1531 replies to this topic

[tdalton]

I like the Chicago action sequence idea, although I wonder if, at this point, it's a good idea to do away with the Quinn character. Since it appears we're going the route of the main villain not actually existing (at least this is conclusion I've come to from reading through the last couple of pages), then it would almost seem to be by default that Quinn is actually the main villain of the piece, and we might need her to make it to the end so that there is some kind of physical threat that has been constant throughout the story rather than having some random bad guys pop up at the end to try to stop Bond.

[terminus]

The outline is shaping up nicely, terminus. The way you incorporated my action sequence idea deviates so much from my original idea that I can still use it for either UB27 or UB28 and it will be different enough to stand on its own legs.

Oh - that's cool. I was still imagining the carriage tumbling off the bridge/mountain railroad.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they just banned bullfighting in Barelona. (to take effect 2012)
Of course you could set a scene in Plaza del Toros, which is close to the Sagrada Familia; perhaps Bons should meet Lucia Rojas at the Parc Guell, designed by Guadi. It has a very playful quality which would look particularly good on film. There is a portico, a tunnel almost, which (if my memory serves me well) looks as if it is decorated with thousnads of stalagtites. It's hauntingly beautiful and looks very moody in the sunrise/sunset.
Alternatively, just take Bond to the marina. It's funky down there and the W Hotel is a big noise these days....

Ah - the bullfighting segment just seemed to be quintessentially Spanish and fit with the DC Era, kinda like the horserace in QOS. We can always use the Parc Guell - and I do think that coco1997 suggested the W Hotel on the marina a few pages ago when we were discussing Barcelona, so great minds think alike.

The train journey / battle is interesting but where does it take us and what happens to the girl?

Surely the 'Basque separatists' need to be linked with the main plot somehow (rather like 007 inadvertantly got involved with SPECTRE at Shrublands in TB)??

The train should travel through the Pyrennes so I'm thinking maybe a stunning derailment, or an avalanche (they did this in the '70s with Lee Marvin, but with modern CGI it'd look better) or an explosive tunnel confrontation (this may have occured already somewhere in ur movies, I lose track). Trains are always good for claustrophoboc action....

Now, c

It was intended to be a bit like a shortstory - in that Bond is pondering whether he ought to leave the service and live a normal life. He realises through his actions in the terrorist attack (am imagining that, somehow, the seperatists have been equipped by Quantum and Blanc) and that Lucia literally vanishes after the train accident - as Bond cuts ties with her to stop her from coming to harm.

My issue with Bond returning to a spy's life after a group of Basque separatists attack a train he is riding on is that it's very similar to the Chuck episode "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners" where Chuck and Sarah decide to run away from their lives while in Europe. They spot a Basque seapratist on their train and decide to take action against him, only to find that he is actually working with Interpol. Chuck and Sarah realise they will always be spies and return to California ad their duties.

Also, the Basque movement is losing momentum, and fast. ETA - the armed insurrection - recently announced that they are disarming, largely because they are running out of power and a voluntary surrender is better than the inglorious end they were destined for.

For the record, I've not seen Chuck since the very first season - so this is another instance of great minds thinking alike. The scene stemmed from the stipulation of the Barcelona setting and coco1997's initial idea that he wanted an action sequence involving a train in some mountains - and thus why Bond/Lucia take a train journey.

Admittedly, my knowledge of the Basque movement is seperatist - but if we can justify a fringe rogue senegalese group, then we can justify a rogue basque group too. Perhaps it is part of Blanc's plan to arm rogue factions within rebel groups to cause discord - both among the groups themselves and the populace. It could even be mentioned in the film that the Basque seperatists ARE disarming - that the terrorist attack itself makes very little sense in their grand scheme, thus tieing it into the Quantum plot about arming fringe groups.

[coco1997]

What did you think of tdalton's idea to eliminate the second henchman field, terminus?

[tdalton]

What did you think of tdalton's idea to eliminate the second henchman field, terminus?

