The World Is Not Enough (1999): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

The World Is Not Enough opens with Bond recovering a large sum of money in Bilbao for the oil magnate Sir Robert King. The cash is rigged, and it kills King inside MI6 headquarters in London.

Bond gives chase along the Thames, and the boat pursuit ends near the Millennium Dome. M then sends him to guard King's daughter Elektra King, who was once kidnapped by the terrorist Renard. Bond travels to Azerbaijan and finds Elektra running her father's pipeline project, with the oil business and an old kidnapping both hanging over the job.

If you want to place the film in the series first, it follows tomorrow never dies in release order and comes before die another day. The full story is told in the next section, so stop here if you have not seen it.

In The World Is Not Enough, Bond discovers that Elektra King and the terrorist Renard plan to trigger a nuclear meltdown on a submarine in Istanbul to raise the value of her oil pipeline. The story is easiest to follow as a chain of steps, which runs from Bilbao to a flooding submarine.

Step one, the bomb. A bomb hidden in a payment kills Sir Robert King inside MI6 headquarters. Bond chases the assassin known as the Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) by boat along the Thames, and she dies near the Millennium Dome.

Step two, the trail to Renard. Bond learns that the plot leads to Renard, a terrorist with a bullet lodged in his brain that dulls his pain and will eventually kill him. M assigns Bond to protect Elektra, who was once held hostage by Renard. Bond follows her to Azerbaijan and then on to Central Asia, where he poses as a nuclear scientist and meets the physicist Christmas Jones.

Step three, the plutonium. Renard steals plutonium from a decommissioned Kazakh facility. Bond comes to see that Elektra is working with Renard rather than being his victim.

Step four, the real plan. Their scheme is to cause a reactor meltdown on a submarine in Istanbul. That would block rival pipelines and make Elektra's own pipeline far more valuable. Elektra captures Bond and tortures him, and M is also caught in her trap.

Step five, the finish. Bond escapes and gets to the submarine with Christmas Jones's help. He kills Elektra, then fights Renard inside the flooding submarine and kills him. The reactor is destroyed as Bond and Christmas get clear.

The World Is Not Enough had its US release on November 19, 1999 and its UK premiere on November 26, 1999, both dates as reported by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Neither is confirmed by a studio announcement. Australia's release date is reported as November 21, 1999, between the US and UK dates.

That order is the reverse of what a British franchise might suggest, because the US opening came a week before the UK date. Box Office Mojo supplies the US date and The Numbers the UK date, while TMDB lists the Australian one.

A gala premiere is a separate event from a general release, and no city or venue for one has been published in the Box Office Mojo or The Numbers listings, so none is stated.

US certification is PG-13, the UK rating is 12 and the Australian rating is M. For how the film sits against the rest of the series on grosses, see james bond box office.

The World Is Not Enough ends with Bond killing Elektra King and Renard, which stops their plan to melt down a nuclear reactor on a submarine in Istanbul. The ending only makes sense once you see what Elektra wanted from the meltdown.

The meltdown would block rival pipelines and make her own pipeline far more valuable, so the plot was a business move dressed as terrorism. That is why the film spends its middle act in Azerbaijan, at the pipeline, and in Central Asia, where Renard takes plutonium from a decommissioned Kazakh facility: every stop feeds the final scheme. Bond kills Elektra first, then fights Renard inside the flooding submarine and kills him. With both of them dead, the plan collapses and the reactor is destroyed as Bond and Christmas Jones get clear.

The closing scene is deliberately light. Bond and Christmas celebrate the new year together in Istanbul while MI6 watches on a satellite feed, and R brushes the picture off as a technical glitch. John Cleese's R is introduced as Q's assistant, so the gag also points at the handover from Desmond Llewelyn's Q. Llewelyn made 17 appearances in the role, and this was the last, according to CBS News, which reported his death in a car crash on December 19, 1999, a few weeks after the film opened. On a second viewing, that exchange reads differently.

The film also closes on a remix of the Bond theme rather than a new end song, so the Garbage title song is heard only in its usual place over the main titles.

Opinion: the ending lands harder than the explosion because Bond has to kill a woman he was sent to protect, which makes it more personal than the finish of the earlier tomorrow never dies. The structure also mirrors the opening: the film begins with a bomb that kills a man inside MI6 headquarters and a Thames boat chase ending at the Millennium Dome, a sequence Variety's Michael Apted obituary singles out, and it ends with a threat that stays hidden until Bond reaches the submarine. Compared with the next film, die another day, the villains here are tied to one family history, the King kidnapping, rather than to a stand-alone scheme.

It is also the last film Desmond Llewelyn made as Q, a fact that gives the cast list a quiet weight on a second viewing.

The World Is Not Enough was shot across Spain, France, Turkey, the UK and the Bahamas, with Pinewood Studios used for interiors and the water tank.

The Bilbao opening takes in the exterior near the Guggenheim Museum. The Kazakh nuclear facility exterior was filmed at Bardenas Reales in Navarre, Spain, and the Caucasus snowmobile chase was shot in Chamonix, France. Istanbul stands in for itself, with the Maiden's Tower and Küçüksu Pavilion on screen.

In London, the Thames boat chase, the MI6 building and the Millennium Dome appear on location. Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland serves as the MI6 Scottish base, and the underwater submarine scenes were shot in the Bahamas. Pinewood Studios hosted the interior sets and the water tank.

The most quoted piece of trivia about The World Is Not Enough is that it was the last of Desmond Llewelyn's 17 appearances as Q. He died in a car crash on December 19, 1999, aged 85, a few weeks after the film opened, according to CBS News.

• John Cleese appears as R, introduced as Q's assistant.

If you are comparing it with the rest of the series, the james bond movies hub lists every film, and james bond movies in order shows where it sits in the run.