· 6 years ago · Mar 01, 2019, 11:40 PM
1When the real MI6 learned that this film would shoot a scene around their Headquarters, they moved to prohibit it, citing a security risk. However, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, at the urging of Member of Parliament Janet Anderson, moved to overrule them and allow the shoot, stating, "After all Bond has done for Britain, it was the least we could do for Bond."
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3Desmond Llewelyn (Q) died in an car accident soon after the film was released. Llewellyn said just before his death, that he was planning to appear in the next Bond film. This movie's video release was dedicated to Llewelyn, and featured a tribute montage of his appearances in seventeen Bond films over thirty-six years.
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5In the warehouse that Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) has turned into an operations room, the girlie pictures seen on the walls are of former Bond Girls.
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7Denise Richards was attracted to the role of Dr. Christmas Jones, as she found the part to be "brainy", "athletic", and had "depth of character", a change in direction from previous Bond Girls. Audiences did not agree, and often consider Christmas to be the worst Bond Girl ever. This was the first Bond film to win a Razzie (in the category of Worst Supporting Actress), for the same reason.
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9In the Scottish Headquarters castle, a portrait of Bernard Lee (the original M) hangs behind the current M's (Dame Judi Dench's) desk.
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11The title is the translation of the Latin motto, "Orbis non sufficit", given to George Lazenby's Bond, when he researches his own coat of arms, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). The motto also appears in the original Ian Fleming novels. It was the motto of the Spanish King Filip II.
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13The adjusting of the tie underwater by James Bond, was an idea conceived by Pierce Brosnan.
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15The scene in which Bond grabs the cables on the Millennium Dome required extraordinarily difficult stunt work. Director Michael Apted intentionally left a shot of one of the stuntmen missing a cable he was attempting to grab, in the final cut of the film. Apted included the miscue, in order to highlight how difficult the scene had been to film, and as an honor to the stunt performers who worked on the film.
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17Sophie Marceau's breast can be seen in her bed scene between Elektra King and James Bond. This happens just after Bond says "Enough ice for one night". Apparently, the glimpse has been airbrushed out, so it cannot be seen in the trailer, and remains only in the film itself.
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19To create the effect when Bond looks through his X-ray glasses, the actors were first filmed in their regular costumes, then again this time wearing special costumes that revealed the shapes of guns and knives underneath translucent clothing. The two were then matted together.
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21Before the shoot even began, a set was being built in Turkey, and was almost finished. One day when Michael Apted was touring around Istanbul, a bombing took place. Therefore, shots that included the cast were never shot in Istanbul, according to Apted, due to security reasons. Not a single cast member went to Istanbul. The shots of Robert Carlyle and his men getting off the boat on the jetty at Elektra's palace, were shot in the tank at Pinewood against a bluescreen or greenscreen.
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23Serena Scott Thomas did her love scene with Bond herself, turning down the offer of letting a body double do it for her.
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25The highest grossing of all of the James Bond films released in the twentieth century.
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27Dr. Christmas Jones' wearing a green tank top and shorts, was written as a nod to video game icon Lara Croft. James Bond was an influence behind Lara Croft and Daniel Craig, who would succeed Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), starred opposite Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Jolie was strongly considered for the role of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006), which went to Eva Green.
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29This was the first film to feature the newly constructed Millennium Dome, built for London's New Year's celebration of 1999/2000 (even though the new millennium didn't begin until January 1, 2001). Supposedly, the original script contained a line for M at the end of the opening sequence which read, "Well, at least the Millennium Dome has some use." That line was cut.
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31All the pipes representing Elektra's pipeline are made of cardboard.
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33The five-bladed buzzsaw was originally intended to be in GoldenEye (1995).
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35The Scottish Castle used as MI6's secret Headquarters, is the same castle used in Highlander (1986). It's called "Eilean Donan Castle", and is located near the Isle of Skye, West Scotland.
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37When Q introduces James Bond to his successor, played by John Cleese, Bond jokingly asks "Does that make him R?" The character's name is never otherwise mentioned in the film, but in the end credits, Cleese is credited as "R".