I'm not really suggesting that (looking back at it, by "henchman" I meant the Quinn character. I've gone back to my first post to edit it to reflect that ), but at this point it might be more essential that we have a second henchman if Blanc isn't actually real and Quinn is no longer a part of the story so that there's some kind of physical threat for Bond that we have some investment in when the story heads towards a conclusion.

Just based on my own reading of the elements to this point, it almost seems as though Quinn is the actuall main villain of the piece, as she presents Bond with a physical challenge at least twice during the story and is also thought to be a top associate of the non-existant villain, so maybe she's the one actually pulling the strings behind the whole thing to begin with.

Another idea would be to add the second "henchman" to be played by Jackie Earle Haley, with the Blanc character being, as others have said, a name that is taken by many people (and perhaps have a couple of different actors play "him"), the Haley-played henchman being one of them. At that point, the two "henchmen" (Quinn, the Hayley-played character) would actually be the main villains while the Blanc character remains an umbrella for various people to hide under.

[coco1997]

That's actually a very interesting idea, t. That would solve the issue of who the second henchman should be while maintaining Blanc's enigmatic persona. Also, if the character of Blanc is never actually seen, then you don't need to cast an actor to play 'him'.

[tdalton]

That's actually a very interesting idea, t. That would solve the issue of who the second henchman should be while maintaining Blanc's enigmatic persona.

What I'm thinking is that the Hayley-played henchman would be the current "user" of the Damien Blanc cover, but enlists other people to pose as "Blanc" when dealing with Quantum executives so that they never really know who he is, other than "he" is the very best at what he does.

I'm also actually thinking about incorporating the idea of the cover-name into the background for the Quinn character that I'm working on. Maybe she's the one that created "Damien Blanc" (also, "Quinn" is not her real name, either, rather one that she adopted for herself at some point), taking up the mantle herself first and then passing it off as a means to keep a loose working relationship with Quantum. With the various people that she's passed it off to (all of them chosen for specific reasons and then eliminated by her after the job is done), the skill-set of "Damien Blanc" has grown to the point that he's basically Quantum's renaissance man, someone who can do just about anything, causing them to continue turning to him time and time again to solve their problems.

I also think that an interesting sub-plot to the film would be whether Quinn would, under this premise, eliminate the current holder of the "Damien Blanc" cover since she is romantically involved with him. I'm thinking something along the lines of a villainous version of the Bond/Agent XXX relationship from TSWLM.

[terminus]

I do like this discussion about the henchman - exactly the sort of discussion we enjoyed about Goodnight in UB25

[tdalton]

I went ahead and added Jackie Earle Haley as a henchman named "Marcus", who would, if we decided to go that route, be the current holder of the "Damien Blanc" cover for the film. If it turns out we decide not to go that direction, then it can be changed, but I wanted to get it in there before the space got filled up.

Also, should we decide to go in this direction, I'm thinking about (if it's within the rules) of going back and changing my casting suggestion for "Damien Blanc" (i.e. the person that Marcus & Quinn hire to meet with Quantum officials as "Damien Blanc"). I've already got someone in mind for it and a possible background for the character, and I think that it would be a pretty cool bit part in the story.


1 Bond - Daniel Craig
2 Bond Girl 1 (Main ie Vesper/Camille): Ashley Greene as Mercedes Baines, an American computer programmer (name courtesy of Righty007, who related that this was an actual classmate of his--and I found it too perfect to pass up )
3 Bond Girl 2 (Minor ie Solange/Fields): Natalia Paris as Lucia Rojos (Colombian model, I am a great believer in the exotic Bond girl, she was the basis for Veritta Balen in my FanFiction, she probably can't act, but when was that ever a requirement for a Bond girl?) not necessary to have significance to the story, but possibly ought to be the sacrifical lamb
4 Bond Girl 3 (Background Girl): Dita Von Teese as Rusty Shafts (I'm imagining taking advantage of Dita Von Teese's background as a burlesque dancer in some fashion, the name specified would be her stage name - this might lead to a joke, it might not)
5 Henchman: Melanie Laurent as Quinn (Damien Blanc's top associate, who acts as his closest advisor and is a key part of his combat operations. Also may or may not be in a relationship with Blanc)
6 Henchman 2: Jackie Earle Haley as Marcus (current holder of the "Damien Blanc" cover)
7 Villain: Jackie Earle Haley as Damien Blanc (aka "The Ghost", a cyber-criminal who leads expansive cyber-operations for Quantum and is virtually uncatchable because of his ability to change his appearance)
8 M - Timothy Dalton
9 Miss Moneypenny - Emily Blunt
10 Ally 1: Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter


