1531 replies to this topic

[Captain Tightpants]

I don't think it would work if Lucia is unaware she is a courier. The entire point of the sequence is to have her transporting one version of it, because ETA need a reason to attack the train. And I kind of assumed that Bond would use his licence to kill at some point during this scene as he tries to evacuate her to Barcelona.

[terminus]

I don't see why the plot couldn't be evolved so that ETA could know she's transporting the device in the suitcase - whilst allowing her to remain unaware. Think of it like a drug mule for weapons, as I said.

In fact, I have an idea how both concepts could be rectified - and tie in with the earlier postulation that Quantum are supplying arms to fringe groups within terrorist organisations.

[Captain Tightpants]

I don't see why the plot couldn't be evolved so that ETA could know she's transporting the device in the suitcase - whilst allowing her to remain unaware. Think of it like a drug mule for weapons, as I said.

Then why attack the train at all? They're arming the Senegalese rebels with the weapons Lucia is transporting. Lucia is taking them to Barcelona, to turn herself into the authorities and using the machine gun suitcase to buy immunity from prosecution. ETA attack the train in an attempt to kill her, reclaim the suticase and prevent the authorities from knowing what they're doing in Africa.

Lucia is not a villain. Even if we didn't have such a prominent villain in Quinn, she'd still be a relatively-innocent bystander. She's the girlfriend or the mistress of a senior ETA figure, and developed an attack of consicence when she found out what ETA had planned. She's been put into a very specific role to lure Bond back into the spying game because she represents the people that Bond works to protect every day: people who are good and decent and try to do the right thing even when they don't always know the right way forward. Giving her an ulterior motive just ruins all of that - especially if all we're doing is giving her said motive as an excuse for Bond to use his licence to kill. It simply does not work.

Here's how I figure the scene would work:

Bond is minding his own business on the train to Barcelona and trying very hard not to think about what happened in New York with the hallucination of Vesper when the train is attacked by ETA. Simply blowing up a bridge is boring; ETA use an armoured truck to derail the train, and plan on kidnapping Lucia by using an ambulance to spirit her away. Lucia is in the same carriage as Bond when the attack occurs. ETA baord the train looking for her, and Bond saves her when he realises the attack is to get to her. He probably kills someone here. He escorts Lucia from the train - again, shooting another member or two of ETA - while she makes a point of grabbing her briefcase. Bond hijacks the ambulance ambulance ETA were planning on using, and based on what Lucia tells him, escorts her to Barcelona (with a feeble pursuit from ETA who weren't expecting this, and so didn't plan). Lucia reveals that the briefcase is important. They arrive at the safehouse, but ETA have planned ahead - the entire place is rigged with explosives and subsequently explodes. Bond convinces her that so long as she holds the breifcase, ETA will never stop coming after her. Lucia surrenders it and leaves. Bond returns to London, knowing that he will onyls top being a spy when he's dead.

The feel I'm going for here is RONIN, that film with Robert De Niro about the briefcase that everybody wants but nobody knows what is inside. It's a complete MacGuffin for this sequence (although Lucia knows because she's the only person who needs to - for now). Lucia is not a weapons-mule or anything else; she's just someone who wants out of her old life and is using the briefcase to get it.

[terminus]

I'm sorry - to me it ruins the innocence that I wanted Lucia to posess. Here's a chain of events that I believe rectify the needs of everyone involved.


BARCELONA

• Bond is recuperating in Barcelona after the events in New York, this is enforced leave and Bond starts by being unable to enjoy it. This changes after a chance meeting with Lucia Rojos, a beautiful dancer, in a cafe. After he saves her from being mugged, she insists on returning the favour and invites him to dinner and a dancing lesson. This is where their romance begins - and it is what makes Bond able to enjoy his enforced leave, saving him from the tedium and boredom of a mundane life. For the first time since his encounter with Vesper, he ponders leaving the service and living a normal life - and experiments with this by forging a casual friendship (and later relationship) with Lucia.
  
• Several weeks (perhaps months) later, Bond has decided to take the step of officially tendering his resignation from the service and has purchased an engagement ring and two tickets on a new rail link between Barcelona and Paris. He intends to propose in Paris on New Years Eve.
  
• Lucia is overjoyed at the trip to Paris (but is unaware that Bond plans to propose to her) and talks about it with her brother, Cesar - a man who she believes is in a mundane profession, but is actually a member of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (commonly known as ETA). He has grown uncomfortable with certain movements within his faction of the organisation - as the organisation at large is demilitarising, his faction has developed ties to a mysterious paramilitary organisation (this is Quantum, but it might not be clear at this point). Part of these ties include weapons shipments smuggled into the Catolonian region of Spain - including a briefcase that unfolds into a remote controlled gun turret.
  
• Cesar makes contact with a member of the intelligence community (it would be suggested later, but not stated now, that the contact is Mary Goodnight) and arranges for a sample of the weapons to be delivered to Paris, where the contact would take charge of it. Knowing that he will undoubtedly be watched, Cesar asks his sister to take charge of the package (she is unaware of what is in the package) and convey it to Paris where an associate will pick it up. Lucia agrees.
  
• Boarding the train in Barcelona, Lucia and Bond believe they are starting a romantic break - unaware that Cesar has been taped handing the briefcase to Lucia, has been abducted and gruesomely murdered by members of the ETA faction he represented. The briefcase, the ETA leader comments, MUST be stopped from reaching Paris or else the weapons shipment channels will be uncovered and their plans ruined.
  