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39Elektra's villa in Baku is in reality Beylerbeyi Palace, an Ottoman summer residence built in the nineteenth century, and located in Istanbul.
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41When the producers visited BMW's plant, the company's representatives were left speechless at being apprised of how their brand new Z8 would be used.
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43In the script, it is explained that Sir Robert King inherited the oil fortune from his wife's family. Her father had no male heirs, so he left the property to his son-in-law.
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45The first Bond film to be shot in Pinewood Studios since The Living Daylights (1987).
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47In For Your Eyes Only (1981), Melina Havelock explains to Bond that "Greek women, like Elektra, always avenge their loved ones." The female antagonist in this film is Elektra King. Elektra also has a line in this film about Bond losing loved ones, which the writers intended as a reference to Paris Carver's death in the previous film.
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49Producer Barbara Broccoli, a big fan of Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994), was interested in Jackson directing the film. However, when she saw Jackson's The Frighteners (1996), she was put off by his style. Joe Dante was another director possibility.
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51The method by which the parahawk pilot survives his fall in the ski-chase scene (deploying a parachute after Bond lures him off a cliff) is highly reminiscent of the opening of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The method by which Bond downs him (collapsing his canopy by slicing it with the sharp edge of his ski), is the same way stuntman Rick Sylvester was almost killed while filming the sequence, one of his skis detaching, and nearly clipping the edge of the parachute.
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53The writers modelled Q's goodbye scene on Merlin's farewell to King Arthur.
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55This movie and Sleepy Hollow (1999) are the only two films in U.S. history to open on the same day, and each gross thirty million dollars their opening weekend.
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57Two shooting locations had to be postponed, and filming had to be switched to Spain. The skiing locale was changed, due to avalanches in the French Alps, and filming in Turkey was halted, due to political unrest. However, a secret filming unit, comprised of twelve crew, did film in Istanbul, under the fake cover movie title "Destiny".
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59Much of Robbie Coltrane's lines were derived from cut scenes from the GoldenEye (1995) script.
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61The film's story was inspired by a segment in the November 13, 1997 episode of ABC News Nightline (1980), featuring Daniel Yergin. It was seen by Producer Barbara Broccoli on a plane in November 1997. The episode reported the last great oil discovery on the planet was in the region of Eastern Europe. It covered pipelines in the area, and discussed the grand reservoirs of oil that exist below the Caspian Sea. It told of the rise of small towns in the region, that have grown into centers of grand affluence, which has included the building of numerous casinos. The episode showed how this oil reserve was now an opportunity for the western world to capitalize, as it was no longer a Russian jurisdiction, and as such, major oil companies now had interests there. Producer Broccoli hypothesized how a James Bond villain might want to create a monopoly by removing all competitors and owning the only pipeline in the region.
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63The film's title song, "The World is Not Enough", sung by Garbage did not chart in the U.S., while in the UK, it peaked at the number eleven spot on the charts. The movie's soundtrack album went to the number one hundred six spot on the UK charts. There are two versions of the soundtrack, the second one differs in that it includes a twentieth track, titled "Sweetest Coma Again", sung by Luna Sea with DJ Krush. This track is only included on the Japanese album release, as this song played during the closing credits of the Japanese release of the movie.
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65Roger Spottiswoode was asked to direct, but he turned it down, feeling tired after the chaotic production of Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
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67In the music video of "The World is Not Enough" by Garbage, Shirley Manson played a robot replica, who kills the real Shirley Manson, and takes her place. On the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008), Shirley Manson played a T-1000 liquid metal Terminator, who kills a C.E.O. and takes the real C.E.O.'s place.
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69The title originates from the epitaph of Alexander the Great.
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71Sarah Donohue, a British model with years of powerboat racing experience, was the stunt double for Maria Grazia Cucinotta in the boat chase scene. Immediately prior to this job, she had recovered from serious injuries sustained in a powerboat racing accident. Being a blonde, meant that she had to wear a wig.
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73Published newspaper reports during production of the film indicated that, as the last Bond film of the millennium, this would feature cameos by virtually every surviving previous Bond girl. Ursula Andress, Diana Rigg, Famke Janssen, and Barbara Bach were mentioned by name as among those slated to appear. Sadly, this idea, if it was ever more than a media rumor, never came to fruition.
