Skyfall (2012)

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Overview

Skyfall is the twenty third James Bond film made by Eon Productions and is the third film in the current rebooted series featuring Daniel Craig as James Bond. The film is to be directed by Sam Mendes and will not continue the plot from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The synopsis for the film is "MI6 operative James Bond questions his loyalty to his superior, M, when her past actions have consequences in the present. When MI6 itself is attacked, Bond must seek out and eliminate the threat."

Creation

The production of the film was stalled in 2010 by the MGM financial crisis; however MGM was able to pull through and exit bankruptcy, allowing the film to resume pre-production. The film was finally given a release date of November 9, 2012 in January 2011 for North America and two weeks earlier on October 26, 2012 for the UK and Ireland. The film will mark 50 years of the Bond films and as a result, a documentary crew will be present during the production of the film to celebrate the anniversary.

The was originally rumored to be based on the most recent James Bond novel Carte Blanche however Eon Productions quickly shut down the rumors stating that at the time titled Bond 23, "the new film is not going to be called Carte Blanche and will have nothing to do with the Jeffery Deaver book."

Plot Synopsis

James Bond in the opening scene.

The movie opens with MI6 spy and assassin James Bond entering a hotel room in Istanbul. Lying in a chair is an MI6 agent, who is gravely wounded from a bullet wound to the chest. M, Bond's superior officer and mentor, is in an office in MI6 headquarters with a bunch of her employees. She says that the man who shot this agent took a vital hard-drive and Bond needs to find the man immediately. Bond says that if he leaves his fellow agent the man will bleed out. M orders him to forget about the other agent and recover the hard-drive. Bond ignores M and helps his co-worker by applying a towel to the bullet hole. He says that if emergency workers don't arrive in five minutes it will be too late. M says there is no way they will be there in time.

Bond walks into the other rooms of the hotel looking for the agent's killers. He sees him--a physically fit man of about Bond's age--and attempts to apprehend him, but the killer escapes in a sports car. Eve, a fellow agent, arrives in a military jeep. Bond jumps in the car with Eve and the two pursue the killer. Both cars end up crashing in a crowded marketplace. The killer opens fire on Bond and Eve, but misses them (he likely killed several innocent civilians, though). The killer steals a motorcycle to flee but Bond steals one as well and pursues him. The killer and Bond have a motorcycle chase across the rooftops of Istanbul. They both jump on top of a speeding train. The killer has a customized machine gun with an enormous magazine, so Bond runs out of bullets first. Bond uses a backhoe attached to car on the back of a train to cut an entrance way for him to enter it. In the process, Bond is shot.

Bond goes to the front of the train and gets on the roof. He tackles the killer, knocking the gun out of the man's hand. The two begin a brutal fist-fight while the train continues to speed along.

Bond in the Istanbul chase scene.

Meanwhile, Eve is able to drive her jeep to a vantage point where she can see the train. Both Bond and Eve can hear M, but M due to reception issues M can only hear Eve. Eve looks through her scope at where Bond and the killer are fighting: If she fires, she risks hitting Bond. The train is about to enter a tunnel, at which point she will lose her last chance to shoot the killer. Eve tells her dilemma to M. M orders Eve to take the shot. Eve hesitates, saying that it is very likely she could hit Bond instead. M orders Eve to "take the bloody shot!" Eve does so. The bullet hits Bond, knocking him off the train (which is on a bridge) into a river, where he is carried over a waterfall. The train enters a tunnel and the killer escapes.

Three months later, M is called to a meeting with a bureaucrat named Gareth Mallory. Mallory is roughly fifty or sixty years old, is in good physical condition, and is well-groomed. Mallory explains to M (diplomatically, of course) that since she was in charge when the hard-drive--which contained a list of secret identities of most UN spies, including those in MI6 and the CI--was lost, she is going to be fired. The government wishes M to retire gracefully: She will receive a medal and there will be no inquiry into her final months. M refuses, saying she will "leave when the job is done." Mallory warns her that this means she will have to go before a Parliament Committee where her every action will be criticized and she will be fired in disgrace.

