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Reunion With Death was a cancelled James Bond film, which would have starred Timothy Dalton as James Bond. It was written by Richard Smith in late 1993 and it would have been Dalton's fourth film, had he come back for GoldenEye. Smith had delivered to EON a 37-page plot entitled Reunion with Death dated December 1993.
The story focused on the assassination of M’s industrialist friend, Sir Robert Grey, and would have primarily taken place in Tokyo, Japan. 007 would have teamed up with Tiger Tanaka's son and daughter to investigate the activities of Yasuhiro Nakasone, an industrialist and a Yakuza boss who has his eyes on owning Sir Robert Grey's superconductor businesses for nefarious purposes. Nakasone's wife Michiko would have been the Bond girl for the film.
As Dalton did not reprise his role as Bond, the script was left unused, but many aspects from the story have been used in later films such as Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough.
Plot summary[]
Pre-title sequence[]
The pre-title sequence would have taken place at Manhattan, at a skyscraper akin to Trump Tower. Bond would have rappelled down from the roof of the tower, and arrived to the floor of his target - a double agent named Jacques Detroit - who was accompanied by a lady friend. Bond shoots through the window and gets inside the building. Bond corners Detroit and kills him, then saying "That's for 006".
Guards deploy and Bond has to escape the building. He jumps out of a window and deploys a parachute, gliding over a nearby house where there is a party. He lands and is spotted by a bored young woman named Veronica, whom Bond seduces, with the latter then removing his parachute.
MI6 HQ[]
After the music titles, Bond arrives to MI6/Universal Exports HQ (likely not the SIS Building) on a Land Rover Defender during rainy weather. He also skids off at the building parking lot, but stylishly maneuvers it on a empty parking spot.
Inside the MI6 HQ, Bond encounters Loelia Ponsonby, flirting with her to get her to do his paper work. As Bond attempts to go to the shooting range, he is stopped by M (likely Robert Brown incarnation), who wants Bond to join him to visit one Sir Robert Grey, on the basis of national security.
Sir Grey is a industrialist and the CEO of Carrington-Grey, which produces all sorts of cutting-edge technology. However, Sir Grey’s businesses are in trouble, due to accident recently occurring at his factory in Malaysia, that lead to thousands of deaths.
Sir Grey has been pressed to avoid bankruptcy by selling its R&D division – which specializes in superconductors and such – to a Japanese company named Asahi International.
Sir Grey's London Complex[]
Bond and M go meet Sir Grey at a complex – which design mixes lot of glass and steel in its construction – outside London. Sir Grey goes over what M had told Bond already, but when pressed to explain why this is a “matter of national security”, an aide asks Sir Grey to come answer to a call.
Sir Grey goes inside to answer the phone, while Bond and M are walking down the terrace of the complex. M then lights his pipe and starts puffing smoke, with the smoke revealing a orange-tinted laser that appears to be directed at the building where Sir Grey is. Suddenly a guided missile appears and Bond tries to protect M. The missile hits the building, causing widespread damage. Sir Grey is killed and M ends up seriously injured and needs to be taken to a hospital.
Later at MI6 HQ, man named Curtis Brown-Knoss acts as the temporary replacement for M. There, Bond learns that an organization called the Malay Liberation Front - who apparently were also responsible for the factory accident in Malaysia – claims responsibility for the attack on London Complex that killed Sir Grey.
However, Bond doesn’t believe it, and instead asks Brown-Knoss permission to go to Italy, as Bond believes the guided missile came from there. Bond explains to him that the orange color implies that its an American missile and that there has been a report that three missiles had been stolen from an American air base in Rome.
Italy[]
Bond goes to Italy, where he meets with an MI6 contact named Enzo Martini, who believes a man named Dante is the prime suspect in the theft of the guided missiles. Bond subsequently finds Dante and trail him to his apartment. There, Bond finds a book that hides photos of the location where Sir Grey was killed, confirming Dante’s involvement.
Just then, Dante’s girlfriend - Grazia Bellochio - enters the apartment with groceries. Bond pretends to be a friend of Dante's and seduces her by telling her that Dante doesn't pay enough attention to her or things like that. Grazia tells him that Dante is attending an opera performance and Bond ends up in bed with her.
