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Comments
I’m really glad they cut the cricket match. It looks like an episode of Midsomer Murders.
Now replace Bond with Tom Barnaby in the bogs and we're golden! :))
Haha! Now, that would be a cracking opening to a Midsomer.
Hi Anton, since I already have the previous 2012 XXL edition unfortunately I can't post pictures of this one since I didn't buy it, but I now have the whole transcription of the NTTD section. I can post it here if you guys are interested.
Regarding the Making of NTTD, did they dive a little bit in the whole nanobots/DNA poison stuff? The only thing the Archives say is that the thermal waters under the volcanic island produced algae that produces bacteria and those bacteria are harvested in the "farm" by Safin's minions.
And yes the Making of NTTD mentions exactly that and not much more.
NO TIME TO DIE (2021)
Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
THE TITLE
Barbara Broccoli We were struggling to find a title. We wanted a title that wouldn’t give away anything but would be understandable, and after you see the movie, have a deeper resonance, because that’s often what Fleming titles are all about. I came up with this brainwave - thinking I was terribly clever. Of course, when we did the title search, I realized I hadn’t made it up, but had already seen it, No Time to Die was the UK title of one of Cubby’s films, Tank Force (1958). The connection to Cubby made me love the title even more. So I’m not clever, it’s him.
My father told me a story about when he first came to Britain in the early ‘50s and was put up in the Savoy hotel. He came down for breakfast and asked, “I’ll have two eggs, bacon, and some toast”. The waiter gawked, and said, “We’re still under rationing here, sir”. Cubby felt so embarrassed: “I’ll take whatever there is”. A few days later, he went down to breakfast and the waiter brought him a plate, lifted the dome, and there were two eggs. Cubby said “Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful, thank you. Where did you get them?” And the waiter said, “I brought them from home”. It always moves me… Wanting to give someone else the benefit of your rations.
The British peoples made many personal sacrifices during World War II so when Fleming came to write Casino Royale in 1952 those ideals of resilience, heroism and sacrifice became central to Bond’s character.
ANCHOR POINTS
Michael G. Wilson In March 2017, we started developing a script with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade where Bond continues his relationship with Madeleine Swann. It also featured a toxin that targets people based on their DNA, so it was essentially an untraceable assassin. When Danny Boyle came on board as director in early 2018 he wrote a new treatment with John Hodge. We liked the emotionality of it. Their idea was that Bond had a relationship in the past - not with Madeleine - and he finds out he has a child. The idea of Bond having a child has been mooted before - a daughter was in an early Spectre script. We liked the tone of the Hodge/Boyle treatment, but as it developed it started to veer further and further away from the original story.
Danny is a fantastic filmmaker, but we both realized we wanted to make different movies, so we parted on friendly terms in August 2018.
Cary Fukunaga I’d approached Barbara Broccoli after Spectre, to throw my name in the hat to direct the next Bond film. When I read the news that Danny Boyle had dropped out, I e-mailed to see if my name was still in the mix. Within two weeks, I was sitting with Michael, Barbara, and Gregg, and they were discussing the story elements key to the movie.
Gregg Wilson There were three core elements from the original Purvis and Wade script that we wanted to keep. Since Bond retires at the end of Spectre we liked the idea of introducing a new 007; she’s competitive with Bond and represents the new guard at MI6. Secondly, the DNA-targeted poison was the core idea for the threat. And lastly, we wanted a satisfying way for Bond to sacrifice himself at the end.
Daniel Craig When I started as Bond on Casino Royale, one of the early discussions I had with Barbara and Michael was that I would like to kill off Bond when I finished.
Barbara Broccoli We had considered killing Bond in Spectre, but decided against it.
Cary Fukunaga Those were the anchor points that I had to link while figuring out the plot. Who’s the villain, what’s at stake, and how is Bond drawn out of retirement once again?
Paul Duncan On September 20, 2018, Cary Fukunaga was announced as the director of No Time to Die.
Cary Fukunaga We were five months out from start of filming. To say there was a bit of pressure would be an understatement. We made it one piece of a time, with a placeholder for the end of the film.
Paul Duncan The placeholder ending included Bond swimming through a radioactive underwater Russian city and drilling through concrete to gather pathogens for the villain Valentin Segura. At the end Bond infiltrates Segura’s lair, Solovetsky Monastery in northern Russia, to rescue Madeleine and their daughter.
