The story begins in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea with a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase and continues via Hong Kong to Cuba and London where Bond meets up with the two ladies who are to play such important and differing roles in his quest to unmask a traitor and to prevent a war of catastrophic consequence. Hot on the trail of the principle villains, Bond travels to Iceland where he experiences at first hand the power of an amazing new weapon before a dramatic confrontation with his main adversary back in Korea where it all started...

Die Another Day also stars John Cleese (Rat Race )as Q, as well as Dame Judi Dench as M and Samantha Bond as Moneypenny. Halle Barry as Jinx. Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves, Rick Yune as Zao, and Rosamund Pike as Miranda Pike.

Trivia

There are rumors that Pierce Brosnan wanted Brett Ratner, the director of Rush Hour (1998), to direct this movie.

Madonna's cameo was the final scene shot during principal filming.

A knee injury to Pierce Brosnan delayed shooting for a few weeks.

In honor of the franchise's 40th anniversary, there is a visual or spoken reference to each of the previous 19 Bond films, including: Dr. No (1962) - Jinx (Halle Berry) walking out of the sea in a bikini, wearing a white belt and a diving knife.

From Russia with Love (1963) - The shoe with the poison-tipped blade is seen in Q's station laboratory. There is a knife concealed in a briefcase. In the ice palace sequence, there is a game board (the chess match).

Goldfinger (1964) - Jinx is nearly cut with a laser in Mr. Kil's laboratory. The rest of the fight scene is also a tribute. Bond once again drives a gadget-laden Aston Martin, specifically with a passenger ejector seat. The new Q comments that, as he learned from his predecessor, "I never joke about my work, 007." The scene where Bond and Graves fence for money, only to see Bond up the stakes for one of Graves' diamonds, is suggestive of the golf match between Bond and Auric Goldfinger. The golf match had originally been for money, until Bond throws down a gold brick to "up the stakes". Bond is threatened with death in a depressurizing plane.

Thunderball (1965) - the jet-pack in Q's workshop. Bond uses a pen-like underwater breathing system.

You Only Live Twice (1967) - Little Nellie can be seen in the background of Q's lab. Scenes of the Icarus unfolding in space are shown on screens in the Ice Palace. Jinx descends from the ceiling of the fake diamond mine on a rope system similar to that of the ninjas in the volcano crater lair. The name of the ship Bond is on: the HMS Tenby. The use of Japanese swords in the films.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - "OHMSS" written on a CD on Moneypenny's desk as she types a report at the end of the film. Bond escapes from another huge avalanche.

_Diamonds are Forever (1971)_ - while fencing with Bond, Graves says, "Well, diamonds are for everyone." Much of the plot includes diamonds. A large satellite is uncovered in space and has the power to harness the sun's rays and project them as a fine laser to destroy any given target. In a magazine ad for Gustav Graves' diamond company, the caption at the bottom says, "Diamonds are forever."

Live and Let Die (1973) - The laser causes row upon row of explosions across a vegetated area, in this case detonating thousands of land mines, and is reminiscent of the extermination of Kananga's poppy fields. Bond uses the same revolver used on the island of St. Monique.

Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974) - The corridors in the secret area of the Gene Technology department in the Cuban hospital contain rotating mirrors and objects, much like Scaramanga's Fun Palace. The Field office of MI6 is on a ship. Bond retrieves a diamond from Jinx's navel (bullet in the belly-dancer's navel).

Spy Who Loved Me, The (1977) - Graves uses a Union Jack parachute. The Ice Palace resembles in some ways Stromberg's Atlantis hideout.

Moonraker (1979) - Moon's hovercraft falls down by a large waterfall in a manner similar to Jaws' boat going over the Iguaçu Falls. Bond surfaces in a bubbling pool of water surrounded by much interior vegetation, similar to the scene with the water python in Drax's headquarters. Both movies have spies named Chang. Bond's sword fight with Graves was much like the fight with Chang in the glass factory. Bond and a villain fight over a parachute.

For Your Eyes Only (1981) - The scene as Bond hangs onto the ice cliff (before it collapses) resembles the climax near the monastery, especially as the rope slips and Bond drops some distance further down the cliff, although this time it was all performed from a vehicle.

Octopussy (1983) - Both the crocodile submarine and the AcroStar MiniJet are visible in the background in Q's station laboratory.

View to a Kill, A (1985) - Bond is suspended over a cliff on the wire and hook much like the Russian Guard in the Siberian chase that Bond catches. Bond once again uses a rather unorthodox method of skiing, this time the hatch from the back of the car. Graves watches over the destruction that he wreaks from the front windows of his aircraft in the same way that Zorin watched Silicon Valley from his aircraft before it flooded.

Living Daylights, The (1987) - Cars exit the rear cargo hold of the plane.

Licence to Kill (1989) - The plot idea of Bond going renegade, although this time it is less through choice. Bond uses a rifle as a sniper. M says, "License Revoked" - the original title of License to Kill.

GoldenEye (1995) - Bond's watch contains a laser, which he uses to cut through a section of ice, reminiscent of his escape from the train by cutting through the floor. Jinx sets the timer for the bomb at the gene therapy lab in Cuba to three minutes, the same three minutes that Bond set the timers for in the chemical weapons lab and later Trevelyan set the timers for on the bullet train.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Jinx throws a knife straight into a guard's throat just as he comes through a door (this is similar to a scene on the Stealth Ship where Wai-Lin sticks a Shuriken throwing star into a guard's throat just as he finds her, but this scene is deleted from all Tomorrow Never Dies releases on VHS and DVD). Remote control car. Jix descends on grappling lines, reminiscent of Wai-Lin's entrance/escape.

