ELLIOT CARVER

'Elliott Carver' is a fictional character and the main villain from the James Bond film ''Tomorrow Never Dies''. In the film he is portrayed by Jonathan Pryce.

Contents

Biography

Behind the scenes

Henchmen

Biography

Elliot Carver was born in Hong Kong. Officially an orphan, he was the illegitimate son of a German woman who died in childbirth and Lord Roverman, the Hong Kong and London press tycoon. A Chinese family took the boy for a one-time fee of fifty pounds. Thirty years later, Carver confronted and blackmailed Roverman into suicide and took over his media empire. This expanded background was found in the official novelization of ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', and it is also shown in a deleted extended scene in M's car, from the Tomorrow Never Dies special edition DVD.[1]
Carver is an international media baron who frequently uses his influence to gain an advantage for his firm or wreak havoc on opponents. He threatened to release scandalous photos of the President with the Chicago cheerleader if the bill lowering cable rates wasn't signed, then planned to release it anyway. Another time, after a British beef baron lost a bet to Carver and refused to pay up (on the grounds that the bet was rigged), Carver got revenge by releasing stories on "Mad Cow Disease".
More nerfariously, he planned to start a war between the British and China, hoping to wipe out the current Chinese leadership in Beijing so his cohort could take over. Beyond the massive publicity such a war would produce, a friendlier political atmosphere would lead his television network, the 'Carver Media Group Network', to secure exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century, something that the exisiting Chinese politicians have denied.
Elliott Carver is seen when he asks his counterparts what is going on in the headlines. At the
launch party, he gets unusually aggressive with his wife, Paris Carver and has a foul attitude towards Bond just because Paris and James had a relationship back in school. Elliott
told Paris that he loved her before they got married. When Stamper tells Carver that Mrs.
Carver and James slept together. Elliott has Paris make an appointment with Dr. Kaufman, a
nefarious henchmen of Carver's and kills her with the art of chakra. Setting a fuse between
Carver and Bond. But at the end of the movie, Bond's love for Paris is replaced with Wai Lin
Carver runs his operations on a stealth boat that can move undetected by radar. Bond and Chinese People's External Security Force agent Wai Lin infiltrate his boat and learn he's going to fire a missile at China so as to start a war.
Bond kills Carver forcing him in the path of an oncoming sea drill after gloating about his ultimate victory. The drill, known by some as "SEA-VAC" was previously used in the film as a torpedo-like drill that sank ''HMS Devonshire''.
Last words: "It is going to be a fantastic show." (''After the drill comes for him'') "No! No! NO! Aaah!"

Behind the scenes

Carver is based largely on real-life media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who is conservative and supports mainland China's stance against freedom of speech.
He is also based, in part, on deceased British media magnate Robert Maxwell, who died in mysterious circumstances on his luxury yacht and who is believed to have committed suicide (though some believe he may have been assassinated). In the movie, M's cover story for Carver's death is strikingly similar.
Carver, in announcing his hypocritical 'Declaration of Principles' on the abortive inaugural broadcast of his news network, is also reminiscent of fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, who in turn was based on real tycoon William Randolph Hearst, whose famous quote "You provide the pictures, and I'll provide the war" Carver paraphrases to Bond on his stealth ship.
There is also a jab at Microsoft founder Bill Gates made early in the film, when Carver inquires about his new computer software:

'Carver:' "Mr Jones. Are we ready to release our new software?"

'Jones:' "Yes sir. As requested, it's full of bugs, which means people will be forced to upgrade for years."

'Carver:' "Outstanding."
When Carver threatens to blackmail the President with a photo showing him with a Chicago cheerleader, this is a reference to Bill Clinton who was dogged with charges of extra-marital affairs throughout his term of office.

Henchmen

★ See List of James Bond henchmen in Tomorrow Never Dies