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Saying goodbye to DC, the final scene...ideas.
The next Bond movie offers an opportunity for the writers to create a final scene that says farewell to the DC era,
how do we visualise DC's final scene?
My idea: I want Bond and M standing on the pavement between Buckingham Palace and Green Park in the Summer. There is a basic debrief and M senses that Bond is slightly deflated or unsatisfied.
"Bond, something we don't discuss or refer to. These people"
M gestures and we see vignettes of the public enjoying the sunshine. Children, tourists, etc
"If they could... if they knew...everything you've done. They would thank you.
Bond pauses and looks around
"And she would aswell"
M gestures to Buckingham Palace
"But I can"
M warmly shakes Bond's hand
"Untill the next time double O seven"
"Untill the next time, M"
Bond smiles and then walks away. Zoom out as he merges in with the crowd within the park.
Other ideas anyone??
how do we visualise DC's final scene?
My idea: I want Bond and M standing on the pavement between Buckingham Palace and Green Park in the Summer. There is a basic debrief and M senses that Bond is slightly deflated or unsatisfied.
"Bond, something we don't discuss or refer to. These people"
M gestures and we see vignettes of the public enjoying the sunshine. Children, tourists, etc
"If they could... if they knew...everything you've done. They would thank you.
Bond pauses and looks around
"And she would aswell"
M gestures to Buckingham Palace
"But I can"
M warmly shakes Bond's hand
"Untill the next time double O seven"
"Untill the next time, M"
Bond smiles and then walks away. Zoom out as he merges in with the crowd within the park.
Other ideas anyone??
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PS Stop press, before the conversation starts , they pause and watch the changing of the guard. A visual mataphor for old Bond/new Bond!! C'mon guys, you gotta like that! :-)
Someone is on form today,again,very good.
Or, Bond is already exhausted and injured from his fight with Blofeld. He still rigs the castle to explode and tries to escape but is pinned down when fighting his way out. He makes a last stand and kills the rest of the guards but is hit several times. He tries to push on and escape but realises there's no time. So he slumps down against a wall and relaxes, finally at peace, content with everything he's done, as the castle explodes around him. We see his funeral same as in my other idea but this time he's actually dead.
Perhaps we could have a caption after the GB saying 'The guard is changing' just to hammer it home for the terminally thick in the audience?
OK, they are standing on the pavment and they finish the debrief, just as they a finishing, a group of tourists rush past and stand in front of them. (emphasising that, for all his efforts DC Bond is unrecognised by those he protects),
M checks his watch
"Arh, changing of the Guard"
M gestures and they sit on a park bench in Green Park. The band music playing in the background (Jeruselum? too much?) as they continue the conversation.
I think you might need one of them to wink to camera a la Sean in NSNA as the line is said for the truly imbecilic in the audience to get it.
Not quite ,he does give Mallory a cheeky wink in SF he he ...
Well, that sounds like a Tom Mankiewicz idea.
Yes, Fleming. I could of sworn he mentioned to Tanner that when he retires, he's going chicken farming.
But that doesnt mean its a good idea.
Last shot of Dan Bond should be on the boat to Vladivostok or trudging off as 'the man who is only a silhouette' please.
To back this up with the context of the original books, Fleming's Bond despised what he called "the soft life" and we see him perpetually craving some excitement in life when he's away from his international missions for too long a time. He's miserable in the year between Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia with Love, and that has more to do with his boredom than Tiffany leaving, as far as I'm concerned. After his brush with death in From Russia, the closest to death he'd been to that point, Bond wanted nothing more than to be sent off on something dangerous again. He's an adrenaline junkie, and needs to work.
As far as the ending of SP goes, I view Bond as thinking he wants to leave, because that's what people keep telling him. In CR Vesper was talking in his ear about how he needed to keep his soul and do honest work, in SF he was the old dog that needed to get out if he wasn't sure of himself or past it, and in SP Madeleine mirrors Vesper's discussions with him about choice in a very intentional way on the train, where she mentions his ability to choose what he wants to do, to live a life where he isn't in danger and has someone to spend that life with.