World Is Not Enough, The (1999) - Bond dives over Graves as they fence to do a forward roll as he lands, in a manner similar to the shoot-out between Renard's men and himself where he dives through a closing door and rolls the other side. As Bond dives to safety from Moon's flamethrower on the hovercraft, the shot of his dive from in front is almost identical to another scene where Bond is diving from an exploding bomb with Christmas. The use of a geodesic dome.

Some of the incidental music (minus of course the James Bond Theme, which is used in every film) is re-used in this film, notably at the end as Bond beds Jinx.

The cars Zao owns are all updated model of former Bond cars

Q mentions in his station laboratory as he hands Bond his new watch: "This is your twentieth, I believe." in a nod to this being the twentieth film occurring on the fortieth anniversary.

Ian Fleming took James Bond's name from the author of a book called "A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies". In this movie, Bond picks up the very same book in Cuba and poses as an ornithologist.

This is the first Bond film to feature during the opening music sequence scenes that actually advance the plot.

This is the first Bond film to feature a cameo by the person who sings the theme song of that movie.

When Bond enters the Cuban clinic through the hidden door, you can hear a sample of the brainwashing noise used in Ipcress File, The (1965). A nod to another British agent, Harry Palmer.

For the first time, the famous gun barrel sequence now includes a bullet zooming by after Bond fires.

Will Yun Lee plays a character named Colonel Moon. There is a little-known James Bond novel by Kingsley Amis, written shortly after Ian Fleming's death, titled "Colonel Sun". It was Amis' only Bond novel, making him the George Lazenby of Bond authors.

Following her Best Actress win at the 2002 Oscars, Halle Berry became the first Academy Award-winner to be a "Bond Girl", although only just - she won the award while shooting this movie (Kim Basinger (Never Say Never Again (1983)) won her Oscar for L.A. Confidential (1997) long after she had been a "Bond Girl", and "Never Say..." isn't part of the official Bond series anyway).

At the pre production stage, Saffron Burrows and Salma Hayek were both considered for roles in the film. It was also rumored that Billy Connolly was asked to play the part of a villain in the teaser sequence, but turned it down.

Some location filming took place at 'The Eden Project' near St Austell, Cornwall in the United Kingdom in the first week of March 2002.

Sequences featuring a Korean beach were partly filmed at Holywell Bay near Newquay in Cornwall, United Kingdom over several evenings in February/March 2002. The local Holywell surf hut was transformed into a North Korean pill box and a small forest of pine trees were planted in the dunes behind to mimic a remote shore.

The frozen lake in Iceland that is the location for some car chases, does not freeze very often naturally. This is due to its closeness to the sea and its high salt content. To rectify this situation the river that links the lake to the sea was damned and within two days the entire lake was frozen to a depth of over 2 meters.

To get the Aston Martin and Jaguar (both rear wheel drive) to perform on ice, the filmmakers had to modify them into four-wheel-drive cars.

According to television news reports on 11 Nov. 2002, Sean Connery filmed a cameo as James Bond's father. However, when it was realized that GoldenEye (1995) and the Ian Fleming novels had established that Bond was an orphan, it was necessary to cut the scene to maintain continuity.

For the sword fight, film makers decreased the film speed to make it look as if the actors were moving faster than they actually were.

This movie set a new record for product placement with $120 million worth of deals with various companies from Aston Martin & Jaguar to Revlon and Brioni.

Bond returns to smoking (cigars) for the first time since License to Kill (1989)_. Also marks the first time Bond has smoked a cigar since Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974).

Sequences where James Bond travels in 1st Class aboard a passenger plane, then holds onto the front wheel of the plane as the landing gear deploys, and finally walks from the aircraft after it has landed, were filmed in March 2001 in British Airways engineering bases at Heathrow Airport, using green screens and a fan. The scenes do not, however, appear in the final cut of the film

The fictional abandoned station on the London Underground where Bond meets M, Vauxhall Cross, is a reference to the address of the real MI6 headquarters in London, located at 85 Vauxhall Cross (approximately five minutes' drive from where Bond enters the station).

Bond (while talking to Q), refers to what looks like a fatal injury to M in a simulation program as a "flesh wound" - in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Cleese refers to the cutting off of various body parts in a battle with Graham Chapman as "merely a flesh wound."

Theme
© 2002Danjaq LLC. & MGM Inc.
Performed by Madonna

I'm gonna wake up, yes and no
I'm gonna kiss some part of
I'm gonna keep this secret
I'm gonna close my body now

I guess, die another day
I guess, die another day
I guess, die another day
I guess, die another day

I guess I'll die another day
(Another day)
I guess I'll die another day
(Another day)
I guess I'll die another day
(Another day)
I guess I'll die another day

Sigmund Freud
Analyze this
Analyze this
Analyze this

I'm gonna break the cycle
I'm gonna shake up the system
I'm gonna destroy my ego
I'm gonna close my body now

Uh, uh

I think I'll find another way
There's so much more to know
I guess I'll die another day
It's not my time to go

For every sin, I'll have to pay
I've come to work, I've come to play
I think I'll find another way
It's not my time to go

I'm gonna avoid the cliche
I'm gonna suspend my senses
I'm gonna delay my pleasure
I'm gonna close my body now

I guess, die another day
I guess I'll die another day
I guess, die another day
I guess I'll die another day

I think I'll find another way
There's so much more to know
I guess I'll die another day
It's not my time to go

Uh, uh

[laugh]

I guess, die another day
I guess I'll die another day
I guess, die another day
I guess I'll die another day

Another day [6x]

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