History YMMV / Skyfall

** For that matter, Bond's "what a waste of good scotch" line after [[spoiler: Silva kills Sévérine. A display of his LackOfEmpathy and desensitization to death, a coping mechanism given his history of the CartwightCurse, or simply a way to throw Silva and his men off guard so he could get the drop on them?]]

** James Bond stands by and patiently waits while Patrice kills a politician, puts some incredibly creepy moves on Severine and fails to thwart Silva's plan at any step. [[spoiler:Except the part of killing Silva as he attempted an TakingYouWithMe with M. Though M was already injured enough that she dies afterwards, and had stated she preferred for Silva to rot in prison.]] The only thing that it can be said he accomplished is that he survived.

** Music/{{Adele}}'s TitleThemeTune is already touted as arguably the best Bond theme song of the entire Craig-era 007 Movies, if not the whole James Bond franchise, especially after netting its first major Academy Award alongside with a corresponding Grammy Award. It is fair to say that Music/SamSmith's "[[Film/{{Spectre}} Writings on the Wall]]" and Music/BillieEilish's "Film/NoTimeToDie" have had some very large shoes to fill. That being said, both garnered awards.

* TheWoobie: Sévérine, so ''very'' much. For starters, it's implied that she's been a SexSlave for most of her life, and has been getting abused for who knows how many years by this point. Then, she finally finds someone like Bond, who can potentially set her free from this life, but shortly after taking him to Silva as requested, [[spoiler:she ultimately gets unceremoniously shot in the head by Silva himself, and Bond is, by now, too desensitized to death to even mourn her.]] The more one thinks about it, the more of a downer it really is. Worse, Silva [[spoiler:planned on getting captured. For that he needed Bond brought to him, meaning Severine actually did what her sadistic boss wanted. And still, he shoots her; not because he is thinking "YouHaveFailedMe", but he's just killing her to sell Bond on the idea that she betrayed him.]]

** When Sévérine is [[spoiler:facing Bond in Silva's twisted shooting contest, is she trying to silently beg him not to kill her, or does she actually want him to put her out of her misery after what appears to have been a savage beating (probably including gang-rape) and trauma at the hands of Silva's henchmen? Did Bond miss because of his injury and his degraded skills, or did he miss because he couldn't bring himself to end her life?]]

** At the end of the movie, the new M asks Bond if he's "ready to get back to work" following the previous M's death [[spoiler:At the conclusion of NTTD, M gently but firmly declares "Back to work" after the crew drinks a toast to the now equally deceased Bond.]]

* TheWoobie: Sévérine, so ''very'' much. For starters, it's implied that she's been a SexSlave for most of her life, and has been getting abused for who knows how many years by this point. Then, she finally finds someone like Bond, who can potentially set her free from this life, but shortly after taking him to Silva as requested, [[spoiler:she ultimately gets unceremoniously shot in the head by Silva himself, and Bond is, by now, too desensitized to death to even mourn her.]] The more one thinks about it, the more of a downer it really is. Worse, Silva [[spoiler:planned on getting captured. For that he needed Bond brought to him, meaning Severine actually did what her sadistic boss wanted. And still, he shoots her.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Unlike his cantankerous predecessors, Whishaw's Q has a polite, quiet demeanour and a preppy fashion sense which make him cute and geeky. It is turned up to eleven in [[Film/{{Spectre}} next film]] while the InsufferableGenius part is considerably toned down.

** When Severine is [[spoiler:facing Bond in Silva's twisted shooting contest, is she trying to silently beg him not to kill her, or does she actually want him to put her out of her misery after what appears to have been a savage beating (probably including gang-rape) and trauma at the hands of Silva's henchmen? Did Bond miss because of his injury and his degraded skills, or did he miss because he couldn't bring himself to end her life?]]

** Bond doesn't seem too concerned [[spoiler:when Severine is shot, despite saying he'd protect her. Well, except for the part where he mercilessly slaughtered Silva's men immediately after, but even that's ambiguous]].

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: All it takes for the confrontation between Bond and Silva to end is for the former to throw a knife at the latter's back.]]
* AwardSnub:

** Music/{{Adele}}'s theme "[[https://youtu.be/DeumyOzKqgI Skyfall]]", which incorporates the James Bond theme and {{foreshadow|ing}}s numerous events in the movie. It became the first Bond theme to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, said Oscar also being the first for the entire franchise since 1966 when ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' won Best Visual Effects and the first for an actual performance and not a technical award. For bonus points, Adele had only recently recovered from a strained throat that left her unable to speak for months.
** [[https://youtu.be/yLBFeoikELo "Boum!"]] by Charles Trenet, [[spoiler: which is played during Severine's execution.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/8dnHUcOkvv8 "Boom Boom"]] by The Animals, [[spoiler: which is played when Silva shows up in the helicopter.]]
** If you could somehow express the concept of MythologyGag in musical form, you would probably wind up with [[https://youtu.be/0gbyKplerD8 "Breadcrumbs"]].

