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The World Is Not Enough - Millennium Edition

lapis molari

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It's time for another Bond edit. This time a Brosnan one. Working title: The World is Not Enough - Millennium Edition.

James Bond's 1999 adventure is a mixed bag. Interesting ideas, several strong characters, and a rather coherent plot. All buried under an overdose of 1990's action flick, Roger Moor-ish one-liners, and too much effort to misdirect the audience as to who the main villain is.
Brosnan plays Bond much closer to Daniel Craig's roughness than to Roger Moore's suaveness. But he's given so many cheesy Moore lines that this Bond feels tediously immature.
This can be improved! Several big cuts and many small trims make this Bond less cheesy, less sexist, more hard-boiled. It has fewer puns, a better balance between suspense and action, and is a lot snappier.

The big cuts:
1) No more ski chase with paragliding snow-mobiles. It always bugged me that Elektra supposedly staged this to misdirect suspicion: she'd have died if not for Bond's interventions (including the laughable coat / avalanche protection bubble). Plus other Bond films have better ski chases.
2) No Renard showing off to other villains that he can grab a smouldering rock with his bare hands. It slows down the flow of the story and has no pertinent information.
3) Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones. Remove dumb moments. Make her character more enjoyable.
4) No buzz-saw helicopter. Yes, the battle is dramatic and memorable. But it's long, has low stakes (Bond fights faceless minions, not the main villains) and no consequences for the story. Also, it broke my suspension of disbelief that the helicopter takes only 3 minutes to fuel, lift off, fly from its work site to the Caspian Sea, and attack. This new transition reminds me of my Back To The Future 2 edit where I cut Marty and Doc at the graveyard: I don't see how I can do it better with the available material, but it's not invisible.
5) No more Bond swimming outside the submarine. Added benefit: Bond no longer needs Dr Jones to work the buttons, which enabled me to have Bond go straight for Renard. He's focused on preventing a nuclear disaster, not freeing the girl.
6) No more M watching Bond shoot Elektra. Nor Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
7) No closing scene at MI6, where M watches Bond have sex on the infra-red screen. That was awkward, juvenile humor. Now we close on the high-note of Bond in black-tie, kissing his girl, with champagne and fireworks. We can imagine the rest.

Change list:
- Remove Bond's quip about Cigar Girl's body.
- To rebalance the build-up of the film, the opening song moves back to its originally intended place right after Bilbao.
- Remove Bond and Moneypenny quip about cigar.
- Cut two short shots from Boat Chase.
- Cut M's line "We'll chase them to the farthest ends of the world if needs be." Too much hyperbole.
- Trim Q's lab to make John Cleese less snarky.
- Retain: Cleese demonstrating the Avalanche Protection coat. The avalanche is cut, so this coat becomes an unused gadget. However, it sets up Q's wonderful final scene. I refuse to cut that, so had to retain the now unused Coat.
- Small trims to M's conversation with Bond. More matter-of-fact.
- Trim briefing about Renard, cut Moneypenny's jab at Bond's doctor (used photoshop to remove Moneypenny walking behind the doctor).
- Cut Ski Chase. We cut straight from inspecting the pipeline to Elektra's stately house.
- Trim Bond / Elektra conversation.
- Trim Bond ogling women in the casino with his x-ray glasses.
- Trim Bond / Valentin conversation, because Bond no longer has fabric from the (cut) ski attack.
- Cut Renard / Davidov meeting with hot rocks.
- Cut half of Bond / Elektra conversation after sex.
- Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones and Bond's dialog with her throughout the film. Most annoying bits are gone, including an illogical jealous snipe at Bond having slept with Elektra.
- Small trims to fight inside muclear site.
- Cut Renard shooting bystanders as he exits the nuclear site. Yes, he's a bad guy. We know. I don't need a mass murder to figure that out, and I don't like how cavalier the film treats it (i.e. no further mention that all those people were killed).
- No buzz-saw helicopter. Instead, Bond pushes Valentin into the pool of caviar (or is it oil?). (Used photoshop again to remove saw-blade from almost hitting Valentin as he falls into the pool).
- Small trims to Elektra / captive Bond. Less corny.
- Cut M watching Bond shoot Elektra.
- Cut Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
- Man trims in the submarine. Bond goes straight for Renard. Cut freeing Dr Jones. Trim Bond / Renard fight. Jones only reappears during fight.
- Cut Bond swimming outside the submarine.
- Cut closing scene at MI6. Cut M watching Bond have sex in infra-red. Insert 3-second shot of sunset over Istanbul (from youtube) to transition from Bond in water to Bond in tuxedo.

New run time: 1h45m (23 minutes cut).

Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas and counter-ideas to Tubes' TWINE edit 'Pressure Point'.
 

