144 replies to this topic

[Darthyan]

1.) I'd have M be in the fold from the beginning. Bond going rogue is tiresome

 

2.) Blofeld DIDN'T Control Quantum from go. I'd have it that after Solace, Quantum was essentially crippled, allowing Blofeld and his followers to launch a hostile takeover. Some of the old guard (Saref) went along out of ambition and or fear, but White became disenchanted not just because of the nature of the crimes Blofeld was involved (child trafficking) but the sheer evil nature of Blofeld himself (he did research on Blofeld and discovered that he had murdered most of his unit in order to ensure his own survival). L'Americain contains the fruits of his efforts to bring down Blofeld (finding out the location of Blofeld's new base, various details about Blofeld's past etc).

 

3.) Emphasize the fact that Madeline is Bond's second chance. During the climax, Bond's desperate struggle to save Madeline is clearly supposed to be him undoing his failure to save Vesper by saving the woman he loved. Yet make it clear that the romance is still developing.

 

4.) Cut the sex scene with Lucia. Have Bond try to take her out, have them at the american embassy she fills him in. In Casino Royale he refuses to sleep with Solange because he has to stop the plot, yet here he's willing to sleep with Lucia even when it could endanger her.

 

5.) Remove Bond's inept handling of the gun (seriously the guy's a naval commander yet he doesn't take care to make sure the bullet won't ricochet)

 

6.) Make the climax about destroying Blofeld's base. The base should not have been destroyed by shooting a vent.

 

I'd also have the next movie be the emotional climax (Bond has to save Madeleine from drowning) whereas Spectre is a first encounter; Nine Eyes is thwarted but Blofeld is out there.

 

[Shrublands]

1. Remove the Bond/Blofeld childhood connection. It's pointless to the story and still difficult to accept. 

2. Work on the Bond/Sawnn love story so that it is foregrounded as a more important relationship.

3. Show the terrorist atrocities around the world, not just talk about them in passing. This would hammer home Spectre's threat and evil.

4. Show Mr Hinx having some success along the way. As it stands, once he leaves the Spectre boardroom, he is responsible for one failure after another. This stops him being a genuine threat, unlike Grant, Jaws, Oddjob.

5. Blofeld needs to be more of a creepy psycho. Let's see him kill and enjoy it. 

[Surrie]

1. Again, remove the childhood connection between Bond/Blofeld - I feel that was used as a cheap way to tie in Skyfall which was not necessary

2. Bring Madeleine in earlier than half way through the film - the relationship felt rushed

3. Have more of a dinner scene before Bond/Swann are interrupted by Hinx - this could act as a bridge to demonstrate their growing love

4. Have Swann kill Hinx by shooting him

5. I would have liked to have seen Blofeld become angry and really show some menace rather than being quietly confident 

[RMc2]

1. Remove the MI6 climax.

2. Don't have Oberhauser be Blofeld. He stays as Oberhauser, merely Bond's foster brother. 

3. Instead, during the torture scene, Sciarra walks in and picks up the white cat. She reveals her name is really Nena Blofeld...

4. Have the climax entirely about Bond & Madeleine escaping from Blofeld's base. It's a properly big battle in the classic style.

5. Blofeld escapes; Oberhauser threatens Madeleine; Bond saves her and leaves Oberhauser alive (to die) in the base, a la Greene in QoS

6. If need be, keep the attempted escape-by-helicopter moment to fulfil Mendes' ring structure. The bigger machine gun Bond uses in the base could more plausibly bring down SPECTRE's weedy helicopter in the base.

7. The coda is C being arrested by M and Bond in London. Then M asks Bond, 'what are you going to do now?'

8. Cut to that lovely ending.

 

And...

9. Minor additions to the scene where Oberhauser plays White's suicide. When Oberhauser says "Vesper, your beloved M.", have Bond say Vesper made her own choice. Then Oberhauser implies Bond drove White to suicide, in a classic "We're the same, really" moment. ("We both get people to do our dirty work for us. We just provide the weapon. Right, James?")

[Pierceuhhh]

1. Recruit Stuart Baird as editor.

2. Forbid Newman from recycling Skyfall so extensively.

3. Have Bond wear the white tux in the opening scene - it looks more like a costume than something Bond would actually wear, and the blue suit he actually wears is a weird choice for Mexico anyway.

4. Have Hinx succeed at something (as above). Maybe he could kill Monica Bellucci. Also give him a name, and make sure that name isn't Hinx. And have him reappear at the end to spice up the finale. And have him interact with Blofeld more.

5. End the movie at the crater. Maybe Bond could call out the RAF for assistance or something. Bond could fight Hinx here maybe.

6. Pretend the Royale reboot never happened, and have this be Bond's big reunion with the man who killed his wife. THIS is what fans have been waiting for for 50 years, not the ill-conceived and utterly inconsequential Oberhauser thing.

7. Someone else on photography. Phil Meheux? Roberto Schaefer? Robert Elswit? David Tattersall? Give us some blue skies.

8. Make sure the theme song is good.

9. Give Madeline a sense of humour. Make her less of a nag.

10. Pretend Quantum of Solace never happened. No Mr White necessary.

11. Save one of the better action scenes for the finale. Its as though after LTK they made a concerted effort to use their worst scene as the climax and suck all the air out of the room. Maybe Bond could have thwarted a SPECTRE false flag attack at the Day of the Dead festival and include the big crowds and stuntwork as the climax. The pretitles could have been something else.

[thecasinoroyale]

1) Less bombastic blaring of the James Bond theme in the gunbarrel - show some restraint, like the tense and suspenseful ‘Licence To Kill’ or muted ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.

