We are not now that strength which in old days Moved heaven and earth; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find. And not to yield.
The one where James Bond "dies"... again.Skyfall is the 23rd James Bond film, and also marks the 50th anniversary of the film series. It stars Daniel Craig in his third installment and was directed by Sam Mendes. It was released in 2012 after languishing four years in Development Hell following the financial problems of distributor MGM.After an operation in Istanbul to recover an encrypted hard drive containing the identities of every active undercover NATO agent ends in disaster, Bond is missing and presumed dead, and MI 6section chief M soon comes under government review for her handling of the situation. But when MI6 headquarters is targeted, Bond returns to track down the man responsible: Raoul Silva, a dangerous cyberterrorist with a personal grudge against M.Skyfall is the first Bond film (and fourteenth film overall) to break a billion at the box office (although [[Thunderball]] broke a billion adjusted for inflation).
Also the new male M, when compared to the previous male occupants of the chair (although Ralph Fiennes shares a striking resemblance with Bernard Lee).
Adorkable: Q, at least, in looks, evocative of a young nerd.
Age Cut: The opening credits features two shots of Skyfall being ripped away to show Bond's eyes. In the first, it's a boy; in the second, it's Daniel Craig.
Alas, Poor Villain: Silva begs M to shoot himself and her through the head and end both their pain when he finds out she's been mortally wounded.
The Alcoholic: Bond, who begins drinking heavily after his Heroic BSOD at the start of the film.
All There in the Script: Raoul Silva's first name is never used in the movie itself. Even the credits list him simply as "Silva".
All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After his agent steals the encrypted hard drive in the prologue, Silva blows up MI 6 headquarters remotely to further humiliate M.
James uses the hunting rifle of his father Andrew Bond to fight off Silva's mooks early on in the climax.
In a meta example, Bond's Aston Martin DB5, which Sean Connery's Bond drove in Goldfinger. The car, which had been making cameo appearances in the franchise ever since, was very useful in cutting down Mr. Silva's henchmen.
"Skyfall," is mentioned early on, and is the only part of the word association test that he doesn't have a witty response to. It turns out to be his family home, where he lived after his parents died in a freak accident.
"Think on your sins."
"Sometimes, the old ways are the best."
Artistic License - Chemistry: Hydrogen cyanide is not an acid, and does not dissolve tooth and bone as is depicted. It is a colorless, odorless gas that causes death by cutting off cell respiration.
However, its possible that the cyanide capsule included acid in order to release the poison, and its possible that this particular capsule simply contained too much acid and too little cyanide (though this would still make Silva wrong, as he specifically blames the cyanide, but perhaps he is simply not well-versed on the subject, or was just ignoring the technicalities).
Aside Glance: When the MP starts prattling on at the hearing, Mallory gives a subtle, "Oh, come on," look to her/the camera.
Mallory: Three months ago, you lost the computer drive containing the identity of almost every NATO agent embedded in terrorist organizations across the globe. A list which, in the eyes of our allies, never existed. So if you'll forgive me, I think you know why you're here.
Award Bait Song: The film's main theme, "Skyfall", by the award winning singer Adele. It topped charts on its first day of release, won the Golden Globe for Best Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the fifth Bond song to be so nominated and the first ever to win.
Awesome, but Impractical: Patrice uses armor-piercing depleted uranium rounds, which unsurprisingly are rare enough to allow Bond to track him down easily.
Q all but cites this trope when he tells Bond that Q branch doesn't tend to go in for "explodingpens" anymore, after giving 007 two practical gadgets: a homing beacon radio and a personalized gun.
Which may be either a Mythology Gag or just an unintentional mistake, since Bond had a personalised signature gun in Licence to Kill, about 7 years before he got the exploding pen, making the pen more sophisticated. And in both movies the gun doesn't actually serve any purpose other than being dropped so that some hapless Mook can fail to shoot him with it.
The depleted uranium pistol rounds would also be rather impractical as a pistol round due to the combination of low velocity and high density. Softer lead bullets would be more likely to deform and cause additional damage against an unarmored person, and the round would be too slow to penetrate a Bullet Proof Vest (which is why rifles, firing smaller but much faster bullets, are usually needed for that).
Bond, as usual, as we see him jumping off motorcycles onto moving trains, single-handedly blowing up helicopters with gas canisters and so on.
Big Bad Silva, who hacks MI 6 just to humiliate them, crashes a subway train as a distraction and flies military helicopters into the middle of Scotland.
Eve, during the pre-credits (she does take the shot, after all).
Badass Bureaucrat: Mallory is currently a bureaucrat, but only because he's a Retired Badass. He gets into a gunfight against Silva, takes a bullet, and is later tapped as M's replacement after she dies.
The Bad Guy Wins: Silva's plan to humiliate and then kill M succeeds, though he is unable to make M kill the both of them directly as he wanted, or live to see his victory.
Banister Slide: Bond and Silva slide down the separator between escalators in the London Underground during the chase sequence. In real life there are spacers every few feet to prevent people doing exactly this (one of which can be seen detached on the floor at the end).
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Five months of torture at the hands of the Chinese literally knocked the hope and sanity out of Silva. The unsuccessful suicide by Cyanide Pill that left him painfully disfigured merely rubbed more salt into the wound.
BFG: Bond's Ancestral Weapon, a double-barreled rifle chambered for the .500 Nitro Express (a cartridge designed to kill Cape buffalo, rhinos, and ELEPHANTS).
Bittersweet Ending: Bond stops Silva's rampage, but loses M in the process.
Blue Blood: Bond himself, whose family owned a large, if dilapidated, Scottish manor surrounded by a massive estate.
