Quantum of Solace Appreciation Thread- We Found a Better Place to Meet

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  • Posts: 526
    RC7 wrote: »
    QBranch wrote: »
    To my knowledge there is but one photo of White sitting in a chair pointing a gun.

    BTS footage. It’s included in this video. Plus some outtakes from the QOS video game.


    Very interesting. Thanks for posting!
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    Venutius wrote: »
    Yes, Forster said it was all filmed and there's that bit of behind the scenes footage of Jesper and Forster prepping the scene. When Bond entered the room and shot Mr. White, Haines said 'Who the hell are you?', Bond told him by delivering the famous line and then Bond shooting Haines turned into the gunbarrel at the end. Still wish they'd gone with this!

    Oh my God!! That would have been spectacular! Can you imagine how this could have changed the Craig Bonds for the better? I did not know this. Has there been any talk of putting this on a Blu Ray or 4K edition?

    This would probably have been too much of a rehash of CRs gunbarrel. Even delivering the line to Haines at the end would have been too similar to CR IMO.
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    Posts: 5,970
    I thought the original ending was Bond killing White, and then capturing Haines, although this would have also been too much like the ending of Casino Royale, in terms of capturing another antagonist. Also ending with "Bond, James Bond" would've been too much of a rehash, seeing as its poignancy in Casino Royale was supposed to mark the beginning of the James Bond we know, even if Quantum kinda undid this.

    Also, at the time, I was frustrated by this missing ending but the fact we wouldn't have got Skyfall (my favourite of all time), I'm now kinda glad it was left, even though I'm aware this ending is wanted by those who were not too keen on Skyfall onwards.
  • Junglist_1985Junglist_1985 Los Angeles
    edited October 2021 Posts: 1,033
    Call me crazy, but:

    “I never left”
    *tosses necklace*
    (somber music)

    Is an AMAZING ending. I think it’s brilliant.
  • Posts: 526
    The ending is great, but as Denbigh notes, for those of us that liked CR and Qos Bond, and the direction of Craig’s arc forward, the unreleased ending would have been more satisfactory. Also, I always thought Bond should have executed Greene. Although it could be argued that leaving him to drink oil (and eventually die at the hands of White) in the desert was a worse fate. I felt like Spectre copied the ending of Greene in Qos withBlofeld. Bond not killing Blofeld is one of the most anticlimactic moments in Bond history. Just did not feel right.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2021 Posts: 3,152
    This covers the basics:

    https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/qos-mr-white-cut-scene

    The whole series would've had to have gone a different route if White had been killed in QOS, so cutting this one scene was actually a really pivotal decision even if they didn't know it at the time. Strange thought.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2021 Posts: 3,152
    Bond not killing Blofeld is one of the most anticlimactic moments in Bond history. Just did not feel right.
    Yes, it was a bit deflating, to say the least. Emotionally satisfying pay-off? Not even barely. M's 'I arrest you' line was a bit of a squib too. At least Bond leaving Greene in the desert showed a Flemingesque level of ruthlessness - he knew that Greene would suffer before giving in and trying to drink the oil, that he'd then suffer from having drunk the oil and then Quantum would kill him anyway. And Bond's face at the end when he's got Kabira at the end of a gun and you can see how he's struggling with his instinct to shoot him in the face instead of bringing him in - whereas there's not even a flicker of an internal struggle about whether to kill Blofeld. I know he's a seasoned agent in SP compared to QOS, but this was Blofeld, after all. Who knows what Franz had done to him when he was a kid - I always thought Blofeld's 'Touch it - you can touch it if you want' had some horrible connotations. But Bond didn't seem too fussed that he'd got him. Could at least have had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's one good eye and pull the trigger, knowing the gun was empty, before the 'out of bullets' line. Ah well.
  • slide_99slide_99 USA
    Posts: 693
    Venutius wrote: »
    Bond not killing Blofeld is one of the most anticlimactic moments in Bond history. Just did not feel right.
    Yes, it was a bit deflating, to say the least. M's 'I arrest you' line was a bit of a squib too. At least Bond leaving Greene in the desert showed a Flemingesque level of ruthlessness - he knew that Greene would suffer before giving in and trying to drink the oil, that he'd then suffer from having drunk the oil and then Quantum would kill him anyway. And Bond's face at the end when he's got Kabira at the end of a gun and you can see how he's struggling with his instinct to shoot him in the face instead of bringing him in - whereas there's not even a flicker of an internal struggle about whether to kill Blofeld. I know he's a seasoned agent in SP compared to QOS, but this was Blofeld, after all. Who knows what Franz had done to him when he was a kid - I always thought Blofeld's 'Touch it - you can touch it if you want' had some horrible connotations. But Bond didn't seem too fussed that he'd got him. Could at least have had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's one good eye and pull the trigger, knowing the gun was empty, before the 'out of bullets' line. Ah well. Emotionally satisfying pay-off? Not even barely.

