A new Bond for a new age of cinema.
The Mission: James Bond’s investigation into a terrorist cell inadvertently leads to criminal banker Le Chiffre losing his clients money. Bond is then tasked with foiling his attempt to regain the funds in a high stakes poker game.
Locales: Czech Republic, Pakistan, Uganda, Madagascar, Bahamas, Montenegro, USA, Italy.
Gadgets: The new Sony Ericsson mobile carried by Bond takes rapid high quality images and has a better than usual GPS. Bond is fitted with a microchip implant that is used to monitor his whereabouts and vital signs, plus a tracking device gets attached to a Le Chiffre’s inhaler.
Vehicles: Aston Martin returns but is not as gadget laden as usual. Various hidden weapons and gadgets, plus a defibrillator.
Well…it WAS a nice car.
Sidekicks: Felix Lieter makes a return to active field duty. Rene Mathis acts as Bond’s contact in Montenegro.
The Girls: Solange Dimitrios, wife of one of Bond’s targets whom Bond seduces. Vesper Lynd, an agent of treasury sent to manage Bond’s funds during the poker game.
The Enemy: Le Chiffre, a private banker who manages the funds for terrorist organisations worldwide.
Evil Plot: Le Chiffre intended to line his pockets by manipulating stocks. He’d short-sell business on the stock market and use terrorism to crash the price.
Distinguishing Features: When under stress Le Chiffre’s damaged tear duct would weep blood.
Secret Lair: None.
Henchmen: Alex Dimitrios, a terrorist contractor. Mollaka, a bomb maker. Kratt is Le Chiffre’s personal bodyguard.
Facts About the Movie
Politically Incorrect Behaviour: Again sleeping with a married woman. Tsk tsk.
Notable Firsts: Daniel Craig makes his debut as James Bond, and is joined by Jeffrey Wright as the new Felix Lieter. For the first time naked women were not featured in the opening sequence.
Random Trivia: Casino Royale is the first Bond film not to feature the well known theme at the beginning of the movie, saving it until the end.
The list of actors being considered for the part of Bond reached the number of 200 with Goran Visnjic, Karl Urban, Henry Cavill and Sam Worthington as front runners. Visnjic auditioned the same day as Craig but couldn’t master the British accent, and Cavill was briefly top of the list but was considered to young at 22.
The sinking building in Venice was not a set but a real building scheduled to be demolished. Buildings collapsing in the canals is not an unheard of event.
Although James Bond used to be a heavy smoker he no longer partakes. Due to this Daniel Craig quit smoking for the role.
Alex Dimitrios’ wife is listed in the credits as ‘Solange’ even though her name is never spoken during the film.
