Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace
Directed by	Marc Forster
Produced by	Michael G. Wilson Barbara Broccoli
Written by	Paul Haggis Neal Purvis Robert Wade
Starring	Daniel Craig Olga Kurylenko Mathieu Amalric Gemma Arterton Giancarlo Giannini Jeffrey Wright Judi Dench
Music by	David Arnold
Cinematography	Roberto Schaefer
Editing by	Matt Chesse Rick Pearson
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures
Release	29 October 2008 (London, premiere) 31 October 2008 (United Kingdom)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million
Gross revenue	$586.1 million
Preceded by	Casino Royale
Followed by	Skyfall

Quantum of Solace is the 22nd James Bond film produced by Eon Productions, and is the direct sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale. Directed by Marc Forster, it features Daniel Craig's second performance as James Bond. In the film, Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover, Vesper Lynd, and is assisted by Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), who is plotting revenge for the murder of her family. The trail eventually leads them to wealthy businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of the Quantum organisation, who intends to stage a coup d'état in Bolivia to seize control of that country's water supply.

Producer Michael G. Wilson developed the film's plot while Casino Royale was being shot. Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis contributed to the script. Daniel Craig and Marc Forster had to write some sections themselves due to the Writers' Strike, though they were not given the screenwriter credit in the final cut. The title was chosen from a 1959 short story in Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only, though the film does not contain any elements of the original story. Location filming took place in Mexico, Panama, Chile, Italy, Austria and Wales while interior sets were built and filmed at Pinewood Studios. Forster aimed to make a modern film that also featured classic cinema motifs: a vintage Douglas DC-3 was used for a flight sequence, and Dennis Gassner's set designs are reminiscent of Ken Adam's work on several early Bond films. Taking a course away from the usual Bond villains, Forster rejected any grotesque appearance for the character Dominic Greene to emphasise the hidden and secret nature of the film's contemporary villains.

The film was also marked by its frequent depictions of violence, with a 2012 study by the University of Otago in New Zealand finding it to be the most violent film in the franchise. Whereas Dr. No featured 109 "trivial or severely violent" acts, Quantum of Solace had a count of 250 – the most depictions of violence in any Bond film. Quantum of Solace premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 29 October 2008, gathering mixed reviews, which mainly praised Craig's gritty performance and the film's action sequences, but feeling that the film was not as impressive as its predecessor Casino Royale. As of November 2012, it is the third-highest-grossing James Bond film, without adjusting for inflation, earning $586 million worldwide.

Plot

James Bond is driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy, with the captured Mr. White in the boot of his car. After evading pursuers, Bond and M interrogate White regarding his organization, Quantum. M's bodyguard Craig Mitchell, a double agent, attacks M, enabling White to escape. Bond chases Mitchell and kills him. Bond and M return to London and search Mitchell's flat, discovering through tagged banknotes that Mitchell had a contact in Haiti. Bond tracks the contact, Edmund Slate, and learns that Slate is a hitman sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, environmentalist Dominic Greene. While observing her subsequent meeting with Greene, Bond learns that Greene is helping an exiled Bolivian General, Medrano—who murdered Camille's family—to overthrow his government and become the new president in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert.

After rescuing Camille from Medrano, Bond follows Greene to a performance of Tosca in Bregenz, Austria. En route, the CIA head of the South American section, Gregg Beam, strikes a non-interference deal with Greene to maintain access to assumed stocks of Bolivian oil. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the opera, exposing the identities of Quantum's executive board to Tanner, and a gunfight ensues. Greene's men kill a Special Branch bodyguard working for Quantum member Guy Haines, an adviser to the British Prime Minister, after he fights with Bond. M assumes that Bond killed him, and has his passports and credit cards revoked when he refuses to return home and debrief.

Bond heads to Italy and convinces his old ally René Mathis to accompany him to Bolivia. At the La Paz airport, they are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 officer, who demands that Bond return to the UK immediately. Bond seduces her before they attend a fundraising party Greene holds that night. At the party, Bond again rescues Camille from Greene. Leaving, Bond and Camille are pulled over by Bolivian police working for Medrano. They had earlier attacked Mathis and put him in the boot of Bond's car to frame Bond; and, in the ensuing struggle, Mathis is killed.

The following day, Bond and Camille survey Quantum's intended land acquisition by air; their plane is shot down after a brief air battle and they skydive out of the burning plane into a sinkhole. In the cave, Bond and Camille discover Quantum is damming Bolivia's supply of fresh water to create a monopoly. Back in La Paz, Bond meets M and learns that Quantum murdered Fields by drowning her in crude oil. M orders Bond arrested for disobeying orders but he escapes. He risks capture by doubling back to tell M that Fields demonstrated bravery in the field, and this is enough to convince M that Bond can be trusted.