LOCATIONS
11 Pre-Titles Location: New York Subway
12 Location 1: Barcelona
13 Location 2: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA (Specifically the Oak Ridge National Laboratory which supposedly has the worlds most powerful computer, the Jaguar, which I could imagine being tied into the plot quite easily. I can imagine a very suspense driven sequence in which Bond (and possibly one of the Bond girls) has to pursue one of the villains/henchmen round the streets around the ORNL - think of the London Victoria (?) scene in Bourne Ultimatum for an example of what I'm imagining - PLUS the ORNL was a pioneer in the field of molten salt reactors, if we decide to go down that route).
14 Location 3: San Diego, CA
15 Location 4: Chicago, USA
16 Location 5: Dakar, Senegal

KEY PLOT POINTS

17 Villain's Plot: Not fully defined. However - it's Bond vs. the internet (as much as TWINE was Bond vs Oil Companies and TND was Bond vs The Media). There's plenty of material here: groups like Anonymous that exist without shape or form until they carry out their activities, social network sites that steal personal information, MMORPGs that engage in gold farming, betting syndicates that start manipulating the outcomes of everything from cricket matches to election results, etc.

18 Pre-Title Sequence Action Sequence/Stunt: An intense, intimate fistfight/gun battle in a gambling den. Bond, who has unfortunately ingested a hallucinogen, has to fight off a group of lowlife thugs as the mind-altering drugs gradually takes effect and he struggles to keep himself aware, seeing nightmarish phantoms and strange visions everywhere he turns. At the end of fight, as Bond begins to lose his struggle, one of the shadows takes the appearance of Vesper. She points a gun at him and fires. In reality, it's one of the thugs with a handgun. They leave Bond for dead, lying in a pool of his own blood.

19 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 1: A shoot-out and cat-and-mouse chase through one of those very sterile computer/server buildings where Bond is trying to protect Mercedes Baines from a kidnap attempt by Quinn. Quinn makes her way through the the multi-story building eliminating anything in her path (in a very Terminator-esque kind of way) trying to get rid of Bond and capture Mercedes.

20 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 2:

21 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 3: In a throwback to the films of old, Bond leads a group of Navy SEALs in the assault of a nightclub in Chicago in an attempt to capture Blanc. Although they are able to clean up most of Blanc's harem, they do not get Blanc himself and the assault spills over into an adjacent construction site. Bond and Quinn fight, and end up in a situation where the room (or possibly a pit of some kind) is rapidly filling with quick-drying cement. Bond is able to escape, but Quinn is pulled under. In the morning, she is found face-down in the solid concrete.

22 Finale Action Sequence/Stunt: It having come to pass that the reclusive Damien Blanc is an entirely compter-generated fiction, an online avatar insidiously and Zelig-like injected into visual media by the Ghost virus, a very modern celebrity, the source of the virus is tracked the Casamance separatists in Senegal. Bond and Mercedes try to pull the plug but are tracked through the river delta and have to deal with all sorts of natural nasties and various goons out to get them, culminating in a triple helicopter gunship attack on a tourist resort in which they take refuge.

