8 years ago, in the leadup to the then new James Bond film, Skyfall, I watched and reviewed every Bond film (official and unofficial), in chronological order of release.
With the latest Bond film, No Time to Die, on its way (optimistically next April) and it being the last film with Daniel Craig as Bond, I figured I would try watching all the films again to see how my opinion has changed in the past near-decade.
There’s a slight tweak though. To make things a bit different, I will not be watching the films in chronological film release order but instead be watching it in order of release of the original Ian Fleming books that lends its title to each film. (The order of the films plus a deeply geeky explanation of where I have placed the later films that do not have Fleming titles can be found at the end of this post).
Other minor tweaks are that, since I am no longer an unemployed 22 year old who could watch 4-5 films a week, I will aim for 1 film per week and skip the unofficial films. If No Time to Die does end up coming out in April next year (and that’s a very big if) then I should finish all the films just before its release, but we’ll see.
So without further ado, the first film in this Bondathon is Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first Bond film from 2006. It’s been my favorite Bond film for a while but I also haven’t seen it in a few years so it’s a good one to start out with...
It still holds up really well and went by much quicker than I thought, despite it being one of the longer films. The first third of the film establishes that we are watching a reckless Bond at the beginning of his career who needs to keep his ego in check, and also sets up why the villain needs to set up a poker game to win back money he lost. It’s a bit of a stretch but necessary for a faithful but modern adaptation of the novel. The poker scenes can obviously be confusing if you don’t know the rules but the film does its best to keep them relatively short, break it up with non poker scenes, and show the tension in the poker scenes so that you at least have a rough idea of who’s winning or losing.
Bond’s relationship with Vesper is my favorite part of this film, and that’s saying something considering some very impressive action scenes (parkour chase in Madagascar, Bond stopping a terrorist attack at an airport, the finale in the sinking house in Venice). Back in the late 90s/early 2000s the trend for Bond films was to star actresses that have box office pull (especially in America) but questionable talent like Teri Hatcher, Denise Richards or Halle Berry. In contrast, Eva Green, while talented and respected, was a relative unknown back in 2006, but her portrayal of Vesper put her on the map and made her the household name today. Her scenes with Craig’s Bond are always quick witted and it’s easy to see why Bond would fall in love with her. The dialogue does get a bit cheesy towards the end but overall she’s one of the most memorable characters in all of Bond.
I absolutely love the music in this film, even though the Bond theme isn’t that present. As this is Bond’s first mission and reboots/origin stories were all the rage in the mid/late 2000s (see Batman Begins, Star Trek, and X Men First Class a bit later on), we see Bond at the start of his career and picking up nuggets of what makes him Bond throughout the film, winning poker, getting his Aston Martin DB5, disobeying M to go with his instincts, until the very end of the film where we finally hear him introduce himself in his iconic way, and that’s when we hear a bombastic rendition of the film in full.
It’s funny to see what was considered advanced technology in 2006, just a year or so before the smartphone era. Bond has a Sony Ericsson phone with a very primitive version of a GPS, and snoops through a hotel’s security footage after going through a number of blu-ray discs. That’s always a danger with putting technology in films in this day and age when everything becomes obsolete almost immediately, but in this movie it’s few and far in between and is more of a gentle reminder of how long it’s been since Daniel Craig’s first Bond film rather than any distraction.
Ironically, despite this being “Bond begins” and missing elements like the Bond theme, Q, Moneypenny, it ends up being the only Daniel Craig film where Bond gets sent by M to go on a regular mission. It’s all “Bond goes rogue” or “This time it’s personal” after this as far as the Craig films go.
Overall, Casino Royale still holds up as perhaps my favorite Bond film (we’ll see how it fares after I’ve viewed all the other). It’s gritty, it’s tense, it’s emotional. It’s Bond without following all the Bond tropes.
***Deep geek zone: Order of films I'll be watching and explanation of where I have placed the non-Fleming titles
Basically I have scattered the 6 movies whose titles are not from the Fleming books throughout the list, mainly putting them after a Fleming title whose book/film with a similar theme or element, with the one exception of Skyfall which I just placed in the middle of 4 Connery films to split them up.

