The James Bond movie franchise is regarded as one of the longest movie franchises in history, dating back from Sir Sean Connery's first Bond film in 1962, "Dr. No."
In 2002, the movie franchise held its 40th anniversary and to help celebrate it, EON Productions gave us Pierce Brosnan's 4th Bond film "Die Another Day", which is also the 20th in the series.
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| Bond surfing the tsunami in "Die Another Day" from operationgrandslam.wordpress.com |
The film was quite watchable in its own right even though the suspension of disbelief would have to be really stretched out when watching. There was the tsunami surfing, "Your mama", and the invisible car to blame for that. However, there were still something that wasn't easily regarded as nuisances to the film, and that's because some viewers love what this things do to movies - and these are the references, or the callbacks to past movies in a references.
Since the release of "Die Another Day" coincided with a big anniversary, I guess it couldn't be helped that there were a lot of callbacks, with at least one for each previous films.
Here they are.
1. Dr. No
It was quite obvious what they did to tick off the "Dr. No" Callback Checklist. Bond was in Cuba, investigating the person that he thought betrayed him. All of a sudden, a woman in an orange bikini, Jinx, appeared from the sea as Bond was watching from a distance. The "underneath the mango tree..." was replaced with "now, there's a mouthful" though.
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| Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder from wikipedia.org |
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| Halle Berry as Jinx from Pinterest.com |
"Casino Royale", Daniel Craig's first Bond film, also did this homage but better.
2. From Russia With Love
In the hotel room, just as Bond was shedding the beard he grown when he was a prisoner of the Korean Army, there was some flirting going on with the hotel hostess, presumably as compliments of the hotel owner. It was revealed, however, that the hostess was working for an intelligence agency and their interaction was being filmed with a camera hidden by a one-way mirror.
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| Bond and Tatiana Romanova with Rosa Klebb watching behind the mirror from cowbird.com |
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| Bond and Mr. Chang's operative from operationgrandslam.wordpress.com |
3. Goldfinger
A laser machine was used again as an aid for interrogation. Only this time, it wasn't Bond who was strapped but Jinx instead.
Another reference to Goldfinger was when Bond reveals a different type of clothing beneath his wet suit after emerging from a body of water, both in the pre-title sequences.
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| Bond revealing his white tux from bondsuits.com |
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| Bond revealing his double-leather jacket from operationgrandslam.wordpress.com |
4. Thunderball
John Cleese was the Q for this film and with him in his laboratory were the past gadgets used in past Bond films to serve not only as a major reference, but also as continuity to the character and purpose of the Quartermaster in a Bond film. Long-time Q tragically died in an accident after the release of "The World is Not Enough" in 1999. In the film, R portrayed by Cleese was introduced as some sort of intern . With this film, he rose to being Q.
Aside from the jetpack used in "Thunderball", there was also the rebreather which Bond used in underwater exploration.
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| Bond using the rebreather in Largo's shark-filled pool from Quora.com |
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| Bond using the rebreather in Grave's ice palace from tvtropes.org |
5. You Only Live Twice
In both films, Bond visited health clinics which were supposed covers of a bigger criminal operations. In "You Only Live Twice", Bond visited Mr. Osato, head of Osato Chemicals and Engineering while in "Die Another Day", Bond infiltrates a health clinic in Cuba which did the villain's gene therapy.
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| Bond in Osato's clinic from twitter.com |
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| Bond visiting the gen therapy clinic from them0vieblog.com |
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
In both films, Bond had a heated conversation with M which ultimately led to Bond wanting to file resignation from Her Majesty's Secret Service in George Lazenby's Bond film. As for "Die Another Day", Bond was retrieved in a prisoner exchange and his license to kill was revoked to prevent leaking of sensitive information to his captors.
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| M (left) and Bond (right) from jamesbond007.se |
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| Bond escaping M's custody from bplusmovieblog.com |
7. Die Another Day
The villains of both films underwent changing of their physical appearance with Blofeld changing his facial features and having a clone and Col. Moon transforming into Gustav Graves.
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| Blofeld's clones from puzzledpagan.com |
8. Live and Let Die
The only times when Bond used a revolver were in this films. Bond used a .44 Magnum at the end of the film, similar to Dirty Harry's, While in "Die Another Day', Bond used a .38 revolver which he borrowed from his contact in Cuba.
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| Bond using a .44 Magnum from imfdb.org |
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| Bond using a revolver from bamfstyle.com "Mind if I borrow these?" |
9. The Man with the Golden Gun
Bond faced an obstruction in the health clinic similar to the mirror set up in Scaramanga's fun house.