A little later when 007 returns to Enzo who asks him what he was doing for the last two hours, Bond quips that was “exploring new tongues.” Bond and Enzo go to the Caracalla thermal baths, near where a Verdi opera is due to take place.
Bond goes to the Opera and finds that Dante meeting a large, muscular Chinese man (later revealed to be named Ng) – the latter who is due to pay the former for Sir Grey’s successful assassination. But instead, Ng kills Dante to clean up loose ends. Bond and Enzo try to catch Ng and they chase him against the backdrop of the opera music. The chase ends with Ng killing Enzo and Bond then finding Enzo’s body, losing track of Ng.
Back in England[]
Back at MI6 HQ, Bond tries to have Ng identified with no results. Brown-Knoss wants to close the investigation because Grey's killer has been identified and is now dead.
Bond then goes to visit M in a hospital, latter being in a oxygen tent. The two talk, with Bond telling him that he will continue the investigation unofficially.
Bond then goes to meet with Byron Banning - the person who inherited Sir Grey's industrial empire. Bond finds Banning nervous and inquires about what’s wrong with him. Banning and Carrington-Grey has received a note signed by “Dragon”, that tells that “whoever will shows up at the annual party of Asahi by wearing a chrysanthemum, will learn who is behind everything.”
Bond wants to pose as the person who will represent Carrington-Grey during negotiations for the sale of the Research & Development division to Asahi. Banning appears skeptical, but Bond then begins pressuring Banning, telling that Banning will be turned to Scotland Yard over the note, on the basis of withholding evidence.
Arrival to Japan & Nakasone Building[]
Bond arrives in Tokyo, Japan by plane, and upon arriving to airport customs, he is escorted to a room where he is greeted by Ryuichi Tanaka, the son of Tiger Tanaka and the current head of the Japanese secret service. They exchanged code words (either the “I love you” thing from You Only Live Twice or the lighter exchange of From Russia With Love) and Tanaka begins briefing Bond. He tells Bond about the CEO of the Asashi Corporation, which is headed by one Yasuhiro Nakasone, who also happens to head of a Yakuza syndicate.
Ohtsu – a man sent by Nakasone – arrives in a limousine to pick Bond to the Asashi building. During the ride, Bond observes cherry blossoms in Tokyo, with Ohtsu explaining that it is the cherry blossom season and that they symbolize things. Ohtsu says that they are a an ancient symbol of purity and evanescence that emerged during World War II as a symbol for the kamikazes pilots. Ohtsu begins to recite a haiku that the Kamikaze pilots use, which Bond finishes.
Subsequently, Bond arrives at the Asahi's annual reception, which is described as a combination of modern and traditional Japanese culture – with there being geishas, sumos and guards donning samurai armor. There, Bond meets with Nakasone's lawyer, who is eager to sign the sale right away. However, Bond refuses to sign, unless he is able to meet Nakasone in person.
While waiting for Nakasone to arrive at reception, Bond wanders around to try find evidence about who the mysterious "Dragon" is, and ends up finding a yakuza member who has a dragon tattoo. Bond confronts him and gets in a arm-wrestling match with him, which Bond loses.
Bond then refers to dragons orally but no one seems to know what he is talking about. When asked his name, Bond reply that he is “St. George” (likely reference to the legend of Saint George and the Dragon – which Bond creator Ian Fleming referenced a lot). Ultimately, the incident proved fruitless, as he is no closer to finding out who the “Dragon” is.
Nakasone eventually arrives to the building, accompanied by Michiko. Bond introduces himself to her – which displeases Nakasone - and still refuses to sign the contract. Nakasone too changes tone and says he doesn’t want to sign it here, instead inviting Bond to join him this weekend at his property located in the Japanese Alps.
Hotel, Karaoke Bar and the stalker[]
Bond goes to a hotel and met by a employee, who tells that Bond has received a message from “his mother” and that “he can call her at 8:00” (its later revealed that this is code for a meeting place and time.) Bond gets in his hotel room, and quite quickly realizes that somebody is spying him via fiber-optic cameras.
