GoldenEye — Film vs. N64 vs. Wii Story Analysis

As someone who considers GoldenEye to be one of my top fifty favorite movies and GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64 to be one of my top ten favorite video games, I've watched or played through the same story dozens of times; hell, I even read John Gardner's novelization back in elementary school, although I remember finding it pretty insipid. I daresay I'm as close to an expert on GoldenEye's plot as probably just about anyone alive this side of Bruce Feirstein.

So I found it an interesting experience to play through the new remake of GoldenEye 007 on Wii. It seemed like a lot of whiners on internet message boards thought it was a travesty for them to swap in Daniel Craig and shift the story a bit (a lot of whiners who saw the movie once or maybe twice in the mid-to-late 90s, I imagine), but while it certainly doesn't replace the original I enjoyed experiencing a favorite story in a new light, just as I'm sure huge Shakespeare buffs enjoy the freshness of seeing Hamlet and Richard III with new actors and reinterpreted aesthetics every few years. Not that I'm comparing Bond to Shakespeare... Bond is clearly better.

Furthermore, this game actually adds back in a whole bunch of memorable movie scenes absent from the original game. Of course for every one of these there's also something they kept from the N64 version that wasn't in the film or something they changed or added that wasn't in either. It's an eclectic mix of story elements, as you'd probably expect from a narrative that's adapted from a game that is adapted from a movie while being updated from 1995 to 2010. So let's just break into down into bullet points, go through, and document everything I can think of.

We'll be doing this in five categories: first, film scenes absent from the N64 game that have been added back into this one. Second, changes the N64 game made that the Wii one kept (note that this is only analyzing story differences, not gameplay). Thirdly, film changes the N64 game made that the Wii version ditched. Fourthly, stuff the Wii game did that flies against both film and N64. And lastly, just for fun, stuff from the film neither game included. I'll leave out stuff present in all three because the broad framework of the story is consistent across all mediums and I don't wanna synopsize the whole damn plot. Obviously, full spoilers for every version of the story ahead.

Beyond the jump: get shaken, not stirred.

Present in Film and Wii, Absent on N64

• The GoldenEye theme song and opening credits sequence, although it's sung at a slightly faster tempo by Nicole Scherzinger instead of Tina Turner, has new visuals with less Soviet Union imagery, and takes place after the dam jump instead of after the chemical facility explosion.

• Bond meeting Alec Trevelyan in the Arkhangelsk weapons facility before reaching the gas canister room.

• Bond escaping Ourumov and his men in the facility by kneeling behind a rack of explosives and rolling himself to the conveyor belt, right down to one of Ourumov's overconfident young soldiers taking a shot anyway and Ourumov immediately shooting him dead. Shifted a bit in that the explosives seem to be some sort of missiles, not gas canisters, but the principle is definitely the same (although other elements of this scene are shifted more, which I'll note below).

• Dozens of Russian troops streaming from the facility to chase and kill Bond on the runway following Alec's staged execution and Bond's escape from Ourumov.

• Bond commandeering a Russian motorcycle, riding down the runway towards a taxiing plane while being shot at and then off the edge of the cliff as the plane goes over, ditching the motorcycle, catching the plane in midair, and barely getting to the controls to upright it and make his escape.

• Bond meeting Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky in his nightclub to discuss Janus, where Zukovsky is antagonistic over a past altercation with and injury given to him by Bond, even threatening to have him shot, but eventually gives Bond the info he needs.

• Ourumov and Xenia Onatopp stealing an EMP-hardened helicopter from what was supposed to be a demonstration while Bond is there and fails to stop them (although the settings are shifted and their means are considerably more violent, which, again, will be noted below).

• The GoldenEye satellite firing on Severnaya. This was implied to have happened offscreen after the end of the second Bunker level in the N64 game, but here we actually get to see it in all its computer-exploding, blackout-inducing, MiG-and-helicopter-downing, fire-and-apocalypse glory.

• Ourumov and Xenia killing everyone in the Severnaya bunker (except Natalya Simonova, who evades them) and stealing the GoldenEye codes. Shifted by making it not just Ourumov and Xenia but Ourumov and Xenia plus dozens of Janus soldiers, but still pretty much the same plotwise.

