Re-released for its 30th anniversary last year, Martin Campbell’s 1995 super spy movie GoldenEye looks and feels particularly vintage, like something you’d watch on a holiday. The seventeenth title in the James Bond franchise, the film introduced a new 007 in Pierce Brosnan, who would end up playing the part until 2002’s Die Another Day; recast Judi Dench as the first female actor to portray M, Bond’s supervisor; and was the first in the series to steer clear of Ian Fleming’s postwar novels, which inspired its entire universe, though it was titled after the author’s real-life Jamaican estate.
Seeing the film for the first time, I was expecting a high-octane action adventure as is so often the case for standard spy flicks, but that’s not exactly what unfolds here, at least not in its entirety. The bungee jump that sets the story in motion, for instance, feels rather subdued and slow-burn, in spite of the death-defying stunt. That’s not to the film’s detriment; if anything, it announces a new take on the world of the fictional MI6 agent — one that’s far more sober and self-aware of its own tricks. Undeniably and inevitably, though, GoldenEye remains a James Bond movie through and through.
Set in various locations, from London to Russia to the Caribbean, the story starts in the Cold War-era Soviet Union as Bond and fellow agent Alec Trevelyan, also known as 006, played by Sean Bean, sneak into a chemical weapons facility, which winds up badly for both of them: Trevelyan gets killed, while Bond escapes via a stolen airplane (a satisfying sequence in the prologue, which sees him free-falling yet again).
Almost a decade later, Bond returns to the military facility after discovering about a top-secret space-based weapons program called GoldenEye, one that a rogue Russian group, Janus, is planning to steal in order to trigger a global economic collapse by controlling communication networks and keeping all the world’s money to themselves. To Bond’s surprise, Janus is led by his former partner, who has staged his death, alongside sadistic assassin Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen) and scheming Russian general Arkady Ourumov (played by Gottfried John). 006, it turns out, is seeking retribution for the death of his parents, Lienz Cossacks who, following the end of the Second World War, were repatriated to the Soviet Union by British and American forces, resulting in their execution. (The betrayal of the Cossacks is among the significant historical markers in the film.) Bond soon gets help from the affectionate Natalya Simonova (played by Izabella Scorupco), a computer programmer who survives the attack in the film’s opening and comes in contact with fellow tech expert Boris Grishenko (played Alan Cumming), who also works for Janus.
In many ways, GoldenEye still chiefly services an anti-Russian and pro-British/American narrative, especially in the context of the Cold War. “They are madmen over there, and we are heroes over here” seems to be the guiding logic. The film, as a result, is very much more of the same, in that it can only imagine a James Bond departure within the limits of its imagination. Campbell still seems indebted to familiar formulas.
The real action, save for the prologue of course, begins over an hour into the movie, as the screenplay, co-written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein, takes its time setting the premise and building the tension. The result is more or less thrilling, especially the exchanges involving Onatopp, who finds carnal pleasure in her every encounter with the British agent, never mind the actual threat of death. There is also an intense chase involving a car and a military tank, which Bond gladly maneuvers to destructive ends, as well as a romantic, though still life-threatening, detour through the Caribbean jungle. The camerawork is pretty solid, save for all the product placement.
As 007, Brosnan is mostly stoic and discerning with a sweet side, and Campbell clearly shows off the actor’s pretty face, and the fifth Bond is more than willing to comply. His performance is sufficient, but I wasn’t really hooked or moved. If anything, what’s truly intriguing about this whole propagandistic affair is that its take on the real power of internet technology feels so prescient; sadly, the movie refuses to explore it beyond nerdy hacker talk.
GoldenEye is now available to purchase or rent at your retailer of choice.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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