LastSurvivor

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Nice!  This sounds great... always great to see another Bond edit in there... and I never saw the Pressure Point edit of TWINE, so looking forward to this.
 

lapis molari

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When Bond enters the submarine, he goes straight for Renard. Not for the girl.
Pw: fanedit.org

 

lapis molari

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While working on the cover, I realized the sub-title for my edit had been staring me in the face:
The World Is Not Enough - Millenium Edition

The film came out at the end of 1999, and was supposed to propel 007 into the next millenium. Much of the film did that, but it was covered under too many Roger Moore hold-overs from the 20th century. By cutting and trimming those, we arrive at a Brosnan Bond that really is ready to launch Bond into the 21st century.

As a bonus, the sub-title ties in with the visual reference to the Millenium Dome, making it easy to remember which 007 story this is.

TWINE%20poster%20v1b.jpg
 

lapis molari

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Here's an example of scaling back the juvenile humor, while leaving enough playful innuendo that Bond isn't neutered in the edit. Pw: fanedit.org

Trimmed cigar joke:

Original cigar joke:
 

Zarius

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lapis molari said:
Here's an example of scaling back the juvenile humor, while leaving enough playful innuendo that Bond isn't neutered in the edit. Pw: fanedit.org

Trimmed cigar joke:

Original cigar joke:
Aw, I like that joke... :(

I did sort of hear a hard cut where you took it out.
 

lapis molari

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Zarius said:
I did sort of hear a hard cut where you took it out.

Oh, good catch. I cut off the echo of the trash bin. I'll fix that. Thanks.
 

lapis molari

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The paragliding snowmobile attack is cut, so Bond no longer has fabric from that when he meets Valentin. Here is the brief altered clip of the Valentin meeting. Pw: fanedit.org
 

TM2YC

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^ Looks fine to me.

If the title of the fanedit is "millennium" then surely you should replace the title song with this Bond sampling hit ;) :

 

lapis molari

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TM2YC said:
If the title of the fanedit is "millennium" then surely you should replace the title song with this Bond sampling hit ;)

:D I'd be happy to use Robbie Williams for a Bond song, if only he had a better song for it.

I am planning to use, over the closing credits:
- Sammy Davis Jr in Diamonds Are Forever (a callback to his inserted deleted scene), and
- Grace Jones' Storm in A View To A Kill. The latter also closes out @"LastSurvivor" 's excellent Icarus edit.
 

lapis molari

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When the MI6 doctor declares Bond fit for service, M realizes why she did. The doctor is embarrassed, Bond is amused (instead of also embarrassed, rather dickish to the doctor but perfectly in character for 007).

In the original, this funny scene goes farther / too far by having Moneypenny throw a sarcastic comment at the doctor. This felt unprofessional and out of character for Moneypenny (she might think it, but wouldn't say it, and surely not in front of M).

So here are the trimmed clip and the original for comparison. Pw: fanedit.org
(For the hawk-eyes among you: When Moneypenny walked past the doctor, the light changed on the doctor's hair. I still need to improve that in a few frames.)
 

Zarius

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Now this joke I don't mind going. Was a bit vulgar even for Bond standards.
 

lapis molari

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@"Zarius" , just to clarify: do you mean the original, or is even my trimmed version too cheap for your preference?
 

Zarius

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lapis molari said:
@"Zarius" , just to clarify: do you mean the original, or is even my trimmed version too cheap for your preference?

The original clip, yours is great.
 

lapis molari

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Thanks! Instead of a cheap joke, it's now about M reminding 007 that she sees through his tricks, doesn't like them, but condones them because Bond gets the job done.

It's a clear nod to their meeting in Goldeneye, where M said "I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though lost on me, obviously appealed to that young girl I sent out to evaluate you."
 

lapis molari

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Here is the big "trick", the cut that removes the buzzsaw helicopter attack.

Originally the buzzsaws cause Valentin to fall / jump into a pool of caviar. In the edit, Bond pushes Valentin into the pool of caviar, to get information from him.

Notes:
- I will smooth the audio transition at 0'36".
- I need to improve the video transition at 1'43".
- I realize I've created a minor continuity error, Christmas Jones starts with dry hair then has wet hair.

With those caveats, what do you think of the push? Does that work for you? Pw: fanedit.org

 

The Scribbling Man

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The shot of Christmas at 00:42 is a bit quick, and doesn't make sense given the sudden location change. I think you'd maybe be better off removing the shot and trying to sell a hard cut, implying a short time transition between Bond pinning him against the wall and throwing him in the caviar.

I also think that the wet hair AND the flames/destruction in the background make it very obvious that we've skipped past something big and chaotic. You could maybe get away with this by avoiding close ups of Christmas, so as not to draw attention to her wet hair/what's behind her. That would also probably require removing her comment about sour cream.
 

lapis molari

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Funny, I inserted Christmas at 00:42 because I felt it needed a cutaway shot. I'll re-run the scene without that and compare the two.

I kept Christmas' sour cream joke because otherwise Bond's champagne joke didn't get any reaction. Looking at it again, I'll try to move some shots around: Bond makes the champagne joke at Christmas, then in response she gives him the cane. Now I just have to puzzle how to lay the audio build-up of Valentin's confession over this.
 

lapis molari

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One more video clip, of Bond shooting Elektra. No sentiment, no M. Just business.
Pw: fanedit.org

 
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