Blofeld Behind Everything Actually Helps Skyfall Make Some Sense

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  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    Gassy Man wrote:

    For instance, Skyfall required an enormous suspension of disbelief to believe that Silva could pull off all the machinations of his scheme, some of which appeared to rely on completely random events. But not if Blofeld was really calling the shots with some earlier version of Nine Eyes, watching every move MI6 was making and giving Silva updates in real time. In the film, we're led to believe that Silva is essentially already doing this. But Spectre suggests -- and that's the problem, as it only just suggests -- that Blofeld is really the one behind it all.
    .

    Ugh.

    Silva is a cyber terrorist. Right at the beginning of the film, the explosion within MI6 establishes Silva as a master hacker, a a cyber terrorist. So straight away we know he has breached MI6. And we know a little later that he is targeting M. So it has been something that he has planned out. Having been able to infiltrate MI6 electronically, it isn't a stretch to imagine that he also hacked in again, which gave him intel on where their new HQs are - underground. He knew he'd get caught eventually so, knowing their new digs, he booby trapped his laptop, knowing that Q would try gain access to it in their new HQs. Remember he was "damned good" operative, so he knows the inner workings of MI6, as well as being as great as Bond.

    He knew every move M was making because he was a master hacker. We're led to believe Silva is doing it because he actually is doing it. Nine Eyes is a poorly executed concept that didn't have any feet during the events of Skyfall. And it didn't need to, because it makes sense - it's all in the film.
    Though I see the poster identified as now banned, this still seems to deserve an answer.

    If what was written is true, then why not hack the laptop at the beginning to get the information from the hard drive? Why did someone have to physically steal it? Why have to attack M at the hearing when he could just as easily have done to her what he did to MI:6 headquarters and taken her out that way? If we're to believe that Silva is simply the world's greatest computer hacker, he shouldn't have had to resort to any physical confrontation to achieve his goals. He takes the long way around instead.

    But it does make sense if Blofeld is pulling the strings. After all, Blofeld wants Nine Eyes, or least a greater sphere of control. Silva may have wanted revenge, and Blofeld may well have allowed a degree of this, but not if it meant destroying MI:6 completely or M immediately.

    Silva may have had the capacity, but Blofeld could have kept him on a quite short leash.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 SwitzerlandPosts: 870MI6 Agent
    Skyfall doesn't make any sense. It never will no matter how many excuses are made.
    Dalton Rulez™
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,704MI6 Agent
    I think we may forget how little sense some of the older movies made.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 SwitzerlandPosts: 870MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I think we may forget how little sense some of the older movies made.


    True but they didn't take themselves seriously and were full of self-irony. SF is a pretentious trash and no fun either.
    I admit though it looks good.
    Dalton Rulez™
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I think we may forget how little sense some of the older movies made.


    True but they didn't take themselves seriously and were full of self-irony. SF is a pretentious trash and no fun either.
    I admit though it looks good.
    Well, the washed out grey for the London scenes doesn't really look that good.
    Honestly, the best part (visually and otherwise) were the Shanghai scenes.
    The other parts of the film aren't worthy in my book.
    CGI looks fake af in the office explosion.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I think we may forget how little sense some of the older movies made.


    True but they didn't take themselves seriously and were full of self-irony. SF is a pretentious trash and no fun either.
    I admit though it looks good.
    Well, the washed out grey for the London scenes doesn't really look that good.
    Honestly, the best part (visually and otherwise) were the Shanghai scenes.
    The other parts of the film aren't worthy in my book.
    CGI looks fake af in the office explosion.

    Do you mean the second unit establishing shots of Shanghai or the stuff done in the UK? Some of the shots looked good, but I found it distracting that Daniel Craig never went to China to film.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I think we may forget how little sense some of the older movies made.


    True but they didn't take themselves seriously and were full of self-irony. SF is a pretentious trash and no fun either.
    I admit though it looks good.

    I don't even think it looks good (the tints, the tints I tell you). True, earlier films are full of holes, but have a charm that compensates. Also expectations have changed and have raised the bar considerably. I knew I was in trouble when I looked at my watch during the PTS and thought 'jeez Loiuse this is going on a bit'
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:


    True but they didn't take themselves seriously and were full of self-irony. SF is a pretentious trash and no fun either.
    I admit though it looks good.
    Well, the washed out grey for the London scenes doesn't really look that good.
    Honestly, the best part (visually and otherwise) were the Shanghai scenes.
    The other parts of the film aren't worthy in my book.
    CGI looks fake af in the office explosion.

