When Pierce Brosnan took over the role of GoldenEye got his tenure off to a fantastic start. But it went downhill after that, leading to one of the most critically panned eras of the Bond franchise. His next three Bond movies – Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and the final nail in the coffin, Die Another Day – received increasingly negative reviews from critics.
But the disappointment of Brosnan’s Bond films had less to do with Brosnan himself than the filmmaking. The films were let down by nonsensical plotting, predictable twists, and an overuse of CGI – but the acting was always strong.
Sophie Marceau As Elektra King
Much like Kevin Costner was assigned to protect Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard, Bond is assigned to protect oil heiress Elektra King after she’s targeted by a terrorist in The World is Not Enough.
Elektra is introduced as a standard love interest, but she turns out to be an intriguing femme fatale. Sophie Marceau does a great job with the rug-pull, switching from Bond’s ally to his enemy at the drop of a dime.
John Cleese As Q
Desmond Llewelyn played Q in 17 Bond movies from 1963 up to his death in 1999. The Brosnan-starring The World is Not Enough marked his final appearance in the franchise. John Cleese played Q’s assistant alongside Llewelyn in that movie before taking his place as the new Q in Die Another Day.
Cleese only played the role in one movie, but it was still a memorable take. Cleese’s hilariously deadpan portrayal of MI6’s resident wacky inventor is one of the highlights of Die Another Day. The Python alum spruces up gadget-based exposition with delightfully dry wit.
Rosamund Pike As Miranda Frost
Brosnan’s stint as Bond came to an unceremonious end in Die Another Day. The film’s secondary “Bond girl,” Miranda Frost, is played by a young Rosamund Pike. Now that Pike is a huge movie star and an Academy Award nominee, Bond fans have realized how much Die Another Day underutilized a world-class actor.
Miranda might be a one-dimensional role (like most “Bond girls”), but Pike does everything in her power to elevate the material.
Sean Bean As Alec Trevelyan
Brosnan’s first Bond film, GoldenEye, has a unique villain twist in that 007 knows the bad guy personally. The latest megalomaniac to torment Bond is a former 00 agent who was presumed dead.
Sean Bean shared terrific on-screen chemistry with Brosnan as an old friend who betrayed him. Bean leans into classical mustache-twirling villainy but also brings some nuance and humanity to the role in depicting his delusions of grandeur and his fractured relationship with 007.
Michelle Yeoh As Colonel Wai Lin
Action movie legend Michelle Yeoh starred alongside Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies. Colonel Wai Lin is a Chinese secret agent who s 007’s mission when their investigations coincide. Wai Lin is the opposite of the typical “Bond girl” – she’s pretty much a female Bond.
Unlike most “Bond girls,” Wai Lin is not a straightforward love interest or a damsel in distress. She’s every bit the badass that Bond is, if not more so.
Robert Carlyle As Victor “Renard” Zokas
Robert Carlyle plays a truly haunting villain in The World is Not Enough. Renard is the world’s most wanted terrorist. He’s unable to feel pain, which gives him an advantage in the final fight against Bond.
Carlyle’s turn as Renard is suitably unsettling, evoking his performances as the psychotic Begbie in the Trainspotting movies.
Halle Berry As Jinx Johnson
Halle Berry played the “Bond girl” opposite Brosnan’s 007 in his final film, Die Another Day. Jinx Johnson is a badass NSA agent who was primed for a spin-off that never materialized.
Berry’s performance is another one of the few highlights of Brosnan’s last Bond movie. Berry plays the character with all the ferocity and conviction of a classical action hero, but also with the Oscar-caliber nuance she’s renowned for.
Famke Janssen As Xenia Onatopp
The scene-stealing ing villain of GoldenEye, Xenia Onatopp, is a literal femme fatale who crushes men to death during sex. Famke Janssen has a lot of fun with this deadly genre archetype role, dialing up the eccentricities of Onatopp’s seductive evil just enough without going overboard.
Onatopp could’ve turned out just as one-note as the average “Bond girl,” but Janssen’s performance is so engaging that she consistently takes the spotlight from Brosnan.
Judi Dench As M
As part of GoldenEye’s modernization of the Bond mythos, Judi Dench was cast as the first female M. Skyfall), M is no longer just an expository figure.
She developed a tangible dynamic with both Brosnan and Craig’s Bonds, defined by her biting wit. When she’s introduced in GoldenEye, Dench’s M lays down the law: “I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur; a relic of the Cold War whose boyish charms are wasted on me.”
Pierce Brosnan As James Bond
Like Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker, Brosnan’s Bond is a great take on an iconic character that was let down by various script issues. Brosnan’s four-movie turn as 007 is a quintessential Bond performance.
Brosnan’s Bond combines the best parts of all his predecessors: Sean Connery’s ice-coolness, Roger Moore’s lighthearted humor, and Timothy Dalton’s grizzled edge. Brosnan is effortlessly suave, embodies 007’s grace under fire, and also brought some emotional depth to the role as he mourned the supposed death of 006 and got betrayed by Elektra King.