BACKSTORY
Cary Fukunaga Villains are probably the most difficult characters to create because purely evil villains are never interesting and more complex ones require screen time you just don’t have. Personal links between the characters always make for a stronger drama. Given that Blofeld was Bond’s longtime nemesis in the last film it was hard to fabricate a new personal villain for Bond. So we started looking at Madeleine’s backstory - her villain could become Bond’s villain as well.
We worked on establishing Lyutsifer Safin’s backstory. Safin’s father was a poisoner employed by SPECTRE, who ran his operations out of a disused Soviet missile base on an island in disputed waters between Russia and Japan. Mr. White poisoned Safin’s family so SPECTRE could seize control of the facility and run it for themselves. Safin survived, scarred by the effects of dioxin poisoning and intent on revenging himself on SPECTRE and Mr. White.
Paul Duncan Filming began on the opening scene on March 25 at Langvann Lake, Norway, and was completed in five days. The film opens on Safin approaching a Norwegian house by a lake and killing Madeleine’s mother, with the intent of also killing young Madeleine.
Suttirat Anne Larlarb Safin appears in snow gear and a mask - white from head to toe in a white landscape - hidden in plain sight until not hidden, and quite startling when out of the snow and in the interior. For the mask, Cary and I decided on a Japanese Noh theater mask because of its “pure” expressionless face. We started from an initial reference of a Noh mask, and then Michael Mooney and I worked directly with Liz Thompson, who sculpted in clay, over multiple sessions, to finesse the “expression” of expressionlessness, which was a lot more difficult than it sounds. We wanted to remove anything that felt like an expressive human detail while remaining true to a human face - so the mask could reside somewhere between inhuman artificial, and a serene stare. It was a clean mask to counter the aggression of the character.
Linus Sandgren We shot most of the film with 35 mm film in anamorphic widescreen (2.39:1 aspect ratio), but the opening sequence in Norway and Matera, as well as an action sequence in Cuba are shot in 65 mm film (1.43:1/1.90:1), which gives the audience a taller and even more immersive image in IMAX theaters.
Paul Duncan Young Madeleine is resourceful and shoots Safin - a moment that Madeleine hints at in Spectre. Safin recovers and saves Madeleine’s life when she falls in the lake. She now owes him her life. We then cut to Bond and Madeleine in Italy, after the events of Spectre.
Daniel Craig Madeleine has guided Bond to Matera, where Vesper Lynd is buried. Madeleine feels that for Bond’s psychological welfare he should make his peace with Vesper and forgive her. It’s a very generous thing to offer Bond. The trouble is Blofeld following their every move. Even though he’s been arrested and is in prison, he’s got eyes everywhere and destroys Bond’s life.
Paul Duncan When Bond visits Vesper’s tomb, a bomb goes off and SPECTRE agents chase Bond across the city. Bond and Madeleine escape, but not before Blofeld plants the idea in Bond’s head that Madeleine is working for SPECTRE, just like Vesper.
Daniel Craig One of Bond’s faults is that he is too quick to distrust her, to put the armor back up.
Paul Duncan Bond breaks up the relationship, and they part. Both of them are devasted.
Léa Seydoux There is a French saying I love that, translated into English, is “love is the promise of suffering”, which I think suits the story really well.
FREE AND UNENCUMBERED
Cary Fukunaga Barbara had suggested that Bond should go to Jamaica in the story - it is where James Bond was created by Ian Fleming, and where the first film Dr. No was shot. So Jamaica became the place where Bond goes to retire. Daniel Craig, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and I met in New York in March 2019 to focus on getting Jamaica right.
Daniel Craig Five years later in Jamaica, Bond is shaked up in this amazing beach house, and sails a boat named the Happenstance. Bond is keeping himself mentally and physically prepared. He knows that he is a marked man, and that he is in danger, so he is ready for anything. When Felix (Jeffrey Wright) comes and asks for a favor - to pick up Dr. Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) in Cuba - Bond is ready for it, and welcomes it. I don’t think he ever really gave up on the idea that he would be back in the service at some point.
Paul Duncan Nomi (Lashana Lynch), an MI6 agent and the new 007, approaches Bond.
