Some thoughts...

I'm going to disagree with you here - I think Vesper did receive a txt from Mathis....it just wasn't him that sent it.... it was Quantum, using Mathis's phone..... I think Vesper really did think it was from him.

When she then left, Bond was jolted to Mathis's name. He knew someone had told Le Chiffre of his 'tell', and the only person he (Bond) had told that too was Vesper and Mathis, and this is where he just assumed Mathis was guilty....

Quantum knew (or rather hoped) that this final piece of the jigsaw - Vesper getting a txt from Mathis, would then hopefully trigger Bond into thinking that the txt was a lure for Vesper....and so went after her - I'm sure the 'capture' of Vesper was a 'stage' - so that Bond would definitely follow them....it was the only way they could capture him.

However, this is just my opinion - and not necessarily correct.... I think that it's very open to interpretation - not sure if that was intentional or not.... but at least it makes you think.... and discuss....

I'm with NP...the writing is a bit dodgy. Vesper's abduction being staged is weak because they're really risking that Bond doesn't clue in that she's being abducted. Combined with the fact that they dump Vesper in front of Bond's car adds a bit more confusion as to whether they really need her or not and who's working with who.

However, Le Chiffre's 'Mathis is my friend' comment may be him trying to throw suspicion off of Vesper onto Mathis.

Last edited by darenhat (11th Jan 2011 17:54)

The water he hands Bond in the hospital. He mixes something in it and Mathis tells him "The doctor said to drink this." It's right before he gets tazed and dragged away.

I was thinking, perhaps Quantum told Le Chiffre that Mathis was really 'his friend' in order to protect Vespers ID. Once it became clear Le Chiffre wasn't going to win the money back and they couldn't trust him they diverted their attention to her and her wooing James into surrendering the money, thus in order for Le Chiffre to know who had told him of James finding out about the tell, besides Vesper, Mathis was the most logical choice... but that all seems rather contrived.

That certainly is a sensible explanation...to a degree. A lot of the issues arise for me with the implication that Vesper and Le Chiffre are 'conspiring' with each other for LC to land the money (the 'tell' secret, and Vesper refusing to let Bond buy back into the game for example).  Vesper's helping Le Chiffre, but then he dumps her in front of Bond's speeding car? Then he needs her as a tool to make Bond cooperate? The motives of the characters get a little muddy IMO, which is acceptable to an extent, but too much can generate incoherency. I've always felt CR (the film) walked too fine a line in that regard, whereas CR the novel avoided such problems.

It's also possible that Vesper tried to back out or failed to comply in some way, perhaps having second thoughts about cooperating after Bond was poisoned. She didn't want to be responsible for his death, and refused to help Le Chiffre to get the money after the poker game was over, so they nab her.

Because, after all, if she was cooperating with him 100%, she could've helped them get the money after the game was over anyway (the way she did for Mr. White later in exchange for Bond's life), and it wouldn't have been necessary to kidnap her (and hold her ransom, or whatever else their plan was).

I'm thinking she was going along with Le Chiffre (in order to protect her 'boyfriend') up until the point it put Bond in danger. Up until that point, it was only money (quite a bit of it, but still only money).

You're right - I've always maintained that on a good tv with blueray it's a different film altogether.

MI6 also presumably got more info about Quantum out of Yusef, so lots to build 23 on.

As for the CR stuff, yeah I wish they'd spent more time on the plot points instead of huge 15-20 minute action sequences, the story as Haggis/Campbell tell it is a pretty jagged one even if it is dressed up prettily.  That was one improvement in QOS I very much appreciated, the plot and action flow together seamlessly from beginning to end with no "why are they doing that?" moments along the way, just Bond doing what needs doing scene after awesome scene.