** At the end of the movie, the new M asks Bond if he's "ready to get back to work" following the previous M's death [[spoiler: At the conclusion of NTTD, M gently but firmly declares "Back to work" after the crew drinks a toast to the now equally deceased Bond.]]
* HilariousInHindsight: WordOfGod said that Silva was inspired in part by Hans Landa from ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''. Creator/ChristophWaltz, who played Landa, was later cast as Franz Oberhauser [[spoiler:aka Ernst Stavro Blofeld]], the BigBad of the next film, ''Film/{{Spectre}}''. [[spoiler: It gets even funnier when Blofeld reveals that he's been behind everything since ''Casino Royale'', so Silva's been inspired by Blofeld in and out of universe.]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[FallenHero Tiago Rodriguez]] was once M's finest agent, whom she betrayed to the Chinese where he was tortured to the point of attempting a bungled suicide which left him hideously disfigured. Escaping as "[[PsychopathicManchild Raoul Silva]]", he joined SPECTRE under his new name and became a [[TheCracker cyber-terrorist]] who plays the entirety of UsefulNotes/MI6 perfectly. Using a series of terrorist attacks to lure out Bond, Silva proceeds to play mind games with him from their meetings, and [[CapturedOnPurpose allows his own capture]] so his encrypted laptop allows his men access to [=MI-6=]'s systems. Escaping [=MI-6=]'s custody, Silva hunts down M with the intention of achieving a mutual suicide with her, to end his pain with hers and secure his revenge against the woman he sees as a mother who betrayed him. One of Bond's most effective and brilliant adversaries, Silva even dies achieving almost everything he sets out to do, with M following him to death moments later.

** His death is almost identical to that of the bad guy in Enter the Ninja, already considered one of the most Narmtastic movie deaths in history: https://youtu.be/le0HGitpCjI

* TheWoobie: Severine, so ''very'' much. For starters, it's implied that she's been a SexSlave for most of her life, and has been getting abused for who knows how many years by this point. Then, she finally finds someone like Bond, who can potentially set her free from this life, but shortly after taking him to Silva as requested, [[spoiler:she ultimately gets unceremoniously shot in the head by Silva himself, and Bond is, by now, too desensitized to death to even mourn her.]] The more one thinks about it, the more of a downer it really is. Worse, Silva [[spoiler:planned on getting captured. For that he needed Bond brought to him, meaning Severine actually did what her sadistic boss wanted. And still, he shoots her.]]

** In computer security circles, Mallory is often used as a shorthand for a hypothetical adversary. It adds credence to Mallory being a potential bad guy in the movie, although this ultimately turns out to be a RedHerring, and Mallory proves to be a good guy.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Silva's *ahem* ''[[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow interest]]'', in Bond. He starts blatantly coming on to him for a few minutes, then it's right back to the plot as though it never happened.

* IdiotPlot: While the entire movie has a bad case of GambitRoulette, one of its more notable aspects is that Silva's escape relies almost entirely on [[spoiler: [=MI6=] and Q not even knowing what 'operational security' means]]. An assumption that turns out to be correct.

* {{Narm}}: Silva's [[spoiler:gasps at the end of the film after Bond throws a knife into his back]] come off as more of a joke leading into a snide comment, but are meant to be taken seriously.

* {{Adorkable}}: Unlike his cantankerous predecessors, Whishaw's Q has a polite, quiet demeanour and a preppy fashion sense which make him cute and geeky. It is turned UpToEleven in [[Film/{{Spectre}} next film]] while the InsufferableGenius part is considerably toned down.

* HilariousInHindsight: WordOfGod said that Silva was inspired in part by Hans Landa from ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''. Creator/ChristophWaltz, who played Landa, was later cast as Franz Oberhauser [[spoiler:aka Ernst Stavro Blofeld]], the BigBad of the next film, ''Film/{{Spectre}}''.

* UncannyValley: Silva's smile seems a little... off... [[spoiler:until we learn he tried to poison himself with cyanide... [[NauseaFuel leaving half of his upper jawline melted]].]]

* EstrogenBrigade: Aside from [[MrFanservice Bond]], Q also attracted a crop of fangirls after being revamped as a young {{Adorkable}} HollywoodNerd.