Daniel Craig Bond has a competitive relationship with the new 007, but at the same time he realizes that she is in the same position as he was in Casino Royale - she is trying to prove herself, to prove that she is good enough for her job. When this young blood tells him to back off, it is like a red rag to a bull. He’s not going to back off from anything. And Bond can be a man of action and take risks now because he is free and unencumbered by any obligations or relationships.
Paul Duncan In Cuba, Bond infiltrates a SPECTRE party, then finds out that Blofeld planned for him to be there - Bond is the guest of honor, and the test subject for Heracles.
Gregg Wilson Heracles, the DNA weapon, is designed to kill a single individual while being harmless to everyone else. When Valdo defected to the UK he brought the technology with him and M had him develop it in secret. It was meant to be the perfect tool for assassination; there would be no need to risk the lives of agents in the field if the villains of the world could die mysteriously, with nobody the wiser. That was M’s intent. But then Valdo is kidnapped from the UK facility along with the weapon.
Paul Duncan But Valdo has reprogrammed Heracles - Bond lives and the SPECTRE agents die. Bond and Nomi fight for possession of Valdo.
Lashana Lynch Every day I did combat, weapons and fitness training. It’s important for me that even though I haven’t gobe through 10 years of extensive military training, I can feel within my body that I am channeling the character of Nomi as much as possible.
Paul Duncan When Bond hands over Valdo to Felix on a trawler they are double-crossed by CIA agent Logan Ash, who mortally wounds Felix, blows up the trawler, and escapes with Valdo.
Daniel Craig Bond’s dragged back in. We find out that Heracles has been weaponized by Valdo to kill not only the victim, but their whole family.
A NORMAL LIFE
Paul Duncan The production moved to Jamaica and began filming with Daniel Craig on April 18.
Cary Fukunaga As beautiful as it is, I wanted Jamaica to feel like a place of loneliness and sadness for Bond. Originally there was a gardener, and scenes in a boxing gym and a barbershop, but they felt contrived. I even met with Grace Jones for her to revive the character of May Day as a crime boss, but I decided Bond doesn't have friends. He is angry and he doesn't know where to direct his anger. It's central to his character and to the narrative that he isn't well adopted to a normal life.
Paul Duncan On April 30, three days of filming began at Bond's villa at Coco Walk, Port Antonio.
Linus Sandgren We wanted to put the audience in the midst of the action, and often shot scenes in a seamless style, with few cuts. This meant we had to figure out blockings that would encompass several interesting shots in one, with the camera always in motion.
Paul Duncan The first key scene between Bond and Nomi is at the villa.
Gregg Wilson As initially written, Nomi leads Bond into the bedroom, pushes him onto the bed and starts to undress him. Bond says, "I think I should use some protection", reaches over, comes back with a gun, but she is also pointing a gun at him. It was a good gag but the scene just didn't feel right, particularly because we know that Bond is still emotionally connected to Madeleine. We decided to reshoot the first part at Pinewood. Nomi is still flirtatious until she gets Bond into the bedroom. Then she drops the accent, takes off the wig, and says she is there as a courtesy to tell him to back off.
Cary Fukunaga The scene is now between two professionals.
Gregg Wilson She knows the kind of guy Bond is - she's read his file - and assumes her warning isn't going to work. The scene plays much better.
Paul Duncan On May 8, Daniel Craig and David Dencik were on the docks in Dragon Bay, Port Antonio, filming the seaplane escape from Cuba, when Craig slipped and sustained an ankle injury. Minor surgery was required, and he would be away for at least two weeks.
Barbara Broccoli This was a huge challenge for Daniel. We had to reschedule the filming to get it finished in time for release.
Gregg Wilson Chris Corbould and his team had created an incredible trawler rig in the water tank at Pinewood, which could sink, turn and rotate. Daniel was scheduled to film on the rig when we got back to Pinewood, but the tilting was too risky for him to do after his surgery, so we postponed it. We needed the tank to film young Madeleine under the ice, so Chris had to take out the majority of the rig, let us film, then put it back, so we could shoot the trawler scene later. It's a big deal because it takes a week just to calibrate the hydraulics and get everything moving correctly.
Paul Duncan The unit returned from Jamaica and started shooting the nighttime Santiago de Cuba street scenes on an extensive outdoor set on the North Lot at Pinewood. It comprised a Main Street and South Street arranged in a T-junction. There were 12 building fronts with El Nido bar, a corner bar, and a barbershop as practical sets. Night shooting for the main unit began on June 6, and would continue intermittently, depending on the weather and cast availability, until the end of the shoot on October 25. Bond meets his contact, Paloma, at El Nido Bar.
