How Pierce Brosnan Saved (And Then Killed) The Bond Franchise

The James Bond franchise has had it's share of ups and downs throughout it's 60 year run. Each time a new 007 is brought in the tone of the franchise seems to shift. None bigger though when Pierce Brosnan took up the mantle as James Bond in Goldeneye. Seemingly saving the franchise and breathing life into Bond, it would only take a few more installments for Brosnan to almost destroy the James Bond legacy.

#jamesbond #piercebrosnan #nerdstalgic

Sources:
SyFy - GoldenEye Saved The James Bond Franchise
Far Out Magazine - Exploring The Legacy of Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond
Hindustan Times - The Real Reason Pierce Brosnan Was Fired As James Bond
GoldenEye Secret Files Doc

[dbregal]

It is not fair that we blaming him, the actor insread of screenwriters and producer. Pierce throughout his era always gave a good to great performance. Man did upheld his part but was let down by the writing and scripts

[knection]

Brosnan didn't kill Bond the writers did...

[joebro]

SIDE NOTE: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is a criminally underrated film. It wasn't too dark, it hadn't gotten campy yet; it was a great balance. Unfortunately, it was just too ahead of its time. I believe that if it had be released now, given the current political climate, it would be a smash-hit. It remains one of my favorite 007 film

[flightofthekingfisher]

Timothy Dalton deserved another film. Those movies are totally underappreciated

[billvojtech]

I can’t blame Brosnan. The producers and directors determine how the scripts are written.

[FreshTillDeath]

Where he may have failed in the films, he ushered in a new generation of Bond fans through the video games. For that, I am extremely grateful. Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, GoldenEye, all great games.

[tedgonzalez]

Imo, the problem was definitely not with Brosnan. The man gave it his all, and is one of the main reasons I've watched GoldenEye a countless amount of times. I think the problems with his last three is the writing and the direction (and also being under a new producer). If he was given a different script and direction, I think we could've seen movies on par or even better than GoldenEye, just like with the Craig era.

Same thing happened to Dalton, he was the best part with his movies, and it sucks they're hard to watch because they just felt so campy, and I like both campy and gritty Bond films.

[CefiroGuy]

Pierce Brosnan was THEE!! James Bond. The mannerisms, the charm, he could hold his own in a fight rather believeably & definitely nailed the wit aspect of his character

[MrRoda]

If I'm not mistaken, Brosnan was contractually signed for 4 films, and couldn't back out of DAD regardless of whether he liked the script or not. You could say he had no choice but to go along with the ludicrous filming, or be sued for it. Whether he had the actual power to influence the director or screenwriter to change the script, who knows. In my opinion, he got fired unfairly. He was, and always will be, a terrific Bond for me

[spencergsmith]

Pierce Brosnan DID breathe new life into the character in GoldenEye, but it wasn’t his fault that his subsequent films became progressively worse. That falls on the shoulders of the producers, writers, and directors. Brosnan’s portrayal of him still stands as one of the best, cheesy writing notwithstanding.

[jp]

Tomorrow Never Dies is my favorite Bond film due to the combination of Michelle Yeoh's badassery, David Arnold's excellent score, the villain's insane plan that became more relevant over time, the remote-controlled car, the handcuffed motorcycle chase, etc... It just flows for me from beginning to end.

[vaccinatedanti-vaxxer]

Era bias, brosnan is the definitive bond for me. He has the “Clark Kent” look. Totally subjective but has the “good guy hero” look with hair to match. Doesn’t panic and never look chaotic or too stressed, classy, mature, stoic and wise.

[tonyfelder]

It wasn't Pierce's fault. it's the writers and producers. Even he was dissatisfied with the direction the franchise was going in. As a fan of his since Remington Steele, Goldeneye more than lived up to my expectations of his portrayal.

[President_Mario]

Bronan is my favorite Bond. Out of all the actors he was perfect at balancing dark and gritty with dropping one liners without either feeling awkward. He also LOOKS like Bond.

[josephrocco]

My favorite Bond. The franchise was on life support when Goldeneye came out. Everyone immediately accepted him and his films were all hits. It’s easy to criticize now, but at the time he Was Bond.

[tomchris]

One of the best things about the Bond franchise is that no matter how outlandish or ridiculous, the producers will always right the ship for the next Bond movie. One title (and one actor) has never killed this series.

And in regards to Die Another Day not being "beloved. At all." it would gross over 431 million worldwide. That's over 700 million adjusted for today's inflation. The biggest box office of the Brosnan era. Love or hated, if it "killed the franchise" the corpse surely had money stuffed in its pockets.

[gregholmes]

Brosnan was Bond for me. Too smooth. I had no idea of prior casting as a child and he killed that role. The writing became eventually worse, I even forgot that Die Another Day existed but it was in no way his fault. He worked with what he got. Damn shame.

[robmar]

Tomorrow Never Dies is one of the most underrated Bod movies and so ahead of its time.

[imnotsqiddy]

Gotta change that title. Brosnan was the perfect Bond, the same way Cavill was the perfect Superman. Writers were the culprit of the way they had to play the characters.

[thestomp]

Don’t forget that much as many of us deeply dislike Die Another Day, it was actually a massive worldwide hit at the time. None of those films flopped. There was no reason for the public to reject Brosnan if the series had done a course correction with him still attached.