--- title: "Tomorrow Never Dies" year: 1997 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/tomorrow-never-dies" fi1m_score: 64 critics_score: 61 critics_reviews: 10 published: "2026-09-18T07:41:27.629914+00:00" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:47.244234+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Directed by Roger Spottiswoode · 1h 59m · MPA PG-13 · Adventure, Action, Thriller **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 61 from 10 reviews *In a sentence:* A media baron starts a war for the headlines and Bond parks the car from the back seat > Brosnan’s second Bond is brisk, loud and well made, with a villain who sells the news he manufactures and a partner who fights better than he does. It runs out of ideas well before it runs out of explosions. ## Synopsis A British frigate, HMS Devonshire, is sunk in the South China Sea after its navigation is fed a false position, and a Chinese fighter is shot down over the wreck. Before either navy has finished counting its dead, the newspaper *Tomorrow*, owned by media baron Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), has the story on its front page. M (Judi Dench) has forty-eight hours before the fleet sails, and sends James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to Hamburg, where Carver is launching a global news network. There Bond finds Carver’s wife Paris (Teri Hatcher), whom he used to know, a technician called Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) with a stolen encoder, a blond enforcer named Stamper (Götz Otto), and a Chinese agent, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), posing as a reporter. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) has left a BMW in the car park. ## Review Two years after [*GoldenEye*](https://film.one/film/goldeneye) (1995), Pierce Brosnan’s second outing sends James Bond after a newspaper proprietor who has decided that the fastest way to a story is to cause it. Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) sinks a British frigate, blames the Chinese and has the front page set before the survivors are out of the water. It is the best idea a Bond film has had for a villain in a long while, and Bruce Feirstein’s screenplay knows it for about an hour. Then it remembers that Bond films end on a boat with a countdown, and goes and finds one. The first hour is good. Roger Spottiswoode opens with an arms bazaar on the Russian border, Bond in a cockpit, M and an admiral arguing over a live feed, and gets the frigate sunk and the network launched before we have had time to settle. Michel Arcand and Dominique Fortin cut it tight and clean, so that a fight in a soundproofed Hamburg studio plays as a single hard rhythm, punches landing under the sound of a printing press. Robert Elswit lights Carver’s launch party as a wall of screens and cold white light, and the hotel room afterwards in warm gold. Pryce is having a lovely time. He plays Carver as a man who has never been contradicted in his own building, and he is far more frightening at a lectern than the film ever lets him be with a weapon. Teri Hatcher gives Paris Carver a tiredness the series does not usually allow its women, and her hotel scene with Brosnan moved us more than we expected a Bond film to: two people who both know how this ends and go ahead anyway. Vincent Schiavelli turns up as Dr Kaufman, a hired killer who lectures his victims on his own professionalism, and gets the biggest laugh in the picture. Then there is the car. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) has left Bond a BMW that can be driven from a telephone, and the sequence in a multi-storey car park, with Brosnan crouched in the back seat steering with his thumb while the roof is shot off around him, had us laughing out loud. It is the film’s one moment of real invention, and it is over in five minutes. Michelle Yeoh is the other reason to watch. Wai Lin is a Chinese agent working the same case from the other side, and Yeoh does her own fighting with a speed and economy the film’s Western stuntmen cannot match. A motorcycle chase through Saigon, the two of them handcuffed together and taking turns at the handlebars while a helicopter follows them down the alleys, is the best set piece in the second half by some distance. She is given almost nothing to say that is not a retort, and the script treats her as a stunt asset rather than a character, a waste of the most capable person on screen. Allan Cameron’s production design is at its best in Hamburg, where Carver’s headquarters is a black glass box full of monitors, and weakest on the stealth ship, a grey wedge of corridors that could be in any film of the decade. David Arnold’s score is the brassiest the series had heard in years, and it does a great deal of work in the last half hour when the pictures are only people running towards a bomb. Lindy Hemming puts Brosnan in navy and Pryce in collarless black, and the shorthand works. By the time Stamper (Götz Otto) and Bond are throwing each other around the missile bay we were checking how much was left, which is not where a 119-minute film should have us. The satire has gone by then; nobody mentions a headline in the last twenty minutes, and Carver’s plan, which began as a wicked joke about the press, ends as a quite ordinary attempt to blow something up. Against *GoldenEye* this is the smaller, faster, emptier film, better made in nearly every department and with less on its mind. It is a decent evening for anyone who likes the series, and the car park alone justifies the price of the sofa. Just do not expect the media satire to survive the second half. *Fi1m score 64, published 18 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it without loving it. The praise gathers around Pierce Brosnan, who several find settled and confident in his second outing, and around Michelle Yeoh, whose Wai Lin is repeatedly singled out as a partner who fights rather than waits. The action is generally approved of, the motorcycle chase in particular, and Jonathan Pryce’s media-mogul villain strikes several reviewers as timely and enjoyably hissable. The reservations cluster on formula. Radio Times and Time Out both find the first hour strong and the second half sagging, and Radio Times thinks the villain never quite threatens. The AV Club complains of over-scripted banter and a wasted Yeoh. The spread is wide: Empire calls the series firmly back on form, while Film Stories thinks the rushed script leaves it closer to pastiche, and The New York Times sees Bond reduced to a pitchman. The disagreement is whether the familiarity is a comfort or a failing. ### Reviews we read (10) - **Empire**, Andrew Collins (80/100, inferred): The critic finds that after a shaky period, Bond is firmly back on form with Pierce Brosnan in the lead. The film is praised as fast, funny and very British, with Brosnan excelling and Roger Spottiswoode delivering a thrilling addition to the franchise. