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Casino Royale Trailer


Brief Synopsis:
James Bond achieves his "00" status after killing corrupt MI6 section chief John Dryden and his underworld contact Fisher. Afterwards, he frustrates the schemes of terrorist financer Le Chiffre by defeating him at a high-stakes game of Texas Hold 'Em at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

Release Date: November 17, 2006

Box Office Results:
$594.2 million

Running Time:
2 hours, 24 minutes

Gadgets:

  • Sony Ericsson K800
  • AED - Automated External Defibrillator
  • Microchip Implant

Director:
  • Martin Campbell

Starring: Daniel Craig as James Bond

Villains:


Henchmen:
  • Simon Abkarian as Alex Dimitrios
  • Sebastien Foucan as Mollaka
  • Claudio Santamaria as Carlos
  • Isaach de Bankole as Steven Obanno
  • Ivana Milicevic as Valenka
  • Clemens Schick as Kratt
  • Emmanuel Avena as Leo
  • Richard Sammel as Gettler
  • Leo Stransky as Tall Man
  • Malcolm Sinclair as Dryden
  • Daud Shah as Fisher

Bond Girls:

Supporting Cast:

Filming Locations:
  • Prague, Czech Republic; Lahore, Pakistan; London, UK; Uganda; Madagascar; Bahamas; Miami, USA; Trieste, Italy; Montenegro

Best Quote: (According to mi6.co.uk)
  • Bartender: "Shaken or stirred?"
Bond: "Does it look like I give a damn?"

Best Mistake: (According to imdb.com)
  • When Bond enters his personal code at the casino, the code he enters does not spell "Vesper", the second last button pressed is clearly the "4" button which would map to characters GHI.

Distinguishing Feature: (According to mi6.co.uk)
  • For the first time in the series, the film does not open with the traditional gunbarrel, which only appears after a stylised black and white sequence that shows how Bond earned his double-0 status.
  • First appearance of Daniel Craig as James Bond after succedding Pierce Brosnan.
  • First time a title sequence does NOT have a silhouette of a woman (only men)

Vital Statistics:
  • Conquests: 1
  • Martinis: 4
  • Kills: 11
  • "Bond, James Bond": 1
Issued Sidearm
  • Walther P99, with suppressor
Trivia:
  • All you of guys and gals are probably wondering what Le Chiffre had in his inhaler. In the novel, he had Benzidrine in it: a stimulant.
  • This is the first time a Fleming title was used since 1987's The Living Daylights.
  • As of the release of Quantum of Solace, this film has the longest running time in the series.

Detailed Synopsis

MI6 section chief, Dryden, is cornered by Bond in Prague. Dryden has been presumably selling MI6 secrets to an unknown source. Flashbacks show Bond engaging Dryden's contact, Fisher, in hand-to-hand combat; Bond kills him. After a short conversation, Bond kills Dryden, earning his "00" license.

Bond kills Dryden's contact
Bond kills Dryden


In Uganda, civil war has broken out, and two men, both from a mysterious organization, meet with the rebel leader Steven Obanno. Obanno needs a secure place to keep his war funds. Mr. White assures his money is safe with Le Chiffre, a private banker for international terrorists. Le Chiffre assures Obanno there "is no risk in the portfolio." Le Chiffre actually invests in stocks, and bets against those companies in the market enlisting terrorists to sink their stock value considerably through bombings and other acts.

Le Chiffre meets with Obanno

James Bond returns in pursuit of an international bomb maker, Mollaka, whom he and his assistant Carter have been tracking. They manage to track him to the island-African nation of Madagascar, where he is attending a mongoose and snake fight. Mollaka, seeing he is being followed, runs. Bond now is in hot pursuit of Mollaka. Mollaka runs through a construction site, then through the Nambutu embassy where Bond captures him, breaching diplomatic protocol. Bond kills Mollaka and obtains his backpack, which contains his cellphone and a bomb. Bond discovers a message on the phone, which after sneaking into M's apartment, he is able to decode and trace the message, which came from the Bahamas. M returns to her home finding Bond. She reprimands him harshly for killing Mollaka and for invading the embassy, a major violation for an MI:6 agent. Not wanting to decide on a punishment for him, M orders him to go on leave.