1. Casino Royale
2. Live And Let Die
3. License to Kill - Bond’s American ally Felix Leiter loses his leg to a shark, like in the Live and Let Die novel
4. Moonraker
5. Die Another Day - Features an nobody-turned-rich English villain with deadly rockets/satellite as their weapon, like in the Moonraker novel
6. Diamonds Are Forever
7. From Russia With Love
8. Skyfall - Just to split up all the two previous and two next Connery films. Also both From Russia with Love and Skyfall were filmed in Istanbul.
9. Dr. No
10. Goldfinger
11. Goldeneye - Literally just because the title has the word Gold in it
12. Quantum Of Solace
13. A View To A Kill
14. For Your Eyes Only
15. Thunderball
16. The Living Daylights
17. The Spy Who Loved Me
18. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
19. The World is Not Enough - Title is Bond’s family motto, which was mentioned in Majesty’s
20. You Only Live Twice
21. The Man With The Golden Gun
22. Tomorrow Never Dies - contains scenes filmed in Thailand, like The Man with the Golden Gun
23. Octopussy
24. SPECTRE - final reminder before No Time To Die

Over the last week I read Ian Flemings first James Bond novel Casino Royale for the first time and later re watched the movie. Here are some thoughts on both, including a comparison of similarities, differences and the over all enjoyment I get out of both of these pieces.
Technical aspects:
Casino Royale (novel, 1953), written by Ian Fleming [27 short chapters, around 250 pages, depending on edition]
Casino Royale (movie, 2006), directed by Martin Campbell [144 minute runtime]
Before diving into further comparisons, there are two obvious, but also significant differences between the movie and the novel. The first being the time it is set in, both are contemporary to their release date. Meaning the novel is set in the Cold War whereas the movie is set in the 21 century. Because of the resulting differences in international relations historically speaking, you could transfer it (but you don't have to) to the second difference. Flemings novel is a political espionage thriller, whereas Campbells movie re-boot is basically an action movie.
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Structure:
The over all plot of the movie is very similar, nearly identical to its source material.
James Bond, a fresh 00, is set in a high stakes Poker game against Le Chiffre, a desperate (& near bankrupt) banker working for terrorist organizations. Bonds allies are Mathis, Felix Leiter & Vesper Lynd. Bond wins the money, Vesper & him get captured, following the torture, Le Chiffre being interrupted/killed by a member of a mysterious organization. After Bond & Vesper seek a happy life, the latter is confronted with her "real" identity/past & kills herself, leaving Bond emotionally broken & eventually cold.
As said in my first paragraph, Flemings novel isn't an "action" novel. There is an early assassination/botched bomb attempt in the early chapters (similar to the airport sequence) but it's nowhere near as action heavy as the movie, which follows parkour chases, knife fights & bus/plane explosions, stairway fights & the closing crumbling house set piece.
Narratively Bond meets his allies way earlier, in the movie Vesper & Mathis are introduced around an hour in, whereas in the novel already in the first few chapters, Felix Leiter is introduced very late in the movie and only after Bond is struggling in the Poker game. The whole Dimitrious, Ellipse stuff isn't in the novel.
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Main characters:
- James Bond:
Bonds portrayal is very close to the novel. He's described as a very tough man, perfectly shown by Craigs physical appearance, his hard & masculine face & the early corporal fight scenes & chases. His attitude fits the source material. Bond is smart & charming, but he can switch of in any moment to being a ruthless killer.
- Vesper Lynd:
A big part of Vespers character in the novel is her beauty. There are long passages describing everything about her body & face. She certainly is beautiful in the movie, played by the gorgeous Eva Green. Yet in the movie she comes across as much more independent & aware. She's smart in the novel, but much more worthy in a psychological duel with Bond in the movie. In both the movie & novel she is a double agent, who got blackmailed & had to take this identity in order to save her boyfriend, but then fell in love with James.
- Le Chiffre:
Le Chiffre, in both movie & novel is a scary fucking dude. There still is something a bit charming about Mikkelsen presence though. He's described as considerably ugly in the novel, and basically as the epitome of evil. In the movie he comes across as more "human", desperation etc (make no mistake he's a vicious bastard, but he's not the devil).
- M:
The obvious difference is the gender swap in M. In the novel, Bond respects & in some way even fears M. The Bond/M relationship of Flemings books never really translated onto the bigger screen (it's tough to find someone intimidating against the charisma of Connery to be fair) so the change is an interesting touch. While he certainly respects Judi Denchs M, there is more slick and clever dialogue coming out of the conversations.
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The Poker Game:
