The Pierce Brosnan Action Hidden Gem Where A Clown Explodes
You may know Pierce Brosnan best as the dashing and suave James Bond, but three years before he starred as 007 in GoldenEye, he starred in the action flick Live Wire which has an exploding clown in it. Of course, a clown isn’t the only random explosion in the film, as the plot follows a series of inexplicable spontaneous human combustions. To decide whether or not this film is for you, give a listen to this GenreVision podcast episode to learn more about it, or just check out the clown scene for yourself.
If a scene of a clown exploding doesn’t sell you on Pierce Brosnan’s Live Wire, then I don’t know what will. The film was a direct-to-TV release, as you might be able to tell, but it’s definitely a fun watch. Along with Brosnan, the film starred Ron Silver, Ben Cross, and Lisa Eilbacher. Christian Duguay directed with a screenplay written by Bart Baker.
Interestingly enough, the film was originally going to be the feature directorial debut of John Nicollela, who was best known for his directing work on the Miami Vice TV series. It seems like his instincts might have led him in a different direction. Fortunately, the film wouldn’t affect Pierce Brosnan’s career either, as he would quickly go from stopping spontaneous combustions in Live Wire to saving the world as Bond for a four-movie run.
A clown isn’t the only random explosion in the film, as the plot follows a series of inexplicable spontaneous human combustions.
From Live Wire To James Bond
If you watched Pierce Brosnan in Live Wire in 1992, you probably wouldn’t have pictured him as the next Bond, but that’s exactly what happened. Brosnan was a great Bond too, playing the role in some of the best movies in the franchise, such as GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day.
Although they were two very different roles, the exploding clown scene is right up there with Bond’s tsunami surfing scene in Die Another Day, so Brosnan didn’t quite escape goofy scenes after reaching superstardom.
While Pierce Brosnan will likely never have to do a film like Live Wire again (though it would be cool if he did), he hasn’t had the best luck with his films lately. His 2022 film The King’s Daughter got horrible reviews from critics and landed with a resounding thud at the box office. He then starred in Black Adam, which you think would have been a blockbuster hit, but that film ended up being disappointing too.
The film was originally going to be the feature directorial debut of John Nicollela, who was best known for his directing work on the Miami Vice TV series.
While Pierce Brosnan was perfect for the role of Dr. Fate in Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson and the story set up in the film was subsequently dropped from continuing into James Gunn’s new DCU timeline. Since Gunn is starting from scratch in a lot of ways, it seems unlikely that Brosnan would get to play Dr. Fate again if Gunn brings the character into the DCU. While we may not be getting any superhero action from Brosnan anytime soon, at least we can always revisit the exploding clown scene in Live Wire, which is available for rent on purchase on several streaming platforms.
