Skyfall's nods to other Bonds

Having seen Skyfall for a second time, I've had a chance to spot more of the references to other Bond films. There are undoubtedly more - please let me know of any I've missed - but these are the ones I've spotted; some are more tenuous (or wishful thinking/overanalysed!) than others. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!



Dr No

• Severine having a Beretta
• That closing scene in M's office
• Q equipping Bond with a Walther

From Russia With Love

• Tanner's reference to rats in a tunnel
• Silva's blond locks are surely a nod to Red Grant (and all his later imitations)

Goldfinger

• Eve's blue dress a la Lois Maxwell
• The Aston
• Bond's "you must be joking" to Q
• Bond shaving (and Live and Let Die)

Thunderball

• The notion of an ageing Bond having to prove himself is drawn from the health spa scenes (perhaps more so in Never Say Never Again)
• Bond nonchalantly proving his markmanship skills (to Kincade, like with Largo)

You Only Live Twice

• Bond 'dying'
• Bond's obituary is lifted from the novel

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

• As Bond and M drive into Skyfall, I'm sure I heard the score used in OHMSS when Bond drives into M's grounds
• The leading female character reciting poetry
• Bond cradling his dead leading lady in his arms

Diamonds Are Forever

• 'Room service' being used for ulterior methods

Live and Let Die

• Stepping on the komodo dragon - using it like a crocodile
• Bond shaving (and Goldfinger)

Spy Who Loved Me

• Bond disappearing from sight amid flashing lights - like Jaws at the show in Egypt

Moonraker

• Silhouetted opponents fighting high up a building
• Silva's dental plate hints at Jaws's

For Your Eyes Only

• A Bond family headstone
• Bond being handed his mission file at the end is much like in FYEO

Octopussy

• Fight atop a train

A View to a Kill

• Clambering about in a lift shaft

Licence to Kill

• The signature gun
• A Bond girl with a gun strapped to her thigh
• Eve smashes out the windscreen like Dalton does
• Bond aquiring a criminal's case of cash

GoldenEye

• The exploding pen gag
• Helicopters creeping in from nowhere on the island (like at the end of GoldenEye)
• Reference to Bond's parents' death
• Killing a man with your thigh sounds familiar...

The World is Not Enough

• MI6 HQ exploding
• The case Bond gets at the casino is the same as the one he takes from the banker at the start of TWINE
• M having 'betrayed' the main villain

Die Another Day

• A bearded Bond
• Playing about on ice
• Silva's 'copter looks like the one at the start of DAD
• Bond referring to an unused Tube station
• Q's "Put your back into it" is a direct lift of a Brosnan line

Casino Royale

• Digger on top of train reminiscent of the one he drives in the Royale building site chase scene
• Opening shot of light across Bond's face is drawn from the Royale title sequence
• Severine wears Eva Green's red dress
• Bond creeping into a shower to 'comfort' a girl

Quantum of Solace

• Bond drowning his sorrows

The Bond Films In Order

Bond Reviews Blog at a glance

The 23 official James Bond films, ranked in order of the scores afforded them here


1. The Living Daylights 9.5
2. From Russia With Love 9
=3. Casino Royale 8.5
=3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service 8.5
=5. GoldenEye 8
=5. Licence To Kill 8
=5. The Spy Who Loved Me 8
=5. Quantum of Solace 8
=9. Skyfall 7.5
=9. You Only Live Twice 7.5
=11. Dr No 7
=11. Goldfinger 7
13. Live And Let Die 7
14. For Your Eyes Only 6.5
15.Tomorrow Never Dies 6
=16. The Man With The Golden Gun 5
=16. Octopussy 5
=16. Thunderball 5
19. Moonraker 4.5
=20. Diamonds Are Forever 3
=20. A View To A Kill 3
22. The World is Not Enough 2
23. Die Another Day 0

Skyfall

#bondreview Skyfall. Good: The reveal of what Skyfall is, Bardem, M, Fiennes, scorpion drinking game. Bad: Craig's hair, Komodo dragons, am I the only one still unconvinced by Craig? 7.5/10*

*Having only seen the film once, and that having been in the midst of my crippling Bond excitement, I reserve the right to amend my score for Skyfall after further viewings

Quantum of Solace

#bondreview Quantum of Solace. Good: Opening car chase, rooftop chase, opera slo-mo, Mathis, Craig's suits. Bad: Hectic editing, bad villain 8/10

Casino Royale

#bondreview casino royale. Good: Craig, best pre-title ever, titles, casino sequences perfect. Bad: Eva Green, Miami airport scenes. 8.5/10

Die Another Day

#bondreview Die Another Day
Good:
Title sequence is a nice idea, as is Bond being captured and the diamond-encrusted villain.

