It is the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, and MI-6 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) manages to foil a terrorist bombing at the cost of seriously messing up the festivities. Chasing SPECTRE’s Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona), he leaps onto a fleeing helicopter, throws him out, and the pilot too, and flies off, examining a SPECTRE octopus ring. In London, M (Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Malloy) suspends Bond for this because he is struggling with C (Andrew Scott as Max Denbigh) for power in the new merger between MI-6 and MI-5. Denbigh wants to eliminate the double-O agents, but Bond reveals a message from the former M (Dame Judi Dench) ordering him to kill Sciarra. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Wishaw) are on Bond’s side.
Bond attends Sciarra’s funeral in Rome and saves Sciarra’s widow (Monica Bellucci) from two assassins. They make love and she tells him that Sciarra belonged to a powerful international organization. Bond uses Sciarra’s ring to sneak into a meeting concerning, among other deadly business ventures, the assassination of the Pale King. The leader, Franz Oberhauser (Christophe Waltz), speaks directly to Bond, who flees in a car provided by Q, pursued by Mister Hinx (Dave Bautista). Calling Moneypenny, he learns that the Pale King is Mister White (Jesper Christensen), from a group Bond previously tangled with, Quantum.
White is dying of Thallium poisoning in Austria. Bond offers to protect his daughter, psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). White tells Bond that Madeleine will take him to l’Americain, and then he commits suicide. Bond finds Madeleine but she will not listen to him until he saves her from Mister Hinx and his assassination team, wrecking several cars and a plane in the process. Bond and Madeleine meet Q, who tells him that Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva, whom Bond had already tangled with, were all agents of SPECTRE. She takes him to l’Americaine, a hotel in Tangier, where they are directed to Oberhauser’s base in the Sahara Desert. Hinx attacks them on the train and Bond strangles him and throws him off the train.
At Oberhauser’s base, they learn that SPECTRE is behind the new British Intelligence Service. Oberhauser has access to MI-6, and C is in his pocket. SPECTRE will get all the British intelligence briefings. Oberhauser asks Bond if it is coincidence that all his women end up dead. He probes Bond’s brain with needles as he boasts of his power. Oberhauser’s father was Bond’s guardian after his parents died. Oberhauser killed his own mother, staged his own death, and adopted the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld to found SPECTRE. There is even a white cat.
Bond and Madeleine stun Blofeld with an explosive wristwatch. The complex begins to burn and they escape to London. A struggle between M and C ends in C’s death. Bond is taken to the old MI-6 building, scheduled for demolition. The badly scarred Blofeld gives him three minutes to chose: escape or die trying to save Madeleine. He finds Madeleine and they escape the building’s destruction by speedboat, then he shoots down Blofeld’s helicopter onto Westminster Bridge and refuses to kill Blofeld, who is arrested by M. Later, Bond and Madeleine drive off in a rebuilt Aston Martin DB5.
The film was directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan, and Jez Butterworth. The long-running Thunderball controversy ended with Eon Productions and MGM gaining the rights to the names SPECTRE and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Spectre went all out and was the most expensive film ever made at the time. It received mixed reviews, positive as to action and cast, negative as to pacing and formulaic narrative. Thomas Newman wrote the score, and the theme song--Writing’s on the Wall by Sam Smith—won an Oscar. Five companies including ILM did the visual effects. Monica Bellucci was the oldest Bond love interest at a gorgeous 52. Léa Seydoux’s gowns were inspired by Grace Kelly, Bellucci’s by Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.
Dave Bautista, whom we know from Guardians of the Galaxy, spoke one word in the film. As a lifelong Bond fan, he loved being another silent Oddjob. Seven Aston Martins were smashed at a cost of 48 million dollars. Filming in Enfoud, Morocco, was difficult. One day there was a blinding sandstorm, another day it was 122 degrees. Four of Daniel Craig’s movies are the longest Bond films, and Quantum of Solace was the shortest. The long take in the beginning is actually six takes seamlessly and brilliantly linked into one. An entire Day of the Dead parade was organized, with 1500 extras, ten great skeletons, and a Messerschmidt helicopter. But there is no Day of the Dead parade in Mexico. They were thinking of Brazil’s Carnaval.