In Casino Royale, why did Vesper Lynd commit suicide ...

why did vesper lynd die

why did vesper lynd die - win

What we actually know about Madeleine’s secret

POSSIBLE SPOILERS
Many have been speculating exactly what Madeleine Swann’s secret is in No Time To Die. I wanted to make a post with all the concrete details the trailers and other official sources have given us.
First of all, we know that the Noh mask we see Safin wearing in the trailers has a significance to Madeleine as early as the Matera scenes, which will likely be the first in the film. She cries when she receives the box with the broken mask in it, the same mask we see Safin wear as he fires a gun at someone under the ice. This links her secret directly with Safin. What is interesting too is that in Noh theatre the main character often is a ghost. “Faces from my past return...”
Bond knows in Matera that Madeleine has some secret but he does not know what it is. She asks him “Why would I betray you?” in the DB5 as they are being chased in Matera. Even by the time they are in London at MI6 Blofeld taunts James with “When her secret finds its way out, it’ll be the death of you.” Bond by that point still does not know, but Madeleine, Safin, and Blofeld all know independently.
Madeleine in Spectre tells James that a man came to her home one night with the intention of killing her father but she killed him first. Her father of course was Mr. White, the man responsible for the deal that cost Vesper Lynd her life.
In the song trailer, some clever editing shows both Bond and Madeleine with notes. Bond stands before a tomb with a burning note that reads “Forgive Me.” I am aware of articles that talk about unofficial details regarding the tomb, but here I want to focus on official. The tomb, if in Matera and has an emotional significance to Bond, would have to be Vesper’s. She is the only one who could be buried in Italy, and it very well was likely James himself who buried her considering she was an orphan without any family. If the tomb sets off a chain of events that allows Bond to know that Madeleine has a secret, this must link Vesper, Mr. White, Madeleine, Safin, and Blofeld together.
Madeleine would have been 20 years old around the events of Casino Royale and was estranged from her father by this point. Vesper herself was 25 when she died. I think this precludes Madeleine’s secret from having anything to do with Vesper’s death. Also, in Spectre, Blofeld uses the tape of Mr. White’s suicide to torture Madeleine. If she was a part of SPECTRE, he would not have done so. Blofeld hated Mr. White because White was tired of Blofeld’s evil games.
The biggest question I still have is what is important enough to Bond to be “the death of him.” His relationships with Vesper and (Judi Dench’s) M, sure, but the man already has lost both of them. On top of that he is an orphan and his ancestral home was blown to pieces. Madeleine is the only thing he loves now.
So, from all evidence we have currently, we know why Madeleine’s secret likely isn’t:
• She did not help her father orchestrate Vesper’s betrayal to save Yusuf.
• She is not secretly a SPECTRE agent or the “real” head of SPECTRE.
What it likely could be:
• Madeleine and Safin are brother and sister. Mr. White’s children chose different paths, one becoming fully dedicated to crime and the other dedicated to living honorably. (Vesper?)
• Madeleine contributed to Safin’s science programs before the events of Spectre but did not know he was developing something malicious. She knows who the kidnapped scientist is and that is what links Bond, Felix, and Paloma together to find the scientist. (Vesper?)
The piece I cannot understand yet is Vesper.
If y’all would like to add anything, please feel free! This is all just what I have observed from watching each trailer too many times and analyzing it all. April 10 cannot come soon enough!
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Social Proof: The Key to Charisma and Attraction

One of my friends used to work in a coffee shop. You know, one of those little indie places where hipsters come to eschew the big chains. The pay wasn't very good, but her boss said that she could put out a tip jar as long as she didn't ask customers to contribute to it.
So she did. She took an empty jar from home, found a post-it note, and wrote on it with big permanent marker: "TIPS."
The first day, no one even noticed it.
She tried a bunch of things, moving the jar forward, putting it on top of the register, even changing the style of marker she used. Occasionally someone dropped in a buck. But she still couldn't just point to it or ask people to tip her.
Then, one day, when she picked up someone else's evening shift, one of her co-workers showed her the secret to getting more tips without asking for them. He took out a five-dollar bill and a few singles from his wallet and dropped them in the tip jar at the beginning of their shift.
Customers saw the jar, saw that people had been dropping money in, and figured that they were expected to do the same.
By the end of that day, the tip jar was almost full of ones and fives.
When it comes to your social life, you can approach people in one of two ways: with your tip jar empty or you tip jar already full of cash. Which do you think is better?

Social Proof: A Definition

Social proof is a concept that goes back to Robert Cialdini's "Persuasion" and beyond. It's "the oldest trick in the book." It's why Gatorade pays millions to athletes to drink their sugar water, and it's why people keep on buying it. We tend to value things based on their perceived social value, and often not on their actual value.
On a more basic level, social proof simply refers to the idea that people judge social value based on social cues.
Consider this parable from Game of Thrones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31o-Sji2Hr4&safe=active
Varys: Three great men sit in a room. A king, a priest, and a rich man. Between them stands a common sellsword. Each great man bids the sellsword kill the other two. Who lives, who dies?
Tyrion: Depends on the sellsword.
Varys: Does it? He has neither crown, nor gold, nor favor with the gods.
Tyrion: He has the sword - the power of life and death.
Varys: But if it's swordsmen who rule, why do we pretend kings hold all the power? [Spoilers spoilers]
Tyrion: I've decided I don't like riddles.
Varys: Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall.
Replace "power" with "being charismatic, suave, or 'cool'" and you begin to see what's going on here.
How about an illustration?
Consider the Dos Equis guy.
Same guy, different contexts. Different social proof.

How to Increase Your Basic Social Proof

Basically, all you have to do to build basic social proof from the ground up is to talk to people in a friendly way, and do it a lot:
Of course, now we're touching on what I believe to be the single most powerful element of being "suave," "charismatic," or whatever you want to call it: innate social proof.

Innate Social Proof: The "Girlfriend" Paradox

Ever see the movie Shallow Hal?
In the movie, Hal starts out as shallow. He loves only beautiful women, so he's a little pushy and desperate around them. In particular, he goes on a date with his neighbor across the hall Jill, who finally rebuffs his advances.
Then, Hal is hypnotized by Tony Robbins into seeing only the inner beauty in women. He starts having massive success with women because he's lowered his standards even though he doesn't know it...he's capable of dating anyone because he stopped getting in his own way. He finds Gwyneth Paltrow's character and comes to ignore Jill...who's so turned on by his newfound nonchalance that she eventually asks him out.
Shallow Hal didn't necessarily have a ton of "social proof" because he wasn't living it up with beautiful women a la the Dos Equis guy. But what he did have was a ton of innate social proof, because in his mind, he had all the beautiful women he could handle. He no longer cared about Jill. He forgave her for rejecting him and went about his life.
She doesn't see Hal around beautiful women...but the fact that he acts as though his life is full of beautiful women is enough for her. She thinks, "there's something changed about this guy..."
That's innate social proof. Social proof you don't see, but you feel.
Okay, yeah, Shallow Hal is just a movie. But it's a pretty common phenomenon with guys who have a girlfriend: the "girlfriend paradox."
The girlfriend paradox: When you have a girlfriend, you lose the neediness of looking at other women as potential mates. Suddenly, attractive women seem to respond well to you. "Dammit," you think. "Why can't women do this when I'm single?"
Because there's a subtle shift in your vibe that you didn't have when you were single.
The "girlfriend paradox" is a consequence of innate social proof: your own behaviors. Because you're no longer needy or overtly seeking the approval of attractive women, they can "smell" the fact that you have other options...and, of course, a guy with options is more attractive than a guy without options.
Virgins of the world, are you ready for a bombshell?
You do not need to have a girlfriend for this to work.
Innate social proof is all about what you bring to any given interaction at any point. Consider our example of the Dos Equis guy above...in the second picture, he still has more "social proof" than in the first picture simply because of how he's presenting himself.
This is why I tell you to be as normal as possible around beautiful women. This is why "be yourself" is good dating advice.
When you approach women with no neediness, they automatically assume you have something else going on in your life. If you walk up to a supermodel being the same awesome guy you are with your best friend, she goes "oh, this guy doesn't need my approval, he acts like he already has the approval of beautiful women in his life. There must be beautiful women in his life."
Innate social proof.
Jason Treu, in an online presentation, once made this point: if you already had the five most beautiful women constantly texting you, asking you out, and buying you gifts, how would you behave when you entered new social interactions?
The typical fears and neediness would wash away. Left behind would only be you: your normal, cool, relaxed self...and maybe, since you already feel fulfilled in this area of your life, you might spice up interactions with a little bit of fun, just to amuse yourself.
So many women are approached constantly by guys who place them on a pedestal; to those lonely and creepy guys, this woman represents a singular chance to rescue themselves out of loneliness and desparation. But every once in a while, a guy approaches them that doesn't have this air of neediness about him; he comes to the interaction feeling "pre-fulfilled." Something is different about him. He gives off the vibe that he already has what she's selling, and so she assumes that that's the case.
It isn't just with women. People make these same assumptions thanks to social proof...innate or otherwise. It's the way we're wired, as social creatures, because we don't always have a lot of information to go on.
What information are you sending out to the world?

