20 James Bond References You Might Have Missed In Die Another Day
16. The Missile Shot
In Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), the Royal Navy, represented by the pig-headed Admiral Roebuck (Geoffrey Palmer) fires a cruise missile from HMS Chester at a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border, initially disregarding warnings from Pierce Brosnan's Double-0 Seven that there is a MiG fighter plane equipped with nuclear torpedoes that could be triggered by the blast. Bond averts Armageddon with his trademark style in that adventure.
In Die Another Day, bullish NSA chief, Damian Falco (Michael Madsen) completely disregards the threat posed by Gustav Graves's Icarus satellite, which can generate a focused beam of solar energy on Earth, but orders that an anti-satellite missile is fired to take the satellite out. However, Graves is no fool; the highly destructive beam of sunlight destroys the missile before it can get anywhere near Icarus.
The footage of an American frigate firing the anti-satellite missile was actually unused footage of HMS Chester firing a missile from Tomorrow Never Dies - a nice nod to that earlier adventure that also avoided the expense of having to shoot new miniature effects on an already-massive action film.