• Members of the ETA faction (perhaps in conjunction with Quantum) set about trying to recover the briefcase containing the remote controlled gun turret. Two options remain open for this chain of events (though I'm sure there's an effective merging of the two options somehow):
  
• 1) A chain of events similar to those described by CT - the ETA faction use an armoured truck to derail the train and plan on using the ensuing chaos to board the train. Lucia is in the same carriage as Bond when the attacks occurs - and when ETA boards the train looking for her in order to locate the suitcase, he realises the attack was set-up to get to her in order to recover the briefcase. Recovering the briefcase and saving Lucia, Bond shies away from the reporters that subsequently arrive.
  
• 2) The originally suggested chain of events with the ETA faction blowing up a bridge, sending the train into the river below. Bond helps everyone escape and the briefcase is left behind. As Bond fades into the crowds in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, we see divers entering the train carriage, recovering the briefcase and returning it to the leader of the ETA faction.
  
• Whichever course of action is selected from the above options, Bond realises that he can never leave his job behind - and can never live a normal life. So that he doesn't harm Lucia, he must walk out of her life. And this he does, dialing the number for Universal Exports on his mobile phone -

[tdalton]

(as I really can't imagine Goodnight being THE girl he'd ultimately fall and give up the service for).

I think that the idea behind my suggestion of Goodnight being the person that Bond would pursue a relationship with at the end of the trilogy is one that might not necessarily jive with the idea of Bond just simply leaving the service to pursue a "normal" life outside of the spy game. I think that it's an idea that builds upon that idea, but then somewhat complicates it by adding in a degree of guilt on Bond's part that would be a driving force behind at least getting the relationship going a bit.

The way that I kind of envisioned this particular incarnation of the Mary Goodnight character was someone who, when away from the job, has a rather pleasant personality and knows how to have fun and all of that, but knows how to flip the switch and go into rather the cold-blooded mode that is necessary. The way that I would see the relationship between the two progressing would be that Bond feels rather guilty about her injuries (as well as the death of the other Double-oh), and that leads him to look in on her at the end of the next project. Then, from there, as he would be working with her again, this time in her role as the head of whatever station Bond is operating out of in the third film in the trilogy, something could then develop between the two, based on the respect that Bond already had for her prior to her injuries, the friendship that they've had throughout the storyline thus far (I've always envisioned the two characters as having something of a friendship that goes a bit further than the typical Bond/Bond girl relationship in the films), and then the attraction that they have towards each other as shown through their interactions in Choice of Weapons.

What I like about the idea of this particular relationship working out in the end of the trilogy is that it takes Bond on something of an emotional journey within himself that runs somewhat parallel to what the overall tone of the second film in the trilogy should be, which is fairly dark. Bond is basically stricken with guilt over his leading of Goodnight and the other Double-oh in the middle of the film (although it shouldn't affect his ability to actually perform his mission), and then that leads him on somehting of a subplot of redemption through his elimination of the Quantum organization that goes just behind defeating the "bad guys".

[terminus]

I think that the idea behind my suggestion of Goodnight being the person that Bond would pursue a relationship with at the end of the trilogy is one that might not necessarily --- and then that leads him on somehting of a subplot of redemption through his elimination of the Quantum organization that goes just behind defeating the "bad guys".

I'm still not keen on it, I'm afraid - I rather liked the relationship we had sketched out between Bond and Goodnight before we began the fleshing out of UB26 (no appearance in UB26, severely injured as a Double-Oh in UB27, Head of Station for Location X in UB28 - although that's been altered already with Goodnight having a minor appearance here). I'm not sure I buy it yet - but I could be convinced. Lots of things change along the line - so it might feel better to me by the time we reach UB27/UB28.

[tdalton]

I think that the idea behind my suggestion of Goodnight being the person that Bond would pursue a relationship with at the end of the trilogy is one that might not necessarily --- and then that leads him on somehting of a subplot of redemption through his elimination of the Quantum organization that goes just behind defeating the "bad guys".

I'm still not keen on it, I'm afraid - I rather liked the relationship we had sketched out between Bond and Goodnight before we began the fleshing out of UB26 (no appearance in UB26, severely injured as a Double-Oh in UB27, Head of Station for Location X in UB28 - although that's been altered already with Goodnight having a minor appearance here). I'm not sure I buy it yet - but I could be convinced. Lots of things change along the line - so it might feel better to me by the time we reach UB27/UB28.

Part of what draws me to the idea is that it doesn't allow for Bond to just have an easy exit from the service, in which he meets someone, falls in love, and then just quits. Given how all of Bond's attempts to leave the service prior to this one, (CR and OHMSS) have ended in disaster, the point at which he does leave the service shouldn't come easy for him from several different standpoints. Having to go through all of the guilt that I'd have him go through as well as the effort to seek redemption for it would allow for an ending that doesn't feel tacked on just for the sake of having it, especially since it would be happening with a character that the audience has been invested in for a series of films rather than just having Bond go off with someone whith whom the audience may or may not have as much of an emotional attachment.

Also, I think that there are some pretty good Vesper parallels to be had in the relationship as well, with Bond seeing a chance with Goodnight and his process of redemption through the defeat of Quantum to both have that same kind of happiness that he thought he had back then while also having a chance to make up for whatever mistakes he may have made back in that point of his life. I think that going in this direction with the Goodnight character allows for that kind of emotional journey as well in a way that going with a different character doesn't.

[terminus]

I concede that Bond would, at least, feel able to commence a relationship knowing that she would be able to handle herself if echoes from either of their pasts came calling. Which is one of the things that, in my view, ultimately has him withdraw from Lucia in how I envisage the Barcelona segment proceeding - not only does he realise that he can't just walk away from the life of being a spy, he realises that he can't submit Lucia to the risks of that lifestyle. With Goodnight, she'd know what she'd be getting into.

