Casino Royale, confused..

Ilinea

I know i am extremely late to the party, but last night i watched Casino Royale for the second time. This is the first time i've actually watched it properly, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Then went on to watch Quantum of Solace.

After looking through about 30 threads (here and on other forums) my question's still doesn't seem to have enough closure to satisfy my over thinking brain.

Did Le Chiffre and Vesper know about each other working for Quantum? If so why did Quantum want Bond in on the game? Surely if they had Le Chiffre to get the money they didn't need someone else to try and get it as well?

When Vesper was blackmailed by Quantum, what did they demand of her? Was it simply to spy on Bond and help him win the money for her to eventually steal it?

Once again i'm sorry for the annoying questions which have probably been asked a million times, but if anyone can shed a bit of light on them you'd be helping to ease my mind haha.

DEFIANT 74205

Vesper was a double agent.

No doubt Quantum didn't want Bond in on the game, but what could they do? Vesper couldn't exactly tell Bond that he should defy M's orders ...

Then again, maybe they did want Bond in the game. If Le Chiffre beat Bond, they stood to make quite a bit of money off the British government.

Mr Beech

I still find it somewhat confusing. It is perhaps on purpose that we are in the dark about some things. Someone help me if I am wrong.

Le Chiffre was supposed to profit off of handling the stock shares using client money, all arranged by Quantum. Vesper and Le Chiffre were both tasked with profiting off of the game after Bond killed the stock scheme. Le Chiffre became expendable when he admitted that he would trade his employers for safety and had already lost the money to Bond. This left Vesper to recoup the losses and finally earn the profits that Quantum was after.

Vesper slipped through the sight of MI6 by never revealing that she eventually intended to take the winnings to Quantum. Quantum had her convinced that it would save her kidnapped boyfriend, and she convinced Quantum that now that Bond had won that money, the only way to safely steal it was to seduce him (not kill him or torture him) until he allowed her free access to the money and password. This was really her pleading for the safety of a man she didn't want killed.

Once Bond was sharing the account with Vesper (which he expected wouldn't have much left in it once she had transferred the money owed to MI6), she arranged to give it to Quantum in Venice and then out of guilt, never return to Bond. He caught up to her and in a breakdown, she killed herself as Quantum still retrieved the cash. Bond then traced down the man who was pulling the strings of the cash movements all along as Mr. White.

Not sure what Le Chiffre thought about Vesper. Did he know she was Quantum, too? Did he not know, but his thugs and Mr. White were in on her mission?

How did Le Chiffre get into the twist-up with Mathis? Was that just a torture/breaking comment to use on Bond as part of the set-up that got Vesper kidnapped in the first place?

Defiant (above) is right that they wanted Bond out of the game to make way for Le Chiffre to legitimately earn all of the money back, and that is why Vesper had orders not to give Bond the chance to buy back in. Thankfully, Felix was representing the CIA at the game and proved a valuable ally.

Eh. Not sure if any of that is right. It is one of the more clever and complicated Bond plots for the films. My favorite, too.

Napoleon Plural

I just don't think it works. I mean, the bit in the lift when Vesper is annoyed that Bond has given away his real name to Chiffre. 'Now he knows about your ego!' Why is that a problem, she wants Bond to lose the game anyway, and of course she knows that Chiffre knows who he is from the start.

We had arguments about this back and forth a few years back, with some highly imaginative explaining away by some members on this forum. But it's really down to Haggis coming in to do a third act.

Ilinea

Ah thank you for shedding some light on this, it's good to know I'm not the only one who's thoroughly confused. Still a great film and one of my favourites, Quantum was good also, but lacked the edge that Casino Royale had in my opinion.

Dutchfinger

Hmm... I have to admit that it is indeed pretty confusing the more you think about it,

Here's my take on it: I think Vesper didn't know about Le Chiffre also being in the Quantum organisation. I think you can kind of compare it to Tatiana Romanova's situation. (In a way) Tatiana thought she was doing a job for mother Russia, she didn't know about SPECTRE, and that they were actually using her. She also didn't know about Red Grant being in the organisation as well...

Now, of course in Vesper's situation, she DOES know she's in the Quantum organisation, and she DOES know she has to bertray Bond, but she doesn't know Le Chiffre is also in the organisation. (Le Chiffre also doesn't know about Vesper being in there I think... As he desperatly tries to get the prize money and even tortures Vesper.) the Quantum just made sure that in case Le Chiffre won the prize money, they got it from him. In case James Bond won the prize money, Vesper could steal it. Something like that ? ?