2) Give a little something for us to see why M wanted Bond to go after Sciarra instead of simply find and kill him and go to a funeral. What did she know? It’d be nice to understand her knowledge.

3) Give Lucia Sciarra more screen time and have her as a secondary villainess that we discover once Bond leaves – the one to tell Blofeld of his arrival in Rome, rather than a random “thug” outside who gets on the phone. Yawn. She is the villain to be left alive and out of the way to help Blofeld in future

4) More danger in the car-chase and less idle chat and silly humour. Let’s get some risk of death and bodywork denting rather than a nice drive around the backstreets

5) Echo the fact that Hinx needs to succeed more and use his thumbs more, not just once.

6) Add fresher music cues and less recycled ‘Skyfall’ tracks

7) I like Mr White, but would rather lose half of Austria to give Blofeld more screen time later and cut down running time

8) Give Madeleine and Bond more time together, especially on the train and even at L’American to understand each other

9) Take out Bond being Blofelds “little baby brother” and simply have him as a super villain, and echo to see more global activity that SPECTRE cause rather than chit chat.

10) Have Bond react more to the torture than just getting up and running away and shooting perfectly. It makes Blofeld seem inept like his torture was pointless with no consequences, and that wasn’t fair because Waltz convinced me he was NOT inept

11) Spend more time in the SPECTRE base and less in London, have the finale with Blofeld there instead and result in the explosion and we see him escape, just as Bond didn’t

12) No MI6 demolition or Blofeld returning. Focus on the confrontation with C, M, Bond and Q to stop Nine Eyes. No CGI explosions or helicopters please.

13) Don’t have Bond act like a moron and throw away his career for a girl he doesn’t really know. He took more on the chin for Vesper and he loved her more. Swann and Bond could never convince me during this film – they need another. Keep Bond where he is.

14) No “driving away” ending. Stop using blaringly loud Bond music and get rid of the DB5. It’s way over-used and becoming embarrassing to think we always have to have these “classic” nods to the iconic Bond car with the Bond theme. We know this is James Bond. Stop reminding us with OTT music and that damn car.

Apart from that, perfect!

[thecasinoroyale]

5.) Remove Bond's inept handling of the gun (seriously the guy's a naval commander yet he doesn't take care to make sure the bullet won't ricochet)

Which bit is this from?

[Surrie]

 

5.) Remove Bond's inept handling of the gun (seriously the guy's a naval commander yet he doesn't take care to make sure the bullet won't ricochet)

Which bit is this from?

 

 

I'm unsure what this is referring to as well. Could it be when Bond fires at Blofeld hoping to shatter the glass he's standing behind?

[FlemingBond]

mostly agree with everything here.

first i'd get a better title song....

then no link between Bond and Blofeld. might not even show Blofeld. have Bond just miss finding him in the climax. also leave out the connection's to Quantum. well they could throw some in there if they had to. that Spectre picked up the pieces of Quantum or something. i'd  probably rework the Nine Eyes plot too since it's been done.

[mattjoes]

Darthyan, I went into the theater expecting the reveal that Quantum was a rival organization of Spectre. It would've been much more interesting.

Anyway, to list some other changes so far unmentioned:
1. Since the Silva connection wasn't too convincing, have Blofeld mention Spectre had been courting Silva to join them, but he had refused, so they decided to let him do their dirty work for them and generate more demand for Nine Eyes.
2. Give more screentime to Lucia, both because Bellucci is underused and because the sex scene comes out of nowhere (not unlike with Severine in Skyfall).
3. Have other people on the train while Bond and Hinx are fighting, or at least provide context to understand why there is no one around.
4. Use the theme song in more places, especially in the L'Americain scene.

[glidrose]

Page one rewrite!

No Blofeld, no Spectre.

And if the filmmakers had to include them, Blofeld is not Bond's foster brother, but he did kill Tracy. That's right, merge the timelines.

[dirtymind]

1. No Oberhauser family link. Just Blofeld.
2. No more Judi Dench video message. Use the PTS to show us what kind of dangerous criminal Sciarra is. After the PTS, let the new M send Bond on a mission to Rome to further investigate Sciarra's network.
2. Let Bond infiltrate Lucia's entourage and give her a bit more screen time. Let her explain what the SPECTRE ring is. Maybe she's so afraid of what will happen to her that she commits suicide after having told what the ring means. (a bit like Rosie Carver in LALD and Vesper in the CR novel)

4. A more exciting car chase in Rome

5. Mr. White is still dying of poisoning, but kept alive by the medical equipment and medical treatment of his daughter Madeleine.
6. Mr. White is afraid that Bond is going to kill him and his daughter. Bond promises to let Madeleine live in return for information. White says the word "L'Americain" and gets killed by Hinx. Bond and Madeleine escape through the mountains.
7. Give Bond and Madeleine more time together. Let her explain that she loved her father, although she suspected that he was part of a criminal enterprise. Mr. White's death means that she has no family left, only memories, because her mother got killed, presumably by SPECTRE henchmen who tried to punish her father.
8. Use the secret room in L'Americain to show us the link between Spectre and Quantum/Le Chiffre/White/Green/Silva, etc.
9. During the train fight, let Bond choose between saving Madeleine and killing Hinx. He saves her, Hinx knocks them unconscious.
10. Hinx brings Bond and Madeleine to the secret SPECTRE lair
11. Blofeld tortures Madeleine physically to torture Bond psychologically. He hates Bond with a passion, not because he is his step brother, but because he's been a pain in the ass for the last ten years.
12. A grand finale in the SPECTRE lair. Bond uses the torture machine (or the meteor, but it has to be iconic) to kill Hinx, Blofeld gets away. Madeleine survives, but some parts of her brain are damaged. She doesn't recognise Bond and lost all the precious memories of her family (a tragic ending like CR and OHMSS and a good reason for Bond to go after Blofeld in Bond #25).