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| Bond in Scaramanga's fun house from secretagentlair.blogspot.com |
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| Bond infiltrating the health clinic in Cuba from operationgrandslam.wordpress.com |
10. The Spy who Loved Me
In both films, Bond got to be paired with his female counterpart from another country's Secret Service, Agent Triple XXX Anya Amasova in "The Spy who Loved Me" and Agent Jacintha Johnson in "Die Another Day".
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| Bond and Anya from bondvsbond.wordpress.com |
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| Bond and Jinx from Hollywood.com |
11. Moonraker
The best scene in "Die Another Day" was probably the fencing fight scene with Bond and Gustav Graves, minus the cringey double-entendre with Madonna. This fencing fight scene served as the scene wherein Bond would have the chance to provoke the villain (e.g., Bond and Goldfinger's golf match, Bond and Largo's shooting exhibition, also with Drax').
Additionally, the breaking of glasses and the swordfight was similar to the fight in "Moonraker" with Drax' henchman. "Play it again, Sam."
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| Bond versus Chang in "Moonraker" from musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog |
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| Bond and Graves' swordfight from warpedfactor.com |
12. For Your Eyes Only
Both films featured the singer of the theme song in the actual film. Sheena Easton appeared in the title sequence of "For Your Eyes Only" while Madonna made a cameo appearance as the fencing trainer of Rosamund Pike's double agent character.
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| Sheena Easton in the film's pre-title sequence from imdb.com |
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| Madonna in "Die Another Day" from popsugar.com |
13. Octopussy
One of the interesting side of "Octopussy" was the many disguises Bond did, especially the one in the pre-title sequences Col. Toro. Also in the pre-title sequence, Bond hijacks a merchandise exchange between a thug and the gang of Col. Moon. However, Bond's disguise was made and he was eventually captured.
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| Bond and Col. Toro from 007museum.com |
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| Bond intercepting and disguising from bondsuits.com |
14. A View to A Kill
During the pre-title sequence of "Die Another Day", Bond's cover is blown when his face was scanned on a facial recognition device. A similar equipment was used in Zorin's office as Bond was having small talk with Zorin in "A View to A Kill".
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| Max Zorin's facial recognition device from spywhothrills.com |
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| Bond getting his cover blown in "Die Another Day" from operationgrandslam.wordpress.com |
15. The Living Daylights
At the climax of both films, cargo planes were instrumental to the plot of the film. In "The Living Daylights", Bond placed a bomb to the location of the smuggled items which he and Kara Milovy would hijack. Due to the impending crash of the film, the pair escaped through a jeep located on the back exit of the plane. They drove off as the plane went plummeting.
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| Kara Milovy (left) and Bond (right) escaping from the crashing cargo plane from tgemm.home.blog |
It was the same escape scenario with Bond and Jinx. Only for this film, a chopper was used.
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| The chopper escaping from the cargo plane from whatculture.com |
16. License to Kill
In both these films, Bond had his license to kill revoked by M, portrayed by Robert Lee, and Dame Judi Dench.
Additionally, Bond aimed a sniper rifle but never actually fired them in these films.
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| Bond setting up his personalized sniper rifle from imdb.com |
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| Bond aiming at Grave's plane from ballisticmag.com |
17. Goldenye
With the Pierce Brosnan era embracing the BMW Bond cars, the few times that an Aston Martin was used in a car chase scene were in "Goldeneye" and "Die Another Day".
In the latter, the car chase was between Bond and Xenia Onattop's Ferrari while on the former, it was Bond versus Zao's Jaguar.
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| The Aston Martin versus Ferrari car chase in "Goldeneye" from Pinterest.com |
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| The gadget-filled car chase in "Die Another Day" from theguardian.com |
18. Tomorrow Never Dies
Bond was introduced to the remote controlled BMW Bond car in "Tomorrow Never Dies" and it was featured in a fun, and gadget-filled car chase in the film.
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| Bond controlling the remote-controlled BMW from imcdb.org |
In "Die Another Day", the remote control feature of the Aston Martin was used when Bond infiltrated and investigated Gustav Graves actions after the presentation of the Icarus.
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| Bond controlling his Aston Martin to infiltrate Grave's ice palace from mi6-hq.com |
19. The World is Not Enough
In both these films, viewers were reminded of the cover that the MI:6 had been using, the Universal Exports. Bond used this cover for the I.D. he needed as he infiltrated the pipeline station in 'The World is Not Enough" while in "Die Another Day", it was used to locate his contact in Cuba.
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| Bond using his "Universal Exports" I.D. as cover from bondmovies.com |
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| Bond in Cuba, using the "Universal Exports" cover from bondmovies.com |
Unfortunately for the film, despite the numerous callbacks to past glorious Bond moments, the 20th James Bond film is still remembered for the CGI Tsunami surfing, and the invisible Aston Martin.
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