Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Tomorrow Never Dies opens with a British warship sunk in the South China Sea, and James Bond is sent to investigate media tycoon Elliot Carver, whose news outlets reported the sinking before anyone else.

Before the title, Bond watches a gathering of terrorists trading weapons at a border bazaar, and the mission ends in a hurried escape. Soon after, the British navy ship is lost in a way that pushes London and Beijing towards war, and Bond is pointed at Carver, whose news empire had the story first.

In Hamburg he meets Carver's wife, Paris Carver, a woman from his past, and he starts to see that the media boss is behind the crisis. Everything after that point belongs to the full plot section, which is flagged for spoilers.

In Tomorrow Never Dies, media tycoon Elliot Carver uses a stolen navigation signal device to sink a British warship and provoke a war between Britain and China, and James Bond and Wai Lin stop him aboard his stealth ship. Spoilers follow.

After the opening mission ends in a hurried escape, Bond learns that a British warship has been lost in disputed waters, and London is close to sending its fleet against China. He finds that Carver used the stolen device to lure the ship off course, and that his newspapers and television were ready to report the disaster. Carver wants a war between the two countries so that his company can win exclusive broadcast rights in China.

Bond works out how the plan runs with help from Paris Carver, Carver's wife and a woman from his past, and from Jack Wade, his CIA contact. He then teams up with Wai Lin, a Chinese state security agent who is looking into the same events. Together they escape from Carver's men and track the plot to a stealth ship hidden near Vietnam.

On the ship, Carver kills his own hacker, Henry Gupta, when he is no longer useful. Carver has a stolen missile ready to fire at Beijing and kill much of the Chinese government. Bond kills Carver with his own drilling device, rescues Wai Lin as the missile explodes, and Stamper, Carver's enforcer, dies in the blast that destroys the ship. Bond and Wai Lin share a kiss in the wreckage while a British warship looks for them.

Tomorrow Never Dies had its UK premiere on December 11, 1997 (reported) and its US release on December 19, 1997 (confirmed). Australian audiences followed on January 16, 1998 (reported).

The UK date is the reported premiere; no venue or city is recorded for it. The film went on to gross $125 million domestically and $208 million internationally, for $333 million worldwide on a $110 million budget.

Certifications are PG-13 in the US, 12 in the UK and M in Australia. The runtime is 119 minutes.

In the ending of Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond and Wai Lin destroy Elliot Carver's stealth ship, Bond kills Carver with his own drilling device, and the war between Britain and China is avoided. Spoilers follow.

Bond stops the missile before it can start a war, and Stamper dies when the missile detonates. Bond and Wai Lin survive in the wreckage and share a kiss while a British navy ship searches for them.

The neatest touch is that Carver is undone by a tool of his own. His drilling device is the weapon that kills him, which suits a character whose whole scheme was built on machinery pointed at the wrong target, and it makes the finish feel like a consequence rather than a rescue.

Stamper's death follows the same logic. Bond traps Stamper, Carver's enforcer, in the missile's mechanism, so the machine meant to start a war is what kills the man who guarded it. Earlier on the ship, Carver has already shown how he treats his own people: he kills his hacker, Henry Gupta, the moment Gupta is no longer useful. A villain who discards allies that casually has no one left beside him when the stealth ship starts to burn.

The stakes also loop back to the opening. The film begins with a British warship lost and London close to sending its fleet against China. It ends with a British navy ship searching the wreckage for Bond and Wai Lin, so the same navy that nearly sailed to war is now looking for survivors. The missile was aimed at Beijing to kill much of the Chinese government, which means the final act is a race to stop a launch rather than a duel.

The pairing matters too. Wai Lin is a state security agent who tracked the same events, so she is a partner in the final stretch rather than someone Bond saves, and the closing image leaves the two as partners who earned each other's respect. In my opinion, that makes the film's closing partnership closer to The Spy Who Loved Me, where Bond also works alongside an agent from another country's service, than to the lone-hero finales of earlier entries.

In my view, it also marks a difference from GoldenEye, the previous film in release order: here the threat is a media company manufacturing a war for broadcast rights, and the ending resolves it by physically stopping the missile and the man behind it, not by exposing him to the public.

Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed in the French Pyrenees, England, Mexico and Thailand. The pre title sequence was shot in the French Pyrenees.

Royal Navy scenes were shot in Portsmouth, England, and the studio stages were at Pinewood Studios and Elstree Studios in England. The US air base scene was filmed at RAF Lakenheath, England. The Hamburg car chase was shot in a car park at Brent Cross, London, so a German city on screen is a north London shopping car park in practice.

The tank for the sea landing was at Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. Bangkok and Phang Nga Bay, Thailand, stood in for Vietnam.

That last choice has a production backstory. Vietnam was planned as a filming location but access was lost, and Thailand was used instead; Variety ran a story on the loss in 1997. The substitution matters to the plot, because Carver's stealth ship is hidden near Vietnam, and the film's final set piece plays out in waters that were never actually Vietnamese.

In Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond drives a BMW by remote control from the back seat in the Hamburg car park chase.

On set, the car was driven by remote control, with the steering wheel moved to the back seat, which is how Bond can work the car from the rear while it moves through the car park. The recipe was a modified car, a back seat driver and a London car park standing in for Hamburg.

The film was also the first to give Bond the Walther P99 pistol. It was the first Bond film made after producer Albert R. Broccoli died, and it is dedicated to his memory. In the US it opened on the same weekend as Titanic.

For more vehicles across the saga, see James Bond cars and James Bond gadgets.