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/tomorrow-never-dies-review/) - **Radio Times**, Adrian Turner (4/5): For the first hour this Bond entry matches the best with terrific pace, strong Brosnan and Yeoh chemistry, and a gripping story; the second half loses momentum and the villain feels unthreatening. It was the best Bond since Connery at the time. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-i5ek9s/tomorrow-never-dies/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a solid, stylish Bond entry that gets the job done with exciting action and some contemporary satire in its media-mogul villain. He singles out the strong chemistry between Brosnan's Bond and Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin, along with impressive stunt sequences like the motorcycle chase. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tomorrow-never-dies-1997) - **Time Out**, NK (70/100, inferred): The first half builds promisingly with depth to Bond's character and the usual mix of action, but the second half falters with standard tactics and underwritten roles. Brosnan's Bond is strong enough to make it flawed but fantastic fun. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/tomorrow-never-dies) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (65/100, inferred): The review calls it a solid but by-the-numbers Bond entry heavy on action, distinguished by an imaginatively conceived media-mogul villain and an unusually active female partner. It highlights the effective casting of Jonathan Pryce and Michelle Yeoh while noting the emphasis on bang-bang over kiss-kiss or humor. [Read](https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/tomorrow-never-dies-1117339901/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (50/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as aware of its franchise position but ultimately stodgy and derivative, with a been-there feeling despite efforts to update it. He praises the addition of Michelle Yeoh as a lively sidekick who brings successful energy to the proceedings. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-dec-19-ca-36-story.html) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (45/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a generic action event that turns Bond into a pitchman, with shallowness reflected in its title, though it acknowledges a lively villain in Jonathan Pryce. It criticizes the lack of the character's unique suaveness and notes the supporting turns and BMW gadget as highlights amid the cartoonish elements. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/19/movies/film-review-shaken-not-stirred-bond-is-in-business.html) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a predictable and formulaic Bond entry that squanders opportunities despite familiar pleasures like stunts and one-liners. They single out the over-scripted banter and the underutilization of Michelle Yeoh as points of complaint. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/tomorrow-never-dies-1798196231) - **Den of Geek**, Max Williams (70/100, inferred): The critic views Tomorrow Never Dies as a solid but lesser Brosnan Bond entry than Goldeneye, praising its muscular action sequences, hissable villain Elliot Carver, and strong supporting turns like Paris Carver while noting formulaic elements and an over-the-top climax that hint at issues ahead in the series. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/james-bond-007-revisiting-tomorrow-never-dies/) - **Film Stories**, Mark Harrison (30/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a generic nuts-and-bolts actioner hampered by a rushed, underdeveloped script that makes it both forward-thinking and instantly dated, closer to pastiche than a strong second outing. They single out the strong action set-pieces, assertive Wai Lin character, and David Arnold score for praise amid the flaws. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/tomorrow-never-dies-a-james-bond-film-ahead-of-its-time/) ## Details - **Director:** Roger Spottiswoode - **Director:** Roger Spottiswoode - **Screenplay:** Bruce Feirstein - **Cinematography:** Robert Elswit - **Editor:** Michel Arcand, Dominique Fortin - **Music:** David Arnold - **Production design:** Allan Cameron - **Costume design:** Lindy Hemming - **Producer:** Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli - **Cast:** Pierce Brosnan as James Bond; Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver; Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin; Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver; Ricky Jay as Henry Gupta; Götz Otto as Stamper; Joe Don Baker as Wade; Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman - **Runtime:** 1h 59m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 12 December 1997 - **Genres:** Adventure, Action, Thriller - **Budget:** $110 million - **Box office:** $333 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-18.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award 1998: European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award (nominated) ## If you liked this - *GoldenEye* (1995), Fi1m 78: Brosnan’s first, and the one with more on its mind and a better villain. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/goldeneye.md) - *Police Story 3: Supercop* (1992): Yeoh on a motorbike, doing everything herself; see what Bond was borrowing. - *Network* (1976), Fi1m 86: A television executive who would understand Carver perfectly and out-talk him. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/network.md) - *The Ipcress File* (1965): The spy film Bond was never allowed to be: grubby, quiet and tired. - *Ronin* (1998), Fi1m 80: Car chases shot as if the cars weighed something; a corrective for the BMW. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ronin.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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