Die Another Day is the twentieth James Bond film made by EON Productions and the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming’s James Bond. It was released in 2002 and produced by Bond veterans Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. It is the first film not to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q since Live and Let Die (1973) due to his death in December of 1999.

Die Another Day, being the twentieth Bond film and also being released the year of the Bond film franchise’s “40th Anniversary,” pays homage in some sort of way to every previous official James Bond film. It also additionally references several Fleming novels as well as novels by other official Bond authors.

Plot summary: In the pre-title sequence, James Bond infiltrates a North Korean military base belonging to Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, an army officer who is illegally selling weaponry in exchange for African conflict diamonds. Bond poses as a weapons dealer, rigging his briefcase of diamonds with C4. He meets Moon and his assistant, Zao, to whom he gives the diamonds for inspection. Zao finds out Bond’s true identity and informs Moon, who demonstrates one of the weapons, using it to blow up the chopper Bond flew in.

Moon learns that his father, General Moon, is approaching, and orders the weapons hidden and Bond killed, taking flight in a large hovercraft. Bond detonates the C4, embedding several diamonds in Zao’s face. He then steals another hovercraft and pursues Colonel Moon, who tumbles over a waterfall, still on his hovercraft, and Bond believes him to be dead. No sooner does Bond himself evade death than North Korean troops capture him under General Moon’s orders, and he is imprisoned and tortured.

Fourteen months later, Bond is released in exchange for Zao, who was captured during that time. He is sedated and taken to a frigate off the coast of Hong Kong, where M informs him that his 00 status has been suspended because the allied forces believe that he may have leaked information under duress. Determined to take Zao out and find out who betrayed him, Bond escapes. He learns that Zao is in Cuba. He travels to Havana where he meets NSA agent Giacinta ‘Jinx’ Johnson. Bond follows Zao to a gene therapy clinic—a private and pricey establishment that allows patients to have their appearances altered—on Isla Los Organos, where he again runs into Jinx, who’s posing as a client to get within striking distance of Zao. Bond locates Zao’s room and fights him, but Zao escapes. However, Bond steals a pendant from Zao. It contains five diamonds, which Raoul identifies as conflict diamonds, each of which bears the laser signature (a unique identifier) of the company of British billionaire Gustav Graves.

Bond locates Graves at a fencing club in London. He meets Graves and his fencing partner/public relations representative, Miranda Frost, who is a world champion in Olympic fencing. Bond engages Graves in a semi-friendly duel using real swords, putting up one of the diamonds as a wager. Bond wins, and Graves—in a show of feigned sportsmanship—writes a cheque to Bond for the market value of the diamond and invites him to a ceremony that Graves is holding in Iceland, where he will be conducting a scientific demonstration.

In a derelict London Underground station, M restores Bond’s 00 status and offers assistance in the investigation in exchange for the intel he has gathered on Graves. Frost, actually another MI6 agent, had been sent by MI6 to learn Graves’ intentions, but she has failed to uncover anything. Bond takes Graves up on his invitation at an ice palace Graves has prepared for the occasion, and there Bond meets Jinx again. That night, Graves demonstrates his new orbital mirror satellite (which he has dubbed “Icarus”)—an apparatus that can harness solar energy and focus it to provide year-round sunshine for crop development.

Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry in ‘Die Another Day’.

Jinx infiltrates Graves’ palatial command centre, where she finds Zao, who is trying to use the Isla Los Organos technology to alter his appearance. Mr Kil subdues her and straps her to a table, intending to use a laser to kill her. She is briefly tortured. Bond arrives and works together with Jinx to fry Kil’s brain with the laser. It then occurs to Bond that the equipment Zao was using to change his appearance is already on the premises and being used by another North Korean: Colonel Moon, who survived his plummet over the waterfall and has changed his own identity to that of Graves.

When Bond confronts Graves, Frost shows up and points her gun at Bond; Graves, who admits to being Moon, reveals her as Bond’s betrayer. Bond attempts to shoot Graves but finds that the firing pin of his Walther P99 is bent, immediately realising that Frost has tampered it. Bond escapes and steals the high speed vehicle owned by Graves. Graves uses Icarus, his satellite, and increases its intensity so he can try to kill Bond. Bond accelerates the vehicle and gets suspended over a glacier and opens the chute panel. Graves melts the glacier and Bond skies from the tidal wave (an impact due to the drowning of glacier) using the parachute from Grave’s vehicle and when re-entering the palace, takes flight in his Aston Martin Vanquish, followed closely by Zao, who pursues him in a Jaguar XKR through the rapidly melting ice palace. Bond kills Zao by luring him under a collapsing chandelier, and then rescues Jinx from drowning when she was trapped in Frost’s bedroom.

After the confrontation, Bond and Jinx are deployed at the border between North and South Korea, where they infiltrate North Korea using experimental stealth sleds called Switchblades and parachutes. They stow away on Graves’ cargo plane, which is also carrying the arrested General Moon, his lieutenants, and Frost. Graves reveals the true purpose behind his creation of Icarus—he uses its beam to cut a swath through the minefield in the Korean Demilitarised Zone.

Once the minefield is destroyed, North Korean troops can invade South Korea, reuniting the two countries through force. Icarus would also stop any interference from the Western nations by destroying any WMDs fired on North Korea. Graves wears a sophisticated armour that not only gives him electrifying capabilities, but allows him to control the Icarus satellite remotely. In an attempt to preserve peace, General Moon draws a gun on his son, but Graves uses his armour to electrocute and disarm the general and then Graves shoots him.

Bond advances to kill Graves, but is thwarted when one of Graves’ soldiers attacks him, causing him to shoot through a window and bringing about cabin depressurisation. Jinx manages to stabilise the plane, but is accosted by a sword-wielding Frost, who forces her to set the plane’s controls to autopilot. While doing so, Jinx alters the plane’s heading so that it will fly directly into the beam cast by Icarus. During the climatic catfight that follows, Jinx kills Frost with a knife to the chest.

In the cabin, Graves gains the upper hand against Bond and puts on a parachute. Bond pulls Graves’ ripcord, causing the parachute to open inside the cabin, and the slipstream pulls Graves out of the plane, sucking him into one of the engines, shutting down Icarus. Bond and Jinx escape the plane using a helicopter in the cargo hold, along with a large number of Graves’ diamonds.

See also:

• Die Another Day: Film - Cast
• Die Another Day: Film - Crew
• Die Another Day: Film - Goofups
• Die Another Day: Film - Locations
• Die Another Day: Film - Soundtrack
• Die Another Day: Film - Trivia