Line #40 Trivia/Skyfall


1	* AllStarCast: Stars an unusually high number of award-winning actors for a Bond movie, including: Creator/DanielCraig, Creator/JudiDench, Creator/RalphFiennes, Creator/JavierBardem, Creator/NaomieHarris, Creator/BenWhishaw, Creator/HelenMcCrory, and Creator/AlbertFinney.
2	* AscendedFanon: Bond coming from a huge manor is an idea originally floated in John Pearson's strange 1973 book ''James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007''.
3	* BannedInChina: It is actually censored for a scene where Bond himself kills a Chinese security guard and for the parts where Sévérine mentions of being a child prostitute in Macau.
4	* BillingDisplacement: Sévérine is plastered all over promotional materials for the film and is heavily implied to be the main romantic lead. However, her screentime in a two-hour movie is about fifteen minutes, and [[spoiler:she lasts just long enough to reveal her tragic abusive background, and is murdered by Silva in front of an indifferent Bond.]] Eve, meanwhile, is far more significant to the plot and stays around from beginning to end, but her face never appears on any posters, and she's only in the TV spots for about a split second. [[spoiler:This might be to hide the twist regarding her true identity.]]
5	* CaliforniaDoubling: No actor went to Shanghai, only cameramen to get nice views of the city.
6	** The Ascot Racecourse doubles for the interior of Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
7	** The penthouse pool at Shanghai is in Canary Wharf at London.
8	** Broadgate Tower at London doubles for a random skyscraper in Shanghai.
9	** The scenes of Bond dealing with Patrice and the interior of the Macau casino were filmed at Creator/PinewoodStudios, England.
10	** Bond's arrival at the Macau casino with Chinese New Year dragons and lanterns was filmed on the Thames in London.
11	* DarkhorseCasting: French actress and model Creator/BereniceMarlohe (who pretty much only did {{bit character}}s on French TV and in French films up to this point, so not even that well known in France itself) was cast as the film's main Bond girl.
12	* DeletedRole: M's assistant Vanessa is cut almost entirely from the early [=MI6=] scenes.
13	* DeletedScene: Approximately 10 minutes of footage was taken out before the final cut due to run-time. The following scenes were filmed but removed:
14	** A shot of Bond running through Regent's Park as he prepares for his [=MI6=] evaluation.
15	** An exchange between M and Mallory when she quips Bond being in the South China Sea is precise intelligence.
16	** An establishing scene with Sévérine at the airport in Shanghai, where she gives Patrice the equipment case on the escalators.
17	** Exposition scenes that explained what Sévérine is doing when we see Patrice carry out the assassination for Silva: she sets up targets interested in buying stolen paintings only for them to be assassinated and the money stolen.
18	** A procession of hearses and producer Michael G. Wilson's cameo as a pall bearer at the funeral service for the MI-6 agents. Also, shots of dead and wounded MI-6 agents following the explosion were cut.
19	* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/JavierBardem dyed his hair blonde to play Silva.
20	** Creator/NaomieHarris spent six weeks training with a professional barber and several more practicing on crew members to prepare for the scene where Eve shaves Bond.
21	* EasterEgg: If you pay close attention to the title sequence, [[spoiler:Silva's torture is in there too, right after the Chinese dragons. Notably, it's fire themed, as opposed to Bond's parts, which started with a water theme.]] It has [[spoiler:flashes of Silva's screaming face and a shot of him tied to a chair.]]
22	* FakeNationality: Bond's unnamed Turkish lover is played by Greek actress Creator/ToniaSotiropoulou.
23	* FakeScot:
24	** Bond is established here as a half-Scot who grew up in a Scottish manor, and he's played by an Englishman. Ironically, Fleming's original conception of Bond was as an Englishman, but he was so impressed by Creator/SeanConnery's performances in the early Bond films that he gave Bond Scottish ancestry in his book canon.
25	** English-born Creator/AlbertFinney plays Kincaid with a Scottish accent.
26	* HeyItsThatPlace: This is one of many films to shoot its London Underground scenes at the disused Charing Cross Jubilee Line platforms.
27	* LyingCreator: In the months leading up to the release, Creator/NaomieHarris denied that her character is Moneypenny. Turned out she is.
