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I read Djibouti, so I might have been influenced by it. Not my favourite Elmore Leonard novel.
It could even be the plot for the pre title sequence, that M promotes a young Bond because she's lost agents through the leaking of their identities.
His first mission could be to keep say 002 safe and get them out of danger and then go to find the main villain, take them down
Could be a way of setting up the 00 section in this new era a bit more.
I think I suggested it before in this very thread: have a consultant criminal organisation (SPECTRE, a revamped SMERSH, or something new) be contracted at a high price to cripple the 00 section by killing its members.
The villain is the CEO of a massive renewable energy company and is regarded as a benevolent hero by the NGO-Industrial complex. He has speaking slots at Davos, magazine profiles, all of that. His newest project is the construction of a gargantuan nuclear power plant in North Africa (probably Sudan or something), designed to provide low-cost energy to the third world. Western media adores him for this and hails him as a savior of the Global South.
However, the mysterious death of a British national IAEA inspector leaving one of the CEO's sites leads MI6 to believe that more could be going on than meets the eye.
Eventually, Bond discovers that the villain is secretly a White Nationalist, and with the help of a sexy, brainy engineer, learns that there is a flaw in the reactor that will cause a catastrophic meltdown. Once captured by the villain, Bond berates him for constructing a device that will kill millions (through the explosion, fallout, and irradiation of crops and dwindling water supplies in the region) just for the crime of being born elsewhere.
The villain laughs. The meltdown is just the tip of the iceberg. The initial explosion isn't merely designed to kill people, though it certainly will. Chernobyl will look like a house fire compared to what he has in store. His real plan is to render the water supplies toxic, the fields fallow, and the air thick with poison, causing widespread starvation and forcing millions of third-worlders to migrate northward. As the immigrants flood Europe's borders, a race war will consume the continent, and Europa will be reborn in his white supremacist vision.
Bond races against time to prevent the meltdown. He and the villain battle in hazmat suits in the belly of the plant, culminating in Bond slashing open the villain's protective gear and leaving him to die of radiation sickness (in a final clash reminiscent of the end of Dr. No).
That said, I could definitely see it for Bond 28, a sort of Goldfinger/TSWLM for the new Bond actor. Of course, they can't plan that far in advance.
I don't think we've had an evil CEO since Greene in QOS. We haven't had one with any sort of gravitas since TWINE.
I can imagine it being a bit too overtly political for Bond (or at least Amazon's Bond!) But as said above I'm sure aspects of it could be a potential third film or fourth film in an actor's tenure. It reads like a dark version of TSWLM or GF, which I'm all about.
I think there's something to that idea. I think the villain and their motivation would have to be worked out - ie. who are they - a Scaramanga type assassin, or perhaps a Silva or Alex Travelyan type? (Perhaps they were even the previous 007/connected to the 00 section that way, which while not wholly original would be a twist on the 'agent turned rogue' trope we've seen in modern EON). There's also the question of why would they hate MI6 so much that they want to take down the 00 section.
I like it though. It hits Bond and M close to home and there's lots of dramatic potential there.
It's crazy that we were only talking about something similar to this as a possible plot for Bond yesterday
True, but so many were Goldfinger wannabe. Even their schemes were often similar. I like QOS, but I'm glad he was the only businessman antagonist during the Craig era.
Maybe they're just paid by not-Russia, or not-North Korea, or some undefined but implied to be Saudi potentate. I'm sure that if in real life someone had the means and the know-how to seriously hurt MI6, he'd find someone willing to pay him for his services.
I used AI to create some mock concept art/production stills for this idea while I flesh out a full screenplay.
Pre- Titles Sequence
Title Sequence
Dangerous,Adrenaliene-fueled Countryside Drive
The Briefing
Khan and Miller Talk Shop
Bond, M, and Tanner Meet at Blades
Bond Contacts Syren
Bond Meets Thorne
Tokyo Superbike Chase
Q Branch
Bond, Felix, and Syren in Dubrovnik
Icelandic Athena Facility
After the pre-title sequence, M admonishes Bond for his failure and criticises his ability to run operations. Bond finds the criticism unfair, but M isn't having it.
(Depending on the pacing of the film the next part can be omitted completely); Bond lapses back into his daily domestic life. We get the picture that he's bored and desperate for a redemption mission. He even asks Moneypenny to try and get him on a mission but she says no
M gives Bond a mission, but one he doesn't like as punishment, dealing with gun-running from the Balkans. His goal is to get the leader, Jack Spang, to fly to the UK so he can be arrested. Similar to the novel version of DAF, Bond poses as a freelance intermediary for a British gang, to negotiate a new weapons deal. His contact, the inventory manager, is a more straight adaption of Tiffany Case.
Bond feels bad about it, but he uses her to meet important pieces and discover the smuggling patterns of the organisation. He realises that there's a heavy shipment of military-grade explosives to Norway. It turns out this order was by Fraternite Internationale de la Résistance Contre l’Oppression (a hint at SPECTRE for future editions).
Bond, suspicious of the potential of the plan, ditches the planned operation (a scene with M's approval could be inserted to demonstrate a progression of trust) and offers for him and Tiffany to fly to Norway to help with the smuggling and act as security. Their client, a Largo-esque figure, plans to use the bombs on behalf of backers to sabotage Norwegian oil and gas production, which will allow them to not only capitalise in the markets, but increase the illegal flow of oil and gas into Europe. Bond thwarts this plan
In a Hamilitonian coda, Jack Spang flies out to Bond to get revenge. After his organisation's failure their credibility was destroyed and FIRCO (SPECTRE) worked to ruin his organisation. Spang captures Bond and gives him a beating (the novel's Brooklyn stomping), but Tiffany acts quickly and saves Bond. The film ends with Bond and Tiffany wrapped in an embrace.
