Screen Rant's hit Pitch Meeting series ventures back to Die Another Day to explore the likely development of Pierce Brosnan's final James Bond outing. Brosnan made his debut as 007 in the acclaimed 1995 film GoldenEye and carried the role through three sequels, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and concluded with Die Another Day. The film saw Bond on the run from the MI6 after he's framed for leaking British intelligence secrets to North Korea and must investigate a British billionaire's ties to the plot.
Brosnan starred in Die Another Day alongside John Cleese as Quartermaster "Q," Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, Halle Berry as Bond girl and NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson, Rosamund Pike as double agent Miranda Frost, Judi Dench as M, Toby Stephens as the villainous Gustav Graves and Rick Yune as terrorist partner Tang Ling Zao. The film hit theaters in 2002 to generally mixed reviews from critics for its over-reliance on poor CGI, lackluster plot and villain. Despite this reception, the film would become the highest-grossing film of the franchise for the time with over $431 million grossed against a $142 million budget.
In anticipation of Daniel Craig's final outing in the franchise, Screen Rant's very own Ryan George has released a new episode of the Pitch Meeting series centered on Die Another Day. The video explores the campy and convenient nature of the plot and lackluster CGI. Check out the hilarious new episode below:
Much like Craig in the films that followed him, Brosnan was praised for his first performance as Bond in GoldenEye for bringing more vulnerability to the character, only for his follow-up films to return to the more over-the-top nature fans of the franchise were accustomed to during the Sean Connery and Roger Moore eras. Die Another Day is certainly a prime example of this trend, opening in a bombastic-yet-passable action sequence that leads into what could've been a strong emotional arc regarding his being tortured for 14 months. Instead, the plot further devolves into nonsensical territory as Bond seemingly shakes everything off and shows no rust in any of his skills, namely his ability to defeat an Olympic-level fencer as George hilariously points out in the video.
The tortured element of Die Another Day's opening would eventually be reused in a far better fashion for Craig's Skyfall, a film fans continue to debate over its franchise standing against Craig's debut Casino Royale. Given Brosnan and Craig had no say in the writers rooms, the blame for their rockier films can't be put upon them, though given the strong reception already received by Craig's final outing in No Time to Die, it's certainly unfortunate Brosnan's portrayal couldn't go out on the same high note. The wait for No Time to Die is nearly over as the film arrives in theaters on October 8.
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