[Darthyan]

Back in March someone posted this possible writeup. I think it's good and am certainly planning to borrow a few ideas from it but don't wholly agree. http://www.mi6commun...assive-spoilers

 

I'd honestly keep some of the parts of it.

[FlemingBond]

that's what i said a couple weeks ago. if oberhauser hadn't been Blofeld it would have worked better. then you'd still have a mystery leading into the next movie. in some ways Blofeld worked best as a mystery in FRWL and Thunderball

[Tarl_Cabot]

female singer for the title song (better song too). That's it.

[Darthyan]

I think that in some ways the end of spectre was pretty good. Bond is walking away from being a murderer and is with a woman he loves. Maybe have Spectre split in two parts, or have the movie end with Madeline being put somewhere she will be protected. Bond goes off to thwart Blofeld's revenge plan (he knows he's fucked but he wants to drag the world with him.) Bond confronts Blofeld, and Blofeld has Madeline trapped. He tries to break Bond by recreating Vesper's death but Bond saves her this time. Ultimately Bond spares Blofeld so that he will stand trial for his crimes. Billfold and his followers are put on trial, Bond rides into the Sunset.

Or do what the outline suggests; Oberhausen is more like Emilio Largo, which is less contrived.

 

TvTropes had a suggestion about how the guys who run Quantum are basically bored rich guys playing super villains. Spectre is more like stone cold villains who got rich by being good at it. They ale over Quantum in a weakened state and White flees because even he considers Blofeld a monster. 

 

Heck have Bond and Blofeld face off in hand to hand since the backstory implies he was a merc.

Edited by Darthyan, 26 November 2015 - 05:28 AM.

[byline]

TvTropes had a suggestion about how the guys who run Quantum are basically bored rich guys playing super villains. Spectre is more like stone cold villains who got rich by being good at it. They ale over Quantum in a weakened state and White flees because even he considers Blofeld a monster.

I think this appraisal of the difference between Quantum and Spectre is spot-on.

[SecretAgentFan]

My picks:

 

1.  If you have Blofeld and Spectre back, then focus on them!  Move their plan into the centre of the action - not Bond´s "haunted past".  Make us feel the threat by actually showing it in its various stages.  The meeting in Rome is brilliantly done.  After that... a little show on tv screens?  Some dialogue-heavy deaings with C?  That´s it?  C´mon!

 

2.  Don´t let Bond go rogue again.  If you want to show doubts within Mi6, then have M go rogue by secretly giving Bond a mission that nobody is supposed to know about.

 

3.  I know, I know: actors like Fiennes, Whishaw and Harris are great and capable.  But why do we have to have a name cast for their characters after all?  Go back to the original way of casting unknown but great character actors, letting M, Q and Moneypenny only have little expositional scenes.  I want to see Bond´s journey.  Not his posse.

 

4.  If you want to establish a family connection between Bond and Blofeld, then really do it!  Don´t imply that you´re going all in... and then fearfully remove most of it.  It´s still there - but it´s not worth the build-up.

 

5.  Find a compelling reason why Bond is going to Blofeld´s base.  Don´t just let him travel there without a real plan, endangering not only himself but also Madeleine.  (Rescuing Q actually was a not too bad idea in the earlier draft.)

 

6.  Don´t go bigger in the action sequences (I´m looking at you, plane action in Austria!) but smaller.  A chase on foot through the snow would have been more effective and exciting.

 

7.  More travelogue, please.  If you actually trouble yourself with moving your cast and crew around, show Bond enjoy going there.  Take more time to establish the locations.

 

8.  Use the "L´Americain"-sequence not only for the character moments between Bond and Madeleine but show Hinx in hot pursuit even there.  Heighten the tension during this draggy midpoint, don´t soften it.  It looks as if you don´t have enough money for more.

 

9.  Don´t go back to London for many, many films to come.  Establish the mission there, okay.  But then, stay away from it!  It´s a great town, I love it, and Deakins knew how to shoot it.  But it´s done, okay?  Move on.  And away.  Thankfully, the Mi6 building is blown apart.  So no more symbolic showdowns there, yeah?

 

10.  To have Bond single-handedly shooting his way out of the base AND letting the base explode is diminishing the threat of Blofeld completely!  I know that he can´t be shot by Blofeld´s people - but really, he has just been tortured... and he still has no problem running around and hitting every mark he wants to?   Why wasn´t the SMART BLOOD used better?  Let M use those data, go against C and employ a unit to break Bond free, and in the midst of the mayhem Bond may find a way to blow up the base after finding a piece of evidence or a way to sabotage C´s plan in London - but conclude everything here!  Blofeld´s base is - like so much in the film - getting a great build-up - and then is wasted within minutes.

 

11.  Don´t have every character be related to each other.  Did Madeleine really have to be Mr. White´s daughter?  Why not have her be an innocent woman working for one of Spectre´s outlets, not knowing of their criminal intent.  When she finds out she has to decide whether to continue that or get her conscience on, helping Bond.   I love Mr. White re-appearing in SPECTRE.  But giving him a conscience, after his deviish cackling about having people everywhere, does not work for me, really.  Suddenly he is concerned about "women and children"?  As if these never were hurt by Spectre´s plans before?  And to have Bond fall for the daughter of the guy who loved to rile him up about Vesper...  well, Bond´s Bond, of course, but,,, 

 

12.  Don´t drain the colors out of the cinematography.  Desaturation is fine only as long as it does not rule the whole visual concept.  Makes it look like a tv show.  Oh, by the way, the film version of SPOOKS actually looked way better, especially the way London was shot.

