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Fridge Horror
- When Silva blows the cover of the agents, you see one getting shot in the head, but what about the others? Perhaps at least one of them got captured and tortured and may have even ended up exactly how Silva did.
- It's mentioned in the news brief that three out of the five undercover agents have been killed, probably brutally. Silva's trying to rub salt in the wound by forcing M and MI6 to confront publicly fucking over other agents just like they fucked him over.
- It is never mentioned what happens to the hard drive and even if we assume they recovered it there is no guarantee that it has remained the only source of that information.
- Kind of lapsing into WMG territory, but no one ever explicitly states that Silva was a field agent. We know from Agent Fields in Quantum of Solace that even people in MI6 office jobs can be called "agents"* . He can fire a gun and lob some grenades, but he's got mooks to do the really hardcore dirty work, and he even says to Bond that he finds "all this running around, it's exhausting." It's entirely possible that the 11 years he spent at MI6 were entirely spent in front of a computer. If this is the case, then M sent a man with little to no counter-torture training directly into the hands of the Chinese.
- In M's defense, Silva got himself into trouble in large part because he was going off rogue all by himself. This interpretation still allows for the fact that he got in way over his head, however, and that M basically left him there knowing full well he wasn't equipped to cope with it.
- It's mentioned that Skyfall was sold after Bond's "death." What happens when the new owner arrives and sees the destroyed property, crashed helicopter, and numerous dead bodies?
- Well, they're in Scotland, so they'll probably think someone just had a really intense party.
- Since the sale only happened because Bond was presumed dead, he'll have himself declared alive and the sale undone. Or, they'll come to some agreement on what the land is worth without the house. Or MI6 will find some way of compensating the owners—given how much property destruction Bond habitually causes, they probably have a fund marked "For use when 007 blows up another embassy."
- Near the end, Bond blows up Skyfall, his childhood home. His words before doing so? "I've always hated this place." How awful was Bond's childhood?
- To be fair to Bond's childhood, he does associate this place with the death of his parents, and he spent two days hiding in the priest-hole after he learned of their death. He may have taken their deaths harder than even Kincade realised.
- Silva seems to be a reference to the age of the snarky, sexed-up superspies coming to an end, note that he seems a lot like an evil version of the Bonds pre-Craig, for reference, a throwaway line in Die Another Day indicates that Bond threw away his own Cyanide Pill, and he was tortured by the North Koreans for months himself, Silva IS Bond if he had kept his pill and broke during said movie.
- As pointed out by Cinema Wins, the video exposing the undercover MI6 agents only has one view. When M clicks on the link that "reveals" it, Silva might have tricked her into unknowingly publishing the video herself, once again leaving blood on M's hands.
Fridge Brilliance
- The opening song is sung from M's perspective after her death. "You can take my name, but you can never have my heart."
- Why did Silva have to hack M's computer to decrypt the hard drive? Aside from just as a means of taunting her. Being the head of MI6, M would have access to the contents of the hard drive. Meaning she could very well have the decryption key on her computer. So hacking her computer and decrypting the contents of the hard drive would quicker than trying to brute force the key (which could take an incomprehensible amount of time in Real Life).
- Furthermore, judging by how MI6 was alerted to the fact that someone was decrypting the hard drive, there very well could've been a virus hidden in the drive that gives M the location of whoever decrypts it. Meaning Silva was playing it safe when he used M's computer to decrypt it.
- On top of that, Silva had likely hacked M's computer months prior, due to how he managed to stay one step ahead of them from the very beginning. That could very well have been how he learned about the list in the first place, and tied that into his Evil Plan.
- As Screen Rant Pitch Meetings pointed out, Patrice using a very specific type of bullet that can be directly traced back to him, makes little sense given his profession as an assassin. Until one realises that Silva was counting on MI6 tracing the bullet back to Patrice, since he wanted to be caught.
- Silva's "accent" is distinctive and elegant, yet hard to pin down, which is somewhat jarring given that he's a British agent. Then, after he's captured, he removes a dental prosthetic that is keeping his cheeks inflated. It's not an accent, it's a lisp.
