12 replies to this topic

[JSDude1]

As they have occasionally in the past like in the Connery era with FRWL (Both USSR and SPECTRE)-used the Cold War as background,

 

TB-Nuclear fears

 

Same with YOLT, 

 

Goldfinger had the backing of the Red Chinese

 

Kind of delved into détente in TSWLM and also in TLD

 

Obviously Cristatos was an Eastern Bloc agent in FYEO.

 

Max Zorin-Ex KGB.

 

GE touches on the whole "after the cold war" peace period.

 

TND-Chinese again, now semi-allies.

 

same for in DAD, which obviously used the N. Koreans as the main enemies.

 

CR touches on international terrorist organization

 

The most obvious example is of course Octopussy with a rogue soviet general and his western agent trying to both steal jewels and reshape a divided Europe.

 

----

 

With Islamic Terrorism back in the news of late (and We pray for the victims and nation of France especially today!, but it's not just them..).  Should James Bond go after an actual real world baddie (and not a pushover as they're made out to be in several films) like an Islamic terror plot, or some such?? Or should JB only use these real world events as background, but stick to "lighter" more fictional villains?

 

 

 

[coco1997]

I wouldn't mind it, but I doubt EON has the balls to do it. 

[tdalton]

I wouldn't mind it either, but it'll never happen. I would, however, like to see EON take more risks when it comes to the types of villainous plots that they hash out for their villains.

[AMC Hornet]

How real-to-life do we want our escapist entertainment to be?

 

I don't go to a movie theatre to be reminded that I could be blown up, gassed or shot before the credits roll.

 

If you mean as real geo-politic as Octopussy, okay, but Spectre's already pushing the envelope when it comes to 'ripped from the headlines'.

[Professor Pi]

In some ways that ends up dating the movies rather quickly.  Also, now Bond movies are marketed in some of these very countries.  So expect more organizations like SPECTRE and super rich archetypes (Stromberg, Drax, Carver) to be villains.

[George White]

I had an idea which was slightly similar to Iron Man 3. 

The idea of Islamic Jihadist terrorism being sponsored by SPECTRE as a cover, hence the suicide bombers being used as a quick way of disposing mooks, thus keeping the organisation anonymous. It would begin with Britain threatened by an ISIS-type group only to be slowly revealed as a tool, the terrorists aren't even aware they're members of SPECTRE, the top brass, the Bin Laden/Al-Bagdadi-type overlord being the only one who knows about SPECTRE, and he's a double at best, like Derval in Thunderball.

[Guy Haines]

A few years ago the TV series "Spooks" (known in the US I think as Mi-5) had a story arc involving a shadowy group, "Nightingale" trying to start a war between India and Pakistan, purely for profit.

It isn't a great leap of imagination to see SPECTRE trying something similar either to install regime change in a country or region or to profit in some way - control of resources, sales of arms and so on.

"War has always been man's main pre-occupation" said TLD's Brad Whitaker. Sadly, there's some truth in that, so it wouldn't surprise me if a future Bond film has SPECTRE furnishing regional conflicts purely to gain advantage - political, economic, financial - from two or more countries settling their grievances, real or provoked (by SPECTRE) in armed conflict.

Remember the "Siamese fighting fish" analogy in FRWL? It could make a comeback in a future SPECTRE based Bond film.

[tdalton]

It isn't a great leap of imagination to see SPECTRE trying something similar either to install regime change in a country or region or to profit in some way - control of resources, sales of arms and so on.

Agreed with all of your post, but I singled this one out as the part that I most agree with and would like to see. We've already seen this with Quantum of Solace, but I'd very much like to see Quantum/SPECTRE getting their hands dirty in other areas of the globe in a similar fashion, pitting sides against each other, putting MI6/CIA on the seemingly "wrong" side of the situation in order to protect their interests, and trying to chance regimes and/or cause global instability through their involvement. I thought that this was a strength of Quantum of Solace and something that I'd like to see explored again in a Bond film.

[Guy Haines]

It isn't a great leap of imagination to see SPECTRE trying something similar either to install regime change in a country or region or to profit in some way - control of resources, sales of arms and so on.

Agreed with all of your post, but I singled this one out as the part that I most agree with and would like to see. We've already seen this with Quantum of Solace, but I'd very much like to see Quantum/SPECTRE getting their hands dirty in other areas of the globe in a similar fashion, pitting sides against each other, putting MI6/CIA on the seemingly "wrong" side of the situation in order to protect their interests, and trying to chance regimes and/or cause global instability through their involvement. I thought that this was a strength of Quantum of Solace and something that I'd like to see explored again in a Bond film.

Yes, we did see something along those lines in QoS, just as in SPECTRE we had an attempt to control the intelligence and surveillance systems of nine leading nations. In both movies though these villainous plots were a side issue - Bond didn't go after Greene and Quantum to stop them controlling Bolivia's water resources, not did he go after SPECTRE to stop Nine Eyes falling into the wrong hands - rather to - (1) seeks answers for the death of Vesper in CR (QoS) and (2) track down a man from his past long thought dead who appeared to be head of SPECTRE.

I guess a criticism of both QoS and SPECTRE is that two perfectly serviceable villainous storylines appeared to be secondary to our leading character's main motivation.

[tdalton]

I think that it could be argued that Bond did go after Greene just as much for professional reasons as he did for personal ones. I think the film portrayed his situation in a way that made everyone around Bond (M, Tanner, Felix, etc.) think that he was motivated purely by revenge for Vesper, but it never really feels as though Bond really goes off the reservation and puts the mission in any kind of true jeopardy. It's only when he's framed for the murder of the bodyguard in Austria that his superiors deem him to have gone rogue, but the truth of the matter is that he's been following orders and peeling back the layers of Quantum every step of the way.

Now, I would agree that the plot does, in some ways, take a backseat to Bond's revenge, but only because those around him keep bringing it up. Outside of the beginning of the film when Bond steels the picture of Vesper from the file and the finale in Russia, Bond himself seems pretty much focused on dealing with Greene and uncovering more information about Quantum, and the only other time that it really comes up for him in the middle of the film is when he and Camille discuss their personal plights while stranded in the rock quarry after their fall from the plane.

[casinoroyale75]

I like the idea, very much, but Eon will never do it. Seems to me that they're going in the opposite direction (as in Roger Moore's bond movies). Matter of fact, I think they're evolving Craig's Bond into Moore's Bond 2.0.

[seawolfnyy]

First things first, there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism. The perpetrators of these attacks (9/11, 7/7, Madrid, Paris, Beirut etc.) are NOT muslims. They do not stand for what Islam stands for.

 

Secondly, I don't really like the Islamic extremist plot line. It's been done to death and usually in a very racist way. I remember an episode of Hawaii Five-0 several years ago in which American teenagers became radicalized muslims. At the end, rather than do the correct thing, McGarrett told the villains that they will always lose essentially because America is better than Islam. Then there is still this gem from Homeland depicting in far more stereotypical and racist way, Hamra Street in Beirut:

[Orion]

No. I'm from Northern Ireland where, despite what TV drama will still tell you, we don't live in constant fear of IRA bombings and the whole place is not remarakably similar WW2 London, it is in fact identical to rest of the UK. Bond movies have made the right choice in mostly staying away from real world issues, especially as most "real world issues" are displayed in fictitious and, frankly, racist ways in drama (and depressingly the "news" but that's a rant for another time)