Okay, so, in the wake of QUANTUM OF SOLACE, one of the leading complaints was that there was too much action. Or perhaps too much of the <em>same</em> action; I don't think there would have been nearly as many complaints if there was a little bit more variety in it instead of car chase-fight-foot chase-fight-another fight-boat chase in the first half hour. What I'm looking to do in this thread is brainstorm a few ideas for action sequences that could be included in BOND 23 or future films.
Here's my suggestion to start the ball rolling:
<blockquote>It's the middle of the night, and Bond agrees to meet with the villain for some kind of exchange. The meeting place is an old - and possibly abandoned - cable car station. The cable cars themselves are strung across a wide chasm over three hundred feet deep. At least. Bond and the villain meet at the lower station because the gondolas are closed for the night.
Although it is in the interests of both Bond and the villain for this exchange to go like clockwork, things fall apart. Probably because by this point in the story, Bond has knowledge that the villain does not realise, and so gets caught out in a lie. The villain has placed a sharpshooter in the upper station as insurance, who opens fire on Bond. Bond has a brief gun battle of his own with two or three redshirts in the lower station, but the villain escapes. However, the shooter is currently pinning Bond in; he cannot exit the station without exposing himself to fire. He could wait until the shooter runs out of ammunition and simply walk out, but the shooter is the last remaining member of the villain's party and Bond wants to know why things went so badly.
Naturally, Bond does the only thing he can do: he starts the gondola up. The sniper has realised this, and so starts concentrating fire on the car. And, of course, he's armed with a .50 calibre rifle, which will punch a fist-sized hole in a concrete slab, and a hole the size of a dinner plate in the side of a gondola car. In order to get to the top, Bond must ride the gondola car to the upper station by clinging on to the outside so that he has an entire gondola car between himself and the bullets. In the freezing cold. At midnight. A hundred metres over pitch darkness, probably with spiky rocks below. And he has to remain perfectly still or else risk giving his position away to the sniper, who will instantly perforate him with bullets.
Bond drops off the gondola at the top of the cliffside, and must climb up into the receiving station, which is a fancy restaurant and observation deck and all very touristy. Realising that he is off the gondola, the sniper uses a well-placed shot to disable the cable mechanism (which he probably should have done in the first place, but we all have 20/20 hindsight). Bond stalks the sniper as the sniper stalks him, a cat-and-mouse game that Bond ultimately wins. But now, trapped in the upper station, Bond must find a way out. He uses a length of cable to abseil down the cliff face, down into the dark ravine.</blockquote>
Your turn.
Comments
It's funny, but people have always complained about action scenes in the Bond films repeating the same things - I think there were four films in a row that had fights in airplaines or high in the air. Really, as long as an action sequence is done well then that's the main thing. I remember when CR came out one reviewer said "This is a film so well directed that a foot chase is one of the best action sequences in years - and it shows character as well!"
Having said that I recall reading that the producers have a bunch of elements that have not yet made it into films and will sometimes use a rejected idea from a previous film for a new one. Didn't GE originally have a sequence featuring Bond driving a car out of a moving train? Although that could be considered too close to the opening of Fast Five for them to do now.
Maybe another action sequence involving really high places?
Roof fight on the sydney Opera house
or bond at a theme park like Disneyland
So, if you really think a vague sentence really captures the idea that you have in mind ... well, I'm not going to stop you. But it doesn't hurt to supply a few details.
B). Lets see...... action sequences for Disneyland.. Shoot out down main street horses bolting etc.... Assassination on Pirates or Jungle cruise etc.... Fight in on and around the castle....
Or a chase scene where he decides to run around the seat instead of jumping over it.
Yes my mind's working overtime...too much caffeine. :-S
Space, unintentionally but intentionally racist themes, exploding black people, oh yea EFFING SPACE, overly stereotypical rednecks, Bond shooting like 3 shots a movie at NOTHING, crappiest chases in Bond history (for the most part, and with plenty o' good technology to improve upon the scenes).
You may like the Moore films (respect), and I don't blame him for their.. uniqueness, but my opinion is that they stink as movies, and even worse as Bond films.
And unless you get rid of Bourne's stunt coordinator working on Bond movies, you can't avoid a "Waterloo sequence."
From Russia With Love is one of my favorite Bond films, and that's about a organization, cough cough Quantum, and in FRWL specifically, it heavily detailed Cold War thinking of the time, unlike later films that tried to (seemingly) distract the public from the real danger in life.
*And please, any movie with a blimp action sequence is, well, sad (in my opinion).
But what is left to control in the world that is not so down-to-earth? Oil, oops, water, oops, stretching out here, diamonds, oops, gold, done....
My point (and opinion), avoid laserbeams in space, avoid space, avoid laser beams, avoid full body transplants, avoid blimps, avoid racist themes, avoid silicon, avoid "out there."
P.S. You are right about lairs, no more hotels, Bond villains, you saw how well that went (QoS). Half that movie's budget was the freaking hotel sequence, and it just wasn't cool.
Sorry for the essay <3
Now if the villain was rocketing around (well, the henchmen) and purposely destroying satellites, or using missiles of some sort or what not, and bod has to get to him, its still and out there idea, but this goes more on the other thread, sorry :)
But I'm beginning to like you, shadow. haha
But thats a little -puts on sunglasses- down to Earth, don't ya think ;)
haha excuse the pun
what I meant was, Craig and some bad guy negotiating their way across the NW course, or some variation
It's totally different from the Madagascar nonsense and as stated, only saw QOS the once three years ago and it was such a disappointment I can't recall/have chosen to forget some of what took place
NW would be neat, and plausible enough but this idea would never see the light of day, one can only put forth an idea
If I had to choose I wouldn't want another foot chase for a while.
If it's India, Let's have Bond and some bad guys charging about on elephants..
Or even a magic carpet ride, from some of the inplausibilities seen in previous 007 capes the audience should swallow that with some ease
(Incidentally there was a MCR featured in The Living Daylights but edited out of the final version when Dalton is running about the rooftops of Tangiers, I've never seen it though)
I'm kind of relieved they omitted the rug scene out of Daylights, I think the cello case on the snow was enough to stretch the boundaries of what should be seen (in a Dalton release anyway)
A bit of skilled editing would've patched it up though. Along with 1 or 2 more takes.
I would love to see
The Garden of Death from YOLT
The assault coursse from Doctor No.
Craig Bond would be great with both of them.
:L
(also the better ones are in LA,Paris & Tokyo)
With of course some big changes. No sound effects like those. Less camera angels to to give it a more wide look what should made it les nerfes. The fall in the glass is also a bad idea. If possible to film it with 2 camer's or 1 camera or 1 helicopter. Directers created the widescreen for showing more from the left and right but in the mean time there creat small action scene's. There should created something to film from above and don't swith to soon to another camera as seen in between 1.43 and 1.49. In others words i think the camera is sometimes to close. I whant to see where there fight.
A example where i like the camera angel be Madagascar crean scene in CR who started with showing it wide and include water.