How to Increase Your Innate Social Proof

Basically all of GetSuave is about this very subject, but let's throw a few basic points out there:

What Social Proof is Not

It is not a reason to talk to only "high-value" people. Remember: innate social proof works wonders. You don't have to have Kate Upton on your arm to be considered cool; all you have to do is treat everyone around you well and people will automatically perceive the coolness that already exists. Do not use the concept of social proof as an excuse to stop being kind and generous to everyone.
Social proof is not bragging. It never works like that. You can't "brag" your way to social proof. Social proof has to be real, demonstrable, or innate to the way you do things. Social proof is dancing with a beautiful woman; it's not saying "I dance with a lot of beautiful women!" Don't try to "hack" your way to social proof. Live it.
Social proof is not being someone you're not. It's easy for people to tell when you're being genuine and when you're not, which is why I place such an emphasis on being normal and relaxed. But it's okay. Yes, you might make some mistakes when trying to "act cool" when talking to others, but sometimes doing it isn't always as easy as talking about it. But keep striving to be as normal and friendly as possible as a general rule and trust that social proof - innate and otherwise - will do the rest.
tl;dr The rich get richer. This is true in social value as it is in finances.
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Let's play a game: Fixing SPECTRE (X-post /r/truefilm)

There have been a fair number of really intelligent and thoughtful critiques (1, 2, 3) of Spectre since it came out, and I think it’d be fun to see if we can pick the movie apart and reassemble it to make it great.
My suggestion follows (with the obvious caveat that it’s totally arrogant to assume that I would have written a better movie originally, etc. This is just an exercise for fun). It’s rather long. Also if you like pictures and pretty formatting, you can find this post on Medium.

