My list of questions about Spectre
Firemass
AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
After seeing it a 5th time it still feels like a near perfect Bond film. However, there are a still a few things I don't quite get. (some of these are very minor)
Why does Bond know that Max can also be called C? Why does Bond insist on calling him C as if it was somehow insulting?
Why would Tanner look so surprised that Bond didn't take his hand over the slippery section. Then overact as he stares at his own hand dumbfounded that Bond wouldn't take it. That was just bad directing IMO.
Towards the end of the film we see an aerial shot of the London Eye and Big Ben and yet the filmmakers still feel the need to add the title "London" as if we didn't know!
I can't understand what Madeline is saying when she explains why she doesn't like guns. A 9mm under the sink by the bleach? What does bleach have to do with it?
Blofeld's story about visiting Madeline's house seems oddly redundant, but unrelated to the above story. Why does Blofeld emphasize that he remembers? Of course he remembers.
Why is it so bad to play the tape of Madeline's father committing suicide? It didn't reveal anything that Bond hasn't already told her. And why didn't Bond disable the surveillance camera upon entering the cabin? He obviously noticed it!
Why does Bond know that Max can also be called C? Why does Bond insist on calling him C as if it was somehow insulting?
Why would Tanner look so surprised that Bond didn't take his hand over the slippery section. Then overact as he stares at his own hand dumbfounded that Bond wouldn't take it. That was just bad directing IMO.
Towards the end of the film we see an aerial shot of the London Eye and Big Ben and yet the filmmakers still feel the need to add the title "London" as if we didn't know!
I can't understand what Madeline is saying when she explains why she doesn't like guns. A 9mm under the sink by the bleach? What does bleach have to do with it?
Blofeld's story about visiting Madeline's house seems oddly redundant, but unrelated to the above story. Why does Blofeld emphasize that he remembers? Of course he remembers.
Why is it so bad to play the tape of Madeline's father committing suicide? It didn't reveal anything that Bond hasn't already told her. And why didn't Bond disable the surveillance camera upon entering the cabin? He obviously noticed it!
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Comments
The other points you raise are not something that would cause me any problems - the huge plot holes made such small things insignificant for me. Near perfect Bond film? Not for me...
unfortunately the use of CCTV in the craig movies MIGHT have pricked his mind about them
and it was seeing "the choice" that bond gave that caused her to go in a massive girly huff
madelaine swann hates guns because she had to use one when she was young, sans in her story to bond on the train ..... was it on the train?
Craig's Bond simply isn't a good agent. He's done stupider things and makes big mistakes in every film. People these days also consider perfect characters to be poor writing. Fleming wrote plenty of faults into his Bond, but his Bond also didn't so consistently make huge mistakes.
I asked the same question about Denbigh. I've gotten many thoughtful answers, though I still think it was just bad writing.
I'm not opposed to Tanner's reaction, though it does seem to suggest he's something of an idiot, which he is not.
Swann's story about the sink and all that suggested the level of threat she grew up under, as well as how she later became so aware of how to handle such threats.
I didn't mind the idea of Blofeld visiting Swann's house -- in a lot of ways, it makes sense -- but it's just another version of lazy storytelling, where expository dialogue is given instead of an actual scene.
The whole scene with White and Bond, to me, is written terribly, with missed opportunities for something meaningful. I, too, wondered why Bond was so worried, beyond the general idea that a daughter would not want to see that. But this is the daughter of a super criminal who has grown up in the climate of what that means. So, I don't understand why she would somehow be portrayed as an innocent, nor what in the scene was really so implicating for Bond, other than that he went in pursuit of their common enemy, which as you suggest, she already knows.
The bottom line: A lazy, underdeveloped script.
But, they threw enough money and action in to help us overlook it.
I use the term to describe a logical inconsistency in a story. Therefore, I think it well covers the incident at White’s house. Real spies are taught not to leave traces during the first week of training, so something like this for an agent with a licence to kill in inexcusable and unexplainable. We’re not talking a fingerprint missed, but full audio and video – and quite possibly in HD too! When I was watching the movie at the cinema and Hinx entered the house, this one was thing I would not have expected, and thinking about it really ruined the rest of the movie for me. Can you imagine Fleming writing something like this?
This is how the concept has been defined traditionally. However, as I said, in popular terms, especially on the Web, people apply it simply to things they don't agree with. It's similar to the misuse of "canon" and "continuity," especially among Star Trek fans.
Agreed - I wondered if they changed the character's name at the last minute and simply forgot this.
About the gun under the sink with the bleach - Swann is leaving what happened next unsaid ( that she shot a man) - because she finds it repugnant. That's why she hates guns. IMO
Agreed with Gassy Man, it's not a logical inconsistency, it's a flaw more to do with the scriptwriting than anything else.
And the reason Hinx finds Bond so quickly is because the maguffin in the latter's blood stream allows him to be tracked, no?
That an average audience would assume, that "C" was to be the
Designation for the head of the new service ? So it makes sense to
Me at least, being a " Casual Fan"
Yeah, that much I understood. Just can't figure out why the bleach was important to the story? As if "under the sink" isn't a precise enough location. I'm actually surprised she wouldn't just have a gun in her bedroom.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I think referring to the bleach is just trying to normalise the gun in her house and life.
Also Bond films are an international affair and some people I'm the world may not know the London landmarks, so the screen text us deemed necessary.
Audiences laughed when M says "and now I know what C stands for"
but then the laughter stops when he says "careless"
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Is that common knowledge?
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
+ 1 - that was my take on it too, it's the kind of thing people say in real life. IMO it rings true like real-life dialogue. -{
That's how I took it as well.
This is incorrect.
Charles Mansfield Cumming was head of MI:6 when it was founded. Since then every head of MI:6 has been referred to as 'C' and in the tradition of Mansfield Cumming, they also use green ink to sign documents. It was also Mansfield Cumming that introduced the Royal Doulton bulldog into the office, and that has also been there since.
The head of MI:5 is and always has been called the Director General, or DG.
Let me attempt to answer your Qs:
a) C = Co-M (As in Co-President)
b) Doesn't matter
c) Spectre is designed for international audiences who may not immediately recognize the landmarks (Would you know they were in Tangiers by just looking at the landmark which a local would have identified). Also it is about being consistent as they referenced other cities as well
d) That's a way of conversation. It sounds better than simply saying "I shot someone so I don't like guns"
e) Blofeld feels connected to Madeline as well. He is trying to emphasis that everyone in the room is connected to him and which is probably why he is not simply putting bullet in them
f) Because it is hard for someone to see their parents shooting themselves up / getting killed. It leaves bad images in the mind. It is basic courtesy as well
Blofeld is responsible for everything.
Victor Kell founded MI:5 at the turn of the last century, but even he was known as the Director General. The 'K' thing is unfounded and there is no evidence of that whatsoever.
Out of all the 'secret services' in the UK, only two have had leaders who were known by a letter. 'C' - Mansfied Cumming (MI:6) and 'M' - Colin Gubbins (S.O.E.). SOE was where Fleming got Q-Branch and M from, but he intertwined his fictional 'M' with the head of SOE, MI:6 and John Godfrey head of Naval Intelligence and his boss during WW2.
That's the impression I get of his Bond in SF and SP; Calamity James (bit more forgiveable in CR and QoS).
I'm surprised Blofeld didn't say that he was responsible for Bond's parents' deaths. There's no way he wouldn't have been in this universe.