On her way back from meeting Mallory, M's assistant--a youngish man named Tanner--shows her on the computer that the MI6 mainframe has been hacked. M watches in horror as the hacker steals the codes to decypher the information on the hard-drive that was stolen three months ago. Then a note pops up on the screen telling M "Think on your sins." As M's car drives up to MI6 headquarters, a bomb goes off.

M

James Bond is in a tropical beach location in what is probably Bangladesh. He gets very drunk every night, but this doesn't keep him from getting laid all the time. His source of income seems to be from making bets in the local bar with the other patrons that he can drink a shot while there is a lethal scorpion on his hand. If he loses balance, the scorpion would sting him.

Bond sees on the TV (which is in English, for some reason) that MI6 has been bombed. He leaves right away.

That night, M walks into her apartment and finds Bond there. Bond had been presumed dead: M had even written an obituary for him. Bond is furious she ordered Eve to take the shot. He says he could have defeated the killer. M said that wasn't a risk she was willing to take. M then asks Bond why he is back. Bond says he has come to help her stop whoever blew up MI6. M says that first Bond will need to be cleared for field duty.

Bond goes to the new, temporary MI6 headquarters, which are held in a secret facility underneath downtown London. Bond is in very good shape, but he isn't at the level he used to be. He cannot do nearly as many pull-ups as are required. On the shooting test, Bond's aim is terrible. When Bond meets with a psychologist to declare whether he is emotionally fit for duty, Bond does not take the session seriously. The psychologist gives him a word association test, and Bond gives sarcastic answers (for example, when the psychologist says "M" Bond replies "bitch"). When the psychologist says the word "Skyfall" Bond becomes angry and walks out.

Gareth Mallory

Bond reunites with Eve. He makes it clear he has no hard feelings towards her for accidentally shooting him. The two are very flirtatious and playful. Eve tells Bond that she was suspended from field duty after the Istanbul incident, but that she is working closely with M's replacement--Gareth Mallory--and will go back to her old job once he is in charge (if not before). Bond replies that the work "is not for everyone."

Bond uses a knife to dig around in one of his bullet wounds to find the shrapnel from the bullet he received from the killer in Istanbul. He gives the shrapnel to Tanner and tells him to analyze it and only show the results to M.

Bond sees M, Tanner, and Mallory in M's new office. On M's desk is a rather ugly paperweight of a bulldog with the Union Jack on its back. Bond jokes that out of all the things to be destroyed in the explosion it is a pity that survived.

M tells Bond that he is cleared for field duty. Bond begins to leave, but Mallory says he has one question: "Why didn't Bond stay dead?" Mallory elaborates that by being presumed dead Bond had the perfect opportunity to leave the agency and live out his days peacefully on an Asian beach (like he had been doing). Mallory says that Bond should feel no shame in admitting that he has gotten older and might not be able to do the work he used to do. Bond is angry and tells Mallory that he wants to remain a field agent and that the only way that will change is if he fires him. M says that she has complete faith in Bond and that when Mallory is head of MI6 he can do what he wants but until then she calls the shots and she says Bond is good to go.

Mallory and Bond leave (not together). Tanning asks M how on Earth Bond passed his tests. M replies that he didn't, but she hid the results and gave fake ones to Bond.

M receives a message on her computer screen mocking her. It then links to a Youtube video which shows five of the MI6 agents on the hard-drive and reveals their secret identities. It then says "Think on your sins." M quickly orders MI6 to pull the men out, but it is too late for at least three of them and they end up killed.

Q

M sends Bond to go meet Q, the MI6 Quartermaster who is charge of the tech. Bond meets Q in an art museum. Bond is shocked at how young Q is. At first the two start bickering, with Q saying most of Bond's work is dated and Bond saying Q is clueless as to how to really protect the peace. By the end of the conversation, it is clear that Q and Bond actually seem to like each other. Q then gives Bond his new gadgets: A gun which is encoded to only fire when it recognizes Bond's palm print and a radio-tracking device that when off is undetectable by any and all electronics but when turned on sends an instant alert to M.