The Problems

The Story

Everything leading up to the infamous “cuckoo” line remains much the same: Bond kills Sciarra in Mexico, weathers New!M’s annoyance, teases Q, debriefs Moneypenny (we don’t see the faded picture brought back from Skyfall), and drives off to Rome with his cheeky grin (he’s cocky this time around; he’s beaten his fair share of supervillains, he’s at the top of his game). He nails Sciarra’s widow, tells the bouncer he’s Mickey Mouse, etc.
At the Spectre meeting we have our first change. The leaders of Spectre are no longer faceless suits; now there are people among them wearing bishop’s robes, decorated military uniforms, etc. There are a few police, as well, but no one seems concerned.
Instead of a business meeting, it almost feels like a party. People are drinking, laughing, talking shop. Bond draws a couple weird looks, but they’re not worried. Waltz is moving around the crowd, shaking hands, totally calm. He runs into Bond.
“James, isn’t it?” he says. “I was hoping we’d meet you tonight.” Bond doesn’t recognize him. He plays coy, and Waltz shuts him up. “We’ve got very special entertainment coming up. You won’t want to miss it.”
Bond is nonplussed. He hears a few people mention their business interests—trafficking of the sex and drug varieties, who’s going to kill the Pale King now, etc.—and his hackles are up.
Waltz draws everyone’s attention. “We have special guests tonight. If everyone would please welcome MI6 agent James Bond.” Applause and laughter from the crowd. Bond weathers it pretty well. “And, to cheer her up on this dreary evening, we have invited dear Lucia Sciarra.”
Doors open and Lucia is led in. She’s beat up. The group claps politely. Bond looks briefly shocked but keeps his cool.
Waltz makes a few jokes about Lucia being the sort of woman who doesn’t stay single for long, the sheets never get cold, etc. He gives Bond the cheesiest grin and then one of the henchmen shoots Lucia in the back. Waltz is still grinning.
Bond loses it and tries to fight his way forward; henchmen are on him in a hot second. He tears through several of them, and then Mr. Hinx has him in a headlock and three dudes have guns trained on him. Waltz talks to Lucia as she dies. “Your husband helped our organization become what it is today,” he says. “But we both know how easily he can be replaced.” He tilts his head at Hinx, indicating that they have found someone to assassinate the Pale King.
Bond slips away by the skin of his teeth and calls Moneypenny on the road, while Hinx follows him. This time, rather than asking her to search up Franz Oberhauser, he demands to know who the hell these people are. They meet with no attempt at secrecy; they murder a woman while surrounded by cops. What’s going on?
...I can’t fix the chase scene.
Back in London, M, Q, and C attend the vote for Nine Eyes. This plays out as before with the single opposing vote and M grilling C afterward, but this time C is slightly less obnoxious, more idealistic. He seems to believe that the 00 program is not only obsolete, but actively harmful. M gives his inspiring bit about the value of men in the field who make the horrible call of whether someone gets to live or die. C replies that Nine Eyes will be able to see the entire world in a glance; MI6 will see terrorist attacks before the perpetrator can buy his first barrel of explosives. But a man in the field can be bought, misled, or simply insubordinate. He plays Bond’s phone conversation, then quips that he’s not overawed by the “one man with a gun” model of intelligence.
Bond meets with Mr. White and gets his lead for Madeleine and L’Americain. When he tells Swann about her father, she angrily orders him out—and immediately starts preparing to leave once he does.
Bond gives Q the octopus ring. He sees Madeleine leave, but she doesn’t get far; Hinx arrives and captures her, leading to another chase scene I can’t fix.
After neutralizing Hinx, Bond and Swann meet with Q, who has not turned up much with the octopus ring except that there have been others like it, usually found on the bodies of terrorists. Madeleine jumps in to serve as Ms. Exposition: they’re all working for Spectre, a shadowy group made up of incredibly powerful, ambitious people. Q recognizes the name, but argues it’s an urban legend. If a counterintelligence agency existed and opposed MI6, surely they would know about it. Madeleine agrees. “Your superiors do know about it,” she says. “And there’s nothing they can do.” Spectre’s leaders have bought all the right people; even when some of them are imprisoned or killed, more rise up to take their place.
Spectre brings out the worst in the human species, she tells them. And it can’t be stopped; not with bullets, not with brave men. Their leader, Franz Oberhauser, is not some lynchpin to be removed. The worst they could do is inconvenience the organization.
Bond brushes this off; he and Madeleine make for L’Americain. Madeleine is clearly shell-shocked from her ordeal so far, and takes a shower. She makes it very clear to Bond that he won’t be joining her.
They find Mr. White’s stash of clues and head to the desert by train. Meanwhile, in London, the holdout African vote swings in favor of Nine Eyes. M confronts C, heavily implying that C somehow orchestrated a terrorist attack to further his goals. C is outraged that M would accuse him of something so despicable. “If this is the kind of logic the 00 program uses to ‘get its man,’” he says, “I feel proud to have ended it.”
Bond and Swann talk on the train, but this time there is more to their conversation than Bond extolling the virtues of the Sig Sauer. Madeleine pegs Bond as a maladjusted young man who struggles to connect because of numerous failed relationships in his past. She sees right through him; she’s a trained psychologist, she reminds him, and her father was an assassin. She can read Bond like a trashy magazine.
Bond—and the astute portion of the audience—recognizes the parallels to his first conversation with Vesper. He changes the subject back to guns.
Hinx attacks Bond and Swann on the train. They beat him; this time Madeleine manages to get a meaningful hit in against Hinx, rather than being a two-second distraction. Relieved and exhilarated from the fight, the two leads get busy in their train compartment.
They arrive at Oberhauser’s compound. The mind games play out much the same way; they’re welcomed in with no problems, Bond gives up his gun, Swann finds a dress on her bed. Bond finds pictures of M and Vesper in his room.
Oberhauser welcomes Swann and Bond to his meteor room. Instead of waxing eloquent about how James entered his life and stole Daddy’s love, this time he’s simply pissed about the times Bond mucked his plans. Quantum existed as a subsidiary of Spectre, and Bond’s successes against them have made Waltz’s life troublesome.
He shows off his panopticon room and brags about being connected to all the information in the world—we see Bond blink, making an intuitive leap, but he says nothing. He plays the clip of Bond and White; Bond urges Madeleine to look away. She does, but Oberhauser grabs her face and forces her roughly to stare at the screen. Bond tries to interfere, but doesn’t get far before a billy club brings him down.
Bond wakes up in the torture room. Oberhauser notes that Spectre has a very specific policy about troublesome people: buy them or remove them. Mr. Hinx was supposed to fix the problem, but now….
“It has been a long time since I involved myself,” Oberhauser says. “I don’t want to get lax, you know? Old and fat and lazy? How boring.”
He delivers a monologue about torture that is markedly similar to the one in the film, this time revolving around Lucia Sciarra instead of the nameless Spectre agent. “There was no one inside her skull.” He begins to torture Bond with the needles. Screaming. Blood. For at least one shot, we’re inside Bond’s head as the room seems to tip sideways and Oberhauser gloats about how easy it is to disrupt Bond’s sense of balance. Bond looks ready to puke.
Oberhauser leers at Swann as he tortures Bond. “Do you love him? What would you give me for his freedom? Would you take off all your clothes and dance? Give me all your earthly possessions? Sell me national secrets?”
Madeleine maintains a stiff upper lip and tells Oberhauser to go to hell. Oberhauser takes it in stride and tells her matter-of-factly that he will be removing Bond’s ability to recognize faces, so she had better say goodbye. Bond gets the watch to her; it explodes in time to save him from further torture.
Swann and Bond begin fighting their way out of the compound, though Bond’s balance is thrown all to hell and it’s making his aim poor. Madeleine takes the gun—not enthusiastically—and Bond guides her strategy: “shoot there, shoot there, wait. He’s cornered, another one will be hiding there.” They put bullets in a number of strategic places, rather than a single oil barrel. The compound goes up in flames.
They escape via helicopter, and Bond fills in Swann (and the few members of the audience who haven’t caught on yet) that C is one of Spectre’s agents, and they need to shut him—and Nine Eyes—down as soon as possible.
They meet up with Q, M, and Moneypenny in London and debrief as before. As they mobilize, Madeleine admits to Bond that she’s been ignoring something for too long: she wants no part in this life. She understands if James can’t give it up. “I wish you could.” She leaves.
Bond & Co. hash out a plan of attack as they drive, but midway through Bond receives a cryptic text from Madeleine’s number, from which he deduces that she’s been captured and taken to Old!MI6. He sends M, Q, and Moneypenny to handle C at New!MI6 while he tears off to save Swann.
Meanwhile, at New!MI6, C is working late. There’s a prominently placed countdown clock for the Nine Eyes launch. He gets a notification from the computer—it’s found aberrant data. It shows him assorted video clips of Madeleine’s capture on the road and her being taken to Old!MI6 and tied up in a room. He tells the computer to notify police. The system confirms the police will arrive in five minutes, then informs C that the demolitions in the building have been set to a timer inconsistent with regulation; the system flags it as highly suspicious. C looks out his window at the condemned building, and sets his jaw. He leaves MI6 at speed.
M, Q, and Moneypenny arrive moments later and shut down Nine Eyes.
Bond arrives at Old!MI6 and finds the graffitied arrows to guide him. Oberhauser appears (uninjured) behind the bulletproof glass (gotta get that iconic shot…that didn’t end up in the movie). Oberhauser sneers that Bond has proven more frustrating than he could have predicted; Oberhauser can’t simply kill him anymore. No, Bond has to be punished. Oberhauser taunts him with the opportunity to save Madeleine or himself before calmly leaving. Bond is furious but only for a moment. He runs back into the building, opening door after door, screaming Madeleine’s name.
We jump to a door opening to see Madeleine tied up, gagged, surrounded by wires. She’s horrified to see that her rescuer is not Bond, but C. He unties her, faltering from nerves, and explains anxiously that a terrorist has got control of the demolition in the building, it’s going to be blowing up shortly, and they both need to get out of there.
Swann does not seem convinced that C is friendly. The moment she’s free she sprints out of the room. C follows her, looking confused and more than a little terrified.
Bond and Madeleine run into each other and have no time for romance. “There’s a bomb—” “I know, this way.” As Madeleine runs to their timely exit via rope net, Bond spots C running down the corridor. C is relieved, and calls out to 007. Still believing C to be one of Oberhauser’s allies, Bond shoots him. C falls to the ground. He begins to bleed out, and mutters, darkly, “One man with a gun.”
Bond and Madeleine escape via boat as the building explodes. They shoot down Oberhauser’s helicopter, and Bond gets his moment of being The Good Guy by refusing to shoot Oberhauser dead in the face. Oberhauser threatens that as long as he lives, he will seek ways to claw the soul out of Bond’s life. Bond is mighty confident that this won’t turn out well for Oberhauser. M and Q arrive and arrest Oberhauser while Bond throws his gun away and walks into the sunset with Madeleine Swann.
We skip the scene of Bond collecting his Signature Cool Car from MI6 for two reasons: one, we’ve already shown him heading off for romantic bliss with a smart, capable woman who gets him and we don’t need to do it again.
Two, there’s one more scene before this movie’s done:
We’re at another Spectre office party. The mood is more somber than the last one. Someone offers a toast to Franz Oberhauser, who helped make their organization what it is today, and who will be replaced, but only with great difficulty; the Spectre members raise their glasses respectfully. The toast-maker goes on to say that in loss, there is always gain, and today, they welcome “a man who has come back from death and seen the entire world in a glance. In his new life, he has taken a new name, and new purpose: to destroy the people who murdered him in cold blood.”
He stands aside to reveal C, bound to a wheelchair, with a horrid scar over one eye. “Please welcome Mr. Ernst Blofeld.”
END
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The James Bond Franchise Wrap Up

Greetings all! Many thanks to the countless people who contributed to 10 months of fantastic discussions about one of the most iconic (and one of my favorite) film franchises of all time. This is just a little recap/debrief/wrap up article where I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on the series as a whole. Additionally, I've done some more ranking and list making because it's fun and, let's be honest, there just aren't enough lists in the world! So let's open the discussion up and air out any final thoughts on the ongoing adventures of 007 & Co. Fair warning, I will use spoiler tags throughout my article for those of you who might not yet have seen Spectre, however be mindful of the comments.

Ranking the Movies

First thing's first. Here are all of my reviews and their assigned objective rankings.

Film Score
Casino Royale 94
GoldenEye 86
Skyfall 86
Goldfinger 85
On Her Majesty's Secret Service 82
The Spy Who Loved Me 80
The World is Not Enough 79
From Russia With Love 76
The Living Daylights 75
You Only Live Twice 73
Spectre (spoilers) 73
License to Kill 72
Dr. No 70
The Man with the Golden Gun 68
Quantum of Solace 68
Tomorrow Never Dies 68
Live and Let Die 66
Thunderball 61
A View to a Kill 59
Moonraker 59
For Your Eyes Only 55
Octopussy 48
Diamonds Are Forever 37
Die Another Day 30

For a fun little experiment, I wanted to see how I ranked them in comparison to other "Rank the Bond Film" lists. My sources included Rotten Tomatoes (based on their freshness rankings), IMDb (based on their user scores), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Forbes, Timeout New York, E! Online, Moviefone, AMC Filmsite, BuzzFeed, an /JamesBond thread, and MRQE. Here are the results.

First, I've organized them by release date and shown what their scores are on the various websites.

Second, I figured out the average score for each film with the highest and lowest score for each film thrown out to eliminate outliers (my scores are not included in this calculation) as well as determine the standard deviation for each film (i.e., how consistently each film was ranked).

Finally, here is a visualization of how each site ranked the films.

Some observations:

• No real surprises in the rankings. Casino Royale, Goldfinger, From Russia, and Skyfall all nabbed top spots. The World is Not Enough, Moonraker, and A View to a Kill took the dubious honor of bottom feeders.