[chrisno1]

Sorry guys, I've been a bit too tied up recently and would like to contribute more.
I have some free time at the weekend and wondered if someone could post or PM me a full unexpurgated version of U26 including all the bones of contention.
I'd like to give it a once-see to get my head around the machinations of the plot. Forgive me for blowing cold air on the hot coals, but there seems to be a lot going on in this movie and some of the threads are very thin. I'd like an opportunity to assess it and offer any ironing out solutions.
Chris
p.s. NO RUSH!

Edited by chrisno1, 20 October 2010 - 12:29 AM.

[terminus]

I should be able to pull together an outline tomorrow - it will offer me the chance to properly read over the threads that have developed since I last put an outline together for this.

[Captain Tightpants]

I'm sorry - to me it ruins the innocence that I wanted Lucia to posess. Here's a chain of events that I believe rectify the needs of everyone involved.

I don't think it adds anything, and certainly not innocence. All it gives her is a convoluted and complex backstory when she's a bit player. I'd find it very hard to believe that ETA had Lucia unwillingly transport weapons when she just so happens to be in a relationship with Bond. It's far too great a suspension of disbelief. Especially since she's oblivious to the fact that her brother is an ETA hardliner. It just feels like a sequence of massive coincidences piled on top of one another.

Also, having the weapons go to Paris makes zero sense because it's in the opposite direction to Senegal. If the train absolutely has to be leaving Barcelona (instead of arriving in the city), then it should be bound for Valencia, Seville, Gibraltar or Lisbon.

[terminus]

Exactly how is it convoluted and complex? And very little of it is backstory - virtually everything in the outline I posted above could be shown on-screen in the movie, thus it isn't backstory. Yes, she's essentially a bit player in the grand scheme of things - but she has an important function to play in the overall arc.

Her brother uses her as an arms mule to get a sample of a weapon to his contact in Paris - which is uncovered and stopped.

ETA hasn't gotten Lucia to unwillingly transport the weapons - her brother has gotten her to do it precisely because the faction of ETA that he is associated with is going against the demilitarisation of the organisation as a whole. He is having her transport the weapon to his contact in Paris to betray the faction - the suitcase weapon is proof that the faction are arming themselves from outside sources (Quantum).

I doubt a single member of ETA not being aware of Bond's true nature is a suspension of belief - it's a reverse of the suspension of belief that everyone and their mother knew about 'James Bond, 007' in the Moore Era. I also don't suspect that it's a suspension of belief that Lucia doesn't know her brother is involved in ETA to the extent that he is - she'd certainly know he has sympathies towards their cause, she may even harbor certain sympathies herself, but she doesn't know he's involved (through his faction) in the arms trade.

And the weapons aren't going to Senegal. If you read the outline, the weapons have been supplied to the ETA faction by (presumably) Quantum, Cesar is betraying the faction to the world intelligence community by delivering proof (a sample of the arms - the suitcase device) to his contact (ostensibly revealed later to be Mary Goodnight) who is in Paris.

[coco1997]

I don't think it adds anything, and certainly not innocence. All it gives her is a convoluted and complex backstory when she's a bit player. I'd find it very hard to believe that ETA had Lucia unwillingly transport weapons when she just so happens to be in a relationship with Bond. It's far too great a suspension of disbelief. Especially since she's oblivious to the fact that her brother is an ETA hardliner. It just feels like a sequence of massive coincidences piled on top of one another.

Whoo! Having gone back and read through the last page or so, I think we should go with terminus' idea. It's a nice compromise between how Lucia was originally conceived and Captain Tightpants' idea to give her role more weight. I have to admit, I prefer the idea of making her more of an innocent and then having her return at the end of UB28 to live happily ever after with 007. I wasn't even initially fond of giving Lucia such an extrapolated role, but once others seemed to latch onto the idea I went with it.

[Captain Tightpants]

I still can't help but shake the feeling that this is just going to drag out and be twice as long as it needs to be. If Lucia were critical to the plot, I could understand it ... but all we're really trying to do is take two unrelated items from the list - Lucia and the machine gun briefcase - and work them into the story together. Which I think we've done well, but which I also think is getting to the point where it has enough weight to develop gravity. We've got a lot more detail on this sequence alone than we do on the stuff on America, and if it takes this long to work everything out, the treatment is never going to get written.

Which is a shame, because I have some big ideas for UB27.

[terminus]

If the other segments end up being this lengthy then I for one, won't mind, to be honest. If we can agree on how the 'Barcelona' sequences are being pinned down, then we can move onwards onto Oak Ridge, Nevada, Chicago and Senegal.

[coco1997]

If the other segments end up being this lengthy then I for one, won't mind, to be honest. If we can agree on how the 'Barcelona' sequences are being pinned down, then we can move onwards onto Oak Ridge, Nevada, Chicago and Senegal.

I don't think the plan is to go into super intense detail. This wasn't even an issue until CT proposed tying Lucia into the Guardia Civil/ETA subplot a few pages back and then the debate kind of exploded from there.

A page or two back it was decided that (besides the whole Lucia storyline) the main thing that needed working on was the finale in Senegal. Aside from that, I think everything else is developed pretty well, relative to how much development was done on the previous editions of Ultimate Bond, unless chrisno1 and/or terminus feel compelled to add more detail here and there.

[terminus]

Agreed on Senegal - will need to think about tying my suggestion about the Senegalese leader coming into play into the events of the finale as we understand it.

[Captain Tightpants]

If the other segments end up being this lengthy then I for one, won't mind, to be honest. If we can agree on how the 'Barcelona' sequences are being pinned down, then we can move onwards onto Oak Ridge, Nevada, Chicago and Senegal.

