Should Bond have killed his foster brother?

Nice bit of Sir Rog appreciation. After the discussion about a 00's licence to kill in another thread, this article popped up on FB. Moore killed Blofeld but Craig Bond didn't on the bridge in SP. You could say the parallels are there, substituting Vesper for Tracy, or even M for that matter (even if it makes absolutely no sense for Silva, his plan and Spectre to be connected) if there needed to be a personal angle to do so.

Anyway, just a reminder that Moore got the job done.

https://screenrant.com/james-bond-roger-moore-daniel-craig-007-kill-blofeld/?utm_source=SR-FB-P&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&utm_campaign=SR-FB-P&fbclid=IwAR161tUrBwjFD5mp3ujE1RalcfV-SQ107L2l5z92cGKHzibgCQ4ZJj2siIk

Yes, he should've.

Now, 5 years on, we're going to have to endure another fart of a storyline.

Well, yes, for that reason too.

The exploding watch and downing his 'copter weren't bad goes at doing it, but yeah ... there's not much 'bouncing back' from being dropped down an industrial chimney in a wheelchair .

Fixed the title for ya.

And yes, he should have, but EON won't let him, unless they happen lose the rights again.

For why Bond didn't kill Blofeld, given their history, I can't think of a bigger "fuck you" to him than crippling and leaving him for British authorities to lock him up for the rest of his life. That's why Blofeld told him to "finish it". He knew his life was over, and would rather die, and Bond pretty much denied him death for something worse... incarceration for life.

Far from the bigger 'fuck you' of strangling him to death with his bare hands.

MP wrote:

Fixed the title for ya.

Not sure how I feel about that. Operating beyond your brief, MP? What's next? Change the title of 'Your 3 Favourite Scenes in TWINE' thread to 'Your 3 Scenes Less Shit Than Others In TWINE' to fit your vision of the films?

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

MP wrote:

Fixed the title for ya.

Not sure how I feel about that. Operating beyond your brief, MP? What's next? Change the title of 'Your 3 Favourite Scenes in TWINE' thread to 'Your 3 Scenes Less Shit Than Others In TWINE' to fit your vision of the films?

Now that you mentioned it...

FYEO PTS was a F YOU MCLORY!

Killing Blofeld bare handed would be Fleming-esque for sure.

What happened in SP was WTF-land.

hegottheboot wrote:

FYEO PTS was a F YOU MCLORY!

Absolutely ... we might not be allowed to name him, but we can kill him off!

Amusing to see the 'He's branched off!' OHMSS neck injury (which was no longer troubling him in DAF) back in FYEO.

It's very cool they did that back then and totally ignored DAF with both the gravesite and neck brace. Until rather recently no one even officially seemed to like to reference OHMSS because it was viewed incorrectly as a failure so its reference in FYEO at the beginning was a complete 180 statement of serious intent post MR. It was probably also because of Maibaum returning, the focus on using Fleming materials and John Glen being one of the OHMSS team.

Curiously, FYEO cut a line that Blofeld was supposedly along the lines of "it's the tenth anniversary of our last encounter, 007" which is a direct reference to DAF.

And yet the 'deli in stainless steel' one remained .

Funny that Cubby hated supposed highfalutin lines like "humility is the worst form of conceit" or fought tooth and nail against the "alimentary Dr. Leiter" gag as being too remote for audiences to understand but insisted on the delicatessen bit...

Blunt Instrument wrote:

And yet the 'deli in stainless steel' one remained .

HGTB wrote:

Funny that Cubby hated supposed highfalutin lines like "humility is the worst form of conceit" or fought tooth and nail against the "alimentary Dr. Leiter" gag as being too remote for audiences to understand but insisted on the delicatessen bit...

I think once one knows why said line is uttered, it becomes less bizarre. If there is a problem, it might be it sets up Blofeld as a mere gangster. Also the voice work isn't quite as good when he's pleading for his life.

As HGTB put it, it's just one giant middle finger to McClory more than anything. It's not to give Bond a catharsis for avenging his wife, but to basically make a mockery out of Blofeld and dump him in the most uncerimonial fashion as a way of saying "we don't need Blofeld, Kevin!"

Which is too bad, because it would have been interesting if they played it straight up as Bond killing Blofeld for revenge, show Rog not looking too happy after doing the deed (like Dalton in LTK after killing Sanchez), and then tie that up with Melina wanting revenge and Bond trying to discourage her.

I don't see a reason why we couldn't have had a more focused opener to the FYEO story. Imagine if it had opened with Bond strangling Blofeld a bald man to death in his Garden of Death, visiting Tracy's grave and then allowing that to, as you say, resonate with Melina's story. As we know, FYEO is bookended with lighter scenes but this would allow the PTS at least to fit tonally the the rest of the film.

I think the helicopter stuff is actually pretty good up until Bond’s helicopter lifts up “Man in Wheelchair”, that’s the point of the sequence I’d change it into something more dramatic.

One change I would have made in DAF is after Bond boils “Blofeld” in the mud to death he approaches where Blofeld dies, takes off his wedding ring and tosses it into the mud as he quips “welcome to hell, Blofeld”.

Ah this is good territory.

FYEO dances so close to lawsuit territory that you have to keep it to bare minimum but plausibly deniable moments of "I swear it's not Blofeld". I think the drama and pacing of the sequence is great and while the impaling of the wheelchair can be viewed as laughable it is Bond giving the killer his own just desserts and beautifully reversing the tables despite him being in a wheelchair. Roger has that wonderful darker side come out for a flourish when guiding the skid to impale the chair and his reading of "oh, you want to get off?" is devilishly dry-but I will agree there could have been a reaction shot with some resonance-though the copter shot panning into the open smokestack is a perfect transition into the PTS which is likely why Glen chose to do it that way-plus to start the film so darkly with the musing over killing would likely off-put an audience.
-From the book of lessons EON wrote and can't seem to be bothered to read any longer.


DAF is even more of a toss off because that line and M's "Blofeld's dead..." exchange is all we get to reference the previous film everyone saw as a failure. Mank and Maibaum wisely keep this going as to not fight the film's aim and you get the reference to Bond's gratifying "holiday".

But getting Sean to say that line while bringing the mud bath death from pages to life should be great-however he has such a wicked gleam of joy that it's more a feeling of "finally got you bastard" instead of absolute revenge. I love the moment and it's perfect to help people get back into a fund Bond while not completely ignoring OHMSS-but if it had been done correctly for revenge it should have been right there with "You earnt it-you keep it...Old buddy."