Bond 23 - Detailed Plot Development

edited March 2011 in Skyfall Posts: 1,894
I was in the process of adding a reply to this thread when the forums were moved. I've forgotten half of what I wrote up (probably a good thing, as I remember it being a little too complex), but I thought I'd re-create the thread for anyone who wants to have a crack at writing up a treatment or two.
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Comments

  • Posts: 5
    Maybe focusing on humanistic qualities whether they be good or bad of Bond
    and the characters instead of the basic scenario of the characters are the scene and location and the location and the scene are the characters in a certain veiwpoint of an overall theme.
    This is vague I hope someone understands.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Okay, by popular demand, here's one of my famous write-ups.

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    The story opens with Bond on a mission. There where and whyfor are inconsequential; the important point is that Bond is shot and very nearly killed. He is consigned to mandatory rehabilitation at Shrublands, where he must convince a psychiatrist that he is fit for active duty. However, before he can, a critical mission comes up.

    A former MI6 operative stationed in Hong Kong has been found dead. Someone has taken a diamond-bit drill to the back of his head, boring into his brain stem and killing him instantly. His murder is consistent with a Mexican cartel enforcer named Beningo Urena. Bond is tasked with finding a connection between the dead agent and Urena. He does so when he traces money paid to an account monitored by the DEA to Pheng Yizhou, a Chinese ex-patriate. Pheng was a powerful businessman in the 1990s before the Chinese flagged him as a potential threat to the handover in 1997. In reality, Pheng was simply connected to Falun Gong and the Chinese wanted him out of the handover ceremony. The dead agent was assigned to monitor him in order to appease the Chinese and ensure the handover went smoothly. MI6 never found anything, and the Chinese have since resorted to red-flagging every transaction Pheng has made. He is, however, able to slip around their regulations by trading exclusively out of Hong Kong.

    Because of Bond's failure to qualify for field work, M assigns him to a different role: case agent. He is allowed one meeting with Pheng where he must find someone in Pheng's entourage who he can turn into an informant. Bond travels to Macau, where he poses as a rare book dealer. Pheng has interests in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and Bond claims that he had been sent there by a client in Hollywood to retrieve a book detailing the higher-order concepts of Buddhism (the kind that monks do not study until they have spent eight years following the teachings of Buddhism). He claims to be unsuccessful, and is in Bhutan because his client paid for his services for two weeks. Pheng is impressed by Bond and invites him on a hunting expedition into Bhutan.

    When Pheng was first observed by MI6 in 1996, it was discovered that he is impotent and is trying to find a cure. He is a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, and is searching for a near-mythical creature, the blue (or maltese) tiger. He believes that if he can kill the creature and ingest the powdered penis, he will be cured. Bond agrees to join the party, using his "knowledge" of a book from the 1800s that detailed a sighting of a blue tiger to help guide the party.

    While on the expedition, Bond meets an American company, Joel and Nieves St. Esprit. Joel is an entrepeneur, while Nieves is the heir to a fortune in the shape of a tequila distillery in her native Mexico. Joel is fascinated by the hunt, while Nieves is distracted by something and clearly does not like Pheng. Bond decides to flip her as his agent inside Pheng's entourage. The illegal hunt itself is unsuccessful; Pheng spots the tiger, but cannot get a shot off. They return to Macao where Bond seemingly parts ways with them.

    Bond moves on to Mexico and the city of Guanajuato, the site of Nieves' distillery. However, Nieves is killed by Beningo Urena. Bond chases him through the underground streets of the city before killing him. He returns to the distillery to find Nieves is alive and well - and standing over her own body. Nieves has a twin sister, Luz, who disappeared years ago. Although legally dead, she has resurfaced. Realising that he is the only person who knows Nieves is really dead, Bond convinces Luz to take her sister's place inside Pheng's operations.

    The distillery is key to everything. Tequila is made from the agave cactus, and Joel St. Esprit has found a way to use the raw off-cuts. During the Deep Horizon oil spill crisis, he hit upon the idea of using these useless, fibrous pieces of cactus to absorb the spilt oil. They work surprisingly well, but in addition to cleaning up the slick, the combination of cactus and oil produces an undocumented chemical reaction: it literally causes water to thicken like jelly. Pheng Yizhou has found out about this and has bankrolled St. Esprit's plans to use the off-cuts to clean up other oil spills. However, he wants the chemical process that causes water to thicken.

