Elliot Carver

"There's no news... like bad news."

- Elliot Carver

Elliot Carver is the main antagonist in the 1997 James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

He is based off of mass media moguls Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch. In fact, Maxwell perished on his yacht, ironically the headline for Carver’s demise.

He is portrayed by Jonathan Pryce who also portrayed Mr. Dark, Seamus O'Rourke, General Vavarin Delatombe, and the High Sparrow.

Past
Elliot Carver was born in Hong Kong, officially an orphan. He is the illegitimate son of a German woman who died in childbirth and Lord Roverman, a press tycoon. A Chinese family took the boy for a one-time fee of 50 pounds. 30 years later, Carver confronted and blackmailed Roverman into suicide and took over his media empire.

Elliot Carver went to college in Hong Kong and received a degree in the communication arts. He was hired as a meteorologist at a Hong Kong Television Station; a few years later, he became the anchorman of the station. He often sexually harassed his female coworkers, to the point that one of them fled Hong Kong to get away from him.

At some point he met and married Paris McKenna.

In the present
In the present, Carver is a billionaire international media mogul of the German-based mass media company, the Carver Media Group. He frequently uses his influence to gain an advantage for his firm or wreak havoc on opponents. Moreover, CMG doesn't merely report the news – it creates it; CMGN is the first to report on scandals and disasters because it causes them to happen. A scene of Carver's daily teleconference with the various heads of his divisions demonstrates this: News of the Day – "floods in Pakistan, riots in Paris and a plane crash in California"; Software – all current releases of CMG's software are loaded with bugs that will force consumers to upgrade for years, etc. To boost his viewership, he instructs his head of television to call the President of the United States and threaten to release scandalous photos of him with a cheerleader in a Chicago hotel room if he doesn't sign a bill lowering cable rates - and then to release the photos anyway when he complies.

During the CMG Satellite Network Inaugural Party, Carver denies a rumor to his guests that after British beef baron Sir Angus Black lost £10,000 in a game of poker to him and refused to pay up, he exacted revenge by releasing stories on Mad Cow Disease. He further claimed there was even less truth to the rumor the French paid him 100 million francs to keep the stories running for another year.

In the film
In the film, he attempts to start a war between the British and Chinese, hoping to wipe out the existing Chinese leadership in Beijing so his cohort could take over. Beyond the massive publicity such a war would produce, a friendlier political atmosphere would allow the Carver Media Group Network to secure exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century, something that the existing Chinese politicians have refused.

Elliot Carver first appears in the movie at the headquarters of his media empire in Hamburg, Germany, overseeing the sinking of the British warship HMS Devonshire in the South China Sea at the hands of his torpedo-like "SEA-VAC" drill. He then has his men steal a cruise missile from the sunken ship, which they have made impossible to be tracked by the British Government. He is later seen at the launch party for his new satellite network, where he gets unusually aggressive with Paris. He develops an instant suspicion of James Bond when the secret agent questions him regarding the sunken ship. He has his henchmen capture and attempt to interrogate Bond, but he escapes and cuts off power to Carver's live international broadcast.

When learning it was Bond who caused him and his network international embarrassment, Carver tells Paris to get information from him as to why he was at the party and what he knows. Carver believed that Bond is merely a former acquaintance; when he discovers that they are ex-lovers and that his wife was less than honest with him about her past relationship with 007, he has Paris killed by his henchman, assassin Dr. Kaufman, who is skilled in the art of chakra torture. This establishes for Bond a personal motivation to complete his mission, although many Bond movies include the "sacrificial lamb" to spur the British secret agent along the way.

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 Carver is going to fire the missile at Beijing to wipe out the existing Chinese government and replace them with a government who will grant him his desired broadcasting rights.

Carver is ultimately killed by Bond at the film's climax. After Bond and Wai Lin have taken out most of his army, Carver holds Bond at gunpoint and delivers a rant about his master plan, which Bond uses to his advantage by secretly activating Carver's SEA-VAC drill. Carver is then disarmed by Bond, who then pushes him into the path of the gigantic drill, informing Carver that he forgot that a crucial rule of the media is to give the people what they want. Carver screams as the drill steadily approaches, and Bond stands by as the drill tears Carver to shreds. Bond would later foil Carver's plan by implanting detonators on the missile to ensure that it'll be set off before it launches itself. Bond and Wai Lin then take cover by going underwater as the missile explodes, killing a pinned Stamper and destroying the stealth ship in the process.

With Carver's plan foiled, M releases a news story stating that Carver has drowned while on board his luxury yacht in the South China Sea, while the authorities believed he committed suicide.

Quote
"Gentlemen and ladies, hold the presses. This just in: by curious quirk of fate, we have the perfect story with which to launch our satellite news network tonight. It seems a small crisis is brewing in the South China Seas. I want full newspaper coverage, I want magazine stories, I want books, I want films, I want TV, I want radio, I want us on the air 24 hours a day! This is OUR moment! And a billion people around this planet will watch it, hear it, and read about it from the Carver Media Group. There's no news..... like bad news."

- Carver informing his department heads of the sinking of the Devonshire

"Caesar had his legions, Napoleon had his armies, I have my divisions: TV, news, magazines. And by midnight tonight, I'll have reached out to and influenced more people than anybody in the history of this planet, save God himself. And the best He ever managed was the Sermon on the Mount."

- Elliot Carver to James Bond

"Delicious. Make sure you clear all the mines and bring the girl to me. (Gupta: Are you sure you want her here?) It's my business, Mr. Gupta. I like an audience."

- Carver to Gupta after capturing Wai Lin

"Oh, how romantic. Do you realize how absurd your position is? (Bond: No more absurd than starting a war for ratings!) Great men have always manipulated the media to save the world. Look at William Randolph Hearst, who told his photographers, "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the war." I've just taken it one step further."

- Carver justifying his plot to Bond

"GET THOSE FIRES OUT!!! Get down and protect the missile!! Oh, and Mr. Stamper, would you please KILL THOSE BASTARDS?!!"

- Carver snapping out after Bond and Lin breached the hull of his stealth ship, leaving it vulnerable to radar

"The missile's fully programmed, it can't be stopped. In a matter of minutes, my plan will succeed. And thanks largely to your efforts, the British Navy will destroy the evidence, and I'll be out of here in a Carver News helicopter covering the event. It's going to be a fantastic show! (Bond: I have some breaking news for you, Elliot. You forgot the first rule of mass media, Elliot....... GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!!!) No! NOO!!!! AAAAAAH!!!!!"

- Carver's last words before his death