Cary Fukunaga We wanted to set up an expectation and then subvert it. Paloma is an incredibly beautiful CIA agent. Wearing this glamorous dress, she leads Bond to a cellar to undress him. It seems like this is going to be a seduction scene but in fact, it's the opposite. She awkwardly realizes he has misunderstood the situation, and as the scene plays out reveals she had only had three weeks training. We think this is going to be a disaster, but when the action starts, she turns out to be pretty badass.
Paul Duncan Daniel Craig resumed filming on June 20.
Daniel Craig When I'm working on a project like this, it consumes me completely. I put everything into it, and if I don't then why bother turning up? This is the nature of the beast. Before filming begins I spend a long time working on the script, working with my fitness and fight choreography and all the skill sets I need to play Bond.
On each day of filming, I get up early, work out for an hour at the gym, and then another hour in physiotherapy to look after my ankle, go to makeup, shoot the day on set, then have a script meeting in the evening.
Paul Duncan On Craig's return his first scene is an acerbic encounter in M's office.
Daniel Craig M realizes he's messed up, and so Bond is there to both help M and revenge Felix. The clash comes because Bond accuses M of disloyalty and M thinks the same about Bond.
FAMILY UNIT
Daniel Craig With each of the movies, we tried to up the ante, to find the most dramatic situation for Bond to confront. In Casino Royale Bond learns how to kill without remorse, experiences his first love, and is betrayed by her. In Quantum of Solace, which is really a coda to Casino Royale, he meets Camille, sees what her desire for revenge does to her, and decides not to follow that path. In Skyfall he loses his maternal figure - he becomes an orphan again. And in Spectre he is hunted by his stepbrother Blofeld and walks away from his MI6 family because they are compromised and he cannot trust the establishment any more. How do you top that?
Now Bond has his own family that he needs to save. You cannot get a more dramatic and emotional situation than that. It wasn't planned as an overarching storyline, but it's turned into one. It happened organically.
Paul Duncan Safin visits Madeleine in London and blackmails her into wearing a perfumed version of Heracles when she visits Blofeld in Belmarsh Prison - Madeleine is Blofeld's psychotherapist. When Bond sees Madeleine at Belmarsh, the first time in five years, it is a tense confrontation, angry words are said, and Madeleine leaves. When Bond meets Blofeld, and almost strangles him, Blofeld dies - unbeknownst to Bond, the poison had been transferred to his hands when he touched Madeleine.
Gregg Wilson After Blofeld's death, Bond follows Madeleine's clue and finds her in Norway.
Michael G. Wilson Bond declares his love for Madeleine. It's a great scene and just as they are getting together we introduce Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet), Bond's daughter.
Cary Fukunaga This is Bond's family unit. Their chance for peace and happiness is at stake. So, as a mirror to the opening in Matera, where that chase ended with them being driven apart, this is about defeating everything that threatens their being together. From that chase in Norway to the end of the film, it's a race, not only to save their lives and their future, but also to save the world.
Paul Duncan The scenes between Bond and Madeleine were shot July 17-19 on E Stage. Bond is warned that Logan Ash is nearby, and a car chase ensues. The chase through the Norwegian countryside was shot on location in Norway on June 5-6, at the Ardverikie Estate, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, on July 17-August 2, and the forest section of the sequence was filmed at Buttersteep Forest, Windsor Great park on August 7-9, 12-15, on October 3.
At the end of the sequence Safin kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde, leaving Bond distraught.
SHOWROOM
Paul Duncan Bond and Nomi work with MI6 to infiltrate Safin's island, where the DNA-targeting poison is produced.
Cary Fukunaga Production designer Mark Tildesley and I talked about trying to find a place that had echoes of earlier Bond films.
Mark Tildesley We looked at the work of Ken Adam, especially You Only Live Twice - he had big monochromatic sets, but colorful costumes - and the architecture of Tadao Ando, a Japanese artist who uses concrete with modernity and boldness. I also based it on the Hawaii Cryptologic Center - the place where Edward Snowden stole the secrets from - which was a 250,000 square-foot under-ground factory for building planes during World War II before it was taken over by the NSA.