    Ever since the British handed Hong Kong over to China, Chinese economic policy has encouraged businessed to establish themselves in Shanghai. Where Pheng was once able to sustain himself by trading out of Hong Kong, he has encountered negative growth and is fast running out of money. He needs to be able to trade within China if he wants to keep going. He intends to sell the chemical reaction to Beijing as a chemical weapon, buying his way back into the economy. However, St. Esprit knows about this; Urena owed his loyalty to St. Esprit, not Pheng. The agent in Hong Kong was killed on St. Esprit's orders after he found out about the plan. St. Esprit kills Pheng, drowning him in his own thickened water. Having spent time with Pheng, he believes that China is little more than a diseased organ, and one that needs to be destroyed. He plans to turn the weapon on China, releasing it into the water supply of the centre of the Chinese economy - Shanghai - and using Pheng's British connections to do it. Bond is able to stop St. Esprit, throwing him off a skyscraper.

    A subplot would involve Bond trying to investigate Luz's past, believing that someone out there wants her dead. He enlists Felix Leiter's help, but is unaware that Luz is unstable and threatens to blow her own cover inside Pheng's operations.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,686
    That is quite good, actually !! A tad bit complicated, but it is good !!
  • Posts: 1,894
    I have another one in mind, using elements of RISICO. MI6 fears the UK is coming under attack when there are a series of fatal overdoses in British hospitals. Someone has found a way to refine morphine into pure heroin, and it has found its way into the health system, bringing the country to a stand-still. Bond must infiltrate the Ergenekon, a secret society within the Turkish government that supposedly link members of the Turkish paliament, military and intelligence services with organised crime. The Ergenekon, however, are not all they claim to be. I don't really know where is goes from there, but it would also draw on the MV Arctic Sea, a Russian cargo ship that was supposedly attacked by pirates off the coast of Sweden and was found adrift months later off the coast of Africa. Conspiracy theorists claim that the Russians were selling medium-range ballistic missiles to Iran, but staged the pirate hijacking when the Mossad found out.
  • Posts: 1,092
    Shadow, I know you worked hard on that but it is so convoluted and complex it hurts my head. Simple is better, IMO. It reads like a bad acid trip from a kid with ADD. No offense.
  • Posts: 1,894
    The pacing, I'll admit, needs work. But if it were actually made into a film, things would be a lot more coherent once the writers worked out which wy to slide each piece of the puzzle. As it stands, the scenes up to and including Bhutan would only make up the first half of the film - everything from Mexico onwards is the second half. I know it's top-heavy with exposition, but that's just the setup of the basic story: Pheng Yizhou is a Chinese ex-pat who wants to return home. In order to do that, he needs to give Beijing something they can use. Through his dealings with Joel St. Esprit, he has discovered a chemical weapon that causes water to thicken like jelly. If dumped in a harbour, it would make ports inaccessible. If released in a water supply, it would strangle a city. It's a non-lethal chemical weapon that attacks an economy. However, after spending time with him, St. Esprit decides that Pheng and the Chinese cannot be trusted and so decides to destroy China, or at least cripple them. He intends to use Pheng's existing business operations - his connections to the British - to do it, not because they're British, but because they're convenient.

    Basically, Pheng Yizhou is set up as the villain, but Joel St. Esprit is the real Big Bad. There would be evidence to support this, and if Bond infiltrated their operations, he would probably work it out for himself. However, because he has not passed his psych evaluation (mandatory for all agents who are almost killed in the field), he is only allowed to work as a case agent and is forced to improvise when Nieves is killed. Luz is unstable, and Bond is distracted by her past, and so misses the evidence that St. Esprit is the real villain. Likewise, Luz's existence would not suddenly happen; when Nieves is distracted in the Himalayas, it is because she knows Luz is alive.

    I know it's complex, and deliberately so. But that's the idea. I wanted to put Bond in a situation where he only ever knows half of what he needs to in order to be able to do his job.
  • edited July 2011 Posts: 669
    Forgive me if the story sucks. But, I've written it four years ago. I began working on it straight after I watched CR. Although, there is another one in development which fills the story of my fan fiction. I know you'll hate it, shadowonthesun, but I appreciate if you read it. I've read yours, it was good, but a bit Bourne-ified, but good.

    Here it is:

    It begins with James Bond having a battle in a facility with a terrorist named Marvel Urban. Bond manages to survive the helicopter attacks, and blows up a tank, leaving Urban to die inside. He also blows up the facility, recovering a computer chip that will allow anyone to control one of the most dangerous space weapons. However, he escapes the area and finds his way out.

    A week later, M assigns Bond to investigate a man who is referred to as "Scélérat", real name: Eric Jansene, a rich and powerful person who is known as one of the NATO sponsors. The reason was that this man is suspect of smuggling a large nuclear missile and the hint came from an event that happened a long time ago when he had the desire to buy the French space shuttles. And they've still got an unproved information which contains that Jansene was a member of Quantum.

