Let's play 'spot the homage'! (SPOILERS LIKELY)

Shanghai is the birthplace of Terence Young.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Craig's Bond is a human fragmentation device. Deadly in close quarters. It's a feature I like.

I loved the silhouetted fight in Shanghai. I really got the sense that it was a brutal match-up - moreso than any other fight Craig's Bond has had. When he fought Steven Obanno in the stairwell, he was clearly the stonger, more disciplined fighter of the two, but they were on unstable ground at the time. And when he fought Edmund Slate in the Haiti hotel room, the fight was let down by frentic camerawork and obvious tear-aways in the construction of the set.

I agree. It was beautifully filmed with the one shot, and the backdrop is stunning. Up there with my favourite Bond fights (Bond vs Grant and OO7 vs OO6). Massive contrast to the fight scenes in QOS, with the quick cuts and all that jazz. Still, the fight with Slate is quite fantastic too.

Back to the homages though, the way the helicopter gets caught up and crashes into Skyfall reminded me of TND, during the bike chase. In fact, the bike chase SF reminded me of TND's bike chase and QOS's Siena rooftop chase. Oh and the way the helicopter gets caught in the flames reminded me of how Bond dispatches the helicopter at the Caviar Factory in TWINE.

I think the fight with Patrice works so well because the script actually calls for them to fight for control over the gun - which goes off several times, thereby adding a new layer of danger to it all.

Right, and the smashing of the glass (adding the howling wind to the mix) reminded me the lights being shot out in FRWL's train fight, followed by the eerie blue of the emergency bulbs.

Bond is being chased by fire as he escapes the burning Skyfall Lodge via tunnel.

This reminds of Bond being chased by fire in both TWINE's escape from the nuke site and Bond and Holly's escape from the MR exhaust chamber.

=== When Bond sets off gas canisters to cause an explosion and cover his escape, this reminds of the technique he used to escape from Ouromov and the Russians in the GE pts.

====Bond hanging on to Patrice before Patrice falls to his death reminds of Bond hanging on to Sandor in TSWLM before letting him drop, although there is a big difference here. Bond dropped Sandor once he was done with him, while with Patrice, Bond couldn't hang on long enough to get the info he wanted.

Python wrote:

Shanghai is the birthplace of Terence Young.

Great call, Pythias. I wonder if this was intentional? Perhaps so.

FieldsMan wrote:

I agree. It was beautifully filmed with the one shot, and the backdrop is stunning. Up there with my favourite Bond fights (Bond vs Grant and OO7 vs OO6). Massive contrast to the fight scenes in QOS, with the quick cuts and all that jazz. Still, the fight with Slate is quite fantastic too.

Back to the homages though, the way the helicopter gets caught up and crashes into Skyfall reminded me of TND, during the bike chase. In fact, the bike chase SF reminded me of TND's bike chase and QOS's Siena rooftop chase. Oh and the way the helicopter gets caught in the flames reminded me of how Bond dispatches the helicopter at the Caviar Factory in TWINE.

I hate to use the term "epic," but the copter crash into Skyfall was just that. The blades hacking into the edifice and then that colossal explosion--in the words of Willy Krebs, Wunderschon! I assume it was all CGI, but nevermind, it looked great.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Python wrote:

Shanghai is the birthplace of Terence Young.

Great call, Pythias. I wonder if this was intentional? Perhaps so.

Could be. They used John Barry's flat for M's home too. These are the more subtle 50th anniversary nods I like.

Python wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Python wrote:

Shanghai is the birthplace of Terence Young.

Great call, Pythias. I wonder if this was intentional? Perhaps so.

Could be. They used John Barry's flat for M's home too. These are the more subtle 50th anniversary nods I like.

I didn't know that either. Looks like I need to hit the books. Or webs, as it were.

Just discovered that the song Boom, Boom, which is blasting from Silva's chopper as he approaches Skyfall, peaked at #16 on the US Billboard chart in 1962. However, I believe the version we hear in the film was recorded by the Animals in 1965.