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75The opening banker sequence was originally set in Havana, Cuba (it includes the Cigar Girl) then was moved to Geneva, Switzerland (the Swiss Bank thing) but was finally set in Bilbao, Spain.
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77Maria Grazia Cucinotta originally auditioned for the part of Elektra King, but Michael Apted didn't think her English was good enough to play her convincingly. Cucinotti gladly accepted the smaller role of the Cigar Girl, as she really wanted to be in a Bond film. MGM preferred Sharon Stone for the role of Elektra.
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79Elektra King's oil pumping facility, with the oil pipeline on its roof, is the Motorola building in North Swindon, UK. The building, which is clearly visible from the A417/A419 dual carriageway, has a distinctive heat exchanger on its roof in the form of a long cylinder. The production team used CGI to extend this cylinder and form the pipeline.
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81The scene where Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) is splashing around in a pool of his own caviar was filmed on Coltrane's birthday.
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83The Caucasus skiing chase sequence was filmed in and around Chamonix, France. Filming was delayed due to an avalanche, but the crew assisted with the rescue operations.
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85To help promote the film, skywriters were hired to write "007" in the sky across the U.S.
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87Renard, Viktor Zokas' nom de guerre, is French for "fox". This reflects the first draft of the character, who was French and named Claude Serrault. His pain-killing brain injury was written for Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and used in that film's novelization.
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89Tiffani Thiessen was considered for the role of Dr. Christmas Jones.
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91The opening pre-title sequence is so long, that in theaters, the titles and opening song didn't occur until one minute into reel two.
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93Robbie Coltrane's appearance as Russian mobster Zukovsky, marks him as one of the few supporting characters to appear in more than one film. (He previously appeared in GoldenEye (1995).) Other characters to have been in a Bond film more than once are Clifton James' Sheriff J.W. Pepper, who was in Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and "Jaws", played by Richard Kiel, who appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). Also Sylvia Trench, played by Eunice Gayson, who appeared in Dr No and From Russia With Love.
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95Until the release of Die Another Day (2002), this was the highest grossing Bond film of all time.
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97Zukovsky has a gun concealed in a cane. A similar weapon appeared in the novel "Casino Royale".
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99The ski-parahawk attack scene was inspired by the ski chase in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Filmmakers wanted to connect the film with the one, from which its title is derived.
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101Jamiroquai turned down the offer to write and sing the song of the film, because lead singer Jay Kay was not interested.
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103It might not be apparent, since the villains' personalities are completely different, but the evil scheme in this film is effectively a modern update of the one in Goldfinger (1964). Both involve the nuclear destruction of a massive store of a precious resource, with tens of thousands of civilian casualties, in order to drive up the price of said resource, allowing the villains to become the wealthiest people in the world.
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105A kidnapping of M was a subplot of the James Bond novel "Colonel Sun" written by Kingsley Amis. Baku in Azerbaijan was a setting for the 1991 James Bond novel "The Man From Barbarossa" written by John Gardner.
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107This is Don Black's fifth Bond theme song after Thunderball (1965), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
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109Second James Bond movie to use Turkey as a location; From Russia with Love (1963) was the first. A big car chase through the old town of Istanbul was ultimately eliminated, but the idea was reused for the opening scene in Skyfall (2012).
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111Fifth film in which Bond drives his Aston Martin DB5. The eight films are: Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) (appears in a deleted scene, and visible on the thermal camera near the end of the film), Casino Royale (2006), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015). The DB5 has appeared with three different licence plates; BMT 216A (Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015)), BMT 214A (GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World Is Not Enough (1999)), and 56526 (Casino Royale (2006)), which was the unique DB5, for being the only left hand drive DB5 Bond drives. Therefore, with eight films, the DB5 car has appeared in more Bond films than any actor who has played Bond.
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113The first James Bond film that was not released or co-produced by United Artists. Instead, UA's parent company MGM released and co-produced the film.