Alexander Witt We shot the exterior plates of Safin's island at Kalsoy Island in the Faroe Islands from September 23 to October 1.
Mark Tildesley We designed interior sets for the base including the games room where Safin and Bond meet, and the poison garden with a Zen aesthetic. The poison garden displays six of his most poisonous products. Some of them kill by touch. Some by breathing them in. Some you make into a tea. It's a showroom of Safin's poisons.
Véronique Melery Safin is surrounded by poisonous plants and atmosphere. In the corridors of his living quarters, we painted an 11-meter long version of the Water Lilies by Monet. The heavy-textured paintings that Monet produced when he was suffering from cataracts meant his brushstrokes became blotches of blue, green, and purple paint. These blotches echo the fungi that have invaded Safin's living quarters. They feel and look like a rotting substance but nevertheless offer a strange and sublime beauty.
For Madeleine, the nature surrounding her childhood home in Norway has offered a false peace: monochrome trees, bright light, and even textures. But in this organic world she gave bodies to her knightmares through her handmade puppets and toys, within which are hiding the monsters that she will be haunted by all her life.
Daniel Craig Every day the crew was working 12, 14, or more hours, with construction running 24 hours a day to make sure that everything was ready on time. Everybody was working crazy hours and giving up time with their family. Everybody was working at the top of their game. It was a privilege working with them.
Paul Duncan The interior lair scenes were filmed from August 1, with the scene where Bond and Safin first meet shot on August 29.
Daniel Craig Like the best villains, Safin believes himself to be a savior. He believes that what he's doing is going to save the world from itself. The problem is it involves killing a great many people. He's quite delusional.
Rami Malek Safin sets out to create a world where there is less bloodshed, to remove the world from hand-to-hand combat, from killing people in this animalistic way, as Bond essentially does, when he can kill in such a clean, precise manner. In his mind, this radically progressive technology will help humanity feel less guilty in the wars that they fight.
Gregg Wilson We don't say it, but it is implied that Safin's poisoning also rendered him infertile, so he is the last of his family line. He knows that his legacy is only what he makes and leaves behind through his actions. Now he has found the scientist and the technology to wipe out entire family lines. When you have the potential to say, "this isn't just going to kill you, it's going to kill all your descendants", that is a powerful threat to wield.
Cary Fukunaga Bond and Nomi rescue Madeleine and Mathilde, and Bond confronts Safin in the poison garden. Safin's final act is to infect Bond with the DNA poison - a single touch from Bond will kill Madeleine or Mathilde. Knowing he can never be with his family, Bond fights tremendous armed forces to open the blast doors, allowing the missiles to eradicate the poison. In his last moments, Bond says goodbye to Madeleine.
In an earlier draft, Bond was poisoned by Safin while rescuing Madeleine and Mathilde, and then goes back to open the blast doors so that the incoming missiles can destroy the base. He had nothing more to lose. So we changed it so that after the rescue he decides to go back, making his act of returning more heroic.
IMPERVIOUS
Paul Duncan The main unit started filming in Matera, Italy on September 9 and shot for 15 of the next 17 days.
Cary Fukunaga We had a plot plan, storyboards and animatics for Matera, but I see them as references rather than specifics. Once I get to the location, and am looking around a three-dimensional space, then I can see the sequence much better. We did new things that none of us had planned. For example, the motorcycle stunt jumping up to the Piazza Duomo was conceived about four weeks before we shot the stunt. That came together because Lee Morrison found the right line, the right angle to attack, hired the right ride, and built the right bike. You need guys of that caliber to achieve such a feat in such a short window of time.
Chris Brigham We shipped all the equipment ahead of time, plus ten DB5s, eight of which were made specifically for the movie by Aston Martin and Chris Corbould’s Special Effects team, and had a crew of 450.
Cary Fukunaga When I was conceiving the scene where Bond and Madeleine are being shot up in the DB5, I framed ut from the outside, but more I thought about it, the more I thought about what it must feel like for Madeleine inside. She is the one who is trapped. She is the one you feel sorry for. She is afraid, and the man she loves has shut her out.
I wanted the viewer to be frustrated with Bond’s lack of emotion in that moment, so we put the camera inside the DB5 to give more emotion to the scene.
Paul Duncan In the scene Primo and the gunmen fire on the DB5, which is Bond’s physical armor, but it also represents the armor he has put up against Madeleine.