 

13.  In general, don´t overload Bond with HIGH DRAMA that actually can´t really be forced in anyway.  Okay, it worked for SKYFALL, but only because of Dench-M´s swan song.  Bond is not Shakespeare because it doesn´t need to be.  To have the cake and eat it does not work.

 

14.  Sam Mendes has given Bond everything he can.  Move on to someone very different.  Shake things up again!  Those Bond films have always been the best.  Break with what has come before, don´t cling to it.  Sure, it will help with the grosses.  But don´t make the mistake of justifying what you´ve done by the money.  People want a new Bond film again and again.  They didn´t pay for a ticket for SPECTRE because they appreciate how it has been done.  They just wanted a new Bond film.

[Dustin]

Two ways in general to go here. You either change only a little - or a lot and make it a completely different film.

Option one: make Sciarra's wife Dench-M's spy inside Quantum. She contacted M with the promise to reveal her husband's secrets if she's given a new identity. And if M takes care of a divorce.

007 kills her husband, shows up at the funeral and later at her home, then sets her up with the CIA.

At the meeting in Rome Hinx, previously tasked with killing Sciarra's widow, shows up with an unconscious Leiter. Leiter is tortured at the spot by Hinx to reveal her whereabouts. While he screams, Bond turns to a sideboard with exquisite spirits and pours himself a full brandy ballon of cognac Napoleon. Another SPECTRE member with a burning cigar joins him and - at the sight of the full ballon - comments
'You really can't stand torture!'
Bond takes a sip and answers
'Not on an empty stomach' then throws the balloon's contents at the guy and the dry curtains behind him.

Immediate chaos ensues, a screaming burning figure drawing all the attention to itself, some SPECTRE members trying to put out the fire, others pulling back from the spectacle. Bond approaches the preoccupied Hinx, begging him for help, showing him the cognac bottle. When Hinx turns around Felix sees Bond and calls his name, just as Bond lands the bottle with the remains of the cognac in Hinx's face.

He manages to get Felix free from the conference table (that wasn't exactly equipped for any SM-play in the first place) and they escape through the windows to the car. The car chase stays largely as is, we just replace the silly episode with a couple of real people getting in danger and hurt by the affair. Gimmicks are not needed, instead Bond pulls an MP the way he did in QOS, wrecking Hinx's car with it.

Leiter left Sciarra's widow in a safe house in Austria, where Bond now heads to get further information from her, seeing as she is now in the clear. Meanwhile in Rome Blofeld picks up one of the shards left behind after the fight, a shard stained with Bond's blood. From having heard Leiter exclaim 'James' he guesses it's been Bond who crashed the meeting. He instructs the furious Hinx to follow the smart blood signature to get Bond and finish the job - together with the widow.

At the safe house Lucia Sciarra agrees to give Bond all the information she has on her husband and his dealings with Quantum. She explains that her husband was part of a faction inside Quantum pressing for a different set of activities. They are now lead by one Blofeld, the figure that was presiding over the Rome meeting. Just as she is about to go into greater detail they are attacked again by Hinx and some heavies and they have to escape from the hut on foot. A chase ensues that leads through the woods, Bond manages to kill some of their pursuers but enventually they are captured.

Hinx leads them back to the hut that is now drenched in petrol. They are locked inside, then Hinx sets fire to the hut. One of his men captures it on video, the others are told to shoot at Bond and Sciarra once they try to run out. But letting then run and burn a bit first for the sake of the video.

The hut burns down, nobody escapes. We see Hinx's disappointed face as they leave the charred smoking ashes.

A little later a badly coughing Bond rises from the ashes, clearly at the end of his capacity. He survived in the huge wine-climate combination the CIA had put in the hut. Lucia he put into the family-size fridge. She is still alive but badly poisoned and can only repeat the name of a mountain sanatorium in the Alps.

Bond goes there under an alias for treatment of his smoke poisoning but doesn't know what to look for there. As he snoops around he catches sight of Mr White. He lives there in an apartment cut off from the public, mostly reduced now to sitting in a wheelchair and mumbling to himself. Bond breaks into his apartment one night and cuts off his painkiller IV-drip. White quickly wakes up and starts bargaining with Bond.

White tells him about Blofeld's takeover of Quantum. Over the years Quantum has worked for most major governments, offering services of a particular nasty nature. And keeping precise records of the dealings: Quantum killing major political and economic figures in the US and abroad on behalf of nearly all Western countries. Quantum manipulating votes, spinning public opinion, always on top, always gaining.

Blofeld's plan now is simple. He just opens Quantum's vaults and shatters society as we know it. All involved nations will be at each other's throats in a heartbeat. This will not be a World War, it will be the world at war, ending up with Blofeld's operatives in charge in nearly every interesting region and theatre.

To publish his incriminating evidence he will use the easiest way possible, the Internet. But to keep others from interfering with his operation he needs control of the GCHQ and its monitoring facilities of the Net. At home in London the plan to install the new national intelligence and security service only just went under way, with Denbigh as its new head. Denbigh is already in possession of the data and will start distributing it across all major English language news sites from the GCHQ once he gets the go from his boss Blofeld. From there he also will be able to prevent any attempt to get the data off the Net again or to shut down the sites showing it.

