Spectre (2015 film)

Spectre is a 2015 spy thriller film directed by Sam Mendes and written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Jez Butterworth from a story conceived by Logan, Purvis, and Wade. The sequel to Skyfall (2012), it is the twenty-fourth instalment in the James Bond film series produced by Eon Productions and the fourth film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.

The film co-stars Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, and Ralph Fiennes. It was the last Bond film to be co-distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. In the film, Bond battles Spectre, an international crime organisation led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Waltz).

Despite initially stating he would not direct Spectre, Mendes confirmed his return in 2014 after Nicolas Winding Refn declined to direct; Mendes became the first to direct successive James Bond films since John Glen. The inclusion of Spectre and its associated characters marked the end of the Thunderball controversy, in which Kevin McClory and Fleming were embroiled in lengthy legal disputes over the film rights to the novel; Spectre is the first film to feature these elements since Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Following the Sony Pictures hack, it was revealed Sony and Eon clashed regarding finance, stunts, and filming locations; Spectre is estimated to have a final budget of $245–300 million. Principal photography began in December 2014 and lasted until July 2015, with filming locations including Austria, the United Kingdom, Italy, Morocco, and Mexico.

Spectre premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 October 2015 and was theatrically released in conventional and IMAX formats in the United Kingdom that day, and in the United States on 6 November. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences, cast performances (particularly Craig's and Bautista's), and the musical score, but criticised the pacing and formulaic narrative decisions. It grossed $880 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2015 and the second-highest grossing James Bond film after Skyfall, unadjusted for inflation (fourth when adjusted). The film's theme song, "Writing's on the Wall", won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. The next film in the series, No Time to Die, was released in 2021.

Plot

A cryptic message from the previous M leads MI6 agent James Bond to carry out a mission in Mexico City, foiling a bombing attempt at the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral during the Day of the Dead festival. Bond obtains a ring, stylised with an octopus, from deceased attacker Marco Sciarra and uncovers his connection to a secret organisation.

In London, Gareth Mallory, the current M, suspends Bond for his unauthorised action. M is engaged in a power struggle with Max Denbigh (whom Bond dubs "C"), the Director-General of the new privately backed Joint Intelligence Service formed by the merger of MI5 and MI6. C campaigns for Britain to join the global surveillance and intelligence initiative "Nine Eyes" and shut down the '00' section. Bond, who was operating on a mission posthumously assigned by the previous M to eliminate Sciarra and track down his employers, goes rogue from MI6, with Eve Moneypenny and Q agreeing to aid Bond covertly.

Following the previous M's instructions, Bond attends Sciarra's funeral in Rome and rescues his widow Lucia from assassins. Lucia reveals Sciarra's association with a terrorist network run by Franz Oberhauser, who has been presumed dead for twenty years. Using Sciarra's ring, Bond infiltrates a meeting, where Oberhauser targets the "Pale King" for assassination. Oberhauser recognises Bond, who flees across the city in a modified Aston Martin DB10, pursued by the network's top assassin Hinx. Moneypenny identifies the Pale King as Mr. White, a former member of the organisation's subsidiary Quantum. Bond tracks White down to Altaussee, where he is dying of thallium poisoning.

Bond offers to protect White's daughter Madeleine Swann, a psychiatrist who possesses knowledge about "L'Américain". White commits suicide. Bond finds Swann, who is reluctant to trust him until Hinx and his forces abduct her. Bond rescues Swann, earning him her trust. Q reveals Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva as agents of Oberhauser's organisation, which Swann reveals is named Spectre. Swann takes Bond to L'Américain, a hotel in Tangier, where a secret room directs them to Oberhauser's base in the Sahara. Hinx ambushes them en route to the base, but they fight him off and defeat him. Arriving at the base, Bond and Swann confront Oberhauser, who reveals Spectre's involvement in the Joint Intelligence Service and the Nine Eyes programme.