STUFF

23 Bond's Car (inc. car gadgets): Lotus Eterne concept
24 Gadget 1: The "Spark Suit", a bioelectric garment needed to power the supercomputers developed at Oak Ridge. It looks like a wet suit and uses nanotechnology to convert excess energy expended by the human body into power. The human body is inefficient; when we move, some of the energy we expend is wasted. The more adrenaline the body releases, the more energy that is gathered. The Spark Suit captures this energy and transforms it into a workable form of electricity. The Oak Ridge supercompeters require so much power that the only way to operate them is with a human interface wearing a Spark Suit. Unlike the Robocop suit in DIE ANOTHER DAY, the Spark Suit cannot generate or discharge this electrcity as a weapon.
25 Gadget 2: A shaving kit, the parts of which hide gadgets such as lockpicks, infrared eyepieces etc.
26 Gadget 3:

PRODUCTION

27 Director: Kar-Wai Wong
28 Writer: Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom & Skip Woods - with David Wolstencraft to do a redraft in order to anchor the Anglocism.
29 Music By: Don Davis
30 Theme Tune Sung By: Pink
31 Theme Tune Written By: Pink and Don Davis
32 Title Sequence Designed By:
33 Title Sequence Description: Animated versions of the abstract Fleming first edition hardback covers [/quote]

So that leaves us Henchman 2, the San Diego Action Sequence, Gadget 3 and Title Sequence Designer left. Once the first three are filled out, we'll have the foundation for the entire story (unless terminus decides we don't need a third gadget).

[terminus]

Perhaps this person that Marcus/Quinn 'hire' to 'play' Blanc is actually the person that Bond captures in Chicago (I know there was some discussion about Bond capturing a random underling but 'Blanc' (ie Marcus) getting away) whereas Marcus and Quinn escape. I forgot to mention that the concrete idea, though excellent, was used in UB25 for the death of Scarlett in Canberra - so we might want to remove that and have both of our lead villains (Quinn/Marcus) escape.

We don't need a third gadget, or it can be added in after the fact.

[tdalton]

Perhaps this person that Marcus/Quinn 'hire' to 'play' Blanc is actually the person that Bond captures in Chicago (I know there was some discussion about Bond capturing a random underling but 'Blanc' (ie Marcus) getting away) whereas Marcus and Quinn escape. I forgot to mention that the concrete idea, though excellent, was used in UB25 for the death of Scarlett in Canberra - so we might want to remove that and have both of our lead villains (Quinn/Marcus) escape.

I quite like this idea.

What I'm thinking about for the character that's hired to play "Blanc" is that he's one of those guys that so desperately wants a piece of the action that he blindly agrees to go into this "mission" not really understanding what it is that he's actually supposed to be doing. I think that Marcus and Quinn both give him enough information so that he clearly knows what's going on and give him enough to do so that he feels important on his own within the confines of the mission, while also making him believe that he's actually the one in charge when he clearly isn't (if this makes any sense. It does, at least in my mind, but I'm not sure I'm articulating it very well )

Basically what I see happening to this character is that he's built up by Marcus and Quinn to be a patsy who will eventually be eliminated by Quinn later on in the film.

Also, I think by allowing both Marcus and Quinn to escape the nightclub incident with "Blanc" being arrested would be that it would allow for a wonderfully tense moment later in the story with Quinn needing to decide whether or not to eliminate Marcus, as he is the current holder of the "Damien Blanc" cover.

[terminus]

And I think she would - I imagine she's more of the Quantum 'liason/enforcer'.

The Blanc discussion is reminding me a smidgeon of the current set-up in the Batverse that with Batman 'dead', Dick Grayson is Batman and a double of Bruce Wayne has taken on the public role of Bruce Wayne.

[coco1997]

I'm interested to see who you have in mind to play Blanc, t.

[tdalton]

Just making the change to the casting of "Damien Blanc". If this were an actual film, I would cast this particular person partly because he's a well known actor (but also one that's been out of the mainstream for a while other than for a short stint on TV), but one that would both play the role so well (at least in the way that I've imagined it) and would also allow for the "Marion Crane" effect to be present in the film, with him being a well known actor and having his character, thought to be the main villain, be exposed as a fraudulent cover midway through the film, thus leaving the identity of the actual villain something of a mystery.


