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James Bond Movie Seemed To Predict Rise Of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News [1]

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Date: 2023-07-07

As movie nerds here on Daily Kos would know, James Bond films are known for always depicting the famous fictional British spy James Bond having sex with “Bond girls” (the main “Bond girl” usually being the woman who Bond ends up with at the end of the film) while thwarting diabolical over-the-top schemes by the main Bond villains (who usually die by the end of the films they’re in). And for the record, Bond’s methods of seducing women are what I hate the most about the entire James Bond film franchise, with Sean Connery’s Bond flat-out raping the main “Bond girl” from Goldfinger (a “Bond girl” whose name is too problematic for me to repeat here on Daily Kos) in the following scene from that film being one of the worst.

But the subject of this diary is that the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies seemed to predict the rise of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, as the film had as its main Bond villain a Rupert Murdoch-esque media tycoon named Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) scheming to manufacture headlines with intent to start a war.

Here is the pre-title sequence for Tomorrow Never Dies, during which Pierce Brosnan’s Bond narrowly averts a nuclear disaster.

Here is the title sequence, with the title song performed by Sheryl Crow.

Here are Elliot’s henchpeople framing the British Navy and Chinese Air Force for attacking each other.

Here is Elliot and his underlings, including main henchman Stamper (Götz Otto), discussing fake headlines they manufactured.

Here is another YouTube clip beginning with the fake headline discussion before moving onto one of Bond’s colleagues at MI6, Samantha Bond’s Moneypenny, interrupting James Bond, who’s in the middle of what I think is a problematic sexual escapade with a young Oxford University professor (Cecilie Thomsen), to inform 007 of an urgent situation. After Moneypenny hangs up the phone, she and Dame Judi Dench’s M look at each other and suggest that both are aware of 007’s sexual escapades. Some time later, M is having an argument with a British Royal Navy Admiral named Roebuck (Geoffrey Palmer) about using military force when 007 walks in with one of Elliot’s newspapers with a story that turns out to be relevant to the argument. The defense minister (Julian Fellowes) gives M 48 hours to investigate Elliot before military force is used. It then goes to M and MI6 Deputy Chief of Staff Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon) briefing 007 in a limousine about his mission. It is during this briefing that M reveals that Elliot was already under suspicion during the argument with Roebuck.

Here’s a scene that introduces the film’s main “Bond girl”, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), and the film’s secondary “Bond girl” (and in this film, the main Bond villain’s wife), Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher). The scene includes Paris slapping Bond.

Here are three of Elliot’s thugs giving Bond a beating before Bond turns the tables on the thugs, while Elliot gives a speech ostensibly about the importance of press freedom. Among the people watching the speech before Bond cuts off the electric power is Paris, who seems to have concerns about what her husband is plotting.

Here are clips of Paris cheating on Elliot with Bond (and assisting Bond’s efforts to stop Elliot’s scheme) in another one of the kind of scenes that James Bond movies are known for.

Here is possibly the most heartbreaking scene in the movie, a scene where Bond finds Paris deceased. This gives Bond a personal motive to go after Elliot.

Here is Elliot, in accordance with Bond villain tradition, stupidly explaining his scheme to Bond and Lin (the latter of whom’s been revealed to be a Chinese spy also investigating Elliot), before Bond and Lin make a joint escape.

Here is a clip of Bond and Lin joining forces to stop Elliot’s scheme. It is during this scene that Bond switches from the Walther PPK to a Walther P99.

Here is Elliot, thinking he’s killed Bond (who’s actually alive and well) and nearing success, gloating about it to Lin, nearly triggering a fit of anger by Lin, a fit that Elliot does a racist mocking impression of.

Here is a YouTube clip of Bond and Lin engaging in a shootout with Elliot’s thugs aboard his stealth ship, a shootout that is preceded by Elliot stupidly alluding to William Randolph Hearst helping to foment the 1898 Spanish–American War with propaganda about the USS Maine.

Here is Bond killing Elliot (and I must warn brutally) to both stop his scheme and avenge Paris, following Elliot gloating about nearing success.

Here is the ending of the movie. This clip begins with Stamper trying to avenge Elliot and Kaufman, and ends with, in accordance with James Bond movie tradition, Bond and Lin having a romantic moment amid the wreckage of Elliot’s stealth ship.

Given today’s media manipulation, the Bond villain scheme in Tomorrow Never Dies is actually quite plausible today.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/7/2178501/-James-Bond-Movie-Seemed-To-Predict-Rise-Of-Rupert-Murdoch-and-Fox-News

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