Bond Gun Barrel: The classic version of the Bond gun barrel sequence serves as the punchline to The Tag at the end of the movie, marking its first real appearance since Die Another Day.
Boring, but Practical: Bond receives two rather unimpressive-looking gadgets from Q: a gun that only Bond can fire, and an emergency homing beacon. Both turn out to be lifesavers during his mission in Asia.
A recurring theme of the movie, really. Silva specializes in hacking elaborate computer networks, and rigs London itself into a deathtrap to escape Bond and reach M's hearing; Bond only manages to undermine him with simple tools Silva has no way of manipulating, such as a radio, a beaten-down homestead in the middle of nowhere, and a completely ordinary hunting knife.
The signature gun is arguably not very practical; just like the one he had in Licence to Kill, its sole purpose seems to be for Bond to drop it and some Mook to pick it up and try-and-fail to shoot him with it. In other movies where Bond has a regular gun, he almost never loses it in this way, if he loses it at all, and sometimes when he does lose it an ally picks it up and uses it to save his life with it (case in point- From Russia with Love and Rosa Klebb's fate), so a signature gun might even potentially handicap Bond.
Bottomless Magazines: Averted, which is unusual for a Bond movie. Characters are regularly seen reloading, and running out of ammo is also what leads to Bond getting shot in the shoulder during the Action Prologue.
Played straight in the prologue: the mook with the fully-automatic pistol is able to lay down near-continuous fire from the roof of the train and is only seen reloading once. Initially handwaved by his using a drum magazine, though he carries on doing so even after he gets rid of it. He's also using "hard to get and extremely expensive" depleted uranium shells — apparently he had a bottomless wallet, as well.
Break Out The Museum Piece: For the film's climax, James uses a classic Aston Martin DB 5 because unlike most of MI 6's other vehicles, it lacks any computerized tracking equipment that Silva could use against him. Not to mention the very same machine guns it had in Goldfinger.
Broken Bird: Severine, an ex-Sex Slave controlled by Big Bad Silva. Her smile as Bond gets under her veneer is not pleasant.
Call Back: The death of Bond's parents and his youth as an orphan, as previously discussed in GoldenEye and Casino Royale (and a piece of backstory dating back to Fleming's original novels), is a running plot thread through the film.
Bond chews M out for nearly getting him killed at the start of the film.
Silva's entire plan is also about making M suffer for her past transgressions.
Computer Screen: Think on your sins.
Car Fu: Silva manages to do this with a TRAIN of all things, by blowing out a side tunnel and letting momentum and the London Underground do the rest for him.
Cartwright Curse: Severine, like many of the women who sleep with Bond in a given film, ends up dead soon after.
Also averted: This is the first Bond movie starring Daniel Craig in which he sleeps with a girl who does not die (The unnamed chick he bangs during the vacation montage).
Changing of the Guard: By the end of Skyfall, we're introduced to a new Q, and a new M and Moneypenny.
Chekhov's Gag: Bond's issued gadgets consist of a mildly tricked out gun and a panic button radio. Q snarks about Bond possibly expecting an exploding pen. The joke first pays off when Bond uses the radio to summon The Cavalry, and again when he digs up an Aston Martin DB 5 with an Ejection Seat and concealed machine guns. "Sometimes the old ways are the best", indeed.
Played with when Bond receives a "palm recognition" gun from Q that only he can fire. Unlike the standard Chekhov's Gun, as soon as you see it, you know that at some point, it's *not* going to fire — when a bad guy gets a hold of it and tries to use it. Bond himself never actually fires it.
Q also gives Bond a Chekhov's "distress radio."
One of the notable camera shots in the Macau casino shows decorative giant komodo dragons in an ideal fighting area. It doesn't take a screenwriter to figure out that someone is getting eaten.
Chekhov's Gunman: Played with regarding Mallory. Genre Savvy viewers will be able to work out that he's being set up for something, so it's heavily suggested he's a Mole In Charge to throw us off the scent. In fact, he's destined to be the replacement for M.
Concealment Equals Cover: Justified due to the thick stone walls of Skyfall; nothing short of a helicopter-mounter machine gun can penetrate them.
Cool Car: The iconic Aston Martin DB5 returns and still kicks ass despite its age. Cue iconic musical score.
Chronically Crashed Car: And just like most of Bond's cars it doesn't end the movie in one piece.
Cool Old Guy: Kincade, who is kind of like Alfred Pennyworth, but packing major heat.
Cool Old Lady: M gets in on the action, firing guns and wiring up the chandelier in Skyfall into a booby trap for Silva. By her own admission, she's "a lousy shot", but hey, booby-trapping the chandelier was pretty awesome by itself.
Complexity Addiction: Silva's plans, befitting a Bond villain, are far more complicated than they need to be, but wouldn't be nearly as fun to watch otherwise. For example, he has a sniper murder his way to the top of an office building to assassinate a man in the building opposite, even though the target is already surrounded by Silva's own men (though this may have been for the sake of deniability, as there'd be no evidence for the involvement of the men in the room).
Unlikely, since they immediately move the body plus they are the only witnesses. Plus, there were surely easier ways to kill somebody. One could also argue that his main Evil Plan is also overlycomplicated, considering his fairly simple objectives.
Compressed Hair: Severine pins up her almost waist-length hair so as to make it look as short as a bob cut.
Continuity Nod / Mythology Gag: Just like 40th anniversary Bond film Die Another Day, the 50th anniversary Skyfall makes multiple references to previous films in the series.
After deciding to come back, Bond contacts M by breaking into her house, mirroring his break in into her previous home in Casino Royale.
