The World Is Not Enough

 

The family motto

The 19th film and the last Bond-movie of the last millenia. As well as Desmond Llewelyn as Q as he tragically died after the films release. Longest serving actor on the movies so that won't probably be beaten for quite some time. Begins in Spain as Bond picks up some money that have been taken back by some Swiss banker, but 007 really want the name of the person behind it, but a fight breaks out, but he is saved by an unknown sniper. Back in London the moneys owner Sir Robert King thanks him, but is killed as a pin on him triggers an explosive reaction with the chemicals in the money and blows him up.

Turns out an old enemy of the MI6, ex-KGB Agent Renard that got a bullet in his brain from agent 009, is back to exact revenge. Bond goes to Azerbaijan to protect Elektra King, Robert Kings daughter and former kidnapped victim to Renard. King is an oil company that builds a pipeline on the north of the Black Sea (even more north you have Russian pipelines and on the south of the Black Sea  you have the oil from the Middle East). 007 follows a lead that takes him to a Soviet former nuclear base where Renard steals the plutonium from a bomb. It looks like the bomb is used to blow up a King plant via a pipeline but when Bond is there he finds that only half the plutonium is there and the rest is missing so he lets the bomb explode before reaching its target. Meanwhile Elektra has lured M to Azerbaijan and kidnaps her and moves her to Istanbul.

There Renard takes over a nuclear submarine on the pretense on getting equipment via deal with the ex-KGB agent from GoldenEye. The plan is to use the last of the Plutonium and get the submarine to meltdown and destroy the competition for the King company. Bonds stop it and blows it up.

I assume its the first time we have a female bad guy as the main antagonist, but they really muddle it with Renard so it looks like they try to have it's cake and eat it as well, since Elektra doesn't do as much sadistic things like the old main antagonist. Renard does it all and it's only in the end it's revealed Elektra is behind it all. Also, I get its ripped from the headlines with the oil pipes and such, but it feels like the plan falls short in 10 years when the oil price collapses and still haven't recovered some 10 years after that. Compare to Man With The Golden Guns focus on solar energy or A View To A Kill and the believes that microchips will be of importance. Maybe they thought oil would still be important even after like what happened with gold even though the gold standard fell 7 years after Goldfinger was released. 

Another things that bothers me is M. In GoldenEye she is described as all numbers and no gut reactions, following all the rules and all that and here... she seems to be to personally involved in the case just because she knew Sir Robert from school and putting her self in danger by bypassing  security protocols. Feels a bit inconsistent with her earlier portrayal, might be a problem related to that they try to give the supporting cast more depth and a calculating person is rather one-dimensional.