The next day, M and Tanning give Bond his first mission since his return. They say that since the killer in Istanbul used a customized machine gun (so as to have a bigger magazine) he also used a very rare type of bullet. They say that there are very few people in the world known to use them. Bond is shown a list of pictures and he identifies the man who shot him. They say that he is a renowned assassin and was probably hired to kill the MI6 agent and steal the hard-drive (at no point do they bring up that maybe if Bond had given them the bullets a little sooner they might have been able to track him down faster). M says that the CIA has been keeping tabs on him as he is wanted by the States for killing the Yemeni ambassador. M says that the killer is going to be going to Shanghai. M says Bond's orders are to track down the killer, force him to tell who he gave the hard-drive to, and then kill him.

Bond waits at the airport for the assassin to arrive. He sees the man and follows him to an office complex in the downtown. Bond is in his car covertly observing him when he sees the assassin shoot a security guard. Bond quickly darts in. The guard is dead, so Bond follows the assassin (without letting himself be seen). The assassin gets on an elevator which has no walls around its shaft. Bond leaps on the bottom and lets it carry him to the top. Bond then climbs to side of the elevator, forces it open, and then enters the floor where the assassin is.

Bond battles an assassin in Shanghai

The floor has a lot of glass walls. Nearby is a luxury hotel. The hotel has a large digital screen on its roof that is filled with constantly changing neon patterns. In the unlit office with mostly glass, these lights are reflected everywhere, making it seem like there is movement everywhere and making it hard to see. Bond begins to creep towards the assassin. The assassin cuts a hole in a glass window that looks into a hotel room. In the hotel room are a group of men and one very attractive woman. One man is looking at an expensive painting he has just purchased. The assassin carefully aims and then kills the man. Bond does not stop him so as to be able to creep up. When the assassin fires, Bond rushes in. Bond and the assassin resume their fight from three months before. This time, Bond is able to push the assassin out a window. As the assassin begins to fall, Bond catches his hand. Bond demands the assassin tell him who he gave the hard-drive to, but Bond is not the athlete he once was. His strength gives out and he accidentally drops the assassin, who falls to his death without being able to give the critical information. Fortunately, in his things Bond finds a unique poker chip that he thinks the assassin uses to claim his payment for his jobs. Bond flees before the Shanghai police arrive, but before he does he looks out the window to the apartment where the assassin's final target was. Everyone in the room is gathered around the dead body except for the woman, who looks directly at Bond.

Eve

Bond goes to Shanghai and stays in a very lavish apartment, which the British taxpayers who pick up his tab probably would not approve of. Eve visits him, saying Mallory sent her to check up on him. Bond is very unhappy that Eve is allying herself with Mallory, and does not hide his contempt for M's replacement. Bond says that he is a bureaucrat and knows nothing of their work. Eve says there is more to him than that and points out that he spent six months as a prisoner of the IRA while working for the military and didn't cave under pressure. Throughout this conversation, Eve and Bond have a lengthy make-out session as Eve shaves Bond with a straight-razor. Apparently Bond and Eve are the only couple in the world who think that the best conversation for foreplay is to bitch about their bosses. It is implied that after Eve has finished shaving Bond they have sex.

The poker chip Bond finds has the name of a casino in Macau, another territory in China. Bond and Eve both go to the casino, though not together. Bond, pretending to be the assassin, goes to "redeem" his chip. Bond receives a briefcase with an enormous some of money (why it is in British currency is never stated). He is also given roughly a thousand dollars worth of poker chips in order to entice him to play. Bond, who needs information, sees the woman who saw him kill the assassin in Shanghai. Bond offers to buy her a drink. She says she her name is Severine. For unexplained reasons, Bond identifies himself as "Bond, James Bond" instead of the alias the assassin he is pretending to be was using.

Severine in the Macau casino.