    However, Bond flies to Paris, where he has to infiltrate Eric Jansene's organization. While tracking down the target, he survives a murder attempt led by three men dressed like blind people, and they were presumably "Three Blind Mice" assassins. Bond deludes them at first, then kills two of them and interrogates the last. He learns that Jansene knows everything when the assassin drops the line "he knows you're coming". While the assassin tries to kill 007 again, Bond ruthlessly kills him. In the evening, Bond goes to Scélérat's estate outside Paris, gives a surveillance around the house. He waits until the sun goes down.

    At late night, Jansene is seen leaving his estate, which became an opportunity to Bond to have a sweet break in to the house. Without getting detected, Bond reaches Scélérat's personal office, finds the safe and breaks it. He then, photographed every file inside the safe which contained serious operation; codenamed "Dark Lightning". After uploading the pictures to MI6 database, he downloads some files by hacking into Scélérat's computer and most of them were video calls from the villain's contacts, and the most of them were deceased. It looked like Jansene will abduct NATO's manager to get to the same weapon that 007 was reclaiming from Marvel Urban in the prologue. It appears that Urban wasn't after destroying the world and Bond has reclaimed the wrong chip. The real chip was in the hands of Jansene who is still with Quantum as 007 noticed a small pin tipped as "Q" referring to Quantum (Bond previously seen it in "Quantum of Solace"). The same masquerade was continuing, the international conspiracy, the extortion and this was what Quantum planned for from beginning to the moment. Just as Jansene returns, Bond escapes without getting detected and returns to his hotel in Paris.

    Next day, MI6 reports to Bond that one of Scélérat's contacts is still alive, and that was Gregg Beam, a former CIA operative who has joined to Quantum after he got fired. Bond quickly travels to Geneva, finds Beam and abducts him after having a firefight with some goons. However, at a warehouse, Beam found himself tied to a chair tightly and saw Bond staring at him. 007 tried to pull some information but Beam refused to cooperate which made Bond give him some torture. But, it was useless. Suddenly, Beam breaks free and attacks Bond. As they fight in a hand-to-hand combat, it ends up with Bond beating the rogue and forcing him to give some information. But, it seems he has Deluded 007 by committing suicide; swallowing a cyanide covered as a cigarette in his pocket. Bond wonders "why is Quantum employees are so despicable?" and leaves the place.

    Just after a few hours Bond meets an MI6 contact, Maria Freudenstein, and gets some information around this operation which later revealed to be fake, when Bond found himself caught by a group of goons and tranquilized by Freudenstein. He wakes up in a small chamber, locked and trapped inside. A man shows up along with Freudenstein herself trying to question 007. Bond refused to answer which nearly cost him his life when he was locked in that chamber with the water rising up and make Bond drowned. Just in time, Bond uses his laser watch to pierce the glass and break out, and he does so. Guards were alerted, and assaulted on 007 not knowing that he'll send them to hell. As Bond fights his way out, he chases the man who showed up. The chase begins on feet, passing the rooftops and basements, then, continues with a car chase as Bond pursues him with a stolen BMW coupe. It ends up with arresting the man and holding him captive at MI6 in London. After Bond gives some reports, Maria Freudenstein becomes a target and is allowed to be killed.

    Bond later, tracks down Eric Jansene to Las Vegas, and travels there. He finds out that his target was staying in one of the most luxurious hotels in that city, "Don Christo" hotel. Bond learns Jansene's every movement and finally settles the time to finally meet him face to face. At night, Jansene went to a casino not far from his hotel, "Laroque Casino". Bond wears a formal tuxedo with a white jacket (Sean Connery's dinner jacket in "Goldfinger" and Roger Moore's in "A View To A Kill") and pays Scélérat a visit. Jansene the Scélérat was very strong player at the baccarat card game. So, 007 decided to play against him. As they meet (with Bond dropping his famous introducing line: "Bond, James Bond"), he notices that Jansene has got good taste of choosing women, his mistress was quite beautiful but still less attractive for a man like James Bond. However, after playing over 30 minutes, Bond beats him. Jansene was a French, didn't need to get mad and blow up, because that will set his suaveness off. Now, as they're both know very much about being social, Scélérat invites 007 to his villa at the Carribean Islands, Bond accepts the invitation.

    Next morning, Bond travels to the Caribbean and pays Jansene another visit at the midday. That French gentleman had very good taste for decorating his house, quite stunning. As they had their time in introducing each other, both of them were lying; Bond introduced himself as a writer and his influence of writing became from John Le Carre's novels, in other words he's a spy writer. Jansene introduces himself as a scientist and he took his treasury from his grandfather when he left that for his grandson as a will. However, Bond leaves the place after the timing of the meeting was over and Scélérat orders one of his men to kill 007 immediately.

