20 Things You Didn't Know About The World Is Not Enough (1999)
What did Pierce Brosnan's James Bond conceal when he bade a fond farewell to the 20th Century?
It is said that an actor’s third James Bond film is often his best. Sean Connery had the Midas touch with Goldfinger (1964), Roger Moore led one of the biggest Bonds of all with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Daniel Craig later celebrated the franchise’s 50th anniversary in SkyFall (2012).
Pierce Brosnan’s own third Bond film, The World Is Not Enough (1999) is often regarded as his second best adventure in the role after GoldenEye (1995).
Focusing on character development served by meaningful action sequences, the film follows Brosnan’s Double-0 Seven as he protects oil heiress, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) from merciless terrorist, Viktor Zokas a.k.a. Renard the Anarchist (Robert Carlyle).
The film also sees far greater involvement from Dame Judi Dench’s M and recalls the classic character-driven moments of earlier Bond adventures such as From Russia With Love (1963) as it bids goodbye to the 20th Century and prepares the British agent for both a new decade and a new millennium ahead.
The story of how Bond's 19th official onscreen outing came to be is almost as exciting as the film itself. Here are 20 things that you might not have known about it.
20. New Blood
Screenwriters, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade joined the James Bond franchise on The World Is Not Enough, crafting a more mature plot surrounding Elektra King, her kidnapping, and how she transformed the meaning of Stockholm Syndrome.
Although they had originally envisioned that Elektra would survive the events of the film and be committed to psychiatric care, this idea was discarded as she, rather than Renard, was the true villain of the plot.
Rewrites were held to polish their script, with the director, Michael Apted’s then-wife, Dana Stevens developing the female characters, before experienced Bond screenwriter, Bruce Feirstein came aboard to write a final draft. Stevens was the last female screenwriter to work on a Bond script until Phoebe Waller-Bridge came aboard to work on the 2020 film, No Time to Die; however, Stevens did not receive credit for her work on The World Is Not Enough.
Purvis and Wade have worked on every James Bond film since, up to and including No Time to Die.