    Do you mean the second unit establishing shots of Shanghai or the stuff done in the UK? Some of the shots looked good, but I found it distracting that Daniel Craig never went to China to film.
    Well, when I first saw the film, I had no knowledge wether or not Craig went to China or not, so it wasn't that distracting.
    Honestly, if someone doesn't know about it, they wouldn't exactly notice.
    The second unit establishing shots were very nice, I have no problem with them.
    What I do have a problem with is Newman blowing up my TV speakers when it cuts from "brave new world" to Shanghai.
    The stuff that was done in the UK looked fake. The subway scenes etc. were good.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    one may not know unless told, but the classic films made much better use of the exotic location shots, eg Man With The Golden Gun, it was part of the appeal of the films
  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    Well, the washed out grey for the London scenes doesn't really look that good.
    Honestly, the best part (visually and otherwise) were the Shanghai scenes.
    The other parts of the film aren't worthy in my book.
    CGI looks fake af in the office explosion.

    Do you mean the second unit establishing shots of Shanghai or the stuff done in the UK? Some of the shots looked good, but I found it distracting that Daniel Craig never went to China to film.
    Well, when I first saw the film, I had no knowledge wether or not Craig went to China or not, so it wasn't that distracting.
    Honestly, if someone doesn't know about it, they wouldn't exactly notice.
    The second unit establishing shots were very nice, I have no problem with them.
    What I do have a problem with is Newman blowing up my TV speakers when it cuts from "brave new world" to Shanghai.
    The stuff that was done in the UK looked fake. The subway scenes etc. were good.
    Having been to China, I can tell you that the scene does stand out more as being somewhere else.

    That said, SF's problems can't really be compared to the older films. With rare exception, their "plot holes" were not plot holes at all but issues that grew out of the plot or character. Sure, it would have been easier to just kill Bond, but that wasn't in the nature of the villain. Dr. No, for instance, finally concedes it would be better to turn Bond. Goldfinger wants to humiliate Bond because he can't be the man -- that's his way of psychologically making up for his own deficiencies. Largo is following orders and brings in an assassin who's sense of empowerment resides in her first dominating the man she is going to kill.

    In SF, Silva the character doesn't make a lot of sense unless you accept that he is either insane or taking orders offscreen that we are not privy to. He falls into the trap of a lot of contemporary films, which is making the villain far more clever than he really is. In this case, like the Joker in the Batman films he emulates, he has to have such complex machinations that they defy the logic of the story. At least in Batman, the Joker's grand scheme was to tear everyone down by illustrating just how awful people really are, subverting a sense of right and wrong while ironically also in his demented way suggesting that chao isn't random.

    With Silva, he's just out for simple revenge, and yet he takes an absurdly long way around to do it. And since he's supposed to be a computer genius, his actions result in machinations that are not only implausible but seem to be work against the definition of his character as a computer genius. Exactly why is a gun battle necessary for someone who is fully capable of wrecking others from a keyboard?

    He has no angst against Bond -- at least none developed in the script. If anything, he should see Bond as a kindred spirit. Taking M down would have been far more effective if he'd just done it with information, revealing her complicity in top secret operations, destroying her finances, or even framing her for crimes she didn't commit. But instead he has to resort to standard villain tactics. All that works against him being the character he purports to be.

    That is, unless someone else is directing Silva. Then, the fact that Silva can't just do what he wants to gets resolved easily. And when you think about it, Blofeld in Spectre needs a reason for the intelligence agencies to be combined and unified under some technological marvel that he can control. Now, Silva's actions make sense. His physical battles show that MI:6 is still vulnerable to military threats, but at the same time, its getting hacked shows the need for greater cybersecurity and oversight. Nine Eyes comes along and promises to do both. Silva becomes a pawn, guided by Blofeld, that makes it all possible, with the added benefit of getting rid of M, at least until a replacement is brought in who is just as capable. Perhaps the biggest misstep of the plan was not in Silva's inability to outright dispatch the original M but failure to get the successor.
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