    Spectre should have ended at the crater base. Maybe M could have dispatched troops or even the entire 00 section to assault it and we could've gotten an old-school battle scene. Wrap up everything neatly with a big finale, with Blofeld dying in the explosion (maybe leaving his survival a question mark). The movie was already overlong at that point and the sudden switch to the dour and lazy finale in London reeked of script rewrites. A finale at the crater base was the natural place to end that movie. I have no idea why they wasted such a cool location on a torture scene and Bond shooting a couple of goons before escaping.
  • Posts: 9,847
    there ae times that I almost want to put Quantum of Solace as my favorite bond film


    I think I say Casino Royale publically as hat is a respectable choice but so much of Quantum I absolutely love.
  • slide_99slide_99 USA
    edited October 2021 Posts: 693
    I'll find my quantum of solace when Eon releases the alternate ending so someone can make a fan edit by re-inserting it into QOS and I can finally regard CR and QOS as its own closed-off continuity without the three movies that came after it.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2021 Posts: 3,152
    Didn't Craig have to dub that 'It's not over yet' line in post because test audiences saw the base explosion as the natural conclusion and thought the film was finished? I can see why. We'd've missed the 'Now we know what C stands for' gag, though, and the third act was almost worth it for that line alone!
  • Junglist_1985Junglist_1985 Los Angeles
    Posts: 1,033
    My biggest wish for the future of Bond is a extended director’s cut of QOS… I strongly doubt it will ever happen since Eon seems committed to forgetting the film exists. And maybe there really isn’t enough extra footage to work with anyway.

    100% agreed that Spectre should have ended with the base explosion. Have a proper Bond escape and leave Blofeld’s fate questionable. Even still, the movie is quite good if you just hit STOP after the explosion.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited October 2021 Posts: 7,551
    Venutius wrote: »
    Didn't Craig have to dub that 'It's not over yet' line in post because test audiences saw the base explosion as the natural conclusion and thought the film was finished? I can see why. We'd've missed the 'Now we know what C stands for' gag, though, and the third act was almost worth it for that line alone!

    That line from Bond is partially what made me think that Spectre activated a self-destruct on the base, because it was compromised. For me it explained why the explosion was so large, and why Bond was surprised by it.

    I still think this would have been a cooler explanation (the script seems to confirm this wasn't the case), because then we see Bond and Madeleine flying off in one direction, and Spectre in their cars barreling off in the other; in the grand scheme of Spectre's plans, the base was a pawn, and opening chess move. Bond realizing this, "It's not over yet."

    EDIT: I forgot what thread we were in, my bad!
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,152
    Yes, it would make perfect sense for Spectre to have pressed self-destruct, so that intelligence agencies couldn't retrieve anything useful from the base, and that in turn would make Bond realise that Blofeld wasn't finished. Another SP missed opportunity.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    The perfect Spectre film exists only in the imagination. But a lot of it can be taken from the film we got.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.

    This sounds like a wild ranking! Very into it, love all three of these films.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2021 Posts: 3,152
    Agreed, you can see the potential for a great film in SP and also what the little tweaks are that would raise the film that we did get. I think that's part of the frustration with it - the elements are there, but so many misfire.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.

    This sounds like a wild ranking! Very into it, love all three of these films.

    Thanks! It's indeed wild and this one resulted in some of the biggest changes I've had in my rankings in years.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,152
    OHMSS was severely underrated for years, but look at it for the last decade or so. QOS is a great film and a great Bond film - hopefully, it'll get reassessed in its turn. Special edition? Director's cut? I'm there.
  • Posts: 1,917
    Venutius wrote: »
    OHMSS was severely underrated for years, but look at it for the last decade or so. QOS is a great film and a great Bond film - hopefully, it'll get reassessed in its turn. Special edition? Director's cut? I'm there.

    It seems to be gaining some traction in fan circles like here. Hard to say if there will ever be a new revision of the film. Those were big in the days home video was booming, but that is almost gone and things like the Snyder cut of Justice League show there is still interest in the right project. But given QoS is seen near the bottom of Craig rankings and mostly forgotten it faces a real uphill battle.

    Also not sure if Eon would be open to something like they. They aren't as controlling as back in Cubby's day but it just doesn't seem like something they'd want to do. They should've done it during the long wait for NTTD, which would've helped get people excited by something somewhat new.
  • Posts: 526
    Venutius wrote: »
    Bond not killing Blofeld is one of the most anticlimactic moments in Bond history. Just did not feel right.
    Yes, it was a bit deflating, to say the least. Emotionally satisfying pay-off? Not even barely. M's 'I arrest you' line was a bit of a squib too. At least Bond leaving Greene in the desert showed a Flemingesque level of ruthlessness - he knew that Greene would suffer before giving in and trying to drink the oil, that he'd then suffer from having drunk the oil and then Quantum would kill him anyway. And Bond's face at the end when he's got Kabira at the end of a gun and you can see how he's struggling with his instinct to shoot him in the face instead of bringing him in - whereas there's not even a flicker of an internal struggle about whether to kill Blofeld. I know he's a seasoned agent in SP compared to QOS, but this was Blofeld, after all. Who knows what Franz had done to him when he was a kid - I always thought Blofeld's 'Touch it - you can touch it if you want' had some horrible connotations. But Bond didn't seem too fussed that he'd got him. Could at least have had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's one good eye and pull the trigger, knowing the gun was empty, before the 'out of bullets' line. Ah well.