I think the story of Craig's Bond has been one of choice, or really, the absence of it. He allows his view of his life to be warped by the judgements of others, and doesn't seem to be able to think for himself; perhaps there's a metaphor in here somewhere, of the loyal agent who allows himself to be used, as is his nature. As a pawn, he doesn't make his own decisions. For my ending, the intention was to have Bond actively making it clear that the choice he made was his own, finding out in a revelation that he essentially was always making his own choices despite it not feeling like it. The man who has constantly been told who he is or who he should be is done listening to anyone who isn't himself and has found his own identity, comfortable in the choice he has made.
Here is my basic outline of the final scene/s of Bond 25, from the ending of a climactic moment (a battle at a castle between Bond and his 00/SAS friends and Blofeld and his SPECTRE agents?) to the closing credits.
To preface this treatment, the film would start with Bond living quietly with Madeleine, but it would be obvious that he is bored out of his mind and is going through adrenaline withdrawal. He sits and stares at paint drying, missing the feeling of danger and duty that gave his life some kind of path. An event will happen to draw him out of retirement (possibly Blofeld/SPECTRE related) that he will use as an excuse to return to MI6 and his old team, while acting like he doesn't want to do it when speaking with Madeleine, who he might not want to disappoint since she invested so much in helping him leave the agency behind. All of these events would lead to this ending...
[Cut to black on final scene of climax, as we head to resolution.]
[It's a bright and pleasant morning in London, and the hidden offices of MI6 are chirping away with activity. We get a look at the experience of being an agent, with 00s coming back from their missions in casts and covered in scars, showing the danger of the duty, and of secretaries who embrace them as they come home safe. Shouts ring out with announcements of enemy action in far away countries, and encrypted messages from MI6 stations around the globe are decrypted and recited. These are the heroes we have, but never see.]
[We eventually come to M's office, with Moneypenny sitting down at her desk and constantly eyeing her watch. She is startled as M opens his door out of nowhere (she is used to people going in to see him, and not him coming out) and peeks his head out.]
M: "No word from Bond?"
Moneypenny: "No, sir."
M: "Ring Tanner, won't you? I've had him keeping an eye."
[Moneypenny connects to Tanner as the setting shifts to the inside of an MI6 company car with slightly blackened windows; Tanner is inside, speaking with Moneypenny from a secure line as his driver patiently looks on.]
Moneypenny: "How's he, Tanner? Left his flat yet?"
Tanner: "Yes, a good while ago. We've been following him from the car, but he's gone on foot the whole way and...well, you'll never guess where he's planted himself."
Moneypenny: "Where?"
Tanner: "A bloody cemetery."
[Giving an odd look to start, Moneypenny cups the phone and looks towards M.]
Moneypenny: "Bond's at a cemetery, sir."
M (bemused): "A cemetery? Why would he go there? His parents' graves are in Scotland, right? What other next of kin would he have around here, and why pay his respects now?"
Moneypenny: "You know how he is, sir. Close to the chest and all that. (short pause) Tanner?"
Tanner: "Still here. I'll keep a watch on him, let you know when he's on the move."
(This scene would be particularly interesting because none of the present characters, including M, Moneypenny or Tanner, have any idea about why Bond would find himself at a cemetery. His secret commitment will only be known to the viewer, who will find out the truth as the camera rests on the full body image of Bond near a grave, the camera disguising the front of the stone as he looks down on it with a look of serene comfort and respect.)
[The shot pauses on Bond for a moment, then he suddenly gets down on one knee and brings his hand in to grasp the stone lovingly. The camera then shifts to show a perspective over his shoulder, as we read the name "Vesper Lynd" and the date of her birth and death. In this moment it would become clear that, no matter how much time has passed, Bond has never forgotten his ultimate mission to get the woman he loved justice. A short but emotional bit of David Arnold's Vesper theme plays. Bond gazes down at the name and what it represents to him and, with great earnestness and relief, says...]
