What, specifically, did the non-hand-picked group have to know he was planning?
I read Quantum of Solace to mean, in the context of the film, the comfort that Bond takes at the very end, when he gains some closure with respect to Vesper. Although the ending can be taken as ambiguous, I believe that he left the guy alive but in custody, therefore got justice for her. That is his ‘measure of comfort’, or ‘quantum of solace’.
The two unfortunate Italian scientists (well, it was Venice, so I’m assuming they’re Italian) must have had a sniff of an idea, considering they were loading up spacey looking things with deadly nerve agent.
I agree that Drax was “compartmentalizing”. No one but him know the entire plan. What’s worse, is his plan is really bad for his “breeders”. Without the world’s resources and knowledge base, his people will have one hell of a difficult time repopulating the planet. I bet he didn’t tell them the women will be pumping out a kid a year indefinitely. In basically third world to pretechnology conditions, depending on what survives, and continues to work. (can they still get medicines in Drax’s glorious new world? Adequate food?)
But…Space marines! “He’s attempting reentry!” And that damn pigeon doing the double take. 
Moonraker was too much. It wasn’t the plan that was bad, it was the (movie) execution.
Cool, I like that interpretation! Elevates the decision from “Bond-associated title slapped more or less at random on unrelated movie” to “Bond-associated concept thoughtfully reimagined to emphasize key character development for protagonist” in one fell swoop. Nice call.
I thank you. Still a very dull entry in the cannon though. I do like the opera scene though, very atmospheric and the music works well. Shame it didn’t hit those heights elsewhere in the film.
I was a real time viewer of the Bond films (and a Scotty) so it’s always going to be Sean Connery for me. I do agree that Craig’s 007 is probably the way a real agent would act. But Connery had his cold moments also. “That’s a Smith & Wesson and you’ve had yaarr six”. Bang.
So, do you also have the same issue with Marvel movies or the last few Mission Impossible movies?
I like that interpretation.
But I think Bond was fooling himself that he was done with her. “The bitch is dead”. He’s trying too hard. She wasn’t “the bitch”, she was a meaningful pursuit. Bond was more mad at himself. On his very first mission, he lost his objectivity. In a way, Craig’s Bond trying so hard to blame Vesper in that scene is the source of the overt misogyny that Connery’s and Moore’s Bond show to women in earlier movies, but “later” in Bond’s career.
The Bonds played by Connery and Moore were so much further along in their careers that they had hardened their hearts, their shields are up, so even if it wasn’t Vesper that did it*, whatever event that happened in their lives, they have decided by that stage that all women are disposable “bitches”. It makes their jobs easier if they don’t feel anything for anybody. For example, that woman that Bond sleeps with in Moonraker to get info on Drax? Bond neither knows nor cares that Drax had her killed the next day, and that Bond is directly responsible for her death.
Craig made the same mistake again with Madeline. This time he actually has a daughter. He lost his objectivity so bad that both Madeline and his daughter became weapons to use against Bond. And look what it cost him. In his line of work, better to treat them all as “bitches”, tools to be used and discarded. That way may cost you your soul, but it keeps you alive.
* the long debated question of if they are all the same person. I say no, but the question is never resolved in canon
On your asterisked point…
The first four most certainly are the same person; lazenby goes through his drawers when he (thinks he’s) resigned, and there are gadgets from the Connery films there such as the mini scuba device. Moore and Dalton have dialogue, or others acting with them do, that directly references Tracey. I’m not sure that Brosnan does but I always assumed he was the same, even if the time frame doesn’t work. Craig, well he was part of a reboot so not the same universe.
interesting subject.
On the one hand, I think the MI movies are better “Bond movies” than the actual Bond movies. They have better action, and their plots make (more or less) more sense.
On the other hand, the recent MI movies aren’t really a story arc, as remakes. In how many MI movies does Hunt get accused of being disloyal, a traitor, and he spends the entire movie not only defeating the true villain, but proving he was a loyal agent all the time? Only to end up in the next movie again being accused of being disloyal, a traitor, and he spends the entire movie not only defeating the true villain, but proving he was a loyal agent all the time. Until the next movie, where he again is being accused of being disloyal, a traitor, and he spends the entire movie not only defeating the true villain, but proving he was a loyal agent all the time.
One of these days, Hunt is going to realize he should just go rogue. Not only is the money better, the bad guys won’t continually question your loyalty. And if the need arises, the CIA will just hire you back anyway.
Lazenby also looks at the camera and says “this never happened to that other fellow”. But I consider that a wink and a nod to the audience, not actual canon that he’s a different person.
And I really liked the Tracy grave scene in FYEO. “It’s an emergency, Mr Bond.” “[Sigh] it always is.”
In the much-despised (but not by me) Die Another Day, you can see references to all the other 20+ films, implying subtly that Brosnan is the same person.
Quantum of Solace was named very late in the making of the movie. Daniel Craig said that Bond titles don’t matter that much, so they grabbed a title of a short story and used it.
They then added any reference to the title in the story.
Hey, the bad group was called Quantum, at least before its revealed to really be Spectre.
You can thank Kevin McClory for that.
I’d overlooked all the references in DAD. Afraid I’m one of the haters with that one, sorry, bottom of the whole pile for me, even below AVTAK. Strangely though I actually quite like the first 15 odd minutes, right up until Bond somehow stops his own heart beating. Then it all goes horribly wrong.
That’s who I was thinking of, too. When the vial breaks, they panic and start trying to escape, so they must have known what they were working on. There must have been other people developing and refining the nerve gas, preparing the delivery system, writing the software to deploy the satellites to the right locations, etc. They were all actively working on something that was intended to kill them.
Don’t get me started on Kara in The Living Daylights.
I’ve always had a soft spot for her to be honest, but it’s probably because I like TLD more than most people seem to. Dalton is brilliant in that.
It’s been years and years since I’ve seen it, so maybe this is contradicted by something in the movie, but presumably the scientists were told about the “we’re making nerve gas,” part of the plan, but lied to about the “and we’re using it on everyone on the planet,” part? Like, “We’re going to make a bunch of nerve gas, and sell it to highest bidder for millions of dollars!” or “We’re going to make a bunch of nerve gas, and make America pay for it’s crimes!”
Or even, “We’re going to nerve gas the entire world, but you get to live! Here’s our totally non-bogus plan that includes you not dying of nerve gas even a little bit! When do you get to go up to the space station? Uhhh… real soon! Honest!”
You’ve got me thinking of the John Smith character in Austin Powers now. No one ever thinks of the henchmen and how their families will cope if they’re killed by the hero.
There was a comic in the late '90s, The Invisibles, which is about a bunch of anarchist terrorist magicians trying to overthrow a Lovecraftian deep state. They did an entire issue that was from the POV of a random guard that one of the protagonists had killed in a big action scene a few issues earlier. It’s basically his entire life flashing before his eyes right before the good guy killed him.
It’s played for drama, not for laughs, though.