"Samaritan Snare"

That’s right! # 7 on our 007 countdown is 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies”. This is one of those movies that I like to make a nice big spaghetti dinner and sit down and watch. Don’t ask. The beginning has Bond at a terrorist arms bazaar. Just as the navy sends a missile to destroy the terrorists, Bond informs M and the Admiral that their is a plane with nuclear missiles at the bazaar. In a daring move he has to pilot the plane to safety which leads us to the opening credits.

Bond is up against Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a media mogul who is interested in becoming the sole media provider to the entire world. His means of getting to this goal; starting World War 3 between the British and the Chinese. In a plot devise from “You Only Live Twice”, he is using a stealth boat armed with a decoder devise to attack the two sides with their own weapons.

Bond is teamed up with Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese operative to dispose of Carver. The other bad guys in the film are Mr. Stamper (Gotz Otto) and a great performance from Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufmann. The other Bond girl is Teri Hatcher, playing Carvers wife Paris.

The car chase scene is one of my favorites ever when Bond is using the remote control to steer. Also the scene on the motorcycle when they have to escape the helicopter is frickin’ awesome.

Sorry that this edition didn’t get the attention and detail that “The Living Daylights” received, but I am in a hurry to get this out now, and I couldn’t find any site with a good collection of good images from the movie. Notable also for being the last movie with Desmond Llewelyn as Q for the entire movie ---he was in “The World Is Not Enough” but made his exit with R (now Q) taking over in a performance from John Cleese.

Okay. Go watch this movie already! Go.

~Oz