16 replies to this topic

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

Remember the last scene at Skyfall Lodge where Silva's chopper

Spoiler

blows the Aston Martin DB5 away

? well, I noticed here that Bond brings up an angry face and right after that he

Spoiler

lodge on fire and makes it blow away

to take the chopper down.

That thing got me thinking - Bond isn't supposed to care about his material possesions, but... is there something personal with the Aston? Is that like a "symbol" of the Bond folklore. I mean, it's like the feeling you'd have if somebody sets your country flag on fire.

Toughts?

[dgibby]

DB5's go for £250k - and that's before gadget add ons. I would be really peeved too.......!

[marktmurphy]

I bet the house was worth more, and he didn't seem to care about that!

Fleming described cars as the closest thing Bond had to a hobby: he likes 'em!

[TheManwiththeWaltherPPK]

I bet the house was worth more, and he didn't seem to care about that!

Fleming described cars as the closest thing Bond had to a hobby: he likes 'em!

Precisely. My first thought after reading the OP was that passage from Fleming. To paraphrase Richard Hammond, Bond is a true, authentic petrol head in the books. He seems to get great enjoyment out of his old Bentley and the constant TLC that is required to keep an older car in top condition. In Skyfall, we finally get to see that side of Bond's character. The DB5's modifications are not just an homage to Goldfinger, but an expression of the time and effort that Bond puts into his car "hobby". As a result, he has a very personal connection to the car. Just look at how he reacts when M insults the car's ride. He, jokingly, threatens to eject her. It makes great sense that he cares more about the car than Skyfall Lodge. At best, Bond has a love-hate relationship with his childhood home. It carries with it many sad memories and Bond focuses on those memories as a way of closing himself off from the happy memories. It's easier to convince yourself that you hate something (Skyfall) than to recognize how much it hurts that you lost everything that made you love it.

Edited by TheManwiththeWaltherPPK, 05 November 2012 - 10:44 PM.

[Gothamite]

I bet the house was worth more, and he didn't seem to care about that!

Fleming described cars as the closest thing Bond had to a hobby: he likes 'em!

Precisely. My first thought after reading the OP was that passage from Fleming. To paraphrase Richard Hammond, Bond is a true, authentic petrol head in the books. He seems to get great enjoyment out of his old Bentley and the constant TLC that is required to keep an older car in top condition. In Skyfall, we finally get to see that side of Bond's character. The DB5's modifications are not just an homage to Goldfinger, but an expression of the time and effort that Bond puts into his car "hobby". As a result, he has a very personal connection to the car. Just look at how he reacts when M insults the car's ride. He, jokingly, threatens to eject her. It makes great sense that he cares more about the car than Skyfall Lodge. At best, Bond has a love-hate relationship with his childhood home. It carries with it many sad memories and Bond focuses on those memories as a way of closing himself off from the happy memories. It's easier to convince yourself that you hate something (Skyfall) than to recognize how much it hurts that you lost everything that made you love it.

Awesome. I'm really glad there's some correlation to Fleming there and it wasn't just a fun little bit of symbolic affection. It was cool in the movie and I definitely noticed the angry glare from Bond, but it's even better knowing there's a three-dimensional significance to it.

[Solex Agitator]

See the film again. More than anything else, it is the music cue that adds the perceived anguish of loss of the vehicle.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

There is something personal there indeed!

 

1 - Silva signals the car to the chopper while he's firing some rounds to the lodge.

2 - The chopper blows away the DB5

3 - Silva smiles

4 - Bond gets angry and blows the lodge away to bring down the chopper.

 

 

Why else would Silva order the chopper to blow away the car? Why would he smile at it (shades of Zukovsky here)? Why would Bond get angry?

[Iceskater101]

I bet the house was worth more, and he didn't seem to care about that!

Fleming described cars as the closest thing Bond had to a hobby: he likes 'em!

 

Yeah I mean I just read Casino Royale and Bond has a hobby for cars.

[Vodka Martino]

The DB5 is as much a part of Bond as his PPK. When it gets blown to pieces, DC looks up, scowls, and begins rigging the gas tanks. But when he looks up and scowls, the Bond theme comes blaring from the speakers. A little part of Bond folklore has just been destroyed. The Bond Theme played loud is to remind the audience that this is James Bond that Silva has just messed with. Further.

Just my take.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

The DB5 is as much a part of Bond as his PPK. When it gets blown to pieces, DC looks up, scowls, and begins rigging the gas tanks. But when he looks up and scowls, the Bond theme comes blaring from the speakers. A little part of Bond folklore has just been destroyed. The Bond Theme played loud is to remind the audience that this is James Bond that Silva has just messed with. Further.

Just my take.

 

My toughts exactly. It's a technical in-joke from Mendes and his team, I think. "Look, he destroyed OUR BOND!"
Loved it!

[sharpshooter]

The DB5 is as much a part of Bond as his PPK. When it gets blown to pieces, DC looks up, scowls, and begins rigging the gas tanks. But when he looks up and scowls, the Bond theme comes blaring from the speakers. A little part of Bond folklore has just been destroyed. The Bond Theme played loud is to remind the audience that this is James Bond that Silva has just messed with. Further.

Just my take.

