Synopsis:

James Bond, in Brosnan's second adventure, is as much a boy with toys as he is a dinosaur from the Cold War. We meet media mogul Carver who will push countries to war if it sells more newspapers. After Bond secures nuclear missiles in the outstanding opening sequence, he finds a GPS encoder and an ex-girlfriend. The trail leads him to Asia where he teams up with Chinese spy Wai Lin. Together they must find a stealth vessel and stop the UK from declaring war on China. This fanedit restores K.D. Lang's song to the opening credits (Sheryl Crow now plays over the closing credits). The edit is faster paced, with fewer lame jokes, less wooden acting, and fewer machine guns.

Intentions:

I should love this Bond movie: a media tycoon who manipulates the truth for the sake of publicity and ratings, and a western nuclear-powered nation is jittery about China's naval actions in the South China Sea. It's remarkable that the movie was made in 1997, because these issues have become ever more credible and worrying since then. But I never warmed to the theatrical cut: it's littered with tedious jokes, indiscriminate Die-Hard style machine-gun fire, wooden chemistry between Bond and Paris, a boring henchman who compares unfavorably to Red Grant, and a villain who's flashes of brilliance are ruined by moments of Austin-Powers level caricature. After a long time, I finally realized the approach to make this movie enjoyable: no major plots cuts, just lots of small cuts and trims.

Change List:

- Swap opening and closing songs (KD Lang opens per David Arnold's original intention). - Cut / replace two cutaway shots of the enemy pilot's face (bad acting). - Trim drill inside Devonshire ship: remove turning. - Replace cutaway shot of Stamper close-up shooting sailors. - Cut Stamper "I haven't seen video but told excellent". - Cut Bond's "practising a foreign tongue.' - Cut Moneypenny's "You always were a cunning linguist, James" and Moneypenny and M's "don't ask, don't tell." - In car: cut Moneypenny's "queen and country, James", and M's "pump her for information". - Trim Ericsson phone product placement (Q explaining which end to use). - Arriving at the party: cut car talking + Bond response. - At party: trim Bond - Paris - Carver, cut 'write a novel' and 'adrift at sea'. - Cut Carver - Paris: 'I barely know him'. 'Barely?' - Trims in bedroom Bond - Paris. Cut most of Bond speaking, making him a bit more of a cold bastard and less (insincere?) caring. - Shift Gupta's CCTV before Carver speech, cut 3rd playback 'gun under pillow'. Now Carver knows bearlier, making his interaction with his wife more sinister. - Trim vodka product placement. - Show Carver while his wife is with Bond, to emphasize he knows what's going on. - Trim post-sex dialog. Again: Bond is focused on the job, not emotional over an old flame. (also: reduce wooden acting). - Trim most of the chase at newspaper. - Mute car "please select security level'. - Trim Dr Kaufman (pull back from Austin Powers levels of caricature). - Car chase: cut wire-cutter, mute 'unsafe driving', 'congrats on safe journey'. - Small trim to American Navy GPS expert (wooden acting). - Various small trims to make Carver less over the top. Including cutting the Shakra torture toys: Carver is a power-obsessed megalomaniac, but we're never given a reason why he would get turned on by torture. Just to make him look crazy dangerous? This isn't Austin Powers! - In the Vietnamese helicopter: cut Bond's "edifice complex" joke. - Trim the motor-bike chase. For pacing and to remove a bad effect shot of the crashing helicopter. - Trim the Chinese version of Q's workshop. Less slapstick. - In the final gunfight, 30+ trims for pacing and to reduce our heroes blasting machine guns. This is Bond, not Die Hard. - Multiple small trims for pacing. - Added FE logo and English subtitles.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Thank you LastSurvivor for your unflinching constructive criticism! Thanks to Omaru1982 and everyone else who gave feedback and motivation.