Pierce Brosnan’s best James Bond movie is 1995’s GoldenEye and yet it’s not regarded as a classic 007 film by fans in the same way Goldfinger and Casino Royale are lauded. With the 25th Bond movie, No Time To Die, believed to be the swansong of Daniel Craig’s immensely popular tenure as 007, it’s worth remembering that Brosnan’s GoldenEye successfully brought James Bond into the 1990s. However, a series of factors beyond the actor’s control sullied his run as James Bond and GoldenEye’s legacy, despite how dashing and ideal Pierce Brosnan himself was as 007.
GoldenEye was the 17th Bond movie and the first in 6 years following Timothy Dalton’s time as 007 in 1987’s The Living Daylights and 1989’s Licence to Kill. The rights to the James Bond films became embroiled in a legal mess thanks to the corporate chaos between MGM, United Artists, and Eon Productions; during that tumultuous period, Dalton retired as James Bond. Taking over as the franchise’s producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson selected Pierce Brosnan as the new 007; ironically, Brosnan was the favored choice to replace Roger Moore a decade prior, but Pierce couldn’t escape his commitment to the TV series Remington Steele. GoldenEye was also the first Bond movie not to be based on any material from 007’s creator Ian Fleming (except for its title, which was the name of Fleming’s posh retreat in Jamaica where he wrote the Bond novels).
During the six-year period between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye, real-world global politics changed: the Cold War ended, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Soviet Union collapsed. Since James Bond was a secret agent who originated during the Cold War, GoldenEye would recontextualize 007 - “a sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and “relic of the Cold War” - for the new world order of the 1990s. However, while Dalton’s Bond became less promiscuous in the 1980s as a response to the AIDS epidemic, Brosnan would return 007 to his womanizing ways - but he would be partly held in check by a new female M (Judi Dench). In fact, all of Bond’s supporting characters were recast for GoldenEye with the exception of Desmond Llewleyn’s Q, ushering in a fresh start for the saga. The stage was set for GoldenEye to become a return to glory for 007 - which it was - until Brosnan’s 4-movie run ended up inadvertently scuttling the James Bond franchise, forcing them to start over with Daniel Craig.
GoldenEye Successfully Soft Rebooted James Bond In The 1990s
GoldenEye was a smashing debut for Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond. The film was a blockbuster that earned $351-million worldwide - enough to be 1995’s 4th highest-grossing film - and it was the most successful Bond movie since Roger Moore’s Moonraker in 1979. GoldenEye also boasted two of the franchise’s most memorable villains: Sean Bean as Alec Trevalyan AKA 006 and Famke Janssen as his henchwoman, Xena Onatopp, who provocatively crushed her victims between her legs during intercourse. 007’s mission to stop the former 006 from attacking London with the EMP-emitting GoldenEye satellite took Bond from a casino in Monte Carlo to a riotous tank change in the streets of Moscow, to a slugfest with Trevalyan atop a satellite dish in Cuba. And though he was still feeling his way as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan melded Sean Connery’s effortless cool and Roger Moore’s sly wit, and he ramped up Bond’s action hero status to compete with the Stallones and Schwarzeneggers of the era.
As a soft reboot to the Bond movies, GoldenEye was a triumph and even its theme song, written by Bono and The Edge and performed by Tina Turner, evoked the vintage mood of Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger ballad. GoldenEye successfully proved James Bond belonged in the ’90s, but there were some chinks in the new 007’s armor. Some of GoldenEye’s dialogue is quotable but overall, Bond relied heavily on cringe-worthy double entendres and schoolboy puns (it would only get worse as Brosnan’s run continued). Further, without Fleming’s crackerjack spy stories to serve as a baseline, the plot was nonsensical and it devolved into a series of explosions and action set pieces. Still, GoldenEye worked, and it was well-received, but was it a classic Bond movie? Not really; GoldenEye is more of a confection and a spectacle that fans couldn’t take seriously as they would Casino Royale 19 years later. Pierce Brosnan deserved to star in even better Bond movie… but he never got it.