Maybe that's the real issue here. Maybe I feel we're giving too much attention to Barcelona because we haven't fleshed out the other sequences.

Still, I don't like the idea of Bond getting married (least of all after hallucinating about Vesper), and never will. I just feel that it's breaking character.

[coco1997]

If the other segments end up being this lengthy then I for one, won't mind, to be honest. If we can agree on how the 'Barcelona' sequences are being pinned down, then we can move onwards onto Oak Ridge, Nevada, Chicago and Senegal.

Maybe that's the real issue here. Maybe I feel we're giving too much attention to Barcelona because we haven't fleshed out the other sequences.

Still, I don't like the idea of Bond getting married (least of all after hallucinating about Vesper), and never will. I just feel that it's breaking character.

If you read the completed treatments for the previous UBs, though, you'll notice that nothing went into intense detail. The concern now should be 1) incorporating every idea from the pro forma, which we've already done and 2) making sure there are no loose ends or holes that are left unfilled--which is why I'm campaigning for someone (seemingly terminus) to develop Senegal because that seems to be the only real part of the story that isn't really explained in sufficient detail.

[terminus]

Yeah - I think a lot of Oak Ridge/Nevada/Chicago has been sketched out to a pretty good degree. What will need to be done is to go over them and brush over where some scenes don't seem to move fluidly together. And then flesh out Senegal.

[terminus]

This is the outline as I understand it - what have I missed? Where did the scene with the hot dog get positioned? And we do need to flesh out Senegal still.



NEW YORK CITY

The gunbarrel opens in New York City, where James Bond has infiltrated a meeting between a group of Russian underworld thugs and Senegalese rebels in a gambling den - the gambling den is in a burlesque club located in an abandoned subway turning junction (see the lab in 'The Sorcerers Apprentice' for the idea of the size of the space); the rebels are planning to purchase weapons from the thugs. However, despite the assistance of a CIA mole in the operation (a burlesque dancer called 'Rusty' at the nightclub the meeting is held at) and the deal being stopped, Bond's identity is uncovered (via an anonymous picture-text to both the Russian underworld thugs and the Senegalese rebels) and his drink is laced with a drug cocktail. He tries to escape but collapses on the subway after being shot. Bond lies on the floor in a pool of blood. The camera centered above looking directly down at Bond's body at 90 degrees, begins to spin as it descends. With each revolution becoming more violent, it now resembles a rotating board from a standard circus knife-throwing act. Here this blurred impression begins to morph into Bond wandering through a nightmarish landscape of beautiful and simultaneously hideous women, flowers, giant frogs, scorpions, skulls with roses in their mouths, conch shells and skeletons playing cards--all various morbid, yet colorful imagery, of course derived from the classic Fleming first edition covers...

CB.n PRESENTS

DANIEL CRAIG
as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007

in

CBN MEMBERS'
UNTITLED PROJECT UB26

Ashley Greene
Natalia Paris

James Woods

Melanie Laurent
Jackie Earle Hailey

Dita Von Teese
Michael Rady
Daniel Bruhl

Jeffrey Wright
Emily Blunt
Jesper Christensen

and Timothy Dalton as M



"TBC" sung by Pink
"TBC" composed by Pink and Don Davis

Soundtrack by Don Davis

Directed by Kar Wai Wong

Written by Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom & Skip Woods with David Wolstoncroft

As the credits draw to an end, the nightmareish landscape lessens - becomes more traditional as we segue to...

BARCELONA

[list]
Bond is recuperating in Barcelona after the events in New York, this is enforced leave and Bond starts by being unable to enjoy it. This changes after a chance meeting with Lucia Rojos, a beautiful dancer, in a cafe. After he saves her from being mugged, she insists on returning the favour and invites him to dinner and a dancing lesson. This is where their romance begins - and it is what makes Bond able to enjoy his enforced leave, saving him from the tedium and boredom of a mundane life. For the first time since his encounter with Vesper, he ponders leaving the service and living a normal life - and experiments with this by forging a casual friendship (and later relationship) with Lucia.

Several weeks (perhaps months) later, Bond has decided to take the step of officially tendering his resignation from the service and has purchased an engagement ring and two tickets on a new rail link between Barcelona and Paris. He intends to propose in Paris on New Years Eve.

Lucia is overjoyed at the trip to Paris (but is unaware that Bond plans to propose to her) and talks about it with her brother, Cesar - a man who she believes is in a mundane profession, but is actually a member of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (commonly known as ETA). He has grown uncomfortable with certain movements within his faction of the organisation - as the organisation at large is demilitarising, his faction has developed ties to a mysterious paramilitary organisation (this is Quantum, but it might not be clear at this point). Part of these ties include weapons shipments smuggled into the Catolonian region of Spain - including a briefcase that unfolds into a remote controlled gun turret.

Cesar makes contact with a member of the intelligence community (it would be suggested later, but not stated now, that the contact is Mary Goodnight) and arranges for a sample of the weapons to be delivered to Paris, where the contact would take charge of it. Knowing that he will undoubtedly be watched, Cesar asks his sister to take charge of the package (she is unaware of what is in the package) and convey it to Paris where an associate will pick it up. Lucia agrees.

Boarding the train in Barcelona, Lucia and Bond believe they are starting a romantic break - unaware that Cesar has been taped handing the briefcase to Lucia, has been abducted and gruesomely murdered by members of the ETA faction he represented. The briefcase, the ETA leader comments, MUST be stopped from reaching Paris or else the weapons shipment channels will be uncovered and their plans ruined.

