GoldenEye Director Dismisses Long-Rumored Bond Scene

Perhaps fitting for a franchise about espionage and double-crosses, James Bond fans love their conspiracies and secret information. Even before the advent of the world wide web, Bond aficionados traded theories about James Bond being a code name, behind-the-scenes wrangling, and, of course, plans for the next actor to take on the role. One of the more persistent rumors involves the BMW Z-3 Roadster that Q (Desmond Llewelyn) gives new Bond Pierce Brosnan in 1995’s GoldenEye.

Looking at the incredible array of weaponry equipped with the sports car, fans assumed that some version of the script had a sequence in which Bond rides his roadster into battle. But now, after 30 years, GoldenEye director Martin Campbell sets the record straight. “There never was a scene [like that],” he told Hollywood Reporter in an anniversary retrospective. “I mean, it would have been nice,” Campbell continued, noting that the Q introduction scene, before insisting, “the story didn’t involve the car.”

One can sense a bit of frustration in Campbell’s answer, and with good reason. Hadn’t he done enough with GoldenEye? After the rough-hewed agent gone rogue movie License to Kill in 1989, GoldenEye had to both bring the Bond franchise back to basics while ushering it into the post-Cold War age. Few would disagree that it did so beautifully, introducing a debonair Bond in Pierce Brosnan, giving him a mission both personal and global in scale, and, of course, arming him with gadgets.

GoldenEye saw Bond chasing after the titular weaponized satellite, navigating the fractured world stage in the early days after the Cold War, represented by affable CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) and KGB agent turned gangster Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane). Operating under assignment by a new M played by Judi Dench, Bond gets assistance from comely computer programer Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) and must face off against the sadistic Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen). Worst of all, Bond must face his old friend and partner 006 Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), who has turned against Britain to seek revenge for his parents’ death.

Overstuffed as the plot sounds, Campbell handled it beautifully, gliding from plot point to plot point with sleek action sequences and plenty of bon mots. In fact, he did it so well that there was little space for anything else… especially an action sequence built around the car.

“In any of the action, the problem was there just wasn’t a place that made sense for it;” argued Campbell. “You couldn’t just fire [the missiles]. I’m sure, at the time, we must have talked about it, like, ‘is there a way in which we could incorporate [the car] in terms of an action scene?’ But, if you look at the story, it’s just not possible as it stands.”

Campbell’s explanation seems pretty definitive. But when has that stopped online speculation before? Certainly, even after Campbell’s revelation, someone online is going to insist that the original secret script for GoldenEye still exists on some computer in the now-defunct Eon Productions headquarters, a computer that some intrepid Amazon employee will uncover. Outlandish? Yes. But this is James Bond.