    When Bond returns to his hotel in the Carribean Islands, he doubts that the place is under control. He suspiciously enters his suite and checks out everywhere staring from left to right. While walking towards the sitting room, he faced and immediate brutal attack from Scélérat's thug. After having hand-to-hand fight with the tough man, Bond scratches the thugs neck after got injured. His ankles and arms were bleeding and his head was full with blood. It took three hours until he was recovered.

    Later, MI6 reports 007 that Eric Jansene along with Dominic Greene and Guy Haines has been seen entering a chateau in Vienna, and that's where Quantum headquarters is doubted to be placed, and that NATO's manager has been kidnapped and that they've tracked him down there, his last sign was outed from that place. The operation which Scélérat was planning for will happen after three days in the evening. Bond quickly travels to Austria without waiting for anyone.

    In the evening at Vienna, Bond infiltrates secretly to the chateau which was heavily guarded by professional thugs and he recognizes that one of them was seen at the opera house in Bregenz when he was spying on the late Tierra Project. Using his stealth, Bond uncovers a secret passage that looked like a facility or military base. He walked towards it, tranquilizing guards and avoiding detection, until he breached a place that he can't be seen, so he covered to a wall and listened to a conversation and saw the hall which very much looked like a military conference room, Quantum members were having a meeting and discussing all about Operation Dark Lightning, it was revealed that the leader was a woman but was covered behind a furniture, only her voice was sounding out. He also hears that they were calling her "Lady" (her codename). Bond contacts M silently and reports that "Quantum is a property of a lady". Bond photographs every member of it, including the held captive NATO manager and uploaded it secretly to M's MI6 computer at her house. While spying, three guards see Bond and aim him with a G36Cs. Bond takes them down and tries to escape, but, it was too late, the guards were alerted with a silent alarm. Unfortunately, one of the guards hits Bond hardly in the head with his weapon's forearm and gone drugged falling backwards with his feet and legs standing straight.

    Bond wakes up in a laboratory, his hands were tied to tight and he was immobile. Three troops were staring at him until an automatic door opens and a silhouette of a woman wearing a catsuit walks in. While she was in the dark, she orders the guards to get out. Bond gets angry and tries to jump off the board that he was tied to and strangle the Lady. But, he saw that anger was useless, so he stopped. She talked to 007 saying "I know who you are, what you are and why did you come here". Bond received his coldness back and stayed quiet. She forwarded "Before I order to kill you, Mr. Bond, I'll let you know something that will shock you very much". Bond still was quiet. Then, she moved slowly to the light and her face was shown in bright, and it was the most shocking thing 007 ever seen. She was Vesper Lynd! and she greeted 007 with a sweet voice "Hello, James". Bond was really shocked and became like a young boy who doesn't know what to do, it was just like that Vesper has taken his life, he was in an half-wake dream, or a nightmare? he can't see the difference. Then, he quietly says "Vesper" and the expression of his face has stayed devastated. She smiled at Bond and said "You maybe wondering how did I survive the death. Let me tell you that it was all been set up. Did you really think I was drowned? Listen to what I did. There's a material that was discovered in late 1880s nearby Black Sea, and that material was modified and revamped by a man named Linus Reardon in London. This material, in a simple sentence, keeps you in a sleep three days without breathing, leaving everyone who see you to think you're dead. I drank that material just before you've reached me and the elevator was plunged. I know how you're feeling now but I have to say you were a part of the plan". Bond look into Vesper's eyes wildly, and answers "You shouldn't have messed with the wrong man, dear Lady. I really assure you I won't keep you alive for what you've done to me. And now, you're looking to a man you don't know". Vesper chuckles and forwards "Let's say, if you broke free, are you going to kill me so easily? Will your conscious allow to do that?" Bond replied "In a word, yes. I swear I'll eliminate everything you love in this life just before I eliminate you, VESPER!". The Lady gets nearby Bond's face, looking at him with her beautiful blue eyes, and kisses him slowly for 15 seconds. Bond asks "What was it? Kiss of Betrayal?"
    She answers "No, James. I'm still interested in you but we're on rival sides. Perhaps, we'll be together in the other life". Bond answered coldly "Don't even imagine that. You won't exist in the other life". She goes backwards and walks away saying loudly "Farewell, James. I wish you happy slaughter" and she walks to the automatic door which closes after she leaves. A rounded saw has been activated and started getting forward from the distance between Bond's feet and will cut him into two pieces. Just about it will start slaughtering Bond, he activates his laser watch when he breaches to his left wrist and breaks the handcuffs stuck on the board. He breaks free once again, feeling a little weak, but regains his powers and expands his desire of vengeance. He steals bombs from the laboratory that can make very huge explosion and bring down a huge area in a building. Bond in his way, kills 200 troops, sets up the bomb everywhere and heads to the Lady's office. Everyone was alerted and Quantum members have escaped. While the time was passing, Bond faces Maria Freudenstein in his way armed with a sword and preparing to kill him. 007 uses his lethal hand-to-hand combat fight to kill her, like he does after three minutes of fighting, he shows her what does "ruthless" mean. Bond picks up a Glock 17 from a guard and runs to the helicopter pad. However, from far away his sees Vesper escaping with her personal bodyguards and Bond yells to her. She stops. Bond threatens her saying "I've told you I'll kill you. So, from now on, you can consider yourself dead!" and he continues chasing her. But, the Lady escapes with a BK chopper. There was no time. Bond had to leave the place, so manages to escape the explosion and the whole chateau has been brought down along with some Quantum members and their headquarters.

