Yes, this gave me pause, too - when he started digging out the shrapnel from his shoulder, I initially assumed this was the shot from Eve, which made me wonder why he wanted it analysed - he knew who shot him!
My “why didn’t he shoot him then?” moment was when he went into the skyscraper in Shanghai trailing the assassin. He had a clear shot at the guy’s back for several seconds while he was getting into the lift.
I have to say that the ending of the film came as a bit of a shock, as M seemed to have forgotten all about being injured when she was talking to Silva at the end. Then Bond turns up and she suddenly pegs out. Was this deliberate, or just bad acting on Dench’s part? (Surely not!)
It’s interesting to note what happened with Timothy Dalton: the good guys tell Bond he’ll be stripped of his rank and license to kill if he pursues a private vendetta; our hero, who doesn’t give a crap, shrugs and strides off to plant some explosives and play sniper – and when that doesn’t work, he sets the villain on fire for the win, after framing said villain’s right-hand man for the classic crime he didn’t commit.
Adjusted for inflation? Worst box-office gross in the history of the series.
Folks in the '80s didn’t want to see a grim and relentless Bond who doesn’t so much “work for” his employer as “temporarily agree with” the good people at MI6; decades later, sure, Craig is all the rage – but back then, they of course said NO, WAIT; GET ME LIGHT COMEDY WITH REMINGTON STEELE!
As soon as Bond dug out the fragments, I guessed they were going to turn out to be radioactive, and that that explained why he was having such a hard time recovering his strength. Sure enough, the bullet turned out to be laced with uranium, but the potential radiation poisoning angle was ignored and Bond’s loss of stamina was just chalked up to age.
I had assumed that the aparmtent was owned by MI-6, so when he died they cleaned it out for another agent to move into and put his stuff in storage. Otherwise why would his employer have any control over his home?
And as for Skyfall, I figured it was dusty and under wraps because no one lived there anymore except the groundskeeper. Did they mention it was being sold?
There was a reason to kill him - MI6 kills its traitors. At the start of Casino Royale Bond confronts a traitor, an unarmed sitting duck, and executes him. The fact that he didn’t do the same to Silva is a large plot hole.
It’s possible that the flat was owned by MI6, though why they’d sell it rather than move someone else in is odd. But it’s specifically stated that the castle, and all its contents including all the guns except his Dad’s own rifle, had been sold. I feel kinda sorry for the new owners when they turn up to take possession.
I got the impression that the killing (really two) at the beginning of Casino Royale was under the direct orders of M. That wasn’t the case this time. Bond was trying to find the person who stole the hard drive, not knowing it would turn out to be a traitorous agent until he found him. Now, I always assumed the “license to kill” means Bond is able to make that call on his own in the field, not just under M’s orders, but it’s not quite the same situation.
It’s the later opportunity that bothers me. Silva is escaping. He is executing a well-laid plan and is on his way to do something very bad. That’s when Bond should just shoot him.
Why did Silva have to be captured and brought to London at all? He ended up escaping via the tube, then getting a ride in a fake police car to the hearing where M was testifying, and breaking into the building via a frontal assault.
If he had the capacity to arrange police cars and uniforms, why didn’t he just catch a flight to Heathrow?
Who says he had to be captured? If he hadn’t been, maybe he would have just caught a plane. But he had a plan in place to get him out if he was captured, which, given that he was attacking the entirety of MI6, was fairly likely.
Silva wanted his little confrontation with M before he killed her. He knew that once he burst into the hearing he wasn’t going to have time for that, so he had to do it beforehand.
Also, I think he wanted to break out of MI6, just to stick it to M again.
Blow M up at her desk? She’s dead but with reputation relatively intact. IMHO, Silva wanted to utterly ruin M’s reputation first. Thus, the key elements of his plan were (1) prominently attack MI6 headquarters, (2) allow the embarrasing Parliamentary inquiry, with “resignation” waiting in the wings, to proceed, which it likely wouldn’t if M was dead (3) attack MI6’s new hidden headquarters, (4) escape same and evade MI6’s best and brightest in the heart of London, where MI6 would have the strongest police & military backup, and (5) now kill M in the most embarrasing way possible: in front of the Parliamentary committee.
MI6 still needed its agent list back; a dead or captured Silva is no guarantee the list still won’t be disastrously released by a flunky or a computer. Some hope, however slim, that they can get Silva to reveal its whereabouts or call off the release is better than none.
And as to the people asking why Bond’s property was sold off so quickly? My theory is that M suspected Bond might be playing dead. “It’s about bloody time!” when he reappears. So liquidating his estate as if he’s dead is the proper thing to do if he is dead – MI6/the Crown/whoever can always hold the proceeds in escrow – and if he isn’t, it’s M’s little passive-aggressive “fuck you!” for playing dead at an inopportune moment.
Another thing, he blows up MI6 HQ, and they relocate to a temporary location. How could he possibly predict which place they would choose? Presumably they have several disused premises.
BTW, let me say I think Quantum of Solace gets a bit of a bad rap. It defintiely had some problems, but it also had some of the best action sequences. The opening action sequence was fantastic. Plus it has some of the best M lines…
“When someone says “We’ve got people everywhere”, you expect it to be hyperbole! Lots of people say that. Florists use that expression. It doesn’t mean that they’ve got somebody working for them inside the bloody room!”
M: If you could avoid killing every possible lead, it would be deeply appreciated.
James Bond: I’ll do my best.
M: I’ve heard that before.
Bond: It was Greene.
M: No doubt, but why?
Bond: It’s just misdirection
M: I mean why her, Bond? She was just supposed to send you home, she worked in an office collecting reports. Look how well you charm works, James.They’ll do anything for you, won’t they. How many is that now?
CR was a franchise “reboot”. Skyfall takes place some unknown amount of time after QoS, and during that time, Bond has apparently hit his stride as a 00 agent.
The point is, MI6 certainly would have several different contingency plans, several different places they might go to. How could Silva predict which one they would use?