Bond sees a number tattooed on Severine's lower wrist. He says he recognizes it as a mark Chinese triads use to identify their child sex slaves. Severine admits that she was a slave, but her knew boss managed to free her. She said she once loved him, but now she is terrified of him. Bond says that if she takes him to her boss he will engage kill him. Severine says she thinks he might actually be able to do it. She tells him that with her are three men her boss has sent to kill Bond. If Bond is able to escape them, she will be on a certain boat in the harbor that is leaving in an hour.

Severine leaves and the three men attack Bond. In the fight, Bond and one of the men fall into a pit containing live Komodo dragons (it is part of the exotic and extreme aesthetic of the casino). The man takes Bond's gun, but it is unable to fire since it only works with Bond's palm prints. The man is thus devoured by Komodo dragons. Bond escapes the pit, but another of the men is waiting for him. Just in the knick of time, Eve jumps in and saves Bond!

Bond sneaks onto the boat where Severine is. He finds her in the shower and the two make love. After that, he goes up on deck. The boat is arriving on an island which once had a bustling city but is now almost completely deserted. The men on Severine's boat put handcuffs on Severine and Bond. Severine tells Bond that her boss had hacked a computer to make it seem like there was an official warning that the city was at risk of a gas explosion. Everybody left and now only her boss and a few of his hired goons live there.

Raoul Silva

Bond is brought into a room and handcuffed to a chair. Three guards stand behind him with guns pointed at him to make sure he doesn't try to escape. Then Severine's boss enters.

The boss is a flamboyantly dressed man of roughly Bond's age. He speaks with a thick Spanish accent. The man first tells Bond a story about how his grandmother got rid of a rat problem on her island. The man says his grandmother set a trap which caught all the rats. She didn't feed the rats but she didn't kill them either. She waited for the rats to get so hungry they turned on each other. Once there were only two rats left, she let them out. The rats no longer ate her coconuts: Now, instead, they only ate other rats. The man says that he and Bond are the last two rats, and they can either turn on each other or take down the whole world.

The man introduces himself as Raoul Silva. He says that he used to work for MI6 under M back when she was head of the Hong Kong branch. Silva says that M betrayed him and that she always lies and manipulates everyone. Silva says that he has become a master computer hacker and has been able to grow phenomenally wealthy by using his hacking abilities to manipulate the stock market to his gain, steal bank account numbers, and influence major events like a rigged election in Uganda for contract. He says he is destroy everything M, MI6, and England made.

Silva then says that using hacking he was able to access MI6's files on James Bond. He says that after Bond returned from "death," he passed none of his tests to be allowed back in the field. On the psychological one especially, the psychologist wrote that he believes Bond is showing "symptoms of substance/alcohol abuse" and has a deep-seated opposition to authority that dates back to his childhood. Silva tells Bond that M sent him into the field knowing he was not ready and that he might very likely die. As he is saying this, Silva unbuttons Bond's shirt to reveal the scar from the bullet Bond that M ordered be fired. Silva then begins to massage Bond's legs in an overtly homosexual fashion. Leaning in to Bond's face he says "Mommy has been very bad."

Silva gets personal with Bond

Silva leads Bond out into a deserted courtyard (three armed guards accompany them). On loud speakers Silva plays "Boum" by Charles Trenet. In the courtyard are strewn various belongings like bicycles and televisions that the previous inhabitants left behind when the hurriedly fled. Silva says that seeing this every day teaches him how foolish materialism is and to not become so attached to his belongings. He says that when something has fulfilled its use to him he is now comfortable to throw it away. At this point, he reveals to Bond that he has had Severine beaten up and chained to a rock.

Silva pours himself and Bond a drink. Bond foolishly gulps his down. Silva takes his and puts it on Severine's head while he forcible kisses her. He tells her to remain very still. Silva then pulls out two antique pistols. He says that he has a contest: The first one to break the glass on Severine's head and spill the Scoth wins. He brings Bond to a little over 100 feet from where Severine is and says that to be sporting he will let him go first. Bond aims the pistol as best he can, but--as shown before--he has lost his skill. The bullet misses both Severine and the glass. Silva then says it is his turn and shoots Severine, causing her to fall over dead. Since this breaks the glass, Silva declares himself the winner. Silva then begins to say something else, but since everyone is a little distracted that Silva shot an unarmed woman down in cold blood and Bond is filled with rage he is able to attack the three guards and kill them all. Now armed, Bond points his gun at Silva. Silva dares him to shoot, but Bond says he doesn't have to, because he has a "little toy called a radio." He reveals that about an hour he had used the small radio to call MI6, and they are just now arriving. A swarm of helicopters arrive and capture Silva and bring Bond back to England.

