Whats the main theme for SPECTRE? [SPOILERS]

OmegaX

Hello guys! Since this is my first time starting a new thread I hope that this is ok and wont be considered as spam or that there has been a similar thread elsewhere. If there is indeed one, I'm very sorry and please lock this thread.

So SP has been out for some time already and recently I started thinking about a movie's theme(s) after watching Star Trek:Into Darkness which has a striking theme echoed thrice about how far one is willing to go for their family. Thus, I recalled SP and was trying to come up with its theme(s), and eventually came up with one. However, I am certainly not sure about this and would greatly appreciate it if u guys could leave a post and share what do you guys think is/are the main themes of SP?

SPOILER ALERT!!

First lets look at SF, which had a obvious theme of "the old ways are the best" with Bond getting out of shape to him using an old-fashioned hunting knife/rifle (?) to kill Silva. SP, on the other hand, had a more hazy theme, and I would conclude it being that "The Dead are Alive", seen at the beginning of the film after the iconic gun-barrel scene--literally, in the form of text. I would guess that this theme is shown in 3 places.

One, and the most literal one of this list, Day of the Dead. It is shown after the words are flashed on the screen, and would serve as an obvious nod to the words that came before. After all, nothing says "Living Dead" more than a whole city of people dressed up as the dead, right? 8-X

Second, the main villain of the movie, Franz Oberhauser(or however one might spell it =p), who is also a modern interpretation of ESB. In the movie, he is Bond's adoptive brother who is presumed to be dead due to an avalanche accident, and there are also the various nods to him supposed to be dead in the movie. Q even says at one point that Oberhauser is "dead, dead and buried", only to acknowledge later in the film that "Oberhauser is not dead, the ring proves it".

Third, also related to villains, is the links to previous villains. In his liar's computer room (I cant think of another name :P), ESB tells Bond that the latter had came across the former many times, saying "Le Chieffe, Dominic Greene, Ral Silva" with Bond replying "All dead", and ESB saying "Yes" without elaboration if I remember correctly, which sort of gives me an impression that ESB is like the resurrected version of previous villains, bringing pain, grief, hurt etc into Bond's life. Also, Quantum, which is featured in previous movies, is also mentioned as a part of SPECTRE too, and Mr White's appearance also makes me think that Bond's past is back to haunt him.

Please tell me what u guys think and share what possible themes of SP that u think or which parts of the film which i missed out in this list! Thanks! :)

Trigger

All very true. I would only say Dench's M making an appearance in the video and so "not letting death get in the way of doing her job" is another example of this theme.

bondjames

Yes, you're onto something here. The dead/haunting theme is all over the place, including the overall surreal feeling of the film and the bemusing lack of extras in many scenes (except, ironically, for those dressed as 'dead' in the Mexico pretitles).

Even the torture sequence has a haunting, death bed hospital with a 'loved one' looking over you sort of feeling, as does the miraculous escape...which is almost dreamy in its superhuman recuperative quality.

One could say even Bond's detached, almost observer quality to everything happening around him has that surreal dreamy feeling.

The question then is, where do we go from here? Did Bond not decide to walk away from all this in SP? What more is there? Was this not, ultimately, about forgive and forget & new beginnings.......like what happens at the end?

PS: There is also a cat and mouse theme that I mentioned on another thread. Bond calls himself 'Mickey Mouse', the real mouse helps him find Oberhauser, and it recalls Silva's last rat statements from SF.

One could also say that SF has a 'resurrection' secondary theme.

OmegaX

Trigger wrote: »

All very true. I would only say Dench's M making an appearance in the video and so "not letting death get in the way of doing her job" is another example of this theme.

Ohh yea thanks! Yes I absolutely agree with that, nice one! :)

bondjames wrote: »

Yes, you're onto something here. The dead/haunting theme is all over the place, including the overall surreal feeling of the film and the bemusing lack of extras in many scenes (except, ironically, for those dressed as 'dead' in the Mexico pretitles).

Even the torture sequence has a haunting, death bed hospital with a 'loved one' looking over you sort of feeling, as does the miraculous escape...which is almost dreamy in its superhuman recuperative quality.

One could say even Bond's detached, almost observer quality to everything happening around him has that surreal dreamy feeling.

The question then is, where do we go from here? Did Bond not decide to walk away from all this in SP? What more is there? Was this not, ultimately, about forgive and forget & new beginnings.......like what happens at the end?

PS: There is also a cat and mouse theme that I mentioned on another thread. Bond calls himself 'Mickey Mouse', the real mouse helps him find Oberhauser, and it recalls Silva's last rat statements from SF.

One could also say that SF has a 'resurrection' secondary theme.

Oh yes I agree that makes sense, as this film does focus much of it's attention to the past. About that mouse and cat one, its genius! I never thought of it like that! Plus ESB's cat and the rat's scene in the hotel and it all makes more sense now. Thanks! :)

IGUANNA

Also remember Bond in this equatin too of the dead are alive since he died on a train at the beginning of the trilogy and now he has crossed the river styks into a bizarre world of morbid twists and dead people alive again until the end of Bond 25, when finally this nightmare will be over and Mendes gone for good.

OmegaX

IGUANNA wrote: »

Also remember Bond in this equatin too of the dead are alive since he died on a train at the beginning of the trilogy and now he has crossed the river styks into a bizarre world of morbid twists and dead people alive again until the end of Bond 25, when finally this nightmare will be over and Mendes gone for good.

Oh...yea SP does draw many parallels with SF previously, and one could indeed consider the train scene as part of it too. Nicely done! :)

About Mendes well i enjoyed his work in SF but was sort of disappointed with SP =/

Gustav_Graves

I think we already have a very extensive topic about this subject in here:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4593/spectre-and-its-underlying-theme-let-us-discuss-this-underappreciated-part-of-cinema#latest

So don't worry @OmegaX. This is certainly not spam, but possibly a duplicate to above topic.

OmegaX

@Gustav_Graves Oh yes I just recently discovered this thread too so sorry I genuinely did not know about this thread when I was posting. Erm in that case can an admin pls merge this two topics please or lock this thread? (Dunno if that could be done in this forum) Thanks and I apologise for not doing research beforehand. Sorry!