Cary Fukunaga It’s impervious. Madeleine is trying to break through his emotional defenses, but he has shut her out. She’s what’s at risk. Essentially, she’s a proxy of his heart.
Barbara Broccoli Bond thinks that Madeleine has betrayed him and he’s angry with her. He’s quite cruel towards her, and she says she has something to tell him. He thinks she is going to say she’s working with SPECTRE. Of course, that’s not what she’s planning to tell him, and he doesn’t find out until five years later.
Gregg Wilson In the script Bond is furious with her and practically drags her out of the car at the train station. It felt too brutal - why would Bond allow her to be in such a state of distress? We were very worried about that.
Daniel wanted the audience to feel that when they arrive at the train station they are both going to get on the train, so that it’s a surprise when they embrace and you understand that’s not going to happen.
When we did Bond’s close ups inside the DB5 at Pinewood, you can see Bond softening and his decision that, at least for a time, he will let her think that he believes and trusts her. Daniel’s performance in that moment is really incredible. We really feel for him.
Tom Cross Our overall editing brief from Cary was to focus on Bond’s character arc.
Elliot Graham So ultimately we concentrate on what Daniel delivers in his eyes. With them he grounds the scenes in a emotional reality.
Daniel Craig Actors are there to help the audience interpret the emotion of a story. My first film role was in The Power of One (1992), and I remember after my first scene the director John G. Avildsen saying that he loved the intensity in my performance. The problem was that I wasn’t acting, I was just scared shitless and he saw what he wanted to see in my eyes. I think it’s the same for the audience. The actors perform, but because of the story and the circumstances, the audience infers the emotions they think should be there.
SIR JAMES BOND
Paul Duncan With the production dealing with several sensitive plot points, measures were taken. The “real” scripts had a limited circulation.
Gregg Wilson This is the first time we have had a fake script to keep elements of the story secret: Nomi is referred to as “001” instead of 007; references to Mathilde were removed; and after the missiles hit at the end Bond climbs out of the rubble, recovers, and then the final scene was written as Bond and Madeleine finding out that he had been knighted “Sir James Bond”.
Paul Duncan The real final scene has Madeleine and Mathilde in the Aston Martin V8 driving through Italy, with Madeleine telling her daughter about her father: “Once, there was a man…”. This was shot on the 007 Stage on October 1, with the car surrounded by giant LED screens displaying footage of the countryside. During filming Cary sat under Lisa-Dorah’s window, looking at her performance on a screen while talking to her.
At the movie’s climax, Bond fights his way to the control tower so he can open the blast doors.
Mark Tildesley I sketeched the control tower where Bond has to open the giant blast doors so that the rockets can strike and destroy all the poison. Cary said Bond must be phisically doing something, rather than pressing buttons, because he doesn’t want Bond to standing vacuously waiting for his death - he’s got to be fighting to save people.
Paul Duncan The death of Bond was completed on the 007 Stage on October 5, the date that Dr. No was released in 1962, with Bond looking out at the approaching missiles as he says goodbye to Madeleine over the radio.
Barbara Broccoli People were very emotional. Daniel’s a magnificent actor and it was an incredible scene.
RHYTHM AND FLOW
Cary Fukunaga When I am shooting on a set I firstly figure out how to use it in the scene. If it is straightforward, I plan the actor’s movements and the camera position and explain it to the actors when they arrive. If it’s more involved, I will bring the actors on set before they go to hair and makeup and discuss it with them, so that we have time to rig the lighting and camera while they are getting prepped.
Linus Sandgren Bond is a professional and in control for a large part of film. We show this by being efficient with the storytelling and framing, anc connecting each composition using smooth dolly shots. It has a rhythm and flow and, of course, each shot needs to serve a purpose.
Paul Duncan On October 11, scene 125 is filmed in the afternoon. Bond and Felix are in the engine room of the trawler. The trawler set is so cramped that only the actors, camera operator, and stuntmen can fit. Cary walks in and out over a walkway to give direction, and then sits with Linus to see the camera images on three monitors.
Linus Sandgren We used a handheld camera when Bond is not in full control. Both in chaotic action sequences and when he is emotionally unstable, like when Felix is dying in the trawler, or when Madeleine and Mathilde are kidnapped by Safin.
