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No Time To Die: Why It Should Not Have Been Made (The Way It Was)

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  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited February 2022 Posts: 3,152
    The leaked emails show that one draft of the script had Bond killing Blofeld on Westminster Bridge at the end of SP. Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote 'the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, knowingly pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.
  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    Posts: 1,649
    Venutius wrote: »
    The leaked emails show that one draft had Bond killing Blofeld on the bridge at the end of SP.
    Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote ' the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.

    He double tapped Safin and then blew himself up with him. How times have changed?
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    Venutius wrote: »
    The leaked emails show that one draft of the script had Bond killing Blofeld on Westminster Bridge at the end of SP. Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote 'the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, knowingly pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.

    Yet Bond executed Stromberg with several shots to the body and face in years past. That's way more "brutal" than a shot to the head, on top of all the other gory instances of death and destruction throughout the series. What an odd comment.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited February 2022 Posts: 3,152
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    What an odd comment.
    Indeed. I know CraigBond had long since learned to see 'the bigger picture', but it wouldn't have jarred at all if he'd shot Blofeld as intended - never understood why the execs thought it would.


  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,917
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    The leaked emails show that one draft of the script had Bond killing Blofeld on Westminster Bridge at the end of SP. Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote 'the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, knowingly pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.

    Yet Bond executed Stromberg with several shots to the body and face in years past. That's way more "brutal" than a shot to the head, on top of all the other gory instances of death and destruction throughout the series. What an odd comment.

    The suits being suits. Probably also skipped TND with Bond grinding up Carver, setting Sanchez on fire and the deaths of countless henchmen and the blunt instrument application.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited February 2022 Posts: 6,304
    I think they show Bunt leaving in the gondola with the Angels of Death.

    Talk about perfect casting. Love her.

    And of course all the great dialogue between her and Bond. I really wish we had had another Maibaum/Raven script collaboration in the '70s.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited February 2022 Posts: 7,551
    BT3366 wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    The leaked emails show that one draft of the script had Bond killing Blofeld on Westminster Bridge at the end of SP. Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote 'the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, knowingly pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.

    Yet Bond executed Stromberg with several shots to the body and face in years past. That's way more "brutal" than a shot to the head, on top of all the other gory instances of death and destruction throughout the series. What an odd comment.

    The suits being suits. Probably also skipped TND with Bond grinding up Carver, setting Sanchez on fire and the deaths of countless henchmen and the blunt instrument application.

    I wouldn't consider those examples as Bond killing in cold blood. Carver and Sanchez were both actively trying to kill Bond, and about to do it. Bond shooting Blofeld on the bridge would have been killing in cold blood; Blofeld was beat.

    I always think back to the end of the TMWTGG novel, when Bond is ruminating on his difficulty with killing in cold blood. He can't do in Scaramanga when he's lying on the ground, it's only when Scaramanga asks to pray, and pulls a derringer on Bond that Bond is finally able to do the deed.

    I know the films in many previous instances show Bond killing in cold blood, but I never complain when he *doesn't* do it, because there's a touch of novel-Bond in there.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    He didn’t shoot him in the head, he grabbed him by the throat, held him in the air and choked him to death. Here’s the draft pages with it, it sounded atrocious. I’m glad they changed the ending to Bond having Blofeld arrested. I would have been more upset if this version of the draft made it to the final film:

  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited February 2022 Posts: 3,152
    Would a cold-blood killing affect the rating that the film was given? Push it up from a PG13 to a 15, maybe? That could explain Sony's concern, I guess.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    Venutius wrote: »
    Would a cold-blood killing affect the rating that the film was given? Push it up from a PG13 to a 15, maybe? That could explain Sony's concern, I guess.

    Probably not if it was off screen.
  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,917
    That "thunder rumbles" after Bond offs Blofeld in that script makes it that much worse.
  • GeneralGogolGeneralGogol
    Posts: 928
    And the bridge collapsing with the ambulance sinking and bond making a quip about it... good call to have changed the ending.
  • AstonLotusAstonLotus
    Posts: 1,394
    echo wrote: »
    At least they gave Craig the distinction of actually killing Blofeld, which Connery only (sort of) got in the PTS, which is satisfying in its own weird way, much like DAF as a whole.

    I like how Lazenby dispatched Blofeld. He did seem like he was dead.