Members of the ETA faction (perhaps in conjunction with Quantum) set about trying to recover the briefcase containing the remote controlled gun turret. They do this by using an armoured truck to derail the train and plan on using the ensuing chaos to board the train - Bond is in the same carriage as Bond when the attack occurs and the ETA faction boards the train, looking for her in order to locate the suitcase. In the process of this, Bond realises the attack was set-up to get to her in order to recover the briefcase. However, due to the positioning of the railtrack on a hill and the ramming of the train by the armoured truck - the couplings between carriages has been significantly weakened and due to the boarding of the carriage, the couplings shatter sending the carriage and its occupants tumbling down a hill - and into the river below.

As the carriage begins to sink into the water, those occupants remaining onboard begin to panic - with Bond distracted trying to save the civilians trapped in the carriage as it fills with water, the ETA troops seem to recover the briefcase. But the troops are taken out and the briefcase is left in the train. Bond surfaces, unable to see Lucia - who has been trapped in the carriage, forcing Bond to return to the sinking carriage to rescue her.

Rescue vehicles arrive - as they do so, divers enter the carriage and recover the suitcase device. As they surface next to a dinghy and hand the suitcase over to the people in it, we clearly see that the handsome olive skinned man in the dinghy is wearing a man's silver Q ear-stud. He speaks on a mobile, re: the briefcase "Yes, sir, the weapon has been recovered - we're in the clear ..."

Due to the events on the train, Bond realises that he can never leave his job behind - and can never live a normal life. So that he doesn't harm Lucia, he must walk out of her life. And this he does, dialing the number for Universal Exports on his mobile phone -

MI6

Bond enters MI6 and demands to be returned to active service; this unending enforced sabbatical MUST end. M uhms and ahhs about it but eventually agrees after Bond is given clearance for field duty by James Molony, the service's medical officer. He is given a simple mission - to prevent the abduction of Mercedes Baines, a computer programmer and person of extreme interest, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

INTERCUT WITH MI6

Mr. White is seen standing in front of a picture window speaking on a phone - outside the window appears to be a lush tropical landscape. In the discussion, he explains that 'Our endeavors in the Far East have proven to be an embarrassment, our finances have been damaged - we need to recoup our losses' - a subsequent call suggests to someone that 'the services of Monsier Blanc might be needed ...' As the phone is hung up, the lush tropical landscape changes to a frozen tundra - it becomes clear that we have no idea where we are, that the 'picture window' is a floor to ceiling digital picture frame.

OAK RIDGE

Bond arrives in Oak Ridge at the ORNL where he seeks out Mercedes Baines, a beautiful computer programmer who is working on the LEGION, a next level computer system, more advanced than the ORNL's own Jaguar. Mercedes is wearing the 'Spark Suit', a bioelectric garment needed to power the supercomputers developed at Oak Ridge. Bond saves Mercedes and is impressed with her knowledge and convinces her to accompany him to a safe house - but as they are leaving, the sprinklers go off and the power is cut; chaos erupts as people flee labs and attempt escape. Bond realizes this is a trap and tries to seek out the threat - which turns out to be a beautiful woman (whom we will come to know as Quinn) - in a cat and mouse chase through the white walled corridors and tree lined avenues of the campus. Bond uses an electrical burst from the spark suit that Mercedes is wearing to delay Quinns pursuit as he and Mercedes attempt to escape Oak Ridge. Just as Bond thinks he has saved Mercedes, he finds her bundled into the back of a Humvee. He gives chase in his Lotus Elite - only to lose them in a set-up traffic jam. Bond decides to travel to California to meet with Mercedes' mentor, to understand what she was working on.

SIERRA NEVADA

After meeting with Felix Leiter and discussing the person who kidnapped Mercedes in Oak Ridge - identified as "Quinn". "Quinn" is a French national who, after several rebellious teenage years was sent to a military school to straighten her up. After graduation, she enlisted in the armed forces and was deployed to Afghanistan as a part of the US-led operation within that country. She was part of a convoy that was attacked while on a routine mission, and is the only one to survive and is taken captive, but is presumed dead by her superiors and is never found.

Going to meet with Mercedes' mentor, Professor Banks, Bond discovers that Mercedes was working on a method to hack the world's online banking system using the LEGION computer in Oak Ridge. However, it transpires (to us, but maybe not to Bond) that the mentor is the person who leaked the method to Quantum. The mentor is 'kidnapped' which results in Bond and Felix breaking in to an abandoned power station. However, Quinn has since abandoned the station. Bond tries to flee the station with Banks in a glider (as Banks realizes he's outlived his usefulness now) - but the glider and Quinn, in a pursuing helicopter, enter a field of electricity pylons - amidst a thunderstorm - leading to the glider crashing. Banks is assassinated, as a liability, by Quinn, and Bond barely escapes with his life.

CHICAGO

Evidence in California about the construction of a duplicate of the LEGION 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 LEGION. Bond, with the help of Felix, leads a team of Navy SEALS to the building and, although they rescue Mercedes and destroy the duplicate LEGION, Quinn and Marcus escape. Also rescued is 'Damien Blanc' - or, at least, the actor that Quinn has hired to 'play' Damien Blanc. He doesn't know much, but he knows enough to help Bond and Mercedes to piece together what Quinn and Marcus were doing.

Bond and Leiter begin questioning the man that they had taken into custody after the successful attempt to destroy the duplicate LEGION computer. They believe the man to be Damien Blanc, the world's foremost cyber-criminal who is on every "Most Wanted" list around the globe.

