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A question I've often asked myself. Good to see this thread move onto this film.
First off the bungee jump makes zero sense because if that's the only way in then how did Alec get inside? And there's no reasonable sense of height either, because after he jumps all the way down that ridiculously long dam and infiltrates the facility he comes out and suddenly - he's on top of a huge mountain!!!
Alec's fake death doesn't really make sense. Alec gets shot, Bond jumps on the conveyor and topples all the barrels over him and later he isn't injured at all, even though he didn't move and should have been hurt a lot. That's all minor stuff but why was it that Alec could not escape from the explosion? Literally all the Russians got out before the 3 minutes was up so why couldn't Alec???
And then the plane jump well I'm no scientist and maybe it is just the bad effects but could you really catch up to a plane like that from the air???
And that's just the PTS I'm afraid I do have more, but I'll save the juicy stuff for later.
Bond was trying to go in through in a back door?
Probably Alec was there as an undercover agent and therefore had a different access to the building. In fact he had prior connections to Ourumov and had already changed to the Soviets. This may be explained that he had already worked there as an undercover agent.
Alec could've got in any number of ways - hidden in a truck, disguised as a soldier, air conditioning repair man - presumably there are other entrances? I doubt everyone who works there has to bungy to work every day.
The geographical problems are harder to surmount. Given there is snow on the runway, if the dam was higher the water in the dam would probably be frozen yet it's clearly not and in addition there is no snow on the mountains behind the dam. Therefore we must surmise that the facility us higher than the dam.
So why does Bond make the bungy jump and how does he get up there?
Err OK let's have a go at this.
The only way in is by going through that gate and crossing to the other side of the dam. But this is way too heavily guarded (Alec got through this way but had to kill several guards to do it and now they are on high alert) so the only other way is to bungy down to the bottom and access one of the sluice tunnels in the dam. Via this Bond climbs his way back up and is able to access the main sewer for the facility which feeds into it at the top and following this he crawls a few hundred feet further in elevation until he finally emerges in the toilets at the top of the mountain. It takes him half the day to make this climb but as there is no way of telling how long has passed between the bungy and Bond knocking the bloke out in the toilet it's fine.
I'm more concerned about what Alec thinks the point of this charade is?
Does he want Bond to escape and report his death back to MI6? Then he might want to make it easier for Bond to escape than have a whole battalion shooting at him and the only way out being a physics defying jump off a cliff.
Does he want Bond to surrender and try and talk him into joining them? In which case why defiantly shout 'blow them all to hell' and then why have Ouromov pretend to execute him? He's going to look a bit stupid if Bond comes out with his hands up and he has to sheepishly get up from pretending to be dead.
The only theory I can come up with is that he has some arrangement in place with Ouromov to defect and the whole thing is staged as much for the Russian soldiers as Bond. I doubt all the soldiers are in on it, they are just following Ouromov's orders. Hence why he would lie there after everyone else had left and get his face blown off. The plan was for Ouromov to have him carried away after 4 minutes. But I'm grasping at straws here - it's all over the place.
Sooo, Ouromov 'executes' Alec (and presumably none of the soldiers notice he doesn't actually kill him) because Bond doesn't come out as ordered. If it was intended for Bond to die there then Alec could've shot him at any time. So they wanted Bond alive? For what? As Wiz says is it in the vain hope Bond may join them? Alec doesn't know Bond very well if he thinks that.
But then...why are they there anyway? Why is Alec bothering to do this mission? Surely steeling the helicopter is the point of the story?
It's a great PTS though. And that's the point.
Remember this is 9 years earlier. The helicopter doesn't exist yet. Also the Soviet Union hasn't collapsed so does that make Alec a bog standard defector then?
That makes no sense. He is of zero worth to the Soviets behind the iron curtain compared to them having a mole working in the service.
He wants revenge on the British so does he go to Ouromov and says 'Here's an idea. I'll pretend to be dead for 9 years in which time the Soviet Union will collapse and I will be able to make a shitload of money in the new Russia and you will be promoted to head of space weapons and then I can get revenge by destroying London and I will pay you a shit load of money.'
And Ouromov says 'The Soviet Union is crumbling. I haven't been paid in three months so bugger it I'm in.'