When James returns from his unplanned retirement, M snaps at him with "what did you expect, an apology?", mirroring a similarly cold remark in a similar situation in Die Another Day. Also counts as Foreshadowing because when she finally confronts Silva, he comments that he expected "no remorse" from her, which becomes an instance of Pride Before A Fall; it's implied that had she apologized, he would have given up trying to kill her.
After digging some shrapnel out of his shoulder, Bond says to give it to M, "for her eyes only".
The radio tracking device Bond receives is a smaller version of an identical device from Goldfinger.
Q cracks a joke about the exploding pen from GoldenEye.
Bond: Not exactly Christmas, is it?
Q: Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore.
Also, Q insisting that Bond return the gun and radio device, "intact". A frequent complaint of the original Q in earlier Bond movies.
The painting shown to Patrice's target in Shanghai is Modigliani's "Woman With a Fan", which was stolen in 2010. Dr. No's lair was adorned with Francisco Goya's "Portrait of The Duke of Wellington", which was stolen in 1961.
In Macau, Bond tells Eve "don't touch your ear". Unlike agent Carter, Eve listens.
The poor thug who winds up killed by the komodo dragons is made to resemble Oddjob from Goldfinger. A physically imposing, well dressed, Asian man with a goatee. All he was missing was the hat.
When Silva caresses Bond's thighs, Bond asks 'What makes you think this is my first time?'. While seemingly a throwaway quip, Bond may actually be referring to the time Le Chiffre stripped him naked, tied him to a chair and tortured him.
The scotch Silva uses in his and Bond's William Telling contest is dated 1962, the year Dr. No was released.
When Silva reveals the effects of cyanide poisoning, his features become reminiscent of Richard Kiel, the actor who played the henchman Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. His eyelids also sag down, just like Blofeld's did.
The DB 5 pulls double duty - recall, he won it in a poker game early on in Casino Royale, though the model in Casino Royale had the steering wheel on the left, whilst this one has it on the right.
During the climactic battle, Bond and his allies use mirrors to distract their enemies in a sequence reminiscent of The Man with the Golden Gun (a reference which is clearer in the title sequence).
At the end of the film, MI 6 moves into the same Universal Exports offices seen in the Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton movies (the padded doorway leading into M's office in particular).
Silva's first line is "Hello, James," a nod to another rogue agent in GoldenEye.
The idea of an MI 6 agent turning villain is reminiscent of GoldenEye.
The decision to name the film after Bond's family estate may be a nod to the previous decision to name Goldeneye after Ian Fleming's estate in Jamaica.
Likely unintentional, but the rather low-tech surroundings of MI 6 after it moves into the underground base are reminiscent of how MI 6 HQ is presented in the non-EON film Never Say Never Again. MI 6 moving to another headquarters could also be a reference to The World Is Not Enough, which also had an explosion happen at MI 6 HQ.
Silva worked for MI 6 in Hong Kong in the late 80s-mid 90s, the same time period that the Bond franchise stalled. Hong Kong was meant to be the setting for Timothy Dalton's third film before it was sent to Development Hell.
Continuity Reboot/Origins Episode: Tells how Bond came to meet Q, Moneypenny, and the male M, as well as how he came to operate out of the Universal Exports' offices. (None of this has ever actually been depicted in the films before, nor in any of the Fleming novels.) To reinforce this, the film closes, instead of opening, with the classic Bond Gun Barrel sequence.
Creator Cameo: Producer Michael G Wilson, who has received cameos dating back to Goldfinger, gets two, although his cameo as a pall-bearer was reduced to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in the edit.
Cry for the Devil: Silva has his reasons for villainy. After enduring months of torture where he refused to leak MI6 information, Silva then opted for suicide over caving in; his cyanide capsule ended up destroying his mouth and skull instead of killing him, and he later escaped to discover M and MI6 had rewarded his endurance by considering him expendable and leaving him to die.
Cyanide Pill: Subverted. The pill doesn't kill him.
Dark Secret: M sold former British agent Silva out to the Chinese in exchange for 6 other agents and a peaceful transition in Hong Kong after Silva started disobeying orders and began running ops against Chinese intelligence on his own.
The film questions the effectiveness of Bond and MI 6 in the modern age, only to decide that men like Bond will always be needed.
The film also deconstructs M herself, demonstrating the consequences of her ruthless, pragmatic dedication to duty, but also ultimately shows that such dedication can also be courageous and honorable.
M: To hell with dignity. I'll leave when the job is done.
Dented Iron: A recurring theme. The effectiveness of the aging Bond, M, Mallory, MI 6, Bond's family manor, and Britain itself are all questioned, only for all of them to prove to be considerably tougher than they look. Then there's this subtext-laden remark about a painting in the National Gallery:
Q: Always makes me feel a bit melancholy; a grand old warship being ignominiously hauled away for scrap. The inevitability of time, don't you think?
Depraved Bisexual: Silva invokes this to screw with Bond. Bond just snarks back, leading Silva to give up and move on to a sadistic William Telling contest instead.
Did They or Didn't They?: Bond and Eve's close shave ends on an ambiguous note. Between that and the whole "friendly fire" incident, it adds a new wrinkle to the classic Bond/Moneypenny dynamic.
The film does cut to a fireworks display, which is a pretty unambiguous code for an orgasm.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: M dies in Bond's arms after being fatally wounded by one of Silva's men earlier.
Dies Wide Open: M dies with her eyes open, leaving Bond to close them for her.
Disney Villain Death: The fight on the top floor of a Shanghai skyscraper ends with Patrice, the mook Bond's fighting falling to his death after slipping out of Bond's hands.
Disposable Woman: Severine appears for all of a half-dozen scenes before Silva shoots her in the head. This shows how disposable Silva considers everyone and everything, a dark mirror to M's pragmatism.