Bond in pursuit of Mollaka
Mollak chase

Arriving in the Bahamas, Bond travels to the Ocean Club where the signal was traced to. Using the Ocean Club's footage and the timing of the message on Mollaka's phone, Bond discoverers the man who messaged Mollaka; Alex Dimitrios. Dimitrios is an associate of Le Chiffre. Meanwhile, Dimitrios meets with Le Chiffre aboard the latter's yacht. Le Chiffre, concerned about the stock he has invested with Obanno's money, tells Dimitrios to not fail. Dimitrios assures Le Chiffre that his new henchman, Carlos, while not fail.

Back at the Ocean Club, Bond finds Dimitrios' wife, Solange, and pressures her for information about her husband. She tells him he is on his way to Miami on business, and so Bond leaves the Bahamas in pursuit of him.

At Miami Airport, Bond manages to kill Dimitrios but not Carlos. Bond pursues Carlos to the new proto-type of the Skyfleet Airliner. Le Chiffre's plan is simple: since he invested all of Obanno's money against Skyfleet Airstock, if the new prototype if destroyed, Le Chiffre would make millions.

Alex Dimitrios
The Astom Martin DB5
Solage

Bond pursues Carlos and is able to disable the bomb that would have destroyed the plane. Subsequently, Carlos is killed. Under pressure, Le Chiffre now must now recover Obanno's. In a desperate attempt, Le Chiffre sets up a high stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Monternegro.

Carlos

MI6 knows that if Le Chiffre loses, he would have no where to turn, and his clients would hunt and kill him. Le Chiffre would then take MI6's offer of protection in exchange for information. To make sure Le Chiffre loses, MI6 enlists Bond in the Casino Royale tournament. M sends Vesper Lynd, a British banker, to look after MI6's funds. Rene Mathis, an ally in Montenegro, also aides Bond. As the tournament moves onward, Bond is flushed out, or 'loses all of his money', to Le Chiffre himself. Outraged, he asks Vesper for the 5 million dollar buy-in. She says 'no' stating that his methods are reckless, and the government cannot afford more failures.

Craig at the bar in Casino Royale

Disappointed at Vesper and outraged at Le Chiffre, Bond prepares to assassinate Le Chiffre, when Felix Leiter stops him. He tells Bond that he works for the CIA, and he is ''bleeding chips.'' He says he won't last much longer, and gives Bond the 5 million dollar buy-in. With new fuel and life, Bond quickly re-enters the tournament. He makes up ground, and makes up for most of his loses; however, Le Chiffre, feeling threatened by Bond, tries to kill him by having Valenka poison his martini. With the help of MI6 and Vesper, Bond is able to pull out of Cardiac Arrest.

Bond returns minutes later to the table, and prepares for the final showdown against Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre manages to lay down a full house. Bond counters with a straight flush. Bond and Vesper celebrate, and go out to dinner. Following the dinner party, she states that the Americans have made contact with Le Chiffre. She bids Bond good night and leaves. Bond, realizing something is wrong, quickly follows Vesper outside, just in time to see her captured by Le Chiffre.

In pursuit, Bond follows Le Chiffre and his men to the outskirts of Monternegro. As he approaches a hill, he sees Vesper lying in the road and swerves, narrowly missing her, rolling his car several times. Le Chiffre captures and tortures Bond using a knotted rope, striking him in the testicles, demanding Bond reveal the password to the account with the poker winnings. Bond refuses. Le Chiffre then intends to castrate Bond with a knife.

Bond and Le Chiffre at Casino Royale

Mr. White arrives moments later, killing Le Chiffre and all of his men. Bond blanks, and wakes at Lake Como. There, he has Rene Mathis arrested and resigns from MI6, stating "before it strips me of my humanity." Vesper and Bond leave together to Venice on holiday. Bond soon learns, when Vesper is away on business in Venice, that the money was never deposited. He knew only Vesper could possibly have the money, and pursues him throughout Venice. He finds her at a renovated building, handing the money over to an unknown agent at the time. Bond, outraged, begins to fire at the men. After killing the henchmen in the building and the mysterious man, Bond sees Vesper trapped in an elevator, sinking underneath water. As he dives and tries to rescue her, she merely looks at Bond. She then dies, drowning.

Mr. White watches from the balcony.