• Russian Defence Minister Dmitri Mishkin interrogating Bond and Natalya, believing them to be terrorists who stole the GoldenEye (including the somewhat leading question, "How shall we execute you?"), before Natalya interrupts them ("Stop it, both of you! You're like... boys with toys.") and tells Mishkin that Ourumov is the real culprit. Just as Mishkin seems receptive to the idea that he was wrong about Bond, Ourumov bursts in, assassinates Mishkin and the guard and grabs Natalya and leaves while shouting that Bond has killed the Defence Minister.

• Bond riding a tank through a crowded daytime St. Petersburg rather than an empty nighttime one, culminating in him derailing the bad guy's train with the tank (he rams the train instead of shooting it, but still, same principle).

• After Alec Trevelyan reveals himself to be alive and the true identity of Janus in the St. Petersburg statue park, Bond is sniped with a tranq to the neck as Trevelyan mocks "For England, James." Bond is then placed in the EMP-hardened helicopter in the middle of the park, tied up and with the helicopter's missiles programmed to fire on itself (somewhat inexplicably in both, I might add, as I'm pretty sure putting a bullet in someone's head is the quicker and more efficient way to kill someone), but manages to come to and ram the escape pod button with his forehead just in time.

• Bond's plane being shot down near Janus's base and him crash-landing and coming to in the jungle (it is implied that this happened in the N64 game, as the Jungle level seems to begin by a crashed plane, but it's all offscreen and never commented on).

• Xenia Onatopp attacking Bond in the jungle by jumping on him from above via helicopter and attempting to crush him with her thighs. Although Bond kills her in all three versions, on N64 he merely shoots her directly, while in the movie and on Wii he kills her by shooting down the helicopter she's tethered to and having it pull her to her death.

• Bond planting explosives in Janus's base which cause everything to go hell in a handbasket, although he tricks Alec Trevelyan into setting them off by switching the detonate and deactivate buttons on his phone rather than having Boris click an explosive pen and throwing it at them.

• Trevelyan capturing Bond and Natalya and holding them at gunpoint in his control room as the timer to the GoldenEye satellite firing on London counts down and he gloats over his impending victory, right down to Bond telling Trevelyan that in the end he's nothing but a bank robber and the reunion being interrupted by the aforementioned explosives going off.

• No particular change here, but I just wanted to remark that the sequence of events of Bond and Alec chasing each other through the cradle, fighting, Bond finally killing Alec with the utterance of "No. For me," then jumping and grabbing onto the skids of a helicopter commandeered by Natalya, flying down to the jungle, and making out with Natalya as the credits roll is pretty consistent in all three versions. I'll note a few nitpicky alterations below though.


Added or Changed for N64 and Maintained on Wii

• This borders on gameplay rather than plot changes, but I still want to get it out of the way to streamline the next part of the discussion. All of the following levels are present, although not necessarily in the same order and many have had their names changed: Dam, Facility, Runway, Frigate, Surface, Bunker, Archives, Streets, Depot, Train, Statue, Jungle, Control, Cradle. Runway has been renamed Airfield, Frigate has been renamed Carrier, Surface has been renamed Outpost, Streets has been renamed Tank, Depot and Train have been combined into one level and renamed Station, Statue has been renamed Memorial, and Control has been renamed Solar.

• Bond encountering and killing Russian troops on the Arkhangelsk dam rather than just running straight through and jumping to the facility. Both versions also add an interior to the dam where Bond encounters more resistance, although in the N64 version it's just a single long hallway accessed via stairs while on Wii it's an elaborate series of bunkers, control rooms, and walkways overlooking the canyon accessed via elevator.

• Bond getting into firefights in the facility before reaching the gas canister room (as you may notice, most of the N64 changes maintained in the Wii version entail making the experience more "gamey").

• The sky being dim and gloomy over the runway after the facility, as opposed to the film where it's beautiful, bright blue midday.

• Bond rescuing several hostages on the frigate where the EMP-hardened helicopter is. He also plants a tracking bug on the helicopter in both versions (although on N64 he sneaks up while no one's around and does it quietly, while on Wii he runs up and grabs the skids as it's taking off at and slaps it on the side before falling, evading Janus troop gunfire all the while).

• Although Bond's first visit to Severnaya (after Runway and before Frigate) is removed, the former second and now only visit remains after he follows the tracking bug he placed on the helicopter, right down to the two-level structure of Surface and Bunker, although Surface is now called Outpost and takes place during daytime, rather than nighttime as on N64. He still meets Natalya for the first time in the bunker rather in the St. Petersburg statue park as in the film.