C, complicit in Spectre's scheme, plans to give Spectre unrestricted access to intelligence gathered by Nine Eyes. After showing Swann a distressing recording of her father's suicide, Oberhauser subjects Bond to neurosurgical torture: he shares the discussion with Bond to Swann, revealing that they became adoptive brothers after Bond's parents died. Believing that his father loved Bond more than him, Oberhauser killed him and staged his death as well. Since then, he founded Spectre intending to target Bond and adopted the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Bond and Swann break free, stun Blofeld with an explosive wristwatch, and destroy the base before fleeing to London to prevent Nine Eyes from going online.

In London, Bond, Swann, M, Q, Bill Tanner and Moneypenny gather to arrest C, but Swann and Bond are separately abducted by Spectre operatives, while the others proceed with the plan. After Q stops Nine Eyes from going online, a fatal struggle between M and C results in C's death. Bond is taken to the ruins of the old MI6 building, scheduled for demolition after Silva's bombing, where Swann is held captive. Blofeld, who survived the Sahara base's destruction with heavy scarring to his face, gives Bond a three-minute ultimatum to abandon Swann or attempt a rescue and risk death. Bond finds a bound and gagged Swann, and they escape as the building collapses. Bond shoots down Blofeld's helicopter, which crashes onto Westminster Bridge. Blofeld survives and is arrested by M. Later, Bond receives his restored Aston Martin DB5 from Q and drives off with Swann.

Cast

• Daniel Craig as James Bond, agent 007. The director Sam Mendes has described Bond as being extremely focused in Spectre, likening his new-found dedication to hunting.
• Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld (born Franz Oberhauser), Bond's nemesis and the mysterious mastermind behind Spectre, as well as the puppeteer responsible for a series of recent events in Bond's life, motivated by a longstanding grudge against him.
• Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, a psychiatrist working at a private medical clinic in the Austrian Alps, and the daughter of Mr White.
• Ben Whishaw as Q, MI6 quartermaster who outfits Bond with equipment for use in the field.
• Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, a former agent who left the field to become M's assistant.
• Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx, Spectre's top assassin.
• Andrew Scott as Max Denbigh "C", head of the new joint intelligence service and an agent for Spectre, heavily involved with their plan to merge nine national intelligence agencies into the Nine Eyes Committee, allowing Spectre to have the power to take over the world.
• Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, M's chief of staff.
• Jesper Christensen as Mr. White, a fugitive from MI6 and a former senior figure in Spectre's Quantum subsidiary, as portrayed in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, now dying from thallium poisoning after falling from Spectre's favour over his reservations relating to human trafficking.
• Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra, the Italian wife of assassin Marco Sciarra.
• Ralph Fiennes as M (Gareth Mallory), head of MI6.
• Stephanie Sigman as Estrella, a Mexican agent who accompanies Bond on his mission to assassinate Marco Sciarra.
• Alessandro Cremona as Marco Sciarra, an Italian Spectre agent whom Bond kills in the pre-title sequence of the movie.
• Judi Dench as Mallory's predecessor M, who posthumously gives Bond his mission. This film marks Dench's eighth and final appearance as M, 20 years after beginning with GoldenEye.
• Tenoch Huerta as Mexican Man in Lift

Production

Pre-production

In March 2013, Mendes said he would not return to direct the next film in the series, then known as Bond 24, but later recanted and announced that he would return, as he found the script and the plans for the long-term future of the franchise appealing. Nicolas Winding Refn would later reveal that he turned down an offer to direct the film. In directing Skyfall and Spectre, Mendes became the first director to oversee two successive Bond films since John Glen directed five consecutive films, ending with Licence to Kill in 1989. Dennis Gassner returned as the film's production designer, while cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema took over from Roger Deakins. In July 2015 Mendes noted that the combined crew of Spectre numbered over one thousand, making it a larger production than Skyfall. Craig is listed as co-producer. He considered the credit a high point of his career, saying, "I'm just so proud of the fact that my name comes up somewhere else on the titles."