The Poker game in the novel, as basically all of it, is set in France, whereas the movie jumps around Madagascar, the Bahamas, Venice & Montenegro, the latter being the setting of the poker game.
Also, in the novel they play Baccarat, which was very popular at that time, in the movie they play Texas Hold 'Em, which (surprise) was popular in that time. The game itself is similar structured, back and forth until Le Chiffre wins a big one and Bond is in huge desperation but comes back in the last round winning all of it (with the help of Felix Leiters money).
In both movie & novel, Le Chiffre tries to prevent/"attack" Bond during the last hand. In the movie he gets poisoned, which nearly causes him to pass out. In the novel, he is directly physically threatened by a bodyguard of the Le Chiffre with a gun under the table/chair.
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Remarkable similarities:
- Practically the entire torture scene is directly taken out of the source material. Bond gets stripped naked and tied up to a chair, then punched to the balls multiple times until the near pass out. Only difference is that in the movie Le Chiffre uses a rope, in the novel it is a carpet beater.
- Some dialogue & lines are extracted out of Flemings novel. Such as the VespeMartini order.
>Three measures of Gordons, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?
Or the iconic line.
>The bitch is dead.
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Other differences:
- The whole Mathis alleged double cross plot point only appears in the movie.
- Vespers double cross, signaled by her seeing the man with the eye patch is left to a good bye letter in the novel that Bond reads after she'd poisoned herself. In the movie, she gives the man with the eye patch the money briefcase and after the shoot out in Venice, she traps herself in the elevator and drowns in the crumbling house.
- In the books, the mysterious organization is SMERSH, a russian anti spy organization. In CR it is still unnamed, though in the later Craig films revealed to be SPECTRE.
- The book ends very depressing as her betrayal letter is the last thing. The movie ends on a higher note with Bond capturing Mr White & ending the movie in his iconic introduction lines.
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I have certainly missed a ton of differences of both, but I feel like I have done enough to highlight most of them. Here are some of my personal thoughts:
The novel:
I had a ton of fun reading it for the first time. It's certainly colder & much more serious than a lot of James Bond movies but I liked that it felt more grounded and had espionage instead of thrills. There is a lot of political subtext added by Ian Fleming that reflects on the cold war and on spy agents themselves. It also features some great insight on the Poker game as Bonds mind is on full display with mathematical & stochastically relevant information throughout every hand. I think it ends on a very depressing and sad note, setting the tone for the character to come.
The movie:
I have always considered Casino Royale to be one of my favorite movies of all time. I think it's head and shoulders above every other James Bond film and every time I watch it I discover new things I love about it. The way the movie starts, with the cold blooded double-O earning in a noir fashion, then goes over to the gorgeous credit sequence with so much ingenuity sprinkled across it, is amazing. I'm also amazed by the action the movie has. The Parkour chase has some terrific stunt work & innovation. Or the airplane sequence is packed with enormous tension and suspense. Or the closing Venice shoot out is packed with bad ass moments by Bond. A lot of my love for the movie also comes from the cast. It does contain my a.) favorite Felix Leiter (played by Jeffrey Wright), b.) favorite Bond girl (Vesper Lynd by Eva Green), c.) the best M (played by Judi Dench) and one of my favorite Bond villains (played by Mads Mikkelsen, who is as terrific as ever). Martin Campbell has rock solid directing, focussing on the great stuff of the source material and just like in GoldenEye knowing how to introduce a new Bond & a new way of Bond into the franchise. Daniel Craig is relentlessly amazing. He has the charms, he definitely has the looks, he is believable in the kills, he has a soul, he has a heart, he has emotion. Only Connery is better. The movie also looks gorgeous. Not only its vast settings of exotic locations, beautiful women, high class restaurants, cafes or hotels, pieces of clothing and so on, but also its sharp image and cinematography, by Phil Meheux is astounding. Despite being literally written by three people it also contains some ingenious dialogue. Especially the Bond/Vesper interactions flow so crisply and soft. It's a joy to watch every second of it and I could be talking about it for hours.
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All in all, Casino Royale is a great novel and in my opinion, an even greater movie which is a faithful adaptation but also adds many layers and new things to it, knowing that it already is part of a 20+ movie series and therefore adding nostalgia, references or treating its timeless main characters legacy with honor and self reflection.
What do you think about Casino Royale, both the novel & the movie?