• Bond making his way through Janus troops to the train where Natalya is after leaving the tank behind, although the settings have been reinterpreted from a more traditional train station at nighttime into a rail yard / construction site during daytime.

• Bond encountering Janus troop resistance at the statue park before he meets Alec Trevelyan rather than just walking straight through as in the film, although it's beefed up in a similar manner to the dam. Compared to the original level which basically resembled an actual statue park Janus troops happened to be in at the moment, it seems to be much more of a "base" here, with bunkers and tunnels and turret guns all over.

• Bond's plane crashing some distance away from Janus headquarters and having to deal with Janus troops other than just Xenia as he makes his way through the jungle, not to mention eight or nine turret guns.

• Although it has been moved from Control (now known as Solar) to Cradle, the set piece with Bond protecting Natalya from guards while she reprograms the GoldenEye satellite remains entirely intact, and yes, it's still the hardest damn part of the whole game.

• A few dozen angry and armored Janus troops joining Bond and Alec for their final chase through the cradle.

• Bond finally kills Alec via gunshot which blows him off the edge of the cradle rather than throwing him off manually as in the film, although in all three versions it is accompanied by "No. For me."


Added or Changed for N64 and Removed on Wii

• Bond no longer meets a contact named Dr. Doak in the facility. He is still helped out throughout the level, but it's by Alec Trevelyan, who occasionally contacts him via radio, reprograms computers or threatens guards from other rooms to open doors for Bond, and at one point covers him by sniping bad guys from a walkway above.

• No more tank in the runway level. Very sad.

• As I mentioned above, Bond's first visit to Severnaya is completely excised.

• The Silo level, where Bond visits a Soviet missile silo in Kyrgyzstan, encounters General Ourumov for the second time, and takes photos of Soviet technology for MI6, is 100% removed and not referenced or paid homage to in any way. Which seems fair, since it was 100% fabricated for the N64 game and had absolutely nothing to do with anything in the movie.

• Bond is no longer captured and placed in prison at the bunker in Severnaya, so the watch magnet and prison escape are obviously gone too. This sequence is changed in many other ways which I'll note under the section of entirely new material for the Wii game.

• Bond no longer meets Valentin Zukovsky in the statue park or on the streets of St. Petersburg; only in Zukovsky's nightclub.

• There is no sneaking through the archives in St. Petersburg; guards are on Bond's ass from the second Ourumov runs out of the prison room shouting that Bond has killed Defence Minister Mishkin (and on a side note, this whole sequence is vaguely disturbing in all three versions in that Bond isn't really killing any "bad guys," just patriotic Russian soldiers who believe that a captured terrorist has just assassinated their Defence Minister and is now shooting his way out of the building. I love GoldenEye, but it's also the closest Bond has ever come to being a war criminal).

• Bond no longer boards a moving train to rescue Natalya from Ourumov, but, as in the film, one that has already been derailed via tank. And while Bond still ventures through multiple cars and some Janus troops, there's like two cars instead of eight and like a dozen Janus troops instead of a hundred.

• As I mentioned above, Alec Trevenlyan no longer sics his guards on Bond and makes a run for it after revealing himself to be Janus, and Bond no longer shoots his way out of the park to rescue Natalya from the helicopter, but is instead tranqed and winds up in the copter himself just like the movie.

• The Caverns level, where Bond ventures through underground caverns between the Janus control center and the showdown with Alec Trevenlyan on the cradle, is gone. There is a brief section in Solar (Control from the N64 game renamed) where Bond takes an elevator underground, which may be a reference to Caverns, but it's still a stretch, as the geography of these few rooms doesn't resemble Caverns in any way.

• This doesn't have much to do with the plot of GoldenEye but I figured I should mention that there are no longer Aztec and Egyptian bonus levels.


Added, Changed, or Removed Only in the Wii Version

• Most obviously, James Bond has been recast from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig. Alec Trevelyan, Natalya Simonova, General Ourumov, Xenia Onatopp, and Valentin Zukovsky have also been recast, although Judi Dench remains as M.

• Although M still gives briefings before levels (now occasionally aided by Tanner from Quantum of Solace), Q and Moneypenny, not yet being part of the Craig era, are nowhere to be found.

