Memo from ‘M’: Eyes Only: in many ways EON’s Quantum of Solace (2008) still remains controversial among Bond aficionados even today, but if there is one aspect that does seem to unite most fans, it is agreement that the film bravely attempted to tap into contemporary fears about fierce corporate competition over resources and the consequences of environmental degradation and decline.
In this sense, the movie remains as relevant as ever and, according to some critics, offered sobering messages about our near future. Some have even referred to Quantum of Solace as a kind of ‘eco’ thriller. The Bond movies, of course, had touched on such issues before. In 1974, for example, Roger Moore’s The Man With the Golden Gun was set against the backdrop of the world-wide energy crisis of the time, and also foresaw new uses for the power of the Sun (although, for the villain Scaramanga, more as a weapon than as a help to humanity).
As there is much speculation at the moment about what possible plot direction ‘Bond 26’ might take, the JBIFC takes the opportunity to look back on Daniel Craig’s second James Bond adventure.
Although in many ways a direct sequel to Casino Royale, Craig’s second 007 film, directed by Marc Forster, proved to be radically different in style, editing and length. While Casino was mainly a love-story with a backdrop of betrayal, Quantum was fundamentally about revenge, with a backdrop concerning ‘big’ issues (such as water and oil and the role of greedy corporations). Quantum tends to divide 007 fans, with some Bond aficionados remaining very loyal to the movie, while others tend to be more sceptical.
The JBIFC offers seven bullet-points on the known and perhaps less well-known aspects of the film, which took its title directly from one of Ian Fleming’s short stories, which had originally appeared in the Bond creator’s short-story collection For Your Eyes Only (1960).
007 and Counting…
001: Pre-production on Quantum included training Daniel Craig for the spectacular car chase scenes in the film’s opening sequences in Italy; this involved Craig testing out various high-speed manoeuvres in an Aston Martin at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, in England. He was very happy to do so! Craig was also given some training and coaching at the controls of a jet-powered speedboat for another key sequence in the movie. This rehearsal training took place on Horley Lake in Surrey.
002: As the director Marc Forster (pictured) later admitted, one of the most challenging aspects of embarking on the new 007 production was that, when they began, there was not a finished script. Moreover, during the course of production, industrial action by screenwriters in Hollywood (i.e. by the Writers Guild of America) also became a problem for finessing aspects of the Quantum screenplay, as only Forster and Craig could rework written scenes. In later interviews, Craig pointed out that he was an actor and ‘not a writer’, and had found this aspect of the production especially challenging. In hindsight, it was something Daniel would have preferred not to have been involved with, but the pair (director and main star) had little choice in the matter if the film was to be completed properly and in good time.
003: Bond productions have had quite a history of utilizing parts of central London which is, after all, just 30 minutes or so away from Pinewood Studios. For Quantum of Solace, on the very first day of filming (January 3rd), ‘M’ (Judi Dench) and Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) filmed a scene outside the residential parts of the iconic Barbican arts centre, which is also famous for its distinctive architecture. As Forster later noted, he could easily have mounted this entire scene in M’s office on a set back at Pinewood and saved the production lots of money, but he was determined to to find an interesting exterior location for this scene, and also wanted to show ‘M’ and Tanner out of their safety zone (the office) and in architectural surroundings that would make a visual statement.
Similarly, the scene where the British Foreign Secretary reprimands ‘M’ was shot at the famous Reform Club in Pall Mall, which had been previously used to double-up as ‘Blades’ Club in Die Another Day.
004: One of the more controversial aspects of the movie, in the eyes of the critics, was the very fast-paced editing. It seems that the motivation for this was to ‘out-Bourne‘ the Jason Bourne movies. Marc Forster defended this approach by later revealing that what he wanted to do was to have the audience, at times, ‘disorientated’ in the same way as Bond, and to be asking ‘what is going on?’ This was the aim behind, for example, the early car chase sequence. Forster also said it was important for the audience to be experiencing, like Bond, serious concerns over trust and betrayal. Who could he still trust?
005: One of the toughest locations used in Quantum was the Atacama desert in northern Chile (where Bond leaves the villain, Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Amalric). This was doubling-up for a water-starved ‘Bolivia’, where the 300-strong crew was also able to make use of a remote observatory and hotel. The desert is one of the driest places on earth and is 800 feet (244 metres) above sea level. This meant that the crew had to deal with very dusty and thin air, and also had to be especially wary of how the sun could soon burn exposed skin. Moreover, there was a desire on the part of Forster to have something of a ‘message’ at the heart of the movie: to shoot against a backdrop where water and other essential resources were being degraded and what little was left was being controlled by the greed of large corporations. Such themes were not there in pre-production on Quantum of Solace: as Forster later pointed out, there had been not a finished script at that stage so, in order the keep the project moving ahead, they were scouting the world for locations while not really knowing what they were really looking for. However, the decision to make use of South America fed into the pool of ideas and gave them some inspiration for part of the plot, including having an environmental angle as background for the storyline.
006: Marc Forster, speaking in 2009, said Fleming’s title and the main theme of his short story had ‘grown on him’ when he read it, and he had sought to capture Fleming’s theme of ‘failed relationships’ in the original short story as an underlying theme in the subsequent Craig movie. But Forster also said another key element was that Bond was up against large ‘unseen forces’ i.e. the ‘Quantum’ organisation, which in turn was manipulating whole governments, and 007 also had to be careful about rogue and shadowy elements in the CIA.
007: According to figures released by the UK Film Council, Quantum of Solace contributed to a 5% increase in British Box Office takings during 2008. Overall, the movie raked in a very impressive £51m in the UK during 2008, making it the second most popular film in the country after Abba: The Musical. Interestingly, Bond also beat the Bat (so to speak): the batman movie The Dark Knight came third, making £49m in the UK. More generally, it is estimated that Quantum had a worldwide gross of $586m, which was just short of Casino Royale.
Did You Know?
Composer David Arnold, who was working on his fifth 007 movie, recently revealed in a special Bond music series on the UK’s Scala Radio that he had discussed the music with director Marc Forster months before the production even began, and that the director wanted him to radically depart from Bond music composing ‘tradition’: Arnold was asked to compose themes for characters and situations based on ‘montages’ that would be sent back from the various locations for the film: ‘I was to write not to film, but to the concept… it was quite liberating in a way’. Arnold recalled that he had really enjoyed working this way, as it was so different.
Publicity shot of Daniel Craig as 007.