Bond figures to use a hot shower to produce steam to hamper the cameras, with Bond then getting on is laptop. Bond tries various passwords – including “Tracy” – until “Please” unlocks it, opening a panel in the back where parts for his Walther PPK are.
Bond assembles his PPK and leaves through the window. He sneaks into the room next to him, where he finds the man who has been spying on Bond with cameras. Bond beats this peeper for Nakasone up, tying him and gagging him.
Bond then goes to a karaoke bar named “Mother’s”, where Bond meets Ryuichi, as well as his sister Keiko – who too is a agent for Japanese Secret Service. Ryuichi immediately warns Bond no to flirt with Keiko – even though Bond will inevitably do so.
Ryuichi then begins to tell about Michiko – Nakasone’s wife. She had studied at Cambridge and had a good career before Nakasone entered her life – and once she had to marry Nakasone, she became a more docile woman in the process.
After meeting Ryuichi and Keiko, Bond walks through the city center and notices that he is being followed. Bond tries to outmaneuver the stalker across the city, with the chase ending at a thermal bathhouse, where Bond kills the stalker by suffocating the latter with a towel.
Arrival to Nakasone's castle and dinner[]
Subsequently, Bond goes to the Japanese Alps, to a Feudal-era Japanese castle that Nakasone owns. As Nakasone is not yet there, Bond uses this chance to investigate it, notably finding a museum where there is all sorts of Samurai weaponry and armor.
Then Bond finds Michiko, who is practicing Karate by herself. Bond gets her attention by speaking in Japanese, which piques her curiosity. They talk about thinks, including Cambridge, where Bond says he also studied at.
Nakasone finally arrives to his castle in a helicopter, with Michiko telling Bond to return to his waiting place, since if Nakasone sees them together again, there will be trouble.
Nakasone enters the room where Michiko was practicing Karate in, and – by smelling the air – he determines that somebody else was in the room. Michiko says nobody else was there, with Nakasone then kissing him. She appears to be cold towards him, with implications that Nakasone is sexually impotent with Michiko.
Later, Nakasone, Michiko and Bond have dinner, with Nakasone wishing to discuss the terms of the sale. Bond is unwisely chatty with Michiko, which annoys Nakasone. Michiko then tells Nakasone to start eating – since “in Japan, men come first”.
The dining continues, with Nakasone bringing up that fugu fish is being served – which is fatally poisonous, if cooked improperly. Nakasone asks Bond to eat one, to see Bond’s bravery. Bond complies and eats it, with Nakasone and Michiko being impressed by it.
Business negotiations then continue, with Nakasone persistence conveying desperation in acquiring Carrington-Grey’s R&D division. Bond proposes an astronomical price to see how desperate Nakasone is for the deal, with Nakasone agreeing to pay that price for the R&D division.
Michiko's confession, torture and escape[]
Later in the evening, Bond is it at his guest room when Michiko comes to join him. She begins kissing Bond – with former being aware that they are being watched, while Bond isn’t. She gives Bond a credit card which contains proof that Nakasone is responsible for Sir Grey’s death.
This makes Bond realizes that Michiko is the “Dragon” and asks why Michiko is betraying her husband. Michiko tells that Nakasone killed her father and wants to see Nakasone ruined for it.
Then, Nakasone bursts in the room and orders Bond to finally sign the contract and leave. Afterwards, Bond leaves and gets aboard the helicopter. But while in the air, Bond notices that the pilot looking over his shoulder – it being Ng. Ng pushes the button which gasses Bond, rendering him unconscious.
Bond regains consciousness, being back at the castle and tied in a chair. Nakasone now appears to be aware that Bond was in Rome and questions about Bond and his true employer. Bond refuses to answer, with Nakasone telling who Ng is – that being a sadist and a eunuch. Ng then proceeds to break two of Bond’s fingers (akin to Tee-Hee in the Live and Let Die novel.)
Afterwards, Michiko comes and knocks out the henchman and sets off an alarm to confuse the security, under which she uses a secret route to take Bond to safety. She then applies band-aid to Bond’s fingers and shows her a hidden boat dock under the castle. Michiko orders Bond to leave alone by boat.