• I'm skipping ahead a bit here, but this is so chronologically significant that I need to mention it upfront: the nine-year gap, which placed the beginning of the story in 1986 and the bulk of it in 1995, is gone. The entire story now takes in place in 2010 (with modern technology like wi-fi), seemingly over the span of a couple weeks, and Bond goes straight from flying the plane away from the Arkhangelsk chemical weapons facility explosion to meeting with Zukovsky in his nightclub. This is significant because I suppose it means that rather than retiring as 006 by faking his death then building up his criminal empire as Janus, Alec Trevelyan was doing both simultaneously, because in the Wii game he "dies" as 006 then has armies of henchmen and a giant base in the jungle a few days later. The logistics don't make a lot of sense, but whatever.

• Like in Quantum of Solace, the opening gun barrel is absent, and let me tell you that if this is still the case in Bond 23 I will be a very unhappy Bond fan.

• Rather than Bond and Trevelyan's mission to destroy the gas canisters at Arkhangelsk being a Cold War operation and Bond not even knowing who Arkady Ourumov is until meeting him, Ourumov is now specifically known by MI6 to be a Russian traitor selling weapons to terrorists from the very beginning, and part of the initial mission assignment is to assassinate him if possible (although Bond fails at this part).

• Bond and Trevelyan now begin the mission at the top of the dam together, split up upon entering the facility, and finally meet up again shortly before reaching the gas canisters like in the film (006 briefly mistaking Bond for someone else and pointing a gun at him before putting it down is paid homage to, but it takes place on the dam rather than in the facility as in the movie).

• Bond and Trevelyan now commandeer a truck and ride it across the dam impersonating Russian soldiers, but when they are discovered they kick out the windshield and gun it while shooting everyone until their truck is blown over by a rocket launcher, at which point they head down an elevator shaft to the dam's interior. It's also raining over the dam now, which I didn't think was significant enough for its own bullet point.

• Bond notices an EMP-hardened helicopter owned by Ourumov on a helipad at the dam and takes pictures of it for MI6 (and as such, the theft of the helicopter from the frigate is now an attempt to acquire another EMP-hardened helicopter after Ourumov's first one is destroyed by the explosion at the Arkhangelsk facility, something that Trevelyan and Ourumov knew was MI6's mission but didn't intend to actually happen until Bond messed things up).

• Every level has its layout significantly changed from its N64 counterpart, but the Arkhangelsk facility is one of the few so changed I need to note it here, being reinterpreted from a fairly ordinary and utilitarian workplace outside of the gas canister chamber in both the film and N64 game to a dank, dark, and creepy dungeon-like building full of pools of radioactive water and walkways over deep chasms. It still begins in the vents above the bathroom, though. Also, during the level Ourumov's voice is blaring over the speakers and on video screens that there are intruders and for his troops to find them and kill them.

• Instead of Ourumov's staged execution of Trevelyan and Bond's escape from the facility taking place in the same room as the gas canisters, it now takes place in a loading garage down a long hallway from them. Therefore, instead of Bond merely changing the timers to three minutes instead of six, he pulls out his cell phone and hits the button to detonate after Ourumov "shoots" Alec, the explosions from which knock Ourumov and his soldiers off their feet and allow Bond to escape through the conveyor belt. The runway level takes place with everything exploding and collapsing around Bond.

• As mentioned above, instead of a "nine years later" gap, Bond immediately calls MI6 from the plane while flying away from Arkhangelsk and tells them to tap Ourumov's phone. They find that he made a call to Valentin Zukovsky asking him to locate an EMP-hardened helicopter, which leads Bond to head to Zukovsky's nightclub.

• Although the narrative purpose of the sequence is the same, the exact circumstances of Zukovsky's nightclub are greatly altered: it is now located in Barcelona rather than St. Petersburg and is a swanky dance hall / bar filled with throbbing techno music and hundreds of dancers rather than a small, fairly empty smoking lounge, Vaneltin is now tattooed and muscular rather than a bit plump, the injury Bond gave him is now a scar across his cheek rather than a limp, and he's just a straight-up gangster and arms dealer rather than being ex-KGB.

• Bond now first meets Xenia Onatopp as she masquerades as a waitress at Zukovsky's club, casually pointing out to her how he knows the vodka she's serving is a counterfeit (an homage to Bond telling Xenia how he knows her car is a counterfeit in the film). Immediately after Zukovsky tells Bond that Ourumov is going to an arms fair in Dubai, Xenia shoots Zukovsky dead (which most definitely did not happen in the movie, and would irritate me a lot more if cinematic Zukovsky didn't die in his next movie appearance anyway), and tosses the gun at Bond's feet while shouting to Zukovsky's bodyguards that Bond did it as she escapes. Bond then has to shoot his way out of the club (and this level, Nightclub, is the only one entirely new to the Wii version).

