Quantum of Solace (2008)

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Overview

Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel to Casino Royale, picking up just minutes after the previous film ended. Daniel Craig returns as James Bond along with Judi Dench in her sixth outing as Bond's superior-M and Jeffrey wright returns as Bond's contact in the CIA Felix Leiter. The film is not based on any story written by Ian Fleming and the only similarity it bares to actual short story of Quantum of Solace is in name only.

Creation

For Your Eyes Only short story collection

Michael G. Wilson, whom is the current lead producer on the James Bond series originally conceived the idea for the film while Casino Royale was being shot. Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, and Joshua Zetumer all contributed to the script. The title of the film was taken from a 1960 Short Story written by Ian Fleming as part of the For Your Eyes Only short story collection, though the film solely borrows the title and has nothing to do with the actual story beyond that. The film shot on location in Mexico, Panama, Chile, Italy, Austria, and Wales. Interior sets as usual were constructed at Pinewood Studios. Director Marc Forster wanted the film to be very modern while including classic cinema motifs like having a vintage Douglas DC-3 Aircraft used in the film and Art Director Dennis Gassner's sets resembled Ken Adam's famous work on many Bond films.

Plot Summary

Interrogating White

Minutes after capturing Mr. White at Lake Como, Italy; James Bond is driving to Sienna, Italy with White in his trunk. Along the way several cars with members of White's organization attack Bond and the Italian Police then see Bond speeding along with a car behind him shooting at him and immediately take after them but bond is able to evade his pursuers and make it to Mi6's safehouse in Sienna where he and M interrogate White about Quantum. M's bodyguard, Mitchell is then revealed to be a double agent for Quantum and attacks M, allowing White to escape. Bond then chases Mitchell across Sienna's rooftops and kills him.

Returning to London, Bond and M investigate Mitchell's flat and discover banknotes revealing that Mitchell had a contact in Haiti. Bond travels Haiti and finds that the contact is Edmund Slate, a hitman sent by Dominic Greene to kill his girlfriend Camille Montes. Bond observes her meeting with Greene and finds he he is helping an exiled Bolivian General named Medrano to overthrow the Bolivian Goverment in exchange for a seemingly useless piece of desert. After he rescues Camille from Medrano, Bond follows to Greene to Bregenz, Austria where he is attending a performance of Tosca at the opera house. En route to Austria, the head of the CIA's office in South America-Gregg Beam makes a non-interference deal (meaning the CIA will step aside) with Greene to hold onto stocks of Bolivian Oil; despite the objections of Felix Leiter. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the Opera House and starts a gunfight in the adjoining restaurant. A Special Branch bodyguard to Quantum member Guy Haines is killed, and M believing that Bond killed Haines, has his passports and credit cards revoked.

Bond then meets with his friend Rene Mathis to persuade Mathis in joining him on his trip to Bolivia. Upon their arrival, they're greeted by a fellow Mi6 operative-Strawberry Fields who works at the British Consulate in Bolivia. Fields demands that Bond take M's orders and return to London promptly but Bond seduces her before he attends a party hosted by Greene with her. Bond rescues Camille from Greene and while attempting to flee the city, they are pulled over by Bolivian Authorities that are working for Medrano. The car they were driving secretly had Mathis' body in the trunk which was placed their by the police to frame Bond. Their intention wasn't to kill Mathis but in the struggle, he was killed. The next day. Bond rents a Douglas DC-3 Airplane along with Camille to survey the large amount of land purchased by Quantum. Their plane however is shot down, forcing him and Camille to skydive down into a sinkhole. While down in the sinkhole, they discover that Quantum isn't after Bolivia's oil supply like they thought but was instead trying to control the water supply of the entire nation. Arriving back to his room in La Paz, Bond finds Fields dead; murdered by covering her skin with Crude Oil that suffocated her. There in his room, he finds M who has him arrested for disobeying an order, but after a small fight in the elevator with the guards instructed to take him back to London; he escapes. Though he later comes back to tell M that Fields demonstrated bravery in the field, convincing M that he could indeed be trusted.

Later in La Paz, Bond meets with Leiter in a hotel bar about a meeting between Greene and Medrano at an Eco Hotel in the desert; before being informed that the CIA's Special Activities Division is after him and that if he doesn't leave the hotel in 30 seconds, they'll find him and kill him. Then, at the Eco Hotel Green and Medrano are discussing the terms of their alliance. Greene then reveals that he has taken control over the entire water supply of Bolivia; forcing Medrano to allow Greene's company- Greene Planet to become the sole company providing in Bolivia thus raising the prices so he can make even more money off of the "crisis". Bond then infiltrates Eco Hotel and kills the Chief of Police for the death of Mathis and then confronts Greene himself. The in the ensuing chaos, the hotel is nearly destroyed and Camille then kills Medrano to avenge the deaths of her sister and her parents and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him about Quantum, Bond dumps Greene out in the desert with a cans of motor oil.

Bond then travels to Kazan, Russia where he finally located Vesper Lynd's former lover Yusef who was in actuality working for Quantum. There he finds Yusef with a new target, this time a Canadian Operative working for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Instead of killing him though, Bond allows Mi6 to arrest him. M then later informs 007 about Greene's death and tells him that he was found with two bullets in the back of his head and in his stomach they found Motor Oil; to which Bond denies all involvement. She then informs him the US Government fired Gregg Beam and promoted Leiter, and then reinstates Bond as an agent of Mi6 to which he replies I never left". He then quietly drops Vesper's necklace in the snow as he leaves.

Music

The film's score was composed by David Arnold who had been the series' composer since 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies. He stated that Forster liked working closer with his composers and score the film over a longer period of time. Whereas on Casino Royale, Arnold had an accelerated schedule for scoring the film. Instead of composing the score based on the finished film, he scored the film based on it's script. As he did previously, he decided to keep the use of the classic "Bond Theme" to a minimum in the film. Music Producer Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse recorded a demo track for the film though it was ultimately not used as Arnold felt her well publicized trouble with the law made her n"ot ready to record any music". Swedish pop singer Eva Almér and classical composer Christian Wolf wrote a song entitled "Forever" which Almér recorded. The film agents loved the song and passed it on to the producers in Los Angeles but they passed on the song and instead chose the song "Another Way to Die" by Alicia Keys and Jack White. In total 24 songs appeared on the soundtrack. Despite being used in the film, David Arnold's "James Bond Theme" does not appear on the soundtrack.