Bond: "I got them." (in reference to his neutralization of Quantum and SPECTRE)
[We shift again to Tanner, who is taking a private call we don't hear as he removes his eyes off Bond momentarily. Moneypenny patches back in to check up, and we hear her and M in the background for a time. Preparing to update his team, Tanner lifts his head back up to find the spot Bond inhabited enemy. He squirms to attention, and realizes he's taken his eye off the ball. Seconds later he is startled by a knock on the window on the far side rear of the vehicle. He turns to see Bond and drops his phone instinctively as M keeps repeating his request, getting louder each time. Bond makes a dry motion for Tanner to roll down the back window, which he does, awkwardly. As the sound of M comes in through the phone on the floor, Bond glances at it, gives a smile, looks at Tanner and says...]
Bond: "Tell him I'm on my way."
Tanner (stammering): "Ri-right. Of course."
[Bond starts to walk away.]
Tanner (reluctantly): "Ah, Bond?"
[Bond turns back, mid-step, his eyes raised as he invites the question to come.]
Tanner (cluelessly pointing in the direction of the cemetery): "What was that all about?"
[Bond, his eyes impenetrable as ever, lets nothing be revealed.]
Bond (dryly, but with perceptible truth): "Just seeing an old friend."
[Bond walks off and we are greeted with a new location, the bridge leading to the now rebuilt MI6 building, in all its glory and shining purpose. The visual metaphor here would underscore that like his workplace, Bond was symbolically finding his own true purpose again. The camera is wide, focused on the small figure of a woman with her back turned and looking over the Thames. We see Bond cut into the frame from the left going to the right, as he stops to greet her by her side. The camera then shifts to show his profile, revealing Madeleine beside him with MI6 in the background to their far right.]
(I imagine that, up to this point, Bond and Madeline would've been separated after a dangerous event forced Bond to keep her in hiding and in safety until his feud with Blofeld was over. The moment would be all the more impactful for their time away, especially in light of the choice Bond has made that will be hard to break to this woman who imagined more for him).
Madeleine (with a sparkle in her eyes, and a great smile): "James."
[Bond smiles back to meet Madeleine's, but his eyes betray what he must do, and she immediately relents to face the Thames again. This is all too familiar a feeling to her, the disappointment in men who she wishes could change.]
Madeleine (looking down): "You're going back there, aren't you?"
[Bond gives her a look that confirms it.]
Madeline (in full knowledge): "But we talked about this, remember?"
Bond: "Yes, we did talk about it. And I listened to you. Just like I listened to another woman tell me the same thing (in reference to Vesper) during a time that feels decades removed from now. I've heard those same old platitudes recited to me twice now, of my choice to be who I want to be, that my life has more meaning than being a bullet receptacle in a job with no hazard pay."
Madeleine: "And I meant those words..."
Bond: "Yes, I know you did. But they were your words, not mine. That's the whole point."
[Madeleine gives a slightly hurt look, and moves a small space away from Bond.]
Bond (attentively to start): "I'm not upset with you, please understand that. You cared enough to see my side of things, and cared even more to try and give me an honest life. I'm sure a lot of that understanding is down to your father, as you know how men like us can be. But in the same way you understood and accepted why I had lived the life I had before we crossed paths, I hope you can understand and accept the choice I've made now."
Madeleine (her eyes already realizing the truth, but asking as a human formality): "Which is?"
Bond: "My choice, the most important choice of all. For a long time I felt like I never got to make my own, and I think a part of myself felt like I just lived this life because those were the cards I was dealt and...well, what's the point in fighting it? There's little else a tough skinned orphan can do when he's kicked out of university and lands in the Royal Navy. So much time has passed since then and in that time I've had a lot of people telling me who I am, and what choices I must make. Not just the work stuff either, of targets to find and neutralize. I mean the life stuff. 'You're past it, Bond.' 'Find yourself a new line of work, Bond.' 'You always have a choice, James.'
[Bond pauses to look in Madeleine's direction as he repeats the last line that she said to him on the train during SP.]
Bond: "So much talk of choice and purpose and... Well, in the end it occurred to me that maybe I have been making my own choice all along. This job has kept pulling me back, time and again, and I've allowed it to do so. Through love, death, 'retirement.'(dryly punctuating that last word) There comes a time when a man must realize his place and what the universe is trying to tell him."
