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Nomi has gained a lot of respect for Bond, so wouldn't she step in to finish the mission to ensure that Madeleine and Mathilde don't lose James? Plus, Safin can't hold anything over Nomi like he can with Bond.
I think it is mostly about Bond not trusting anyone with this and wnnting to be sure that it is 100% gone. He doesn't know who is coming on those boats and whether he can take them, he doesn't know where Safin is, the safest bet is to blow it all to s**t as he said to Nomi previously.
I think this is one of those things that sadly fall through the cracks a little bit: Felix philosophizes (is that a word?!) about our problematic leaders; Bond warns Nomi that we are in a bad spot if MI6 and CIA aren't talking to each other; M is the origin of this entire fiasco; the representative of the State Department turns out to be a double agent; Q's plane is already being buzzed by Russian MiGs; all M can tell Tanner, when all their allies ask what is going on, is "Don't tell them anything.".
There's an undercurrent of not being able to trust governments/authorities, international relations being totally broken and every agency potentially being undermined. So the free radical Bond decides that it is much safer to blow it all to hell then to set up some kind of international committee on deciding what to do with the weapon. M's resignation when giving the Admiral the go ahead to bomb the island is not just because it might kill Bond, it is also because he realizes that the international intelligence community has really, really failed on this - and if we want to go one step further, he might be reflecting on whether that is his fault, because he torpedoed Nine Eyes...
I don't think it's clear cut enough to be honest. Bond being older is fair, but it also results in Mathilde losing a parent, which some would argue is worse than Nomi dying, unless of course she has a family too. In my opinion, the life of someone (a spy, no less, who is rather unlikely to be able to settle down) who's life is ahead of them, while more valuable than that of an aging person, is not more valuable than the life of someone who has a young child depending on them. Weren't both Madeleine and Safin scarred for life because their parents were killed when they were young?
Also, is Bond (a flawed character) so "altruistic" that he'll risk denying his own child a father because Nomi is younger? I'm not sure there are many people who would make such a choice, and I am not sure it's the right one either...
Overall, I just feel if you're going to kill Bond, it needs to be a little more convincing. This isn't even touching on the whole ticking clock issue and why they can't just all leave, send the missiles, then a small army to assess the damage and kill Safin and re-strike if necessary. And yes, I get the international tensions, but striking the island escalates them regardless.
If he was so superfluous at that stage just pop him earlier in the lab.
That she and Safin have a connection and that he wants her by his side? Would that be the death of Bond?
In retrospect, isn't it ironic how we debated long ago if Blofeld said the death of you or the death of him? Bond's death was written on the wall from the beginning, so to say.
Further into the film, turns out she has even a bigger one...
Possibly to get an antidote out of him, or something like that.
Narratively, he's needed to deliver some expository speech (so it's not all Safin and Q) and explain that there's no way to cancel the nanobots. And to provide some comic relief while the tone gets darker. But yeah, I agree, it makes very little sense to protect him so much by this point.
Most of what Blofeld says must be taken with a grain of salt, as he wants to get under Bond's skin... and because the scene was most likely written and shot before they had fully decided some key elements of the plot, while some footage was quickly released ad part of the trailer, just like it happened with at least one M scene.
The secret could be another bluff by Blofeld (who already caused Bond to leave Madeleine, so after the reveal that he was behind Bond's pain for five years, he tries to throw another wrench in their relationship), or it could be the early connection between Madeleine and Safin that will cause Bond to be involved with the plot (except that Bond already wants to avenge Leiter), or it could be the existence of Mathilde, as Bond could be legitimately mad at being out of his daughter's life.
The most likely guess is that Blofeld alludes to Safin's obsession with Madeleine. But it's vague and confusing.
Not that it totally works, but I took Mathilde to be the secret. The idea then is basically that Blofeld saw it coming that at some point Bond would have to choose between his daughter and his life and he would in that case sacrifice himself, as he in fact later does. Basically, you can barely get over the death of all these other women (Vesper, M, his mother, Agent Fields) but you couldn't get over harm befalling your daughter. That is very tenuous, but it's the way I read it.
