Films made in the 1990s featuring the character of James Bond are GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough. The films are notable for several "firsts": The first Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (GoldenEye); the first appearance of the Walther P99 as Bond's pistol (Tomorrow Never Dies); and the first (and last) Bond film in which the titular spy drives a BMW, all as part of a three-film product placement deal with the manufacturer.
GoldenEye (1995) Principal photography for the film GoldenEye began on 16 January 1995 and continued until 6 June. The producers were unable to film at Pinewood Studios, the usual location for Bond films, because it had been reserved for First Knight. Instead, an old Rolls-Royce factory at the Leavesden Aerodrome in Hertfordshire was converted into a new studio. The producers later said Pinewood would have been too small.
The bungee jump was filmed at the Contra Dam (also known as the Verzasca or Locarno Dam) in Ticino, Switzerland. The film's casino scenes and the Tiger helicopter's demonstration were shot in Monte Carlo. Reference footage for the tank chase was shot on location in St. Petersburg and matched to the studio at Leavesden. The climactic scenes on the satellite dish were shot at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The actual MI6 headquarters were used for external views of M's office. Some of the scenes in St. Petersburg were actually shot in London – the Epsom Downs Racecourse doubled the airport – to reduce expenses and security concerns, as the second unit sent to Russia required bodyguards.
The French Navy provided full use of the frigate FS La Fayette and their newest helicopter, the Eurocopter Tiger to the film's production team. The French government also allowed the use of Navy logos as part of the promotional campaign for the film. However, the producers had a dispute with the French Ministry of Defence over Brosnan's opposition to French nuclear weapons testing and his involvement with Greenpeace; as a result, the French premiere of the film was cancelled.
The sequences involving the armoured train were filmed on the Nene Valley Railway, near Peterborough in the UK. The train was composed of a British Rail Class 20 diesel-electric locomotive and a pair of BR Mk 2 coaches, all three heavily disguised to resemble a Soviet armoured train.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
For the film Tomorrow Never Dies, the second unit filming began on 18 January 1997 with Vic Armstrong directing; they filmed the pre-credits sequence at the Peyresourde Airport in the French Pyrenees, and moved on to Portsmouth to film the scenes where the Royal Navy prepares to engage the Chinese.
The main unit began filming on 1 April 1997. They were unable to use the Leavesden Film Studios, which they had constructed from a former Rolls-Royce factory for GoldenEye, because George Lucas was using it for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, so instead they constructed sound stages at a nearby industrial estate. They also used the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios.
The scene at the "U.S. Air Base in the South China Sea" where Bond hands over the GPS encoder was actually filmed in the area known as Blue Section at RAF Lakenheath, a U.S. Air Force F-15E, F-15C/D & HH-60G fighter base in the U.K. The MH-53J in the film was from the USAF's 352nd Special Ops Group (SOG) at RAF Mildenhall U.K. Some scenes were planned to be filmed on location in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the production had been granted a visa. This was later rescinded, two months after planning had begun, and forced the filming to move to Bangkok, Thailand. Bond spokesman Gordon Arnell claimed the Vietnamese were unhappy with crew and equipment needed for pyrotechnics, with a Vietnamese official saying it was due to "many complicated reasons".
Two locations from previous Bond films were used: Brosnan and Hatcher's love scene was filmed at Stoke Park Club, which had been featured in Goldfinger, and the bay where they search for Carver's stealth boat is Khow-Ping-Khan island near Phuket, Thailand, previously used for The Man with the Golden Gun.