147 replies to this topic

[HildebrandRarity]

From the Eon plot synopsis:

"On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world

[DamnCoffee]

My guess is Salt.

[tdalton]

My guess is Salt.

That's my guess as well. On the official website, the background looks as though it is a salt flat.

Also, the plot synopsis says that Greene is after a seemingly barren piece of land, which is basically what a salt flat would be.

[Vauxhall]

My guess is Salt.

I posted that as a joke when we first heard that the plot would revolve around a natural resource! I'm not sure if I'd be happy to be correct

Perhaps we will have Greene holding the world's largest fast food chains to ransom...

[HildebrandRarity]

Salt?

For a James Bond movie?

Uranium somehow seems "sexier" than salt...Salt it could certainly be...but we're talking about entertaining global audiences, arent we?

[Vauxhall]

Well I suppose that if salt was targetted by this mysterious organisation, then the global audiences' popcorn at the movies wouldn't quite be as tasty...

[Harmsway]

I don't think uranium is one of the "world's most important resources." It's important, to be sure, but it's not really a market that is worth cornering.

Salt, I could see. Especially given the salt flat background on the website, and the fact that a salt flat would essentially be a barren piece of land.

But the really important resource these days is oil. They already did it in TWINE, so I doubt they do it again, but discovery of oil in Bolivia would be huge.

[Royal Dalton]

It could be salt. But there are salt mines all over the world. I don't really see how them taking total control of one piece of land is going to make that much difference to the world's economy.

Something like oil, or gold, is far more likely to have a major economic impact on world markets.

[DamnCoffee]

or gold.

Please not Gold! I think we've had enough of that for atleast another fourty years!

[Harmsway]

It could be salt. But there are salt mines all over the world. I don't really see how them taking total control of one piece of land is going to make that much difference to the world's economy.

That's the one hurdle with the salt concept.

Something like oil, or gold, is far more likely to have a major economic impact on world markets.

I'm not sure that a new discovery of gold would be that big of a deal.

Given all the suggested options so far, oil is honestly the only one that makes much sense to me. It's the only resource that seems to carry the right amount of impact.

[Vauxhall]

I think the worst case scenario would be if this natural resource turned out to be fictitious and merely dreamed up by the writers for the purpose of fitting into the storyline.

[sharpshooter]

That would be terrible.

[Harmsway]

I think the worst case scenario would be if this natural resource turned out to be fictitious and merely dreamed up by the writers for the purpose of fitting into the storyline.

That would be a poor choice on their part. You might be able to get away with that as background information for a character (establishing how they built a fortune, or such), but putting that as the focus of the villain's plot? That's a big mistake.

[Royal Dalton]

Given all the suggested options so far, oil is honestly the only one that makes much sense to me.

Yeah, I agree with you that oil seems more likely. Whatever it is, if it's not salt, it's probably going to be whatever's underneath this barren piece of land. It could even be something like tin.

[HildebrandRarity]

There is also a possibility that the natural resource goes unnamed and the focus of the film remains about Bond's search for some minimum quantity of humanity and compassion following the events of Casino Royale.

However possible that the resource goes unnamed, it would reamin a cop out and I think highly improbable.

Also, the synopsis suggests "total control" which means that it won't be oil. OPEC (which includes Indonesia and Venezuela and not just the middle east kingdoms) itself has a tough time controlling the price of oil simply because there are countries like Russia, China, Canada, Norway and the UK, Mexico and the like who also produce oil...so there is zero chance that one organization could control world oil supplies with a major find in Bolivia or ______ (ficticous South American country).

It needs to be a resource that is vital both economically as well as militarily for it to tie into terrorism. I can only think of uranium...or its derivative plutonium.

[Single-O-Seven]

Maybe it's emeralds. They're common in South America, and his last name is Greene.
Not much of an important resource, however. Unless he's planning to build an emerald-encrusted satellite that can shoot lasers capable of destroying cities. That would be unique.