    From the meeting, Bond heard that Quantum's missile be target from Cote D'Azur, placed in an underwater base. 007 arrives there, driving an Aston Martin V12 DBS coupee he heads towards the underwater base as it was located on his car computer map, Bond drives the car to the water and transforms it into a submarine, thanks to the old Q. However, he battles the outer goons attacking him with small submarines, Bond dispatches them to their grave, using weaponized gadgets to get things done. However, he finds the entrance and goes in. While locked in a chamber, the water goes down and Bond gets out of his Aston Martin, armed with MP5A3 he launches for the last stage. Then, he sees a very big hall that contained both the Lady and the members. Bond sets up bombs around the inner side of the underwater base and goes to spy on the Lady again. He's seen from a camera and attacked by commandos. Bond kills them all and continues his way. Suddenly, he hears Vesper's voice "Dear companions of Quantum, before we cross to the last route, it's time to unveil the final stage as Operation Dark Lightning. Soon, we'll smash the main governments of this world and rule it". After the countdown of the missile has been started, 007 attacked the computer room and jammed the hardware turning the missile to self-destruct. Everyone inside were alerted and Quantum guards have started assaulting on Bond. He just gets into cover, taking his time, and killing them. After gunfights and battles, Bond breaches to the finale where he has to fight the experienced Scélérat. He fights him in hand-to-hand combat, but first gets wasted. Bond regains his anger and beats Jansene down, cutting his ribs off and breaking the ankle. Then, he goes to pick up his Walther P99 dropped on the ground, Scélérat quickly rises and aims 007 with a SIG-Sauer P230, Bond turns around and shoots him between the eyes. Now, he chases Vesper who has breached to a final end that she can't escape, Bond surrounds her. She looked very devastated at first, but then, she stared at him and reacted "Do you think I'm afraid of the death, James?". Bond answers "Let's face it, Vesper, it's over. Your damn organization is eliminated for sure". "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" she said. Bond answered "No, you're supposed to die for me". Then, he walks towards her, grabs her neck and kisses her very hardly. She then, asks "What was that kiss? Just a vision from the past?". Bond answers "No, that's the kiss of revenge" and quickly shoots in the gut. She, then, breathes so hardly and looks to Bond eyes, then, giving her last breathe, she flops on the ground. Bond smiled and said "You wanted a masquerade? I gave you the masquerade" and revealed that he didn't kill her, just she's tranquilized with a bullet that contained the same material she talked about. 007 carries her and leaves the place before the place was self destructed with the missile.

    Next morning, M arrived in Monaco and Bond debriefed everything. Vesper was taken to a large and heavily secured prison, still living as a Lady. M congratulates Bond, and then he was apart from them. At night, Bond visits a casino to spend his time, he sees Caroline Bisset, Scélérat's mistress. They meet at a luxury restaurant. Bond invites her to dinner. She also reveals that she wasn't actually his mistress and that Eric has held her captive for years, now she's happy that she's free again. The film ends with Bond and Caroline embrace and kiss each other with fireworks exploding in the sky beautifully and finally, the credits roll in.

    James Bond Will Return
  • Posts: 1,894
    Okay, crazy new idea that I've been working on: a villain who tries to trigger "Helter Skelter".