Downer Beginning: The movie begins with the opening chase through Istanbul ending in failure as the culpurit gets away with the MacGuffin containing the identities of the undercover NATO agents, and to make matters worse, Bond is presumed dead after being shot by Eve.
Do Wrong, Right: When Mallory catches Q and Tanner working off the books to help capture Silva.
Due to the Dead: The lack of ceremony accorded to dead spies is mentioned several times — all they get is their real name engraved into a remembrance wall. Similarly, after M's death, none of the flags in the area around MI 6's headquarters are at half mast, and both Eve and Bond comment on the lack of ceremony.
Dying To Be Replaced: Gareth Mallory succeeds Judi Dench's character as M following her death at the end of the film.
Empathic Environment: When M thinks Bond has been killed, she is framed against a window with rain pouring down outside.
Emerging From The Shadows: Bond at the beginning of the film, and later when he encounters M in her flat.
End of an Age: The film constantly touches on Dented Iron and ends on the iconic Aston Martin DB5 being destroyed and Judi Dench's M dead.
Et Tu, Brute?: Silva himself felt this way after realizing that M sold him out to the Chinese.
Every Car Is a Pinto: Justified when you think about it: The Aston-Martin does have an ejector seat. And machine guns.
Everything Is Online: How Silva accomplishes a number of his objectives, including how he obtained his lair and escapes custody late in the film. It is lampshaded in the film that some of the things he does should have been impossible.
Facial Horror: Silva took a defective Cyanide Pill that left him without teeth or part of his palate, forcing him to wear prosthetic ones. In one scene, the audience gets to see him rip the whole thing out, deflating his cheeks.
Failure Hero: Bond fails at every objective he has during the movie: he leaves the MI 6 agent to die; loses the MI 6 hard drive; allows an assassin to kill a politician; fails to get information from said assassin; fails to protect the mole; falls into Silva's trap; fails to stop Silva escaping; fails to stop several deaths in Parliament; loses Skyfall Manor; kills Silva instead of letting him rot in prison; and finally fails to protect M. The only positive thing that can be said is that he survives. In a sense this is exactly the way Ian Fleming first conceived of Bond.
Fed to the Beast: In Macau, Bond falls into a pit of Komodo dragons with one of Silva's mooks. Said mook tries to kill him with the palmprint gun and fails to do so. He is then dragged into the shadow and eaten by one of the lizards.
The opening credits sequence foreshadows multiple elements of Bond's mission to Asia, Bond and Silva's backstories, and the climactic showdown at the titular Skyfall manor at the end of the movie.
The theme song also has a few - the chorus in particular indirectly mentions that there will be a battle ("We will stand tall, face it all together, at Skyfall.")
M's line "Oh, to hell with dignity! I'll leave when the job's done!" foreshadows her final scene at the end of the movie.
Bond's line to Severine, "Someone usually dies."
A very subtle example that overlaps somewhat with a Call Back to Casino Royale: in the earlier film, Bond tells M "I thought M was a randomly assigned letter, I had no idea it stood for..." clearly implying that M's real name has a letter m in it somewhere. In Skyfall we're introduced to an authoritative senior figure (played by a big-time actor,) named Mallory...
When M is looking at the YouTube video containing the first 5 names, the suggested video list shows that Silva has at least put up trailers for the other videos, if he hasn't outright put them up already.
If you look at the dashboard and armrest of the DB5 when Bond is using the forward-mounted Machine guns, you can see that the car also contains the GPS tracker from Goldfinger, and the armrest containing all the controls suggests that the car contains all of the gadgets from that movie.
The gift box containing M's porcelain bull dog has her full name printed on it. It's Olivia Mansfield.
Go Back To The Source: Bond takes refuge in his childhood manor for his final confrontation against Silva.
Good Old Ways: The Arc Words of Skyfall are "Sometimes the old ways are best," reflecting both on Bond's settling with his own troubled past and, in a meta sort of way, on the franchise's return to the style of the first films. Not for nothing has Skyfall been heralded as one of the best installments of the series.
Gory Discretion Shot: After Bond struggles with his unsteady hand during the William Telling contest, trying desperately to avoid unneeded casualties, Silva doesn't try. At all. But the only results we're shown is the tumbler of scotch hitting the ground.
GPS Evidence: Depleted uranium bullets, used by a few mercenaries/ assassins as a calling card. Here are their photographs.
Hacked by a Pirate: Silva does this with a stylized skull and "God save the Queen" playing in the message.
Hall Of Mirrors: The opening sequence has Bond shooting funhouse-style mirrors, and the climactic battle involves Kincade using reflections as decoys to deceive Silva's men.
Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: For her part in losing the MacGuffin and other recent attacks on MI 6 and their allies in NATO, M faces a public hearing in front of a government committee near the middle of the film.
Hellish Copter: Silva's gunship is hit by the shock-wave and resulting flying pieces of Skyfall's explosion, prompting it to crash and kill almost all of Silva's remaining men.
Hero Killer: Silva seems well on his way to depopulating MI:6's HR rolls by the movie's end.
He's Back: Bond, after pretending to be dead for some time, reappears in M's house when she needs him. Also later when, after spending the whole film being held back by his arm injury, Bond finally regains his Improbable Aiming Skills.
Hollywood Hacking: Both Q and Silva. Silva can turn on the gas main in MI:6 via computer, somehow. In real life, the CIA did something similar to a Siberian pipeline in the 1980's albeit with a pre planted "logic bomb".
Hollywood Healing: Averted. Bond's shoulder wound from the opening sequence dramatically affects his performance, even after he's given several months to recuperate. Granted, "recuperation" consisted of getting wasted and laying women in the middle of nowhere.
