Michael Reed reviews Raymond Benson's novelization of
The World Is Not Enough

There is one link between the novelizations of the previous three Bond films. In all cases, there are scenes and plotlines from the screenplay draft used by the novel writer that later are rewritten or excised from the film. John Gardner's "Licence To Kill" shows the outcome was originally meant to be more downbeat. His "GoldenEye" adaptation features some very imperceptible lines that were corrected before the film came out. (Trevelyan originally pointed his gun at Boris instead of Bond when threatening Natalya to correct her changing of the access codes, as if she would care about Boris being shot at that point.)

In my review of Raymond Benson's "Tomorrow Never Dies" I was excited how he, much more successfully than Gardner, put Ian Fleming's characterization of Bond into the story. As well, Benson provided a hefty amount of "backstory," or scenes occurring before the movement of the film does that explain the situations and better flesh out the characters. Given that no real time made it on screen explaining how Elliot Carver built his empire, who General Chang was and how he impacted the plans of Carver, or where Wai Lin came from, I viewed Raymond Benson as important to the enjoyment of the book as screenwriter Bruce Feirstein, the man who got sole credit for the film script.

With "The World Is Not Enough," there is less room, or need, for backstory. Neil Purvis and Robert Wade provide a detailed, layered script (after two rewrites, one by Dana Stevens and one by Feirstein, the final screenplay was credited to Purvis, Wade and Feirstein) full of twists and turns that require viewer attention.

As a result, Raymond Benson could have written a by-the-numbers manuscript, a la Gardner's dreadful "GoldenEye" entry. But Benson again goes well beyond that, making the novel even more enjoyable to me than the outstanding film.

I read the book before seeing the movie and it really helped in a couple of crucial spots. The final battle aboard a submarine is never fully explained in the screenplay dialogue. Benson provides us an explanation of what happened, or, as one filmgoer asked during a showing, "What the Hell happened?" Knowing why Bond grabbed the primary coolant loop hose, to use the high pressured steam to dislodge the plutonium from the reactor, makes it much clearer when there is no exposition on screen about it.

Even more important, Benson does add a full text, brought up throughout the story, about Elektra King's mother. The film gives us a quick mention of how Sir Robert King married into the oil company business and then makes it an issue only late in the proceedings. Benson uses some quiet scenes early on to spell out Elektra's affection for her mother, right down to a lullaby Elektra sings. (I wish Sophie Marceau had been asked to perform this sequence.) You realize that Elektra has deep rooted feelings toward her mother, making the revelation of her involvement with the death of her father more intense.

Not that the script was perfect. Benson follows the path originally intended regarding Elektra's ear. It is a misnomer that the film "surprises" the viewer at the end. The fact Elektra is missing her right earlobe was shown on screen, below the "ACCESS DENIED" warning flash. It was not shown until the end, but Bond would have known it from reading the file and after having slept with Elektra It ended being a visual effect to surprise the audience only.

The book, taking its cue from the earlier screenplay, has Elektra show the lobe to Bond while they discuss her mother, among other things, in bed following the casino encounter. It is tenderly played, with Benson extrapolating the kidnapping story Elektra tells Bond, but I can see that perhaps viewers would look at Elektra as too freakish should they see her mangled ear just as Bond is falling for her. I, armchair writer I am, would have made the visual depiction of the earlobe come up when Bond confronts Elektra about Renard, repeating the line about feeling alive. The fan is supposed to feel torn with doubt about Elektra, as Bond is, when she explains away that line and Renard's knowledge of Bond's shoulder. If she would have pulled off the jewel then, reminding Bond and showing it to the movie viewer the first time, and wonder how Bond could think she could love someone who would do that to her, the impact would have improved the story.

Still, most of the story is written for Benson, so to succeed with The World Is Not Enough, he needed to add bits and pieces and fill in gaps. He does so with the growth that pervades his writing now. Coming off the smashing "High Time To Kill," my favorite Bond novel since Fleming's "You Only Live Twice," Benson is effortless in making this story ebb and flow without losing interest. The real strength of the latest adventure is the characters, in the end, and Benson really works magic on them.

His most important contribution is defining and building up the one character in the film that seemed underwritten, Victor Zokas, a.k.a. Renard. The book gives him the added nickname of "The Fox" from an old Iranian mission, which even the character did not like. Benson knew that the crux of "The World Is Not Enough" is leading Bond, and the reader, through a search for Renard, only to find that Renard became enamored with his kidnap victim, Elektra, and not the other way around. In short, Bond's conclusion of Stockholm Syndrome was dead wrong.

The trouble is that it does not come out until very late in the story. To that end, Benson does a fantastic job of having Renard relive in his own mind the moments he spent with Elektra King, her smooth skin, her warm kiss, everything he was unable to feel after being shot. Yet these memories come out while still giving the reader the sick sense he is reliving the raping of Ms. King, without it being so. Reading Benson's prose, I wondered why I had not figured it out before it comes to light, and the strength of Benson's ability to fully deceive the intentions of a prominent character up until the last moment is of the highest praise. When he writes characters, they are not the two dimensional cartoons.

Well, except for Dr. Christmas Jones, who even Benson cannot make a believable entity. It is maybe the only time I enjoyed the novel less than the film, perhaps because I could not look at Denise Richards when her character performed. As "Tomorrow Never Dies" was an all-action fest film, Benson had to pad his book with dialogue and extra description of set pieces, and it is not the arbiter this book is to showing how wide the chasm is between the mediums. The boat chase on the Thames, which unfolds over several minutes on screen, is dispatched in a few paragraphs of the book. Benson had loads of characterization to deal with, and did not have to extend action scenes to make the book novel length, a welcome improvement from two years ago.

He is, of course, given the delicious chance of putting on the page a screenplay depiction of James Bond closer to Ian Fleming's character than usual EON fare. Since this was already Benson's strong suit, it fits snugly into the layering of the story. He also has really given MI6 a presence in his work. From detailing their meeting at the remote operations center at Castle Thane in Scotland to extending the explanation of the pipeline attack at King Industries pipeline control center in Istanbul, seeing M, Tanner and the staff encompassed within the action, something Benson has done in his original work from the start, reinforces the credibility of the story and the fact that Bond is, in the end, a civil servant for Her Majesty's Government, living in the real world.

The result is an exciting book that, for me, made the film even more enjoyable. While the story is about oil on its face, it is more a character driven play. The players are full of boiling blood, stirring about to the ends of passion and fear. "The World Is Not Enough" has turned out what I hoped it would, a film that leaves the overblown bombast behind and in step with Raymond Benson's characterization. The novel is more an extension of HIS James Bond than the celluloid superhero Cubby Broccoli watched over. Short of giving Benson the chance to write his own screenplay, this is a wonderful bridge to putting his Bond on screen and between the book covers. His "The World Is Not Enough" got my blood boiling.

And that is a necessary ingredient for feeling alive.

Copyright © 1999 - 2000 by Michael Reed

Return to TWINE Special HMSS on Books HMSS on Films Home Page