GoldenEye is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the James Bond Series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the series not to utilize any story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming. GoldenEye was also the first James Bond film not produced by Albert R. Broccoli, following his stepping down from Eon Productions and replacement by his daughter, Barbara Broccoli (along with Michael G. Wilson, although Broccoli was still involved as a consultant producer; it was his final film project before his death in 1996).[4] The story was conceived and written by Michael France, with later collaboration by other writers. In the film, Bond fights to prevent a rogue ex-MI6 agent (Sean Bean) from using a satellite weapon against London to cause a global financial meltdown.

GoldenEye was released after a six-year hiatus in the series caused by legal disputes, during which Timothy Dalton’s contract for the role of James Bond expired and he decided to leave the role, so he was replaced by Brosnan. M was also recast, with actress Judi Dench becoming the first woman to portray the character, replacing Robert Brown. The role of Miss Moneypenny was also recast, with Caroline Bliss being replaced by Samantha Bond. Desmond Llewelyn was the only actor to reprise his role, as Q. It was the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot. Principal photography for GoldenEye took place from January to June of 1995 in the UK, Russia, Monte Carlo and Puerto Rico, and was the inaugural film production to be shot at Leavesden Studios. The first Bond film to use computer-generated imagery (CGI), GoldenEye was also the final film of special effects supervisor Derek Meddings’s career, and was dedicated to his memory.

In 1986, MI6 agents James Bond and Alec Trevelyan infiltrate a Soviet chemical weapons facility called Arkangel. After Trevelyan is caught and seemingly killed by the facility’s commanding officer, Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, Bond destroys the site and escapes in a stolen aircraft.

Nine years later, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Bond attempts to prevent Xenia Onatopp, a member of the Janus crime syndicate, from stealing a Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter during a military demonstration in Monte Carlo, but is unsuccessful. Returning to MI6 Headquarters in London, Bond oversees MI6 staff monitoring an incident in Severnaya, Siberia, after the stolen helicopter turns up at a radar facility there. An electromagnetic pulse blast suddenly hits the site, destroying it and Russian fighter aircraft, while knocking out some satellite systems in orbit above.

The newly appointed M assigns Bond to investigate, after it is determined the blast came from a Soviet-era satellite armed with a nuclear electromagnetic pulse space-based weapon, codenamed “GoldenEye”. Although Janus is suspected of initiating the attack, Bond suspects Ourumov, now a general, was involved because the weapon system required high-level military access. Travelling to Saint Petersburg, Bond contacts his CIA assistant Jack Wade, who advises him to meet the former KGB agent turned gangster Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky and have him arrange a meeting with Janus. Escorted to the meeting by Onatopp, Bond discovers that Janus is led by Trevelyan, who had faked his death at Arkangel. He learns that Trevelyan seeks vengeance for his parents: Lienz Cossacks who were betrayed by the British by being repatriated to the Soviet Union after collaborating with the Axis powers during World War II.

Bond is sedated and trapped in the stolen Tiger alongside Natalya Simonova, a survivor of the Severnaya attack. After escaping the helicopter’s destruction, the pair are taken into custody and interrogated by Russian Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin. Natalya affirms Ourumov’s involvement in the use of GoldenEye, and that fellow programmer Boris Grishenko survived along with her and is now working for Janus in operating a second GoldenEye satellite. Before Mishkin can act on the information, Ourumov kills him and captures Natalya. Commandeering a tank, Bond pursues Ourumov to a missile train used by Janus. He kills Ourumov and escapes the train with Natalya before it explodes.

Bond and Natalya travel to Cuba, after Boris is traced to a location within the island’s jungles. While flying over the area, the pair are shot down. Onatopp is lowered from a helicopter and attacks them, but Bond destroys the helicopter and kills her. The pair uncover a hidden base beneath a large lake, concealing a satellite dish. Bond is captured while trying to rig the base to explode, and learns from Trevelyan that he intends to steal money from the Bank of England and use GoldenEye to erase its financial records and conceal the theft, thus damaging London’s economy. Natalya hacks into the satellite and reprograms it to initiate atmospheric re-entry and thus destroy itself. She is then captured as well. While trying to undo her programming, Boris nervously presses on a pen confiscated from Bond, activating a grenade concealed in the pen by Q Branch. Bond knocks the pen from Boris’s hand and into a puddle of chemicals that were spilled during an earlier firefight, causing a chemical explosion that allows Bond and Natalya to escape.