- Or he's a native Castillian Spanish speaker, which has a lisp as part of its accent. A native Spanish speaker who also has the British citizenship and parentage required to be an MI6 agent? Must be from Gibraltar. Combined with having worked in Hong Kong probably from age 17/18, his mockery of "the Empire" carries so much more weight.
- Silva's slightly puffy, slack features also lend him a slightly uncanny appearance — until it becomes clear his facial structures are seriously damaged from the botched cyanide capsule (and related torture). Previously he may have been considerably more standardly good-looking, like 007 himself.
- The bartender in the casino, without being told, shakes Bond's martini. It's in character for Silva, having Bond's profile to plant a bartender who knows how he likes his drinks.
- If you think about it a little bit longer, it becomes even more brilliant: the bartender was preparing the martini right in front of Bond, and it is implied he even kept Sévérine waiting to watch the procedure. What happened the last time Bond was in a casino? Bond's drink was poisoned. Clearly, the man learns from his mistakes.
- Sévérine is killed off unceremoniously. Bond clearly doesn't care, which seems incredibly callous...but, remember. This is post-Casino Royale. Where Vesper Lynd betrayed him. He's learned he can't save everyone, and learned not to get too attached. Besides. She's not the Bond girl. Moneypenny and M are the Bond girls!
- He does immediately kill several Silva's men and capture Silva. So she was avenged in very short order.
- Fridge funny in Macau- Komodo dragons
aren't particularly nasty creatures and don't eat people; hell, to kill anything larger than themselves, they have to bite to maim, then wait for the animal to die. That poor mook who gets dragged away by one doesn't get eaten... as Bond walks away from the scene, a poor, plaintive wail of annoyance is heard from the poor schmuck in the pit below, waiting for the gamekeepers to come rescue him. As long as he gets medical care within an hour or so, he'll be fine in a month. - One of the biggest steps to Silva's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is to rat out a number of NATO agents.
- And to make it so M is directly responsible for all the deaths of the agents on that list. Brilliant revenge plan, really! And good foreshadowing.
- Also, why did he betray five? M traded Silva to save six other agents, in essence saving five lives in net. By betraying those five agents, M's action ends up being a total wash.
- How did Silva know Q would plug his computer into the network in an unsecured manner? It's not like he had access to his psychological profile - oh.
- Alternately, it was secured. Just not secure enough.
- In the end, Silva dies with a knife to the back which is symbolic considering M's betrayal is what sets this all off in the first place.
- Also, 007 uses M as bait to draw out Silva. She spends the last half hour of the movie wearing a shawl to keep warm, and as mentioned, Bond knifes him in the back. Hmm... what's the old English phrase for espionage, secrecy, and intrigue? Cloak and Dagger.
- The end of the movie is essentially an inversion of the classic James Bond scenario of Bond infiltrating / attacking and destroying the villain's hi-tech lair at the end of the movie; this time, it's the Bond villain attacking and destroying Bond's lair, and far from being hi-tech and advanced it's a run down old Scottish manor.
- While preparing for the siege at Skyfall manor, Kincaide mentions that Bond's father's hunting rifle tends to drag to the left when fired. This combined with Bond's bum right shoulder cancels the two handicaps out, thus making Bond an excellent shot once more for the final fight.
- Much of the dialogue involving Kincade becomes very meta when one recalls they originally wanted to have Sean Connery play him. Case in point, his introductory scene:Kincade: "James. James Bond!"
Bond: "Good God. You're still alive?"- Kincade's Bond One-Liner after killing that henchman was distracting for how clearly it seemed to be written for Connery:Kincade: Welcome to Scotland.
- Kincade's Bond One-Liner after killing that henchman was distracting for how clearly it seemed to be written for Connery:
- The message Silva sends to M in his video is "Think on your sins." Abbreviated, it spells T.O.Y.S., or "toys." Silva feels M sees her agents simply as toys, who she may throw away once she tires of them.
- Silva managing to survive cyanide poisoning could be a reference to how rats can develop resistance to some poisons.
