Synopsis - Tomorrow Never Dies

The Afghanistan / Russian border: the world's most powerful terrorist leaders have gathered in the snowy mountains to hold a huge bazaar of illegal arms, everything from handguns to fighter aircraft armed with nuclear torpedoes. Unknown to the participants, they are secretly being watched by a British agent, White Knight, who in turn is being monitored by M, Admiral Roebuck and Russian General Bakharin in London. Positively identifying both an American GPS decoder and several of the attendees, Roebuck takes control of the mission and orders a missile strike against the bazaar. But White Knight refuses to withdraw and the control team are horrified when he starts to broadcast pictures of a nuclear torpedo attached to a jet fighter.

Attempts to abort the missile attack fail and White Knight, now revealed as James Bond, is forced to fight his way clear of the area, taking the torpedoes with him. He commandeers the fighter and wreaks havoc in the terrorist base before effecting a daring escape, his aircraft only just clearing another fighter taxiing for take-off.

As the base goes up in flames, it looks as if Bond may have finally met his match - but his aircraft emerges from the fireball intact. His problems are far from over, however. The unconscious co-pilot in the back of his plane recovers and tries to garrotte him, just as the second fighter closes for the kill. Steering with his knees, Bond manages to avoid both colliding with the mountains and being shot down by missiles and positions his aircraft beneath the second fighter. He ejects the co-pilot who is forced into the co-pilot's seat in the second machine which then explodes, leaving Bond save to return to London.

In the South China Sea, the H.M.S. Devonshire is on routine patrol when they are buzzed by two Chinese Air Force Migs. The Chinese claim that the Devonshire has violated their territorial waters but the ship's navigation equipment, using the American Global Satellite Positioning system, insists that they are in fact in international waters.

Unknown to them, the satellites are being manipulated by electronics expert Henry Gupta and they are being stalked by a secret stealth ship, invisible to radar. The stealth ship's captain, Stemper, reports in to his superior before launching a sea drill against the Devonshire. The crew of the Devonshire mistake it for a Chinese torpedo and are unable to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid it. The sea drill burrows into the hull of the ship which soon begins to sink.

The captain gets off a message to the Admiralty in London and orders the crew to abandon ship. As the Migs again fly over the scene, the stealth ship fires a single missile which brings one of them down. Stemper again calls his employer, who is readying a newspaper headline in a high tech production office, and is told to take care of the survivors using the right kind of ammunition. Stemper obliges, gunning down the few crewmen who managed to get away from the sinking vessel.

A team of divers descends to the Devonshire where they retrieve one of the ship's missiles. The architect of the attack on the Devonshire, media magnate Eliott Carver, chairs a video conference with his various flunkies then learns from Stemper that there were 17 survivors - Carver announces that he now has the perfect story to launch his new satellite TV network. He sets his team in action, telling them to get the story in all their media around the clock.

Bond, meanwhile, is at Oxford University enjoying an non-academic liaison with his Danish tutor when he receives a call from Moneypenny ordering him to return to base.

M tells Roebuck that at the time of the Devonshire's sinking, they intercepted a mysterious GPS signal that M and her team have not yet identified. M is furious with Roebuck for suggesting to the Minister of Defence that they should send the entire fleet into the South China Sea and prepare for war. M urges moderation, but the Bond arrives bearing a copy of Carver's newspaper Tomorrow which carries the story of the supposed Chinese murder of the Devonshire survivors. The Minister decides to send in fleet and gives M 48 hours to do what she has to.

In a speeding car, M briefs Bond and he tells her that the Vietnamese navy only found the bodies of the Devonshire crewmen three hours ago - so how could Carver have known what had happened in time to print his story? M tells Bond that she already knows where the mystery GPS signal came from - one of Carver's satellites. M despatches Bond to Hamburg where he is to attend a party being held by Carver to celebrate the launch of his new satellite network. M wants Bond to use his former relationship with Carver's wife, Paris, to get information.

Bond arrives in Hamburg where he is met by Q, ready to hand out his newest toy - a modified BMW 750, armed with stinger missiles, machine guns and a GPS tracking system, as well as a sophisticated remote control unit. His mobile phone acts as the remote control handset and also carries a lethal electrical discharge weapon. Bond shows off his skills with the car by sending it on a quick trip around the airport apron.

Later that night, Bond arrives at the Carver Media Group's Hamburg headquarters where the lavish party is already well under way. Carver is charming his guests when he is introduced to Bond who is posing as a banker. They both meet Wai Lin, a reporter from the New Chinese News Agency who has gatecrashed the party hoping to meet Carver. The media baron is dazzled by Wai Lin's flattery and Bond is able to slip away to meet Paris who is furious with him for the cavalier way he treated her in the past. They discuss old times, unaware that they are being monitored by Gupta and that Carver has seen them together.