Hi all! Just brainstorming ideas for adventures and I thought I might as well post this one in case other GMs can make use of it. While I'm personally running old WEG d6 system campaigns, this scenario is just as easily thrust into a campaign set in EotE or any Star Wars setting at all!

Summary & Background

A group of free-traders/smugglers takes on a seemingly straightforward job for a crime boss on a lax shadowport. It turns out, however, that customs aren't as laissez-faire as they used to be; they lose the cargo and their boss is pissed. They must recover the cargo and get the man his credits in three days or risk his ire.
This assumes the party is your typical Firefly/EotE smuggling/tramp freighter crew, although, as you will see, any Alliance sympathizers will find a particular interest in this scenario. One or more of the party members likely owes a debt/favor to or is involved with a crime boss or kingpin, and this adventure will fit right in with attempting to appease that vindictive, crazy MF!
While you lore buffs will note that technically the Tundei antagonists don't take power until post-Endor, this adventure can easily be set during the days of the Rebellion or even Rise of the Empire. You just need to retcon the Tundei to take power early.

Intro

The party has been contracted by "the Boss" (a seedy businessman, crime lord, etc.) to transport some medical supplies to the Core world of Abregado-rae. While the medical supplies (probably bacta and the like) aren't strictly illegal, they're controlled substances and subject to high import tariffs, hence the Boss's desire for a more under-the-radar delivery system.
While Abregado-rae is a Core world, it is also a famed shadowport, just as seedy and crime-ridden as Ord Mantell. The Boss informs the party of this fact, and any seasoned smuggler worth his salt and a good knowledge role will be able to corroborate this information. All-in-all, it looks to be a cut-and-dry, straightforward job with easy money. The job is payment on delivery; they'll have to meet up with their contact in LoBue Cantina and complete the transaction. It's important to note that without the goods the party won't get paid, and if they don't get paid, the Boss doesn't get paid. Their cut will be 20,000 credits. The Boss says he'll check in with them after their arrival on Abregado-rae.

What They Don't Know

There are two crucial pieces of info to which the party is not privy.
1) Abregado-rae has recently come under the sway of a new political entity in the system: the Tundei. Ruled by a triumvirate (a human, a Devaronian, and the founding Herglic, Shelov), the Tundei are comprised of offworlders who seek to make Abregado-rae respectable. They have cracked down on smuggling and illicit activity in the spaceport, limited the rights of the native Moochers and Gados, imposed semi-martial law, and encouraged the growth of the planet's unremarkable manufacturing industry in the hopes of stimulating the planet's economy. This takeover began when wealthy offworlders began buying up interests and bribing local officials, worming their way into the planet's politics. Ten months ago it culminated in a tense resignation of the previous government that was a coup in all but name. It's been long enough that the Tundei have had time to establish themselves as the governing force, but not long enough for such relatively trivial news to diffuse throughout the Rim. Even the Boss is not aware of this turn of events.
2) Not everyone was happy with the changes. Some locals fled into the surrounding Gado Hills and formed the Resistance, which the Tundei have termed the Separatists. However, due to Tundei control of all spaceports and the recent curtailing of smuggling activities, the Resistance is short on supplies. It was one of their agents, Phils Vaand (human male), who contacted the Boss. He emphasized caution, but in the limited communications that took place he was unable or did not think to mention the recent changes that had taken place. The medical supplies are bound for Resistance hands, though no one knows this except their contact on the planet.

The Complications

Upon arrival in Abregado Spaceport, the party is approached in the docking bay by a stuffy customs official, a diminutive customs droid, and two security officers armed with stun batons and blasters. The official is curt and the officers grim and intractable. The party should truly be alarmed by the drastic difference in what they expected to encounter and what has actually greeted them. The customs official checks the presumed captain's starship operating license and other paperwork, sinking into bureaucratic dogma, while the droid checks out the ship. Of course, they find the medical supplies (If they hid it, have them roll for it and all, but the droid has scanning equipment that detects the compartments). Since it is a controlled substance, the party must pay a hefty fine - more than they have or could scrounge up. In lieu of pecuniary penalization, their ship is impounded until such a time as they are able to cough up. And, needless to say, the cargo is impounded.
It is at this point that the Boss chooses to give them a buzz on the old comlink/holovideo chat. They can lie, they can tell the truth, they can roll well or poorly, but in the end he's still royally pissed, either believing them to be incompetent or to be double crossing him and keeping the cash for themselves. He gives them three days to scrounge up the credits... or else.

Abregado-rae

There are several options here. The spaceport and surrounding city (Abregado) are built on the coast of the eastern continent. The climate is temperate and there are many canals crisscrossing through much of the city. The locals typically get around by walking or via aquatic skimmers and speeders. Beyond the city limits are gentle hills, woodlands, and lakes dotted with villages.
Fleshing out Abregado is up to you, but here are some important set pieces, locations, and notes:
Locals
The locals are a mix of Gados (lanky fuzzy folks) and humans, with a sizable minority of other aliens, especially those that can be found up and down the Rimma (Gran, Herglic, Devaronian, Sullustan, Givin, Bith, Duros, Baragwin). There are also the native Moochers - furry reptilian humanoids who hang around the spaceports and, well, mooch.
The general attitude ranges from bewilderment to discontent to indifference.
The pros of the new Regime:

• Lower unemployment (thanks to new factories and the revitalization of old ones)
• Lower crime rates (thanks to quasi-martial law)

The cons:

• The Gados, and indeed all natives, have had their rights somewhat curtailed due to the state of quasi-martial law. While the Regime isn't xenophobic (after all, the Triumvirate is diverse and offworld), they put overall order and profit over individual rights.
• The local Moocher population has been nearly exterminated. These panhandlers have recently experienced an outbreak of Veizen fever, which the Regime fears could spread to the Gados. Thus, when a pack of Moochers is overcome with the fever, they are "quarantined."
• Income has taken a dive due to the drop in profit from illegal imports and exports. The Triumvirate is confident that once manufacturing exports pick up they will start to see a rise in profits once more.
• Some of the more disreputable establishments frequented by undesirable types have been "acquired by the State" and turned over to new ownership or removed to make room for new commercial complexes.

