GoldenEye (1995) Poster



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  • MI6 agent 007 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is ordered by the new M (Judi Dench) to follow Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), an ex-Soviet fighter pilot with suspected links to the Janus Crime Syndicate in St Petersberg, Russia. That order is amended when Xenia steals a Tiger helicopter to fly to the Severnaya Research Center in Siberia with General Arkady Ourumov (Gottfried John), head of Russian Space Division, where they use the GoldenEye satellite to blow up the entire compound. Bond's goal now becomes to locate GoldenEye. Knowing that the saboteurs must have had inside help, because they needed access codes, Bond teams up with Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) the only survivor and witness of the Sevenaya massacre. Together, they try to stop GoldenEye from being used to destroy London, but Bond is unprepared when he learns just who exactly is the mastermind behind Janus. Edit

  • The script for GoldenEye was written at various stages by American screenwriters Michael France, Jeffrey Caine, Kevin Wade, and Bruce Feirstein. However, the title of the movie, GoldenEye, was taken from the name of Ian Fleming's Jamaican estate, a homage to Bond's creator. Edit

  • GoldenEye is a secret weapons system consisting of two satellites containing nuclear bombs which, when detonated in the upper atmosphere, create an electromagnetic pulse that destroys all electronic equipment within the target area. The system is controlled by two keys and a special access card containing a jewel-like golden "eye" that sends a beam to a receiver above a giant computer display outfitted to operate the system. Edit

  • An electromagnetic pulse, as described by M, is a radiation surge that destroys anything with an electronic circuit within a certain radius. The size of the surge and the radius affected depends on the weapon being used. In this film, M says specifically that the radius is about 30 miles or 48.3 kilometers. The effect itself was discovered during nuclear testing. It was apparent that, after a nuclear blast, the target area was flooded with electrons capable of affecting electric monitoring equipment brought in after the tests. Edit

  • In the opening precredits sequence, which is a flashback to 1986, Bond and agent 006, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), are in Arkhangelsk, Russia where they blow up a Soviet chemical weapons facility. Bond escapes; Trevelyan does not. Nine years pass. Bond is in Monte Carlo observing Xenia Onatopp. When Xenia steals the French prototype of a Tiger helicopter and the control disk for the GoldenEye satellite weapons and uses them to destroy a space weapons control center in Severnaya (Russia), Bond returns to London where M orders him to find GoldenEye and sends him to St Petersburg. His search leads him and Natalya to Cuba. Edit

  • Presumably, he was still on leave after going rogue in the previous movie, Licence to Kill. The fact that he was being "evaluated" suggests that he's being tested to discover whether or not he's still fit for duty with MI6. Bond first notices Xenia driving a Ferrari with bogus license plates and asks Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) to run a check on her. Edit

  • Yes, it's the Arecibo Observatory, the largest satellite dish in the world at about 1,000 feet (305 meters) in diameter. However, it is not located in Cuba though, it's in Puerto Rico near the small town of Arecibo. The dish also does not fill with water to resemble a small lake like the movie depicts. Edit

  • Including Goldeneye, Brosnan made four movies in which he played James Bond: Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) (1999), and Die Another Day (2002) (2002). Edit

  • The title song, GoldenEye is performed by American rock singer Tina Turner. Edit

