Sights You'd Like to See in a Bond Film

Back on topic after that rather disturbing interlude, I'd like to see Bond take on a cult of some kind. Not the kind of insular religious sect that has barricaded themselves inside a farm because their leader is addicted to having people attend his every need and hang on his every word, but a secretive doomsday cult of some kind.

I love the idea of Bond taking on a villain who believes in something mystical or supernatural, and even if we never see that manifest - I'm not suggesting we suddenly have magic in Bond films - his belief in it is what empowers him. It couldn't be a metaphor for religious extremism, of course, but rather an ideal, and a villain whose belief is so intense that he cannot, does not and will not respond to rationality. I'd be very interested to see how Bond handles that.

^Bond killing a villain who claims psychic powers or whatever and then quipping 'Well, you didn't bloody well see THAT coming' would amuse me greatly, if only for the fact that I think all that stuff is so much horseshit.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Back on topic after that rather disturbing interlude, I'd like to see Bond take on a cult of some kind. Not the kind of insular religious sect that has barricaded themselves inside a farm because their leader is addicted to having people attend his every need and hang on his every word, but a secretive doomsday cult of some kind.

I love the idea of Bond taking on a villain who believes in something mystical or supernatural, and even if we never see that manifest - I'm not suggesting we suddenly have magic in Bond films - his belief in it is what empowers him. It couldn't be a metaphor for religious extremism, of course, but rather an ideal, and a villain whose belief is so intense that he cannot, does not and will not respond to rationality. I'd be very interested to see how Bond handles that.

Fleming was keenly interested in paranormal phenomena; it comes through in his writing, and it has even made it into the films to a much lesser extent. I certainly would not oppose something like this.

The problem is that you have to make something outlandish enough to convey the idea that the villain is empowered by it, but at the same time, it has to be conservative enough to fit into the Bond canon. It's a tricky one.

M behind his desk, Thomas Newman or someone else non-Arnold scoring the film and the gunbarrel at the start of the film would be all I could really ask for right now, unless EON accidentally bump into somebody capable of writing a really great twisty thriller script, in which case all my Christmases will have come at once.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Back on topic after that rather disturbing interlude, I'd like to see Bond take on a cult of some kind. Not the kind of insular religious sect that has barricaded themselves inside a farm because their leader is addicted to having people attend his every need and hang on his every word, but a secretive doomsday cult of some kind.

I love the idea of Bond taking on a villain who believes in something mystical or supernatural, and even if we never see that manifest - I'm not suggesting we suddenly have magic in Bond films - his belief in it is what empowers him. It couldn't be a metaphor for religious extremism, of course, but rather an ideal, and a villain whose belief is so intense that he cannot, does not and will not respond to rationality. I'd be very interested to see how Bond handles that.

What about a doomsday cult inspired by Alex Jones and David Ike's paranoid ravings? A sort of Illuminati/Bilderberg-style group (that Quantum could have been if they hadn't have turned to be so bloody dull) that operates through media brainwashing. Sort of like John Carpenter's THEY LIVE, without except without the elite puppet masters being aliens or reptilians

Possibly. I have the feeling that this is the kind of story whose success would very much hinge on what was actually being told. I'm struggling to think of ideas for what it could be.

I'm thinking that it should be some kind of metaphysical doomsday, rather than a practical one. But also that the villains should be able to physically bring about the end of the world, or at least jeopardise it as part of their predictions for the apocalypse, with the event presented as being some kind of necessary step to see their plans fulfilled.

An economic jeopardy infinitely worse than the recession?

The Bilderberg/Illuminati angle is fascinating for sure, but I think it's a little too close to Quantum or SPECTRE. So the economic angle doesn't really work for me. I was thinking more along the lines of them having acquired a stockpile of WWII-era chemical weapons or something.

Largo's Shark wrote:

An economic jeopardy infinitely worse than the recession?

Ah. The EU as a cult. Good one.

And yet if Paul Haggis had been the one to concoct it, you'd be lambasting the idea.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

And yet if Paul Haggis had been the one to concoct it, you'd be lambasting the idea.