It becomes apparent after speaking with the man for several minutes that he is not actually Damien Blanc. He is unfamiliar with most of the specifics of the scheme that had been set into motion, details which the real Damien Blanc would know, as he was assumed to be the mind behind it all.

After reaching the realization that they don't actually have Blanc in custody, Leiter calls Bond out into the hallway, where they begin to discuss their options. While talking, they are approached by Mary Goodnight, Agent 008. She says that she caught the first charter plane to the US when she was informed by M that Damien Blanc had been taken into custody in Chicago. When pressed by Bond regarding her interest in Blanc, she tells him about the mission she had been on during the last few days, investigating a cyber-attack that had severely damaged certain pillars of the European economy. She had narrowed the investigation down to Switzerland, where the evidence pointed ot a man named Damien Blanc. Upon further investigation in Switzerland, she detained a man she believed to be Blanc. It turned out that he wasn't, for very much the same reasons that the man Bond and Leiter had in custody turned out not to be him. She had then sent inquiries to many of the European intelligence agencies regarding Damien Blanc. Three agencies confirmed that they had Damien Blanc in custody. Within days of these confirmations, however, the prisoners thought to be Damien Blanc turned up dead.

The three continue talking, eventually reaching the decision that they did not have the actual Damien Blanc in custody. Bond suggests that they go back in and try to get some information out of the man they have detained, inviting Goodnight along for the questioning.

The man eventually admits to them that he is not actually Damien Blanc. His real name is Sebastian, a former gangster who used to have a significant amount of pull in Chicago. When he's pressed as to why he was posing as Damien Blanc, he tells them about the couple who had hired him to recruit muscle for some operations and to help coordinate those same operations on the ground in Chicago. Bond shows him a surveillance photo from the Oak Ridge facility. Sebastian confirms that the woman Bond had encountered at Oak Ridge is the same woman who hired him. He says that, while she never introduced herself to him by name, that he had overheard the man she was with referring to her as "Quinn" during their meetings. Sebastian also recounts for them the story that she had told him when they were in the process of recruiting him for the job, about how she had been in the military and had been captured in Afghanistan and left for dead by her superiors. She had said that part of her reasons for going after the LEGION computer was to eventually get revenge on her former country. Sebastian tells them that the story didn't make much sense to him, as he was mainly focused on the amount he would be paid and the actual particulars of the assignment.

The one solid piece of information that Sebastian did give to Bond was: "With all due respect, this Quinn woman is not someone you want to mess with." Bond replies: "Yes, I've already gotten that impression."

As Bond, Leiter, and Goodnight are wrapping up the interrogation and are getting ready to leave Sebastian in the care of the CIA, the power in the building goes out, leaving them in the pitch-black. Bond knows what is about to happen, having already experienced it in the Oak Ridge facility. "We've got to get him out of here, NOW!" Bond says to Leiter. Leiter helps them navigate some secret tunnels out of the building out to the city streets. He gets them into a car and begins driving. As they're getting away, the back window of the car shatters and Sebastian slumps forward.

[CUT TO AN EXTERIOR SHOT OF THE ROOF OF A HIGH-RISE BUILDING]

Quinn stares through the scope of the sniper's rifle, confirming that she had eliminated the target. She takes the weapon apart and puts it back into its case, which she had had designed to look much like a regular suitcase. She exits the building, phoning Marcus while walking to inform him that Damien Blanc had outlived his usefulness.

After Quinn's disappearance and 'fake' Blancs interrogation and assasination, Bond and Leiter go to a topless bar to relax and take the stress off their minds. En-route to the topless bar, Bond says he hasn't eaten anything since Oak Ridge - and the pair buy hotdogs from street vendors, though Bond thinks better of eating his and tosses it in a trashcan whilst Leiter stuffs his down. At the bar, upon soliciting one of the women and going into a corner booth with her, lights dim and another dancer, who dances to a rendition of the movies themetune, comes out to distract Bond -- just as a black sack is pulled over Felix's head from behind, and he is pulled through the wall. Bond does not realize this until after the other dancer has performed, calling Felix's name and walking over to the now-empty booth... where a coded message sits, slowly decrypting to reveal Felix's location. Bond immediately jumps into action, calling up MI6 and Chicago authorities, while Felix is finally un-blinded to reveal he is out on the shores of Lake Michigan -- and it's the dead of winter. Quinn, though now with a disturbingly gray face, is alive, and rips off Leiter's pants; after telling him he should have known that "Monsieur Blanc" owns all the brothels around the Great Lakes, she tells her goons to drag him to the lake...and wait.

A small transmitter sewn into Leiter's coat eventually pinpoints the location before the decrypting message does; cross-cutting between technicians telling Bond through an earpiece that Leiter is moving, Bond's frantic drive to the location, and Quinn and her henchman peeling off eventually ends on Bond finding the coat wrapped around a log caught on a sandbar. Meanwhile, the final portion of the message decrypts, revealing Leiter to be several hundred feet to the north of where Bond is. Bond runs to Felix, but it's too late; Leiter's legs are completely frostbitten under the ice, and his body core temperature is dangerously low. As the Illinois state police rush to the scene, Bond finds a note stuffed into Felix's shirt: HE COULD HAVE USED SEA LEGS.

DAKAR, SENEGAL

Mercedes has knowledge that the duplicate LEGION was used to siphon money from the world's bank accounts in order to fund rebel Casamance separatist actions in Senegal. Having tried to pull the plug in Chicago and failed, Bond and Mercedes travel there (she'd be the only one with the skills to return the money to the original accounts) and are tracked through a river delta with all sorts of nasties and goons out to get them and confront Quinn in a luxurious, but abandoned, resort - designed by the Haus of Gaga specifically for this film and reportedly the seat of power for the faction of Casamance rebels we were dealing with - with a battle between three helicopter gunships (at least one of which is crewed by allied forces].

