7 replies to this topic

[junkanoo]

First, I liked the film. I just think there were ways to make it better The key problems as I saw it were:

• Too long a film with (more importantly) too much down time
  
• Minor Bond Girl/romance
  
• Pathetic/nonsensical escape of Silva in London
  
• Scotland wasn’t what it could have been

So, with a relatively few changes to the script I think it could have been so much better.

The key scenes of the film (as is):

1. Pre-Credit – Istanbul
2. Bond – Off The Grid
3. London – Reassigned
4. Shanghai
5. Macao
6. Island of Rat
7. London – Escape/Attack
8. Scotland
9. London – New Beginning

The script as doctored ...

1. Pre-Credit – Istanbul
Same - worked great.

2. Bond – Off the Grid
Same except Bond looks at bottle of Macallan Scotch transitioning to Bond in Scotland

3. Scotland
Bond visits parent’s grave on the anniversary of their death. M surprises Bond by anticipating that possibility and showing up. Instead of it being an empty house, it’s furnished befitting the Hunters’ Retreat it now is. Bond reconnects with Gamekeeper he knew as a boy and meets his antagonistic beauty of a daughter. M and Bond have it out over dinner. Silva arrives where he does his ‘two rat speech’ along with M’s betrayal speech getting it all on the table at once. Gamekeeper dies takes a bullet saving M and helicopters with missiles open fire on the house. Bond and M survive by the hidden passage.

4. London
Bond tracks down Patrice (assassin that escaped in Istanbul) as he boards the London Eye (great, slow-moving London Ferris wheel). Patrice empties car and cuts hole in Plexiglas with intent of long range assassination of M. Bond to the rescue. Patrice gives up Silva’s location before turning table on Bond. Bond saved by bullet from the gun of gamekeeper's daughter looking to revenge father's death. Sparks/sexual tension ensue.

5. Island of Rat
M’s revenge for Scotland, except Silva (rat) escapes.

6. London - Romance
Romance with gamekeeper's daughter.

7. London – Attack
Silva’s revenge on MI-6 has M working temporarily out of her own home with guards etc. Silva's men attack her at home with Bond to the rescue. The fight/chase taken to the streets with Bond in his Aston Martin and its gadgets. Large nighttime car chase scene involving the DB5 in downtown London. Just think of the possibilities. After other interesting London sites, church ending for both Silva and M is not a bad way of it concluding.

8. London – New Beginning
Same. Works great.

So the key differences becomes:

- More involved romance - Bond girl with larger and better role
- No (Silva) 'planned to get caught' nonsense with Q looking like a fool for hooking up unsecured laptop to intranet. No cringe-worthy escape through the floor etc. and the tube scenes which are just uninspired.
- London-centric story making better use of key London sites and with Aston Martin DB5 firing rounds on the street rather than sitting stationary in front of a house in Scotland.
- Eliminates Bond 'on his own' stupidity of Scotland by replacing with a much more plausible way to involve Scotland


Feel free to use this thread to post your own ideas.

[coco1997]

Interesting ideas, but it's an absolute crime to lose the stunning Shanghai and Macau locations.

[AMC Hornet]

The film's not even out in all regions yet and you're already rewriting it?

What improvements do you have to offer for B 24?

[SecretAgentFan]

Could this be the reasons why fans on a message board should not be allowed to write a Bond movie?

[Chief of SIS]

This is the exact reason why fans shouldn't have input. Boards often tend to assume the mentality of the group consensus of what a film should be instead of the actual purpose certain scenes provide to the overall plot. If I recall you dabble in writing yourself SAF. How do you value group input?

And since when did 2+ hour movies that aren't action packed become a bad thing?

[MattofSteel]

I'm gonna stick with loving John Logan's, but thanks for the efforts.

[Loomis]

I don't see what's wrong with a thread inviting fans to describe changes they would have made to the SKYFALL script. How is this any different to "Who would you like to see as Bond 7?" or "Which locations would you like Bond to visit?"?

Yes, all these decisions are out of our hands, and, yes, we are mere fans and not filmmakers, but, again, what's the problem with a thread like this one? No one's being forced to like any of the suggestions.

Anyway, I myself would have made the following changes:

- Cut down on the ROCKY BALBOA subplot near the beginning with Bond striving to regain his physical fitness. It's not handled especially well, goes nowhere and makes the start of the film sag somewhat (SKYFALL is about half an hour too long). Let's get to Shanghai much more speedily, for it's there that SKYFALL really starts to take off.

- Raise the stakes by having Silva threaten London with mass civilian casualities unless M is handed over to him, making her undergo the same betrayal by MI6 that he himself experienced. Have Bond given a top secret order by the British government to deliver M (who is already discredited and a lame duck and thus, one would have thought, expendable) to Silva so that carnage will be averted.

- Bond pretends to comply with this order but instead spirits M away to Scotland. No Kincade in this draft. Instead, Moneypenny comes along to help Bond and M.

The rest of the film "as is", more or less.

[007jamesbond]

No Changes......it wont work as well as what the writer did