Hollywood Tactics: Well-averted on the part of Silva's mooks during the final battle.*
They react with proper suppression fire to Bond's opening ambush, take what cover they can as quickly as possible, and move through the manor in a professional fashion.
The problem, of course, is that they're still up against James Bond.
Honor Before Reason: At one point, when warned that Silva is on his way to kill her, M refuses to retreat from her meeting on account she won't show them her back.
Hope Spot: Bond takes out Silva's mooks with ease, but of course, that was the easy part.
House Fire: The climax of the film burns down Bond's ancestral family manor.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: M loses her headquarters and her career thanks to Silva and then bleeds out after being grazed by a bullet fired by one of Silva's henchmen.
I Did What I Had to Do: M also justifies ordering Eve to shoot while Bond was in the line of fire by saying she had to do whatever she could to prevent the encrypted drive from being stolen. She justifies selling out Silva to the Chinese similarly.
Likewise, M and Kincade should know that using a flashlight out on the moors is going to give away their position.
M, we understand you don't want to show weakness to anyone, but when a team of commando terrorists come after you in a Parliament hearing you should have known better than continue the hearing.
IKEA Weaponry: Patrice takes out a target across the street using a custom rifle he assembles on the fly.
Improbable Aiming Skills: A point is made that Bond has lost those he used to have, which becomes important a couple of times (expecting him to make a one-handed William Telling shot with an antique caplock dueling pistol at twenty paces was just cruel). His aiming practice with his father's rifle suggests he's got his mojo back in time for the Final Battle.
Actually it's not. It's mentioned that the rifle "pulls to the left". Bond, due to his injury, has been pulling to the right throughout the movie. The two flaws cancel each other out.
Incoming Ham: When you want to make an entrance, it's undeniably difficult to beat a helicopter blasting classic rock from loudspeakers. Lampshaded by Bond.
Incurable Cough of Death: M is clipped by a bullet in the torso, and her hand is shown very bloodied. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't last past the finale.
Informed Flaw: The doctor clearly believes Bond is addicted to both alcohol and pills, but after Bond starts working, he's never shown to be drunk, high, or suffering from withdrawal.
He is shown to drink at the beach in Turkey and appears completely hung over (either that or indeed genuinely drunk) in M's flat.
Q: I'm your new quartermaster. James Bond: You must be joking. Q: Why, because I'm not wearing a lab coat? James Bond: Because you still have spots.
Just Train Wrong: Bond chases Silva through The London Underground. We see them both boarding a train at what is supposed to be Temple station, on the District Line. However, the District Line is a subsurface tube route with cut-and-cover tunnel construction, which uses D and S Stock trains. The train shown in the movie is a deep-tube train, comprised of 1996 Stock which is used on the Jubilee Line (though the interiors show the train as having Northern Line maps). Additionally, there should be no reason to have a motorman in the last car's cab. This appears to be because the scenes were filmed at the disused Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross, which was dressed up to look like Temple so they could film without having to close parts of the operating tube system.
Just You And Me And My Guards: Silva pulls this to a degree; at first, it seems like Silva is going to come after M and Bond by himself, or at least with a couple of henchmen. He ends up bringing dozens of Mooks to the showdown at Skyfall manor, and even Bond is surprised not to find Silva among the first wave of men before he sees the helicopter approaching.
Kangaroo Court: The hearing on M's handling of the crisis rapidly turns into this and Mallory is none too happy about it. It couldn't help that it's because this is caused by Silva attacking the place.
Silva kills Severine in front of Bond after deciding he no longer needs her.
Out of frustration, Silva pointlessly kills an unarmed civilian in his way out of a failed assault.
Killed Off for Real: M dies from a wound inflicted by one of Silva's henchmen at the climax of the movie.
Knight in Sour Armor: Bond continues to live this trope from the last two films, his grim view of his job tempered by his patriotism and loyalty to M, though Silva is not impressed.
M betrayed Silva to save several other agents back in Hong Kong. The first phase of Silva's revenge involves betraying the identities of five agents, effectively undoing it. She also sacrificed several agents, denying one immediate medical care from Bond that could have saved him, and dies from a similar injury herself because she can't get help in time.
At the start of the film, M orders Eve to "take the bloody shot" that downs Bond. In the finale, when Silva implores her to end both their lives with the same bullet, she is either unwilling or unable to do so.
Leave Her To Me: Silva orders his men not to kill M, as he wants to deal with her himself. Bond, on the other hand, is fair game.
MacGuffin: The stolen hard drive containing the names and faces of every undercover NATO agent.
MacGyvering: In a Lock and Load Montage, Bond and M rig Booby Traps to stop Silva's men in the form of lighting fixture wired nail bombs and floorboard rigged shotgun cartridges.
Gunfire from Silva's helicopter causes the vintage Aston Martin to burst into very large flames. Granted, it is loaded with ammunition, so it is a case of ammo cooking off.
When Silva's helicopter crashes, the entire area explodes. Granted, it is also loaded with ammunition.
Man Child: Some of Silva's mannerisms and behavior cause him to come across as childish, though it may just be an act to mess with Bond and M.
Milestone Celebration: The film was released in 2012, the 50th anniversary of 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 Sean Connery was first announced to be Bond in Dr. No, and the film itself contains multiplereferences to previous films in the series. And prior to the closing credits a special 50th anniversary logo is shown above "James Bond will return".
Mean Boss: M may not be a cackling mad scientist or terrorist, but make no mistake: she is equally as heartless towards the lives of her subordinates as any snarling Bond Villain. In her case, however, it is for the common good that she has to be that way, and that her assets are considered disposable. If she had fought to keep her subordinates, Silva wouldn't have snapped in the first place.
"Silva" is the Portuguese equivalent of "Smith", hinting to The Reveal that it's just a code name. His real name "Tiago" is the Portuguese form of "James".