Amenities & Establishments
The most common means of transportation is via water speeders - repulsorlift vehicles that play the same role as gondolas in Venice.
Important note: Traffic in and out of the city is being heavily monitored. Every road has a checkpoint set up with security officers and clerks taking down names, business, and other information. It will be difficult getting out; it will be nearly impossible getting back in. Your players will have to be at their most charming and most persuasive indeed.
Before the Tundei came to power Abregado-rae was known for its many waterfront saloons, resorts, and casinos - The Star of Chance, Lost Lovers Casino, Le Yer Resort, Njinska's Tavern, and the Triple Nova Casino. The Tundei, however, in their quest to respectablilify the planet, shut down many of these establishments. A few subdued locales remain, but many sit derelict or have been demolished or re-purposed.
The only other sites of note are the growing manufacturing and industrial zones and the sprouting rows of tenement houses for local and off-world workers.
Law Enforcement & the Regime
The police force has been beefed up with Tundei. Think something akin to watered-down ESPO - stun batons, blasters, some blast armor. They get around on waveskimmers (jet skis in SPEHS), water speeders (like real-world police patrol boats), urban landspeeders (V-19, Seraph-class), and, when the need arises, a couple squadrons of airspeeders and Talon I cloud cars. The biggest station is located beside the customs office and actually adjoins it.
The Tundei are a regime, but they're not entirely totalitarian, nor are they truly evil (indeed many, even in the upper strata, believe they are working toward a better society for the planet's people). They're certainly not as totalitarian as the Empire or the Corporate Sector. They're more like CSA wannabees with a touch of puritanism and communist work ethic and drive for industrialization.
Spaceport Customs & Police Station
Located at the nexus of a web of docking bays, this place used to be a joke. Now it's a busy, well-oiled machine. Aside from customs officials, clerks, and droids, this place is also home to the largest police station in the city. The cargo is taken here, stowed in an adjacent warehouse within the police compound. The ship is in an impound lot nearby. The compound is surrounded by a high, electrified fence with barbed wire atop it. What's inside the station is up to you, but it could include a reception area, offices, an interrogation room, equipment lockers, a lounge, holding cells, a speeder garage with urban speeder bikes and landspeeders inside, and an armory.
LoBue Cantina
This is where the deal was supposed to go down. If the party still goes here they'll find Phils Vaand waiting for them. When he hears what happened he's not surprised, but tries to enlist their help in getting the supplies back. This will require breaking into the police station somehow. Phils has limited resources, but he can supply some small-arms and maybe even a few explosives. Perhaps if they go around town they'll find some good-sized fusion cutters, or maybe they can get some locals to cause a distraction. It's up the party how they want to play this.
The cantina itself is one of a handful that managed to escape the general culling and foreclosure of pubs and other unsavory locations when the Regime came into power. The owner, a Herglic by the name of Gloss Hwolool, was able to avert ruin by offering a discount on drinks to all factory workers - a show of support for the Tundei and a morale boost to their workforce. Still, Gloss is as pragmatic as he is cautious; he knows the Regime is bad for business and wants things back to the way they were. He won't, however, actually take any direct action against the Regime.
Despite its newfound respectability, LoBue remains one of the choicest spots in the city for clandestine activities. It is known for the Incredible Sharlees - two Gados in tophats and canes who do a dance routine every fourth cycle. Its signature drink is the Gusher, a cocktail so carbonated that it spouts up in the air like water from a whale's blowhole. Herglics are especially fond of this drink.
Resistance Camp
Located on the shores of a lake in the hills, this place is hidden but not that hidden - the Tundei don't care if these people want to play Robin Hood and Rebels out here. As long as they're out of sight and continue to not be a real threat, they won't devote the time or resources to rooting them out. There are perhaps a couple hundred Separatists in the camp on any given day. They have access to some landspeeders and airspeeders, but they're running low on ammo, medicine, and food, and the local villages can only supply so much. Still, they could make useful allies. The Resistance may be sympathetic to the Alliance (after all, they both fight totalitarian regimes), so any Rebel characters may find themselves quite at home rallying the populace and fighting against tyranny.