Bond cornered by both Marcus and Quinn, with the two ganging up on Bond in a fight that he has some trouble with, considering that they're both highly trained ex-military people. Since there's a multi-helicopter battle going on outside the resort where the finale is taking place, one of those could get hit and then fall into the resort, greatly damaging whatever building Bond, Quinn, and Marcus happen to be fighting in, allowing Bond a chance to get away. When he makes his way out of the rubble, he finds Marcus holding Mercedes at gunpoint while he and Quinn are trying to get on the remaining chopper to make their getaway. The three speak for a few moments before Bond fires a shot, hitting Marcus in the shoulder, giving Mercedes the opportunity to escape while a stunned Marcus falls back into the helicopter and Quinn gives the pilot orders to take off.

Mercedes could then use her computer know-how to transfer the funds back into the proper accounts and Bond defeats General Ndene, the self proclaimed leader of the Casamance rebel faction. The villain's have been defeated - although they have been defeated.

EPILOGUES

LOCATIOB TBC (POSSIBLY SENEGAL)

Mercedes, who has never been attracted to Bond, though she appreciates his abilities and skills, walks off into the sunset.

THE GRENADINES

Marcus emerges from a bungalow that he and Quinn have been sharing for the past couple of days and watches as she emerges from the ocean. She walks over to where he's standing and grabs the towel that she had hung on the back of one of the patio chairs and began to dry herself off. As she's doing this, Marcus talks to her about how beautiful the beach and bungalow are and about how much he's enjoying himself after having to go through the events of the previous few days.

He begins to talk to her about the prospect of leaving the spy game and taking refuge in a bungalow much like the one they're currently living in and just living together as a normal "retired" couple enjoying life in the Caribbean.

This talk about the future makes Quinn become rather uncomfortable, which Marcus begins to pick up on, but he's not really sure why. She tells him that she can't leave the spy game, stating that there's still a lot of work to do. Marcus continues to talk, eventually causing Quinn to flee the conversation and take refuge inside the bungalow.

Marcus reaches into his pocket and retrieves a small black box, making sure that its contents are still inside. He makes his way into the bungalow, calling out for Quinn. She's nowhere to be found. He checks the bedroom, which appears to be vacant until he hears the sound of a gun being cocked.

"I told you not to get involved with the people I work for," she says shakily.

Marcus tries to convince her that they can run away together and hide from Quantum and the people that she works for. She turns down each attempt on his part, although she finds herself having trouble completing the job that she knows has to be done to preserve the anonymity that she has worked so hard to protect for several years.

With one last attempt, Marcus tells her that he loves her. She pauses for a moment, for the first time seriously contemplating leaving Quantum behind and going on the run. She then tells him, "You can't run from us. We're everywhere."

CUT TO AN OUTSIDE SHOT OF THE BUNGALOW

Quinn emerges from the bungalow, which is bathed in the light of a setting sun at this point. She stands there, looking out at the waves crashing up on the beach, her eyes welling up. She drops to her knees, burying her head in her hands and sobbing uncontrollably. She drops the small black box that she had found on Marcus. It's open, and in it is a beautiful diamond ring. She continues to cry more and more before looking up at the sky and screaming at the top of her lungs.

SOMEWHERE IN SPAIN

After Bond watches Felix in hospital at a CIA installation in Spain on prosthetic legs and a pair of Lofstrand crutches, we start from above a small Spanish village, then cut down to Lucia buying some fruit in a marketplace; we refocus on a higher angle, where Bond, standing alongside his parked Lotus Elite on a road above the village, is looking at her through a single riflescope, separated from the rest of the mechanism. Lucia suddenly gets a chill - she looks up; all of a sudden, the Guardia Civil arrive and make an arrest. As she is driven along the road, she sees Bond's Lotus. Bond shuts the scope back into his specially-made under-dashboard compartment, turns the key in the ignition, and drives up the road; from a view adjacent to the hill, we tilt up from the Lotus revving offscreen to the cluster of trees behind, to the bluest of blue skies, and, finally, into the sun, continuing to shine on this scene of life, before fading, slowly, to black.

JAMES BOND WILL RETURN

[coco1997]

This is the outline as I understand it - what have I missed? Where did the scene with the hot dog get positioned? And we do need to flesh out Senegal still.

A few things:

1. You have Rusty Shafts appearing in both New York and Chicago. I think it makes more sense to use her in NYC.

2. The hot dog bit could probably be slipped in right before Bond and Felix pay a visit to the topless bar in Chicago.

3. Tdalton added a few bits about to the Senegal scene on the previous page:

One of the (rather vague) ideas that I was trying to incorporate into the ending when I was spending some time trying to flesh it out was to have Bond cornered by both Marcus and Quinn, with the two ganging up on Bond in a fight that he has some trouble with, considering that they're both highly trained ex-military people. Since there's a multi-helicopter battle going on outside the resort where the finale is taking place, one of those could get hit and then fall into the resort, greatly damaging whatever building Bond, Quinn, and Marcus happen to be fighting in, allowing Bond a chance to get away. When he makes his way out of the rubble, he finds Marcus holding Mercedes at gunpoint while he and Quinn are trying to get on the remaining chopper to make their getaway. The three speak for a few moments before Bond fires a shot, hitting Marcus in the shoulder, giving Mercedes the opportunity to escape while a stunned Marcus falls back into the helicopter and Quinn gives the pilot orders to take off. Mercedes could then use her computer know-how to transfer the funds back into the proper accounts and the mission is complete, although the villains have escaped.