1 Bond - Daniel Craig
2 Bond Girl 1 (Main ie Vesper/Camille): Ashley Greene as Mercedes Baines, an American computer programmer (name courtesy of Righty007, who related that this was an actual classmate of his--and I found it too perfect to pass up )
3 Bond Girl 2 (Minor ie Solange/Fields): Natalia Paris as Lucia Rojos (Colombian model, I am a great believer in the exotic Bond girl, she was the basis for Veritta Balen in my FanFiction, she probably can't act, but when was that ever a requirement for a Bond girl?) not necessary to have significance to the story, but possibly ought to be the sacrifical lamb
4 Bond Girl 3 (Background Girl): Dita Von Teese as Rusty Shafts (I'm imagining taking advantage of Dita Von Teese's background as a burlesque dancer in some fashion, the name specified would be her stage name - this might lead to a joke, it might not)
5 Henchman: Melanie Laurent as Quinn (Damien Blanc's top associate, who acts as his closest advisor and is a key part of his combat operations. Also may or may not be in a relationship with Blanc)
6 Henchman 2: Jackie Earle Haley as Marcus (current holder of the "Damien Blanc" cover)
7 Villain: James Woods as "Damien Blanc" (aka "The Ghost", a cyber-criminal who leads expansive cyber-operations for Quantum and is virtually uncatchable because of his ability to change his appearance)
8 M - Timothy Dalton
9 Miss Moneypenny - Emily Blunt
10 Ally 1: Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter


LOCATIONS
11 Pre-Titles Location: New York Subway
12 Location 1: Barcelona
13 Location 2: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA (Specifically the Oak Ridge National Laboratory which supposedly has the worlds most powerful computer, the Jaguar, which I could imagine being tied into the plot quite easily. I can imagine a very suspense driven sequence in which Bond (and possibly one of the Bond girls) has to pursue one of the villains/henchmen round the streets around the ORNL - think of the London Victoria (?) scene in Bourne Ultimatum for an example of what I'm imagining - PLUS the ORNL was a pioneer in the field of molten salt reactors, if we decide to go down that route).
14 Location 3: San Diego, CA
15 Location 4: Chicago, USA
16 Location 5: Dakar, Senegal

KEY PLOT POINTS

17 Villain's Plot: Not fully defined. However - it's Bond vs. the internet (as much as TWINE was Bond vs Oil Companies and TND was Bond vs The Media). There's plenty of material here: groups like Anonymous that exist without shape or form until they carry out their activities, social network sites that steal personal information, MMORPGs that engage in gold farming, betting syndicates that start manipulating the outcomes of everything from cricket matches to election results, etc.

18 Pre-Title Sequence Action Sequence/Stunt: An intense, intimate fistfight/gun battle in a gambling den. Bond, who has unfortunately ingested a hallucinogen, has to fight off a group of lowlife thugs as the mind-altering drugs gradually takes effect and he struggles to keep himself aware, seeing nightmarish phantoms and strange visions everywhere he turns. At the end of fight, as Bond begins to lose his struggle, one of the shadows takes the appearance of Vesper. She points a gun at him and fires. In reality, it's one of the thugs with a handgun. They leave Bond for dead, lying in a pool of his own blood.

19 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 1: A shoot-out and cat-and-mouse chase through one of those very sterile computer/server buildings where Bond is trying to protect Mercedes Baines from a kidnap attempt by Quinn. Quinn makes her way through the the multi-story building eliminating anything in her path (in a very Terminator-esque kind of way) trying to get rid of Bond and capture Mercedes.

20 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 2:

21 Major Action Sequence/Stunt 3: In a throwback to the films of old, Bond leads a group of Navy SEALs in the assault of a nightclub in Chicago in an attempt to capture Blanc. Although they are able to clean up most of Blanc's harem, they do not get Blanc himself and the assault spills over into an adjacent construction site. Bond and Quinn fight, and end up in a situation where the room (or possibly a pit of some kind) is rapidly filling with quick-drying cement. Bond is able to escape, but Quinn is pulled under. In the morning, she is found face-down in the solid concrete.

