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With so much in the films codified and inviolable, part of the charm lies in the fresh ideas and small tweaks that Wilson and Broccoli allow. The danger du jour, for instance, comes straight out of the headlines. "The films have adapted to make them relevant to the contemporary world," says Michael Harvey, curator of "Bond, James Bond," an exhibition of 007 cars, gadgets and memorabilia at London's Science Museum. From Russia with Love (1963) arrived at the height of the cold war; Moonraker (1979) took off at the zenith of the Star Wars craze; and in Die Another Day--in a move that will dismay reputed 007 fan Kim Jong Il--evil springs from North Korea, a decision the writers say was made long before Bush came to the same conclusion.
In his trailer in Cadiz, Lee Tamahori is furiously shoveling salad into his mouth in between gulps of cranberry juice. He eats--and talks while he eats--like a teenager. He even dresses like one: tracksuit bottoms and a worn T shirt. But perhaps most important for the franchise, Tamahori is trying to think like a teen and make a film that appeals to that prized demographic. The best way to do that, the director says, is not to dumb down Bond movies but to make them smarter. "A lot of action movies are very lame because they ask you to just accept them for what they are," he says. "Teenagers are far sharper than that--and they don't like to be insulted."
He remembers. Tamahori was 13 when he saw From Russia with Love at a Wellington, New Zealand, cinema. He loved the "great, filthy stuff" in that film--not just the sexiness but also the classic fight scenes and the feel of a true thriller--and says he's trying to deliver a 21st century update of that. "Filthy and snappy!" he says to Brosnan and Berry as they film the scene in which Bond and Jinx meet after her swim. He wants more lust and leer in this encounter--and the whole film. Rosamund Pike, who plays MI6 agent Miranda Frost, jokes that "Lee wants to make this an X-rated Bond film." In truth, he just wants a "traditional" Bond. After Dr. No's release in 1962, the Vatican condemned the film's amorality, and in 1965, TIME disdained the popularity of "the sex, violence and snobbery with which Fleming endowed his British secret agent." But lately Bond's ardor has been mostly martial. "I was worried that he was turning into an SAS man, machine-gunning everyone," says Tamahori. "I've been trying to make him more of an Ian Fleming Bond."
Writers Purvis and Wade, both big Fleming fans, were happy to go back to the books. They returned with a script that put 007 in tense, compromised positions. They also added what Wade calls "nerdy stuff that only five fans will note"--a few lines echoing Fleming's texts and dozens of references to movies past. These are meant to be cues, Purvis says, to "remind us of where Bond is coming from."
Berry's character is likewise shaped by history. The name Jinx may not have the come-hither connotations of Bond Girls past, but the character is in many ways a composite of her predecessors. She has the sass of Goldfinger's Pussy Galore and the kick-ass skills of Wai Lin from Tomorrow Never Dies. Put a gun in her handbag, add a murky agenda and you have a Bond Girl who's "one step further from the previous one," says Berry. "She's not just eye candy. She's feisty, a fighter."