    But Blofeld was built up as a much more substantial adversary in the Connery-Lazenby era.

    I know they couldn’t name him for legal reasons,but as far as I’m concerned,Moore is the Bond to have finally dispatched Blofeld once and for all in the pre Craig continuity.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    echo wrote: »
    At least they gave Craig the distinction of actually killing Blofeld, which Connery only (sort of) got in the PTS, which is satisfying in its own weird way, much like DAF as a whole.

    I like how Lazenby dispatched Blofeld. He did seem like he was dead.

    But Blofeld was built up as a much more substantial adversary in the Connery-Lazenby era.

    I know they couldn’t name him for legal reasons,but as far as I’m concerned,Moore is the Bond to have finally dispatched Blofeld once and for all in the pre Craig continuity.

    I agree. When I was a kid I didn't much like it. As I got older I realized Blofeld was just suffering dementia & poverty... ;)
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    Posts: 1,078
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    ...pre Craig continuity.

    What a sad state of affairs. All James Bond films used to be about the same character. Now we have different characters called James Bond, different timelines, universes, and the Connery to Brosnan Bonds are now thought of as 'pre Craig continuity'.
    What a mess they've made of it all.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited February 2022 Posts: 17,800
    ColonelAdamski wrote: »
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    ...pre Craig continuity.

    What a sad state of affairs. All James Bond films used to be about the same character. Now we have different characters called James Bond, different timelines, universes, and the Connery to Brosnan Bonds are now thought of as 'pre Craig continuity'.
    What a mess they've made of it all.

    Just EON doing what they've done best since after Connery: following trends (with a brief pause in the late 80's & 90's).
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    You know they’re all separate Bond continuities, right? All six.

    ;)
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited February 2022 Posts: 2,531
    Ben Whishaw Unsatisfied by His Bond Character’s Gay Reveal: I Thought About Questioning It

    https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ben-whishaw-james-bond-gay-character-unsatisfied-1235167497/
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited February 2022 Posts: 3,152
    There's a few early drafts of the SP script knocking around. The 17th October version has the 'final shot to the head' that Elizabeth Castillon mentioned. It did have Madeleine kicking Irma Bunt from the top floor of the old MI6 building and it's better than the ambulance sinking into the river, but it also had Bond saying 'Sorry, chum' to Blofeld, which wouldn't have been great... ;) Can't post the pdf, so here's what Sony baulked at:
    Bond is above him. Stands on his wrist. Stockmann looks up in anguish as Bond towers over him.

    BOND
    By the way, it wasn't a pair of threes...it was a pair of twos.

    He aims the gun at Stockmann's head.

    BOND
    Sorry chum. You lose again.

    STOCKMAN
    But...you're my little brother.

    Bond doesn't blink.

    BOND
    I never had a family.

    Bond pumps a single slug into Stockmann's forehead, killing him instantly.
    He takes a handkerchief from his other pocket, removes his jacket and staunches the blood from his shoulder.
    Dead eyes stare up at Bond, the rain, the dark clouds above.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    Venutius wrote: »
    There's a few early drafts of the SP script knocking around. The 17th October version has the 'final shot to the head' that Elizabeth Castillon mentioned. It did have Madeleine kicking Irma Bunt from the top floor of the old MI6 building and it's better than the ambulance sinking into the river, but it also had Bond saying 'Sorry, chum' to Blofeld, which wouldn't have been great... ;) Can't post the pdf, so here's what Sony baulked at:
    Bond is above him. Stands on his wrist. Stockmann looks up in anguish as Bond towers over him.

    BOND
    By the way, it wasn't a pair of threes...it was a pair of twos.

    He aims the gun at Stockmann's head.

    BOND
    Sorry chum. You lose again.

    STOCKMAN
    But...you're my little brother.

    Bond doesn't blink.

    BOND
    I never had a family.

    Bond pumps a single slug into Stockmann's forehead, killing him instantly.
    He takes a handkerchief from his other pocket, removes his jacket and staunches the blood from his shoulder.
    Dead eyes stare up at Bond, the rain, the dark clouds above.

    I could have dealt with that.
  • slide_99slide_99 USA
    Posts: 693
    Between Bond lifting Blofeld like the Predator, female Blofeld, African warlord Blofeld, Mr. White's cannibalism story, M as a traitor, Bond as a cage fighter, and the final film we actually got, they really didn't get a single draft right. I get the sense that they didn't actually want to make Bond 24, but Skyfall 2, and simply didn't know how to do it.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    ColonelAdamski wrote: »
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    ...pre Craig continuity.