• Skyfall was the most consistently ranked film (averaging spot #4 on most lists). License to Kill was the most inconsistently ranked film. No surprise either. Dalton's films split opinions upon release and have aged just well enough to be considered decent but still stand out in such a way as to turn some viewers off entirely. Without it's highest (3) and lowest (22) scores, LTK still ranked as high as 8 and as low as 22. So it was either a top-10 film or the second-worst.

• I still just don't get the hate for The World is Not Enough. Truth be told, this was the one film that actually inspired me to do all of this. I saw one or two lists that had it ranked so low. I had to see if there was anyone that agreed with me that it is actually a top 10 Bond film. Turns out there isn't. In fact, the closet I got was Moviefone who ranked it as #13.

• I don't know what Forbes is smoking. There is no way that For Your Eyes Only is the second greatest Bond film of all time. Lunacy. Similarly, I am shocked at Peter Travers' ranking for GoldenEye at 18 -- especially considering he then put Die Another Day at 10!!

• And speaking of DAD, I was legitimately surprised that it was generally considered to be a more middling film, rather than a universally hated one.

• This only confirms my belief that the Bond movies are some of the most divisive films of all time. This must surely be due to a variety of factors, not least of which is that a film series that spans 50+ years and that varies so greatly in tone from film to film will allow for people to have wildly diverse opinions of each era of film. It can all depend on which films they saw first or which ones they grew up with. I mean that sounds obvious, but just look at how much deviation there is from list to list. I mean no film came even close to receiving unanimous rankings across any of these platforms -- even Skyfall varied from 1 to 6.

Ranking the Songs

I also decided to take a look at one of the most fun aspects of the 007 franchise: the theme songs. I will be very up front about the fact that I am not a musician, I know nothing about musical theory, etc. I am just a layman, listening to these songs a few times over and making my general observations. Oh and it's worth noting that I did not include Dr. No on this list. The opening titles begin with the standard Bond Theme song, which since it was adopted into every other film I didn't feel like that really counted, and then transitions into a rendition of Three Blind Mice, which also doesn't count.

Ranking Song Artist Comments
23 For Your Eyes Only Sheena Easton Overly synth-y. Just another sappy love ballad. I just don't understand how this kind of songs was thought to be a spectacular start to a Bond film. Ugh.
22 All Time High Rita Coolidge Awful, schmaltzy saxophone intro. Same garbage as the previous three films (Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only).
21 Nobody Does it Better Carly Simon Sounds like something you'd hear at 3am in a piano bar. Not sure what it's doing in a Bond film. Can't stand the vocals. At least this song has a decent band swell that picks it up a bit. The gentle cymbal tapping just reinforces the late night smooth jazz vibe.
20 Moonraker Shirley Bassey Starts small, stays small, never builds. Bassey's vocals are totally wasted here. She has the ability to be fierce and biting. Here, she's lackadaisical and boring.
19 Die Another Day Madonna Starts strong with tense strings and immediately dive bombs the second Madonna's disgustingly auto-tuned vocals kick in. Terrible lyrics ("Sigmund Freud" wtf?). A pandering piece of overproduced bubblegum crap.
18 Writing's on the Wall Sam Smith So disappointing. Following such a strong entry in Skyfall, the producers completely dropped the ball with Smith's "Writing." His vocals don't remotely fit with the tone of a proper Bond song. Cannot stand his breathy, whiny chorus. Ugh.
17 A View to a Kill Duran Duran If you can't tell, I'm not a huge fan of '80s music, so the heavy presence of synths in this song are tough for me to swallow, but at least this song has some life! Especially following the era of the lousy love ballads, AVTAK was a breath of fresh air. As a song by itself, not bad. As a Bond song, not the greatest.
16 The Living Daylights A-ha Another entry just dripping in '80s production. Still, it's got lots of energy. It's got some great builds and uses some awesome big band/brass elements that are reminiscent of the classic Bond songs.
15 License to Kill Gladys Knight Love Knight's vocals. She's got a great classic Bond feel. Love the intro. It feels sleuth-y, epic. Could definitely do without those breathy backup singers.
14 Live and Let Die Paul McCartney Great song. Terrible Bond song. McCartney is second to none, don't get me wrong. This song just isn't a great fit for the series. The reason it's not lower is that is has lots of promise until the 1:22 mark. And that damn fishing reel SFX is just so damn weird… Picks back up again, however it falters again at the 1:51 mark. The good aspects of this song are great. The bad are real bad.
13 You Only Live Twice Nancy Sinatra Exotic with great vocals. It's a bit sappy but it's got a nice use of strings to keep the song from getting too schmaltzy.
12 From Russia With Love Matt Monroe I'm rather conflicted about this one. It has a great exotic feel, it's got a good crooner, and the lyrics match the globetrotting feel. I just feel that there are stronger entries that offer a bit more energy.
11 You Know My Name Chris Cornell Hard to judge this one. Great piece of rock but again, I don't know if it really feels like a true "Bond song". At least it never devolves into a weird place like Live and Let Die. This one gets major props for incorporating the Bond theme heavily throughout and having a decent set of lyrics.
10 The Man with the Golden Gun Lulu I know I'm probably going to get some hate for this one, but hear me out. Great use of electric guitar and big brass band. The lyrics are rightfully criticized for being way too literal and silly (and the chorus is very weak) but Lulu's vocals are wonderfully dry, yet full of character. I especially love the swell at 1:38.
9 Another Way to Die Alicia Keys and Jack White Another entry that might get some criticism for being this high, but I truly feel that with one minor tweak, this song could have been considered one of the best. I love the piano and crunchy guitar intro. What I don't like is the duet. If this had been a Keys solo (with White handling the instrumentals), this could have been even stronger. I also really love the lyrics' discussion of paranoia and mistrust.
8 The World is Not Enough Garbage Another very strong entry. Shirley Manson's vocals are incredibly sultry. I positively love how striking the twanging guitar chords cut right through this hazy song.
7 Thunderball Tom Jones Take note Matt Monroe, this is how to croon during a Bond song. The song kicks in with a great use of the Bond theme at 0:35. The lyrics are total nonsense, however it all comes together and sounds so excellent. Jones' killer note at the end of the song is spectacular.
6 Tomorrow Never Dies Sheryl Crow This was a huge surprise for me. As I went through these songs, I never would have thought of putting TND this high, but listening to it, I can't get enough. Throws everything in from the thundering opening, to the big drums, the bell, the jangling guitar, and the piano. Crows vocals are positively electric. Her performance is every bit sultry, sexy, and scorned. Excellent!
5 Diamonds Are Forever Shirley Bassey Forget the movie, I could just listen to this song for 2 hours instead. The opening notes are mysterious, the big band is perfect (with plenty of classic Bond brass). The drop at the 1:21 mark is fantastic. And of course, Bassey's vocals are as iconic as they get.
4 On Her Majesty's Secret Service Theme John Barry (composer) Okay so this one isn't really a theme song in the sense that these other songs were but how could I pass on it? This is perhaps one of the single greatest musical compositions of the series outside of the Bond Theme. The buzzing guitar and deep, thumping bass are totally badass.
3 GoldenEye Tina Turner Almost perfect. Sexy, mysterious, lurking, with excellent vocals and brilliant lyrics. Little moments like the Bond theme slinking in at 1:40 are just perfect.
2 Skyfall Adele I absolutely, positively adore the chilling piano intro. Adele's vocals are exquisite. I love the slow, warbling guitar (1:00), the somber strings, the huge builds, and the use of the brassy Bond theme at 1:51. The whole thing gives me chills, especially as it starts and ends on that beautiful brass note.
1 Goldfinger Shirley Bassey Surprise, surprise. It just simply does not get better than Goldfinger. This is the quintessential Bond song, the standard to which all other songs are held. The big brass band, the strings, and the vocals are all just a bit silly, just a bit sexy, totally iconic, and catchy as all hell.

Ranking the Villains

I came up with a little system for ranking the Bond villains. I determined that a good villain should have a proper plan, should be generally villainous (cruel, mad, etc.), intimidating, competent, and charismatic (or at least have a decent, definable personality). Regarding one of the series’ few recurring villains, I elected to rank Blofeld several times, one for each appearance in a different film. With that in mind, here are the Bottom 5 and Top 5 Bond villains. The full list including the scores for each category can be found here (Spectre spoilers in slot #21).