Homage? I don't know. Possibly.

Could be, given this is a 50th anniversary film I don't think that could be brushed off as a coincidence.

Wow, Skyfall is truly even more stuffed with references and homages than I thought ... nice that a lot of them are way more subtle than DAD's, too.

I don't know if you could call some of them deliberate homages. Shanghai might be the birthplace of Terrence Young, but was it chosen as a location because he was born there? Or was it chosen because it fit the script and had a distinct flavour - neon - to it?

Probably because it represents "the new" more than anything else in the film. "Brave new world" uttered before we cut to the aerial shots of the The Bund isn't a coincidence.

China is the emerging super power in the world, and nothing is a better example of their technological prowess than Shanghai. It's the Klondike of the 21st century.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Just discovered that the song Boom, Boom, which is blasting from Silva's chopper as he approaches Skyfall, peaked at #16 on the US Billboard chart in 1962. However, I believe the version we hear in the film was recorded by the Animals in 1965.

Homage? I don't know. Possibly.

Interestingly enough, the song we hear playing in the abandoned island city before Severine meets her demise is Charles Trenet's 1938 French hit, Boum. There's a resonance between these two songs, although I don't know if it extends beyond the word "boom." As an aside, this sequence reminds me of the one in Saving Private Ryan where Hanks' company is patrolling through a bombed out French town as an Edith Piaf tune plays from loudspeakers. The Vin Diesel character is assassinated here as he tries to help a child.

The helicpoter assualt on SF Lodge with rock music blaring ,also seems to be an homage to Apocalypse Now.

I'm not sure how the film or Conrad's Heart of Darkness tie-in with Bond thematically or connect with Bond.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Probably because it represents "the new" more than anything else in the film. "Brave new world" uttered before we cut to the aerial shots of the The Bund isn't a coincidence.

China is the emerging super power in the world, and nothing is a better example of their technological prowess than Shanghai. It's the Klondike of the 21st century.

Brave New World indeed, but tempered by "sometimes the old ways are best."

Progress, but with respect for tradition. ie tradition that works and endures. Profound this Bond. I mean that.

May have already been mentioned, but Severine's Hong Kong sex trade wrist tattoo throws back to Lippe.

"I think it's a Tong sign. The red dragon from Macau."

Where are Bond and Severine? Ah, yes.

Well spotted, 00Twelve.

I'm not sure if this one has been mentioned, but Silva described fifty-year-old Macallan whiskey as a "personal favourite" of Bond's, and you can clearly see the year 1962 on the label. I know Macallan put the year the drink was distilled on their labels, but the 1962 in this case is quite big.

Yep, spotted that (on my 2nd viewing, mind) ... mentioned it back on page 1.

M tells Silva that regret for past actions would be "unprofessional."

IIRC, she said very much the same thing to DCBond in either QOS or CR.

Might be a bit of a stretch, but I found that within the PTS alone felt like they were bumping off homages:
- DN
Heavy use of Istanbul - FRWL
Using a reflection to see a villain - GF
Bond gets shot - TB
Bond is believed dead - YOLT
Bond (in passenger seat) and Bond girl (driver) cause a car to flip over - OHMSS
A henchman attacks Bond with chains - DAF
Police on bikes slip - LALD
- TMWTGG
- TSWLM
Operating a vehicle on top of another moving vehicle - MR
Bond takes the wheel of the car from the passenger seat - FYEO
Fighting on top of a train - OP
Main character falls from a bridge into water - AVTAK
The sniper was a woman - TLD
- LTK
A 00 agent is believed dead - GE
Rooftop Bike Chase - TND
Transition from injured 007 into titles - TWINE
Main character breaks windscreen of car - DAD
Opening shot of Craig reminiscent of Craig at end of title sequence in - CR
Bond girl picks Bond up in a car - QOS

If anyone else can think of the remaining four films for homages in the SF PTS…