Even better: his last name, Rodriguez is Spanish for son of Roderick, which means he who is rich in glory.
Gareth Mallory, twice over. "Mallory" is Old French for "bad luck" or "unlucky", and his introduction has him asking Bond why he would come back when he had the good luck Mallory and others never did. Once we reach the third act, the mere fact that his last name begins with "M" makes it quite clear what's going to happen.
Silva regularly calls M "mommy", and once "mother," even though they're not related, and insinuates that M sees both himself and Bond as her children.
Bond's reaction to her death suggests he also sees M as a mother figure.
M's comment that orphans make the best agents implies that she sees some utility in this.
Continuity Nod to Quantum Of Solace, when Bond mentions that part of the reason he's going after Quantum is because they tried to kill a woman close to him. Camille asks, "Your mother?" Bond replies, "She likes to think so."
The Word Association Test is somewhat funny (particularly Bond's reaction to hearing "M") up until the psychologist says "Skyfall" and puts Bond on edge.
Bond follows Patrice to what looks like a meeting...until Patrice kills the security guard in the lobby.
More Dakka: A notable example is Patrice's Glock 18 during the Action Prologue. It's loaded with a pistol version of the Beta C-Mag.
Mundane Solution: On the Underground, Bond needs to find out where Silva's going. Q engages in Rapid-Fire Typing and brings up a 3D wireframe map of the Underground. Bond just looks up at the route poster on the wall to see what the next stop is.
Needle in a Stack of Needles: Silva is pursued by Bond in the overcrowded London underground and is disguised as a policeman. Eventually Silva stumbles into a lobby full of policemen and is amused to realize that his cover is unassailable. Bond is able to follow his trail anyway.
Eve accidentally shoots Bond, allowing Patrice to flee with the hard drive.
M gave Silva to the Chinese to save 6 agents, but in the process caused Silva's Start of Darkness, leading him to kill dozens of MI 6 staff later on.
Q's attempt to decrypt Silva's computer by plugging it into MI6's network ends up releasing a virus that opens every door in MI 6's new base, allowing Silva to escape.
Bond takes M to Skyfall without the knowledge of MI 6 to keep her safe and fight Silva on his own terms. Despite a heroic effort, it doesn't end well.
Non-Action Big Bad: Played with, though Silva goes toe to toe with Bond, he is annoyed by all the jumping and fighting and finds action unbecoming.
Not My Driver: Bond pulls this on M after the assault on Westminster.
Not So Different: Silva points out to Bond that they are both past-their-prime top agents who have been betrayed by M. "Raoul Silva" also happens to be an anagram of "a rival soul"...
Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Bond is issued a Walter PPK from Q branch that only fires when he's holding it. So when a mook grabs the gun and is about to fire it, Bond only smiles.
Bond's reaction when he spots the giant komodo dragon in the pit. Craig suggested to the director that Bond should actually show fear for once, so this is a first.
Big Bad Silva has been locked up inside the MI 6 HQ and Bond and Q are analysing his laptop. It looks like the good guys are finally one step ahead. Then every door in the base starts opening. Q's reaction is priceless.
Older Is Better: The underlining conflict in the film is if the old MI 6 and the double Os are still relevant in the modern, digital world of new threats. The climax of the film is Bond using this trope, such as using classic Bond car from the 60's since it doesn't have a tracking device, a break open rifle, and simple booby traps.
Old Retainer: Kincade, Bond's family's gamekeeper.
Silva's account of how he dealt with the rats that overran his family home is given in a single shot as he enters from a descending elevator and slowly meanders towards Bond. The room was specially constructed so it would be just the right length.
The silhouetted fight sequence in Shanghai between Bond and Patrice is one uninterrupted shot.
The scene where Bond and Eve survey the casino in Macau is also one continuous shot.
Being shot in the shoulder twice during the opening action sequence. The first doesn't slow Bond down one bit, but the second knocks him off a train and afterwards Bond doesn't receive proper medical attention and has trouble with the arm several times later on.
Bond finds a Red Shirt alive with a stomach wound and thinks he can patch him up, but is ordered to get on with his mission; without immediate first aid, the man dies.
The bullet wound Mallory takes from Silva in the inquiry attack persists until the end of the movie.
Near the end of the film, M suffers a bullet wound inflicted by one of Silva's henchmen, but manages to continue to fight and run for quite some time afterwards. The wound eventually ends up killing her.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Silva orders his henchmen to keep their hands off M, saying, "She's mine." A more reasonable example than most, as he doesn't care who kills Bond.
Origins Episode: This film could considered one for the "classic James Bond", as it shows the origins of many well-known elements from the Bond mythos: Moneypenny, her sexually charged banter with Bond, the male M, his office, etc. Skyfall also delves deeper into the origins of Bond himself than any of the preceding movies.
Outrun the Fireball: Bond has to outrun the explosion of Silva's crashed gunship in the finale.
Also Subverted. Bond seems almost confused that he didn't have to outrun the initial fireball of Skyfall's explosion. The gunship crash happens moments later.
The Power of Hate: Silva suggests this as the explanation for his surviving cyanide poisoning.
Play Along Prisoner: Bond captures Big Bad Silva and puts him in a cell in MI 6 headquarters three quarters of the way through the film. Silva promptly escapes.
Precision F-Strike: From M (the first time the F-word has ever been uttered in a Bond film):
M: I fucked this up, didn't I?