[Mr_Wint]

Salt?

For a James Bond movie?

Uranium somehow seems "sexier" than salt...Salt it could certainly be...but we're talking about entertaining global audiences, arent we?

Agree with you. I really hope it isn't salt. Just doesn't feel right for a Bondfilm.

Greene: This is salt, Mr. Bond. All my life I've admired its color, its brilliance, its divine taste.

[MkB]

I'm not really in physics, but could the quanta therory be linked to uranium, nuclear physics etc.? It could explain this important meaning of the title "Quantum of Solace" in the plot, as Daniel Craig said.

[Zographos]

I'm not really in physics, but could the quanta therory be linked to uranium, nuclear physics etc.? It could explain this important meaning of the title "Quantum of Solace" in the plot, as Daniel Craig said.

Uranium isn't found in South America, and Canada and Australia (who have the added bonus of stability) have such a huge chunk of the uranium market it'd be hard to wrest it away from them.

Natural gas might be a possibility, but suffers the same problem as oil (it's found everywhere). Failing that, maybe some obscure mineral that has important applications.

[dinovelvet]

The "natural resource" could be something along the lines of Drax's death orchid thingy. A fungus or some kind of parasite even.

I think if it was oil, they'd just come out and say it in the press conference. What's the point of keeping that a secret? (Unless they don't want people moaning that it sounds like TWINE all over again). I'm definitely thinking its something more on the deadly side.

Uranium would also work, and it'd be a, er "homage" to Zero Minus Ten

[Zographos]

My guess is Salt.

I remember an article talking about how salt was being used to create carbon sinks to combat global warming. Could that also explain Green Planet's presence?

[DamnCoffee]

Whenever Green Planet is mentioned I keep thinking of the Eden Project...

[Harmsway]

Given all the suggested options so far, oil is honestly the only one that makes much sense to me.

Yeah, I agree with you that oil seems more likely. Whatever it is, if it's not salt, it's probably going to be whatever's underneath this barren piece of land. It could even be something like tin.

Tin would be interesting.

However possible that the resource goes unnamed, it would reamin a cop out and I think highly improbable.

Precisely.

Also, the synopsis suggests "total control" which means that it won't be oil.

I don't know how strongly we should take the "total control" bit, given that plot summaries can sometimes exaggerate. However, if we are to take the "total control" comment as entirely reliable, then none of the resources previously mentioned fit.

It needs to be a resource that is vital both economically as well as militarily for it to tie into terrorism.

Who says it has to tie into terrorism?

I can only think of uranium...or its derivative plutonium.

Finding such a resource, though, doesn't have the economic power that others do. If he finds uranium, well, that's great, but it's not going to be world-altering or give him "total control" over the market. And it wouldn't even be that profitable that he would make an extraordinary fortune off of it (surely he'd make a nice amount of dough, but certainly not the kind worhty of such an expensive operation as staging a coup).

[darkpath]

I'm going to suggest naturally irradiated Thorium, which, after the irradiation, is actually an isotope of Uranium; but one which has no weapons usefulness; but does offer considerable advantages (I believe I read that its half life is 500 years, not tens of thousands as is the case with more common uranium isotopes used for power generation.

Thorium naturally occurs in granite; but if the deposit was simultaneously of high concentration and also irradiated, let's say by Radon gas from the local ground water, it could possibly (though it isn't likely) receive sufficient neutron bombardment to change from Thorium to Uranium.

[Single-O-Seven]

The resource is a fictional one nicknamed "solace," hence the double-meaning in the title. Like plutonium or uranium, it can be manipulated to provide great amounts of energy, as in nuclear power. However, its properties are found to be highly more stable than those of plutonium or uranium, and it gives off no dangerous, residual radiation - a major downside of conventional nuclear power. Being found in great supply in South America, Green hopes to get a market hold on what wil become the solution to the world's energy problems, as well as the solution to creating cleaner, safer energy-providing methods, thus bringing about an end to the global warming crises. Unimaginable wealth and power will come to Green and his organisation when they corner the solace market, destroying the oil industry and leaving all the world's nations - and the global economy - grovelling at their feet.

