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It was simply a clever little quip. Something Bond does frequently. Also, Brosnan's version of Bond never smoked. Aside from enjoying a Cuban cigar in Die Another Day.

When the British frigate Devonshire is fired upon and sunk in the South China Sea by what is presumed to be the Chinese Air Force, it is later discovered that a mysterious signal from a satellite belonging to media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), head of the Carver Media Group Network (CMGN) and owner of the newspaper Tomorrow, which seems to report news events even before they happen, may have interfered with the Devonshire's communications and sent it off course, M (Judi Dench) sends 007 agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to Germany to find out whether Carver or someone in his organization sent the Devonshire off course and why. Bond is further advised to use his previous relationship with Carver's wife Paris (Teri Hatcher) as a way of infiltrating Carver's organization. Meanwhile, the Chinese have sent in their own agent, Colonel Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) to investigate.

Other than the character of James Bond, neither the story line nor the title is based on anything written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. The title was inspired by the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows". The screenplay was written by American screenwriter Bruce Feirstein. The screenplay was subsequently novelized by American author Raymond Benson. Tomorrow Never Dies is the 18th Bond film in the EON series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

In the pre-title teaser, Bond has infiltrated a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border (the precise location isn't revealed, from which he manages to evacuate several Soviet SB5 nuclear torpedoes. He is next seen in Oxford, England brushing up on Danish and is subsequently sent to Hamburg, Germany to investigate Elliot Carver. There, he connects with Carver's wife Paris. He meets Wai Lin, a Chinese state reporter who is actually a spy. He learns that Carver instigated the attack on the Devonshire and retrieves the U.S. GPS encoder that may have been used to drive the boat off-course. The next day, Bond is sent to a U.S. airbase in the South China Sea where he is reunited with CIA liaison Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker), hands over the GPS encoder, and parachutes into the water at the last known spot of the Devonshire, which actually ends up to be in Vietnamese territorial waters. While investigating the sunken Devonshire, Bond again runs into Wai Lin. They are captured by Carver and taken to his CMGN complex in Saigon. After escaping from Carver, Bond and Wai Lin decide to check out Ha Long Bay as the most likely position of Carver's stealth ship.

"Tomorrow Never Dies" is performed by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow.

Screenwriter Bruce Feirstein explains in an article in Vanity Fair: So, how did the title for Tomorrow Never Dies come about?...The truth is that my original title was Tomorrow Never Lies...When I was writing the script, I simply couldn't come up with a title. But driving to lunch one day, I heard the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows on the radio and thought, Hmmm. Anyway, as we went into production, the producers and the director (Roger Spottiswoode) couldn't decide between Lies and Dies. After much debate, they finally picked Tomorrow Never Lies. They called in an assistant, dictated a fax, and she sent it off to MGM with a single, one-letter typo: Dies instead of Lies. The rest is celluloid history.

Gerard Butler appears as the "leading Seaman" about 4-5 minutes after the opening credits, right after the Sea-Vac drill goes through the hull of the H.M.S. Devonshire flooding the lower deck. His only line is "Sir, we're now down 14 degrees by the stern," but his Scottish accent is quite discernible. After that, Commander Day (Christopher Bowen) gives the order to abandon ship.

This is a holdover from an earlier script when the car chase took place in Carver's Hong Kong headquarters, hence the security.

Including Tomorrow Never Dies, Brosnan made four movies in which he played James Bond: GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Le monde ne suffit pas (1999), and Meurs un autre jour (2002).

Due to loud impact sounds, the usage of shurikens and because of a scene showing Bond kicking a guy's head the UK version classified 12 was cut. The UK DVDs classified 15 are labeled as "uncut" but the edits made during post production to satisfy the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) remain.