More to the point M has presumably sent them on this mission? Can anyone tell me why this is such a tough mission it requires the unprecedented step of two 00s?
Infiltrate somewhere, set some charges, get out. That's page one of the 00 handbook. They do this sort of stuff in their sleep.
2) Bond's new mission started when he's chased by Xenia in her Ferrari, as he then starts to investigate on her in Monaco. What is she doing in the first place? Chasing Bond for fun, or try to kill him? Why? He had no info on anything concerning her or Janus at the time, so why bring attention to yourself?
Without that car chase, Bond would have most likely received his mission after the helicopter was stolen and the attack of Severnaya. But then, what clue would he have? He wouldn't know who stole the aircraft, as in the film we have now, he finds out due to investigating Xenia while she is doing her job in Monaco. None of which would happen if the car chase didn't exist, as Bond would just be enjoying life in Monaco, oblivious to the entire operation. So, what is Xenia trying to accomplish by engaging Bond in a car chase for no apparent reason?
That's the main problem with GE for me. The lack of true character motivation. Trevelyan was clearly meant to be a much older man originally. He was originally to have been played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
I think Xenia was supposed to be a thrill seeker who lived life on the edge. She engages Bond in the car chase simply for fun and has no idea who he is.
The fact that she ends up being one of the enemies on his mission is supposed to be purely coincidence.
Yes, and there are many such "coincidences" in the James Bond films. TMWTGG's two plot strands coming together is especially relevant here. DAF too.
Regarding O06's betrayal, surely he had then no idea how he would exact revenge on England. He just wanted to build his shadowy organisation and take it from there. Maybe, maybe he knew about the Goldeneye project. As for Orumov maybe he thought USSR was on its last leg and bet his money on Janus.
You can't overlook the villain's plan, either, in that Alec wants to break into the Bank of London and steal all of the money (along with wiping out countless scores of information and records) before setting off the GoldenEye; however, that would render the money all but useless, unless he plans on spending it in the same place he just ruined (which would now be re-entering "the Stone Age.")
You can easily miss it.
Yes but I mean you'd think that if Alec got in so easily why would Bond go through all that trouble. I like the stunt but not when I think about it too much.
But how do you know alec got in easily?
I don't; I assume so, since it isn't shown, but you are right, since I have no way of knowing.
I'm not really sure what the point of the charade is either. At the Statue Park, Alec says to Bond, "You were supposed to die for me." He also claims that his face is disfigured because James set the timers for three minutes instead of six. So, appartently Alec and Ouromov made some kind of pact to set a trap to kill Bond. However, if they had succeeded then there would be no one to report Alec's death to MI6. I guess they would have presumed that he died.
Still, it's all such an elaborate ruse. If the soldiers weren't in on it, and I don't think they were, then how did they set it up? Was Ouromov firing blanks? Was there fake blood a la Pushkin's assassination from TLD? Did they think that Bond would just surrender? What if he decided not to come out and blow himself up along with everyone else since he was a dead man anyway? It just seems like they left a lot to chance.
Isn't it explained in the movie novelization?
"Alec Trevelyan had been inserted three days before into Archangel itself, and, if all the documents were in order and nobody had questioned his cover, he should by now have made the long underground journey into the processing plant itself."
This is a great deal of Bond movie plots.
How about this: the Goldeneye itself makes no sense. The Russians spend untold zillions of rubles on two space-based weapons...both of which can evidently only be used once! After that, they're just useless floating space junk! Surely it would have been a better use of zillions of rubles to build only ONE space weapon that can be re-used over and over and over again.
So what's the point in Trevelyan's entire plan, then? Since, as you say, the only weapon in his arsenal is the 2nd Goldeneye that he can only fire once. So had Bond failed to stop him from bringing back London to the stone age, what's stopping the Americans from raiding his Cuban base, which is defended by about 20 soldiers?
Either that, or the Russians actually have a whole warehouse full of GoldenEye satellites and only two were in orbit at that time.
The script isn't really clear on this point, I'll grant you that. But why did Trevelayan have to fire the second Goldeneye to execute his master plan, rather than just using the first again -- and why was it treated as such a revelation when Natalya tells Bond there is a second Goldeneye?