M visits Silva in his cell in the temporary MI6 headquarters underneath London. Silva says that everything he has done was to see her face one last time. He says that he spent months being tortured but he never gave any information. He says he eventually bit a poison capsule that MI6 had put in his tooth as a last resort. It seriously injured his mouth and intestines, but it didn't kill him. He says then he realized it was all her fault and that she had been manipulating everything. Silva then reveals he has been wearing dentures and a prosthetic skeleton to his upper jaw. The lower half of his face has been nearly completely disintegrated.

Twice during his chase of Silva beneath London, Bond is nearly hit by a train!

M goes to appear before the Parliament Committee to defend her actions. Meanwhile, Q--in the center of a bustling MI6 office--begins cracking the code on Silva's computer. Bond watches over his shoulder and gives him tips on passwords. Unfortunately, once the account is logged into it released a virus into the MI6 mainframe. This causes every single door to automatically open and every electronic device to shut down. Bond rushes to where Silva was being held, but Silva has already killed three guards and escaped. Bond follows where he went and sees he slipped into a subway tunnel.

Bond (being guided by directions Q, who has a GPS, is saying through a blue-tooth) is nearly hit by a train as he follows Bond. He sees him in the station; Silva had men waiting for him who gave him a policeman's uniform as a disguise. Bond manages to get on the same train as Silva. At the next stop, Silva runs to a maintenance door and vanishes into the sewer beneath the subway. Bond pursues Silva, but Silva has placed an explosive on the ceiling. It is unclear if Silva had this planned out beforehand, or was handed a small bomb with the police uniform.

Silva tells Bond that he has a new "toy called a radio" and detonates the bomb. This causes an (empty) train to crash into the sewer. Bond is able to jump out of the way, but he loses Silva.

Q and Bond realize Silva had been planning to get caught all along. They decide that Silva is probably going to the Parliament, where M is. Q messages Tanner, who is with M, telling him the situation.

M is being berated by the bureaucrats and ignores Tanner's warning because if she leaves it will make her look cowardly and MI6 seem useless. M begins a speech defending her actions as head of MI6. She says that she has heard several times that MI6 and specifically the 007 branch are irrelevant and antiquated. She says that in fact it operates in the shadows, and that scares people and makes it hard to see its work. M states that in this day and age "we" (England) are not fighting against a country, but against terrorists who cannot easily be identified. They could be anyone (as she is saying this, Silva and two hired thugs are walking into the Parliament building dressed as cops). M then asks "Do you feel safe." She begins to recite a T.S. Elliot poem she says her late husband loved that says that in the when faced with time and fate sheer human will can prevail. As she concludes, Silva and his men shoot the guards at the door and burst in.

Silva fires at M, but Mallory pushes her out of the way, taking the bullet for her (a non-lethal shot to the arm). Mallory takes a gun from a dead guard and begins firing back at Silva and his men. Eve is also present and begins fighting to save M.

James Bond arrives. He winks at Mallory and shoots the fire extinguishers, releasing thick foggy gas that obscures everyone's vision. With this opportunity, Tanner takes M out of the building and Mallory is able to kill Silva's men. Silva flees.

Bond drives up in yet another sports car, because apparently MI6 is NOT budget-conscious. M gets in and Bond drives away before Tanner can as well. Bond tells Q (over the blue-tooth) that he needs to end this war with Silva NOW. He is going to use M as bait. He wants Q to leave a digital "trail of bread crumbs" that will enable Silva to see where Bond and M went, but not MI6 (because if Silva thinks the rest of MI6 will be there, he definitely won't show up). Q and M both agree to this plan.

