spike program to infiltrate not the FBI, but some 3rd world country’s bank. Natalya chastises him, but Boris acts even haughtier than in the original film, and then dismisses her. He goes outside for his cigarette.

Bond has been under surveillance by Ourumov since his arrival. And with Bond’s departure for Severnaya, Ourumov puts his plan into operation. Xenia and Ourumov beat Bond there in the Tiger, and kill everyone (except Natalya who is hiding in the cupboard). Ourumov and Xenia target Severnaya with the GoldenEye, and then Ourumov alerts security that Severnaya is under attack by Bond. He of course recognizes Bond from their previous encounter. Bond is let in, but can’t get out. There can be a skirmish here between Bond and Xenia, but not too much. Ourumov wants Bond’s unbullet-ridden body to be found in the wreckage of Severnaya. Ourumov and Xenia escape in the Tiger, with Ourumov’s plan being that he himself will be presumed killed along with everyone else at Severnaya.

Natalya pops out of the cupboard and there’s a brief introduction. Bond is informed that GoldenEye exists, and he realizes why Xenia stole the Tiger. The GoldenEye’s blast hits, but contrary to Ourumov’s plans Bond saves himself and Natalya with some quick thinking. They get out and make their way back to Wade using the dog sled Bond precipitously rode in on. But Bond knows that he’s going to be hunted by the Russians for Severnaya, so he’s got no time to try and convince them of his innocence before Ouromov will complete his plan with the two stolen GoldenEyes. He goes with the only lead he’s got – Janus. I like an active Bond girl, so Natalya says that she’ll look into the whereabouts of Boris by herself.

The movie progresses almost the same from here. Unfortunately Natalya is captured at the church, and Bond likewise after meeting first Valentin then Trevelyan. Bond and Natalya are tied up in the Tiger to be killed by its missiles, in a last attempt to make Bond the scapegoat for Severnaya. But again Bond escapes. With Bond’s capture by Mishkin, Ourumov has to come back from the dead or risk the plans for the stolen GoldenEyes being discovered. He barges into the interrogation claiming that he’s been in hiding trying to discover the whereabouts of Bond, shoots Mishkin, and then…

While this version isn’t watertight either, it does make Bond more active in the first half, and that’s what I want to see. But I still think that there could be further tightening of the film. Both Jack Wade and Valntin Zukovsky aren’t required – only one. I’d prefer to keep Zukovsky as Wade seems to provide only equipment that Bond could come by off-screen and information that Bond could already know. But to make that kind of cut I’d feel like I’m deviating from the film too much. I’ll continue to watch GoldenEye when I chance upon it on TV – the tank chase and the fight between Trevelyan and Bond in the finale are especially great action scenes – but probably I’ll never sit down with the DVD just to watch the picture again. Or maybe I will.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 13th, 2006 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Action, Bond, Forensic Analysis, G, winston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.