# Quantum of Solace **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747 "2008-11-14T18:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/81 "2008-11-18T01:02:25Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > She got hit, she just managed to get away in time and find medical care. (I don’t Mitchell intended to kill M–although if she died it would’ve been a bonus for QUANTUM–just to disable her long enough to get White out of there.) > > I mean, presumably M was an agent once herself, she knows how to remove herself from a bad situation… Also, if anybody is gonna be walking around in some kind of low-key body armor, it’s gonna be M, so that’s a possibility. There was a quick shot of Bond watching M run up the stairs to get the hell out of Dodge before he proceeded to go after Mitchell. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/82 "2008-11-18T04:21:51Z")
I didn’t notice M running upstairs at all. Mitchell blazed away, people fell in every direction, Mitchell beat feet out of there, and Bond got up and chased him. Damn that choppy editing! Oh, and my favorite lines: Bond (offhandedly): “He was a dead end.” M (pissed): “Bond killed him!” Nice that someone finally saw through Bond’s lethal double entendres… ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/83 "2008-11-18T04:28:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I didn’t notice M running upstairs at all. Mitchell blazed away, people fell in every direction, Mitchell beat feet out of there, and Bond got up and chased him. Damn that choppy editing! > > Oh, and my favorite lines: > > Bond (offhandedly): “He was a dead end.” > M (pissed): “Bond killed him!” > > Nice that someone finally saw through Bond’s lethal double entendres… Beam: “Yes, sorry for having you wait. Mr. Greene is of no interest whatsoever to the CIA.” M: “Thank you very much, Mr Beam. _hangs up_ Mr. Greene is of extreme interest to the CIA.” I was actually mildly annoyed that Mister Penny #2 needed that explained to him further. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/84 "2008-11-18T06:31:37Z")
Reading this thread, I think I’m glad that I was sick the day the workplace went en masse to see the movie, because I get motion sick pretty easily and that sounds like I’d have had to run out after the first 15-20 minutes. ☹ (I’ve had to leave the theater like that a few times) I guess I’ll have to console myself with watching Casino Royale at home or wait for QoS to show up on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/85 "2008-11-18T06:40:41Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I also think Judi Dench is absolutely fantastic as M. When did she take on this role? ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/86 "2008-11-18T08:02:15Z")
> [@Oslo Ostragoth](#): > > When did she take on this role? Goldeneye > [@Hi\_Neighbor](#): > > That’s what made him such a bland Bond villain. His plan was rational and could actually happen somewhere. On the contrary! The best thing about LeChiffre, Quantum, and Greene as villains was that they didn’t have any grandiose satellite-swallowing spacecraft or sharks with friggin’ lasers on their heads. While those kinds of things are very entertaining, the plausibility of the villains’ plots in Casino and Quantum made them more chilling. It’s just like the fights. Sure they were confusing, but they were exciting because they captured the real thing. Incidentally, I couldn’t place Mathieu Amalric until after I got home and looked him up. I actually ended up confusing him with [Brad Dourif](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Dourif) because of… …how well he played crazy when he went after Bond with the fire axe at the end. Yet I had forgotten Brad Dourif would be a bit older than Mathieu Amalric.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/87 "2008-11-18T08:29:15Z")
How’d they get away with the beaver shot in a PG-13 movie? I thought it counldn’t have been what it looked like until I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/88 "2008-11-18T10:02:39Z")
It was a decent action spy flick. Except for the Bond girls, it didn’t really seem like a _Bond_ flick. There weren’t even any gadgets! The plot was a little confusing. I mean, I understood the basic plot of the overall movie, but I didn’t remember Casino Royale well enough to get all of the references to it. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/89 "2008-11-18T15:38:02Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Bond (offhandedly): “He was a dead end.” > M (pissed): “Bond killed him!” What do you expect from someone with a license to kill? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/90 "2008-11-18T16:58:33Z")
I thought Mathieu Amalric looked kind of like Roman Polanski if he were imitating Peter Lorre. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/91 "2008-11-18T17:48:05Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > What do you expect from someone with a license to kill? A kicense to kill isn’t a mandate to kill. Those are even harder to get. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/92 "2008-11-18T23:31:55Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > It was a decent action spy flick. Except for the Bond girls, it didn’t really seem like a _Bond_ flick. There weren’t even any gadgets! No gadgets? What about the one that he had which used a spring and a set of gears to make a hammer strike a pin to ignite the primer in a bullet, propelling it through a rifled barrel to impale an enemy? He used that one a LOT. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/93 "2008-11-19T00:59:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I didn’t notice M running upstairs at all. Mitchell blazed away, people fell in every direction, Mitchell beat feet out of there, and Bond got up and chased him. Damn that choppy editing! Same here. I _thought_ I saw her get shot, but then she reappeared none the worse for wear a short time later, so I figured I’d been mistaken. Never saw her running. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/94 "2008-11-20T01:36:14Z")
