007 Case File: ‘Skyfall’

The Mission: After a savage attack on MI6 headquarters in London Bond is sent in pursuit of a hired gun who had been in possession of an encrypted hard-drive that reveals the secret identities of all under-cover agents.

By the way – the following clip is piss poor quality. If you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to see it there first.

Locales: Turkey, England, China, Macau and Scotland.

Gadgets: Bond is packing his usual Song phone, his Walther PPK is programmed to only respond to his handprint and he has a radio transmitter that communicates his global position to headquarters.

Vehicles: The Aston Martin DB5 returns from Goldfinger complete with the original line-up of tricks.

Sidekicks: Eve Moneypenny joins Bond for the mission in Turkey and Shanghai. Q plays a large role in assisting Bond. Gareth Mallory, the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee and eventually becomes an ally. Kincade is the ground-keeper at Bond’s family estate.

The Girls: Bond and Moneypenny get to share some quality time together, and Bond turns Sévérine – partner to Silva – to his cause.

The Enemy: Raoul Silva is a former MI6 Agent who worked under the command of M for years before be abandoned by his agency after he was taken into custody. Months of torture have left his psychologically damaged.

Evil Plot: Silv’s plan is to disgrace and then murder M in retribution for abandoning him.

Distinguishing Features: Aside from being fabulous, Silva has been left with most of his teeth and upper jaw melted away by his hydrochloric cyanide that failed to kill him, although he hides this using a denture.

Secret Lair: An evacuated island of the coast of Macau, left in disrepair.

Henchmen: Your general collection of henchmen.

Facts About the Movie

Politically Incorrect Behaviour: A bit trickier to find something here…animal cruelty for forcing a scorpion to participate in a drinking game?

Notable Firsts: Naomie Harris and Ben Wishaw take on the parts of Moneypenny and Q respectively, two roles that had not yet featured in the Daniel Craig era. Ralph Fiennes will also be a recurring feature in upcoming films.

Random Trivia: Producers did consider offering the role of Kincade to Sean Connery but eventually decided that it would be distracting for viewers. The role went to Albert Finney instead.

After 50 years and 23 movies of being shot at, Skyfall is only the second instance in which Bond has actually been shot.

In casting calls and production materials the female roles where referred to as ‘Bond Women’ instead of the usual ‘Bond Girls’.

Silva claims that he was M’s favourite agent while at the Hong Kong agency between the years of 1988 and 1996 – the years of the franchise sabbatical between Licence to Kill and Goldeneye.

The role of hired killer Patrice is played by Ola Rapace, husband to Noomi ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ Rapace.