But GoldenEye’s True Legacy Is The Video Game, Not The Film
Remarkably, GoldenEye’s legacy was cemented for a generation not by the film itself but by its video game adaptation. GoldenEye 007 was released for Nintendo 64 in 1997 and it was an immensely-successful blockbuster that popularized first-person shooters. Moreover, GoldenEye ushered in 4-person multiplayer games so that four friends could compete against each other simultaneously. The GoldenEye video game loosely adapted the plot of the film but also integrated Bond legacy characters like Oddjob from Goldfinger and famous weapons from past movies, like the eponymous golden gun from The Man With The Golden Gun. GoldenEye 007 has been hailed as one of the greatest video games of all-time and is arguably even more fondly remembered by gamers than the GoldenEye movie is by Bond fans.
The Rest Of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond Movies Were Bad
Ultimately, what truly sullied GoldenEye and Pierce Brosnan’s legacy as James Bond were the three films that followed. Brosnan’s Bond returned in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, and 2002’s Die Another Day, and that parade of movies arguably got worse as they continued. The problems with Brosnan’s Bond movies - the embarrassing dialogue and the nonsensical plots - were only exacerbated. Further, the films engaged in stunt casting the Bond Girl roles in each film: Michelle Yeoh became Bond’s action hero sidekick and Teri Hatcher was his love interest in Tomorrow Never Dies, Denise Richards played the world’s least credible nuclear physicist in The World Is Not Enough, and Halle Berry shimmied into Die Another Day as Bond’s CIA counterpart, Jinx (who failed to garner her own spinoff).
In the 1990s, the biggest blockbusters were event movies like Independence Day, Armageddon, and Titanic - and the Brosnan Bonds struggled to compete at their level. Pierce’s last three 007 movies upped the ante with explosions and cartoonish spectacle, reaching its nadir with Bond driving an invisible car across a frozen tundra in Die Another Day. GoldenEye at least attempted to maintain the veneer of sophistication found in Connery and Moore’s classic Bond movies but Brosnan’s later films became increasingly over-the-top and forgettable. Sadly, Brosnan’s four-picture deal as 007 ended without him getting to star in a truly great James Bond movie before he retired from the role in 2004.
Brosnan’s Bond Is The Reason 007 Rebooted With Daniel Craig
By the time Pierce Brosnan completed his fourth and final James Bond film, the movie landscape had changed again. Superhero movies like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man set new box office records and ushered in the dominance of the genre that Marvel Studios currently enjoys. Meanwhile, Brosnan’s outlandish Bond movies immediately seemed old hat thanks to the arrival of Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, who galvanized the international spy movie genre with the grit, tension, and blistering violence that the Bond movies were lacking. The James Bond franchise had to respond and, with Brosnan out of the picture, their solution to compete with the Bourne movies and the superheroes was to start fresh and reboot 007 for the new era. Inadvertently, Pierce Brosnan became the last James Bond to share the legacy and continuity that began with Sean Connery and Dr. No in 1962.
2006’s Casino Royale, which launched a new Bond continuity starring Daniel Craig as the super spy, was a monumental success that garnered the critical and fan raves that eluded Brosnan’s films, even GoldenEye. Craig’s brasher and more vulnerable Bond was even favorably compared to Connery as the best 007. Though Quantum of Solace stumbled a bit, many fans feel Sam Mendes’ Skyfall was an even better Bond movie and it was the first of the franchise to earn over $1-billion at the global box office. Even after 2015’s Spectre underwhelmed compared to Skyfall, No Time To Die aims to put a button on Daniel Craig’s historic run, which, sadly, further diminishes GoldenEye’s legacy - even though it’s easily the best Bond Pierce Brosnan has to offer.
Next: Dr. No Wasn’t An Origin Story (& James Bond Was Better For It)
- Bond 25 Release Date: 2021-10-08