Other than that, everything looks good to me.

[terminus]

Agh! I missed that bit - thankyou, coco, have re-edited my previous post to include those pieces.

I also didn't see a clear title choice yet - though Whitefire looked to be popular (though to me it doesn't feel quite right). If we want to go with a one-word title, I think Risico is a good choice - it can be the name of the operation (a la Thunderball) as a way to give it meaning in the story.

[tdalton]

I also didn't see a clear title choice yet - though Whitefire looked to be popular (though to me it doesn't feel quite right). If we want to go with a one-word title, I think Risico is a good choice - it can be the name of the operation (a la Thunderball) as a way to give it meaning in the story.

Whitefire doesn't feel quite right to me either.

If we wanted, we could change the name of the fake villain from "Blanc" to something more appropriate for a one-word film title and then use that as the title.

[terminus]

I think the name Blanc worked as a double entendre - both in the 'blank slate' and the fact blanc is the French for white and that we'll be postulating that Mr White is, like Damian Blanc in this move, simply a 'codename' used by certain Quantum operators.

[tdalton]

I think the name Blanc worked as a double entendre - both in the 'blank slate' and the fact blanc is the French for white and that we'll be postulating that Mr White is, like Damian Blanc in this move, simply a 'codename' used by certain Quantum operators.

I do agree with all of that (the idea of a "blank slate" is part of why I chose to name the character that), but it's just an idea I was throwing out there to try to get the apparent stalemate regarding a title solved (maybe stalemate isn't the right word, but it does seem as though everyone's going in a multitude of different directions regarding the title without any clear consensus).

One suggestion that I would make with regards to the title is that, if we're going to go with a one-word title (I'm not necessarily convinced it's necessary, but it's also not that big of a deal to me either), that perhaps we look outside of the titles that revolve around the "fire" theme. I don't think there's much that can be done in terms of one-word titles that include "fire".

[terminus]

Agreed - when it comes to titles we need not be pinned down with trying to find a compound title with 'fire' in it.

For what it's worth, I still favour 'The Needs of the Few'. Contrasting to the usual rhetoric of 'the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few' - here it would be: 'the needs of the few (Quantum, the fringe rebel factions etc) out weigh the needs of the many (the worlds populace)' - and could possibly tie into the Legion computer.

[tdalton]

Agreed - when it comes to titles we need not be pinned down with trying to find a compound title with 'fire' in it.

For what it's worth, I still favour 'The Needs of the Few'. Contrasting to the usual rhetoric of 'the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few' - here it would be: 'the needs of the few (Quantum, the fringe rebel factions etc) out weigh the needs of the many (the worlds populace)' - and could possibly tie into the Legion computer.

I think that it's a solid title, and one that I'd much prefer over a one-word title that's tied down to the "fire" theme.

I'll throw out one more suggestion, which would be a chapter title I've long been a proponent of actually being a film title: A Whisper of Hate. I think that this title could tie into this project particularly well, in that this is the set-up for the endgame for the Quantum storyline, and that things do get pretty ominous as we head towards the conclusion, thus a "whisper" of "hate" ("hate" implying just the dark times to come in the next story). I think that at the end of the story for this project, we've got a villain who has survived and has a very strong hatred of Bond when it's all said and done (I think I need to make one slight tweak to make this more clear within the story, but it is a very minor tweak that needs to be made and really involves little to no re-writing whatsoever), and that could play into the title as well. But I think that with this story setting up the endgame, that could be considered the "whisper" of things to come, hence why I think the title might work here.

[coco1997]

I'll throw out one more suggestion, which would be a chapter title I've long been a proponent of actually being a film title: A Whisper of Hate. I think that this title could tie into this project particularly well, in that this is the set-up for the endgame for the Quantum storyline, and that things do get pretty ominous as we head towards the conclusion, thus a "whisper" of "hate" ("hate" implying just the dark times to come in the next story). I think that at the end of the story for this project, we've got a villain who has survived and has a very strong hatred of Bond when it's all said and done (I think I need to make one slight tweak to make this more clear within the story, but it is a very minor tweak that needs to be made and really involves little to no re-writing whatsoever), and that could play into the title as well. But I think that with this story setting up the endgame, that could be considered the "whisper" of things to come, hence why I think the title might work here.

It's a good title, but not for this one. As I said before, we need to stay away from titles containing the phrase "of" or "of a/the". It's making the stories sound more like Harry Potter than James Bond.

I'm still campaigning for FIRESPHERE.

[tdalton]

I'll throw out one more suggestion, which would be a chapter title I've long been a proponent of actually being a film title: A Whisper of Hate. I think that this title could tie into this project particularly well, in that this is the set-up for the endgame for the Quantum storyline, and that things do get pretty ominous as we head towards the conclusion, thus a "whisper" of "hate" ("hate" implying just the dark times to come in the next story). I think that at the end of the story for this project, we've got a villain who has survived and has a very strong hatred of Bond when it's all said and done (I think I need to make one slight tweak to make this more clear within the story, but it is a very minor tweak that needs to be made and really involves little to no re-writing whatsoever), and that could play into the title as well. But I think that with this story setting up the endgame, that could be considered the "whisper" of things to come, hence why I think the title might work here.

It's a good title, but not for this one. As I said before, we need to stay away from titles containing the phrase "of" or "of a/the". It's making the stories sound more like Harry Potter than James Bond.

I'm still campaigning for FIRESPHERE.

I don't think that taking a title directly from Fleming is making the titles sound like a Harry Potter film.

[EDIT]

Edited by tdalton, 21 October 2010 - 06:23 PM.