Bond learns some of this, though not in all detail. But he misses how White alarms the nurses. They surprise him and White orders the guards to inform Blofeld. Blofeld only lets him live in the sanatorium as long as he stays loyal. While Bond fights the guards hand-to-hand White talks to Blofeld over the speaker. Blofeld hears how Bond shatters a window with a Barcelona chair. In the darkness the guards don't see where Bond landed, so they hurry to the foyer to chase after him.

In pain White calls for somebody to move his bed into another room. Bond's hand appears at the window, out of White's sight - he had been holding on to a ledge at the side - and now pulls back in. At White's protestations that someone come help him Bond moves over, releases the brake, and shoves White with his bed out of the window.

At White's scream we hear Blofeld's voice over the speaker phone
'Is that you, Mr Bond?'
Bond doesn't answer.
'We shall soon meet, Mr Bond.'
'We should. I take it we haven't been introduced properly.'
'I would like to make you an offer, Mr Bond. As you can see from my treatment of the late Mr White - I take it he is the late Mr White? Thought so - I am good for my word. And I'm willing to make you a very unique offer: you can become the the next head of Britain's intelligence service.'
'Isn't there already somebody sitting on that chair?'
'Oh - that won't be a problem at all, we always can adapt to new requirements. I even think I can arrange for you to be appointed by the end of the week. And from head of national intelligence - there are really no limits. How about you become Minister of Defence? Or, if that is not to your liking, you could always go for other positions. In fact I think you already are on the New Year Honours list. You've met her before?'
'Not officially, Blofeld. And I guess I never will.'

Bond switches off and makes a run for it. The guards are already on their way back to White's apartment so Bond has to exit through the window again. Searchlights reach through the darkness but Bond dodges them. A guard runs into him and Bond has to fight him in silence so as not to alarm the other guards. He takes the man's anorak and covers the body with snow. On foot he sets out to the nearby airfield where he hides in a chamber.

The next morning he hides in the cargo compartment of the shuttle plane and makes his way to London.

Finale in London ensues, mainly concerning itself with Denbigh. Cut the Lego-castle part, cut meeting Blofeld, cut the bridge part. Let Bond instead deal with Denbigh and prevent the data leak.

After finale let Bond meet with Lucia again, who recovers in a clinic herself.

[Dustin]

Afterthoughts: you could show Bond going through a blood purification at the clinic and Hinx at the next morning blowing up a skido with the clinic's wastes, thus failing again to kill Bond.

Also it would be a bonus if Bond's aim in the finale was to destroy the information before Denbigh can reveal any of it.

[Kristian]

1. Remove the Bond/Blofeld childhood connection. It's pointless to the story and still difficult to accept. 

2. Work on the Bond/Sawnn love story so that it is foregrounded as a more important relationship.

3. Show the terrorist atrocities around the world, not just talk about them in passing. This would hammer home Spectre's threat and evil.

4. Show Mr Hinx having some success along the way. As it stands, once he leaves the Spectre boardroom, he is responsible for one failure after another. This stops him being a genuine threat, unlike Grant, Jaws, Oddjob.

5. Blofeld needs to be more of a creepy psycho. Let's see him kill and enjoy it. 

 

 

1. Again, remove the childhood connection between Bond/Blofeld - I feel that was used as a cheap way to tie in Skyfall which was not necessary

2. Bring Madeleine in earlier than half way through the film - the relationship felt rushed

3. Have more of a dinner scene before Bond/Swann are interrupted by Hinx - this could act as a bridge to demonstrate their growing love

4. Have Swann kill Hinx by shooting him

5. I would have liked to have seen Blofeld become angry and really show some menace rather than being quietly confident 

 

Bravo, gentlemen.  I quite like SPECTRE but felt it could be better if the above suggestions were done.  I actually think that Madeline should have been introduced at the 30 minute mark instead of Lucia.  In fact, if there was any Bond film since THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS that could have benefited from having only one Bond Lady, it is this film.  Monica Belluci was great as Lucia, but really, her part could have been nixed.  

 

Also, for BOND 25 - here's my suggestion:  Blofeld escapes in the PTS.  Madeline is threatened (not killed, please) and has to go into a safe house.  Bond is forced back into the field to keep her safe.  During his new mission to apprehend Blofeld, he finds himself paired with 003, a FEMALE agent, who has also lost loved ones and reminds Bond that no matter what he does to protect Madeline, there will always be a threat, and people like her and Bond can never allow themsselves to get close to anyone because it will sign their death warrants.  So a kind of triangle develops where this new female double-oh is his voice of reason.  And in the end, it is Bond that has to walk away from Madeline....

 

Just my two cents....

[S K Y F A L L]

I would have enjoyed a ski chase of some sort.

[SecretAgentFan]

Two ways in general to go here. You either change only a little - or a lot and make it a completely different film.

Option one: make Sciarra's wife Dench-M's spy inside Quantum. She contacted M with the promise to reveal her husband's secrets if she's given a new identity. And if M takes care of a divorce.

007 kills her husband, shows up at the funeral and later at her home, then sets her up with the CIA.

At the meeting in Rome Hinx, previously tasked with killing Sciarra's widow, shows up with an unconscious Leiter. Leiter is tortured at the spot by Hinx to reveal her whereabouts. While he screams, Bond turns to a sideboard with exquisite spirits and pours himself a full brandy ballon of cognac Napoleon. Another SPECTRE member with a burning cigar joins him and - at the sight of the full ballon - comments
'You really can't stand torture!'
Bond takes a sip and answers
'Not on an empty stomach' then throws the balloon's contents at the guy and the dry curtains behind him.

Immediate chaos ensues, a screaming burning figure drawing all the attention to itself, some SPECTRE members trying to put out the fire, others pulling back from the spectacle. Bond approaches the preoccupied Hinx, begging him for help, showing him the cognac bottle. When Hinx turns around Felix sees Bond and calls his name, just as Bond lands the bottle with the remains of the cognac in Hinx's face.

