Trivia / Spectre

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Bond's watch features a NATO strap in this film because Daniel Craig found steel bracelets boring and wanted to try something new on screen.
  • The scene with Bond waking up and aiming his gun at a mouse at the hotel L'Américain was suggested by Daniel Craig and added in.
• Budget-Busting Element: About a tenth of the multimillion-dollar budget went to destroying luxury cars in action scenes, particularly several Aston Martin models specifically produced for the film.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Monica Bellucci was a runner-up to play Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies but Teri Hatcher got the role. She went on to play Lucia Sciarra in Spectre.
  • Brigitte Millar was considered for Madeline. She appears briefly as Dr. Vogel in the first Spectre meeting and reprised the role in No Time to Die.
• Creator Backlash: Sam Mendes admitted on the Team Deakins podcast that the lack of a planned final act caused the final film to suffer immensely.
• Content Leak: As part of the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, the whole script was leaked.
• Corpsing: The part where Q tells Bond that he reminded him to get the car back in "one piece, not bring back one piece", Ben Whishaw ended up laughing at his own line as a result.
• Cut Song: Radiohead were asked to write a song for the film, but both of their submissions — "Man of War" and a Title Track — were rejected (the former because it was an OK Computer outtake, which made it ineligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar, and the latter because it was considered unfitting). Both tracks ended up seeing release elsewhere: "Man of War" was included on the bonus disc of the OKNOTOK reissue of OK Computer, while "Spectre" was released as a non-album single, as the B-side to "Burn the Witch", and as a bonus track on the special edition of A Moon Shaped Pool.
• Defictionalization:
  • There were no Day of the Dead parades with huge skeletons in Mexico before this movie came out, but after it came out, people thought it was just so cool that Mexico actually did it for real.
  • The Aston Martin DB10 served as the basis for the 2018 Vantage.
• Deleted Role: Sam Mendes told Empire that he filmed the face of Moneypenny's boyfriend (played by Tam Williams) but that he preferred not to include these shot(s) in the final cut in order to keep a little mystery.
• Deleted Scene:
  • The first shot after the intro would have been of Bond striding through headquarters into M's office (this is still visible in the trailer).
  • Bond and Moneypenny's scene in his apartment was to have him already wearing his robe and a woman's voice calling out from the bedroom, much like in Live and Let Die. (this too is still visible in the trailer, barely)
  • A scene between M and Moneypenny where he confronts her over helping Bond and even suggests that she's in love with him.
  • A brief scene of Bond dressing for dinner with Madeleine.
• Dueling Works: With Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Aside from being the same type of film—action/adventure/spy—they also have very similar plots (superspy whose agency gets dismantled is pitted against a Nebulous Evil Organization), scenes set in Morocco and a climax set in London. MI's producers even nixed plans to release it during the 2015 holiday season so that they wouldn't cancel each other out. Rogue Nation fared better with critics but Spectre outgrossed it by $200 million.
• Executive Meddling: The Government of Mexico offered money to Sony to ensure that the film wouldn't portray Mexico in a negative way. Allegedly they wanted to supress any mentions about Mexican gangsters, a sub-plot about assassinating a top ranking Mexican official, and to only show on camera the colorful and prosperous side of the country.
• Fake Brit: Max Denbigh - a very British Whitehall civil service mandarin - is played by Irish actor Andrew Scott, whose Dublin accent occasionally shows through.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • Bond storming through the MI6 building and into M's office is in the teaser but not the film.
  • The teaser also has a slightly different version of Moneypenny's visit to Bond's apartment. If you look carefully, you can see he's already wearing his robe, rather than being fully dressed like he was in the completed form.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor:
  • Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci and Marc Zinga also voiced their characters in the French dub.
  • Christoph Waltz and Victor Schefé re-dubbed their lines for the German release.
• On-Set Injury: Daniel Craig was injured at least twice during principal photography. He suffered a knee injury when filming in Austria, which required him to spent most of the shoot in a leg brace that was removed in post-production. He then hit his head on the interior of an Aston Martin DB10.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Dave Bautista proclaimed himself as a fan of James Bond movies a few years before landing the role of Mr. Hinx. After his casting became confirmed, he Tweeted a picture of his old Goldfinger lunchbox, with the hashtag #dreamchaser.