Bad:

• Ridiculous surfing opening
• Terrible back projection in hovercraft fight
• Awful theme song
• How tanned Bond is despite his captivity
• Brosnan's pronounced belly (and his hilarious attempts to suck it in when topless and talking to M)
• Brosnan's clunky acting, particularly in scenes with M when he delivers his lines as if he's reading them to a foreigner wanting directions (SHOUT AND SPEAK...SLOWLY)
• Bond apparently having the mental powers to send himself into cardiac arrest just by thinking about it
• The fencing duel
• The naivety to think drunk vandals in London wouldn't have broken into MI6's 'forgotten Tube station' hideaway
• The cringeworthy scene in which Bond meets Jinx (and the even more cringeworthy sex scene in which Brosnan seems to do a Marlon Brando impersonation)
• John Cleese
• The embarrassing trip down memory lane in Q's lab (how the hell did he get hold of Klebb's shoe?) is intended as a nod to fans in the series' 40th year but is just childish
• The invisible car
• Madonna's cameo
• Jinx's CGI dive into the sea
• The Moneypenny-Bond virtual reality 'gag' nicked from a Red Dwarf episode
• The casting of Alan B'Stard as the lead villain
• The cartoonish punch-up with lasers flying around
• Almost every single line of dialogue in the entire film, most of which is a double entendre
• The car fight on ice
• Jinx's inability to escape from a melting room of ice
• The genetics storyline
• The crass use of London Calling
• Alan B'Stard becoming a cyborg at the end (amusingly, he's electrified like one of the enemies in the Running Man) and the entirely unemotional scene where he kills his dad
• The closing plane fights (the producers seem to think the girls' fight is sexy. They're wrong)
• How slowly the sports cars fall through the sky and survive the impact
• After all this, it seems pointless even bothering mentioning the CGI windsurfing abomination

 

This film is unwatchable.
Oops, I think I may have exceeded the 140-character rule. But I feel better now.
0/10

The World is Not Enough

#bondreview TWINE. Good: Film's name, opening boat chase Bad: Plot, waste of villain who can't feel pain, Brosnan, Cleese, Richards, dull 2/10

Tomorrow Never Dies

#bond review 2mw never dies. Good: Teaser, Geoffrey Palmer!, party fight, Paris storyline, HALO jump. Bad: Tiresome closing shoot'emup, bland villain 6/10

GoldenEye

#bondreview goldeneye. Good: Sean Bean, bungee jump, titles, closing fight, Brosnan, Xenia, best Bond/M scene ever. Bad: V slow buildup. 8/10

Licence To Kill

 

#bondreview licence 2kill. Good: Leiter, villains, M scene, amazing tanker chase. Bad: Score, fake iguana, awful bar brawl, Dalton's haircut 8/10

The Living Daylights

#bondreview lvng dlights. Good: Pre-titles, song, milkman raid, Bond's execution routine, Saunders' death, Dalton. Bad: Leiter, Koskov survives. 9.5/10

A View To A Kill

#bondreview Vw 2 Kill. Good: Zorin, Macnee, theme song. Bad: Bond, aged 58, bakes a quiche, his tracksuit, worst ever skiiing sequence. 3/10

Octopussy

#bondreview octopussy. Good: Great first 30mins, Berkoff, casino scene, train stunts. Bad: Pathetic villain, wimpy song, blatant racism 5/10

For Your Eyes Only

#bondreview fyeo. Good: Plot, Topol, keelhauling, mountain climb. Bad: Moore's outfits, underwater scenes, truly horrid Thatcher scene. 6.5/10

Moonraker

#bondreview Moonraker. Good: Surprisingly violent in places, Drax. Bad: So much, most notably the awful, awful litany of sight gags. 4.5/10

The Spy Who Loved Me

#bondreview Spy Who Lvd Me. Good: Jaws, Lotus, skiiing sequence, Moore, the pazzazz. Bad: Awful villain with oddly subtle deformity. 8/10

The Man With the Golden Gun

#bondreview Man w GoldenGun. Good: Scaramanga, "forever hold your piece". Bad: Closing duel a horrible waste and JW:  Again. Really? 5/10

Live and Let Die

#bondreview Live & Let Die. Good: Tarot, villains, crocs, Sir Rog Bad: Many elaborate murder bids (just shoot him), v racist and no Q?? 7/10

Diamonds Are Forever

#bondreview Diamonds R Forever. Good: Wint & Kidd. Bad: Everything else, most notably Gray, moon buggy, bombe surprise, chubby Connery. 3/10

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

#bondreview OHMSS. Good: Fights, Rigg, ski stunts, score, best titles ever, the shock ending. Bad: Blofeld & Bond's apparent amnesia. 8.5/10

You Only Live Twice

#bondreview YOLTwice. Good: Rooftop fight, Little Nellie, Blofeld's reveal. Bad: Bond 'becoming Japanese'. Ridiculously entertaining 7.5/10

Thunderball

#bondreview Thunderball. Good: Looks pretty, Fiona's amazing. Bad: Sluggish, poorly edited, huge plot holes, Connery getting saggy. 5/10

Goldfinger

#bondreview Gldfinger. Good: Oddjob, death by gold, Aston ejector seat, defines 60s style, so many iconic moments, enjoyable but absurd 7/10

From Russia With Love

#bondreview FRussiaWL. Good: Train fight, Kerim, score, Shaw, Klebb: great film, full of tension. Bad: wimps out of book's ending 9/10

Dr No

#bondreview DrNo. Good: Best lead character intro ever, THAT bikini, Connery, villain's late appearance. Bad: Dull chases, Jack Lord. 7/10

Blog summary

This is the blog which collects reviews, in Tweet form, of the 22 (soon to be 23) official James Bond films. I am trying to resist the urge to expand on the Tweets because, while Twitter forces restraint, a blog potentially demands no limit to Bond-obsessed prattling. As I say, I am trying. But make no promises