Vesper Trapped
The Mysterious Man (Gettler)
Mr. White watches from balcony


M tells Bond that Vesper had a French-Algerian boyfriend who was kidnapped and held for ransom by the organisation behind Le Chiffre and White. Bond learns that she agreed to deliver the ransom money (his winnings) only if they would consent to leave Bond, as well as her boyfriend, alive. M tells him the case is closed; there are no more leads to follow. However, Bond discovers that Vesper has left Mr. White's name and number in her mobile phone. White, arriving at a palatial estate near Lake Como, receives a phone call and is shot in the leg. Bond appears, with a UMP in hand, and says, "The name's Bond. James Bond."

Bond Captures White



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northbreed "Casino Royale": Worst Bond Film Ever, Part 3 (page: 1 2) 36 Oct 16 2009, 8:17 PM EDT by 6-stringa007
Thread started: Jul 12 2007, 5:17 PM EDT  Watch
[continued from Part 2 of review]

5) Producer infamy/creative poverty: Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the film’s producers, lacking the vision and ingenuity to advance Bond’s personal timeline onscreen, reveal their creative bankruptcy by bringing 007 back to the beginning of his secret service career, presenting him in his most unflattering incarnation yet. Out go Bond’s cinematically-cultivated charm and conviction. The new Bond is an uninteresting, expressionless, muscle-bound nihilist and a disgracefully vulnerable “hero.” The producers deliberately emphasize Bond’s vulnerability by subjecting him, incredibly, to cardiac arrest(!) as well as a horrific trial of torture (this latter was a rotten, graphic part of Fleming’s original novel). Putting obstacles in a purposeful screen hero’s path makes for good drama; but these shocking “Casino-Royale” examples are an extremely sick way to challenge a hero and are certainly artistically unworthy of depiction onscreen.

Considering all these points, it is clear that “Casino Royale” is neither value-driven art nor fan-pleasing entertainment. The proof is in the picture.

“Casino Royale” is the highest-grossing Bond film to date. But consider:
1. This fact merely indicates the degree of public curiosity about or interest in James Bond and owes virtually everything to the franchise’s longstanding cinematic appeal and reputation (earned by much better films and performances in the series and betrayed dramatically by “Casino Royale”).
2. This fact confirms nothing about public satisfaction with or approval of this latest installment.
3. High box-office numbers neither reflect nor establish this film’s merit.

The 2-disc [Region 1] DVD special edition of this movie has a handful of special features. Apart from the inclusion of Maryam d’Abo’s thoughtfully-produced “Bond Girls Are Forever” (2002) documentary, why should you care?
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QuartermasterQ Something I noticed 11 Jun 11 2009, 9:19 PM EDT by QuartermasterQ
Thread started: Jun 5 2009, 5:54 PM EDT  Watch
Recently Casino Royale has made its network debut on USA and is on for four nights in a row. It started last night and will continue tonight, saturday, and sunday. Anyway, watching it last night, I noticed something interesting.

During the opening credits, there is an animation sequence where men are being killed by the suits from a card deck. A man is killed with a red diamond sticking from his chest, another with a black spade sticking from his chest, etc etc. Now, keeping that in mind, the title song that is played over these animations (You Know My Name by Chris Cornell) has a lyric in it that goes as following: "I've seen diamonds cut through harder men.". What I noticed is that the line coincides perfectly with the animation of a man being killed by the red diamond. We are literally seeing diamonds cut through harder men as the song suggests : ). Did anyone else happen to notice this? Was it the perfect coincidence? Or a cleverly hidden connection for fans to find?
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mkfreeberg So what happened to the money? 2 Jun 5 2009, 9:40 PM EDT by Dalton007
Thread started: Jun 5 2009, 12:19 AM EDT  Watch
It was set up as a classic "promise the boss the world, then worry about delivering." Bond realizes he's been double-crossed, says he'll head off to the bank right away to deposit the winnings. And then drama...crumbling building...flooding...Vesper dies...Mr. White gets the money. Then Bond kneecaps White. Cliffhanger!

Well we now know from Quantum of Solace, that (spoilers here)...Mr. White got away, and as of that moment nobody talked about money ever again.

I think they completely blew this. It was a major cliffhanger, major maguffin, major reason to go see QoS, and it was just plain dropped. And that goes for the Quantum organization itself, by the way, which is a completely different subject. But what about that money?
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