    What a sad state of affairs. All James Bond films used to be about the same character. Now we have different characters called James Bond, different timelines, universes, and the Connery to Brosnan Bonds are now thought of as 'pre Craig continuity'.
    What a mess they've made of it all.

    How do you feel about NSNA?
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    ColonelAdamski wrote: »
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    ...pre Craig continuity.

    What a sad state of affairs. All James Bond films used to be about the same character. Now we have different characters called James Bond, different timelines, universes, and the Connery to Brosnan Bonds are now thought of as 'pre Craig continuity'.
    What a mess they've made of it all.

    How do you feel about NSNA?

    200.gif
    Venutius wrote: »
    There's a few early drafts of the SP script knocking around. The 17th October version has the 'final shot to the head' that Elizabeth Castillon mentioned. It did have Madeleine kicking Irma Bunt from the top floor of the old MI6 building and it's better than the ambulance sinking into the river, but it also had Bond saying 'Sorry, chum' to Blofeld, which wouldn't have been great... ;) Can't post the pdf, so here's what Sony baulked at:
    Bond is above him. Stands on his wrist. Stockmann looks up in anguish as Bond towers over him.

    BOND
    By the way, it wasn't a pair of threes...it was a pair of twos.

    He aims the gun at Stockmann's head.

    BOND
    Sorry chum. You lose again.

    STOCKMAN
    But...you're my little brother.

    Bond doesn't blink.

    BOND
    I never had a family.

    Bond pumps a single slug into Stockmann's forehead, killing him instantly.
    He takes a handkerchief from his other pocket, removes his jacket and staunches the blood from his shoulder.
    Dead eyes stare up at Bond, the rain, the dark clouds above.

    This just reiterates to me that we got a better movie than any of these drafts. And it really surprises me that Purvis & Wade signed off on those two drafts of Bond killing Blofeld. Nothing about them sounds like Bond.

  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,152
    Yes, it's like they were all so bogged down by all the re-writes, that they'd lost sight of it. Wood, trees, etc. In one of the leaked emails, someone from Sony responds to a new draft of the script by saying something like 'it's even worse than it was before'!
  • MeanwhileMeanwhile Brooklyn
    Posts: 34
    I actually kinda love the foreign legion cannibalism backstory, as it at least gives us an earlier picture of the relationship between White and Blofeld. It also at least helps us establish what a dark & twisted threat Blofeld should have been.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    'Chum' needs to be used in Bond more often. All we have had, is "That's it, chum, you're out of it." from TLD.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    BT3366 wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    SP's one is at least quite snappy and quick compared to those: he shoots a helicopter, it crashes, he chats to Blofeld and walks off. Done and dusted.

    Wait, you are okay with that?

    I was specifically comparing it with the quite long a drawn-out climaxes to FYEO and DAF, which for my money outstay their welcome.

    BT3366 wrote: »
    This is Blofeld, the villain most associated with Bond, Bond's arch enemy, the villain fans pleaded to come back, the one Eon wanted to bring back into the fold and fought to get the rights back for and the climactic confrontation is this: ridiculous shot, the copter coming down, a limp dialogue exchange and have the police take him away like the ending of a Batman '66 part 2 episode?


    It functions effectively enough, and the choice for Bond to give up his life as a spy is a big part of the story too at that point.
    BT3366 wrote: »
    One thing SP at least does do is show Blofeld being escorted away and having that closure. What was it in OHMSS and DAF where they figure Blofeld is defeated and not going back after him? Lazenby's Bond is more interested in having a drink.

    Yes the OHMSS one is pretty much inexplicable. Bond isn't in the middle of nowhere and horribly injured or anything. He's on a bobsleigh track (which are never exactly inaccessible) and quite near a nice little, quite busy town. Quite why he presumably has a look at Blofeld hanging in his tree and thinks 'ah sod it, I'm going to the casino' and wanders off is not really understandable! :)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited February 2022 Posts: 16,413
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    The leaked emails show that one draft of the script had Bond killing Blofeld on Westminster Bridge at the end of SP. Elizabeth Cantillon of Sony didn't like it and wrote 'the killing of Blofeld with a final shot to the head? I don't know. Seems brutal even for Bond.'
    As a compromise, I'd've had Bond put the gun to Blofeld's remaining good eye, knowingly pull the trigger on an empty magazine and then shrug and say 'Out of bullets'.

