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The great thing about watching NTTD via VOD is that I can pause it and rewind it and rewatch sections as I please.
In doing so, I uncovered some clues about Safin's motivation. I think that this was one of the sticking points in the film's plot: trying to figure out what made Safin tick. There are some lines, when Safin shows Mathilde the poison garden, that might offer some clues.
When Mathilde reaches out to grab one of the flowers--and Madeleine screams for her to stop--Safin explains that this plant makes one do as told. I always thought he was being figurative. But maybe not. He was being ironic. There actually is such a plant that causes people to become odedient: The Devil's Breath (Scopolamine). Now, the plant we see in the film does not necessarily resemble the Devil's Breath, but Safin's delight in explaining how a plant can make one "obedient" may explain what his master plan is: wiping out half the planet and making the other half subservient, as a result. He is not just harvesting Heracles; he's likelty harvesting a whole lot of bad stuff. He further discusses this with Bond when he says:
"The thing that no one wants to admit is that most people want things to happen to them. We tell each other lies about the fight for free will...but...We want to be told how to live."
To me, things are making more sense, now.
Yep
hahaha! ;) No time for subtitles either! (I do love the sound of French and wish I could speak it. And other languages.)
Not to mention
Karl Stromberg reveals his true plan: to fire nuclear missiles from the stolen submarines at Moscow and New York City, thus framing each other's government and triggering World War Three, which would lead to humanity utterly destroying itself and allow him to create a new civilization under the oceans.
or
Aerospace mogul Hugo Drax plans to launch a deadly gas attack on earth from space to wipe out the human race. He then wants to repopulate it with hand-picked, genetically ideal humans and create an “ultimate dynasty”.
I love that but I love the preceding moments more, when Primo is firing round after round at the car, Madeleine keeps screaming "James!" (how far we've come from Stacey Sutton), and Bond, processing being betrayed again, seeming not to care if he dies until...he does the donut.
I bet there's lots of back-story stuff they didn't use about Safin's story. In the old days we'd have novelisations that we could scour for background details, as they were often based on early screenplays.
Interesting!!! I took it to be almost a sick dad joke of sorts. He goes on about how the plant makes one obedient while looking at Madeleine, and her shouting to Mathilde not to touch it causes the child to obey her. Safin's sense of humor was roundabout in that way (IE his "memory box" and "light as a feather")
The german dubbing wasn't too bad but it was strange that Safin didn't have an accent at all. I preferred his strange english talking. It nade him a bit more unique.
I thought that odd, too ... the women dressed in traditional Russian peasant garb, at least to my untrained eye, like something out of time.
This movie DESERVES a novelization.
I’m watching NTTD now, and I’m thinking it would be extremely enjoyable to watch SP immediately after.
You're on to something.
I plan to watch the five films in reverse order; I think it would be a fascinating approach to DC's era: about 700 minutes, starting with the white gun barrel and ending with "The name's Bond. James Bond."
Yeah, I think so. It was around the time of Blofeld's appearance in NTTD that I had this thought.
If only because, the Belmarsh scene is actually a great introduction to Blofeld, extremely menacing. Then, it would be interesting to go back and see Blofeld "in his prime", at the meeting in Rome, in Vauxhall at the end of SP, etc., after the events of NTTD.
Voldo is fucking hilarious. Don’t care what anyone says.
The lab break in; Moneypenny goes in to tell M about it, he says “I’ve seen it”, proceeds to look at it and be surprised about it??
Felix in Jamaica: “I want to go back and tell my family I saved the world again, don’t you?” Bond has no family… until later. I wonder if it would have been cool if one of his last lines was, “I saved the world again”, when talking to Madeleine?
What’s Nomi’s objective in Jamaica? Make sure Bond doesn’t find out about Valdo/the kidnapping, and if he does, tell him Valdo’s off limits? Later M says Bond is so far off the grid that they thought he was dead, so how did they know to send Nomi there? Were they following Felix Leiter?
Then M after the phone call says “the CIA have the advantage”, so he knows that Bond is working with Leiter. I think what they’re telling us is that MI6 knew Leiter would make contact with Bond, and so following him would lead them to him. Which answers the previous question, Nomi was following Leiter.
Bond in Cuba. “Something about a hat… paris?” I’ve always loved these code phrases, and this play on the cliché is great.