• Rather than the frigate and helicopter that Xenia and Ourumov steal being in Monte Carlo as in the film and N64 game, it is now part of a larger arms fair in Dubai. Bond meets a southern-accented American contact named Sky Briggs there who tells him that the helicopter is safe as he has dozens of armed guards just before Xenia shows up and shoots him dead and it turns out that all Briggs' guards were actually undercover Janus operatives, and everyone at the arms fair is either shot or runs. Bond shoots his way through the building and onto the carrier, where the hostage level from the N64 game ensues. At the end he slaps his phone onto the helicopter as a tracking bug just as Ourumov and Xenia fly it off and then attempt to shoot Bond with missiles. Bond dives into the ocean and swims to safety.

• The outdoor Severnaya level involves Bond making his way up a snowy mountain rather than across a snowy plain like in the N64 game.

• As soon as Bond sees the Severnaya space weapons facility the GoldenEye weapon is set off, downing nearby helicopters and MiGs and causing all electronics to short circuit or explode, and Janus troops arrive and engage in a firefight with the Russian soldiers, as opposed to the film where the GoldenEye was not set off until after Xenia and Ourumov had already left. Bond continues to make his way towards the bunker but both Janus troops and Russian soldiers will lose interest in their battle and shoot Bond if they see him. Life be tough for an MI6 agent.

• The bunker level is an interesting four-way fusion of the same sequence from the film (which Bond was not present for), both bunker levels from the N64 game, and new elements. Firstly, like the film, it involves Janus operatives killing all the workers, although lots of operatives as opposed to just Xenia and Ourumov (although, unlike the N64 game, those two are there too). Like the first bunker level in the N64 game, Bond is not captured and brought in but sneaks in on his lonesome, while like the second level Bond has to make contact with Natalya and escape with her. Unlike either N64 level Bond is not killing Russian troops but Janus operatives, and the architecture has been changed from the flat concrete bunker of the original to a tall, elaborate spiral of walkways leading down to a basement in the center of the floor. At the end of the level Bond and Natalya are captured by Russian soldiers and brought to the archives in St. Petersburg, having been successfully framed by Ourumov.

• The character of Boris Grishenko is removed.

• As mentioned above, the order of events has been shifted: Bond is now captured by Russian troops at Severnaya rather than the statue park, and the game levels go straight from Bunker to Archives. The statue park level is intact, but it, along with the revelation of Alec Trevelyan as Janus, is shifted to after the train encounter and Ourumov's death. The game now goes from statue park to the jungle outside Janus headquarters.

• Bond's pursuit of Ourumov's jeep via tank now takes place during daytime like in the film, but instead of being through narrow St. Petersburg streets like in the film and N64 game it is now mostly through construction sites and along highways overlooking the city. It also involves shooting enemy helicopters from the sky.

• The train encounter is pretty different. Alec Trevelyan has not yet rejoined the plot, so it's just Bond, Natalya, Xenia, and Ourumov, and in a pretty big departure, Xenia personally kills Ourumov, revealing that he was a pawn of Janus all along, takes the GoldenEye controls, and leaves as she chucks a grenade into the car (rather than it being wired with explosives). Bond shoots the men holding Natalya at gunpoint, pushes her down away from the grenade, and after it explodes and the car lights on fire Bond simply shoots a panel from the floor rather than using a watch laser. He and Natalya escape in the same manner, but Natalya hacking into and locating Janus headquarters via computer is gone.

• Natalya tells Bond that she heard them say something about the statue park while being held captive, so she accompanies Bond to the park and is left in the car with a gun. However, she is again captured by Janus troops during the level, so unlike the film and N64 game she doesn't accompany Bond through the jungle or Janus base, not appearing again until Trevelyan's control room when Bond is captured too.

• Since Natalya no longer hacks into Janus HQ from the train, Bond scans a Janus computer in statue park and sends the data to MI6 to uncover their location.

• Alec Trevelyan still explains his motivation when Bond meets him in statue park, but it's simplified from his original Lienz Cossack backstory and desire for revenge on England to "mwahaha, I'm evil and want money," which is a shame, but the Leinz Cossack thing was already a huge chronological stretch in 1995 so I understand why they did it. He is no longer scarred from the explosion in the Arkhangelsk facility as in the film and N64 game, but still equally irritated since in setting off the bombs Bond destroyed the EMP-hardened helicopter he and Ourumov needed and forced them to steal a second one.