He manages to get Felix free from the conference table (that wasn't exactly equipped for any SM-play in the first place) and they escape through the windows to the car. The car chase stays largely as is, we just replace the silly episode with a couple of real people getting in danger and hurt by the affair. Gimmicks are not needed, instead Bond pulls an MP the way he did in QOS, wrecking Hinx's car with it.

Leiter left Sciarra's widow in a safe house in Austria, where Bond now heads to get further information from her, seeing as she is now in the clear. Meanwhile in Rome Blofeld picks up one of the shards left behind after the fight, a shard stained with Bond's blood. From having heard Leiter exclaim 'James' he guesses it's been Bond who crashed the meeting. He instructs the furious Hinx to follow the smart blood signature to get Bond and finish the job - together with the widow.

At the safe house Lucia Sciarra agrees to give Bond all the information she has on her husband and his dealings with Quantum. She explains that her husband was part of a faction inside Quantum pressing for a different set of activities. They are now lead by one Blofeld, the figure that was presiding over the Rome meeting. Just as she is about to go into greater detail they are attacked again by Hinx and some heavies and they have to escape from the hut on foot. A chase ensues that leads through the woods, Bond manages to kill some of their pursuers but enventually they are captured.

Hinx leads them back to the hut that is now drenched in petrol. They are locked inside, then Hinx sets fire to the hut. One of his men captures it on video, the others are told to shoot at Bond and Sciarra once they try to run out. But letting then run and burn a bit first for the sake of the video.

The hut burns down, nobody escapes. We see Hinx's disappointed face as they leave the charred smoking ashes.

A little later a badly coughing Bond rises from the ashes, clearly at the end of his capacity. He survived in the huge wine-climate combination the CIA had put in the hut. Lucia he put into the family-size fridge. She is still alive but badly poisoned and can only repeat the name of a mountain sanatorium in the Alps.

Bond goes there under an alias for treatment of his smoke poisoning but doesn't know what to look for there. As he snoops around he catches sight of Mr White. He lives there in an apartment cut off from the public, mostly reduced now to sitting in a wheelchair and mumbling to himself. Bond breaks into his apartment one night and cuts off his painkiller IV-drip. White quickly wakes up and starts bargaining with Bond.

White tells him about Blofeld's takeover of Quantum. Over the years Quantum has worked for most major governments, offering services of a particular nasty nature. And keeping precise records of the dealings: Quantum killing major political and economic figures in the US and abroad on behalf of nearly all Western countries. Quantum manipulating votes, spinning public opinion, always on top, always gaining.

Blofeld's plan now is simple. He just opens Quantum's vaults and shatters society as we know it. All involved nations will be at each other's throats in a heartbeat. This will not be a World War, it will be the world at war, ending up with Blofeld's operatives in charge in nearly every interesting region and theatre.

To publish his incriminating evidence he will use the easiest way possible, the Internet. But to keep others from interfering with his operation he needs control of the GCHQ and its monitoring facilities of the Net. At home in London the plan to install the new national intelligence and security service only just went under way, with Denbigh as its new head. Denbigh is already in possession of the data and will start distributing it across all major English language news sites from the GCHQ once he gets the go from his boss Blofeld. From there he also will be able to prevent any attempt to get the data off the Net again or to shut down the sites showing it.

Bond learns some of this, though not in all detail. But he misses how White alarms the nurses. They surprise him and White orders the guards to inform Blofeld. Blofeld only lets him live in the sanatorium as long as he stays loyal. While Bond fights the guards hand-to-hand White talks to Blofeld over the speaker. Blofeld hears how Bond shatters a window with a Barcelona chair. In the darkness the guards don't see where Bond landed, so they hurry to the foyer to chase after him.

In pain White calls for somebody to move his bed into another room. Bond's hand appears at the window, out of White's sight - he had been holding on to a ledge at the side - and now pulls back in. At White's protestations that someone come help him Bond moves over, releases the brake, and shoves White with his bed out of the window.

At White's scream we hear Blofeld's voice over the speaker phone
'Is that you, Mr Bond?'
Bond doesn't answer.
'We shall soon meet, Mr Bond.'
'We should. I take it we haven't been introduced properly.'
'I would like to make you an offer, Mr Bond. As you can see from my treatment of the late Mr White - I take it he is the late Mr White? Thought so - I am good for my word. And I'm willing to make you a very unique offer: you can become the the next head of Britain's intelligence service.'
'Isn't there already somebody sitting on that chair?'
'Oh - that won't be a problem at all, we always can adapt to new requirements. I even think I can arrange for you to be appointed by the end of the week. And from head of national intelligence - there are really no limits. How about you become Minister of Defence? Or, if that is not to your liking, you could always go for other positions. In fact I think you already are on the New Year Honours list. You've met her before?'
'Not officially, Blofeld. And I guess I never will.'

Bond switches off and makes a run for it. The guards are already on their way back to White's apartment so Bond has to exit through the window again. Searchlights reach through the darkness but Bond dodges them. A guard runs into him and Bond has to fight him in silence so as not to alarm the other guards. He takes the man's anorak and covers the body with snow. On foot he sets out to the nearby airfield where he hides in a chamber.

The next morning he hides in the cargo compartment of the shuttle plane and makes his way to London.

Finale in London ensues, mainly concerning itself with Denbigh. Cut the Lego-castle part, cut meeting Blofeld, cut the bridge part. Let Bond instead deal with Denbigh and prevent the data leak.