    Good critique, I agree. It could have been more satisfying.
  • Posts: 526
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.

    QOS is my second favorite too! :D
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    Everyone’s always saying how “QoS problems are excusable because there was a writers strike”, and I always think, “it’s amazing they made this tight, casually stylish, down to earth Bond film despite a writers strike.”
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    edited October 2021 Posts: 1,731
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.

    Sounds indeed like a refreshing ranking. Nothing against the usual suspects GF and SF, but they don't even get anywhere near my top 3...

    And I agree QoS has always been given unfair bad rap for being the ugly duckling in DC's tenure. Without the writer's strike I wager QoS would have been a widely accepted classic like SF was, the latter rides on the coat-tails of 2012 - the Olympics & general walking on air vibe of that year have a lot to do with it's popularity in the UK.
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    Sadly, it seems like Eon lost all the QoS material as nothing from the actual film made it into the recap-style trailer for NTTD, which is still really baffling.

    I also found myself liking QoS quite a bit when I rewatched it about a month ago. This time it was really smaller things I enjoyed. Basically everything from Tosca to Mathis dying is great in my book (maybe except for the fight scene in Bregenz, but that isn't exactly bad, just not my bag). The whole sequence in Italy is pure style and Giancarlo Giannini is so cool, it is staggering. Them arriving in Bolivia and the different hotels and the cabbie and Mathis is maybe some different kind of film, but so much fun. "We are teachers on sabbatical and we've just won the lottery" is just perfect.

    I mean, I am just scrolling through the "quotes" page on imdb and there are some fantastic lines in this.
    James Bond: You know I was just wondering what South America would look like if nobody gave a damn about coke or communism. It always impressed me the way you boys would carve this place up.
    Felix Leiter: I'll take that as a compliment coming from a Brit.
    M: You killed a man in Bregenz.
    James Bond: I did my best not to.
    M: You shot him at point blank and threw him off a roof. I would hardly call that showing restraint!
    Mathis: This man had me imprisoned and tortured and you want to serve him fine wine?
    Gemma: You only buy cheap wine. And since you were innocent, they bought you this villa. So really, you owe him, don't you?
    Mathis: Gemma, go work on your tan.
    M: When someone says "We've got people everywhere", you expect it to be hyperbole! Lots of people say that. Florists use that expression. It doesn't mean that they've got somebody working for them inside the bloody room!
    M: What happened to Slate?
    James Bond: I'm not dwelling on the past. I don't think you should either.
    M: You killed him.
    Camille: So you did just try and have me killed.
    Dominic Greene: And that made me very sad.
    And I'll stop here...
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    Posts: 1,731
    James Bond: You know I was just wondering what South America would look like if nobody gave a damn about coke or communism. It always impressed me the way you boys would carve this place up.
    Felix Leiter: I'll take that as a compliment coming from a Brit.

    Yes, that one is pure gold. I love it when the Bond writers show they are clued in on the UK's geo-political and colonial history and pay it lip service.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2021 Posts: 3,152
    Knowing what the British press are like, I suspect they'd decided in advance to put the boot in no matter what the film was like. CR was almost universally lauded, so the next one had to have a kicking, etc. But look at those quotes in ImpertinentGoon's post - genuinely excellent dialogue, there. As NickTwentyTwo pointed out - how great is it that they could produce something this good during a writers' strike? Looking at the quotes again, it almost makes you wish there'd been more strikes when the later films were being made! And 'I'm not dwelling on the past' when he's on a revenge mission - that's funnier than most overt gags. So many truly great moments in QOS.
  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    edited October 2021 Posts: 1,731
    Venutius wrote: »
    Knowing what the British press are like, I suspect they'd decided in advance to put the boot in no matter what the film was like. CR was almost universally lauded, so the next one had to have a kicking, etc. But look at those quotes in ImpertinentGoon's post - genuinely excellent dialogue, there. As NickTwentyTwo pointed out - how great is it that they could produce something this good during a writers' strike? Looking at the quotes again, it almost makes you wish there'd been more strikes when the later films were being made! And 'I'm not dwelling on the past' when he's on a revenge mission - that's funnier than most overt gags. So many truly great moments in QOS.

    The script has moments of magic - but the writers' strike shows in the limited character development of Greene and Camille, complete non-development or writing of Kabira and rushed segueing of the action sequences in the first half of the film.

    edit: having said the above I still like QoS more than either SF or SP ;)
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    QoS dethroned OHMSS for my #2 ranking with my Bondathon this year. It's perfect in almost every way to me. If not for my deep nostalgia and childhood bias for GE, it could even take that top ranking.

    QOS is my second favorite too! :D

    High five on that!
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