Die Another Day - Plot

Plot

James Bond infiltrates a North Korean military base, where Colonel Tan-Sun Moon is illegally trading African conflict diamonds for weaponry. After Moon's assistant Zao discovers Bond is a British agent, the colonel escapes in a hovercraft. Bond distracts the soldiers with an explosion, in which Zao's face is disfigured by diamond fragments. Bond pursues Moon in a second hovercraft. During the chase, Moon's hovercraft plunges down a waterfall, apparently killing him. Bond is captured by North Korean soldiers and imprisoned by the Colonel's father, General Moon.

After 14 months of captivity and torture, Bond is traded for Zao in a prisoner exchange. He is sedated and taken to meet M, who informs him that his status as a 00 Agent is suspended due to her belief that he may have leaked information under duress. Still bitter over Zao's release, Bond decides to complete his mission by evading MI6's security and travelling to Hong Kong, where he learns from his contact in the Chinese government that Zao is in Cuba.

After arriving in Havana, Bond meets NSA agent Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson. Bond follows Zao and Jinx to a gene therapy clinic, where patients can have their appearances altered through DNA restructuring. Bond locates Zao inside the clinic and a fight ensues. Zao flees in a helicopter, but he leaves behind a pendant. Bond opens it and finds a cache of diamonds, identified as conflict diamonds, but bearing the crest of the company of British billionaire Gustav Graves.

Bond encounters Graves, along with his assistant Miranda Frost, also an undercover MI6 agent, at Blades Club. After a fencing exercise, Bond is invited by Graves to Iceland for a scientific demonstration. Shortly afterwards, M restores Bond's Double-0 status and offers assistance in the investigation.

In Iceland, Graves unveils a new orbital mirror satellite, "Icarus", which is able to focus solar energy on a small area and provide year-round sunshine for crop development. At midnight, Jinx infiltrates Graves' command centre in the palace, but is captured by Zao. Bond rescues her, and after seeing Zao talking with Graves, realises that Colonel Moon is still alive. Moon has used the gene therapy technology to change his appearance, assuming the identity of Gustav Graves.

Bond confronts Graves, but Frost arrives to reveal herself as the traitor and the one who exposed Bond in North Korea, forcing 007 to escape from Graves' facility. Bond then returns in his Aston Martin Vanquish to rescue Jinx. Zao pursues them in his Jaguar XKR, both cars driving inside the rapidly-melting ice palace. Bond kills Zao by luring him under a collapsing ice chandelier, and then rescues Jinx from drowning.

Bond and Jinx pursue Graves and Frost to the Korean peninsula and stow away on Graves' cargo plane. Graves reveals his true identity to his father, and the purpose of the Icarus satellite: to cut a path through the Korean Demilitarized Zone with concentrated sunlight, allowing North Korean troops to invade South Korea and reunite the countries by force. Horrified, General Moon tries to stop the plan, but he is murdered by his own son.

007 attempts to shoot Graves but he is prevented by one of the soldiers on board. In their struggle, a gunshot pierces the fuselage, causing the plane to descend rapidly. Bond engages Graves in a fist fight, and Jinx attempts to regain control of the plane. Frost attacks Jinx, forcing her to defend herself in a sword duel. After the plane passes through the Icarus beam and is further damaged, Jinx kills Frost. Graves attempts to escape by parachute, but Bond opens the parachute, causing the slipstream to pull Graves out of the plane and into its engine, killing him and disabling the Icarus beam. Bond and Jinx escape the disintegrating plane by using a helicopter in the cargo hold. They carry away Graves' stash of diamonds.