The 20th James Bond film, starring Pierce Brosnan in his last appearance as the character (second to last if you count the surprisingly good, in-continuity video game Everything or Nothing, in which he does the voice-acting). After Bond is captured during an operation in North Korea and subjected to 14 months of torture, he is exchanged for a high ranking "military official" (a.k.a. terrorist). This sets off a chain of events where Bond goes on a vendetta against said official.No discussion of this film is complete without mentioning the backlash against it from both halves of the Korean peninsula. The North Koreans thought it portrayed their country as aggressive (although it is pointed out that hardliners are involved), the South Koreans thought it portrayed their country as poor and backwards, and both sides were annoyed by the film's final scene, which depicted Bond and Jinx having sex in a Buddhist temple.
All Just a Dream: It's implied that the title sequence is a product of 007's mind as he is being tortured.
Artistic Title: An extremely kinky version in the opening credits, where Bond is being tortured in the background while nekkid chicks made of ice, fire, and electricity are writhing around in the foreground. It veers into Accidental Nightmare Fuel territory with the implication that this is what Bond is hallucinating during the torture.
Asshole Victim: The rude guy that Bond knocks out to get himself on the island.
Beam Spam: Bond fights Mr. Kil in a room full of out-of-control laser beams.
Composite Character: Colonel Moon is a weird fusion of the literary version of Hugo Drax with Colonel Sun. In true Bond fashion, subtitles on the Region 2 DVD reveal his full name to be Tan-Sun Moon.
Defiant to the End: Noted of Bond when all he has to offer after months of brutal torture is a snarky one-liner.
Dirty Communists: North Korea's military eagerly supports the conquest of Japan and South Korea through Colonel Moon's plan. It's stated at least once that there was a coup before the invasion, presumably to avoid implicating the entire country as Card-Carrying Villains.
Faux Action Girl: Jinx talks a good game but only manages to defeat a secretary in hand to hand combat. The kind of fencing done in the Olympics is more akin to waving a car antenna around than any sort of combative fighting, so beating an Olympic fencer with real weapons is hardly the pinnacle of achievement.
Frickin' Laser Beams: Bond fights Mr. Kil in a room full of out-of-control lasers slicing everything up. It's pretty insane and even if impractical, it's a pretty good visual.
Gatling Good: Zao's Jaguar has a Minigun mounted on top, complete with the usual inaccurate firing rate.
Implausible Fencing Powers: Yes he's James Bond. No, it's unlikely that either his military or his MI 6 training including anything on using several different types of longswords. The same can be said for Gustav Graves, who, despite having a fencing instructor around, would not have learned anything useful about heavy sabers, katanas, hand-and-a-halfs, etc. As above, what Miranda Frost would actually be good at, Olympic fencing, has very little inherently to do with battle-grade weapons.
Innocent Innuendo (Somewhat): Though what they're doing is hardly innocent, the end sequence of Bond and Jinx playing with diamonds is made to sound like something else from outside.
Irony: Bond being tortured by a beautiful Korean female officer. Take that you decadent Western womanizer!
It's Personal: Bond desires very strongly to avenge himself on Zao.
Colonel Moon, whom we meet taking his Tae Kwon Do- frustrations out on a punching bag containing his anger therapist- that'll teach him to lecture Moon.
Big Bad Gustav Graves also has some fun at a fencing club. We later find that they're the same person.
Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: At the end of the movie, Moneypenny is caught experimenting with a pair of VR goggles...
The book James carries around to maintain his cover as an ornithologist is written by a real-life person named James Bond. And the author's name is how Ian Fleming came up with the fictional character's name.
New Era Speech: Graves gives one when he presents the power of Icarus to General Moon.
Not so Different: Gustav Graves states that his persona is based on James Bond. Ironically, it's made him the toast of England.
Poorly Disguised Pilot: In addition to being a celebration of the series' fortieth anniversary, the producers wanted Die Another Day to set up a new series starring Jinx. As it turned out though, the mixed reception of this film combined with the catastrophic reaction to Catwoman killed off any chance of the Jinx series taking off.
Product Placement: It isn't new territory for a Bond film, certainly, but it was so glaringly obvious in this one that many critics nicknamed it "Buy Another Day."
Read the Freaking Manual: When Q gives Bond the doorstopper manual for his latest gadget car, Bond tosses it in front of the vehicle's automatic shotguns which promptly blast the manual to shreds.
Q: Here's the manual, should be able to shoot through that in a couple of hours. Bond:Just took a few seconds, Q.
Rogue Agent: Bond becomes one, at least in the first part of the movie.
Self-Made Orphan: Graves/Moon shoots dead his own father after he tries to stop his plan.
Sex Face Turn: Inverted — Frost enjoys her night with Bond, but she's still prepared to shoot him dead the next day.
Villainous Breakdown: Gustav Graves goes absolutely CRAZY during his fight with 007. Possibly justified due to the fact he's in a fight with the man who secretly ruined his life.
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