22 Finale Action Sequence/Stunt: It having come to pass that the reclusive Damien Blanc is an entirely compter-generated fiction, an online avatar insidiously and Zelig-like injected into visual media by the Ghost virus, a very modern celebrity, the source of the virus is tracked the Casamance separatists in Senegal. Bond and Mercedes try to pull the plug but are tracked through the river delta and have to deal with all sorts of natural nasties and various goons out to get them, culminating in a triple helicopter gunship attack on a tourist resort in which they take refuge.

STUFF

23 Bond's Car (inc. car gadgets): Lotus Eterne concept
24 Gadget 1: The "Spark Suit", a bioelectric garment needed to power the supercomputers developed at Oak Ridge. It looks like a wet suit and uses nanotechnology to convert excess energy expended by the human body into power. The human body is inefficient; when we move, some of the energy we expend is wasted. The more adrenaline the body releases, the more energy that is gathered. The Spark Suit captures this energy and transforms it into a workable form of electricity. The Oak Ridge supercompeters require so much power that the only way to operate them is with a human interface wearing a Spark Suit. Unlike the Robocop suit in DIE ANOTHER DAY, the Spark Suit cannot generate or discharge this electrcity as a weapon.
25 Gadget 2: A shaving kit, the parts of which hide gadgets such as lockpicks, infrared eyepieces etc.
26 Gadget 3:

PRODUCTION

27 Director: Kar-Wai Wong
28 Writer: Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom & Skip Woods - with David Wolstencraft to do a redraft in order to anchor the Anglocism.
29 Music By: Don Davis
30 Theme Tune Sung By: Pink
31 Theme Tune Written By: Pink and Don Davis
32 Title Sequence Designed By:
33 Title Sequence Description: Animated versions of the abstract Fleming first edition hardback covers [/quote]

So that leaves us Henchman 2, the San Diego Action Sequence, Gadget 3 and Title Sequence Designer left. Once the first three are filled out, we'll have the foundation for the entire story (unless terminus decides we don't need a third gadget).



[quote name='terminus' timestamp='1286125287' post='1128865']
And I think she would - I imagine she's more of the Quantum 'liason/enforcer'.

The Blanc discussion is reminding me a smidgeon of the current set-up in the Batverse that with Batman 'dead', Dick Grayson is Batman and a double of Bruce Wayne has taken on the public role of Bruce Wayne.
[/quote]

I think that she would as well, but I think it would be with a great deal of regret and would be a rather emotional scene, something that we rarely (if ever) get from the villains in a Bond film (or any kind of film, really). Maybe she could pop up in the next film as well continuing on as a Quantum enforcer.

[terminus]

Heh - I do like that casting.

Not sure about Quinn being in the next film, as we've already got plans for Goodnight to reappear. Although this is a trilogy, so it could concievably happen.

[coco1997]

GREAT casting choice, t. I always thought Woods would've made a fantastic Bond villain.

The actor I have in mind to play the big baddie in UB27 is also American, but he's played many ethnic roles so I imagine he'd work out well.

[tdalton]

Not sure about Quinn being in the next film, as we've already got plans for Goodnight to reappear. Although this is a trilogy, so it could concievably happen.

I wasn't thinking about any kind of big part, she's just there at the scene where Bond, Goodnight, and the other 00 Agent are trapped and then doesn't make it out of the trap.

Doesn't really matter to me one way or the other on that, though. Just throwing it out there as an idea.

[terminus]

A revised version of the bullet points from above, albeit with less description:

• New York - Bond infiltrates a meeting between a group of underworld thugs and senegalese rebels, the rebels are planning to buy weapons from the thugs. But Bond's identity is uncovered and his drink is laced with a drug cocktail, he tries to escape but collapses on the subway.
  
• Barcelona - Bond tries to live a normal life and, in doing so, commences a relationship with Lucia Rojos. They take a train journey which gets targetted by a fringe group of Basque terrorists but Bond stops the attack and saves the passengers, realising he can't live a normal life as he does so.
  
• MI6 - After Bond is cleared for return to active duty, M assigns him to a simple mission - prevent the abduction of Mercedes Baines, a computer programmer and person of extreme interest.
  