Worst Bond Villains

Rank Villain Film Plot Comments
27 Gustav Graves / Col. Moon Die Another Day Destroy S. Korea via space laser Written as if a 12 year old came up with a Bond villain. Terrible plan, never truly intimidating, and the whole DNA replacement and "I modeled him after you" bit is completely stupid.
26 Aristotle Kristatos For Your Eyes Only Retrieve the ATAC device in order to control Soviet missiles, trick 007 into assassinating Colombo Bland, boring, forgettable.
25 Brad Whitaker The Living Daylights Sell opium as a means to finance his arms trading I applaud the realism of his plot, however the character is just so damned annoying. Baker plays the American General as a complete buffoon. And the whole wargame angle is weird.
24 General Orlov Octopussy Destroy NATO relations by detonating a bomb in a foreign Air Force base Another fairly forgettable character. Berkoff portrays the General as an almost Dr. Strangelove-esque wacko.
23 Ernst Stavro Blofeld Diamonds Are Forever Destroy nations' nuclear missiles with a space laser if they refuse to give in to his ransom demands The weakest of all of Blofeld’s various plots. Mostly, this iteration is ranked so low on account of Charles Grey’s portrayal. He’s insufferable, lacks any real intimidation, and the whole army of clones and voice changing devices are all just too campy for my taste.

Best Bond Villains

Rank Villain Film Plot Comments
5 Ernst Stavro Blofeld On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Brainwash women (Angels of Death) and use them as pawns in bacterialogical warfare Okay so the plan is a little bizarre and Savalas’ portrayal might not be as iconic as the one in YOLT, however this is Blofeld at his peak. He is menacing, sinister, and intimidating. The whole lineage angle is unique and gives a little bit of humanity to what has been an otherwise flat character.
4 Alex Trevelyan (Agent 006) GoldenEye Exact revenge on England by robbing the national bank just before destroying digital records (via electromagnetic pulse from satellite) Sean Bean performs beautifully as the MI6-agent-gone-rogue. His revenge mission plot is a wonderful balance of maniacal, villainous, and realistic.
3 Auric Goldfinger Goldfinger Devalue US gold stock by detonating a bomb inside Fort Knox gold reserve Bond himself remarks how brilliant Goldfinger’s plan is upon hearing it. I’m going to refrain from making any “gold standard” jokes, but Goldfinger is seriously one of the best. Cunning, proud, coy, greedy, and downright evil.
2 Le Chiffre Casino Royale Make money by shorting airline stocks through planned terrorist attacks Le Chiffre is one of the most fascinating villains in that he is a man driven by desperation and fear more than a god complex or a desire to destroy humanity.
1 Francisco Scaramanga The Man with the Golden Gun Steal solex agitator, assassinate 007 Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga is the perfect blend of flamboyant charisma, fierce intellect, and pure skill. The dinner scene between Scaramanga and Bond remains one of my all time favorites.

Honorable mentions go to Skyfall’s freakishly relentless Raoul Silva, Spy Who Loved Me’s megalomaniac Karl Stromberg, World is Not Enough’s coldly calculating Elektra King, Dr. No’s Dr. No for setting the template, and Moonraker’s surprisingly enjoyable Hugo Drax.

Ranking the Bond Girls

I came up with a similar method of ranking one of the other pillars of any good 007 film: the Bond Girls. For this category, I rated each Bond Girl by their intellect (general intelligence), competence (how skillful they were at their profession or tasks), initiative (do they just sit around and wait for Bond to tell them what to do or not), utility (do they have a direct impact on the story or are they just sort of there for show), and (yes I am aware of the hypocrisy here) beauty. This was a somewhat difficult list to assess, as the concept of a Bond Girl is rather loose. For example, in Skyfall, Bond seduces Severine, however she is in the film for such a brief period of time and her impact on the story is so minimal, that it didn’t even seem right to try and rank her based on these categories. Then of course there are any number of throwaway characters that Bond simply sleeps with or converses with briefly that are occasionally viewed as “Bond Girls”. Think of the iconic gilded Jill Masterson from Goldfinger. You might be aghast that she isn’t on the list, but she is such a small portion of that film (especially compared to her sister, Tilly), that it didn’t even seem worth it to place her on here, despite her image being plastered on every piece of promotional material for Goldfinger. So this is my best attempt at determining who is a Bond Girl and how they rank. The full list including category rankings can be found here.

Worst Bond Girls

Rank Girl Film Comments
33 Rosie Carver Live and Let Die Perhaps the most miserable character in the series. I couldn’t help but give her the only 0 of this entire exercise for Competence. She whines and cries to a man she just met because she isn't a good CIA agent. She’s not useful, not talented, and utterly annoying. And the one time she finally acts proactively, she is condescendingly mocked for misreading Quarrel Jr.’s allegiance.
32 Mary Goodnight The Man with the Golden Gun Vapid, irritating, pathetic, almost entirely useless. She’s easily captured and even chastised for her one contribution: killing a guard. And of course there’s the infamous scene in which any dignity she might’ve had evaporates as she’s shoved in a closet while Bond and Andrea Anders have sex.
31 Tiffany Case Diamonds Are Forever Another worthless character who adds little to the plot. She is given a rare instance of initiative at the end of the film and it turns out that in doing so, she completely screws up Bond’s plan. Oh also, her dialogue is completely insufferable.
30 “Dr.” Christmas Jones The World is Not Enough Another character written to be skilled and intelligent, but portrayed by a woman who cannot convincingly pull off either. Her role in the film becomes little more than a tagalong with weak excuses being provided for why she’s still around. She also turns into the second instance of Bond’s magical ability to turn lesbians straight.
29 Stacey Sutton A View to a Kill Same deal as Jones, the character is written to be intelligent, but the actress doesn't sell it one bit. She tends to fail at everything she attempts, and Bond completely disregards her and forces her to become a damsel in distress throughout their time together. She becomes a complete tagalong after a while.

Best Bond Girls

Rank Girl Film Comments
5 Elektra King The World is Not Enough Cunning, fierce, intelligent (though blinded by rage), she is absolutely integral to the plot, her actions are her own and she even acts as the puppetmaster for a wide range of people.
4 Camille Montes Quantum of Solace Not necessarily particularly intelligent per se, but highly skilled and motivated by her well formed backstory. QoS actually provides a rare instance of Bond screwing up her plans, though she bounds back quickly. Extra points for killing one of the film’s villains.
3 Pussy Galore Goldfinger The biggest downfall for Galore is her lack of integrity during the scene in which Bond apparently rapes her straight. Aside from that terrible scene, she is a fantastic character. She gets the drop on Bond multiple times, verbally spars with the best of them, and orchestrates a hugely important aspect of the film’s ending.
2 Teresa di Vicenzo On Her Majesty’s Secret Service It pains me not to be able to give her a perfect score, however she does have her downfalls. She really ultimately is just sort of going along with her father’s plans and when she’s captured, she reverts into a fairly standard damsel in distress. Aside from that though, her beauty and intelligence are almost without parallel.
1 Vesper Lynd Casino Royale The only character in this whole exercise to receive a perfect score. The single most well-rounded character of the entire series. Highly intelligent, witty, sharp, sly, plays her own game, acts of her own accord with her own motivations, integral to the plot — oh and stunningly gorgeous.

Honorable mentions go to Spy Who Loves Me’s crafty and skilled Anya Amasova, Die Another Day’s coldly independent Miranda Frost, You Only Twice’s Aki who saves Bond’s butt on more than one occasion, Tomorrow Never Die’s devil may care Wai Lin, and License to Kill’s rough and rowdy Pam Bouvier.

Ranking the Bonds

And of course there’s the ranking of the Bond actors. Everyone has an opinion that varies greatly from the last. Heck, I’ve already changes my mind three times as I’ve sat here writing this. Each actor is so wildly different and they all come from such unique times that it’s almost impossible to try and fairly compare them. And then of course there’s the struggle of trying to give each actor a fair shake when their films have varied so greatly in quality and number. But I will try to do my best.