Bond escapes by a river flowing through the alps. Nakasone orders his men - as well as police that are on his payroll – to chase down Bond with other boats and a helicopter. During the chase, Bond tries to avoid floating barriers on the water - set by the police - and the chase ends with Bond crashing into the Seagaia Ocean Dome where Bond blends in with the crowd and losing his pursuers.
Back in Tokyo[]
Back in Tokyo, Bond meets up with Ryuichi and Keiko at the Japanese Secret Service HQ, which is masquerading as a public bath house. They go over the information on the credit card, on which they find photographs of Sir Robert Grey’s assassination.
They then tell that Michiko's father, Ozawa, was a head of a chemical company, which went bankrupt after a series of accidents. The company was subsequently absorbed by Nakasone’s businesses, which lead to Michiko’s father committing suicide.
Bond goes to investigate the Asahi Building where he discovers Nakasone's acquisitions, with one seafood company acquisition standing out from the rest. While Bond manages to leave the building with little trouble, he and Ryuichi (who is waiting in a car) are caught by security cameras.
Bond and Ryuichi return to the bath-house base and find many of Japanese agents having been massacred. They then go to an another hideout where they find others agents who are still alive, including Keiko.
Seafood Company[]
Bond then goes to the Seafood Company that Nakasone had bought. He infiltrates the fish processing factory, where he finds a vault, which code he cracks with use of gadgets. He then finds a laboratory, where Bond finds superconductors that were made by Carrington-Grey.
While there, Nakasone arrives. Bond ends up chased around the factory and kills some of Nakasone’s men in the process – including killing one with a big swordfish and then kills the man with the dragoon tattoo (that Bond arm-wrestled with) into a fish chopping machine.
However, Bond’s escape is unsuccessful – he is captured and brought back to the laboratory where the superconductors are. Nakasone arrives with Michiko, and with her present, orders Bond to tell who helped him escape the castle and who Bond really works for. In reality, Nakasone is already quite certain that it was Michiko.
To make Bond loosen his tongue, Nakasone reveals a man-portable rail-gun, and demonstrates it by shooting a coin placed behind a thick steel plate.
Eventually Tanaka intervenes with his remaining men and shoot-out begins. Bond gets access to the rail-gun and uses it to fight off Nakasone’s men. Bond, Tanaka and Michiko get on a car and flee to the area.
The great escape[]
The trio goes to hide at a Buddhist temple, where the monks there hiding them under the floor. It appears that Ryuichi was injured during the shoot-out at the Seafood Company.
Nakasone’s men lead by Ng find the temple and search it. It appears that they are thorough enough and that they will eventually find Bond and others. Just as they are about to be discovered, they make a mad dash outside, with injured Ryuichi sacrificing himself to secure Bond and Michiko’s escape. Bond and Michiko get away, but Ryuichi gets killed by Nakasone’s men.
Bond and Michiko are picked up a car driven by a man called Watanabe, who claims to be one of Tanaka’s men. Bond and Michiko compose themselves a bit from running so much, however, Bond is skeptical of Watanabe. Bond asks the password (that he and Ryuichi exchanged early in the film), with Watanabe giving a wrong answer – meaning he is one of Nakasone’s lackeys.
Bond lulls Watanabe into false sense of security, before attacking him. They fight in the car, while trying to maintain control of it. At the same time, Ng, in a helicopter, pursues them as well.
They pass through a residential area at a hill, with lot of rice paper-walled houses, with Watanabe’s car driving through many of them. Eventually, Bond manages to propel the car into a moving freight train carrying other cars, landing perfectly a empty spot. Ng crashes his copter to some power-lines, but survives as the copter only gets tangled in the lines.
British Embassy, Michiko's death and meeting with M[]
Bond and Michiko take refuge at British Embassy in Tokyo, where Bond calls Brown-Knoss over the phone. Brown-Knoss tells that Carrington-Grey contract Bond sold to Asashi is rendered invalid and that Japanese police have been authorized to go arrest Nakasone.
