I’m aware that categorising this film as a vigilante, revenge type movie may be a little outside what most film buffs regard as belonging to
that genre but I have my reasons for including it but we’ll come to that. It’s no secret that when this project was conceived it marked the beginning of a new style of James Bond film.
Made in 2006, this was no sequel to what had gone before but a new chapter with a new 007. Daniel Craig portrayed a spy just at the beginning of his career as a double zero operative. Compared to his predecessors he was humourless, brutal and efficient. He was also vulnerable as we shall see as the plot develops.
The bad guy in this movie is Le Chiffre, a character played by Mads Mikkelsen, who organises terrorist attacks to specifically target corporations with the aim of lowering their share prices. He short sells the stock and profits from this activity. Bond foils one of Le Chiffre’s plots to bomb an aeroplane and this act causes Le Chiffre to lose a substantial sum of money. Le Chiffre, now in some trouble himself after losing his clients money, sets up not a Roulette Table, but a high-stakes Texas Hold’em poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro with the aim of winning enough money to pay back his creditors.
We could take a moment here to discuss the influential role that casinos have played in Bond films throughout the history of the franchise. Luxury casinos have been 007′s venue of choice in glamourous locations around the world and the game he has played have been varied and expensive. But anyway….
Bond enters this tournament hoping to win to force Le Chiffre to accept the protection of HM Government, in turn forcing Le Chiffre to become an asset. Bond loses his first stake but here we are introduced to the character of CIA agent Felix Leiter who provides him with more stake money. Female interest in the shape of Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) has already appeared as a British Treasury Agent who is to look after the original stake and any winnings.
Of course Bond eventually wins his Casino Bonus but he is ultimately betrayed by Vesper who steals the money for her own (morally legitimate) purposes. Vesper kills herself in one of the last scenes. Following this betrayal Bond feels he can no longer continue with his job and tenders his resignation.
The plot is more complex than this, as are all Bond films but I want to highlight the brutal, vigilante type of action that Bond engages in. The character could just as easily have stepped into Mel Gibson’s role in “Payback” and we wouldn’t have blinked an eye. The film was the highest grossing 007 movie ever (almost $600 million worldwide) and was followed by the Quantum of Solace (2008).