    Helter Skelter is infamous as the scenario Charles Manson dreamed up, leading to his Family committing the Tate and LaBlanca killings. It was supposedly telegraphed by The Beatles on the White Album, and predicted an apocalyptic race war between the white and black populations of America, triggered by an album the Family planned to record. The scenario claimed that the civil rights movements of the 1960s made white woman sexually available to black men. However, when these women would stop being available, the black population would retaliate by attacking the white population. Whites should have no choice but to retaliate, leading to a race war that would be won by the African-Americans. Once the dust had settled, the Family would emerge from hiding (in a bunker out in the California desert) and rule over the surviving black population who would be "too stupid" to effectively govern themselves.

    Fifty years later, the plot would revolve around a gang of Neo-Nazis/white nationalists/white supremacists/skinheads have decided to "cleanse" the nation of "impure elements" and reclaim "what is rightfully theirs". However, rather than engineer a war between the black and white populations, they are instead going to target the black and Latino communities. The origins of the conflict would start between African-American street gangs and the Mexican drug cartels. Bond, who is trying to stem the flow of drugs into Britain from Mexico, stumbles onto the plot.

    And that's as far as I've gotten on the idea.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @JamesBond, It seems the plot is more convoluted then need be, and wouldn't work for Craig's Bond, if that's what you intend. Some pieces are interesting, but the dialogue needs work, especially concerning Bond. The written dialogue has to match who the character is, how they talk and what they feel at the moment. The plot died right when Vesper was revealed for me. That not only tarnishes the CR novel, but also the CR film both of which finish Vesper off strongly and emotionally. No need to toy with that. I could see this type of script being a Brosnan film way back when. The gadgets and the weird turn of the plot pieces would have fit his mesh. You mention Greene, but he would be dead if you are continuing after QoS. Some of the things Bond does like managing to kill a few hundred gun totting enemies as you suggest is quite far fetched, and the easiness with which he disarms the missile is equally uncouth. Sorry for the strong critique, I don't wish to instill anything sinister to your thinking process.
  • Well, just found this online and they are claiming "plot details revealed". After reading it doesn't really tell us a whole lot that we don't know.

    http://screenrant.com/james-bond-23-train-scene-india-kofi-129028/
  • Posts: 1,497
    "The shooting was supposed to happen in October-November. Now, we’ve postponed it to January-February."

    I hope this isn't in reference to the entire shooting schedule...
  • Posts: 669
    @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7, I've put the words like it was written 2 years ago, when I was too young. That's not the plot of my novel to be honest. For Craig's Bond, he himself won't work for the franchise. Daniel Craig had potential to be classic Bond, but the Jason Bourne type has ruined the "spy" enterprise. Someone should show up and tell today's spies to "Think Spy!!!" and not "Think Assassin!!!". Today, "spy" word is another meaning of "assassin", started by Bourne films. Perhaps CR was brilliant film, but Bond himself was not Bond either. QoS? Don't even talk about it. It was just like another Bourne film, or Jason Bourne has gone undercover as "James Bond" trying to make himself a hero. Lots of people agreed with this on youtube.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,686
    I would say QOS was much closer to a Statham actioner than Bourne.
  • Posts: 669
    Well, jumping all over the rooftops in Siena was just a homage to the Tangier scene in "The Bourne Ultimatum" which was itself was inspired by "The Living Daylights" scene of the same elements, but was damn Bourne-ized.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Why must Bond and Bourne continually be compared? YouTube agreed? Wow... It makes me angry when people compared two stand alone characters and ideas and try and connect them with no evidence to the contrary.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    How do the Siena chase of QoS and the BU Tangier scene compare?. Both have great chases and had stunt directors that knew what they were doing. Each terrain had great space and setting for a chase. In Siena, the rooftops basically scream at you 'jump on me' and the terracotta tiles fit the intensity of the chase when they are seen breaking away. Tangier is a good spot for the small confined areas between buildings and the window jumping is a stand alone idea by the team of the BU. QoS had none of that, no slow mo. The BU chase was a more complex chase. Bourne chases Desh, then gets chased by police, then Nikki gets chased by Desh, then Bourne gets chased by police while still chasing Desh, and then the kali style fight occurs. QoS is straightforward. Mitchell is bad. Kill Mitchell. We get a direct chase and it ends with a cool shot to Bond firing his gun. Both chases unique to the other and great in there own right. I don't see the comparisons.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited August 2011 Posts: 15,686
    Both have great chases and had stunt directors that knew what they were doing.
    You mean *a* stunt director, singular ? Since both Bourne Ultimatum and QOS had the same 2nd unit director.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Okay, here's a new idea. I'll just write it up briefly because I don't have enough time to do a full work-up right now.

    The story opens with Bond overseeing a prisoner exchange, swapping the leader of a foreign spy ring for a British national accused of espionage. However, the swap goes badly when a sniper opens fire on both parties. Bond goes after the shooter.