Bond: “Let’s get a drink.” Fear. Fear of yet again entering the ring with Spectre.
Bond watching Paloma drink her martini is very Moore-Bond IMO. Another big Moore-Bond moment in this film is the physicality of Bond when he enters M's office alone and says, "oh, does that bother you?" to Nomi.
Clearly the Spectre Birthday Party was the scene meant for the MayDay cameo (perhaps when Bond utters the line "Spectre agents... all of them.", but it's easy to see why there would have been minimal screentime, and why Grace would bow out. unfortunately for us.
It would have been very cool to have the bald henchman that chased Q near the Hoffler Klinik in Spectre to return as one of the three bald henchmen carrying Blofeld's eye around.
I love the CIA safeboat drenched in red in the ocean. Great visual.
I've said it before, but the transition of:
Bond finds lifeboat.
Bond in lifeboat, furious, mulls over the cigar that was meant for his friend.
Wideshot to large vessel that will bring Bond back to Britain.
Black.
Is absolutely brilliant. This film has *very* clear endings to act 1 (this) and act 2 (Madeleine's capture), which I think is cool.
Primo is a fantastic henchman, and has buckets of presence.
It was around there that I stopped taking notes because I was too captivated by the film.
The scene where Bond meets up with M outside in London (the "Just the Usual" scene, if you will), is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I love how they reconnect after the adversity of the Heracles Project. They're on the same team. They're up against what they're always up against, a threat to the principles of this... of This. The music here is perfect too; I'll reiterate that the OHMSS theme has not much to do with Tracy's death (that's for WHATTITW); the OHMSS theme is perfect for what it says on the tin; being On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Very regal, very Brittania, perfect for Bond and M rejoining forces to take on the global threat.
I think the moral of these Craig stories, ultimately could be; nobody escapes this life. It is the fate of glass to break. First Mathis, then Leiter, and finally Bond. A spy can win this good life only by finding some meaning for themselves along the way. And Bond did just that. He found, in my opinion, what he'd been looking for his whole life; the ability to feel for something, and to have that feeling returned. After that, he "saved the world again", and ultimately a spy couldn't have asked for a better way to go.
M saying in his first scene:"I've seen it" was already odd to me the first time. It doesn't make sense...
Maybe he knew what happened but hasn’t actually seen the footage or something? He did bring it up really quickly… it is just a scene that feels weird I think.
Bond last line "I love you", is very important. He has learned to love again, just as he is about do "die". He's arc started with CR is complete.
Did we list the songs used on the soundtrack somewhere?
I love how Bond's rescue boat looks like it came out of Thunderball.
Anyone noticed M use the word "F--k" on the pier?
@NickTwentyTwo Yes I believe Nomi was following Leiter because the CIA was already in advantage regarding the kidnap of Valdo and once Felix landed in Jamaica she figured it out Felix wanted to ask Bond's help so then she goes to Bond as a professional courtesy in order to show him how good and cool she is.
The big question is: why Swann feels safe at her cabin? Why she comes back there since Safin knows that location?
I noticed that Bond passes Nomi on the street in Jamaica on my second viewing!
Oh yes I noticed M's F bomb. Cary said that Ralph Fiennes dropped that in on one of the many takes they take so they decided to keep it in!
Yes. Thank you for bringing this up.
This undermines the entire 3rd act for me... NO reason at all for her to go somewhere (with her child...) known to Safin, and therefore Logan Ash.
I know they wanted to 'repeat Maddy's history' by having Swann, Mathilde and Bond in the SAME cabin, thus showing Swann's repeat of her mothers' mistake ("is that what you like, Madeleine, assasins?!" ... but for heaven's sake. It destroys the plot.
It might be a stretch but the only reason I can came up with is that Swann thought Safin came to her just to ask her the favor in return, since she was the only one able to confront Blofeld in person achieving his personal goal to wipe out SPECTRE. Then, she came back to the cabin knowing Bond would've followed her, and protect her, since she told him about "home" back when they were together. Going "home" aka the cabin was their plan after leaving Matera.
I think my only problem with this is that Safin threatens "the person she loves" i.e. Mathilde if she doesn't do it... Then when Bond touches her hand in Belmarsh she leaves and says she's going home as you say...
She then asks Bond in Norway if Blofeld is dead or not so it really is a bit of a silly decision if she had no idea whether she'd done exactly as Safin asked or not.