On the contrary. I'd be lauding him for pulling a Mamet out of the hat.

:)

Strange, I would have thought that the better alternative would be to get Mamet to write such a script.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Strange, I would have thought that the better alternative would be to get Mamet to write such a script.

Not a half bad idea.

Pretty much any of these:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/the-33-most-beautiful-abandoned-places-in-the-world

Most of those places are a bit too specific and off the beaten track for Bond, though the House of the Bulgarian Communist Party looks frightening.







If EON was to resurrect Blofeld and SPECTRE (let's face it - it's going to be a hard task to top Raoul Silva), this would be a suitable HQ. More than hint of CE3K's Mothership.

I can imagine the Bulgarian gvmt being on SPECTRE's payroll.

Some of them are a bit too specific, but I think there's more potential in there than you might realise.

- The Christ of the Abyss (#1) could easily be inserted into and underwater sequence.
- Kolmaskop (#2) would work well as Spectreville.
- Wonderland Amusement Park (#5) and/or Nara Dreamland (#33) could work as a creepy deathtrap. Maybe the film could explain that they were built as part of a dummy city to observe the effects of nuclear testing, so the hole place is irradiated.
- The Kerry Way (#8) could feature Bond chasing a villain cross-country, or as part of his exercise routine if he had to go to Shrublands.
- The remains of the Pegasus (#12) would work as a plot device, with a plane going down in the Arctic or Antactica and Bond needing to locate a passenger.
- The abandoned train depot at Częstochowa (#16) and Lawndale Theatre (#27) could be the kind of place where Bond would meet a reimagined Valentin Zukovsky or Anatol Gogol.
- The House of the Bulgarian Communist Party (#25) has obvious uses.
- El Hotel del Salto (#30) could be an MI6 safe house in South America that has been deliberately allowed to run into disrepair.

So some of the locations themselves might be isolated, but within the world of the film, they could easily written to be much closer to civilisation.

Quote :

- The Kerry Way (Cool could feature Bond chasing a villain cross-country, or as part of his exercise routine if he had to go to Shrublands.

I know they might seem like the same thing to an antipodean, but County Kerry's in the Republic of Eire. That's about 450 miles away from Kent. There's also something called the Irish Sea between the two, making a cross country course quite difficult.

I know it's in Ireland. Shrublands could easily be re-written as being in Ireland.

After all, Gareth Mallory was held captive by the IRA, right? So what if, upon his release, he was checked into a private hospital, but given the nature of his injuries, he could not travel far and so he wound up in Shrublands? Now, as the head of MI6, he sends his agents to Northern Ireland when they need rehabilitation.

Now that I think back, one of my infamously-unfinished fan fiction stories had Bond being injured on an assignment. He was checked into a very upscale private hospital to try and make contact with another patient there - I think she was the daughter of a powerful politician or some such - who had suddenly and mysteriously reappeared, and had been placed at the hospital to try and keep her away from the paparazzi. Something like that might work as a set-up.

The idea of Bond deliberately injuring himself to get into an exclusive hospital is an interesting spin on the cliche of the protagonist getting himself imprisoned to find the antagonist.

Well, this was a case of Bond being injured on an unrelated assignment - from memory, he was on top of a building when it collapsed - and M took advantage of his situation to investigate another case.

But now that you mention it, I do like the idea of Bond intentionally injuring himself or staging his own breakdown or illness or some such to gain access to a clinic or hospital ... only to find out that something is horribly wrong in the hospital. It might make for a nice riff on the insane asylum trope of horror fiction.

The Bulgarian commie slant has good, strong Fleming roots, FWIW, going all the way back to Casino Royale.

I've held off for a while but part of me would like to see San Francisco used again in some way. Filmed properly even if it's a small part of the whole set-up. The Bay, Marin County...some mad dash through Fisherman's Wharf...

Hilly wrote:

I've held off for a while but part of me would like to see San Francisco used again in some way. Filmed properly even if it's a small part of the whole set-up. The Bay, Marin County...some mad dash through Fisherman's Wharf...

At wharf speed, no doubt.

Those Bulgarian locations on the previous page look throroughly creepy. Almost otherworldly.