    Three days later, M is briefing another Double-Oh Agent name Ciaran Sadler. The bodies from the shootout have been identified - and one of them is James Bond. M assigns Sadler to investigate the shooting, which MI6 believes is the work of an assassin named the Pulcinella (after a character in Italian theatre). The Pulcinella has nearly thirty kills credited to his name, and several of them have been key figures in ongoing MI6 investigations. M is concerned that the Pulcinella has access to MI6's active case roster.

    Sadler begins his pursuit of the Pulcinella, and after several more bodies appear, he learns that the Pulcinella is targeting M. With evidence that the Pulcinella has access to MI6, he must race against time to stop M's assassintion.

    In the end, it is revealed that James Bond is alive and well. In fact, he is the Pulcinella. There is a second assassin out there, someone who is the real target of the investigation. Bond has staged his own death and adopted the mantle of the Pulcinella to claim responsibility for the real assassin's kills after using his own kills as a Double-Oh to establish his credibility. This, he hopes, will flush the real assassin out into the open as the real assassin tries to beat Bond to M.

    All thoughout the story, there are clues scattered around to suggest that Bond really is alive.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,686
    Never going to work - people will expect Bond to be the main character of the film.
  • Posts: 1,894
    That doesn't automatically mean it won't work. If it was set up properly, it would do just fine. Especially if you led the audience to believe Bond really was dead. Fleming did it twice.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited September 2011 Posts: 15,686
    Such a film would never be made. EON are too safe-playing to make such drastic changes to the Bond formula. This is pure fan-fiction dream, not the reality of how EON makes the films.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Did I ever say it would be made?
  • it sounds like an epsiode of doctor who where the doctor is hardly in it due to filiming another epsiode. Good as a tv one hour epsiode but not a feature film idea
  • Posts: 1,894
    I still reckon it has potential. It would enable to film to explore a) how the world sees Bond (most of the existing films show the world from Bond's point of view), b) the implications of the death of Bond, c) how other Double-Ohs operate and M's relationship with them compared to Bond, and d) adapting the early chapters of The Man with the Golden Gun.

    Another idea - and this is more of a fun one than anything else - is splicing a zombie film into a Bond film. The Garden of Death from You Only Live Twice involved Blofeld experimenting with chemical and biological weapons. One of these weapons could be a virus or chemical that causes fever, polydipsia (extreme thirst) and delirium. So it wouldn't actually be the undead rising up, but a group of patients who are acting like zombies as they try and get to water.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I still reckon it has potential. It would enable to film to explore a) how the world sees Bond (most of the existing films show the world from Bond's point of view), b) the implications of the death of Bond, c) how other Double-Ohs operate and M's relationship with them compared to Bond, and d) adapting the early chapters of The Man with the Golden Gun.

    Another idea - and this is more of a fun one than anything else - is splicing a zombie film into a Bond film. The Garden of Death from You Only Live Twice involved Blofeld experimenting with chemical and biological weapons. One of these weapons could be a virus or chemical that causes fever, polydipsia (extreme thirst) and delirium. So it wouldn't actually be the undead rising up, but a group of patients who are acting like zombies as they try and get to water.
    Golden nugget of advice: Stay away from writing Bond films.
  • Posts: 1,894
    I choose to ignore it. You'd probably be more receptive to the idea if I did a full write-up, but I don't really have the time right now.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I choose to ignore it. You'd probably be more receptive to the idea if I did a full write-up, but I don't really have the time right now.
    I wouldn't. Bond shouldn't ever be killed off and the films should never feature zombies. If you want to write plot lines like that wait for a DAD remake.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Except Bond isn't being killed off. He's staging his own death and assuming the role of an assassin to flush another one out. The audience and characters are simply led to believe that Bond is dead. And he wouldn't simply drop out of the narrative, only to be revealed to be alive and well at the end - he would have a presence, influencing events, but he would be in disguise. And, of course, the story would be seeded with clues that Bond is still alive; for example, photos of Bond's "body" would actually be taken in Q-Branch so that sharp-eyed viewers could pick up on the way the walls are the same.

    As for zombies, they're not really zombies. They're test subjects in Blofeld's chemical weapons experiments. The compound they've been exposed to causes fever and delirium; I once had a really bad case of the 'flu where I was found wondering around my college at three in the morning with absolutely no recollection of where I was or how I'd gotten there. So just imagine a hundred people, victims of Blofeld's chemical experiments, rising up when provoked. Like zombies.