After finale let Bond meet with Lucia again, who recovers in a clinic herself.

 

That is simply magnificent.  EON should hire you immediately!

[Surrie]

 

1. Remove the Bond/Blofeld childhood connection. It's pointless to the story and still difficult to accept. 

2. Work on the Bond/Sawnn love story so that it is foregrounded as a more important relationship.

3. Show the terrorist atrocities around the world, not just talk about them in passing. This would hammer home Spectre's threat and evil.

4. Show Mr Hinx having some success along the way. As it stands, once he leaves the Spectre boardroom, he is responsible for one failure after another. This stops him being a genuine threat, unlike Grant, Jaws, Oddjob.

5. Blofeld needs to be more of a creepy psycho. Let's see him kill and enjoy it. 

 

 

1. Again, remove the childhood connection between Bond/Blofeld - I feel that was used as a cheap way to tie in Skyfall which was not necessary

2. Bring Madeleine in earlier than half way through the film - the relationship felt rushed

3. Have more of a dinner scene before Bond/Swann are interrupted by Hinx - this could act as a bridge to demonstrate their growing love

4. Have Swann kill Hinx by shooting him

5. I would have liked to have seen Blofeld become angry and really show some menace rather than being quietly confident 

 

Bravo, gentlemen.  I quite like SPECTRE but felt it could be better if the above suggestions were done.  I actually think that Madeline should have been introduced at the 30 minute mark instead of Lucia.  In fact, if there was any Bond film since THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS that could have benefited from having only one Bond Lady, it is this film.  Monica Belluci was great as Lucia, but really, her part could have been nixed.  

 

Also, for BOND 25 - here's my suggestion:  Blofeld escapes in the PTS.  Madeline is threatened (not killed, please) and has to go into a safe house.  Bond is forced back into the field to keep her safe.  During his new mission to apprehend Blofeld, he finds himself paired with 003, a FEMALE agent, who has also lost loved ones and reminds Bond that no matter what he does to protect Madeline, there will always be a threat, and people like her and Bond can never allow themsselves to get close to anyone because it will sign their death warrants.  So a kind of triangle develops where this new female double-oh is his voice of reason.  And in the end, it is Bond that has to walk away from Madeline....

 

Just my two cents....

 

 

Thanks Kristian! I like the idea of Madeleine returning and not  being killed!!

[Guy Haines]

I've typed out a for the most part positive review of SPECTRE elsewhere on the site. I'm not going to list scene by scene what I would do here.

Rather, I will reiterate my main criticism - the film tries to be two movies simultaneously - "classic Bond" and "Skyfall revisited". Whilst it succeeds in being an entertaining Bond film, it does not, in my view, as a film attempting to be two different films at once.

As such, if I had made SPECTRE, I would have taken neither route, but stuck to the hard edged Craig template of, say, CR, updated SPECTRE certainly, and introduced Blofeld but without the Skyfall style personal issues. By all means let Blofeld be the ultimate author of all Bond's pain - but because Bond interfered in his criminal world, not because of any unresolved personal issues from his youth.

[Dustin]

As such, if I had made SPECTRE, I would have taken neither route, but stuck to the hard edged Craig template of, say, CR, updated SPECTRE certainly, and introduced Blofeld but without the Skyfall style personal issues. By all means let Blofeld be the ultimate author of all Bond's pain - but because Bond interfered in his criminal world, not because of any unresolved personal issues from his youth.

This would be the best shot in my view, stick to the general tone of Craig's run, don't aim too high, keep the focus on one theme and let that develop.

[JohnnyWalker]

I'd just have a much longer sequence at Blofeld's base and make that the climax, no going back to London.

[Darthyan]

Two ways in general to go here. You either change only a little - or a lot and make it a completely different film.

Option one: make Sciarra's wife Dench-M's spy inside Quantum. She contacted M with the promise to reveal her husband's secrets if she's given a new identity. And if M takes care of a divorce.

007 kills her husband, shows up at the funeral and later at her home, then sets her up with the CIA.

At the meeting in Rome Hinx, previously tasked with killing Sciarra's widow, shows up with an unconscious Leiter. Leiter is tortured at the spot by Hinx to reveal her whereabouts. While he screams, Bond turns to a sideboard with exquisite spirits and pours himself a full brandy ballon of cognac Napoleon. Another SPECTRE member with a burning cigar joins him and - at the sight of the full ballon - comments
'You really can't stand torture!'
Bond takes a sip and answers
'Not on an empty stomach' then throws the balloon's contents at the guy and the dry curtains behind him.

Immediate chaos ensues, a screaming burning figure drawing all the attention to itself, some SPECTRE members trying to put out the fire, others pulling back from the spectacle. Bond approaches the preoccupied Hinx, begging him for help, showing him the cognac bottle. When Hinx turns around Felix sees Bond and calls his name, just as Bond lands the bottle with the remains of the cognac in Hinx's face.

He manages to get Felix free from the conference table (that wasn't exactly equipped for any SM-play in the first place) and they escape through the windows to the car. The car chase stays largely as is, we just replace the silly episode with a couple of real people getting in danger and hurt by the affair. Gimmicks are not needed, instead Bond pulls an MP the way he did in QOS, wrecking Hinx's car with it.

Leiter left Sciarra's widow in a safe house in Austria, where Bond now heads to get further information from her, seeing as she is now in the clear. Meanwhile in Rome Blofeld picks up one of the shards left behind after the fight, a shard stained with Bond's blood. From having heard Leiter exclaim 'James' he guesses it's been Bond who crashed the meeting. He instructs the furious Hinx to follow the smart blood signature to get Bond and finish the job - together with the widow.