How It Goes Down

The options here are quite open-ended. Maybe the party sneaks in; maybe they rile up the locals into an angry mob and storm the place; maybe they set fire in a factory or two and while the police are all focused on that they hightail it in and out. Heck, they could even try to come up with the credits another way (though this should be quite tricky - after all, their cut alone was 20 grand; perhaps it'll be useful to note the number of casinos in the city). This is where it's up to you and the players' imagination to get them out of this tight scrape.
In the end, however (assuming they're successful), they should get the equipment, get their ship, get the goods to the Resistance, get paid, and make tracks out of the Abregado system, preferably with urban cruisers, cloud cars, and maybe even a customs vessel on their tails. Imagine a James Bond-style chase scene through the canals of the city on skimmers!
As previously stated, their cut is 20,000 big ones, and they're now a little more in the Boss's good graces... for now.
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Thanks for reading! I hope you can make use of this scenario in your adventures. If you can't, maybe it's at least provided some inspiration. Feedback is encouraged and most kindly appreciated. :)

*SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**
Well, I was traveling for a few months and FINALLY saw SPECTRE. I was so damn disappointed in the movie I decided I should rewrite it (in summary form) and make it better. Honestly, SPECTRE is the Bond movie I've been waiting for for decades, and now that it's out, it missed basically every important theme that movies about the SPECTRE organization are known for.
Here’s another way Spectre should have gone:
INTRODUCTION We open with a recap sequence of James Bond trying to break Vesper out of the submerged elevator in Venice. She stares at him as she gulps water.
James Bond wakes up submerged in water. He is disoriented for a split second, then sits up and splashes all over. Looking around…he is in his bathtub at home in London. He had fallen asleep in the tub.
Cut to James wearing a bathrobe and shaving. He hasn’t dreamt about Vesper in a long time, but something is nagging at him.
Voices play in his head:
Vesper: “Does everyone have a tell?” Bond: “Yes, everyone…except you.” M (Judie Dench): “She was blackmailed by the organization behind Le Chiffre. Sometimes we’re so focused on our enemies, we forget to watch our friends…” M (Judie Dench): “Well I suppose it’s…too late to make a run for it…” Bond: “I’m game if you are.” M (Judie Dench): “Well I did get one thing right….”
Bell at his door. He wipes his face.
Answering the door, it’s a delivery man with certified mail. Bond signs for it and takes it. It’s a package addressed to him directly from the former M who had died in his arms a few weeks earlier.
Opening the package, it’s a thumbdrive.
On the thumb drive, Bond finds a video message. It’s from M herself.
M (Judie Dench): “Bond, if you’re watching this, Silver has gotten the best of me. I don’t have much time so I’ll cut to the chase. There is no one else I trust with this information. There is something deeply wrong in the world. So many unanswered questions. How did Silver hack into our systems so easily? Who was bankrolling Le Chiffre? Unexplained bribery of otherwise trustworthy agents. Assassinations with no trace. Bond, you have, until now, been a precise instrument of the British government, focused on one person. Now, I need you to look at the bigger picture with me. There is a common thread. Someone named the Pale King. Find this man, and go deeper. I say again. Trust no one. Not even the new M. Good day, Bond. Good luck.”
Bond opens the first file. As he looks, he hears the rotary of a helicopter in the background. Within a few seconds, a spotlight shines at him through his window. Almost instantly, Bond throws himself to the floor as the windows erupt in machine-gun fire.
Queue action sequence where Bond barely gets out alive. Somehow, he survives the Helicopter gatling gun, but a monster of a henchman swings into the apartment to verify his death. Bond tries to fight him in nothing but his bathrobe, but is quickly outclassed. Somehow, he manages to barricade himself in his bathroom, but not before seeing a symbol on the ring of the hand of his attacker. He’s trying to put together a plan, when the pounding on his bathroom door stops. The man has gotten back onto the Helicopter and is flying away. Suddenly, police and special agents are swarming his Condo. He watches as the helicopter disappears into the sunrise.
Quickly, he finds a piece of paper and pencil, and draws the symbol he saw. It is an octopus. The octopus melts into the intro.
ROLL INTRO SONG
Bond is sitting in M’s office. M tells him that the Helicopter somehow disappeared shortly after the encounter at his apartment. He is flabbergasted. M is frustrated that the previous M left him very little information to go on regarding Bond’s previous missions. Why would someone go directly after him? Bond answers coyly. He will not reveal the previous M’s video request.
M responds to Bond’s vagueness with an ultimatum: “007, you and I are going to have to trust one another if we are to continue this relationship. I have seen what you can do, but I still don’t know what kind of man you are.”