Bond and Michiko take it easy until Bond is subsequently called to speak with M over the phone. Ng, disguised as a geisha woman, has snuck in the embassy, and while Bond is talking with M, Ng kills Michiko. Bond returns and finds Michiko dying. Bond’s attempts to save her has all been in vain.
Bond returns to London and has a talk with M, who has healed and continues his leadership of MI6. However, vengeful Bond wants to return to Japan to get even with Nakasone but M “officially” refuses. But M, being aware of how Bond’s mind operates, knows that he will go there regardless, and as Bond leaves, M tells him “good luck.”
Return to Nakasone's castle[]
Bond returns to Japan and teams up with Keiko. Bond infiltrates the castle with a hang glider, with Bond going around the castle, knocking out guards and planting C4 to every convenient location.
Eventually the alarm goes off, which prompts Nakasone to go to his surveillance monitor room. At one monitor, he sees Bond, sitting in the chair of his personal room, signaling Nakasone to come to him.
Bond then turns around in the chair and presses the detonator he is holding, and on the surveillance screens, Nakasone sees parts of his castle explode.
Nakasone goes to confront Bond personally, taunting him that he doesn’t care about the castle, he has the money to buy and/or build other ones. Bond quips to Nakasone that that the latter would need to be survive alive to do so.
Ng then arrives and attempts to kill Bond, who draws his gun and (seemingly) shooting him dead. Bond chases Nakasone through the burning castle, until Bond eventually finds Nakasone at the museum section, where Nakasone has donned the samurai armor and a katana sword (akin to Blofeld in the You Only Live Twice novel.)
Nakasone attacks, with Bond acquiring a halberd and a shield to fight off Nakasone. The fight takes it from the museum to the parapet of the castle. During the fight, Bond acquires a kimono, and the climax of the battle, Bond uses the kimono to entangle the armored Nakasone, with the kimono then catching on fire. The burning kimono flares and pained Nakasone ends up blindly falling off from the parapet to his death in the mountain ridges below.
Bond tries to leave, until arriving to a section with cannons, where Ng appears again – who reveals he had a bulletproof vest. Ng attacks and the two fighting bare-handed, with Ng eventually gaining a strange-hold on Bond.
When it appears that Bond is unable to get up from the beating he has taken, Ng spots one of the cannonballs, grabbing it and trying to finish off Bond with it. However, Bond strikes at Ng’s leg, which causes Ng to trip and the cannonball to hit his own head – killing him for real. Bond quips about Ng’s death, and sets off the remaining C4 to bring down rest of the castle, rappelling down the side of the collapsing fort.
Epilogue[]
The script ends at a cemetery, where Bond and Keiko visit the graves of Michiko and Ryuichi. During which Bond recites a piece of poem by Takijiroh Ohnishi (whom Tiger Tanaka had served under during WWII, according to the You Only Live Twice novel); "Today in flower, tomorrow scattered by the wind". Bond and Keiko leave to sunset, with cherry blossom petals starting to fall.
Influence on later Bond media[]
Although the Reunion With Dead never materialized, its elements would be repurposed for later Bond media down the lane.
EON films[]
- The pre-title sequence involves Bond getting revenge for 006. Although both GoldenEye and Reunion With Death were written at the same time, Trevelyan's code names in the early scripts were either 001 or 004, with him being 006 in the final film. It can be inferred that this script could have influenced Trevelyan's final 00-codename.
- Bond using rope to rappel down the building in Manhattan may have inspired the "dam jump" scene. Such sequence is not detailed in early GoldenEye scripts, as Bond either simply does not go to the chemical plant, or he and Trevelyan worked together to break in like in the 2010 game.
- Bond's relationship with Bond girl Michiko, who is married to villain Nakasone, is roughly the same as in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, where Bond gets re-acquainted with old flame Paris who has married the main villain Elliot Carver. In both, the main villain has his wife executed by an assassin, after he determines her to have been unfaithful to him.
- In the script, Bond has to use a Q gadget to get inside a hidden vault at the main villain's Seafood Company front, which bears semblance to the scene in Tomorrow Never Dies, where Bond tries to get access to Henry Gupta's safe at Carver's Hamburg Newspaper Printing Factory.