Just got back from seeing it. Worst Bond flick ever. Incomprehensible plot, and boring as hell. Why put the gunbarrel sequence at the end? What was the point of it? Starting in the middle of a car chase made it hard to fathom what was happening. Oh, I knew it was Mr White’s boys chasing him, but who was who?Was that big lorry trying to run him down, or was it just an innocent bvystander, or what? Same thing throughout the film. The villains plot left me thinking “so what?” Usually bond villains actually do something villainous. They actually try to murder hundreds or millions of innocent people. Stockpile gold, then blow up Fort Knox. Stockpile microchips, then blow up silicon Valley. Set up an oil supply line, then blow up your competitors supply line. Here the plot seems to be: legally acquire the land with the water sources, then legally exploit the resources on your own land. Charge double the old price for water. That makes him a nasty businessman, bur is it actually illegal? What does the title even mean? If they wanted to use the title from such an obscure story, then they should have either used it in the original sense of a minuscule bit of comfort, or else have a villain called “Quantum” working for an organization called “Solace.” So, after Mr White and Mr Greene, will the next villain be called Mr Braun? ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/95 "2008-11-20T02:27:30Z")
I actually fell asleep in the middle, about where he met Fields. I woke up in time to see the Goldfinger tribute, but I missed the omage to my state mascot. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/96 "2008-11-20T02:29:24Z")
What _is_ your State mascot? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/97 "2008-11-20T03:08:08Z")
One more plot hole, which I don’t remember anyone mentioning (but if I missed it, I apologize): Quantum was able to buy up the aquifer because everyone knew that the land was largely worthless, because it had been explored and prodded by the requisite experts (geologists or petroleum engineers or such) and they concluded it had no oil (or, presumably, natural gas, which IRL Bolivia has a lot of). Yet these scientists somehow managed to completely miss the huge honkin’ aquifer – really, an open subterranean lake; I’d be surprised if it didn’t have _tidal waves_ – sitting just below the surface. In a huge system of caverns. Um, yeah, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/98 "2008-11-20T03:22:39Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Just got back from seeing it. Worst Bond flick ever. Incomprehensible plot, and boring as hell. > > Why put the gunbarrel sequence at the end? What was the point of it? > > Starting in the middle of a car chase made it hard to fathom what was happening. Oh, I knew it was Mr White’s boys chasing him, but who was who?Was that big lorry trying to run him down, or was it just an innocent bvystander, or what? Same thing throughout the film. > > The villains plot left me thinking “so what?” Usually bond villains actually do something villainous. They actually try to murder hundreds or millions of innocent people. Stockpile gold, then blow up Fort Knox. Stockpile microchips, then blow up silicon Valley. Set up an oil supply line, then blow up your competitors supply line. Here the plot seems to be: legally acquire the land with the water sources, then legally exploit the resources on your own land. Charge double the old price for water. That makes him a nasty businessman, bur is it actually illegal? > > What does the title even mean? If they wanted to use the title from such an obscure story, then they should have either used it in the original sense of a minuscule bit of comfort, or else have a villain called “Quantum” working for an organization called “Solace.” > > So, after Mr White and Mr Greene, will the next villain be called Mr Braun? Really don’t think the spoiler box is needed at this point, so I’m disregarding it. 🆒 The gunbarrel extro bugged me too. Really shoulda been in the beginning before the credits or the teaser. While purchasing the land may have been legal, using dynamite to covertly dam up the water into secret underground resivoirs likely was not, making the contract itself questionable. My interpretation of “Quantum of Solace” was that Bond is out to get the guys who he feels are responsible for Vesper’s death. He knows it can’t possibly bring him much Solace, but it might bring him a little. And of course, Quantums are very little. Also, though I don’t think they’ve hit on it yet in the movies themselves, Quantum is the name of this iteration of SMERSH/Spectre/Cobra. In QoS, you briefly see Q lapel pins in the grab bag Bond gets from the guy in the men’s room, and you see Greene wearing them a couple of times too. Oh, and my room mate and I are holding out for a Mr. Peach 😃 Hah, what if the main guy turns out to be named Gold? We’ve had Goldfinger, The Man With the Golden Gun, and Goldeneye, we could use another Gold title. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/99 "2008-11-20T03:24:51Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > One more plot hole, which I don’t remember anyone mentioning (but if I missed it, I apologize): Quantum was able to buy up the aquifer because everyone knew that the land was largely worthless, because it had been explored and prodded by the requisite experts (geologists or petroleum engineers or such) and they concluded it had no oil (or, presumably, natural gas, which IRL Bolivia has a lot of). Yet these scientists somehow managed to completely miss the huge honkin’ aquifer – really, an open subterranean lake; I’d be surprised if it didn’t have _tidal waves_ – sitting just below the surface. In a huge system of caverns. > > Um, yeah, whatever. There was something showing the aquifer had formed from being dammed up. Presumably when the other experts did their study, it had not been dammed up yet. Bond tripped over something and made a remark about it. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747/100 "2008-11-20T04:19:38Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Do British Embassies routinely send sexy vixens showing lots of leg – indeed, looking like she may have nothing at all on under that short coat – to airports to chase unwanted spies away? They usually contract it out to La Feme Nikita. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quantum-of-solace/472747.md?page=6)