    Yet Bond executed Stromberg with several shots to the body and face in years past. That's way more "brutal" than a shot to the head, on top of all the other gory instances of death and destruction throughout the series. What an odd comment.

    I don't think it's quite the same. Stromberg was on his own territory and trying to kill Bond; Blofeld was in the middle of London with no way out- there was no need to kill him.
    GeneralGogol wrote: »
    And the bridge collapsing with the ambulance sinking and bond making a quip about it... good call to have changed the ending.

    I think it's the bit where Madeline seems to want to kiss Bond having witnessed him just ruthlessly and slowly strangle a man to death which puzzles me the most! :)

    Strictly speaking of course, everyone that Bond kills at the end of SF and SP he should really be arrested for: he doesn't have any sort of jurisdiction to be operating in the UK! :D
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    mtm wrote: »
    BT3366 wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    SP's one is at least quite snappy and quick compared to those: he shoots a helicopter, it crashes, he chats to Blofeld and walks off. Done and dusted.

    Wait, you are okay with that?

    I was specifically comparing it with the quite long a drawn-out climaxes to FYEO and DAF, which for my money outstay their welcome.

    BT3366 wrote: »
    This is Blofeld, the villain most associated with Bond, Bond's arch enemy, the villain fans pleaded to come back, the one Eon wanted to bring back into the fold and fought to get the rights back for and the climactic confrontation is this: ridiculous shot, the copter coming down, a limp dialogue exchange and have the police take him away like the ending of a Batman '66 part 2 episode?


    It functions effectively enough, and the choice for Bond to give up his life as a spy is a big part of the story too at that point.
    BT3366 wrote: »
    One thing SP at least does do is show Blofeld being escorted away and having that closure. What was it in OHMSS and DAF where they figure Blofeld is defeated and not going back after him? Lazenby's Bond is more interested in having a drink.

    Yes the OHMSS one is pretty much inexplicable. Bond isn't in the middle of nowhere and horribly injured or anything. He's on a bobsleigh track (which are never exactly inaccessible) and quite near a nice little, quite busy town. Quite why he presumably has a look at Blofeld hanging in his tree and thinks 'ah sod it, I'm going to the casino' and wanders off is not really understandable! :)

    The OHMSS novel is worse on that regard because Blofeld clearly escapes and Bond’s response to that is “oh well it doesn’t matter, I blew up his whole operation so I pretty much beat him, I’m gonna get married now”.
  • BMB007BMB007
    Posts: 564
    mtm wrote: »
    BT3366 wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    SP's one is at least quite snappy and quick compared to those: he shoots a helicopter, it crashes, he chats to Blofeld and walks off. Done and dusted.

    Wait, you are okay with that?

    I was specifically comparing it with the quite long a drawn-out climaxes to FYEO and DAF, which for my money outstay their welcome.

    BT3366 wrote: »
    This is Blofeld, the villain most associated with Bond, Bond's arch enemy, the villain fans pleaded to come back, the one Eon wanted to bring back into the fold and fought to get the rights back for and the climactic confrontation is this: ridiculous shot, the copter coming down, a limp dialogue exchange and have the police take him away like the ending of a Batman '66 part 2 episode?


    It functions effectively enough, and the choice for Bond to give up his life as a spy is a big part of the story too at that point.
    BT3366 wrote: »
    One thing SP at least does do is show Blofeld being escorted away and having that closure. What was it in OHMSS and DAF where they figure Blofeld is defeated and not going back after him? Lazenby's Bond is more interested in having a drink.

    Yes the OHMSS one is pretty much inexplicable. Bond isn't in the middle of nowhere and horribly injured or anything. He's on a bobsleigh track (which are never exactly inaccessible) and quite near a nice little, quite busy town. Quite why he presumably has a look at Blofeld hanging in his tree and thinks 'ah sod it, I'm going to the casino' and wanders off is not really understandable! :)

    Good post. The ending we have in Spectre — Bond throwing down the weapon for the girl, is the obvious one inherent in that story. With the stuff it brings up about shadows of the past and choice. Big theme across the Craig movies is choice. I'm a little surprised it took them that many drafts to figure it out!
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