Movie · 1997 · Adventure, Action, Thriller · 1h 59m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 2.2/10 (344.4K ratings)
Yesterday is a memory. Today is history. Tomorrow is in the hands of one man.
Overview
A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now James Bond must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.2/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.08/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
Roger Spottiswoode
Production
EON Productions
Cast
Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Ricky Jay, Götz Otto, Joe Don Baker, Vincent Schiavelli, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn, Samantha Bond, Colin Salmon, Geoffrey Palmer, Julian Fellowes, Terence Rigby, Cecilie Thomsen, Nina Young, Daphne Deckers, Colin Stinton, Al Matthews
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, fast-moving Bond entry with strong action craft, a memorable villain concept, and a standout supporting turn from Michelle Yeoh. It’s often more entertaining than its reputation suggests, though the plot is broad, the satire is blunt, and it doesn’t quite match the best of the Brosnan era.
Best for
Bond fans who want polished 90s action
Viewers who enjoy media-satire villains and high-concept spy plots
Fans of practical stunts, gadgets, and glossy production design
Anyone in the mood for an easy, crowd-pleasing thriller
Skip if
You want a tightly written espionage story
You dislike campy dialogue and broad villainy
You prefer grounded action over flashy set pieces
You’re looking for the most essential or emotionally resonant Bond film
Overview
Tomorrow Never Dies is a very watchable piece of late-90s blockbuster machinery. It takes the Bond formula and runs it through the era’s anxieties about media power, global manipulation, and information warfare, giving the film a villain who feels both cartoonish and oddly prescient. The result is less elegant than GoldenEye, but often just as entertaining in the moment.
Worth noting
Pierce Brosnan is comfortably in command, and Jonathan Pryce makes the media-mogul menace work by leaning into smarm and theatricality. The real scene-stealer is Michelle Yeoh, whose physical confidence and charisma give the movie a burst of energy whenever she’s on screen. The action is glossy, kinetic, and packed with the kind of gadgetry and stunt work that defines the franchise at its most crowd-pleasing.
Bottom line
It can be noisy, repetitive, and a little too pleased with its own one-liners, but the film’s momentum is hard to deny. If you want a sleek, old-school spy spectacle with a modern media-age hook, this is an easy one to revisit. If you need Bond to be sharper, darker, or more emotionally layered, it may leave you wanting more.
Top Letterboxd reviews
adambolt (3★) · 751 likes
punch sound effects provided by stockmoviesfx.com
ScreeningNotes (4★) · 626 likes
"They'll print anything these days."
The one where they say "satellite" way too many times.
If GoldenEye brought James Bond into the contemporary world by replacing its dated international politics with a commentary on the threatening possibilities of new technology, then Tomorrow Never Dies is the final destination on that path.
Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is a media magnate bent on world domination. He controls public perception through every news outlet available to him, and he uses this power to… more
matt lynch (3.5★) · 618 likes
never seemed to me to be radically different from the beloved THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. a reasonably ridiculous story by Bond standards coupled with some incredible production design and superb late-analog action sequences the likes of which will simply never be seen again. i'm admittedly not very hard on these films but this one still feels underappreciated.
Bryan Espitia (3★) · 454 likes
“They’ll print anything these days.”
I just love how Michelle Yeoh outshines Bond in his own movie. There’s not enough of her in this.
Nakul (3.5★) · 389 likes
Tomorrow Never Dies is an absolutely fun & exciting Bond flick, much better than its rep. Has aged really well - stylish, silly, crackajack action set pieces, Pierce Brosnan on top form with Michelle Yeoh kicking ass and Jonathan Pryce hams up excellently as the baddie.David Arnold going hard on his first Bond score! Also, Bond fighting with media mogul & that fake news storyline is more relevant than ever.
1998 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 12m · R · Curator 4.8/10 (392.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Shares the era’s paranoia about surveillance, media systems, and institutional power, but plays it as a taut thriller.