Rank Actor Films Years Active Comments
6 Roger Moore 7 1973 - 1985 Easily the worst in my opinion. I never bought him as an assassin. I never bought him as a seductive gentleman. His humor was mostly lost on me. When they tried to get him to be rough and tumble in TMWTGG when he’s interrogating Anders, he just seems abusive. He also had the worst string of films to deal with and was kept on as Bond for far too long. Too few upsides.
5 George Lazenby 1 1969 This ranking is really misleading, as I actually LOVED Lazenby as Bond. I felt that he completely captured the crass attitude and unbridled swagger. I would frankly consider putting him as high as #3, however Lazenby’s biggest downfall is his lack of clout. He just wasn’t Bond long enough to get a decent gauge of how he really fit into Bond’s shoes.
4 Sean Connery 6 1962 - 1967, 1971 Blasphemy! Just because he was first doesn’t mean he was the best. He laid the groundwork and managed the suave nature and action better than some, however his characters never really felt like they had any depth to them. Mostly he is severely handicapped by his lackluster performances in YOLT and DAF.
3 Timothy Dalton 2 1987 - 1989 Ah Dalton, the Bond we needed but didn’t deserve. Dalton’s career was similarly too short. I considered giving him the #4 spot under Connery for this purpose alone, but I really feel like he did enough in his two films to establish what kind of Bond he was and would have continued to be. The dark, brooding exterior occasionally gave in to flashes of real charm and even caring. The humor could have used some work, but the action and especially the suave, high-class nature fit him perfectly.
2 Daniel Craig 4 2006 - present Craig’s performance in Casino alone would have been enough to push him into first place, however he’s had kind of a bizarre run of films since then. The stories have set him up to just be continually cantankerous and sullen. I have him in the #2 spot temporarily, depending on how the rest of his run as Bond goes. If he is able to do more films and is able to continue to regain his wit from Casino and to continue his arc from brutish thug to refined gentleman assassin, I feel the #2 or even #1 spot could be his.
1 Pierce Brosnan 4 1995 - 2002 It was equally difficult to call Brosnan the unequivocal best. His run is sadly marred by a series of mediocre and downright bad films. That said, his performance in GoldenEye is probably one of the best in the series. Brosnan is able to pull off every aspect of what makes Bond Bond with ease. He nails the humor, he looks like he belongs in a tux, and he appears entirely at ease when in the midst of a tense shootout or car chase. He even totally sells a few small moments throughout the series that required him to appear frightened, surprised, and vulnerable.

Naturally there is so much more I could discuss (favorite gadgets, favorite moments, favorite henchmen), but I suppose I should save something for the lead up to Bond 25, eh? A sincere thanks once more to everyone who joined me for the discussions over the past several months. Cheers!
submitted by sdsachs to TrueFilm [link] [comments]

So I finally got around to watching SPECTRE and I need to vent about this movie to other Bond fans...

I can see why some of you didn’t really like it. Coming off of Skyfall, I was expecting something a bit more grand. I liked how Skyfall kept the action going and made it feel like each scene was significant.
SPECTRE was boring to me. I honestly felt like falling asleep a few times during it, but I stayed awake to see if it would get better. I was wrong. It just felt like nothing was happening. Compared to the amazing Mexico City opening, the whole movie just felt bland — like it wasn’t even a Daniel Craig Bond film. It felt like a typical spy thriller: Secret organization threatens to take over the world, agent goes rogue to stop it, finds a pretty lady along the way, then finds out that the organization’s leader is responsible for the agent’s troubling past, agent takes down leader, then walks off into the sunset with the woman he just met two days ago. I expected something better from the story, especially coming from someone like John Logan, who has written some of the greatest movies and shows ever put to screen. Also how the hell did Blofeld survive an explosion and a helicopter crash with barely a scratch besides one blinded eye? He should’ve died in both of those instances, but the script writers refused to off him and focus on C!
Christoph Waltz’ Blofeld could’ve been a scary adversary, even taking up against Silva and Le Chiffre, but he wasn’t. He didn’t do much besides sit around and give orders, and torture Bond. The movie was a perfectly good waste of a brilliant actor. Léa Seydoux did well with the script she had, but I didn’t see her as a Bond girl... Bond and Madeleine had no chemistry, and that train sex scene came out of left field... it made no sense at all. She hated him one moment and then fell in love with him the next! I know she’s nothing compared to Vesper Lynd, but some of her dialogue made me think that the writers were trying too hard to make her Vesper 2.0 in Bond’s eyes.
The movie’s score also disappointed me. It sounded like Newman was just reusing the old Skyfall soundtrack with some new music written in to compensate. There was no music where there should’ve been — like the train fight scene. It was just silent while Bond and Hinx pounded each other’s faces in. There was nothing exciting about the music compared to David Arnold’s score...
Anyway, I’m sure I missed some things, but this really all I had to say. Thanks for reading, and be happy to share your opinions on the movie in the comments!
submitted by Jackalope_Thomas01 to JamesBond [link] [comments]

Let's play a game: Fixing SPECTRE

There have been a fair number of really intelligent and thoughtful critiques of Spectre on this sub, and I think it’d be fun to see if we can pick the movie apart and reassemble it to make it great. Do not fail me, /TrueFilm!
My suggestion follows (with the obvious caveat that it’s totally arrogant to assume that I would have written a better movie originally, etc. This is just an exercise for fun). It’s rather long. Also if you like pictures and pretty formatting, you can find this post on Medium.

