Bondathon: Skyfall

Skyfall was the film that marked the Bond film franchise’s 50^th Anniversary. The result was one of the best Bond films ever and the most financially successful.

A mission in Istanbul goes wrong. A terrorist has escaped with a hard drive containing a list of all undercover NATO agents and Bond has been presumably killed in action. Three months later M gets taunted by a cyber-terrorist who causes a gas explosion at MI6’s headquarters. This action leads to Bond coming in from the cold and M sends him to find the terrorist, even though he is out of shape.

Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace were financial successes and Casino Royale (2006) brought new life into the franchise. However, the future of the franchise was in question back in the early 2010s because of MGM’s financial troubles. The Bond franchise came back with their biggest film and it showed that it’s foolish to write off 007.

EON Productions pulled out all the stops for Skyfall. They got an ensemble of talent for the production. Sam Mendes, a filmmaker who made award-winning films was hired to direct. The Oscar-nominated writer John Logan wrote the screenplay with series regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Mendes’ regular cinematographer, Roger Deakins was brought in, and the Casino Royale veterans, Stuart Baird and Alexander Witt came back to the franchise. Whilst on the casting side Skyfall had Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, and Naomie Harris joining the series.

Skyfall was a perfect storm. It was a character-driven, thematic Bond film that was a terrific action-thriller. It’s everything a fan would want from a Bond film.

Skyfall had to be both a celebration of the franchise’s history and justify the franchise’s existence. Throughout the film, there was a theme of old vs. new. Bond was an old-fashioned spy fighting a modern threat. There are forces who want to shut down the Double-0 section and Q (Ben Whishaw) and Raoul Silva (Bardem) state they could do more damage on a laptop than Bond ever could. M made the Tennyson speech during the inquiry and this was an attempt by the filmmakers to state why Bond is needed.

This old vs. new does extend in other ways. Bond was facing the threat of cyber terrorism and cyber warfare, something that was considered a growing threat and still is. Skyfall updated the threat Bond faced, like Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

Not only was Bond’s profession seen as outdated, Bond was also seen as past it. Bond was considered old and over-the-hill. The film made an effort to show 007 struggling during his physical and mental evaluations. The Double-0 section was facing a hostile environment. Yet Bond has a philosophy of ‘the old ways are the best ways.’ All of this made Skyfall seem like it was influenced by Never Say Never Again because it made a point that Bond was older and M held Bond in disdain. Although it was odd to see Craig’s Bond go from brash young agent in his first two films to someone who was considered over-the-hill in his third.

Skyfall does reference the aspects from previous films from the franchise. The plot had similarities to Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough. All three films have villains wanting revenge against MI6 for personal reasons. They have all felt betrayed in some way. Trevelyan and Silva were both former Double-0s who felt betrayed by MI6 whilst Elektra King wanted revenge against M due to M prolonging Elektra’s captivity. However, unlike Trevelyan and Elektra, Silva had no interest in enriching himself: he was just wanted to kill M.

Skyfall does take a lot of influence from The World is Not Enough. Both films have MI6’s headquarters being attacked, resulting in MI6 moving to a new location. In both films, Bond was injured which needed him to be cleared for duty and his performance was affected. In both films, there were female characters who worked for the villains and were deeply afraid of their bosses.

The references to other Bond films were more subtle. The gadgets Bond had in Skyfall were a signature gun (Licence to Kill) and a small radio device (Goldfinger) and Silva’s bottle of Scotch was from 1962, a reference to Dr. No.

Quantum of Solace did unintentionally foreshadow Skyfall. Bond made a throwaway reference to M seeing herself as his mother. Silva’s obsession with M was because he trusted her, and she handed him over to the Chinese. He called her mummy throughout the film and her betrayal drove him. When Bond and M go off to Scotland M says orphans made the best recruits. M was one of the few authority figures in his life.

Skyfall has been compared to The Dark Knight. Silva had elements of The Joker because of his appearance and his theatrical methods. The most obvious way Skyfall was influenced by The Dark Knight was the villains in both films deliberately let themselves get captured so they could enact their grand plans. And like The Joker’s plan in The Dark Knight, Silva’s plan required such precision it needed to be perfect. Luckily Skyfall was so exciting that its’ easy to get swept up by the events.

Silva was the best villain of the Craig era. He had a terrific introduction when he made the ‘rat speech’ which was done as a minute-long take. Silva was theatrical, yet desperate, like when he faced M for the first time in years. He was intelligent, unpredictable and had a dark charisma that made him so memorable as a villain.

Skyfall was the film that gave Judi Dench her biggest in role in a Bond film and it was a great send-off for her. In this film, Dench’s M was at her most steely. She had no problem ordering Eve (Harris) to shoot when Bond was fighting Patrice (Ola Rapace). She was willing to stare down Silva when he crashed the inquiry and pointed a gun at her.

Skyfall was a terrific action film. It opened with Bond and Eve chasing down Patrice in Istanbul. It was a sequence that involved motorbikes, cars, and a fight on top of a train. The other two major sequences were the action in London where Bond had to chase Silva and the finale at Bond’s home in Scotland. Like Casino Royale, Skyfall was one of the longest Bond films the intensity throughout made the film breeze by.

A smaller action sequence that I enjoyed was a small one. It was the fight between Bond and Patrice in Shanghai. It was only 40 seconds long, but it was done in one long take which I am a sucker for. It seemed like it was made to a counterpoint to the action sequences in Quantum of Solace which were ruined by the camerawork and editing.

Whilst Skyfall had a lot of A-list talent, it cost less than Quantum of Solace. A lot of the action takes place in the UK, which made Skyfall the most British-centric Bond film. The second half takes place in London and Scotland and the climax was a role reversal because Bond’s home gets attacked, instead of Bond going to the villain’s lair. Although Skyfall cost less than its predecessor, it was still a multi-million-dollar blockbuster with top notch production values. Skyfall has the best cinematography in a Bond film because of the talents of Deakins. Deakins earned one of his many Oscar nominations for his work on Skyfall.

Skyfall was a perfect package of a Bond film. It got everything right regarding its characters, story, and action.