Origins and influences The James Bond franchise has always had fairly little to say about the times in which they were made, besides perpetuating the status quo. Features that remained in the reboot, such as the Bond girl formula, were brought in line with this new approach. To facilitate this new seriousness, Casino Royale lost many of the more light-hearted features of the series, such as the characters Q and Moneypenny, and until the final scene, the theme music. Against this backdrop, the US seemed ready for a more deliberate, muscular and serious Bond. Among these, several pop culture icons were reimagined as darker characters, in films such as Batman Begins (2005) and Sherlock Holmes (2009). Following 9/11, many Hollywood films took a grim and serious turn, arguably reflecting a similar ambiance in the wider culture. This portrayal was unpopular however, resulting in the lowest grossing Bond film to date (adjusted for inflation). That said, in Licence to Kill (1989), Timothy Dalton played the character in a manner he believed faithful to Ian Fleming’s creation and was uncomfortable with the one-liners that had become a mainstay of the franchise. This involved removing or editing many of the formulaic aspects of previous adventures and a greater fidelity to the source material something the Bond films had been unconcerned with since the 1960s. The film closes with Bond tracking down über-villain Mr White, shooting him outside his lakeside villa (adapted from Clarke).įilm note The overarching aim behind the Bond franchise reboot Casino Royale, was to adapt Bond to a new, post-9/11 world. A showdown takes place in a Venetian palazzo. Recovering near Lake Como and then Venice, Bond discovers that Lynd, with whom he has fallen in love, has been blackmailed to deliver the money he won in the poker game to Le Chiffre. Bond wins the game but his position has been compromised by Mathis, who turns out to be a double agent, and the kidnapping of Lynd, which results in a short car chase and Bond being tortured while tied naked to a chair. During a game of poker, monitored by fellow British agent Vesper Lynd, CIA agent Felix Leiter and local M16 contact Mathis, Bond drinks a poisoned martini and is only saved by an advanced medical kit in his Aston Martin and the timely assistance of Lynd. Having been foiled in his attempt to make millions on the stock markets following a faux-terrorist attack on a prototype airliner in Miami, Le Chiffre is tracked to a casino in Montenegro, where Bond is instructed to take him out financially.

After earning his ’00’ status and licence to kill in an ugly rest-room assassination, James Bond is directed by MI6 to follow the activities of a villain named Le Chiffre in Madagascar, Miami and the Bahamas.

Cast casino royale 2007