Quantum of Solace

"Be careful of this one, Mr Bond. She will not go to bed with you unless you give her something she really wants... but you make a fine couple- you are both, what is the expression? Damaged goods."
—Dominic Greene

The 22nd James Bond film. The title is from a 1960 Fleming short story (which might be summarized best as, "James Bond attends a very boring dinner party with people he doesn't like and nothing happens,") and means "a small degree of comfort". The story follows on from Casino Royale, making it a true sequel among James Bond movies.[1] Bond, out for revenge following the death of Vesper Lynd, uncovers a plot by Quantum, the shadowy organization to which the first film's Big Bad belonged. A Quantum operative named Dominic Greene is engineering the overthrow of the Bolivian government, and it's up to Bond to find out why. Along the way he's helped by the mysterious Camille, who's got some unfinished business with one of Quantum's clients.

Quantum of Solace received a shellacking from critics for being too Darker and Edgier: its resemblance to The Bourne Series was particularly lamented, and many viewers criticized it for discarding too many of the series' signature tropes. As it eventually turned out, most of these issues occurred because the 2007-2008 Writers Strike left the film with more or less no script during production.

Tropes used in Quantum of Solace include:

M: I need you back, Bond.
Bond: I never left.

  • All There in the Manual: Fields' first name is only in the credits of the movie.
  • Angrish: Dominic Greene.
  • Artistic Title
  • Attempted Rape: General Medrano attempts to rape some hotel waitress, before Camille enters the room and proceeds to kick his ass. Especially significant due to what happened to Camille's mother and older sister.
  • At the Opera Tonight: Bond + Tosca = awesome sauce.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: Bond's has a cameraphone able to take headshots from considerable distance in poor lighting in a crowd. When there is a group of bad guys having a secret conversation at an opera via radio ear pieces, Bond steals the ear piece, gets to a good vantage point and announces himself to the currently anonymous group. When each member gets up to try and discretly leave, Bond snaps a picture of at least three of them.
  • Axe Crazy: Dominic Greene becomes one when he fights with Bond. He even has an axe.
  • Badass: Bond, of course.
    • Mr White as well.
  • Badass Longcoat: Bond wears it at the end.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Partially averted: Camille does have a nasty burn scar from when she was a kid, but it is on her back and thus concealed by clothing for most of the movie. Of course, an ongoing theme of the film is psychological scars.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Dominic Greene and General Medrano,
  • Bilingual Bonus: Elvis, Dominic's henchman, is first seen speaking to his mother on the phone in Swiss German, talking about the hot weather in Haïti. The actor playing him and director Marc Forster are both of Swiss descent, and probably thought it quite an amusing in-joke. There's also Mathis repeatedly telling the taxi driver "Callate", which is Spanish for "Shut up".
  • Bodyguard Betrayal
  • Bond Girl: Averted with Camille, the only Bond girl Bond never actually slept with (which, to a certain extent, would seem to take her out of the category in the first place). Deconstructed with Fields, since she's used to show Bond that his cold manipulation of the people around him can actually ruin or end their lives. The Craig Bond movies have never yet played this trope straight.
  • Bond Gun Barrel: Occurs right at the end of the movie. Originally, it was intended to show Bond gunning down Mr. White, but the idea was tossed out, and the gun barrel scene was left in.
  • Book Ends: A rare inversion. Casino Royale's last pre-epilogue scene with Le Chiffre sees Bond tied to a chair. Quantum of Solace's first post-opening scene sees Bond and M interrogating Mr. White while he is tied to a chair.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Averted. The boathook!
    • In the opening car chase, Bond blasts the bad guys with an SMG that was never seen in the movie prior to his using it... but it was seen rather prominently in the final moments of Casino Royale.
  • Collapsing Lair: The hotel. It's a Bond movie, what would you expect?
  • Continuity Nod: Bond's SMG from the ending of Casino Royale makes an appearance at the end of the pre-credits car chase, Le Chiffre and his operation are namechecked and Bond drops Vesper's necklace (just like she referenced "letting go" in the previous movie) in the snow at the end of the film. As a whole, Quantum is very dependant on themes and elements of Casino Royale, moreso than most of the previous Bond films.
    • In Royale, M comments to her aide that "In the old days, if an agent did something that embarrassing, he'd have the good sense to defect," when talking to Bond at the beginning of the film. That same aide ends up doing exactly what she mentioned during Mr. White's interrogation scene.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Bond leaves Dominic Greene stranded in the middle of a desert with nothing to drink but a bottle of oil. This is a fitting punishment due to Dominic inflicting the impoverished Bolivians with an artificial drought, combined with how he murdered Fields by drowning her in oil.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Present in the climactic battle.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Medrano. He just looks like another fat tyrant from Banana Republic, but he stands his own against Camille.
    • Green as well. He looks like a another sleazy con-man, and he stands his own against Bond.
  • Darkened Building Shootout: More than once, including a darkened catacomb.
  • Death by Irony: Mathis is killed and his body is left in Bond's trunk for the police to 'find'. In Casino Royale Mathis used this same method to get Le Chiffre's Dragon out of the picture.
  • Deus Ax Machina: Dominic Green attacks Bond with a fire axe during the final battle.
  • Dodgy Toupee: Dominic's assistant Elvis wears one.
  • The Dragon: Subverted entirely when the dragon is, according to form, positioned to cover his boss's escape and is promptly killed by an explosion. Poor man's pants get blown clean off him first.
  • Dramatic Landfall Shot
  • Drop-Dead Gorgeous: Fields is drowned in oil, and her oil-covered body is laid on Bond's bed, a callback to Goldfinger.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Fields.
  • Eagle Land: The CIA is willing to look the other way for a bit of oil. Guess what flavor it is?
    • Felix Leiter is a bit closer to the other flavor, although he doesn't really do anything about what his Boss is doing until late in the movie (but you can tell he's pissed).
  • Elevator Action Sequence: We get to see what happens when an unarmed, beaten-up Bond enters an elevator with three elite British agents carrying guns.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Fields' first name is Strawberry. She refuses to tell Bond (or the audience) her first name.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Averted. During the opening car chase, various vehicles fall or roll down cliffs with nary an explosion in sight.
  • Expy: Q.U.A.N.T.U.M. along with their color designated code names are in no way like S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and their respective number designated code names.
  • Fan Disservice: Near the end, that poor waitress at the hotel. Yes, we do get a Panty Shot that would make Sharon Stone blush, but you can't really feel good about it since she's just come within a hair's breadth of being brutally raped by General Medrano.
  • Fan Service: It's a Bond movie. Fan Service starts in the opening credits and goes on from there. It is, of course, considerably less than most Bond movies.
  • Faux Action Girl: Camille. What does she do in Haiti? Pass out. In dogfight? Bail before Bond. In hotel? It's not her fight. Her only badass scene is her fight with Medrano.
  • Foreshadowing: Green was found with two bullets in the back of his head. Bond didn't give him a gun. Gasp!
  • Friendly Address Privileges: When Dominic Greene and James Bond meet:

Dominic Greene: My friends call me Dominic.
James Bond: I'm sure they do.

  • Fruit Cart: A truck containing a lot of cheap coffins crashes during the Haiti chase. In another scene, during a foot chase a small dumbwaiter full of tomatoes is knocked to the ground.
  • Genre Savvy: M knows what the Bond One Liners mean.

Bond: Tell her Slate was a dead end.

  • message is relayed to M*

M: Dammit! He killed him!

James: You know, I was just wondering what South America would look like if nobody gave a damn about coke or communism. It always impressed me the way you boys would carve this place up.
Felix: I'll take that as a compliment, coming from a Brit.

  • In Name Only: In the original short story, Bond is at dinner at an island governor's place. After dinner, the governor tells him the story of an airline stewardess' failed marriage. Bond re-learns that drama and tragedy doesn't have to involve master villains or gadgets. The End. Now a Major Motion Picture. The vast majority of Bond films are like this, but particularly in this case as there is a shortage in Fleming titles that haven't been used yet.
  • Instant Seduction: "I can't find the...uhm, the stationary. Come help me look."
  • Internal Homage: A shot where a crate of fruit is knocked down several stories as Bond is chasing a villain is functionally identical to an earlier shot in Casino Royale. But with girders.
  • It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: The chase in Siena takes place during the Palio.
  • It's Personal: Bond's comment to Vesper's boyfriend (while the female intelligence agent is watching): "This man and I have some unfinished business."
  • Jittercam: And how!
  • Kansas City Shuffle: Everyone thinks that the object of Quantum's Plan is to gain control of the non-existent oil supply in the Bolivian desert. And Quantum is perfectly happy to let them keep thinking that while they get their hands on the water instead.
  • Karma Houdini: Mr. White.
  • Karmic Death: Greene. He drank the bottle of oil Bond provided before Quantum executed him.
  • Le Parkour: The Siena chase.
  • Malevolent Architecture: See Made of Explodium.
  • Made of Explodium: Whatever engineer thought placing pressurized Hydrogen storage tanks into the parking level and suite walls of a hotel was a good idea, should probably not be working with volatile substances.
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Quantum Group to Mr. Greene.
  • Mercy Kill: Bond prepares to shoot Camille, as they are trapped in the burning hotel with no escape and she is reliving her childhood trauma of having the General burn her house down over her head. Fortunately an escape presents itself before it's too late.
  • Milkman Conspiracy: Greene Planet and its dealings with Bolivia.
  • The Mole: M's bodyguard, who reveals himself to be working for Quantum during Mr. White's interrogation. For the rest of the film, M is paranoid about who she trusts with information because of what happened. Later on, Bond comments that the Canadian intelligence agent has a leak in her department before telling her to leave.
  • Mythology Gag: Bond drinks his martini shaken. It is explicitly not described as "shaken, not stirred". This is also a callback to a similar bit in Casino Royale.
    • Fields' death is a homage to that of Jill Masterson in Goldfinger. There's also a few others, like the villain grabbing an article of Bond's clothes to avoid a deadly fall.
    • At one point, Mathis muses on the nature of heroes vs. villains, and how the line between the two blurs as one ages -- Bond does something similar in the novel of Casino Royale.
  • Nebulous Evil Organization: Quantum
  • Never Gets Drunk: James is so wired that he consumes six "Vesper" vodka martinis without getting drunk.
  • No Name Given: The first name of Fields is only given in the closing credits. Thank goodness too.
    • Mr. White
  • Not Hyperbole: Quantum really do have people everywhere
  • Oh Crap: Bond and M's reaction when Mr. White is being interrogated, and he reveals that M's personal bodyguard is working for Quantum.
  • Paranoia Fuel: In universe; Quantum says they "have people everywhere". Like, in the same room. M is noticeably twitchy and distrustful the rest of the movie, since the traitor in question had been her personal bodyguard for years.