Madeleine: "This hard life...that is what you truly want?"
Bond (honest for the first time in a long time): "I think it's what I need. The soft life would never suit me. The quiet days at home, watching the paint dry. The simple picnics in the field, the "Oh, how long has it been" anniversary dinners and the well manicured lawn in the countryside. It leaves a bad taste. It's a life I may've thought I wanted, but only because that's what everyone kept telling me I should want. But I'm a soldier, and I have a soldier's lot in life. The travel, the danger, the darting between crosshairs. It may sound mad to admit it, but I need those feelings. I can't deny my nature any more, especially when so much is abundantly clear. Anyway, all that is more preferable than the dreaded quiet and obnoxious boredom of the soft life. I was born for a storm, and a calm does not suit me, if you'll forgive the dramatics. Doing this job, and in some small way protecting people who can't protect themselves, even if they'll never know what I've done...well, I find contentment in that and I don't think I'm wrong to. It's not glamorous and it is rough, but it's all I've ever known. It's far too late to change roles now, I'm afraid, nor do I think I'd want to. No matter how tempting the offers..."
[Bond gives a smile to Madeleine as he finishes the last line, causing her to blush uncontrollably.]
Bond: "It's why I wanted to meet you here. To set things straight and make it all clear. To allow you to live your own life now, like I have to live mine. It was wrong of me to make you think I had other intentions, as time is valuable, and, like you've told me before, it's important to live according to our own choices."
[Bond nods in the direction of the shining MI6, bright in the morning sun.]
Bond: "That's my choice and I'll be there until I'm no longer able to do the work, or M demotes me for reckless behavior. I don't care to think ahead when it comes to this job, and I guess that's been conditioned into me through the military and years of service. But this is assuredly my life, and I'm done questioning another purpose for it."
[A moment of quiet takes over, as Madeleine tries to say something.]
Madeleine: "I won't say I'm happy for you, James, as you know where I stand and it doesn't feel the right way to say it. But your choice is your choice, and I must respect that."
[Madeleine offers a smile, but it's half-hearted and strained, conveying her worry for this strange sort of man she seemed to barely know, and yet knew so well in her father.]
Madeleine: "Goodbye, James."
Bond (earnest and committed , but speaking with heart): "Goodbye, Madeleine."
[Like a specter, Madeleine drifts by Bond as he gives a quick look back, before starting off on his own path, symbolically crossing the opposite side of the bridge he did at the end of SP, literally and figuratively making a decision to remain an MI6 agent for good that ties in thematically to the last film and the new journey he is going on. Madeleine heads in the direction opposite MI6, to the world of civilians who have no notice of men like Bond. For a moment the camera pauses on her as she turns to face us, gazing into the lens. In this image we can see all her emotions coming out, her worry for Bond and her care for what may happen to him, all mixed with her understanding of the choice he has made as she resigns herself to meddling in the agent's life. It would be possible to read on her face, "This is what he needs."]
[In the next shot the perspective changes to just over Madeleine's shoulder as Bond walks away towards MI6. Madeleine turns toward the camera and blocks it as she passes, making the screen black and obscured for a moment. The final shot of the film would be a fixed but powerful one. The camera would appear to be resting on the ground of the bridge, giving the frame an interesting optical illusion as Bond slowly disappears from the legs up as he travels to MI6. With the camera focused on this Bond, his life and destiny in order and his purpose settled upon with existential clarity, we watch the agent disappear in the bend of the road, the perspective of the camera making it seem like he's sinking into the bridge itself.]
[Cut to black, roll credits. As soon as the credits begin, there is a momentary pause before a special song kicks into high gear to seal off the Daniel Craig James Bond era. It's the late, great Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name."]
Not so sure about Bond breaking up with Swann. Has Bond ever broken up like that before? Could be a bit "Mills and Boon"?
You Know My Name for end credits is a great idea. I would like to see a way of getting the lyrics onto the screen or a refernce to the lyrics within his last scene as the lyrics really do work when discussing Bonds character