The Problems

The Story

Everything leading up to the infamous “cuckoo” line remains much the same: Bond kills Sciarra in Mexico, weathers New!M’s annoyance, teases Q, debriefs Moneypenny (we don’t see the faded picture brought back from Skyfall), and drives off to Rome with his cheeky grin (he’s cocky this time around; he’s beaten his fair share of supervillains, he’s at the top of his game). He nails Sciarra’s widow, tells the bouncer he’s Mickey Mouse, etc.
At the Spectre meeting we have our first change. The leaders of Spectre are no longer faceless suits; now there are people among them wearing bishop’s robes, decorated military uniforms, etc. There are a few police, as well, but no one seems concerned.
Instead of a business meeting, it almost feels like a party. People are drinking, laughing, talking shop. Bond draws a couple weird looks, but they’re not worried. Waltz is moving around the crowd, shaking hands, totally calm. He runs into Bond.
“James, isn’t it?” he says. “I was hoping we’d meet you tonight.” Bond doesn’t recognize him. He plays coy, and Waltz shuts him up. “We’ve got very special entertainment coming up. You won’t want to miss it.”
Bond is nonplussed. He hears a few people mention their business interests—trafficking of the sex and drug varieties, who’s going to kill the Pale King now, etc.—and his hackles are up.
Waltz draws everyone’s attention. “We have special guests tonight. If everyone would please welcome MI6 agent James Bond.” Applause and laughter from the crowd. Bond weathers it pretty well. “And, to cheer her up on this dreary evening, we have invited dear Lucia Sciarra.”
Doors open and Lucia is led in. She’s beat up. The group claps politely. Bond looks briefly shocked but keeps his cool.
Waltz makes a few jokes about Lucia being the sort of woman who doesn’t stay single for long, the sheets never get cold, etc. He gives Bond the cheesiest grin and then one of the henchmen shoots Lucia in the back. Waltz is still grinning.
Bond loses it and tries to fight his way forward; henchmen are on him in a hot second. He tears through several of them, and then Mr. Hinx has him in a headlock and three dudes have guns trained on him. Waltz talks to Lucia as she dies. “Your husband helped our organization become what it is today,” he says. “But we both know how easily he can be replaced.” He tilts his head at Hinx, indicating that they have found someone to assassinate the Pale King.
Bond slips away by the skin of his teeth and calls Moneypenny on the road, while Hinx follows him. This time, rather than asking her to search up Franz Oberhauser, he demands to know who the hell these people are. They meet with no attempt at secrecy; they murder a woman while surrounded by cops. What’s going on?
...I can’t fix the chase scene.
Back in London, M, Q, and C attend the vote for Nine Eyes. This plays out as before with the single opposing vote and M grilling C afterward, but this time C is slightly less obnoxious, more idealistic. He seems to believe that the 00 program is not only obsolete, but actively harmful. M gives his inspiring bit about the value of men in the field who make the horrible call of whether someone gets to live or die. C replies that Nine Eyes will be able to see the entire world in a glance; MI6 will see terrorist attacks before the perpetrator can buy his first barrel of explosives. But a man in the field can be bought, misled, or simply insubordinate. He plays Bond’s phone conversation, then quips that he’s not overawed by the “one man with a gun” model of intelligence.
Bond meets with Mr. White and gets his lead for Madeleine and L’Americain. When he tells Swann about her father, she angrily orders him out—and immediately starts preparing to leave once he does.
Bond gives Q the octopus ring. He sees Madeleine leave, but she doesn’t get far; Hinx arrives and captures her, leading to another chase scene I can’t fix.
After neutralizing Hinx, Bond and Swann meet with Q, who has not turned up much with the octopus ring except that there have been others like it, usually found on the bodies of terrorists. Madeleine jumps in to serve as Ms. Exposition: they’re all working for Spectre, a shadowy group made up of incredibly powerful, ambitious people. Q recognizes the name, but argues it’s an urban legend. If a counterintelligence agency existed and opposed MI6, surely they would know about it. Madeleine agrees. “Your superiors do know about it,” she says. “And there’s nothing they can do.” Spectre’s leaders have bought all the right people; even when some of them are imprisoned or killed, more rise up to take their place.
Spectre brings out the worst in the human species, she tells them. And it can’t be stopped; not with bullets, not with brave men. Their leader, Franz Oberhauser, is not some lynchpin to be removed. The worst they could do is inconvenience the organization.
Bond brushes this off; he and Madeleine make for L’Americain. Madeleine is clearly shell-shocked from her ordeal so far, and takes a shower. She makes it very clear to Bond that he won’t be joining her.
They find Mr. White’s stash of clues and head to the desert by train. Meanwhile, in London, the holdout African vote swings in favor of Nine Eyes. M confronts C, heavily implying that C somehow orchestrated a terrorist attack to further his goals. C is outraged that M would accuse him of something so despicable. “If this is the kind of logic the 00 program uses to ‘get its man,’” he says, “I feel proud to have ended it.”
Bond and Swann talk on the train, but this time there is more to their conversation than Bond extolling the virtues of the Sig Sauer. Madeleine pegs Bond as a maladjusted young man who struggles to connect because of numerous failed relationships in his past. She sees right through him; she’s a trained psychologist, she reminds him, and her father was an assassin. She can read Bond like a trashy magazine.
Bond—and the astute portion of the audience—recognizes the parallels to his first conversation with Vesper. He changes the subject back to guns.
Hinx attacks Bond and Swann on the train. They beat him; this time Madeleine manages to get a meaningful hit in against Hinx, rather than being a two-second distraction. Relieved and exhilarated from the fight, the two leads get busy in their train compartment.
They arrive at Oberhauser’s compound. The mind games play out much the same way; they’re welcomed in with no problems, Bond gives up his gun, Swann finds a dress on her bed. Bond finds pictures of M and Vesper in his room.
Oberhauser welcomes Swann and Bond to his meteor room. Instead of waxing eloquent about how James entered his life and stole Daddy’s love, this time he’s simply pissed about the times Bond mucked his plans. Quantum existed as a subsidiary of Spectre, and Bond’s successes against them have made Waltz’s life troublesome.
He shows off his panopticon room and brags about being connected to all the information in the world—we see Bond blink, making an intuitive leap, but he says nothing. He plays the clip of Bond and White; Bond urges Madeleine to look away. She does, but Oberhauser grabs her face and forces her roughly to stare at the screen. Bond tries to interfere, but doesn’t get far before a billy club brings him down.
Bond wakes up in the torture room. Oberhauser notes that Spectre has a very specific policy about troublesome people: buy them or remove them. Mr. Hinx was supposed to fix the problem, but now….
“It has been a long time since I involved myself,” Oberhauser says. “I don’t want to get lax, you know? Old and fat and lazy? How boring.”
He delivers a monologue about torture that is markedly similar to the one in the film, this time revolving around Lucia Sciarra instead of the nameless Spectre agent. “There was no one inside her skull.” He begins to torture Bond with the needles. Screaming. Blood. For at least one shot, we’re inside Bond’s head as the room seems to tip sideways and Oberhauser gloats about how easy it is to disrupt Bond’s sense of balance. Bond looks ready to puke.
Oberhauser leers at Swann as he tortures Bond. “Do you love him? What would you give me for his freedom? Would you take off all your clothes and dance? Give me all your earthly possessions? Sell me national secrets?”
Madeleine maintains a stiff upper lip and tells Oberhauser to go to hell. Oberhauser takes it in stride and tells her matter-of-factly that he will be removing Bond’s ability to recognize faces, so she had better say goodbye. Bond gets the watch to her; it explodes in time to save him from further torture.
Swann and Bond begin fighting their way out of the compound, though Bond’s balance is thrown all to hell and it’s making his aim poor. Madeleine takes the gun—not enthusiastically—and Bond guides her strategy: “shoot there, shoot there, wait. He’s cornered, another one will be hiding there.” They put bullets in a number of strategic places, rather than a single oil barrel. The compound goes up in flames.
They escape via helicopter, and Bond fills in Swann (and the few members of the audience who haven’t caught on yet) that C is one of Spectre’s agents, and they need to shut him—and Nine Eyes—down as soon as possible.
They meet up with Q, M, and Moneypenny in London and debrief as before. As they mobilize, Madeleine admits to Bond that she’s been ignoring something for too long: she wants no part in this life. She understands if James can’t give it up. “I wish you could.” She leaves.
Bond & Co. hash out a plan of attack as they drive, but midway through Bond receives a cryptic text from Madeleine’s number, from which he deduces that she’s been captured and taken to Old!MI6. He sends M, Q, and Moneypenny to handle C at New!MI6 while he tears off to save Swann.
Meanwhile, at New!MI6, C is working late. There’s a prominently placed countdown clock for the Nine Eyes launch. He gets a notification from the computer—it’s found aberrant data. It shows him assorted video clips of Madeleine’s capture on the road and her being taken to Old!MI6 and tied up in a room. He tells the computer to notify police. The system confirms the police will arrive in five minutes, then informs C that the demolitions in the building have been set to a timer inconsistent with regulation; the system flags it as highly suspicious. C looks out his window at the condemned building, and sets his jaw. He leaves MI6 at speed.
M, Q, and Moneypenny arrive moments later and shut down Nine Eyes.
Bond arrives at Old!MI6 and finds the graffitied arrows to guide him. Oberhauser appears (uninjured) behind the bulletproof glass (gotta get that iconic shot…that didn’t end up in the movie). Oberhauser sneers that Bond has proven more frustrating than he could have predicted; Oberhauser can’t simply kill him anymore. No, Bond has to be punished. Oberhauser taunts him with the opportunity to save Madeleine or himself before calmly leaving. Bond is furious but only for a moment. He runs back into the building, opening door after door, screaming Madeleine’s name.
We jump to a door opening to see Madeleine tied up, gagged, surrounded by wires. She’s horrified to see that her rescuer is not Bond, but C. He unties her, faltering from nerves, and explains anxiously that a terrorist has got control of the demolition in the building, it’s going to be blowing up shortly, and they both need to get out of there.
Swann does not seem convinced that C is friendly. The moment she’s free she sprints out of the room. C follows her, looking confused and more than a little terrified.
Bond and Madeleine run into each other and have no time for romance. “There’s a bomb—” “I know, this way.” As Madeleine runs to their timely exit via rope net, Bond spots C running down the corridor. C is relieved, and calls out to 007. Still believing C to be one of Oberhauser’s allies, Bond shoots him. C falls to the ground. He begins to bleed out, and mutters, darkly, “One man with a gun.”
Bond and Madeleine escape via boat as the building explodes. They shoot down Oberhauser’s helicopter, and Bond gets his moment of being The Good Guy by refusing to shoot Oberhauser dead in the face. Oberhauser threatens that as long as he lives, he will seek ways to claw the soul out of Bond’s life. Bond is mighty confident that this won’t turn out well for Oberhauser. M and Q arrive and arrest Oberhauser while Bond throws his gun away and walks into the sunset with Madeleine Swann.
We skip the scene of Bond collecting his Signature Cool Car from MI6 for two reasons: one, we’ve already shown him heading off for romantic bliss with a smart, capable woman who gets him and we don’t need to do it again.
Two, there’s one more scene before this movie’s done:
We’re at another Spectre office party. The mood is more somber than the last one. Someone offers a toast to Franz Oberhauser, who helped make their organization what it is today, and who will be replaced, but only with great difficulty; the Spectre members raise their glasses respectfully. The toast-maker goes on to say that in loss, there is always gain, and today, they welcome “a man who has come back from death and seen the entire world in a glance. In his new life, he has taken a new name, and new purpose: to destroy the people who murdered him in cold blood.”
He stands aside to reveal C, bound to a wheelchair, with a horrid scar over one eye. “Please welcome Mr. Ernst Blofeld.”
END
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12 Best Movies like Argo (2012)

In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans were taken hostage. However, six managed to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA was ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devised a daring plan: create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez created the ruse and proceeded to Iran as its associate producer. However, time was running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House had grave doubts about the operation themselves.
Here are list of 12 Best Movies like Argo (2012):

1. The Departed (2006)

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In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello. While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan, a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the state police as an informer for the syndicate is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by their double lives, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations they have penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there is a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy - and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save themselves. But is either willing to turn on their friends and comrades they've made during their long stints undercover?