Tanner

Q and Tanner begin working on creating a digital trail to lead Silva to M and Bond, but Mallory (released from the hospital early) discovers them. The two fear they will be imprisoned and their plan ruined, but instead Mallory breaks the rules a bit and helps them.

Since the sports car has a GPS installed in it, Bond brings M to a storage unit where all his belongings were put after his "death." Bond shows M an old Aston Marti from his early days at MI6. The two drive to Scottland together.

At dawn, M and Bond get up to stretch. M says that she purposefully recruits young orphans for MI6 as they become very loyal to her and the agency. M then explains what happened to Silva. Some Asian crime group had captured six MI6 agents, but agreed to give them up if M let them know how to capture Silva. M agreed and that was the last she heard of Silva.

By dusk, Bond and M arrive at their destination: Skyfall Manor, the childhood home of James Bond. The only one there is the older gameskeeper, Kincaide, who helped take care of Bond when he was a baby. Bond explains the situation to Kincaide, who insists he stay and help them fight of Silva's men. Bond and Kincaide practice marksmanship with hunting rifles. With M, they rig the house with various explosives and traps.

Kincaid

In the very early morning while it is still dark, the first wave of Silva's men attack. The traps (including a machine gun gadget built into the Aston Martin's headlights) kill many of them and Bond, M, and Kincaide are able to shoot the rest. As they are finishing this fight, Silva and the other half of his men arrive in a helicopter. They use heavy artillery to decimate the house, and M takes a bullet to the leg. Bond has Kincaide leave with M to bring her through a secret passageway while he sets off the final trap. He dodges grenades that Silva throws at him and manages to set off a colossal explosion of his own using two propane tanks (as he leaves, he says "I never liked this place anyway"). This causes the helicopter to crash and burn, though Silva and two of the men were already on the ground and thus are unharmed.

Silva sees the lights of M and Kincaide as, having exited the passageway about a mile away, they go to seek shelter in small (currently empty) chapel. It is winter, so there is snow and ice everywhere and progress is slow. Bond tries to go help M, but is halted by Silva and his two remaining goons. Bond is able to kill one, but ends up out of ammo and precariously balanced on thin ice while cornered by Silva and the other. Silva tells him this constant fighting is exhausting and Bond should just accept his fate and give up. Instead, Bond pushes the henchman's gun so it fires and breaks the ice. Bond and the goon fall into the frigid water. The goon is grasping Bond's throat and dragging him under, but Bond is able to break free and snap the goon's leg. He barely manages to get out of the water before drowning or succumbing to hypothermia.

Bond in one of the final moments of Skyfall

Kincaide and M, believing the worst is over, are unprepared when Silva bursts into the church. Silva puts M's hand over his gun and puts their heads together. He tells her to shoot them both.

Bond bursts in and throws a hunting knife into Silva's back. As Silva dies, Bond says "Last man standing."

Bond goes to M. It is clear he views her as a mother. M collapses, but Bond catches her. M shows Bond the bullet wound she received at the manor and tells him she is going to die. Bond cradles her in his arms as she passes.

A few days later, Bond is standing on top of the newly rebuilt MI6 headquarters looking out at London. Eve comes up next to him. Eve says that Bond was right that field work isn't for everyone and that she has declined an opportunity to be a spy like him for a desk job with Mallory. Eve then says that in M's will there was a specific gift she wanted Bond to have. Bond opens the shoebox containing it and sees it is the ugly bulldog paperweight with the Union Jack on it. Eve says that maybe it was M's way of telling Bond to get a desk job. Bond says it is "just the opposite." Bond then asks Eve what her full name is. She says that she is Miss Eve Moneypenny!

Bond and Eve enter the MI6 office. Tanner greets Bond and tells him that Bond should go see the boss for his new mission. Bond walks into the office where Mallory sits at the desk. Bond greets him as "M." Mallory, the new M, asks Bond if he is ready. Bond says he is in, so M begins to explai his next mission.