Bond tells Paris that he isn't going to try to get information from her and Carver arrives to introduce her to Wai Lin, who has been offered a job by Carver. Bond asks Carver about his satellite network and hints that he knows what he's up to. Carver is called away to deliver his speech and demands to know how Paris met Bond. Unsatisfied with her answer, he orders Stemper to take care of him.

A group of Carver's heavies arrives telling him that he has an urgent phone call. As Carver delivers his speech, Bond is taken into a back room and beaten by Carver's cronies. They want to know why Bond is so interested in Carver's work, but he puts up a valiant struggle and manages to break free of his captors and disrupts the building's power supply, taking Carver's increasingly deranged speech off the air. Rival networks take great delight in humiliating Carver's very public failings.

Later that night, as Bond sits alone in his hotel room, he is visited by Paris who has been sent by her husband to find out what Bond is up to. Bond tries to send Paris home and not get her involved, but Paris wants to rekindle their affair and Bond willingly gives in to her advances.

Gupta has managed to track down Bond's employment record and realises that it is so perfect that he must be a government agent working undercover. He shows Carver the tapes he made of Paris and Bond talking earlier at the party and Carver realises that there was more to Paris' relationship with Bond that she was letting on. He tells Gupta that he will arrange an appointment for her with "the doctor."

Bond tells Paris that he can get her out of the country and away from Carver, but she refuses, telling him that she will never be safe from Carver. She tells Bond that Carver has a secret lab at the top of his headquarters, then leaves.

Bond breaks into the Carver Media Group building and hears Gupta overseeing the despatch of a new satellite to the launch site. Using more of Q's gadgets, he gains access to a secure area and retrieves the American GPS decoder previously seen at the arms bazaar in Afghanistan. On his way out, he trips an alarm, and bumps into Wai Lin who also seems to be breaking into the building. They are separated in a gunfight and Bond is relentlessly pursued by Carver's men while Wai Lin makes good her escape by using a device which allows her to walk down a wall. Bond gets into a number of scrapes but manages to shoot and fight his way out of the building.

On his way back to his hotel room, Bond receives a call from Carver who tells him that he has two of his possessions that he wants back - the decoder, and his wife. Fearing the worst, Bond arms the BMW's security system and returns to his room where he finds Paris dead. Her killer, Dr Kaufman, is waiting for Bond and has a tape which will be broadcast on Carver's TV stations carrying a news broadcast accusing Bond of the murder and of his own suicide.

The coldly efficient Kaufman is ready to kill Bond when he hears from Stemper that his men are finding it impossible to get into Bond's car thanks to its impressive security devices. Stemper tells Kaufman to find out from Bond how to disengage the security measures. Bond tricks Kaufman into operating the electrical discharge weapon on his mobile phone and overpowers him, ruthlessly killing him in revenge for Paris' death.

Bond flees, just as the police arrive and escapes across the roof of the hotel, returning to the car park where he uses the remote control to release a gas weapon before jumping in through the back window and driving off at great speed around the car park, hiding on the back seat and steering using the monitor screen built into his phone. Bond deploys the vehicles entire arsenal of outlandish gadgets and weapons in an attempt to escape but is forced to abandon it when he is cornered on the roof. From his hiding place, he sends the car careering over the edge of the car park and back into the offices of the car rental company that Q was using as cover at the airport!

Bond's next port of call is a US Air Force base in the South China Sea where he is reunited with Jack Wade who he last saw in Cuba while he was trying to retrieve the stolen GoldenEye weapon. Wade tells him that the United States is officially staying neutral and helps Bond discover the significance of the missing GPS decoder. Someone has tampered with the device, enabling them to send false information which made the Devonshire think she was 70 miles off her actual course.

Wade helps to arrange a dangerous HALO [High Altitude, Low Opening] parachute jump into the area off Vietnam where the Devonshire sank. He locates the sunken ship and begins to explore the wreck as all around him, rock falls threaten to topple it into an abyss. After noting the fact that one of the missiles is missing, he is startled by another diver who turns out to be Wai Lin. A rock slide causes the missile racks to topple over and blocks their exit from the room. Their only way out now is to dump their oxygen tanks and squeeze through a narrow access panel in the deck.

On returning to the surface, they find that Wai Lin's support boat has been overrun by Stemper and his men. The pair are taken prisoner and are flown by helicopter to the Carver Media Group building in Saigon which is decorated with an immense canvas portrait of Carver himself. Inside, Wai Lin recognises General Chan from the Chinese army and she learns from Carver who Bond really is. He in turn learns that she is an agent of the Chinese Peoples' External Security Force. Carver is busy writing their obituaries and both Bond and Wai Lin try to convince Carver that they've really been working together for months. But Carver is too smart for that and hands the pair over to Stemper who is instructed to torture them for information.