- It is explicitly stated that the explosion at MI6 headquarters, done by remotely tampering with various systems including the natural gas lines (not entirely unlike how the narrator's apartment is destroyed in Fight Club), should have been impossible for a variety of reasons. Silva must have had an in on some major work to either build or renovate the headquarters at some point, specifically rigging it so that Everything Is Online, even things that had no reason to be. Easiest way to find the back door to a security system? Install it yourself.
- This concept is reflected by Q when Bond asks if he can bypass Silva's security protocols: he invented them.
- Eve says she's not cut out for fieldwork. Now, considering her action in Istanbul and in the Parliament, that seems weird. But then, early on Istanbul, we see the difference between her and Bond. Whereas Bond is willing to abandon a fellow MI6 officer to death (albeit not without anger and regret), Eve cannot proceed to keep shooting at Patrice after she shot Bond. (Mind you, her rifle is automatic!)
- The Arc Words "Sometimes the old ways are best" not only speak to Bond's facing his own troubled past and the continued usefulness of both MI6 and Britain as a whole in the modern world, but also the return of the Bond franchise to the simpler, more hardboiled style of the early Connery films, a choice which has been lauded in both Casino Royale and Skyfall.
- The fact that Kincaid, after handily dropping two mooks during the siege of Skyfall, drops a Bond One-Liner. Where do you think Bond himself picked up the habit?
- Love the idea, but would that mean that Bond had watched Kincade kill a bunch of people as a child?
- Maybe he made those quips after shooting pheasants or something.
- Well, that could be a part of why Bond says, "I've always hated this place."
- Love the idea, but would that mean that Bond had watched Kincade kill a bunch of people as a child?
- The introductory scene with Q could be seen as an attack at the people who have been criticising the Craig films for not having Q's sparkly little gadgets that have become tradition with every passing Bond movie before Casino Royale (2006). Beginning with when we find out who Q really is; a young and rather hipstery looking man who doesn't look like he spends much of his time near a piece of technology (and even throws in the obligatory tea reference). And then we find out that the most high-tech gadget in the whole movie is... Bond's gun and a radio. Bond's reaction to this seems to mirror the audience's reaction upon seeing the scene in the trailer: "It's not exactly Christmas, is it?!" to which Q correctly points out that the audience has gotten too used to the rather generic action movie feel that the series has taken on since You Only Live Twice: "Well, what do you expect, an exploding pen?" Essentially, the writers are telling the audience, "You didn't like the gadget-filled Die Another Day, yet you're begging for Q and the gadgets. Here you go, here's your stupid quartermaster." And hilariously enough, when the audience sees just how cleverly both gadgets are used, they realise Bond really is a high-tech gadget in and of himself, realising just how far Bond managed to go in the previous two films.
- In addition, people have pointed out that the radio Bond receives is much larger than the one he uses in Goldfinger. This could also be seen as an attack on people who want the "good old days" of Sean Connery all over again.
- Arguably going back to Q's roots too. During Desmond Llewelyn's first appearance as Q in From Russia with Love he just gave Bond the attaché case with built-in throwing knives, .22 sniper rifle, money, and tiny gas bombs. Rather spartan in comparison to the goodies he would later give to 007.
- When escaping from the now-burning manor, Kincade and M go to the chapel and Silva spots their flashlight beam. It seems like a straight case of Idiot Ball that M would make such an amateurish mistake, except that, when you think about it, it's not really a mistake. She was wounded and the moor's terrain was too rough to go over without using the light (Silva only makes it because he's following them). They really didn't have an option.
- When Bond and Q first meet, they discuss a painting of an old sailing warship being towed away by a smaller, newer steamship while Q hints at Bond being an old warship himself. The final scene in the new MI6 headquarters shows, hanging on a wall, a painting of a large line of old sailing warships, leaning on the Reconstruction tone of the film.
- Silva's plan to escape custody, as noted in Fridge Logic above, is illogical and impractical and leaves too much to chance. In other words, it's a stereotypical Bond villain plan.