• MI6 analyzes the code Bond extracted from the computer in statue park and discovers that Janus operates via a Nigerian shell corporation called Pan-African Power, so the jungle, Janus base, and cradle sequences on Wii are shifted to Nigeria as opposed to their Cuban settings in the film and N64 game (although there's no explanation in any of them why MI6 only sent one agent after Janus when they were about to destroy London with a space weapon rather than, you know, the British Army).

• Bond no longer shoots down the helicopter Xenia is tethered to with a machine gun, but instead a Janus missile turret, possibly the same one that shot his own plane from the sky.

• Janus headquarters is much bigger. In the film it was a lone bunker hidden beneath an artificial lake until the cradle was risen, but the Wii level is a vast facility that expands for what looks like miles, all above ground. Which raises the questions of why the British government doesn't just bomb it and why, freed from his revenge motivation, Trevelyan isn't just relaxing on a beach if he already has the billions of dollars it would take to build such a base and staff it with hundreds of full-time employees, but whatever.

• The GoldenEye control center where Trevelyan holds Bond and Natalya at gunpoint is now up in the cradle rather than in the ground base.

• Unlike the film and N64 game, where Natalya's reprogramming pretty much eliminates the GoldenEye threat (except for a final jamming up of the gears by Bond in the guts of the cradle), in the Wii game the reprogramming isn't complete until Bond types a code into a console at the apex of the cradle, adding a little extra tension to things.

• There's some kind of giant mirror on top of the cradle refracting sunlight into laser beams that try to blast Bond as he makes his way across the walkways, melting parts of the cradle and forcing Bond to climb up broken lengths of the walkways as they dangle down over the miles-long drop. Pretty cool in a game but I'm glad nothing like that was in the movie; it would have looked pretty damn silly. See Die Another Day for evidence.

• The platform that Bond and Trevelyan have their very last encounter on isn't quite as tiny as the one in the film and N64 game, which was barely six feet across. This one seems to be more like twenty to thirty feet.

• Unlike the film and N64 game where Bond and Natalya start making out as soon as the helicopter drops them off in the jungle, in the Wii game M calls Bond, starts rattling on about him needing to get back to London and debrief, Natalya takes the phone and tosses it away, Bond says "thank you," then they make out.


Film Elements Not Found on N64 or Wii

• The N64 and Wii games are both entirely from Bond's perspective (except for a lone scene in the Wii game that shows Ourumov and Xenia in the Severnaya bunker), so all scenes from the points of view of Natalya, Xenia, Ourumov, Trevelyan, and so on are absent. I won't bother going through them one by one.

• The automobile sequence where Bond seduces an MI6 analyst sent to evaluate him and has an impromptu race with Xenia Onatopp is absent from both.

• As is the casino scene at Monte Carlo and Bond's baccarat and flirting with Xenia there.

• All scenes with Bond in London at MI6 headquarters are gone — witnessing the GoldenEye attack on Severnaya via satellite, flirting with Moneypenny, in M's office, visiting Q. In fact, although Judi Dench gets to do plenty of voice acting in GoldenEye Wii via radio briefs, M is never actually seen in either game.

• CIA agent Jack Wade is referred to in one or two lines of dialogue in the N64 game, but is not seen in either. Sky Briggs from the Wii game may be an homage, but let's hope not too close of one since he gets shot by Xenia.

• Bond being attacked by Xenia in the steam room, pointing his gun at her, and demanding she take him to Janus is nowhere to be found. In fact, unlike most of the rest of these, the plots of both games specifically preclude such an event from having happened.

• This seems like it would have worked in game form to me, but Bond using the repelling cord built into his belt buckle to swing through the window in the St. Petersburg archives is only in the film.

• Sadly, the running joke about Bond destroying every vehicle he gets into is film-only.

• Bond's beachside conversation with Natalya ("How can you act like this? How can you be so cold?") is excised, as is, not surprisingly, Bond and Natalya in bed together, because obviously any sex in a game, no matter how PG-13, is an automatic M-rating. Now these events could have happened offscreen in the N64 game, but in the Wii game Natalya is still captured by Janus at the time.

• The end credits roll on N64 and Wii with Bond and Natalya making out in the jungle, while in the movie they're making out until Jack Wade and the Marines show up, comedically embarrassing them, they fly off in a helicopter together, then the end credits roll.