At the safe house Lucia Sciarra agrees to give Bond all the information she has on her husband and his dealings with Quantum. She explains that her husband was part of a faction inside Quantum pressing for a different set of activities. They are now lead by one Blofeld, the figure that was presiding over the Rome meeting. Just as she is about to go into greater detail they are attacked again by Hinx and some heavies and they have to escape from the hut on foot. A chase ensues that leads through the woods, Bond manages to kill some of their pursuers but enventually they are captured.

Hinx leads them back to the hut that is now drenched in petrol. They are locked inside, then Hinx sets fire to the hut. One of his men captures it on video, the others are told to shoot at Bond and Sciarra once they try to run out. But letting then run and burn a bit first for the sake of the video.

The hut burns down, nobody escapes. We see Hinx's disappointed face as they leave the charred smoking ashes.

A little later a badly coughing Bond rises from the ashes, clearly at the end of his capacity. He survived in the huge wine-climate combination the CIA had put in the hut. Lucia he put into the family-size fridge. She is still alive but badly poisoned and can only repeat the name of a mountain sanatorium in the Alps.

Bond goes there under an alias for treatment of his smoke poisoning but doesn't know what to look for there. As he snoops around he catches sight of Mr White. He lives there in an apartment cut off from the public, mostly reduced now to sitting in a wheelchair and mumbling to himself. Bond breaks into his apartment one night and cuts off his painkiller IV-drip. White quickly wakes up and starts bargaining with Bond.

White tells him about Blofeld's takeover of Quantum. Over the years Quantum has worked for most major governments, offering services of a particular nasty nature. And keeping precise records of the dealings: Quantum killing major political and economic figures in the US and abroad on behalf of nearly all Western countries. Quantum manipulating votes, spinning public opinion, always on top, always gaining.

Blofeld's plan now is simple. He just opens Quantum's vaults and shatters society as we know it. All involved nations will be at each other's throats in a heartbeat. This will not be a World War, it will be the world at war, ending up with Blofeld's operatives in charge in nearly every interesting region and theatre.

To publish his incriminating evidence he will use the easiest way possible, the Internet. But to keep others from interfering with his operation he needs control of the GCHQ and its monitoring facilities of the Net. At home in London the plan to install the new national intelligence and security service only just went under way, with Denbigh as its new head. Denbigh is already in possession of the data and will start distributing it across all major English language news sites from the GCHQ once he gets the go from his boss Blofeld. From there he also will be able to prevent any attempt to get the data off the Net again or to shut down the sites showing it.

Bond learns some of this, though not in all detail. But he misses how White alarms the nurses. They surprise him and White orders the guards to inform Blofeld. Blofeld only lets him live in the sanatorium as long as he stays loyal. While Bond fights the guards hand-to-hand White talks to Blofeld over the speaker. Blofeld hears how Bond shatters a window with a Barcelona chair. In the darkness the guards don't see where Bond landed, so they hurry to the foyer to chase after him.

In pain White calls for somebody to move his bed into another room. Bond's hand appears at the window, out of White's sight - he had been holding on to a ledge at the side - and now pulls back in. At White's protestations that someone come help him Bond moves over, releases the brake, and shoves White with his bed out of the window.

At White's scream we hear Blofeld's voice over the speaker phone
'Is that you, Mr Bond?'
Bond doesn't answer.
'We shall soon meet, Mr Bond.'
'We should. I take it we haven't been introduced properly.'
'I would like to make you an offer, Mr Bond. As you can see from my treatment of the late Mr White - I take it he is the late Mr White? Thought so - I am good for my word. And I'm willing to make you a very unique offer: you can become the the next head of Britain's intelligence service.'
'Isn't there already somebody sitting on that chair?'
'Oh - that won't be a problem at all, we always can adapt to new requirements. I even think I can arrange for you to be appointed by the end of the week. And from head of national intelligence - there are really no limits. How about you become Minister of Defence? Or, if that is not to your liking, you could always go for other positions. In fact I think you already are on the New Year Honours list. You've met her before?'
'Not officially, Blofeld. And I guess I never will.'

Bond switches off and makes a run for it. The guards are already on their way back to White's apartment so Bond has to exit through the window again. Searchlights reach through the darkness but Bond dodges them. A guard runs into him and Bond has to fight him in silence so as not to alarm the other guards. He takes the man's anorak and covers the body with snow. On foot he sets out to the nearby airfield where he hides in a chamber.

The next morning he hides in the cargo compartment of the shuttle plane and makes his way to London.

Finale in London ensues, mainly concerning itself with Denbigh. Cut the Lego-castle part, cut meeting Blofeld, cut the bridge part. Let Bond instead deal with Denbigh and prevent the data leak.

After finale let Bond meet with Lucia again, who recovers in a clinic herself.

Not bad, but I honestly loved Bond with Madeline. She's like Camille and Vesper rolled into one so it's understandable they connect, and the finale is Bond finally redeeming himself for Vesper. This time he saves the woman he loves. Or you could have it that Madeline is a pawn who has been unwittingly been given information and Bond has to go on the run with her.

[Dustin]

I think it's a mistake to introduce Spectre and Blofeld in one go and setting them up for the future while simultaneously letting Craig's Bond have his happy end in the same film. You have more options when you leave out Blofeld for the rest of the film and not make his love interest all that definite and important. It's vital to have room to up the stakes for the next film and not open that with something inevitable. If possible.

[Call Billy Bob]

Show Hinx surviving, a la Jaws. Preferably wandering into a random hut in the desert, dusting himself off and killing the inhabitant before stealing a vehicle of some sort.