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115The soundtrack album of this film includes a song titled "Only Myself to Blame", sung by Scott Walker. Originally, David Arnold intended to use this song during the end credits, but it was considered to glum to go out on, so a techno remix of the James Bond theme was used instead.
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117Vehicles featured include: Q's unfinished fishing boat, the black one-seater jet-craft aquatic Bentz Boats custom-built Q-boat; a silver metallic four hundred horsepower gadget-laden BMW Z8 convertible roadster; the King helicopter, a Eurocopter AS-355F1 Ecureuil Twin Star (or Twin Squirrel) helicopter with five-bladed buzzsaw, as well as Aerospatiale HH-65A Dauphin, Eurocopter AS-365N Dauphin and Eurocopter EC-135 helicopters; the Cigar Girl's hot air balloon; the Cigar Girl's Sunseeker Superhawk 34 yacht speedboat, and Renard's Sunseeker Manhattan 50 Flybridge yacht; Valentin Zukvosky's white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow; a Lada Niva 4WD ute; an Army utility vehicle; a Russian nuclear submarine; a satellite image of the famous silver birch Aston Martin DB5 (its other shots were cut); a turboprop-powered STOL medium transport Casa C-212-200 Aviocar airplane, and four Parahawk parachute propelled hybrid snowmobiles.
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119MGM was considering offering the director's job to Peter Medak, who had just made Species II (1998) for them. But when that film was a critical and box-office failure, MGM re-considered.
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121The BMW Z8 driven by Bond in the film was the final part of a three-film product placement deal with BMW, but due to filming preceding the release of the Z8 by a few months, several working mock-ups and models were manufactured for filming purposes.
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123On its opening weekend, the film competed with Sleepy Hollow (1999). However, both survived the fierce competition, each collecting over thirty million dollars, and both ended up being big box-office successes.
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125Initially, this was due for release in 2000, with rumored titles including "Death Waits for No Man", "Fire and Ice", "Pressure Point", and "Dangerously Yours".
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127With the release of this film (as of 2018), this makes Pierce Brosnan to be the only Bond who owns a whole decade to himself. In the 60's, Sean Connery had to share with George Lazenby. In the 70's, Sean Connery shares this decade with Roger Moore. Moore shared the 80's with Timothy Dalton. Pierce Brosnan shared the 2000's with Daniel Craig. Even though Dalton didn't resign from the role until 1994, all the Bond movies from the 90's has been starring Pierce as Bond.
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129Having directed this movie, Michael Apted has now been associated with two of the longest franchises in film history, the James Bond franchise, and the Seven Up! (1964) documentaries. Amusingly, this movie was once jokingly referred to by the media as "007 Up".
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131Product placements, brand integrations, promotional tie-ins, and sponsorships for this movie include: the third of BMW's three-picture deal promoting their cars, specifically the BMW Z8; Motorola; Bollinger champagne, particularly a Grande Annee 1990; Turnbull & Asser ties; Omega Outdoor Agencies ski suits; Smirnoff blue label vodka; Sunseeker power boats; Omega watches, James Bond wears an Omega Seamaster watch; Caterpillar industrial vehicles; Church Presley Shoes urging consumers to "Step into Bond's shoes"; Heineken beer, maintaining "Some things shouldn't be shaken or stirred"; Microsoft Windows; and Electronic Arts' tie-in video game, The World Is Not Enough (2000). Reportedly, MGM earned one hundred million dollars in product placements for this movie.
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133Thirty-five boats where used to create the chase down the Thames.
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135The world premiere of this movie was held on November 8, 1999, at two cinemas: Bruin & Fox's Theatre, and Mann's Village Chinese Theater, in Los Angeles, California. It was the second Bond movie in the official franchise to launch in California. The first being A View to a Kill (1985). It was the second opening of a Bond movie in Los Angeles. The first being Never Say Never Again (1983). It was the third Bond premiere for California, and the fourth overall in the U.S., after the above-mentioned and GoldenEye (1995). The British premiere was held at the regular Bond launch venue, London's Leicester Square Odeon Theatre on November 22, 1999. The UK Gala Charity Premiere Benefit was held in aid of the charity Children's Promise. The post-premiere party was held at St. James Square.