Cary Fukunaga Bond and Felix have had a fight with rogue CIA agent Logan Ash, who is really working for Safin. Felix is shot, and they are trapped in the engine room, so the expectation is that they are going to find some way out. But Ash has planted a bomb before flying off with Valdo and the Heracles toxin.
Paul Duncan It’s a suspense setup, like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, where the audience knows about the bomb, but the characters don’t.
Cary Fukunaga But we don’t know when the bomb is going to go off. We see Bond taking care of Felix’s wound, but we want him to try find a way out.
Paul Duncan The first shot to be filmed is Felix sitting, propped up against a girder, an explosion goes off behind him and water begins to pour in. Chris Corbould, wearing a wet suit, takes Felix’s position to test that the effects work safely and correctly. They do. Everybody waits for the set to drain and dry before the first take.
Daniel Craig Each actor works in a different way. Often you will find that actors will work on a take, build up the emotion and tension, and it has nowhere to go when the director shouts, “Cut”. When Jeffrey and I were filming Felix dying, and he and Bond are effectively saying goodbye to each other, after a take Jeffrey said some obscenity to me to break the tension. Everybody laughed, the tension dissipated, so we could relax and then build the emotion for the next take.
Paul Duncan Fukunaga did a two-shot of Bond tending to Felix’s wound and then standing up. Then shot Felix with the bomb going off behind him, a reverse-angle on Bond and the bomb going off, and then another of Bond being blown off his feet towards camera.
Cary Fukunaga I was giving myself two different ways to edit it, depending on which one was most effective. So I can either have Bond turning around as he says his line and “boom”, or have Bond’s line followed by Felix saying: “What’s wrong with…” and “boom”. So it is about giving myself options for the filming and the rhythm when I edit this together with the scenes before and after.
HEART
Paul Duncan On October 25, day 122 of filming, the splinter unit worked at Longcross Studios during the day, and the main unit continued night shooting on the Cuba street on the North Lot. It was the last day of production.
Daniel Craig Everybody from the day shoot stayed over to be at the night shoot. It was emotional working on the last scene.
Barbara Broccoli It wasn’t just marking the moment of Daniel leaving the Bond series; it felt like a moment of tremendous importance in the history of cinema.
Michael G. Wilson It was a unique moment for all of us to experience. After the big shootout Bond runs down an alleyway with Valdo and just disappears. It is very symbolic.
After we shot it everybody was stunned. We couldn’t believe this was the end. Barbara was in tears, and I was chocked up. Daniel gave a nice farewell speech to everybody. People didn’t leave; they all just stood around talking, so sad to see him go.
Barbara Broccoli Daniel is the beating heart of the movie.
Daniel Craig With each of the movies, we tried to up the ante, to find the most dramatic situation for Bond to confront. [...] How do you top that?
Now Bond has his own family that he needs to save. You cannot get a more dramatic and emotional situation than that. It wasn't planned as an overarching storyline, but it's turned into one. It happened organically.
DC is quoted as saying elsewhere that he mooted the possibility of Bond's death as early as post-CR, so the NTTD plot looks like a reverse-engineering effort, setting up the worthiest cause for Bond to die for... It is still hard to tell how much of their vision was there from the start (CR) and how much evolved over time, but the progressive upping-the-ante is proof that the filmmakers had intended for a while for the DC films to form a finite, self-contained arc.
As regards Safin, even if @ImpertinentGoon's interpretation differs from the filmmakers' comments, I prefer his take:
This only apply to the Pal UK DVD format. All Blu-ray discs are the same length as the films.
Sänk ju, Mistär Stämpär! B-) :-SS
Off Kors ju ahr, Mistär Stämpär! ;) :D
1 Léa Seydoux, one just feels what her character feels throughout the entire film, what a performance. She’s a top 3 Bond girl for me, might even become my favourite.
2 Haven’t read or heard much reactions to Billy Magnussen’s performance, which I think was excellent. A real life villain to say the least: a charming, smiling opportunist.
And also,
3 Overall the Hans Zimmer score has grown on me, but I did not like the bizarre choice for the OHMSS theme during the M/Bond scene at the Thames. Neither did I like the swollen cue during Bond’s demise.
Having said that, I liked it the first time, I absolutely loved it the second time.
I am kind of fluctuating on his role. Don't get me wrong, the performance is fantastic, I think, to the point that I would have maybe wanted more of him. I've heard people say they were surprised how much he is in the movie. I have to say, I was surprised how little he is in there.
