FAQ for
GoldenEye (1995) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for GoldenEye can be found here.

No. The script for GoldenEye was written at various stages by American screenwriters Michael France, Jeffrey Caine, Kevin Wade, and Bruce Feirstein. However, the title of the movie, GoldenEye, was taken from the name of Ian Fleming's Jamaican estate.

GoldenEye is the 17th film in the EON Bond franchise and the first to feature Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, 007.

Yes. Timothy Dalton was under contract to come back and do at least one, possibly two, more Bond films after The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), but the producers and the studio started suing each other over the ownership of the James Bond character, as well as the film series itself, and those lawsuits dragged on for several years. Longtime screenwriter Richard Maibaum's death only added more trouble to this film's production. GoldenEye was originally intended to be filmed and released in 1991, but the lawsuits were not resolved until early 1994 and the screenplay was still not completed at that time. Consequently, the film was delayed again, with the producers pushing its release date to 1995. At that point in time, Timothy Dalton resigned, saying that too much time had passed since the previous film. Also, Timothy Dalton was nearly 49 years old in 1994, and he thought that he was a few years too old to play Bond any longer. Tthe literary James Bond character is only in his mid- to late-30's.

The title song, GoldenEye is performed by American rock singer Tina Turner.

GoldenEye is a secret weapons system consisting of two satellites capable of triggering an electromagnetic pulse that destroys all electronic equipment within the target area.

An electromagnetic pulse, as described by M (Judi Dench), is a radiation surge that destroys anything with an electronic circuit within a 30-mile radius.

In the opening precredits sequence, which is a flashback to 1986, Bond and agent 006, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), are in Arkhangelsk, Russia where they blow up a Soviet chemical weapons facility. Bond escapes; Trevelyan does not. Nine years pass. Bond is in Monte Carlo observing Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), who is suspected of having links to the Janus crime syndicate in St. Petersburg, Russia. When Xenia steals the French prototype of a Tiger helicopter and the control disk for the GoldenEye satellite weapons and uses them to destroy a space weapons control center in Severnaya (Russia), Bond returns to London where M orders him to find GoldenEye and sends him to St Petersburg. His search leads him and Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), the only one to survive the Severnaya blast, to Cuba.

Presumably, he was still on leave after going rogue in the previous movie, Licence to Kill. The fact that he was being "evaluated" suggests that he's being tested to discover whether or not he's still fit for duty with MI6. Bond first notices Xenia driving a Ferrari with bogus license plates and asks Moneypenny to run a check on her.

Alec's parents were Lienz Cossacks who, during World War II, fought for both the Soviet Union and for Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, the Cossacks surrendered to the British Army, hoping to join the fight against Communism, but they were betrayed and sent back to the Soviet government for execution by Stalin's forces. As Alec explains it, his parents survived the execution but, unable to live with their shame, they committed suicide. Consequently, Alec is on a vendetta against the British government.

His plan is to break into the Bank of London's computers and transfer out all the money just before hitting them with the second GoldenEye, thereby covering up the theft and destroying British economy.

James and Natalya follow Xenia, Janus (Sean Bean), and Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming) to Cuba where CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) provides them with an airplane so that they can fly over the island looking for a dish the size of a football field. No dish is to be found until they are shot down when they fly over a pristine lake. Xenia then rappels from a helicopter and attacks Bond, but she is killed when her helicopter slams her into a tree. Suddenly, antennae begin to rise out of the lake, and the lake water is drained from the basin, revealing the satellite dish. As Boris positions Goldeneye over London, Bond and Natalya infiltrate the control room. Bond sets himself up as a decoy so that Natalya can reprogram Goldeneye to initiate atmospheric reentry and burn up somewhere over the Atlantic. Natalya is discovered, and Janus orders Boris to reverse Natalya's program, but Boris discovers that she's also changed the access code. Boris works feverishly to break into the programming, all the while flicking on Bond's pen grenade. When Boris turns around to scream at Natalya, ordering her to give him the new codes, Bond leaps for the pen and sets off the grenade. Bond and Natalya escape in an elevator. Fearing that Boris will be able to break Natalya's code, Bond races out onto the transmitter and places a pole in the positioning mechanism, preventing Boris from controlling it. Janus catches up with Bond, and their fight takes them to the tip of the antenna where they are dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. Bond kicks Janus over the edge of the platform and watches him fall into the satellite dish. He is then rescued when Natalya commandeers a helicopter. Goldeneye burns up in the atmosphere, and the satellite complex explodes. The explosion ruptures several tanks of liquid nitrogen, freezing Boris as he stands. In the final scene, Bond and Natalya drop from the helicopter into an empty field and begin to kiss. Suddenly, Ward appears, along with a whole troop of Marines and three helicopters. They board the helicopters and are carried off to Guantanamo for debriefing.