Still handcuffed together, Bond and Wai Lin leap into action and fight off their captors. Trapped on the roof of the building, they use the huge banner of Carver's face to absail down the outside of the skyscraper, gaining entrance to a lower floor by smashing through a window. They steal a motorcycle and set off through the streets of the city, hotly pursued by Carver's men in both cars and a helicopter. Bond and Wai Lin desperately try to outrun their pursuers, even at one point performing a daring motorcycle jump above the hovering helicopter, but are finally cornered when the helicopter uses its rotors as weapons and traps them in a dead end. They escape when they slide under the helicopter and Wai Lin throws a washing line into the rotor blades, causing the machine to lose control and crash.

Getting their breath back, Bond suggests that they team up, but Wai Lin isn't too keen. Bond follows her back to her secret base in Saigon, arriving just as she is being attacked by a gang of thugs apparently sent by General Chan. Wai Lin makes short work of most of her attackers and Bond arrives in time to save her from being shot.

Wai Lin tells Bond that her people discovered that Chan had been stealing stealth material from his base and Bond realises that Carver is going to use the stealth boat to start the Third World War by setting off the stolen nuclear missile. Wai Lin reveals that her hideaway has more gadgets and toys than Bond has ever seen and they start trying to track down where the stealth boat might be hidden while Bond plays with some of Wai Lin's gadgets.

Wai Lin narrows the possibilities down to one secluded bay and they send messages to their respective government then set off aboard a junk. Bond promises that they will see the mission through to its conclusion together. After searching the entire bay, they finally locate the stealth boat as night falls. They catch up with and sneak aboard, planning to blow the ship up - if it doesn't sink, it will at least become visible on radar if sufficiently damaged.

As they are planting their mines and while Carver is turning up the heat my firing missiles at the
flagships of the two fleets, Stemper and his men capture Wai Lin and set off after Bond. He manages to fake his own death using the body of one of Stemper's men, giving him free reign of the ship as Wai Lin is taken before Carver.

In London, M reveals that both she and her Chinese opposite number have received the messages from their agents and alert their fleets to start searching for the stealth boat. Carver reveals his plans to Wai Lin - having started the fighting in the South China Sea, he will fire his nuclear missile at Beijing where Chan has convened a meeting of the country's highest military and political personnel. With the country thrown into chaos and the British fleet sunk, Chan will emerge as leader of the new China and Carver will get exclusive broadcasting rights to China for the next 100 years.

Bond captures Gupta and holds him at gun point as he confronts Carver and tries to trade the scientist for Wai Lin. But Carver no longer has any need for Gupta and murders his own man. But Bond has already planted grenades around the ship and sets them off, effecting an escape in the process. The explosions have ruptured the skin of the vessel and it's now showing up on the radars of both the British and Chinese fleets. Wai Lin also gets away in the chaos and soon teams up with Bond again.

As the British fleet closes on Carver's stealth ship, Carver himself prepares to launch his missile at Beijing. Bond and Wai Lin continue to fight their way through the ship and Wai Lin manages to disable the engines, leaving them at the mercy of the advancing fleet. Bond meanwhile is wreaking havoc with a rocket launcher...

Apparently cornered, Wai Lin gets out of trouble using her excellent marksmanship while Bond goes to toe-to-toe in a running gunfight with Stemper. The British fleet scores a direct hit on the stealth boat and its crew are forced to abandon ship. Bond has been injured in the explosion, buried beneath falling debris and apparently burned alive when Stemper ignites gases with his gunfire. But Bond has survived and crawls from the wreckage as Wai Lin is captured by Stemper.

Carver captures Bond as his ship explodes around him. As Carver boasts of how he is going to escape aboard one of his own helicopters while the British fleet destroys all the evidence of his involvement, Bond activates the Sea Drill. Bond throws Carver into the jaws of the device where he is messily killed.

Stemper arrives holding Wai Lin captive. As Bond booby traps the missile with explosive charges, Stemper lowers the chained up Wai Lin into the sea and sets about beating up Bond. But our man survives the pummelling and stabs Stemper with a knife before trapping his foot in some machinery. Bond escapes into the sea just as the booby trapped missile is launched, destroying itself in the process. He sets off after Wai Lin and rescues her from a watery grave as the remains of the stealth boat are obliterated above them.

Back in London, M receives word that Bond has survived. She arranges for news to break that Carver is missing presumed dead by his own hand. In the South China Sea, the H.M.S. Bedford is searching for Bond and Wai Lin who are enjoying each others company aboard a piece of debris from the stealth boat. They opt, for now, to "stay undercover..."