Bond meets CIA agent Felix Leiter, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet in the Atacama Desert to finalize the coup. Warned by Leiter, he evades the CIA's Special Activities Division when they attempt to kill him. At an eco hotel in the desert, Greene reveals his true plans to Medrano: now that he controls the majority of Bolivia's water supply, Greene forces Medrano to accept a new contract that makes Greene Planet Bolivia's sole water utility company at significantly higher rates. Bond infiltrates the hotel, kills the Chief of Police for betraying Mathis, and confronts Greene. Meanwhile, Camille kills Medrano, avenging the murders of her parents and sister. The struggle leaves the hotel largely destroyed by fire. Bond then captures Greene and interrogates him about Quantum, before leaving him stranded in the desert with only a can of engine oil. Bond and Camille kiss before they part.

Bond travels to Kazan, Russia, where he finds Vesper Lynd's former lover, Yusef Kabira, a member of Quantum who seduces women with valuable connections. Bond tells Kabira's latest target, a Canadian Intelligence agent, of his true intentions, thus sparing her Vesper's fate. He spares Kabira's life and allows MI6 to arrest him. Outside, M tells Bond that Greene was found in the middle of the desert dead, shot twice and with engine oil in his stomach; Bond denies knowing anything. M also reveals that Leiter has been promoted and has taken Beam's place. She reinstates Bond as an agent; he tells M that he never left. As he leaves, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.

Cast

James Bond
(Daniel Craig)

M
(Judi Dench)

Dominic Greene
(Mathieu Amalric)

Camille Montes
(Olga Kurylenko)

General Medrano
(Joaquin Cosio)

René Mathis
(Giancarlo Giannini)

Felix Leiter
(Jeffrey Wright)

Bill Tanner
(Rory Kinnear)

Strawberry Fields
(Gemma Arterton)

Elvis
(Anatole Taubman)

Mr. White
(Jesper Christensen)

Gregg Beam
(David Harbour)

Carlos
(Fernando Guillen Cuervo)

Craig Mitchell
(Glenn Foster)

Corinne Veneau
(Stana Katic)

Edmund Slate
(Neil Jackson)

