Director: Sam Mendes. Returning from Skyfall, the first Bond film to cross the billion-dollar threshold at the box office. The first director to shoot two Bonds in a row since John Glen. Previously director of American Beauty, Road To Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go, plus much in the way of prestigious theatre. Having taken a certain amount of persuading to return, he's insisted this will be his final Bond.
Writers: John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Purvis and Wade have written all the Bond films since The World Is Not Enough. Logan came aboard with Skyfall, with previous credits including Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Aviator and Hugo.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jesper Christensen, Stephanie Sigman, Andrew Scott, Rory Kinnear
UK Release Date: October 26, 2015
Plot: As per the official synopsis from the most recent EON press release:
A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond (Daniel Craig) on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE.
Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond’s actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE. As the daughter of an assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot.
As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks, played by Christoph Waltz.
Shooting: Has taken place in Mexico, Italy, Austria, Morocco, and at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
Second-Unit Director: Alexander Witt. The unsung hero of the action set-pieces. He previously oversaw the mayhem in Skyfall and Casino Royale, as well as The Bourne Identity, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, and X-Men: First Class.
Theme song: Rumours revolved around Ellie Goulding and Radiohead, with bookies William Hill actually suspending betting after someone tried to place a whopping £15k on the latter (“Nobody risks £15k on a hunch,” said a spokesman). But the titles eventually went to British singer-songwriter Sam Smith; the first British male solo artist to land the gig since Tom Jones in 1965. The track is called "Writing's On The Wall" and is released on September 25.
S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Stands for Special Executive For Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Run by the uber-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. An Ian Fleming creation, it was first introduced in the novel Thunderball, and that novel’s roots in an original screenplay caused all manner of problems with producer Kevin McLory, who retained some rights for years, allowing him to remake Thunderball in 1983 as the anomalous non-Eon production Never Say Never Again. This is why Blofeld was unceremoniously dumped down a chimney at the start of For Your Eyes Only and we’ve never seen him in an official Bond film since. McLory’s death and the détente between MGM and Sony have only now resolved that knotty legal situation.
**James Bond will return (obviously)
Spectre** is Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as Bond (or fifth if you count the Olympics thing with the Queen{
M (Ralph Fiennes) – Judi Dench met her Waterloo last time. Intelligence And Security Committee Chairman Gareth Mallory was poised to step into the vacant role.
Q (Ben Whishaw) – The second outing for Whishaw’s Quartermaster, and one that looks to be giving him more screen time: the trailer makes it look as if Bond ropes Q into helping him with an off-grid mission. Whishaw has suggested there will be “a few more gadgets than last time”, which includes a new Aston Martin with… modifications.
Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) – Some people talked up the feminist credentials of Skyfall, which made the fact that Harris started the film as a field agent and ended it a secretary a bit problematic. "[The events of Skyfall] made her reassess what she was doing as a profession and what she wanted to do with the rest of her life," Harris says of Moneypenny Phase II. "[Now] she wants to support in a different way. There’s a maturity in that decision and a groundedness you see with her."
Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) – Kinnear’s third stint (not counting videogames) as Bond’s ally and M’s Chief of Staff. Tanner was previously played by Michael Kitchen in Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough, and by James Villiers in For Your Eyes Only.
There’s also a familiar villain:
Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) – Formerly the liaison for the mysterious criminal organization Quantum in both Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, the last we saw of White he was having his enjoyment of Tosca interrupted. Lately, by the look of the trailers, he’s fallen down on his luck. Perhaps Quantum has fallen victim to a hostile takeover by some other Special Executive…
Léa Seydoux is playing Madeleine Swann
Swan is Mr. White’s daughter, who works as a doctor – possibly a psychologist or psychiatrist, given some of the literature in her office – at the Hoffler Klinik in the Austrian Alps. Sam Mendes has called the character “soulful, feisty and complicated” and said that her relationship with Bond in this film is the “pivotal” one.
“She’s a doctor,” says Seydoux (late of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Blue Is The Warmest Colour), “a very sensitive, intelligent and human character.” Bond comes to find her, but she wants nothing to do with him. “He can’t really have her,” says Seydoux. “She’s not seduced at first sight and she doesn’t fall for his tricks. She resists. She’s his equal, independent and strong and smart, and she doesn’t need him or wait for him to save her.”
Monica Bellucci is playing Lucia Sciarra
In Bellucci’s own words, ““She’s an Italian widow with secrets. Her Mafioso husband is killed and she risks the same thing happening to her. She comes from a man’s world, but when the attraction between them takes place and she realises her feminine power on him, then she trusts him to save her." Mendes says she’s “an incredibly seductive presence, both in life and in the movie.” A femme fatale then?
Incidentally, at 50, Bellucci is comfortably the oldest “Bond girl” ever. The title was previously held by Honor Blackman, who was 39 when she played Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. Maud Adams was 38 in Octopussy.