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137Rugby player Jonah Lomu was originally asked to play Gabor, but his manager declined, citing advertising contracts preventing Jonah from taking on any movie acting work.
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139This was the first Bond film not released under the United Artists banner, instead, it was solely distributed by the parent company MGM.
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141Early in the development stages, some of the names being bandied around for the position of director included Martin Scorsese and Peter Medak.
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143First Bond film in Dolby Digital EX 6.1 sound.
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145Video game tie-ins for the PlayStation 2 and PC were planned, but were cancelled.
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147The film was also selected for the first round of nominations for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but failed to win.
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149Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were hired after their work in Plunkett & Macleane (1999), which also starred Robert Carlyle.
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151Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in this movie. Former James Bond Sir Roger Moore and Alan Cumming, who played Boris Klenshenko in GoldenEye (1995), appeared in Spice World (1997), in which Geri Halliwell played herself.
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153Filming of the ski-chase was delayed by an avalanche; the crew helped in the rescue operation.
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155This is the first Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) to not end with a reprise of the opening theme or, as with the previous four films, a new song, but rather with a version of the James Bond theme.
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158Ray Brown: The bespectacled wheel clamper soaked by Bond during the Thames boat chase. His cameo was a topical "revenge" gag for the public, as he had been the most prominent star of a BBC fly-on-the-wall series called "Clampers", where his over-zealous behavior, and apparent enjoyment of clamping illegally parked cars, had made him a figure of popular hatred. He and the other actor were told that they would only get "slightly wet".
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160Michael G. Wilson: A man at the casino, who opens the door for Elektra and James Bond.
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163Zukovsky saves Bond's life with a bullet from his modified walking cane. In GoldenEye (1995), it was revealed that Zukovsky walked with a cane because 007 shot him in the leg during the Cold War. This means that if Bond hadn't shot him, Zukovsky would never have been able to save him.
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165Second James Bond movie where a main villain is a woman after From Russia with Love (1963). Because of this, it is also the first James Bond film in which James Bond intentionally kills a leading Bond Girl, who is a major love interest, though his actions do lead to the deaths of Fiona Volpe in Thunderball (1965) and Xania Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995).
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167The boat chase took seven weeks to shoot, as the river Thames' nine-mile-per-hour boat speed limit had to be factored in. The filming of the boat chase sequence was broadcast live over the Internet, via webcams set up at specific points over the Thames. The scene was not originally intended to be part of the opening sequence, until test audiences said that the jump-from-the-window opener was anti-climactic. As such, it was brought forward, and had to be shortened. As it is now, this fourteen to fifteen minute opener, is still the longest pre-credits sequence in a James Bond movie.
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169In the early stages of production, there was a plan for Elektra to survive, and for the film to conclude with Bond visiting her in the hospital, while she recovered from Stockholm Syndrome. The proposed ending did not test well, and was quickly scrapped.
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171On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) provided the phrase "The World Is Not Enough" as Bond's family motto. This film is the first in the franchise since On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) to end with a reprise of the James Bond theme rather than a specialized song. Producer Barbara Broccoli has also summarized the parallel between the two plots: "With Elektra, Bond thinks he has found Tracy, but he's really found Blofeld."
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173The film gets its title from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), in which the villain Blofeld has allegedly cut off his earlobes in order to further his claim to the title of Count de Bleauchamp; in this movie, during the scene where Elektra admits to Bond that she is the main adversary, she reveals that during her kidnapping, she cut off her own earlobe.
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175Barbara Broccoli said of Elektra King, "Bond thinks he's found Tracy, but he's really found Blofeld".
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177The destruction of Valentin's factory operations took approximately five months to complete.
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179Sir Robert King's funeral is set in Scotland, but was filmed just outside of London. Dame Judi Dench was appearing in a play in the West End at the time, and wasn't able to fly to Scotland.
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181The total on-screen body count is around sixty.
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183First time Bond has shot the main villain dead since The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), as well as Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Although Bond shot Drax in Moonraker (1979) with a dart, Drax dies from being sucked out into space.