Product Placement: Tanner and Q both use Sony Vaio computers, Eve comments that she just missed "two VW Beetles" (and Bond pancakes some of those with a prominently-labeled CAT excavator), Bond wears a specially-designed Omega watch and uses a Sony Xperia T smartphone... Not to mention Bond and Tanner both drinking Heineken. (Though Bond's use of Heineken occurs not in the most complimentary of circumstances. And contrary to pre-release publicity suggesting he would forsake his classic drink in favor of beer, he still enjoys a vodka martini at one point.) In addition, one of the shots where Silva runs through a subway station has the camera pan slightly to its right to show an ad for Swarovski watches. When Bond pursues him, the camera is directly pointed at an ad for Heineken. In both instances, the crowd subtly parts to show most of the posters.
Psychopathic Manchild: Silva. His general demeanor comes off disturbingly juvenile, he giggles girlishly extremely often, his online threats are ridiculous, script-kiddie style animations, and he is variously described as possessive, with a tendency to dispose of anything that no longer amuses him.
Race Lift: Miss Moneypenny, who was previously played by white actresses, is played by the half-Jamaican half-Trinidadian English actress Naomie Harris. Parodied by Honest Trailers, who credit her as, "Miss Moneypenny's black?!"
Reality Ensues: After being grazed by a bullet and not receiving proper medical attention, the elderly M bleeds out and dies soon after.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Government Minister on the committee M is hauled before gives a (mostly off-screen) Character Filibuster about how useless and outdated MI 6 is. M's response to her (in the form of a Tennyson quotation), fortunately, is beautiful, and it helps that all of M's points are proven correct immediately afterwards.
Mallory even realizes how one-sided the hearing is, and lampshades it.
Red Herring: Mallory is a shady, stuck-up ex-soldier, played by the guy who also played Voldemort, Amon Goeth and Francis Dolarhyde, who tries to get M to resign in his first appearance, scorns Bond in his second, and is present at a would-be crime scene in his third. Not a great start for the future M!
Red Right Hand: Like many Bond villains, Silva has a hidden deformity: In this case, half of his face is sunken and his teeth are reduced to rotten nubs.
Removing The Earpiece: Bond removes his and drops it in Eve's glass before meeting Severine.
Retired Badass: Mallory is a veteran of the British Army (specifically, Regiment 22 - the SAS), and was kept as a hostage at one point by the IRA.
Retirony: Invoked. Silva's plan is to force M into retirement by humiliating her, and then kill her before she can actually retire.
Revisiting the Roots: Looks to be the case with the franchise as of this film: besides the reintroduction of Q by the end of film, MI 6 has moved into the Universal Exports offices from the older films, Moneypenny is reintroduced and there's a new (male) M.
Ripped from the Headlines: The catalyst for the plot is sensitive government information being stolen and then leaked online, mirroring various real world scandals where classified documents were leaked onto the internet in the years surrounding Skyfall's release.
Rock Beats Laser: During the climax, Bond, M and Kincade are poorly equipped, with only old hunting guns, knives, dynamite, some gas bottles, and the good old Aston Martin DB5 against Silva's mooks, who carry recent assault rifles and grenades and benefit from heavily armed helicoptersupport.
Rogue Agent: Silva, a former MI 6 agent out to destroy M after she screwed him over years earlier. While he was still an MI 6 agent, he was carrying out unauthorized cyber-attacks on the Chinese.
For the final act, Bond kidnaps M and enlists Q and Tanner to (unofficially and without any authorization at all) help him bait Silva into fighting Bond on his own turf. Illustrated by Tanner having a beer in MI 6 headquarters while they go about their work.
Roof Hopping: With bikes over the rooftops of Istanbul.
Bond and Q's discussion of a painting of "a grand old warship being ignominiously hauled away for scrap," as Bond's fitness for active service is questioned from all sides. At the end of a movie, M's new office prominently displays a triumphant painting of the previously destroyed MI 6 office in its prime.
Being killed by a knife In the Back, given the "old ways" theme. The disreputable art of assassination and espionage was traditionally described this way. Also, betrayal is an important theme in the film.
Sawed Off Shotgun: Kincade takes on Silva's men with one - after a memorable scene where he is seen sawing the barrels short and then blasting a hole in the shed wall.
M: Your name is on the memorial wall of the very building you attacked. I will have it struck off. Soon, your past will be as non-existent as your future.
Of course, a cut later, M turns to Bond and tells him Silva's real name, Tiago Rodriguez.
Scary Scorpions: After Bond is presumed dead, he participates in a Drinking Contest where he must keep a scorpion on his hand. He promptly empties his glass and then traps the scorpion under it.
The lantern-lit Huangpu River, complete with giant Chinese Dragons.
The abandoned coal mining facility and city on Hashima Island is this and Scenery Gorn.
The climax in Scotland, including the fog-covered valley of Glencoe.
The woods outside Istanbul in the beginning.
Second Face Smoke: Severine does this for a long time during her Smoking Is Glamorous tribute. Bond's response falls into the "stoically putting up with it" category.
The French song that plays on Silva's island, "Boum!", sung by Charles Trenet prior to World War 2. It is mostly about nature, love, and thunder. The titular "BOOM" onomatopoeia in the song also refers to cannon fire from the Maginot Line (where he sung for French troops), albeit on a joyful tone.
This is recalled again later in the film when Silva broadcasts a version of the John Lee Hooker blues song "Boom Boom" over his helicopter loudspeakers as he approaches Skyfall.
At least the lyrics fit a bit:
Boom, boom, boom, boom
I'm gonna shoot you right down
Spoiler Opening: The opening theme foreshadows most of the movie's plot, as well as the final battle at Skyfall. It also mentioned that the titular house is burn down during the battle (i.e. "Let the Skyfall, when it crumbles").