28	* MilestoneCelebration: The film was released in 2012, the 50th anniversary of [[Film/JamesBond Bond in film]]. In honor of this, the movie's cast was first revealed on Nov. 3, 2011; the exact date fifty years previous that Creator/SeanConnery was first announced to be Bond in ''Film/DrNo'', and the film itself contains [[ContinuityNod multiple]] [[MythologyGag references]] to previous films in the series. And prior to the closing credits a special 50th anniversary logo is shown above "James Bond will return."
29	* MissingTrailerScene: A brief clip of Bond jogging (presumably, part of his "back-to-work" training) is in the teaser, but not the film.
30	* NoStuntDouble: Creator/DanielCraig performed the stunt of leaping and sliding down the escalator rail himself.
31	* OnSetInjury: Creator/DanielCraig ruptured both of his calf muscles during the rehearsal period, whereupon rescheduling took place requiring two weeks rest for his injuries.
32	* TheOtherDarrin: This is the first Bond film to feature Q and Moneypenny since ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' ten years prior; unsurprisingly, they are now played by much younger actors and are more involved in the story.
33	* PlayingWithCharacterType: While he's at first portrayed in a way that leaves ambiguous the possibility of him being one of the bad guys as a RedHerring, Mallory ends up being a normally office-bound senior spy who can go out into the field to support his man when the chips are down (and in the next film takes down a treasonous mole and formally arrests Oberhauser). Keep all of this in mind when you remember that he's portrayed by the same man who played ''[[Film/HarryPotter Lord Voldemort]]'' and ''[[Film/SchindlersList Amon Goethe]]''.
34	* RecycledScript: It's similar in concept to ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough''; both involve an abduction victim left to their fate by M, whom they view as a quasi-maternal figure, and M is forced to deal with the consequences of her decisions [[spoiler:when said victim wants revenge]]. They are also the only Bond movies where M is actually part of the story rather than just giving Bond his briefing and sending him on his way. Both also feature scenes in Istanbul as well as a chase scene in London (a rarity for the franchise, despite London being in nearly every film), an explosion at the [=MI6=] building, MI-6 being temporarily relocated, Bond recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in the BondColdOpen, the introduction of a new Q, a female lackey who is terrified of her male terrorist employer, Bond being held captive in a chair by the BigBad, the Big Bad using Bond to get to M, Bond pursuing a villain underground, a helicopter destroying Bond's car, Bond using gas to blow up a helicopter, and the bad guy [[spoiler:being impaled by a metallic object]].
35	* TheRedStapler:
36	** The demand for the Wild and Wolf scrabble mug Q was using in the film soared soon after the movie's release.
37	** As did the china bulldog paperweight. Royal Doulton couldn't make them fast enough.
38	** And straight razors.
39	** The color correction on the film posters set off a trend of men wearing blue tuxedos[[note]]in the film itself, Bond wears a tuxedo in traditional midnight blue, which looks "blacker than black"[[/note]].
40	* RefittedForSequel:
41	** The chase through Istanbul was meant for ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', but abandoned due to civil unrest in the city.
42	** [[spoiler:M being KilledOffForReal and Moneypenny being re-introduced appeared in early drafts for ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'']].
43	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Production stalled for a while as MGM went bankrupt and Eon decided to wait until the studio got back on their feet. The entire creative team agrees that the delay gave them the time to fine tune the script. Plus, the eventual release date ended up coinciding with the franchise's 50th anniversary.
44	* SparedByTheCut: M's assistant Vanessa originally had a more prominent role. She was to be on duty at [=MI6=] HQ while M went to see Mallory. Telling Tanner about the [=MI6=] computer attack, she was also to be the person discovering M's computer hacked by Silva's images before being killed in the explosion.
45	* TechnologyMarchesOn: PlayedForLaughs. The radio tracker Bond receives looks like the one he was given in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. Back in 1964, such a device was a state-of-the-art high tech gadget. In 2012, it's explicitly ordinary and for some reason it's slightly bigger.
46	-->'''Bond:''' Latest thing from Q-Branch. [[DeadpanSnarker It's called a radio.]]
47	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/JamesBond Enough for its own page]].
48	* WorkingTitle: ''Once Upon a Spy'', ''Silver Bullet'', ''Magic 44'', ''A Killing Moon'', and ''Nothing is Forever''.

Context Trivia / Skyfall