Production

Daniel Craig on set filming

Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli at first wanted to shoot in South Africa and traveled there but ultimately did not choose to shoot there. The in August 2011, India was scouted as a locating for filming but unable to secure permission to close sections of the Konkan railway, it was decided later on that filming would not take place in India. Two other major films-The Dark Knight Rises and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol also found trouble in securing permits to film in India. Permits though were later secured by the production crew for Skyfall but due to some restrictions being put in place, Sam Mendes decided not to shoot in India at all. They secured Sultan Ahmet Square in Istanbul, Turkey as the location for the film's opening sequence. For the film's finale, the production crew secured Duntrune Castle in Argyle, Scotland. Mendes later stated that the film would also shoot in Shanghai and in other parts of the country as well.

Music

David Arnold the composer for the James Bond films since 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies will not score the film as long time collaborator of director Sam Mendes-Thomas Newman will score the film instead. Newman has had a long history with director Sam Mendes as he has scored every one of his films save for Away We Go.Arnold dropped out of the project due to his work as music director for 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. Adele was hired to create a song for the film, as is the tradition with Bond movies. Adele beat singers Duran Duran and Michael Buble for this opportunity. Her song, SKYFALL, was well-recieved both critically and commercially.

Heinekin Product Placement

Heinekin signed a deal with MGM to use James Bond to publicize their beer. Heinekin product placement is featured in the movie. Two main objections were raised to Heinekin's deal: First, that it was inappropriate to advertise alcoholic beverages in PG-13 movies; second that beer was never a drink Bond drank, as he always preferred martinis (shaken, not stirred).

Product Placement & Product Tie-Ins

Skyfall had an enormous amount of product tie-ins and product placement. According to UK magazine MIRROR, about a third of the entire budget of Skyfall was payed for by product tie-ins. Some of these companies simply wanted to use the James Bond brand in their advertising and promotions; others, however, payed for product placement in the picture. Among the brands that show up in Bond are Heinekin, Calvin Klein, and Volkswagon (which payed to have their brand name "Audi" said aloud).

Critical Reception

Skyfall was very well-received by critics. On RottenTomatoes, 92% of the 280 reviews were positive (257 of them). This easily gave the movie the coveted "FRESH" status. On Metacritic, 36 of the reviews were positive, 7 were mixed, and none were outright negative. The movie earned an 81, which put in the highest color, GREEN, and the highest category, the rare UNIVERSAL ACCLAIM.

Critics' Choice Awards

The largest and most prestigious body of film critics, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, nominated Skyfall in several categories for the Critic's Choice Awards (or Broadcast Film Critic's Association Awards). These nominations were:

Best Cinematography -- Roger Deakins

Best Supporting Actor -- Javier Bardem

Best Supporting Actress -- Judi Dench

Best Song -- "Skyfall" WON!!!

Best Action Movie WON!!!

Best Actor in an Action Movie -- Daniel Craig WON!!!

Best Actress in an Action Movie -- Judi Dench

Golden Globe Awards

The Golden Globe Awards are bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small, exclusive group of film and television critics mostly from the LA area. The Globes are the second most watched film awards ceremony on television (behind the Academy Awards). The Golden Globe Awards do not give out awards for technical categories, instead having half of their awards be for television programs. Therefore, Skyfall received only one nomination:

Best Original Song -- "Skyfall" WON!!!

SAG Awards

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, or SAG Awards, are bestowed by much of the members on the major acting unions for both television and film. Skyfall received two nominations:

Best Supporting Actor -- Javier Bardem

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble (Film) WON!!!

Academy Awards

Adele wins her fist Oscar (for Best Original Song) for "Skyfall" from SKYFALL

The Academy Awards, or Oscars, are awards given out annually by a large body of people in the film industry. Going into the Academy Awards, Skyfall was considered a possible contender for a Best Picture nomination. It did not receive five nominations in other categories. These were:

Best Cinematography -- Roger Deakins

Best Original Score -- Thomas Newman

Best Original Song -- "Skyfall" by Adele and Paul Epworth WON!!!

Best Sound Editing WON!!! (Tied with Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Sound Mixing