• Daniel Craig as James Bond. Craig's physical training for his reprise of the role placed extra effort into running and boxing, to spare him the injuries he sustained on his stunts in the first film. Craig felt he was fitter, being less bulky than in the first film. He also practiced speedboating and stunt driving. Craig felt Casino Royale was [physically] "a walk in the park" compared to Quantum of Solace, and required a different performance from him because Quantum of Solace is a revenge film, not a love story like Casino Royale. While filming in Pinewood, he suffered a gash when kicked in his face, which required eight stitches, and a fingertip was sliced off. He laughed these off, noting they did not delay filming, and joked his finger wound would enable him to have a criminal career (though it had grown back when he made this comment). He also had minor plastic surgery on his face. The actor advised Paul Haggis on the script and helped choose Marc Forster as the director.
• Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes, a Bolivian agent with her own vendetta regarding Greene and Medrano. Forster chose her because out of the 400 women who auditioned, she seemed the least nervous. When she read the script, she was glad she had no love scene with Craig; she felt it would have distracted viewers from her performance. Kurylenko spent three weeks training to fight with weapons, and she learnt a form of indoor skydiving known as body flying. Kurylenko said she had to do "training non-stop from the morning to the evening" for the action scenes, overcoming her fears with the help of Craig and the stunt team. She was given a DVD box set of Bond films, since the franchise was not easily available to watch in her native Ukraine. Kurylenko found Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies inspiring "because she did the fight scenes by herself." The producers had intended to cast a South American actress in the role. Kurylenko trained with a dialect coach to perform with a Spanish accent. She said that the accent was easy for her because she has "a lot of hispanic friends, from Latin America and Spain, and it's an accent I've always heard". When reflecting on her experience as a Bond girl, she stated she was proudest of overcoming her fears in performing stunts.
• Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene, the main villain. He is a leading member of Quantum posing as a businessman working in reforestation and charity funding for environmental science. Amalric acknowledged taking the role was an easy decision because, "It's impossible to say to your kids that 'I could have been in a Bond film but I refused.'" Amalric wanted to wear make-up for the role, but Forster explained that he wanted Greene not to look grotesque, but to symbolise the hidden evils in society. Amalric modelled his performance on "the smile of Tony Blair [and] the craziness of Sarkozy," the latter of whom he called "the worst villain we [the French] have ever had ... he walks around thinking he's in a Bond film." He later claimed this was not criticism of either politician, but rather an example of how a politician relies on performance instead of a genuine policy to win power. "Sarkozy, is just a better actor than [his presidential opponent] Ségolène Royal—that's all," he explained. Amalric and Forster reconceived the character, who was supposed to have a "special skill" in the script, to someone who uses pure animal instinct when fighting Bond in the climax. Bruno Ganz was also considered for the part, but Forster decided Amalric gave the character a "pitiful" quality.
• Gemma Arterton as MI6 Agent Strawberry Fields, who works at the British consulate in Bolivia. Fields, who is merely an office worker as described by M, takes herself seriously and tries to overpower Bond when the pair meet. She is later seduced by Bond, infiltrates Greene's fund raiser party with him and ends up paying the ultimate price. Forster found Arterton a witty actress and selected her from a reported 1,500 candidates. One of the casting directors asked her to audition for the role, having seen her portray Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre. Arterton said Fields was "not so frolicsome" as other Bond girls, but is instead "fresh and young, not ... a femme fatale." Arterton described Fields as a homage to the 1960s Bond girls, comparing her red wig to that of Diana Rigg, who played Tracy Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Rigg, alongside Honor Blackman, is one of her favourite Bond girls. Arterton had to film her character's death scene first day on the set, where she was completely covered head to toe in non-toxic black paint. Although she found the experience unpleasant, she believes the scene will be an iconic part of the film. The character's first name, which is a reference to the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever", is never actually uttered on screen; when Bond asks her for her name, she replies, "Just Fields." Robert A. Caplen suggests that this is a conscious effort to portray a woman "whose character attributes are neither undermined nor compromised" by her name, even though her name may have sexual overtones reminiscent of earlier Bond girls.
• Giancarlo Giannini as René Mathis, Bond's ally who was mistakenly believed to be a traitor in Casino Royale. Having been acquitted, he chooses to aid Bond again in his quest to find out who betrayed him.
• Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Bond's ally at the CIA. This marked the first time the same actor played Leiter twice in a row. Only David Hedison had previously played the character twice, in Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989), but these performances were not consecutive. Early script drafts gave Leiter a larger role, but his screentime was restricted by on-set rewrites.
• Judi Dench as M. Forster felt Dench was underused in the previous films and wanted to make her part bigger, having her interact with Bond more because she is "the only woman Bond doesn't see in a sexual context," which Forster finds interesting.
• Anatole Taubman as Elvis, Greene's second-in-command. Taubman wanted to make Elvis "as colorful, as edgy and as interesting as possible", with one of his suggestions being the bowl cut. Amalric and Taubman improvised a backstory for Elvis: he is Dominic's cousin and once lived on the streets before being inducted into Quantum. He called Elvis "a bit of a goofball. He thinks he's all that but he's not really. ... He's not a comic guy. He definitely takes himself very serious, but maybe by his taking himself too serious he may become friendly."
• David Harbour as Gregg Beam, the CIA Section Chief for South America and a contact of Felix Leiter.
• Joaquín Cosío as General Medrano, the exiled general whom Greene is helping to get back into power, in return for support of his organisation. He murdered Camille's entire family when she was a young girl.
• Fernando Guillen Cuervo as Carlos, the Colonel of Bolivian Police, the chief of all police forces, and the contact of René Mathis in Bolivia.
• Jesper Christensen as Mr. White, whom Bond captured after he stole the money won at Casino Royale in Montenegro.
• Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, M's aide.
• Paul Ritter as Guy Haines
• Tim Pigott-Smith as the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
• Neil Jackson as Edmund Slate, a henchman who fights Bond in Haiti.
• Simon Kassianides as Yusef, a member of Quantum who seduces female agents and manipulates them into giving away classified information. He is indirectly responsible for Vesper Lynd's death.
• Stana Katic as Corrine Veneau, a Canadian agent and Yusef's latest target.
• Glenn Foster as Craig Mitchell, M's bodyguard and a double agent.
• Oona Chaplin as Perla de las Dunas' receptionist, a woman saved by Camille Montes in one of the last sequences.
• Lucrezia Lante Della Rovere as Gemma, Mathis' girlfriend.
• Elizabeth Arciniega as Mr. White's girlfriend.

Marc Forster asked his friends and fellow directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón to appear in cameos. Cuarón appears as a Bolivian helicopter pilot, while del Toro provides several other voices.

External links

• Quantum of Solace at the Internet Movie Database