Okay, so a few rough ideas inspired by my time here (and soon in Vienna):
-Bond starts on a routine mission about the theft and subsequent smuggling of art own by the Crown (maybe literally by the Royal family?). Things of really high value. Could be paintings, jewellery, even bottles of expensive spirits and wine.
-So far it seems that it's just a small network of crooks that got lucky, maybe helped by white collar criminals. But the British Government is afraid of a scandal and a public humiliation, and worry that this could lead to more: today it's art, tomorrow it could be state secrets.
-The investigation leads Bond to Austria, where he finds a mysterious and reclusive art dealer, who sells and buys to syndicates, kleptocrats and dictators. He lives in an Austrian castle or manor, in the Alps.
-It turns out said art dealer is behind it, but not merely as a middle man. He's using his money for something far larger and sinister. What I haven't figured out yet. But I'd like the idea of an art lover as a villain.
-My general idea is a Dr No in Austria, between Vienna, Salzburg and maybe Innsbruck, Graz and other places. Vienna has traditionally been a center of international espionage, so it's about time it's featured again in a Bond film.
-I'd imagine the main Bond girl to be an opera singer or maybe a musician. Someone the villains lusts after, but in a voyeuristic, impotent manner. Like Salieri in Amadeus in regards to Caterina Cavalieri: he can't have her, but he won't have any other man touch her.
So yeah. Don't know where I'm going with it, but they're my ideas anyway.
It's not very fleshed out - although it's longer than I thought it'd be. It's just a bit of fun. I'd like to think there's a good bit of Fleming and the recent films in there (not that you can get away from those with Bond).
Full transparency: I used ChatGPT, but only to help quickly come up with original character names before I got down to writing (ie. Seraphine, Lady Ares, and Lucia Valmorán, were generated using specific prompts), as well as ideas for locations. Everything else - the outline, the story/plot points, and even the title were not generated using AI.
***
EDIT: just to keep things clean the revised version is below ;)
I also think the whole naval aspect works a lot better here than some of the more gung-ho aspects of Bond in submarines or whatnot.
I wonder if there'd be a way to connect the whole torture and 00 exposure somehow later in the film though. The plot can't be too bloated of course but with the CIA watching Bond and ordering him and such, the failure of the 00 section earlier in the film could play a role.
Thanks for reading! Yeah, I can definitely see SF in there, although I had TMWTGG in mind (both the film and book). That and I guess I wanted to see how an AI scheme could work in a Bond film.
If I were giving myself notes, yeah I think I’d definitely agree about that last observation, especially with 008 being a bit of a questionable agent/failing and the CIA being involved (and of course Bond not knowing the extent of which until later). Anyway, it’s not a proper film treatment and is basically the equivalent of a rough draft. But there’s stuff that can definitely be fleshed out - probably Fleu could be expanded upon (I see her as a sort of Vivian Michel). I think I’d look again and make Bond’s change more apparent (the feeling I get is he goes from being overly cold and detached - more so than usual anyway - as a year one 007 to much more selfless by the end, probably to some extent based on his interaction with Seraphine. He could probably be a bit crueler to Sofia earlier on to emphasise that I guess, and perhaps he even disobeys some sort of order from MI6 to finish this job in that third act). Poor Hex is a bit inserted in there but plays a big role by the end so he’d have to be developed. Then there’s the usual stuff like developing more specific action sequences etc.
I guess if I had to be critical I'd say it could do with more of a hook perhaps, in a Friends-style way, what is this 'The One With..'? The One with the AI Navy controller? It's maybe a little nebulous perhaps. But it's a really fun Bond story as it is.
Thank you. Yes, I completely get that. I suppose it’s less about a single piece of AI being the hook, but is instead a Bond adventure which takes place in our modern world where AI is quickly developing. Seraphine’s MO is basically using AI equipment to commit assassinations. But yes, the caper could well be stronger. I guess to develop it I’d hypothetically try to do something more with the horror/idea of how 008’s information during his brainwashing - or heck, even his character traits (again, he seems a pretty nasty agent in how he treats Fleu) - can be uploaded into Phoenix to create a sort of AI doomsday scenario. Give that idea that he’s not only betrayed MI6 in life but is doing so beyond the grave/unwillingly. But it’s hypothetical ;)
Maybe it'd be fun to have a villain, or secondary villain who is dead and has been for a while, and yet is still a threat. Maybe they were even a goodie while they were alive but the version which has been programmed is a twisted version.
I feel with Bond they’re always falling back on tropes (the same but different. Hell, some Bond films pretty much have the same plots as previous ones). There are always ways to make it fresh though ;)
Again, I think 'same but different' is always key. Can't really escape it.
Speaking of which, I had another afternoon off with little to do, so I went back on this. Last time I'll do it, as it's fun but rather pointless.
If it's too long and anyone can't be bothered reading, the villain's caper is the development of an AI system that uses information taken by tortured/brainwashed agents that are killed (hence the name 'Phoenix'). It's a bit of a mad concept - sort of a mixture of the Brosnan and Craig films - but I hope I did it some justice. Vital pieces of character threads have been changed, which I'm happy with.
Thanks as always :) Yeah, I thought all that would be an interesting way of showing a younger Bond's progression in this one in tandem with his choices later.
Not sure if it'll be anything like the Bond 26 we'll get, but I had fun with it at any rate.
This remainds me of when Moore said in his book that he knew his Bond has to be "same but different" than Connerys.