  • Christoph Waltz also revealed in an interview that he was a fan when he was younger, having once owned the Corgi Aston Martin DB5.
• Prop Recycling: The Eurocopter Dauphin helicopter used in Jaguar's "British Villains" commercial is also used in this film. Specifically, to transport Blofeld in the climax.
• Recycled Set: The opening scenes at the Gran Hotel Ciudad de México is a location that the series previously filmed at all the way back in Licence to Kill. Bond uses the same elevator in both films.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The scene where Bond steals an un-equiped Aston Martin and escapes via ejector seat is a leftover from the unmade Property of a Lady.
  • Bond catching up to Mr. White and his death were meant for Quantum of Solace.
• Spared by the Cut: The original script climaxed with Bond shooting Oberhauser (named Stockmann originally).
• Tourist Bump: The Day of the Dead Parade scene attracted tourists to Mexico City who hoped to see it, only to find out that the parade isn't a real thing. Mexico then made it a real thing.
• Troubled Production: The Sony Pictures leak in late 2014 revealed that the film suffered from a ballooning budget and serious production problems, which made it an infamous case of this before it came out.
  • The genesis of the film only came about after copyright issues were settled with Kevin McClory in November 2013 for the film rights to Thunderball, thereby allowing Eon full legal clearance to use Blofeld and Spectre again. Although Sam Mendes had previously stated his intent not to return for the next film after the success of Skyfall, he and production designer Dennis Gassner stated their intent to helm the film just a few months prior. The cast and crew quickly ballooned to more than 1,000 people.
  • Though most people in the public eye assumed production was progressing normally, the November 2014 Sony hack revealed that there were significant production problems — namely, screenwriter John Logan's early script. According to leaked e-mails, the executives were having significant problems with the film's third act, which involved Bond and Madeleine (or Q) being held in a desert prison by the villain, Heinrich Stockmann (who later became Hans Oberhauer, then later Franz Oberhauser). Discussions over the third act's problems persisted for months (and well into filming), with Skyfall writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade still running into problems. The final script would include contributions from both men, along with Mendes and British playwright Jez Butterworth. Mendes later admitted on the Team Deakins podcast that the lack of a planned final act caused the final film to suffer immensely.
  • As a result of this and most of the people who worked on Skyfall getting salary raises, the film began to balloon over budget. Not helping matters was that a discussion about Product Placement (namely, a Sony Xperia phone) resulted in arguments between Mendes (who was resistant to the idea), franchise co-owner Barbara Broccoli and Sony Pictures executives. This eventually culminated in Sony Japan CEO Kaz Hirai having to step in personally and order them to include the placement.
  • Filming began in earnest in December 2014, but several accidents occurred that caused slight delays on production. Daniel Craig suffered a knee sprain while shooting a fight sequence and it took him three weeks to recover, while three crew members were injured by a filming vehicle (one seriously). Shortly before the release of No Time to Die, Craig admitted he also accidentally broke Dave Bautista's nose while filming their fight scene, which freaked him out so much that he ran right off the set.
  • Going into 2015, filming continued to progress, but the crew faced difficulties from authorities and special interest groups in Rome when they attempted to film a car chase scene in the city, as well as reports from media outlets in Mexico that the script had to be altered to accommodate the needs of Mexican authorities (in order to portray the country in a positive light).
  • The final production budget was roughly $245 million (though some sources estimate it to be more than $300 million), making it the most expensive Bond film ever made. The film eventually grossed $880 million at the worldwide box office and was profitable, just nowhere near Skyfall. In the publicity junket, Craig joked that he would rather slit his wrists than participate in such a grueling filming again, which has been misinterpreted as him being fed up with the role up until August 2017, when he announced he would come back for the 25th film.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page.
• Working Title: The Death Collector (a Shout-Out to You Only Live Twice), Stone Ghost and Something Beginning with M.

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