Tomorrow Never Dies
 (1997) -
Roger Spottiswoode's neat James Bond adventure has Pierce Brosnan's 007 helped by a Chinese spy (Michelle Yeoh) to thwart the plans of a crazed
global media mogul. In one outstanding stunt sequence, Bond jumps his motorbike over the villains' low-hovering helicopter...
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When Bond and Q (Desmond Llewellyn) take the new remote-control BMW car for a test drive, we see
a brand spanking new Eurocopter EC-135 on the tarmac behind them. Later, a Eurocopter 355 Ecureuil 2 tries to kill Bond on his motorcycle by using
the rotor-blades to slice him up. That doesn't work out too well. - NATHAN DECKER
The 'buzzsaw alley' stunt in Tomorrow Never Dies deserves a special mention as the most blatantly inaccurate portrayal of helicopter
flight - of all time - in a big-budget movie. In this scene, the chopper pitches over forward more than 20 degrees (nose down, tail up) without
moving forward (impossible), then slowly proceeds to chop up wood and pieces of debris without damaging its rotor blades (also impossible) and
continues to move forward very slowly as it chases Bond! In reality, the helicopter would have accelerated forward as soon as its nose began to
pitch downwards. (A helicopter cannot hover if it is pitched at an angle other than approximately level, in normal weather conditions.) The sequence
insults the intelligence of anyone who knows anything about how a helicopter flies, and gives away the fact that it was almost certainly a life-size
mechanical mock-up, perhaps combined with miniature effects, and definitely not a real helicopter. That ruined the whole movie for me, because after
that I could no longer suspend disbelief, and I felt like I was looking at a 'live-action' cartoon instead. - LOUIS GONZALEZ
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Tomorrow Never Dies also features a Eurocopter AS-365 sitting amongst the other kit at the arms bazaar. A Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low is also
shown landing during one of the UK scenes. And when Bond takes the BMW 750iL for a test drive there is also an AS-355 on the tarmac with a Eurocopter
EC-135. - ALEX YOUNGS.
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