My take as well. The Bond Theme blasting afterwards really conveys 'all bets are off'. The car destruction seemingly spurred him on even more to destroy the house. If Silva thought the house was off limits for Bond, and his men were the only one going to do the destroying, they were dead wrong. It surprised them. 

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

I guess Silva knew about Bond's love of his car to indicate the chopper to gun it down. Probably he saw it when he hacks his dossier on the Island.

[TheLion]

Bond hated Skyfall, it's destruction was a favor made by Silva. Call it free demolition! 

I understand why Bond was so angry when the Aston was destroyed. It was his personal car, on which he probably he spend a lot of time and effort restoring it.

Edited by TheLion, 16 December 2012 - 09:24 PM.

[Methos]

Some good for thought in this thread here! Especially with regard to the literary Bond being a genuine gearhead, who most certainly would've had a vehement response to his Bentley getting blown to shreds. Yet, and despite Craig's brilliant knack for exuding a sense of the literary Bond, I've always seen the literary Bond and the cinematic Bond as being two somewhat different men. With regard to cars, whereas the literary Bond has a nearly obsessive and reverential attitude towards cars, his personal vehicles especially. In contrast, with the cinematic Bond, whilst we see evidence of some enthusiasm towards cars, we also witness a whole lot of disdain too (which Q has constantly chided him, begging to 'bring her back in one piece'). Literary Bond sees cars as a hobby and an investment of personal time, energy and expense. Cinematic Bond sees cars as a means to an end, a tool of the trade that he has little to no concern for. If the 'tool' gets destroyed during the course of successfully completing a mission, then so be it. Oddly enough, it seems that the literary Bond is more sentimental, at least with regards to cars, than the cinematic Bond.

 

Now, I'm likely to set off some Bond fanboy buttons here. I am soooo over seeing that 1963 Aston Martin DB5 again and again and again!!! It always struck me as just mindless pandering to the casual Bond moviegoer. I can appreciate that it’s the 50^th anniversary of Bond on film and all. Still, I kinda groaned inside when it was slipped into ‘Goldeneye’, back in ’95. Groaned again in ’97, with its brief cameo in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. With ‘Casino Royale’, at least they explain why Bond should have the car, with his winning it in a card game. So, I guess I shouldn’t be so put out, as CR gave a perfectly good reason for the DB5 as Bond’s personal car. And, I have to admit that I enjoyed the banter between Bond and M about the car in this film. Funny stuff, especially when Bond threatens to deploy the passenger ejector seat.

 

I've gotta admit, it was sooooo hard restraining myself in the theater, from cheering out loud when Silva’s helicopter blew the DB5 all to kingdom come! At long last, we’ll hopefully never see that beautiful old car in another Bond film ever again!!! Yay!!

 

That said, big thumbs down to what I honestly think was nothing more than pathetically shameless pandering to the audience again, on behalf of the filmmakers, with the dramatic musical cue and cut to Bond looking fiercely angry when the DB5 blew up. With cinema Bond in mind, that car, for all its iconic relation to Bond, is not akin to the Batcave. Some bad guy blows up Batman’s Batcave, I can fathom a dramatic music cue and cut to Batman being enraged. Cinematic Bond witnessing yet another car blowing up? Not so much.

 

Now, if an homage to the literary Bond's love of cars was what the filmmakers intended with Bond's reaction and music cue to the death of the DB5, then I would say kudos to them! Yet, ultimately, I truly suspect that the DB5's presence and subsequent demise in this film was for the sheer 'value' of cashing in on the nostalgia of the cinema-going public. To which I say "Oh DB5, we all love you still, but you overstayed your welcome and we bid thee farewell".

[Vodka Martino]

I saw the film again three days ago in a small cinema that's more known for showing art-house fare. This session was packed and they actually announced that they'd be starting the film half an hour late because there was still a queue at the box office.

 

When Bond lifts the roll-a-door of his storage garage and we get a shot of the DB5's headlights and grille, the entire audience let out an "aahh" (like they were seeing an old friend) and then they applauded. And my eyes welled up.

 

I don't recall seeing the DB5 in "Tomorrow Never Dies", but I'll gladly take your word for it. However, four appearances over seventeen years is hardly overkill.

 

The DB5 is more a part of Bond than any other car. As I stated above, it's is much a part of Bond as his PPK or dinner jacket.

[Major Tallon]

In TND, the DB5 is the car Bond drives from his Danish lesson at Oxford to the MOD.  Still, I have no problem with the car making a cameo, as a nod to Bond tradition.

[volante]

Bond also uses the DB5 in The World is Not Enough. When attending King's funeral.

The scene was cut - but the car was there to confirm the DB5 was Bond's personal car.

 

In the excellent 'Sherlock' Holmes was reinvented in today's world. The familiar trademarks were worked into the modern version of the story very well.

 

The PPK, dinner jacket, DB5, Q, Moneypenny, and now male M have all been included in the almost continuous rebooting of 007.

Personally I loved it (I'm also glad someone else admitted to tears welling in the eyes at the first glance of the Aston in Skyfall)

I have seen skyfall a number of times now, each viewing gives me more appriciation of the depth of the script and the homages to previous Bond films.

 

I look forward to 007 recieving his new Vanquish in the next film; with Q commenting "They're still searching for a few bits of the DB5; I'm afraid you'll have to make do with this one for now"

Bond would look at the beautiful Aston; and ask "Ejector seat?"

"Grow up 007"