  • Yes, the first draft of the script was written for Timothy Dalton, though the final shooting script was written after Pierce Brosnan's casting. Dalton was originally contracted to do up to four Bond films between 1987 and 1993, starting with his debut in The Living Daylights (1987) (1987). Following the box office disappointment of Licence to Kill (1989) (1989), there was uncertainty that the film series would continue, with Dalton himself stating he believed it to be over. However, pre-production on his third film began in 1990 with a planned Summer 1991 release. Longtime collaborators director John Glen and screenwriter Richard Maibaum parted ways with the producers just before work on the 17th Bond film began. Following writer changes, rewrites, and pushes on production start dates and twice on the movie's release, lengthy legal battles between the producers and the studio over rights and credits to the character and the film series kept the movie from going forward. Producers decided to scrap their work and, hoping for a late 1993 production start, brought screenwriter Michael France in to create a new story. France eventually turned in a draft which would be the basis for GoldenEye in early 1994. Dalton's contract had expired but producers were negotiating a new deal, just as the lawsuits were resolved. Feeling too much time had passed since his last film and that, in his late 40s, he had grown out of the part—the literary James Bond is in his mid to late 30s—Dalton decided to move on in April 1994, and resigned from the role. In need of a new lead actor and with the film True Lies (1994) revealed to have similar action beats to France's script, production was pushed to late 1994. Jeffrey Caine was hired for a rewrite and, following Brosnan's casting in June 1994, Bruce Feirstein, who would go on to co-script Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) (1997) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) (1999), wrote the final draft. Edit

  • To obtain a classification of 12, the old UK version was slightly cut; missing out several fighting scenes. Edit



The FAQ items below may give away important plot points.

  • Because the amount of time he and Alec had plotted to complete the mission had been cut short when Alec was captured by Ourumov. If Bond had been captured, then Ourumov would have had time to have his men search the room, find the explosives, and deactivate them. When Alec says he set the timers in the train, out of revenge, he says he gave Bond "the same six minutes", which means he set them for three minutes. Edit

  • His parents were Lienz Cossacks who, during World War II, fought for both the Soviet Union and for Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, the pro-Nazi Cossacks surrendered to the British Army, hoping to join the fight against Communism but instead they were repatriated back to the Soviet government as had been agreed at the Yalta conference where displaced peoples (including Western-Allied POWs liberated by Soviet forces) would be returned to their homelands. Many were subsequently executed or exiled in prison camps by Stalin's forces. As he explains it, his parents survived the execution but, unable to live with their shame, they committed suicide. Consequently, he plan is a vendetta against the British government. Edit

  • His plan is to break into the Bank of London's computers and transfer out all the money just before hitting them with the second GoldenEye, thereby covering up the theft and destroying British economy. Edit

  • James and Natalya follow Xenia, Janus, and Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming) to Cuba where CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) provides them with an airplane so that they can fly over the island looking for a dish the size of a football field. No dish is to be found until they are shot down when they fly over a pristine lake. Xenia then rappels from a helicopter and attacks Bond, but she is killed when her helicopter slams her into a tree. Suddenly, antennae begin to rise out of the lake, and the lake water is drained from the basin, revealing the satellite dish. As Boris positions Goldeneye over London, Bond and Natalya infiltrate the control room. Bond sets himself up as a decoy so that Natalya can reprogram Goldeneye to initiate atmospheric reentry and burn up somewhere over the Atlantic. Natalya is discovered, and Janus orders Boris to reverse Natalya's program, but Boris discovers that she's also changed the access code. Boris works feverishly to break into the programming, all the while flicking on Bond's pen grenade. When Boris turns around to scream at Natalya, ordering her to give him the new codes, Bond leaps for the pen and sets off the grenade. Bond and Natalya escape in an elevator. Fearing that Boris will be able to break Natalya's code, Bond races out onto the transmitter and places a pole in the positioning mechanism, preventing Boris from controlling it. Janus catches up with Bond, and their fight takes them to the tip of the antenna where they are dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. Bond kicks Janus over the edge of the platform and watches him fall into the satellite dish. He is then rescued when Natalya commandeers a helicopter. Goldeneye burns up in the atmosphere, and the satellite complex explodes. The explosion ruptures several tanks of liquid nitrogen, freezing Boris as he stands. In the final scene, Bond and Natalya drop from the helicopter into an empty field and begin to kiss. Suddenly, Wade appears, along with a whole troop of Marines and three helicopters. They board the helicopters and are carried off to Guantanamo for debriefing. Edit

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