[Harmsway]

The resource is a fictional one nicknamed "solace," hence the double-meaning in the title. Like plutonium or uranium, it can be manipulated to provide great amounts of energy, as in nuclear power. However, its properties are found to be highly more stable than those of plutonium or uranium, and it gives off no dangerous, residual radiation - a major downside of conventional nuclear power. Being found in great supply in South America, Green hopes to get a market hold on what wil become the solution to the world's energy problems, as well as the solution to creating cleaner, safer energy-providing methods, thus bringing about an end to the global warming crises. Unimaginable wealth and power will come to Green and his organisation when they corner the solace market, destroying the oil industry and leaving all the world's nations - and the global economy - grovelling at their feet.

Would be interesting. But I'm not a fan of using a fictional resource.

[Single-O-Seven]

The resource is a fictional one nicknamed "solace," hence the double-meaning in the title. Like plutonium or uranium, it can be manipulated to provide great amounts of energy, as in nuclear power. However, its properties are found to be highly more stable than those of plutonium or uranium, and it gives off no dangerous, residual radiation - a major downside of conventional nuclear power. Being found in great supply in South America, Green hopes to get a market hold on what wil become the solution to the world's energy problems, as well as the solution to creating cleaner, safer energy-providing methods, thus bringing about an end to the global warming crises. Unimaginable wealth and power will come to Green and his organisation when they corner the solace market, destroying the oil industry and leaving all the world's nations - and the global economy - grovelling at their feet.

Would be interesting. But I'm not a fan of using a fictional resource.

Neither am I. And that's sort of the beautiful part. You see, solace isn't as real as it's made out to be. It's derived from a mineral and made to look like the amazing resource I described above, but in reality is very unstable in the long run. At first it seems promising and is marketed as the saviour of mankind's energy and pollution problems. This causes a huge investment into it, and a huge slump in oil and other common resources. As the value of these other resources' markets slump dramatically in the face of the rise of solace, the organisation - using the billions it earns off solace - purchases a monopoly on all the other resources. When solace eventually fails and turns out to be a dud and the world scrambles to turn back to the old resources like oil, coal, uranium, etc, guess who's stepped in taken control? This leaves the organisation in control of the world's energy markets, and, by proxy, a dominate force over the world's governments.
To sum it up: solace is a long-term fake energy solution which distracts the world's attention long enough to allow the organisation to use its inital profits from solace to buy up much of the world's share in real energy resources, leaving them in control when the world turns back to these resources after the collapse of solace. A so-called "double blind."

[Harmsway]

That's a rather complicated scenario you've invented there, and rather effective.

But I'd almost rather there be a fictional resource that would solve energy problems rather than there be a fake-out about it. Given your scenario, all the really important stuff in the organization's plan is off in the future somewhere. It takes away from the urgency of it all, and their chokehold on the market isn't definite. In this scenario, owning the natural resource doesn't come with a guarantee of victory; the real villain's plot is convincing the world that solace is viable, and that demands an entirely different story focus than the one presented in the plot summary.

Furthermore, in order to sabotage the plan, all that would have to be done is reveal that solace was unstable, which would surely be an easy enough task. Another less significant problem is that it strikes me as rather implausible that the organization would be able to get itself a monopoly on existing energy sources before it was discovered by the scientific/engineering community that solace isn't viable.

I think I'd prefer a legitimate, existing natural resource as the focus of QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

[marktmurphy]

Blimey- you don't like anything Harmsway! Expect disappointment when you see it!

For my money the whole radioactive thing seems the most likely. It ties in with the title (loosely) and is a bit sexier than tin or whatever.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Guano!