• Oak Ridge - Bond tries and fails to prevent the abduction of Mercedes Baines by Quinn. Bond decides to travel to San Diego to meet with Mercedes' mentor, to understand what she was working on.
  
• San Diego - Meeting with Mercedes' mentor, Bond discovers that Mercedes was working on a method to hack the worlds online banking system using the Jaguar computer in Oak Ridge. However, it transpires that th mentor is the person who leaked the method to Quantum - and he is assasinated, as a liability, by Quinn.
  
• Chicago - Evidence in San Diego points Bond to a shell company which holds offices in the Trump Tower. In the tower, Marcus oversees the construction and operation of a duplicate of the Jaguar. Bond leads a team of Navy SEALS to the building and, although they rescue Mercedes and destroy the duplicate Jaguar, Mercedes and Marcus escape.
  
• Dakar, Senegal - Mercedes has knowledge that the duplicate Jaguar was used to syphon money from the worlds bank accounts in order to fund rebel actions in Senegal. Bond and Mercedes travel there (she'd be the only one with the skills to return the money to the original accounts) and confront Quinn in a luxurious, but abandoned, resort.

[coco1997]

Well done, terminus. It's really starting to take shape. I like how you managed to connect San Diego to the rest of the story---I was wondering how that was going to be plotted out. Also, we need to determine what role Felix Leiter will play in Chicago with 007.

[terminus]

I would imagine Chicago isn't going to be completely about the SEAL assault on the shell companies Jaguar duplicate, so there's probably room for some floor level investigation into the shell company - maybe even a charity gala event in the other tower someone mentioned, perhaps as part of the investigation into 'Blanc'?

Cos we need to get that hot dog/street vendor thing in.

[tdalton]

Nice job terminus. This one is really coming together quite nicely, I think. It's a shame that it's not an actual film, though, as it would easily be one of the most original Bond films to date.

[terminus]

Thanks - reckon we still need to pull it together a bit more. I do like the fact that there is no girl in it for the vast majority of the film, which makes me wonder what sort of ending we're envisaging for it.

[tdalton]

Thanks - reckon we still need to pull it together a bit more. I do like the fact that there is no girl in it for the vast majority of the film, which makes me wonder what sort of ending we're envisaging for it.

I like that as well. At the very least it's a nice change of pace from what we usually see with the Bond films.

In terms of an ending, maybe one that leaves things on a rather ambiguous and ominous feeling. Since we know that "Blanc" is a villain that can keep coming back again and again thanks to the fact that he's not actually real, maybe this is something Bond realizes. Maybe somehow he's played into the hands of Quantum in some way, has failed (at least on some level) to take out the villain since Quinn will just be able to install a new "Damien Blanc", and he maybe hasn't done a whole lot to really hurt Quantum in the grand scheme of things.

Edited by tdalton, 03 October 2010 - 11:18 PM.

[coco1997]

I actually think we should go for a relatively upbeat ending, as this is the first part of a trilogy and the second act (UB27) will be when the really hits the fan and I envision it ending on a down note (think "The Empire Strikes Back" or "The Dark Knight") with UB28 striking a tone somewhere in between the first two.

Once this edition is complete, it will be interesting to see what you guys think Quantum should do to 'take things to the next level' in UB27.

[Captain Tightpants]

Another Quantum trilogy?

What, can't we just do a stand-alone story for once? Or at least have one where Bond finally takes down the organisation?

[terminus]

Well - UB26, 27 and 28 are intended to be the 'End of Quantum' trilogy, or at least, so Bond will be 'bringing down the organisation' in UB28.

[coco1997]

And I should add that the idea is to make it a 'loose' trilogy in the sense that they could all still work as standalone films, kind of like YOLT-OHMSS-DAF.

I'm still a bit surprised no one has submitted anything for the last action sequence...

[tdalton]

I actually think we should go for a relatively upbeat ending, as this is the first part of a trilogy and the second act (UB27) will be when the really hits the fan and I envision it ending on a down note (think "The Empire Strikes Back" or "The Dark Knight") with UB28 striking a tone somewhere in between the first two.

