The film opens with Bond coming across a badly wounded MI6 agent who's apparently been double crossed. Bond tracks the perp out into the streets of Istanbul where he's joined by Eve (Naomi Harris) and all hell breaks loose in the form of the most exhilarating chase you'll see at the movies this year. The chase moves from car to motorbikes atop the Grand Bazaar to the interior of said bazaar back to the streets and finally to the top of a moving train where Bond turns an ordinary back hoe into the most unlikely action prop imaginable.
All this action is prompted by the fact that the wounded agent had on him a hard drive containing a list of all NATO agents around the world who have infiltrated major "terrorist" organizations. Being that Britain's NATO allies didn't know such a list existed, nevermind that someone was carrying it around with him on his laptop, M (Judi Dench) is very interested in making sure whoever took the list doesn't get to keep it. In her zeal to kill the list thief M tells Eve to take a risky shot at the thief while he wrestles with Bond on the roof of the train. Eve, however, misses her mark and Bond plummets into the river below presumeably KIA.
So Bond is dead and the list is gone and M has to go to the principal's office where she's notified that she'll be voluntarily retiring in 2 months. On her way back to her own office her car becomes stuck in traffic and while she's arguing with a traffic cop a huge bomb goes off in nearby MI6 headquarters, taking out nearly an entire floor. Had M not been stuck in traffic, well...
Meantime it seems reports of Bond's death have been somewhat premature (whew!) as we see him cavorting on some tropical island with the local talent and in self-destructive games involving hard liquor and scorpions. (I have to say that as he slammed his shot glass down onto the bar I almost expected him to cry out "Pistore!") On the heels of another all-nighter he's lurched over a seaside bar at sunrise when on the TV comes a report of the MI6 explosion. A half dozen MI6 personnel were killed in the attack and this gets Bond's dander up. He returns to London but since he was declared dead he must re-qualify for active service and that means taking a range of tests. These tests reveal that time may be catching up to him. M clears him for service anyway much to the chagrin of Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) the new MP overseeing all things clandestine for the government. Mallory wants Bond to go away. M, though, identifies with his struggles and insists he stay.
Things then move on to Shanghai which in 20 short years has gone from overstuffed backwater to the prototypical 21st century city. Unelected totalitarian "government"? Check. Gross imbalance in income distribution? Check. 2000 foot skyscrapers? Check. Lots of multinational corporations fleeing Western pay scales and benefit packages? Check. All right then! Where London is all stone and wood Shanghai is all glass and neon light. Which brings me to another point. This film looks great. Roger Deakins' photography and Chris Lowe's art direction bring the film into the real world while maintaining an air of the mysterious and exotic. A shadow-puppet-like dance of death between Bond and one of his quarry in a Shanghai high-rise with the electronic billboard curtain wall of an adjacent building as backdrop is one of the most breathtaking sequences I've seen at the movies in years.
That man Bond was "dancing" with turns out to be a dead end but he inadvertently leads Bond to Severine (Berenice Marlohe) and through her he's introduced to the man behind the curtain of the recent chaos; former MI6 agent and malcontent extraordinaire, Silva (Javier Bardem). Bardem takes Silva in bold and unexpected directions that are sure to make some in the audience squirm a bit uncomfortably in their seats while imbuing him with the kind of dark self-certainty that made his otherwise very different Anton Chigur the walking black hole that he was. Bardem proves once and for all that his "No Country For Old Men" performance was no fluke and I'd be shocked if he wasn't nominated for his performance here.
Skyfall is a self conscious film but not in a cheesy wink-wink kind of way. More in the sense the film makers are aware the character has been around the block a few times and and may have outlived his usefulness in both a fictional and movie-business sense. After all, in a world where you can see and hear nearly everything everywhere in real time, where someone can hack into one of the most secure computer systems in the world and reek havoc and where unmanned drones are sent by unseen techies to kill the enemy continents away what the hell do you need boots on the ground for? That's certainly the topic of the back and forth between Ben Winshaw's Q and Bond when they first meet. Their terse dialogue concludes with Winshaw dismissively stating that "sometimes you need someone there to pull the trigger." and Bond replying "Or not to." Touche.
Importantly, Skyfall represents a step back from the influence of the Bourne films. If any recent movies could be seen as influencing it I would site Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" as well as Martin Campbell's aforementioned "Casino Royale", the film in which James Bond finally grew up. To be sure, though, Skyfall stands confidently on its own.
This Bond is no consumer wet-dream with all the emphasis on the externals, this Bond demands we pay attention to what's going on inside the characters. To my thinking this is where Bond has been heading since Pierce Brosnan inherited the role 15 years ago and with Skyfall the journey from cheeky consumer fantasy to smart, intense action/drama is now complete. From the outset Skyfall asks the question "Does Bond have a place in the 21st century?" By the time the final credits roll it has answered that question with a resounding "Yes!"
Beautifully filmed, intelligently written, deeply satisfying, with first-rate performances from all the main players - capped off by an Oscar worthy performance from Javier Bardem - "Skyfall" is the best movie of the year.
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