Dave Bautista is playing Mr. Hinx
Hinx (very much not to be confused with Jinx from Die Another Day) is one of SPECTRE’s top assassins. “When I came over to meet Sam [Mendes], I only asked two questions," says the once and future Guardian of the Galaxy. "I asked him if Mr. Hinx was a badass. He said, 'Yes, he's a badass.' I said, 'Well, is Mr. Hinx intelligent?' He said, 'Very.' That's what I like about Mr. Hinx. He's very well dressed and very well mannered. I'm not just here to fight people. He has a sense of humour. He definitely knows what a metaphor is."
Christoph Waltz is playing Franz Oberhauser
“It was me, James. The author of all your pain.” So says Waltz in the Spectre trailer, suggesting that he’s been pulling strings off-screen for some considerable time now. Clearly a big mover and shaker within SPECTRE itself, and, as far as we know, the film’s principal antagonist.
The name “Oberhauser” comes from Ian Fleming’s short story Octopussy. Hannes Oberhauser was Bond's ski-instructor when Bond was a teenager. A father figure to the orphan Bond, he was murdered at the end of WWII, and his body showed up years later frozen in a glacier. The story is about Bond on a personal mission to bring justice to his assassin. Daniel Craig told Esquire that Hannes is revealed in Spectre to have briefly adopted Bond, and that Franz is Hannes' son, and therefore - for a time - Bond's foster brother. There's a shot in the teaser of a burned photograph of - apparently - a young Bond, similarly-aged friend, and supervising adult in snow apparel – with the other kid's face obliterated.
Some people think Oberhauser will turn out to be Blofeld
The main conspiracy theory raging around Oberhauser is the question of whether he’s actually SPECTRE mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld (previously played by Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, and, in the unofficial Never Say Never Again, Max von Sydow). Waltz has categorically denied this – “That is absolutely untrue. That rumour started on the internet and the internet is a pest. The name of my character is Franz Oberhauser.” But Harris denied she was Moneypenny everywhere in the run up to Skyfall, so… Waltz is seen wearing a Blofeld-traditional Nehru jacket in the trailer. That could be a very blatant clue, or it could be deliberate mischief.
The Craig Bond films seem to be following the template of the early Connerys: two films of set-up, a third largely unconnected to that broader arc, a return to that arc in a fourth… By that rationale, Spectre only gets us to Thunderball, making Oberhauser the equivalent of Emilio Largo and leaving Blofeld to make his grand entrance in the fifth film. But that’s not to say some sort of late-stage reveal, cameo or post-credits teaser is out of the question. Craig has suggested that Spectre may be his final Bond, and that it completes the story begun in Casino Royale. So the landmark future Bond 25 could mark the start of a new era, rather than the climax of the current one. Bookies are already taking bets on who'll be the next 007.
Stephanie Sigman is playing Estrella
A character we know very little about, although she’s certainly part of Spectre’s opening sequence in Mexico (see below). It’s possible/likely that we don’t see her again subsequently, a bit like Maria Grazia Cucinotta’s Cigar Girl in The World Is Not Enough.
Andrew Scott is playing Max Denbigh
“He’s a member of the Intelligence world,” is all Sherlock’s Moriarty has publicly been able to say about Denbigh. We've since learned that he's the new head of a Centre For National Security and no fan of either Bond, M or MI6 in general. And the trailer sets him up to look shifty.
The opening sequence takes place in Mexico
The pre-credits sequence kicks off Spectre's story, with Bond in a collapsing building, a pulse-quickening foot chase through the Day Of The Dead parade and a fight inside a helicopter. It will, claims long-time Bond producer Michael G Wilson, be "the biggest opening sequence we've ever done, maybe the biggest sequence we've ever done. We've got 1500 extras in Day Of The Dead costumes and make up and we've occupied the centre of Mexico City for days. The only thing that's come close to it was putting on the carnival in Rio in Moonraker, and I think this is a much bigger operation."
“I wanted the audience to be dropped right into the middle of a very, very specific, very heady, rich environment,” explains Mendes. "Everywhere you look there’s colour and detail and life. We’ve built floats and maquettes, the costumes are extraordinary and the craftsmanship is amazing.”
There’s a car chase through Rome
The meeting place of Bond and Lucia is also the site of a big car chase between Bond and Hinx. Says Mendes: “I love the idea of this fantastic car [the specially-created Aston Martin DB10] being in a one-on-one battle with another incredible car from Jaguar [the C-X75], which is similarly extraordinary actually. So it’s a cat-and-mouse game through the night time streets of Rome, at great speed, between two of the fastest cars in the world.”
There’s another big set-piece in Austria
Specifically Obertilliach, where Swan has her clinic and Bond shows up to retrieve some valuable information, with Hinx in pursuit. There’s another Bond-Hinx chase here, roughly midway through the film, with Hinx on wheels and Bond chaotically piloting a light aircraft.
Something big happens in Morocco
Specifically Tangier. This was the final location for shooting last summer, and possibly hosts the film’s climax, details of which have remained tightly under wraps so far.
Also, there's a sequence on a train
In the finest Bond tradition (see also From Russia With Love, Live And Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me...) 007 has a big rumble with Hinx, as he did previously with Jaws and Tee-Hee.
Spectre's final trailer arrived on October 2