- In the script, Bond gets in a fight where he shoves a Yakuza thug into a fish chopping machine, which could have inspired the scene in Tomorrow Never Dies where Bond shoves Carver's henchman into the printing press ("They print anything these days").
- The plot element regarding the assassination of a British businessman and M's long-time friend named "Sir Robert" would become central in 1999's The World is Not Enough, in which the character is repurposed as oil tycoon Sir Robert King.
- Likewise, the assassin in proximity of Sir Robert's assassination in both stories use a weapon with a laser-sight. However, where as Dante uses a guided-missile with orange-tinted beam, the "Cigar Girl" used a LAM-equipped H&K G36K carbine.
- The boat chase from Japanese Alps to Seagaia Ocean Dome, might have inspired The World is Not Enough's Q-Boat river chase on Thames, which takes it from the SIS Building to the Millennium Dome.
- The opera action sequence was reused in 2008's Quantum of Solace, except in the 2008 film, the opera takes at Lake Constance, Austria.
- In the script, Bond ends up setting Nakasone's castle ablaze and carrying out the final fight there, which also happens in Quantum of Solace with the Perla de las Dunas.
- Bond going to Rome to seduce an Italian female lover of an assassin was repurposed in 2016's Spectre, in which Bond would go seduce Lucia Sciarra.
Non-EON Bond media[]
- Although it is unsure if it's intentional or just a coincide, the plot does bear similarity with Raymond Benson's The Man with the Red Tattoo, released 8-9 years after Smith's script was written.
- The plot features a man-portable rail-gun, pre-dating the appearance of a similar Phoenix Laser Rifle from the console versions of Nightfire.
Characters[]
| James Bond (Timothy Dalton) | MI6 agent |
| Michiko Nakasone | Wife of Yasuhiro (Bond Girl) |
| Yasuhiro Nakasone | Godfather of Yakuza (Main Antagonist) |
| Sir Robert Grey | Friend of M |
| M | MI6 Section Chief |
| Q (Desmond Llewelyn) | MI6 Quartermaster |
| Jacques Detroit | Double Agent |
| Veronica | Pre-Title Sequence Girl |
| Loelia Ponsonby | MI6 Secretary |
| Curtis Brown-Knoss | Temporary MI6 Section Chief |
| Enzo Martini | MI6 Contact |
| Dante | Assassin |
| Grazia Bellochio | Dante's Girlfriend |
| Ng | Main Henchman |
| Byron Banning | Industrialist |
| Ryuichi Tanaka | Son of Tiger Tanaka |
| Ohtsu | Limousine Driver |
| Keiko | One of Tanaka's Agent |
| Watanabe | Nakasone Thug |
Trivia[]
- It is not really detailed what the villain Yasuhiro Nakasone's end game is in acquiring Carrington-Grey's R&D division. The only thing hinting at his goal is the man-portable rail-gun, to which he needs Carrington-Grey's superconductors for. However, to what end the rail-gun is created is never described.
- There is a geographical error regarding the chase that would have taken Bond from Japanese Alps to the Seagaia Ocean Dome. The Seagaia was located at Miyazaki City in Kyushu Region, while the Japanese Alps are all located in Chubu Region. This would mean Bond would have had traveled some 758km from Akaishi mountains (which is the most southwestern part of the Japanese Alps) to Miyazaki during the boat chase sequence. It is likely that Smith may have mistakenly believed that the Seagaia Ocean Dome was in Tokyo, though the distance there too would have been quite extensive from Japanese Alps as well. It could be presumed that Japanese Alps would have been fixed to Kyushu Mountains, had the script been worked further.
- The Seagaia Ocean Dome featured in the script was also considered have been Gustav Graves' villain lair in Die Another Day, although the creative ultimately settled with the Ice Palace instead.
References[]
- "Scripting 007: Behind the writing of the James Bond movies" by Clement Feutry (Version 2.2 - Nov 30, 2024) - Chapter 18: "Tomorrow Never Dies" (Pages 1250-1256)