Miranda Frost was a fictional intelligence operative working for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6); however, her true allegiance lies with the infamous diamond magnate Gustav Graves. A secondary antagonist and Bond girl portrayed by British actress Rosamund Pike, the character first appeared in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day. It was also featured in the film’s accompanying novelization, penned by Raymond Benson.

Biography

Background

Miranda is a Harvard-educated, gold medal-winning Olympic fencer (trained by Verity) posing as Graves’ publicist and fencing partner. She won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics by default after Graves organized the real gold medalist’s death from a steroid overdose. This earned Graves Miranda’s allegiance.

While James Bond is sent to kill North Korean Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, Miranda secretly sends Bond’s true identity to Moon’s right-hand man, Zao. This leads to Bond’s imprisonment at a North Korean torture camp, where he is brutally interrogated for 14 months before being exchanged for a captive Zao.

Working as a Double Agent

M sends Miranda to work alongside Bond but disapproves of Bond’s methods. When caught by Mr. Kil and his minions, Miranda helps Bond keep incognito by kissing him. They later spend the night together in Miranda’s suite to keep up the pretense that they are lovers.

When Bond awakens and goes after Graves, Miranda pleads for him not to go, but he insists. Later, when Bond faces Graves at gunpoint, Frost also arrives, aiming her gun at Graves. However, Graves asks Bond whether he has already found out who betrayed him in North Korea, prompting Miranda to aim her gun at Bond, revealing that she was the one who betrayed Bond. 007 attempts to kill her but realizes that his weapon is empty. While in bed together, Miranda had taken the opportunity to empty his Walther P99.

Miranda and Bond fall into the jungle environment of Graves’ geodesic dome (a structure alongside Graves’ Ice Palace) after attempting to murder Bond with Graves’ satellite weapon, Icarus. With Miranda’s pistol trained on him and escape looking unlikely, Bond uses the sonic agitator ring – provided by Q – to shatter the glass platform on which they were both standing. The villains leave aboard an Antonov An-124 aircraft.

Death

Eventually, Bond and his American NSA counterpart, Jinx Johnson, catch up with Graves and Miranda in North Korea. Miranda and Jinx have a climactic sword fight aboard the descending plane. Boarding Grave’s Antonov, the pair split up; but Miranda catches Jinx at the aircraft’s controls.

Miranda narrowly slices Jinx across the stomach, mocking Jinx by informing her that she can read her foe’s every move, but Jinx impales a dagger stuck on a copy of “The Art of War” into Miranda’s chest. As Miranda looked down in shock, Jinx retorted, “read this, bitch”, punctuating it with a kick that forced the knife in more profound, and Miranda fell backward; stone dead.

Bond was later shown to have mourned Miranda, clearly showing that he did love her despite her treachery.