By Ben L.
007 reports back for duty this year, and the first full trailer for the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise has just been released today.
The trailer kicks off with Bond on a mission in an undisclosed location, presumably looking for a hard drive, but finds himself one step too late as it has already been removed from a laptop. We then switch to another operation where a fight is taking place on the roof of a moving train (remember the first Mission: Impossible movie?) while Bond’s partner Eve, played by Naomie Harris, assists in a sniping role. Bond is shot and falls off the train and into the river below, where he is assumed to have been killed in action as M (Judi Dench) writes his obituary.
M is later questioned by a government agent played by Ralph Fiennes, better known as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies. Turns out she has lost a hard drive containing the identities of all MI6 undercover agents currently embedded in terrorist organisations. How the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency could have lost such a valuable piece of intel is unfathomable and hopefully a logical explanation other than age catching up with the iron lady would be provided in the movie. Hang on a minute – didn’t the Mission: Impossible movie involve a similar plot too? Of course retrieving the hard drive is of paramount importance, and there is no better man to undertake this mission than 007, who probably could find the culprit by doing a trace on the person who uploaded the identities on Youtube. M’s best agent did not die apparently but faked his death, reasons for which are unclear – perhaps a short vacation was urgently needed. We all know how stressed these men can be.
The terror plot becomes even more menacing – looks like M herself has been the target of an assassination attempt as a bomb goes off in the MI6 headquarters, prompting the agency to rebuild itself in a new location (“Welcome to the new MI6,” someone says), which also happened in M:I 1 and 4 – alright destroying the world may have been an overused Bond plot, but the absurdity of Quantum of Solace‘s story doesn’t mean we can’t have some originality this time round!
Prior to that scene, M is standing at the end of a line of coffins with the Union Jack draped over them – it has been speculated that these could possibly be the bodies of other MI6 agents with double-0 status – assuming the coffin in the foreground is the first, there are actually eight in total, so could Bond be the last surviving agent of the nine operatives? Of course we could be thinking too much here and they could very well just be casualties from the bomb blast.
Skyfall also marks the return of iconic character Q since the reboot of the franchise with Casino Royale, with Ben Whishaw becoming the new gadget master. Besides a high-tech pistol, a new shaver for Bond would prove to be really handy too. We are also introduced to the new villain Raoul Silva played by Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, who already exudes a much more exciting feel than the previous maniac in Quantum of Solace who really was such a bore. The rest of the trailer is an adrenaline-charged action montage, and the most important takeaway is that you should always check your cufflinks.
Skyfall‘s release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Bond film series, so hopefully 007 can do Her Majesty proud when the movie hits cinemas on November 1.