Oh right. Totally forgot about the thing with the paper. Mmh. That doesn't really sit well with me.
My assumption was that maybe she let it slip in their therapy sessions. You know, the old who is psychoanalyzing whom...
One thing I have wondered about with the PTS and then Safin's later appearence is: What happened after he got her out of the water? Up until he shows up in her office, I was convinced the two of them had more history together. She wrote him on the piece of paper and from the trailer we had the insinuation that he was in love with her. So I thought they had at least spent some meaningful time together, but apparently she hasn't even seen him without the mask? So he just pulls her out of the water and then immediatly leaves? And that's her secret?
Up until then Madeleine has no idea what is going on. The explosion at Lynd's grave and then the call from Blofeld. She was pleading with Bond to save them both in the car. She had not idea that Blofeld had set her up. It was only when Blofeld said to Bond that she took them to Italy from the goodness of her heart (so Bond could find closure with Vesper so that he can move on and be able to have a better relationship with Madeleine).
Blofeld mentions that Swann has a secret - and that was Safin.
Interesting, thanks for that. Probably one of many bits of lines I didn't catch then. So his motivation at the end of the day is simply money then, I'm guessing? I figured with the mystery of his lair and all his talk about eradication and being tidy about it would lead to him wanting to kill millions, like those simulations suggested.
This is where the plotting gets a little messy for me.
The island was a Spectre island. When Safin arranged to gas them all, he took it over. Hence we see people unpacking stuff and putting artwork up.
At a push I would say his plan is to live in his island “Utopia” with Madeleine, whom he seems to have an infatuation with (since he saved her life in the pre titles anyway). As he is willing to let Bond and Mathilde go, but not Maddie.
I am not sure how the poison garden, the manufacturing pool (underneath the garden) and the lab all link together.
Maybe he is selling it so that nations can use it against eachother and bring about worlds end between them? Idk,
And the nanobots in Safins sphere (necklace), was it explained that they were targeted against Madeleine and Mathilde?
Update: If Bond is the father, he would share half his genetic material with Mathilde. How can the nanobots not target him but her? I think there is no point over-analyzing, it just does not make sense.
It sounded to me, unless I misheard, that ingesting the flower within the tea would cause blindness; perhaps he wanted her blind so she could never fight back or escape and would forever be stuck there with him?
@Mallory, I think you're right, some of it is quite muddled. If the nanobot stuff is all complete and it's going to be sold, what is Valdo still working on? What are all the workers doing? Why sell it if they're still actively working to seemingly create these nanobots or whatever? It's kind of confusing.
The whole nanobot thing was added in later on and never truly reconciled.
Safin asked Valdo to make nanobots with Madeleine's DNA - he uses a strand of her hair, which he uses as insurance. Mathilde would have inherited half of Madeleine's DNA. When the necklace was broken and it went on Bond's skin, it did not harm him. But as Q pointed out to him - you cannot get rid of them. The intended target is Madeleine but would have killed Mathilde too as she shares Madeleine's DNA
I think she made up the blindness effect to scare Primo enough that it could be a viable weapon. The tea was almost certainly the plant that "makes you behave" that Safin was talking about.
Ahh OK, interesting, thanks for that. I don't know if it was a film issue or the theater itself but there were countless moments, particularly during the finale, where I simply couldn't make out the dialogue at all. I want a home video release for this ASAP so I can hear it all clearly.
This was my thought as well.
Makes you ask, “Why wasn’t she used more?”
Seems like a waste to have such a badass and quirky character available for only 15 minutes.
Doubly sad...the series is likely headed towards a clean break, and we won’t have the chance to see her again in the franchise. Maybe she can “Maud Adams” back into an entirely different role.
Same here. There was a lot during the SPECTRE party sequence that I simply couldn't make out or hear, whether it was due to the music or effects or what have you. I'm eager to hear it all in full.