Here, six months ahead of its November release, is our first-ever look at Skyfall, Bond’s 23rd adventure. Stylish violence and requisite sexiness are still obviously the order of the day, but with Sam Mendes at the helm and John Logan on script duties, this is clearly a 007 of a different flavour. For a start, it has giant blue jellyfish in it…
There’s the man himself and he’s very clearly on home territory, looking out towards Big Ben and the seat of the government that pays him to eliminate any extreme threats. The positioning of Bond in London, England is highly significant to this film, not only in terms of story — the latest extreme threat strikes at the very heart of MI6 — but also the fact that Skyfall is released during the 50th anniversary of the franchise (not to mention the year of the Diamond Jubilee and 2012 Olympics). James Bond Has Returned.
Here he is jogging, presumably very early in the morning. Odd that this should be considered a moment significant enough to include in the teaser, beyond giving another London landmark (the Telecom Tower) in the background. There is a clue here.
And he’s been down the firing range, too. Assuming Bond’s just been shooting (and we all know what assuming does...), then his aim is seriously off. Look carefully: neither bullet has hit the target. Another clue.
But when we reach the end of the word-association game, Posca-from-Rome says the movie’s title. Twice. And Bond doesn’t like it one bit. Skyfall? “Done.”, he says, getting up and walking out. Seems that Skyfall has significance to a recent mission gone wrong (as evidenced by a flash cut to Bond prowling through a room, where a corpse sits in a chair). One that’s left 007 in a dodgy position vis a vis his superiors, shown behind the one-way glass in the form of Judi Dench’s M and Ralph Fiennes’ Mallory, who from the derisive look shot M’s way, must hold her ultimately responsible.
Our man of mystery has gone international again — to Shanghai. And there is the similarly mysterious Severine (Berenice Marlohe) — we think. If it’s not her, then someone else in this cast looks very similar...
Now here’s a provocative image: Union Jack-draped coffins. There’s MI6 staff in there, we’re guessing, thanks to the nefarious efforts of this movie’s villain Silva (Javier Bardem).
Here’s Bond in full tux mode (that’s a Tom Ford), making his entrance at a luxurious casino in Macau. The fireworks behind him aren’t CG, but the real deal. We know, because we were there watching them. (It’s actually Pinewood, but don’t tell anyone.)
Naomie Harris’ “field agent” Eve getting intimate with her colleague — never, ever a good idea. Look what happened to Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) in the last movie. Dialogue prediction alert! “Now that’s what I call... a close shave.”
Bond and M in the mist-swathed Scottish highland. And there, in the foreground is the original Bond car, the silver Aston Martin DB5. One of several nods in the film to the franchise’s 50th anniversary.
One of Skyfall’s major action sequences takes place on the London Underground. Here we see one unfortunate tube train blasted through a tunnel’s ceiling. Mind the gap!
We bet you the entire contents of Fort Knox that this is Silva, making it Javier Bardem’s only appearance in the entire teaser. Judging by the carnage behind him — formerly, it seems, someone’s (maybe M’s?) country retreat — Silva makes No Country For Old Men’s Chigurh look distinctly small-time.
Whether that’s Bond or one of his foes, one thing’s for sure: director Sam Mendes and DoP Roger Deakins are keen to make this Bond visually distinct, the disorienting backdrop here looking like Michel Mann reshooting Terminator’s tech-noir nightclub scene in William Gibson’s brain. (See also the giant blue jellyfish a few seconds later.)
Amid the frantic climactic blipverting of action moments (soundtracked by a trapped, looped single Bond-theme note), look out for the wanton destruction of Volkswagen Beetles. It’s enough to make Herbie cry. Excited? We are. Fancy watching the trailer again?
Over these shots, we hear a conversation taking place. A word association game between Bond and Posca-from-Rome (Nicholas Woodeson) that gives great insight into Bond’s character. Country. “England.” Gun. “Shot.” Agent. “Provocateur.” (He still has a sense of humour). Murder. “Employment.” (Showing Bond’s survival instincts – killing for him is simply an extension of his job).
“Some men are coming to kill us,” says Bond to someone (it looks like it could be Fiennes). He grins, with the coldness that Fleming always imbued in his super-spy. “We’re going to kill them first.” And then...