Once this edition is complete, it will be interesting to see what you guys think Quantum should do to 'take things to the next level' in UB27.

I think that we could get away with an ending that isn't particularly upbeat for two projects in a row since the three prior to this one have ended in rather traditional ways, with Bond getting the girl and some variation on the Roger Moore trademarked "Oh, James" ending.

What I would propose for the ending of this project would be something that, while it isn't particularly bleak (that, as you said, should be saved for the ending of the next project), it would feature at least the sense of something bad kind of gathering in the distance. For instance, Bond foils the plan hatched by Quinn and Marcus/"Blanc", but there's a sense of unease hanging over the ending of it somehow, which heads into the next film. Perhaps it could have something to do with the unveiling of the chief villain behind Quantum (although, as has been laid out thus far, he or she wouldn't be physically unveiled until the next project, but rather this could be done in a manner similar to the way they used to always obstruct the view of Blofeld in the early films).

I also think that we could generate a scenario where there's a lot of unease heading into the next one just based on who the villain is in this project. Since he's not actually real, and since it's pretty much a given that Quinn will install a new "Damien Blanc" after Marcus' turn in the role is up, maybe that idea could be played up to give a sense of unease over the proceedings. At that point, the person who has given Bond a significant amount of trouble over the course of the story is still out there (Quinn), and in typical Quantum fashion, a new villain is set to rise up to take Marcus' place. While the new Blanc most likely won't make another appearance, the idea that "he" is still out there would lend a more complicated closure to the project, which is something that I think this project needs given how complicated the entire set-up for it actually is.

[terminus]

It would mean we'd need to let Quinn go free, but I like the concept in essence.

I'm wondering if we could have Mercedes be completely uninterested in Bond in a sexual/physical fashion - whilst she certainly respects his abilities and skills and admires what he can achieve, she's not interested in bedding him or anything of that sort. That would certainly shake up the ending a bit.

If we want to return to Lucia Rojos so she doesn't completely vanish (coco1997 and I pondered her returning at the end of the third part of the trilogy) then we could have Bond scoping her out and watching her in Barcelona (or elsewhere as she wanted to travel) through binoculars.

We do still need another action sequence - preferably something for San Diego.

[tdalton]

It would mean we'd need to let Quinn go free, but I like the concept in essence.

I think that it would be an interesting way to go. Bond would have saved the world from an impending economical meltdown of epic proportions, seemingly defeated a good portion of the team of villains ("Damien Blanc" in custody, Marcus dead at the hands of Quinn), but the real mastermind of it having gotten away and being free to reload everything for another go at it if she really wanted to (or if she was instructed to by Quantum).

I also think that by leaving her alive at the end of the story that it frees up the option to use her later on as well, just for like a cameo type of thing in the scene where Goodnight is injured and the other 00 Agent is eliminated. It's just an idea, but I think that it wouldn't be intruding too much on the idea of a loose trilogy of films that could also stand on their own. We've had Jaws return for a much bigger role in MR following TSWLM without MR being considered a straight-up sequel, and I don't think it would be a problem for the second story here if she popped up for a scene and then was quickly dispatched by Bond and/or Goodnight (actually, it might be interesting to have Goodnight take her out, so that she would have succeeded in eliminating a target that Bond was unable to).

I'm wondering if we could have Mercedes be completely uninterested in Bond in a sexual/physical fashion - whilst she certainly respects his abilities and skills and admires what he can achieve, she's not interested in bedding him or anything of that sort. That would certainly shake up the ending a bit.

I think that this would tie very nicely into a more ominous ending for the story. It would basically mean that nothing has been wrapped up in the way that we're accustomed to it wrapping up at the end of a Bond movie, which in itself would lend to the idea that things just aren't quite right even though Bond has saved the day.

[coco1997]

Although I can't help but picture Ashley Greene/Mercedes in a sexual manner , I do like the idea of having her disinterested in Bond by the film's end.

Also, perhaps since no one has yet proposed an idea for the final action sequence, one of the 'repeat offenders' may have a go? It seems like the only thing holding up completion of the story.