- When Bond first sees the TV news report (from either Wolf Blitzer or Hew Edwards) about the MI6 bombing, the broadcaster says that six people were killed. We immediately cut to MI6, and M is looking at a total of eight coffins, not six. It looks like a continuity error at first, but in hindsight, you realise that there's no continuity error at all: two critically injured survivors died at the hospital.
- Look closely at Bond's shooting in the courtroom scene. Yeah, he takes down a couple of guys, but it's not exactly accurate. You'd attribute it to Bond's shoulder issues... until you notice that Bond shoots fast and inaccurately when Mallory's going for a pistol, and again when they're getting M out. He's laying down cover fire to suppress Silva.
- When Bond first meets Silva, he reads out the psychological profile on Bond, which indicates "unresolved childhood trauma." At the end of the film, Bond is of sound mind and ready to return to duty. Why? He resolved his childhood trauma, by burning Skyfall (which he associates with his parents' death) to the ground.
- Moneypenny introduces herself in an inversion of the Bond, James Bond trope: "My name's Eve. Eve Moneypenny."
- M's real name, Olivia Mansfield, is practically a traditional Bond Girl-esque name, only this time it's meaningful instead of absurd. Fitting, as in many ways the film is actually about her.
- And as a bonus, it is a reference to the second head of the real MI6, Sir Mansfield Smith-Cummings, who signed all his memos "C," a tradition kept by his successors to this day. Ian Fleming named his head of MI6 "M" in his honor.
- After 20 some Bond films opening with a sniper scope following 007 only for him to shoot the sniper before a shot can be made, a sniper finally gets one on Bond. And it's Moneypenny.
- What is Moneypenny best known for in the franchise? Consistently shooting Bond down.
- Parts of M's speech isn't just about the importance of MI6 and the 00 program, it's also referring to the previous Bond actors, which is rather fitting as this film is celebrating the franchise's 50th anniversary.
- "One equal temper of heroic hearts" Sean Connery gave a decidedly more heroic portrayal compared to Ian Fleming's depiction in the novels, and set the standard for all of his successors. George Lazenby on the other hand gave viewers a previously unseen, very human side of Bond at the end of his only film.
- "Made weak by time" Roger Moore already considered quitting after his fifth movie, feeling that he was getting too old to play Bond convincingly. However, he stuck around for two more films, which ended up being the worst in his entire run.
- "and fate," Timothy Dalton only starred in two movies, as a lawsuit grounded the franchise for 6 years, which eventually led to Dalton himself resigning from the role.
- "but strong in will" Pierce Brosnan gave new life to the franchise with his first turn as Bond, and when his films became mediocre (ending with him being fired from the role after Die Another Day), Daniel Craig took over the role and his tenure as Bond took the franchise in another direction.
- Why is M's political position on thin ice? It was that way in the Daniel Craig films; in Casino Royale she was complaining about dealing with the fallout from Bond's attack on the embassy, and in Quantum of Solace she confronted an administration who was willing to work with a cartel that would provide oil to Britain. In this film, Silva's attacks seemed to be the last straw for her rivals to bring her up for a hearing.
- Mallory states that hiding in the shadows isn't a spy's job anymore, but he's looking at the actions spying brings. M knows that hiding in the shadows is the essence of spying (surveillance, sneaking around, etc.) and that while Bond is overly stylish and flamboyant, in the end he too has to hide and keep things hidden for the sake of the world.
- Mallory shows he's learned his lesson when he decides not to inform the Prime Minister about Silva tracking M.
- Silva was a former MI6 agent. If you think on it, only a trained member of MI6 could bomb its headquarters effectively. M was right when she said it had to be "someone who knows us, who's one of us."
- Silva's server banks are kept out in the open in what appears to be a dusty and probably humid area. Due to the sea air, not long after he is captured and then later escapes, the servers would quickly break down in such conditions. They were only for show, Silva intended on not being there long, captured or not. The only piece of tech that was worth anything was the one thing taken from the base, his laptop, which facilitates his escape.
