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Reference for the title of the James Bond movies was either taken from the novels by Ian Fleming or the particular story element. For eg. GoldenEye, Octopussy etc.

GoldenEye refers to the satellite, Casino Royale refers to the poker game played in the movie, and Spectre refers to the criminal organization run by Blofeld. There are more examples.

However, I do not see any reference for movies, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.

Where were the titles of these movies taken from?

For the readers

James Bond uses exactly these terms in his dialogue while talking to villain of the movies.

Die Another Day

James Bond to Gustav Graves, "so you live to die another day."

The World is Not Enough

Electra: I could've given you the world.

James: The world is not enough.

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  • Keep in mind, there are only so many Fleming written novels. In order to keep Bond going, they had to create new stories.
    – user25738
    Jun 24, 2016 at 20:05
  • yes i know, but I want to know the title reference.
    – A J
    Jun 24, 2016 at 20:06
  • And I'm saying there probably isn't one.
    – user25738
    Jun 24, 2016 at 20:10

1 Answer 1

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Tomorrow never dies

The original title of the film was "Tomorrow Never Lies", which makes sense when you consider media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) was creating the next day's headlines in advance, then causing those events to happen. But a typo on an early script draft was adopted by the producers, and "Tomorrow Never Dies" was used instead. Another rumour circulated that the film was originally going to be called "Tomorrow Never Comes". There are apparently video tapes that were in distribution when the film was released on video that do have the caption "Tomorrow Never Comes" at the very beginning of the tape, not the beginning of the movie.

According to german wikipedia, this was inspired by the Beatles-Song Tomorrow Never Knows

The World Is Not Enough

The only direct Fleming influence on the movie is its title, and even this can be taken as a continuity reference to the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In the book of that name, "the world is not enough" is given as the motto of one Sir Thomas Bond, although there is no evidence that this is one of Bond's descendents. The literary Bond notes says somewhat sarcastically that he will adopt the motto, although in the movie version Bond seems to accept it without question. However, the movie does include M being kidnapped, an element which formed the basis for the first non-Fleming novel, "Colonel Sun" by Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham), although in a different context.

According to german wikipedia, Bond learns that the familly-motto is „Orbis non sufficit“, latin for „The World Is Not Enough“. In the movie Elektra tells bond that she could have offered him the whole world, but bond replies with his family-motto

Die Another Day

According to german wikipedia, the phrase die another day is taken from the poem The Day of Battle from A. E. Housemans collection A Shropshire Lad. („But since the man that runs away lives to die another day“).

Sources:

German wikipedia 1 2 3 ( I wonder why this is stated for all 3 movies there, but not in the english wiki)
MI6-HQ
this page

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