Stealth Prequel: Though Casino Royale was initially billed as a prequel, there was very little in it to suggest that it and Quantum Of Solace were about Bond's first missions. This film, in particular, does all that it can to present Bond as a veteran MI6 agent who's finally feeling the effects of his many brushes with death. By the end, though, we unexpectedly learn that it's also the story of Bond's first encounters with Q and Moneypenny, and that it features a new M who very much resembles Bernard Lee's original take on the character (complete with the classic office set).
Stepford Smiler: Severine, who was a child sex slave abused for years and still suffers at the hands of Silva. Bond sees through her veneer, and her smile slowly gets faker and faker as Bond gets under it.
The movie serves as a Decon-Recon Switch of British resolve, with Silva representing the costs of British determination and Bond its power even in the face of adversity.
Taking the Bullet: During Silva's attack on the inquiry hearing, Mallory does this when Silva fires his pistol at M, intercepting the bullet in his shoulder.
Taking You with Me: Near the end of the film, Silva tries to get M to shoot the both of them through the head. Bond intervenes before Silva succeeds by killing him with a throwing knife.
Technology Marches On: Played for Laughs. The radio tracker Bond receives looks like the one he was given in Goldfinger. Back in 1964, such a device was a state-of-the-art high tech gadget. In 2012, it's explicitly ordinary.
Tragic Keepsake: The little Union Jack bulldog figurine seen on M's desk, which survives the destruction of MI 6 headquarters, is later left to Bond in M's will. Given Bond absolutely hated the thing, it was meant as a final joke by M.
Trash the Set: Bond's iconic Aston Martin DB5 gets blown up in the finale, along with the eponymous Skyfall manor.
Tragic Villain: Silva, in many ways a profoundly wronged man, turned into a complete psychopath by unfortunate events.
Tranquil Fury: Bond comments "Waste of good Scotch" after Silva kills Severine, only to take out all of Silva's men and deliver a vicious kick to Silva himself seconds later.
Likewise, he seems to be rather miffed when Silva destroys the DB5. Cue massive explosion caused by him that takes out half the mooks present.
Trojan Prisoner: Part of Silva's gambit to get close to M - he gets himself caught by Bond, gets interrogated, then tricks Q into accidentally disabling the security systems so he can escape.
Troll: Silva loves to mock M and Q with his hacks.
Unperson: M tells Silva she intends to have his real name struck off MI 6's memorial wall, likely the only place his service was ever officially acknowledged. He looks appropriately appalled at the thought.
Verbal Tic: Silva's is "Bip. Oof" to his sentences.
Villainous Breakdown: Silva, by the end of things. He had kept his cool throughout the whole movie but once his plans had started to awry, Silva started to break down considerably.
Visual Pun: Betrayal is the driving theme of this movie. In the end the main villain is literally stabbed in the back.
The Voiceless: Patrice, the French mercenary who stole the NATO hard drive.
Watch the Paint Job: Any car fan will be wincing at Bond casually crushing brand new Volkswagen Beetles. And Silva's men exploding Bond's Aston Martin...
Weaponized Car: Serves as the punchline to a Brick Joke unwittingly set up by Q early in the film.
Silva: You see, we are the last two rats. We can either eat each other... mmm... or eat everyone else.
We Have Become Complacent: When asked if MI 6 is relevant to the modern world, M responds that there should be an even greater focus on espionage to battle increasingly decentralized modern threats.
We Have Reserves: M is a rare "heroic" example of this, casually treating the lives of her subordinates as expendable assets. This, predictably, comes back to haunt her in a big way. The agent who Bond finds shot when the hard-drive is stolen is revealed to have died simply because Bond was ordered to pursue Patrice. Also, this trope is what drives Silva's retaliation plot.
Wham Line: More for M than for the audience: "Agent down."
What Happened to the Mouse?: Kincade's dogs aren't seen after the scene where he first appears. We hear them barking as Silva's henchmen approach for the final confrontation.
What You Are in the Dark: After Bond returns to duty after being thought dead, Mallory points out that Bond had what every agent would have wished for: a clean exit from the spy business. He could have just stayed "dead" and lived out the rest of his life in comfortable retirement and nobody would ever think otherwise. However, Bond's dedication to Queen and Country motivates him to come back.
William Telling: Silva forces Bond to play a game with him where they have to shoot a glass of whiskey off Severine's head using old Percussion Cap pistols. Bond misses and Silva "wins" by shooting her in the head.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Silva just wants to die, but after 5 months of torture and a botched suicide attempt, he's so insane that he believes the only way he can is if he destroys M and everything she stands for first.
Psychologist: I'd like to start with some simple word association, so just tell me the first word that pops into your head. For example, I might say "day", and you might say... Bond: Wasted. Psychologist: [Beat] Alright... Gun. Bond: Shot. Psychologist: Agent. Bond:Provocateur. Psychologist: Woman. Bond:Provocatrix. Psychologist: Heart. Bond: Target. Psychologist: Bird. Bond: Sky. Psychologist: M. Bond: Bitch. Psychologist: Sunlight. Bond: Swim. Psychologist: Moonlight. Bond: Dance. Psychologist: Murder. Bond: Employment. Psychologist: Country. Bond: England. Psychologist: Skyfall. Bond: ... Psychologist: Skyfall. Bond: ...Done. (Walks away)
Xanatos Gambit: Silva knows that MI 6 will eventually identify and arrest him, so he spends years planning around his inevitable capture; come the day of his escape, he counter-hacks MI 6 and abuses M's overconfidence to close in and assassinate her.
Your Favorite: Silva presents the bottle of scotch to Bond, pours two glasses, and gives one to Bond. Instead of drinking the other himself, he uses it for the target in the William Tell contest.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: The Big Bad has been captured and locked in a glass cell in the middle of good guy headquarters before the two hour mark. He promptly escapes.
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