    Of course, the suggestion of zombies in a Bond flm was more of a gag one to see if I could do it convincingly.
  • edited September 2011 Posts: 1,894
    Something that has always bothered me about Bond films is where the villain gets his lackeys from. Sometimes, it's easily explained: SPECTRE was an international consortium of criminals, so redshirts were always easy to find. And in the case of MOONRAKER, everyone on the space station was hand-picked by Hugo Drax as a group of perfect people. Other times, it was less of a problem; Aris Kristatos had just a handful of people working for him in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, as did Georgi Koskov in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, while General Gogol simply ordered soldiers under his command to do as he said, and Max Zorin's lackeys had no idea what they were really doing until he shot them all. But I always found this to be a real problem in TOMORROW NEVER DIES - Elliot Carver has a shipload of people who willingly sink a British ship and try to start a war. Sure, they could be mercenaries, but all it takes is one missed pay cheque, and they'll lose interest. Similarly, doesn't anyone have problems with what they're doing? Carver proves to be a very demanding boss at one point there. DIE HARD 4.0 made fun of this phenomenon, with John McClane asking the villain if he had to order henchmen over the phone. And then, today, an idea hit me.

    Here in Australia, we have one-hour tablid news shows branded as "Current Affairs". They're usually mocked incessantly - just search YouTube for "Chaser" and "current affairs" and watch the mockery begin (like this: ) - but one story caught my eye as maybe being a format for a Bond story that would explain legions of people perfectly willing to die for a cause orchestrated by the villain. You can see the story here:

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/

    The short version is that there is a guy in Queensland named Alan John Miller who quite literally believes he is Jesus Christ. He ever has a DVD called "I'm Jesus - Deal With It". He has hundreds, if not thousands, of followers worldwide and is beginning to establish a compound in central Queensland. According to the report, he is moving into the first stages of establishing himself as an extreme cult leader. And I think Bond vs. a cult would be an interesting premise.

    To date, Bond villains have been guided by one of two principles: money or logic. Most of them operate for money - Blofeld, Scaramanga, Kristatos and Franz Sanchez all did what they did for money; indeed, Kristatos' entire plot was to sell the ATAC device. Others operate on logic. Auric Goldfinger, Kanaga and Max Zorin carry out their plans because it will increase their market share or personal wealth, whilst Karl Stromberg is the most logical of all: he comes to the conclusion that humanity is corrupt and the only goal is annihilation. Perhaps the only exception to this rule is Renard, who does what he does out of love. Even if you doubt Renard and Elektra loved one another, at the very least, it is fair to say that Renard beleives his feelings for her are legitimate, even if she is only manipulating him.

    A cult and a cult leader would make an interesting set of adversaies for Bond because they are not motivated by money or by logic. They are motivated by faith. The believe in what they are doing or saying with every fibre of their being. And msot importantly, they believe in their leader. It's what led everyone at Jonestown to commit mass suicide, and what caused the Aum Shinrikyo cult to stage the Tokyo subway attacks. What's more, people in these cults don't respond to logic and reason - AJ Miller claims he is Jesus and that his earliest memories are of being crucified, but when asked to show the scars from the nails, he says he cannot because he is in a different body now.

    What's interesting is in the way Miller controls his followers. Most religions reject emotion, instead calling for followers to find enlightenment though dispassionate logic and acceptng that they are a part of a greater whole. Miller, on the other hand, encourages his followers to search for some deep, underlying emotional trauma in their lives and embrace it, and then he feeds it back to them, convincing themselves of it. They then form an emotional dependency on him. There's a few examples in the videos posted on the Sunday Night website, and they're as frightening as they are fascinating.

    So, a story idea: Bond has to go up against a cult leader who has been making doomsday prophecies - and worse, has been arming his followers. He may also believe he has supernatural powers, and possibly a connection to satanism (his whole philosophy may be founded on Satan's most-famous line in John Milton's Paradise Lost, "it is better to reign in Hell than to serve in heaven", which his followers are unaware of). Of course, he doesn't actually have any supernatural powers, but the important part is that he believes he does, thus making it harder or Bond to do his job, because the cult leader does not respond to reason. He is, quite literally, mad. I think it would make for a nice change from the wealthy industrialists that Bond usually encounters, and would also explore the theme of how Bond will respond to someone out of his mind.
  • Posts: 5,745
    The series came close in the Moore films. Especially the one with all the taboo (sorry I don't know it by name, Moore era is not my cup of tea).

    But it would be very interesting to see how Bond would deal with it. Could make for some very artsy cinematography and sequences, putting us into the mind of the crazed.

    Kudos.

    James Bond 007 in Tomorrow Waits in Hell.
    Or
    At the Ides of Hell
    Or
    The Devil's Grasp
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