M then segues into revealing the latest co-effort between the British Government and its allies: a joint intelligence network between over a hundred countries all over the world.
Bond is loudly (and uncharacteristically) skeptical. M defends the merits of the program to Bond, talking about the modernization of the times. Bond takes it personally. He liked the previous M better. M interprets Bond’s brashness as shock from the helicopter attack.
The conversation results in M suspending Bond until he recovers from the attack. Bond has no intention of any such thing. Bond doesn’t trust M. M clearly doesn’t trust Bond.
(It’s clear now that the movie is based on trust. Who can trust whom? How do you know if someone is lying? BOOM. Clear setup for battling an organization that is based on inserting influential people into high positions of power.)
Bond leaves M’s office and asks Money Penny about the new intelligence system. Money Penny directs Bond to visit Q.
At Q’s, Bond convinces Q to take a look at the new system. Q is there with his new assistant who is an expert on the system. The expert talks about all the latest AI tech behind it, and how it has access to nodes all over the world. Q knows about it and has access to it, but hasn’t taken a close look yet. As they investigate together, Q is surprised and dismayed by how detailed and unsecured the system is. The system is inappropriate for proper intelligence. Q’s assistant defends the systems integrity and cites his own credentials to back it up. Q hums and haws over it while Bond scans the octopus symbol into the search. No results appear. Then he runs a search on “the Pale King”. The term turns up only one name: “L’Americain, Tunisia.”
Q gives Bond a watch, and denies him the car due to his recent suspension. Q reminds Bond that if he leaves, he will have no backup, no support from MI-6. Bond leaves.
Cut to Tunisia.
Bond finds L’Americain—it is a hotel. He tries to rent a room, but the concierge will not rent him one. They keep saying the hotel is full, but he can clearly see that there are many available keys in the room boxes behind him. Before long, Bond figures out that the concierge is not actually the real concierge. He quickly fights and knocks the guy out. The real concierge is dead on the floor behind the counter at the spy’s feet. In looking at the room key boxes, there is only one key missing. The room on the top floor.
Reaching the top floor, he steps out of the elevator and nearly runs into the maid, pushing a cart into the elevator. As the doors close again, he sees one room at the end of the hall with the door ajar. Bond creeps up on the door and looks inside. The room is ransacked. He walks inside carefully with his gun drawn. There appears to be no-one there.
Looking around, he notices a mouse running along a wall. The mouse disappears into a hole. He breaks open the wall to reveal a hidden room.
Inside the room is a bunch of evidence of surveillance of him and Vesper during the events of Casino Royale. He finds a bunch of pictures of a young girl. One of the pictures has someone he recognizes in it. It is Mr. White, standing with the young girl, holding fish. The label on the picture says “At the cabin, 1989. Lake Weiss, AUS”.
The maid shows up behind Bond. She tries to kill him but misses. He grabs her and asks her who she works for. She bites a cyanide pill and dies.
He hears cars and shouting outside. More enemy agents. How are they finding him so fast? Where are they all coming from?
The man-monster is there, looking up at him. Queue a second fight scene with the big man. Bond is again outclassed, but slightly less this time. At least he’s not in a bathrobe. Bond is clear that he has no backup. The hotel gets set on fire and explodes (no more evidence of what Bond found for the bad guys). He runs from the big man and hijacks a motorcycle.
Bond calls Money Penny and asks for the location of a safe house. She gives him one, but not before berating him for breaking his orders (again.) He barely escapes notice and holes up in the safe house for a few days.
Upon leaving the safe house, he begins to suspect that he can’t go anywhere without his movements being tracked. Somehow, people are following him. He hops aboard a boat headed for Europe.
Cut to Lake Weiss in Austria. Bond finds a cabin with Mr. White in it. Mr. White tells him he’s dying due to exposure, and reveals the true nature of the Octopus symbol to Bond. It is SPECTRE, a powerful organization. Tells him he’s a “kite flying in a hurricane.”
Bond gets Mr. White to reveal a way to get into the organization–through his ex-wife, who is an accountant for the organization.
Bond finds Mr. White’s Ex-Wife in Geneva, who is a smart accountant. Madeleine (Monica Bellucci) indeed does work for SPECTRE, but is a mid-level employee. She tells him it’s a charity organization. She pulls him into the shower unexpectedly and turns it on. Bond shows her video of her father and tries to convinces her that SPECTRE is not a charity organization, but a terrorist one. Before he’s able to go further, she hushes him and pulls him into the shower. She turns it on.
As they are getting wet, she reveals that she already knows this, and is well versed in the spy world. But, she is trying to figure out how to bring down the organization from the inside. Bond and her are clearly aligned in motivation (we think…but she might not! Remember we’re dealing with a theme of Distrust here!)
