The James Bond Stunt That 'Nearly Beat' Halle Berry During Die Another Day
Of all the James Bond movies, "Die Another Day" is perhaps the most detested. Maybe you think it's an underrated Bond film deserving of more respect, but the prevailing view of this early 2000s outing is that of a truly shameful blunder in the canon. Of course, perspectives shift over time. At one point, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was treated with similar derision to "Die Another Day," and now George Lazenby's only outing in the tux is viewed as one of the best in Bond's 60-year on-screen run. But there's something about "Die Another Day" that I can't help but feel will forever keep it from achieving the same respect.
The ice palaces, invisible cars, and Korean colonels using plastic surgery to transform into insufferable British toffs, are all beyond ridiculous. But they're funny, and Bond has been funny and lighthearted at various points throughout his career to great effect. The problem is that this was Pierce Brosnan's swan song as Bond, and the man deserved a better sendoff.
It would have helped if Halle Berry's NSA agent Jinx had any chemistry at all with the leading man. Brosnan actually had much more chemistry with Rosamund Pike's Miranda Frost, but was given very little screen time with her — they had to make time for the giant sun laser sequence, after all. At least it can be said that Jinx as a character was a certified badass, very much holding her own throughout the film. Unfortunately, establishing any kind of compelling chemistry between her and Bond wasn't the only issue that Berry encountered on "Die Another Day."
'I was going nowhere'
In "Die Another Day," Jinx gets a classic introduction when her bikini-clad figure emerges from the ocean — à la Ursula Andress' Honey Ryder in the movie that kicked off the franchise, 1962's "Dr. No." But shooting a scene like this was a lot tougher than the footage would suggest, as the production was hampered by what producer Michael G. Wilson called "one of the worst series of storms on record" while filming in Spain. A behind-the-scenes featurette shows Halle Berry under an umbrella wrapped in a towel between takes, having to perform scenes in her scant swimwear during the height of the adverse weather. And that was just the start.
A 2002 Telegraph report detailed how the actress was injured after "a piece of debris from a smoke grenade flew into [her] left eye." Berry then had to undergo a 30-minute operation to have the fragment removed. As if risking hypothermia and her own eyesight wasn't enough, there was more to come.
In Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman's book, "Nobody Does It Better," Berry recalled how she "was comfortable with most of the action scenes," but there was one stunt that proved too much:
"Pierce and I had to run alongside a moving plane before hauling ourselves up into the wheel bay. It was only going about 15 miles an hour and I was sure I could cope with that. But you don't realize how fast that is when you're trying to catch a moving plane. By the fourth or fifth take, I was exhausted. Pierce did it effortlessly, but even though my legs were running, I was going nowhere."
Considering she'd already almost lost an eye and been asked to act in the eye of a storm, I'm frankly not surprised she collapsed.
Jinxed
In the making-of featurette, Halle Berry can be seen putting on a brave face and telling an interviewer, "I remember Lee [Tamahori, director] looked at me one day and he said, 'This is what you wanted to do, darling, you signed up,' and I said, 'Yes I did and I love it.'" Something about her tone suggests she did not, in fact, "love it." But either way, Halle Berry put herself through the wringer to shoot this film, which is a bit of a shame considering the outcome.
Even after filming wrapped, there would be more Jinx-related misfortune. The character was due to get a spin-off movie but according to Variety that project was quickly scrapped after MGM, the studio behind the Bond movies that was recently bought by Amazon, decided that a Jinx film was not worth $80 million.
So, in the wake of "Die Another Day" came a new age for Bond. Pierce Brosnan, who started out channeling two different Bonds with his debut in "GoldenEye," was now merely going through the motions of playing 007, and was replaced by Daniel Craig for the next installment: "Casino Royale." That made "Die Another Day" the first and last time we ever saw Jinx. Despite the fact that the character simply had no chemistry with Bond, Berry's dedication to the role can't be questioned, and it would have been interesting to see what they did with a Jinx-focused spinoff. Alas, she's destined to exist solely in one of the worst Bond movies ever made — that is until the "Die Another Day" reappraisal occurs. Might be a while, though...