Pierce Brosnan's Bond tenure got something of a second wind after the disappointing Tomorrow Never Dies with this pleasingly action-packed entry. After a British oil tycoon is explosively assassinated in the heart of MI6 headquarters, Bond is sent to Azerbaijan to protect the tycoon's daughter and heir, Elektra (Sophie Marceau), as she completes her father's transcontinental pipeline. Investigating a tangled web of intrigue that leads him to a decommissioned Russian nuclear silo in Kazakhstan, Bond discovers that Elektra is in league with her father's killer — and her own one-time captor — Renard (Robert Carlyle), a freelance terrorist who has been rendered immune to pain by an MI6 bullet lodged in his cortex. Partnering with unlikely nuclear scientist Christmas Jones (a short-shorts-clad Denise Richards), Bond races to prevent Elektra and Renard from staging a nuclear incident in the Caspian Sea. Opening with a nifty speedboat chase down the Thames, World keeps the action coming thick and fast, though it does take time out to bid farewell to beloved old duffer Q (Desmond Llewelyn), who passes his gadgeting duties on to his "young" successor, an amusingly befuddled John Cleese.