She’s wearing a white see-through blouse (soaked from the water). Bond makes a remark about it before getting slapped. She smiles, however, and gives him a sexist zinger back.
Madeleine gives him a location of where the big meetings of SPECTRE are held, but says that he’ll have to figure out his own way in.
Queue really awesome heist/break-in sequence, showing the elaborate way that SPECTRE members have to go through to get into the secret meeting hall. Everyone has to wear a mask. No real identities are given.
Bond finally gets into the SPECTRE meeting where he overhears a discussion on an intelligence network that they are exploiting. He knows it is the one that M referred to. Now he thinks that M is working with SPECTRE.
At the head of the table is a man who is clearly in charge. He is shrouded in complete darkness and nobody can make the person out. After a while, the person interrupts the meeting to have a guy executed, no sweat, because that’s the kind of power he wields.
The guy in charge also passes along a message that there is a spy in their midst. Everyone looks at Bond. This scene is an homage to the “Eyes Wide Shut” scene with Tom Cruise where he gets outed at the sex club.
IMPORTANT: We never hear the voice of the guy in charge in this scene. He is an enigma. A ghost. An undetermined power. Bond is no match for him.
Bond makes his escape from the meeting room by throwing his watch bomb down.
Another action sequence with Bond fighting a bunch of dudes, getting back to Madeleine’s place, and getting her out of Geneva. She is nervous that they will track her down and kill her. Bond swears to her that it will never happen on his watch. He’s made this promise once before, but this time he means it. They find another safe house and have sex. Hot, steamy, sex. With lots of sweat and great lighting. She’s an older woman. She knows what she wants and how to get it from him.
Back in London, Bond takes Madeleine with him to headquarters and both are immediately arrested. She’s taken away, and he is detained in a cell. M visits him and gives him a lecture on trust again, threatening to not only take away his license to kill, but to lock him up where nobody would ever find him again.
Bond convinces M to trust him one more time, and examine the “Intelligence Network” more closely. They both go to Q’s office. M, Q, and Bond finally discover the extent to which SPECTRE’s reach really is. They have access to the entire intelligence mainframe of all the major NATO countries. Q wonders where his assistant is. The assistant is gone.
Q proceeds to work on shutting down the system. He finds that he needs a security key that changes every 30 seconds. There must be an organization member with access? Bond remembers that Madeleine is in the building. They all rush to find Madeleine, but find that she’s just been taken out of the building. M is furious. Bond takes the Aston Martin from Q’s garage and rushes down the streets of London. He catches up to the limousine carrying Madeleine to Heathrow’s private airplane section. There is a helicopter waiting to take off with her.
Bond rushes in, switches on his car sidewinders and blows the shit out of the helicopter. Madeleine, Q’s assistant, and the Man Monster are all there. Queue the Bond action music. Man monster has a gatling gun and sprays the Aston Martin. Bond doesn’t give a fuck any more and drives the AM into him, crushing him against the wall of the hangar. (queue applause)
Q’s assistant uses Madeleine as a human shield, claiming that there is no way to stop what is happening. SPECTER is everywhere. The world is theirs. As he talks, he points the gun at Bond to kill him. Madeleine bumps his arm and ducks. Bond shoots him in the head.
Bond rushes over and grabs Madeleine. He asks her if she has the verification codes he needs. She hands him a digital readout from Q’s assistant’s coat.
Bond makes a call to Q and gives him the current code. Q puts it in and starts to work. Soon, Q starts talking
Q: “Deployment halted. I’m deleting the network piggyback algorithms. Good work, Bond. This will take a few days, but I believe we have it.”
Bond stands there with his hand on his phone. He turns to look at Madeleine. As he turns, he says
Bond: “Looks like the organization is….being disorganized.”
She is gone. There’s no trace of her. Bond looks around, confused.
Cut to Madeleine. She is on her phone.
Madeleine: “Did you get what you needed before it went down?” …. Madeleine: “Well, it will have to do, won’t it?” …. Madeleine: “Yes, tell him…I will take care of Bond.”
Pan the camera around her until it shows the back of her neck. Her hair has always been worn down until now. On the back of her neck is a tattoo…of the SPECTRE OCTOPUS. DUN DUN DUN.
Well this was fun. Totally not official and probably full of plot holes, but I think it’s way better than the totally bland version on screen right now.
Some key notes that I think should have been visited: - The guy in charge of SPECTRE should not have been revealed. - Trust issues are super important in this movie. - Less exposition and show how pervasive SPECTRE actually is. - James Bond does NOT defeat SPECTRE in one movie. They are an organization. We need at LEAST 2 movies to find out who the head of it is.
My 2 cents. :/