Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Skyfall (2012)

One of the more recent installments in the James Bond series

Summary

-When M's past comes back to haunt her, James Bond's loyalty to her is tested. He must track down the threat when MI6 comes under attack, no matter what






Cast

-Daniel Craig: James Bond

-Dame Judi Dench: M

-Naomie Harris: Eve

-Javier Bardem: Silva

-Ralph Fiennes: Gareth Mallory

-Berenice Marlohe: Severine

-Albert Finney: Kincade

-Ben Whishaw: Q

-Rory Kinnear: Tanner

-Ola Rapace: Patrice

Did You Know?

-In all of the James Bond films, this is only the second film in which James Bond suffers a gunshot wound. The first was 1965's Thunderball during the Junkanoo chase

-That was not a stunt double jumping and sliding down the escalator rail. That was Daniel Craig himself

-On M's desk, there is a bulldog draped in a Union Jack (English/British flag to everyone else). These porcelain figures were created by Royal Doulton during the years of WWII to inspire patriotism. These figures made another appearance in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Solder Spy. The figures were on the desk of Control (Sir John Hurt), who was the head of MI6. He had two Royal Doulton bulldogs on his desk

-The passport used by James Bond was not a prop, but an actual authentic passport issued by the British Home Office. Everything on the passport, from the photo to the jacket, are authentic. The only thing keeping it from being fully authentic and able to be used is, as a security measure, a special set of information encoded on it to flag it for improper use. The details listed include: Name-John Adam Bryce, Date of Birth-16 December 1968, Sex-Male, Place of Birth-London, Date of issue-22 June 2012, Date of Expiry-22 August 2029

-Daniel Craig did many of his own stunts

-This film is said to be the most successful film in all of the James Bond films

-Hashima Island, located nine and a half miles from Nagasaki, was the location of Raoul Silva's lair. It was once a thriving mining area. But due to overcrowding and poor work conditions, the mines here were shut down

-When recording the theme song, Adele was pregnant at the time. The pregnancy hormones caused her voice to go deeper than usual

-A few days after the movie debuted, an ad was placed by the real MI6, the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service). The ad was placed with The Times and The Sunday Times. The headline was "If the qualities that make a good spy were obvious, they wouldn't make a very good spy." The purpose of the ad was to debunk any mysteries about espionage. The ad also went on to say things about real-life spy work not being "high-speed chases and shoot-outs", that an average spy is not "a globe-trotting secret agent", and psychological profiles of real life agents show they are typically "far more ordinary". The ad destroys the negative stereotype suggesting all spies are white males, saying "the truth is, we don't care what sex you are, or where you're from, as long as you're British." This hilarious ad is considered, to this day, one of the biggest recruitment ads for MI6. But, keeping to true espionage work, the ad does warn of upholding utmost secrecy and strict confidentiality, advising potential recruits to not disclose they are making an application to anyone

-The house in which M (Dame Judi Dench) lives in was the former home of James Bond composer John Barry. It was thought this would be a loving, heartfelt tribute to the man who composed the iconic theme. John Barry died in 2011 and his house would be used as a tribute

-The suggestive scenes where James Bond meets Raoul Silva, in what appears to be a homosexual encounter caused laughter between Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem. This helped reduce tension between the two

-Naomi Harris spent six weeks with a professional barber to learn how to properly use a razor blade. For the razor shaving scene, she practiced on members of the crew

-This is the first James Bond film to be filmed in China, specifically Shanghai. The first Bond film to be filmed in China would have been License to Kill in 1989, but the Chinese government were too restrictive and thus, never got filmed in China

-In the scene where Bond takes M to where he secretly stores his Aston Martin was filmed in December 2011 and also happened to be Dame Judi Dench's 77th birthday. She was given a birthday cake at 4am in a parking lot

-While preparing for his role, Javier Bardem had the script changed in European Spanish so he could understand it better. This showed director Sam Mendes that Bardem was committed to doing a good job

-In the iconic gun barrel opening scene, James Bond is seen wearing a gray suit instead of the usual black suit

-Berenice Marlohe, who played the main Bond girl in the film, said that Daniel Craig was shy and hesitant to do a love scene, specifically their love scene in the shower. Marlohe said "He was very shy, and when he saw me entering the shower, he was like 'Oh my God'. He tried to keep his underpants on for the shower scene, but I said 'No, come on, don't be shy. I will do anything to make you comfortable.'"

-This is the first film in all of the James Bond films that the F word is heard and said. M remarks that she "really f---ed this up."

-The hunting rifle Bond is seen firing from the hip is an extremely powerful elephant gun known as a .500 caliber Nitro Express. It's considered, by many gun experts, as a foolish thing to do, firing it from the hip as Bond did. The target of the gun would not just fall down. A shot placed in the direct center of the target would explode the whole chest cavity and blow the target's arms right off of the torso

-Naomie Harris' mother is from Jamaica, where James Bond author Sir Ian Fleming wrote many of his James Bond novels

-Permission had to be obtained from the London Mayor's office to shut down Vauxhall Bridge to film the scene where M witnesses a terrorist attack on the MI6 building

-During the opening titles, several daggers are seen plunging into the ground. One of them is a Fairburn-Sykes dagger, issued to British Special Forces from WWII to present day. It even inspired a type of fighting style known as Fairburn-Sykes

No comments:

Post a Comment