That is still my confusion with the film overall: It's so long and there is so much in there and there are still so many points where I feel like they cut corners and could have let it settle a bit more. In a way that is more of a positive than a negative - you'd prefer the film leaving you wanting more than overstaying it's welcome - but it just irks me that I can't have more of Bond in Jamaica; more of Safin being a puppetmaster and not a generic lair-with-100-henchmen-having villain; more Ash and Leiter; more Whitehall fallout for M; more of Q and Moneypenny, more Cuba; more Nomi; more explanations of some things and so on.
Basically at this point I kind of feel like the film (or a film) should have been the spy story between Bond, Leiter, Ash, Nomi, Paloma, Valdo, Safin and Blofeld that kind of ends with Bond on the raft. There would of course have to be a conclusion, but I would have kept it in that circle. I am not against the M&M of it all, but the more I reflect, the more I feel like these should have been two different films and not a first and a second half of one.
I agree with most of what you wrote, @GoldenGun.
Léa is splendid. Apart from the distinct advantage of being a leading Bond girl twice (in the same role), she brings pathos and a gripping sense of dramatic reality to the film. Also, I just think she looks absolutely stunning, even though she's not 20 anymore. What a beauty!
Billy is a lot of fun, though I can't help thinking about Craig's delicious "book of Mormon" comment when seeing Magnussen's plastic smile in the film. But indeed, a good villain!
Zimmer's score works throughout the entire film for me, including during the Thames scene. But that moment does feel more like a bit of musical masturbation rather than fitting where the narrative is at.
I loved Safin as well. This was the first time I thought having a very pathetic villain worked so well. He was an angry child having a god complex temper tantrum and Bond treated him like such a nuisance. Honestly one of my favorite villains of the franchise. I didn;t need him to give a powerpoint presentation laying out all his plans. and I appreciate that he was secondary to Bond & Madeline's relationship. He was a little fly waiting to be swatted, and yet also a very dangerous and unpredictable villain.
Yep. Loved how Bond dispatched him at the end.
Hell, they often do "group" shots where not one of the actors ever stood on the same set in the same frame.
The end of cinema. Lucky us, Bond is still here and he take a stand!
On the face of it Waltz should have been perfect casting as Blofeld, the Big Bad Villain for Craig-Bond to go out on in NTTD ... but I guess they messed it up with SP and his replacement with Safin in NTTD is EON's tacit acknowledgement of that.
I'm not sure why people find this so weird. People seem to think that the OHMSS theme is associated with Tracy's death, but it really isn't; that's WHATTITW. The OHMSS theme is a perfect fit for this scene because it has a lot to do with being on her majesty's secret service, it's very regal sounding, etc.
Interesting that NTTD did that for you.
For me it is the other way around - I feel more negative towards it after a 2nd viewing. More accurately - I enjoyed the PTS more the 2nd time around, and liked the first half just as much (or basically up to 'Q's house' sequence), but it went downhill V FAST from there onwards...
On a 2nd viewing it is even more apparent that:
The script is sometimes, well, DOUR.
Moneypenny: "Something's going on Q, and we need to find out what it is..." - seriously? My 7 year old writes those sorts of lines for his stories :(|)
Other things bothered me more on 2nd viewing:
-Bond's Blofeld interrogation. Agree with most on here - DC is not in the spirit of the JB character at all.
-I dislike L. Lynch more than when I first saw the film. She seems forced and I don't think her part was v well written, simple as that. To M: "00 - what..?" ...c'mon, she is not 12 !
Things I enjoyed as much, or even more:
- Matera action. Only part I like MORE than upon the 1st viewing. Whole sequence from the exploding grave onwards feels truly like a vintage James Bond film. The car stunts are superb and DC is in bad-ass Bond mode. Zimmer really toys well with the classic JB theme here. Love it.
- The direction. CJF uses colour and atmosphere better than Mendes - or at least his style is more SUITED to Bond than Mendes'. Matera, Jamaica and even 'Cuba' (Pinewood, but ok) really come to life and feel lived-in, vibrant. Mendes never managed this i.m.o
This line bothered me as well. Doesn't seem to fit the tone of the scene let alone the movie. Naomi's delivery also wasn't good. Made it worse.
Since this is a Bond film, it feels like a huge shifts.