2. Casino Royale (2006)

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James Bond goes on his first ever mission as a 00. Le Chiffre is a banker to the world's terrorists. He is participating in a poker game at Montenegro, where he must win back his money, in order to stay safe among the terrorist market. The boss of MI6, known simply as M sends Bond, along with Vesper Lynd to attend this game and prevent Le Chiffre from winning. Bond, using help from Felix Leiter, Mathis and having Vesper pose as his partner, enters the most important poker game in his already dangerous career. But if Bond defeats Le Chiffre, will he and Vesper Lynd remain safe?

3. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

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Bourne is once again brought out of hiding, this time inadvertently by London-based reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar--an upgrade to Project Treadstone--in a series of newspaper columns. Bourne sets up a meeting with Ross and realizes instantly they're being scanned. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally, ultimately, uncover his dark past whilst dodging The Company's best efforts in trying to eradicate him.

4. All the President's Men (1976)

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In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.

5. JFK (1991)

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On November 22, 1963, president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime and subsequently shot by Jack Ruby, supposedly avenging the president's death. An investigation concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes, but Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison is skeptical. Assembling a trusted group of people, Garrison conducts his own investigation, bringing about backlash from powerful government and political figures.

6. The Bourne Identity (2002)

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Based very loosely on Robert Ludlum's novel, the Bourne Identity is the story of a man whose wounded body is discovered by fishermen who nurse him back to health. He can remember nothing and begins to try to rebuild his memory based on clues such as a Swiss bank account, the number of which is implanted in his hip. He soon realizes that he is being hunted and takes off with Marie on a search to find out who he is - and why he is being hunted.

7. Hidden Figures (2016)

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As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

8. Taken (2008)

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Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend.

9. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

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After escaping from the emotional and physical pain he previously encountered. Jason Bourne and his girlfriend Marie begin a new life as far away as possible. But when an assassination attempt on Bourne goes horribly wrong, Bourne must re-enter the life he wanted to leave behind, in order to find out the truth why they are still after him.

10. The Man from Nowhere (2010)

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An ex-special agent CHA Tae-shik's only connection to the rest of the world is a little girl, So-mi, who lives nearby. Her mother, Hyo-jeong smuggles drugs from a drug trafficking organization and entrusts Tae-shik with the product, without letting him know. The traffickers find out about her smuggling and kidnap both Hyo-jeong and So-mi. The gang promises to release them if Tae-shik makes a delivery for them, however it actually is a larger plot to eliminate a rival drug ring leader. When Hyo-jeon's disemboweled body is discovered, Tae-shik realizes that So-mi's life may also be in danger. Tae-shik becomes enraged at the prospect that So-mi may already be dead and prepares for a battle, putting his own life at risk.

11. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

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A young man named Eggsy whose father died when he was a young boy, is dealing with living with the creep his mother is with now, who mistreats her and him. He goes out and does something to one of the creep's friends. He gets arrested and he calls a number a man gave him around the time his father died, to call if he needs help. A man named Harry approaches him and tells him he's the one who helped him. He tells him that he knew his father. When the man Eggsy slighted wants some payback, Harry takes care of him and his companions single handed. Harry then tells Eggsy that he's part of a secret organization called the Kingsman and his father was also part of it. He died trying to make the world safe. Harry offers Eggsy the opportunity to be a Kingsman and he takes it. He undergoes a grueling training course. Harry is looking into the demise of another Kingsman and the trail leads him to tech billionaire named Valentine aka V who is also curious about the group following him, the Kingsman.

12. Road to Perdition (2002)

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  1. Mike Sullivan and Connor Rooney are two henchmen of elderly downstate IL-based (Quad City area, though much of the action takes place in the Chicago area) Irish-American mobster John Rooney, Connor's father. In many respects, John treats Mike more as his son, who he raised as his own after Mike was orphaned, than the volatile Connor, who nonetheless sees himself as the heir apparent to the family business. One evening, Mike's eldest son, twelve year old Michael Sullivan Jr., who has no idea what his father does for a living, witnesses Connor and his father gun down an associate and his men, the situation gone wrong initiated from an action by Connor. Caught witnessing the incident, Michael is sworn to secrecy about what he saw. Regardless, Connor, not wanting any loose ends, makes an attempt to kill Mike, his wife and their two sons. Mike and the surviving members of his family know that they need to go on the run as Connor, who has gone into hiding, will be protected through mob loyalty, especially by John, who cannot turn on his own flesh and blood. Still, Mike has to figure out a way for retribution for what Connor did, while still protecting him and his family, not only from Connor, but from John and his fellow associates. Through it all, Mike wants those in his family that had no say in what he chose as a living, to have some redemption for their eternal souls.
P/S: This list has reference data from https://moviessimilarto.com - a crowsourced movies recommendations engine.
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why did vesper lynd die video

Why did Vesper Lynd kill herself at the end of Casino Royale? Answer Save. 1 Answer. Relevance. LilyRT. Lv 7. 9 years ago. Favourite answer. she felt guilty that she had betrayed bond and gave him to a group to be tortured. 0 0. Still have questions? Get answers by asking now. Ask question In casino royale, why did vesper lynd kill herself? why did she kill herself??? is it just because she feels guilty that she fell in love with bond, or she made a money deal to save bond's life instead of her boyfriend's??? Answer Save. 2 Answers. 3 Answers. She knew she was going to her death, because she must have known that, after handing over the money they [Quantum] have no use for her; even though, M said: "She must have thought they'd... Vesper Lynd was different. She knew that Bond expected his women to be “disposable pleasures,” but she wasn’t going to play along. Casino Royale, Craig’s first Bond outing, ... She killed herself because she knew it would sever the connection between Bond and Quantum - and if Bond blamed Quantum for putting Vesper in a position where she would die (either by her own hand or someone else's), then Bond would be forever beyond Quantum's reach. TLDR: Vesper Lynd is a relatively difficult person to read based on her personality type but I truly believe with her actions towards the end of the film really solidified her love for Bond. 25. share. Report Save. level 2. 1 year ago. that Tumblr looks super interesting, thank you for sharing this! 1. share. Report Save. level 1. 1 year ago. As we find out later in the film, Vesper Lynd was a double agent - she made a deal with Mr White (and his organisation, Quantum) to spare Bond's life, in exchange for the $120 million. The tape Bond finds at the hotel is some interrogation between Mr. White and Vesper where this deal was likely concluded. I don't want details on whether or not Vesper actually betrayed Bond or not, but at what point did she start working for Mr. White's organization? This movie has been out for a while, so all you people who want to criticize me for not putting a spoiler alert can go to hell. I didn't put up this question to be lectured, I wanted answers. Vesper Lynd was a fictional HM Treasury liaison officier who appeared in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, portrayed by French actress Eva Green. Green subsequently provided her likeness for the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, and Activision's 2008 video game Quantum of Solace. The character is the official adaptation of the literary character ... Vesper Lynd is the deuteragonist of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale the first installment in the James Bond series, and its 2006 film adaptation of the same name. Additionally she is also a supporting antagonist in the 1967 spoof film Casiono Royale and appears as as a posthumous character in the reboot of the Eon film series following her appearance in the 2006 film. She is a double ...

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