Greene: You should know something about me and the people I work with. We deal with the left and the right, dictators or liberators. If the current president had been more agreeable, I wouldn't be talking to you. So if you decide not to sign, you'll wake up with your balls in your mouth and your willing replacement standing over you... if you doubt that, then shoot me, take that money and have a good night's sleep.

  • Pet the Dog: Bond spends most of the movie a cold and emotionless bastard. He is however notably angry when Fields is murdered; and then informs M that Fields showed true bravery and he wants that noted in the report.
  • Playing Against Type: Mathieu Amalric is well known for playing whimsical intellectuals in French auteur dramas.
  • Pun-Based Title: Applied retroactively (given the In Name Only nature of the adaptation from the Fleming story) by naming the villainous organization Q.U.A.N.T.U.M.
  • Rape as Drama: Several times, although in Camille's case, it's against her family, not her.
  • Red Right Hand: Deliberately averted. The actor playing Greene would have been fine with it, but the director demanded that he should not be given any kind of unusual physical features via makeup. He's screwed up on the inside. Just like Bond.
  • Relative Button: Camille's family were murdered by Mendrano
  • Retirony: Mathis, in a variation. He would have been fine if he stayed retired, but agreeing to help Bond on one last job got him killed. Once he left his happy little villa (and hot girlfriend), you knew he wasn't going to get to go back to it.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: The movie's a pretty clear reference to the "water wars" in Bolivia in 2000, when water rights were sold to a corporation which sharply increased the price beyond the ability of many Bolivians to pay for it, inciting demonstrations that forced the government to reverse the decision. The US agreement in the movie to support a coup in order to get oil also recalls America's swift support for (and possible involvement with) the attempted coup against Chavez in Venezuela in 2002.
    • Interestingly, the evil plot from the movie is less evil than the real-life one, as the intended price hike is less than the one that really happened.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Possibly Bond, for the entire film, not that he'd admit it to anyone (an alternative explanation is that he just repeatedly screws up at capturing people alive).
  • Sequel Hook: Greene tells Bond everything he knows about the Quantum Group before he's left in the desert with a can of oil. He's later found with two bullets in the back of his head.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: Way out on the cynical end; both the British and American governments are happy to let the coup take place as long as they get their oil, and Bond and Camille are both motivated to stop Greene for revenge rather than any higher ideals.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Bye, Mathis.
  • The Stoic: Bond. Though when White starts talking about Vesper, the camera cuts to Bond and you can see just one muscle working in his cheek. There's also a barely visible Single Tear when Mathis dies.
  • The Syndicate: Quantum.
  • Theme Tune: "Another Way To Die", the first duet in the history of Bond movies, done by Jack White (one half of The White Stripes) and Alicia Keys. Does not include the word "Quantum" in the lyrics, but does have "solace" and "of" in there.
  • Torture Always Works: M, although she doesn't get the chance. "You will eventually tell us everything about the people you work with, and the longer it takes, the more painful we'll make it."
  • Tragic Keepsake: Vesper's necklace, discarded at the end of the film. This is a touching callback to Casino Royale, where Vesper takes off the necklace because (as she put it) sometimes you have to let the past go.
  • Two Decades Behind: See also entry in Casino Royale. Lillet stopped making Kina Lillet in 1986, but it is mentioned by name yet again in this movie as Bond is boozing it up on "Vespers" in the plane.
  • Unfortunate Names: Fields. Strawberry Fields.
  • Unusual User Interface: MI6's magical touchscreens. One could say that they were running on a Q OS.
    • Viewer-Friendly Interface: Sort of. Said touchscreens do nothing that couldn't be accomplished with papers and a regular computer. In the tie-in game, they definitely qualify, running some strange combination of DOS and that weird GUI.
      • So intelligent is this interface that when Bond describes Greene's surname as having a 'double-E', the computer inserts a W before he's finished saying it, then replaces it with the two Es. Why such a feature is in place is completely unknown, especially when one factors in that Bond should have been using the phonetic alphabet anyway.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Poor Vesper. Her boyfriend was a Quantum agent who was using her to get information, then faked his own kidnapping to force her to betray her country.
  • Vapor Wear: we're not shown what, if anything, Fields is wearing under her coat.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Greene at the end.
  • Wasted Song: This song was rejected as the movie's main theme. As if the people who hate "Another Way To Die" weren't already upset...
  • We Are Everywhere: Quantum (see Paranoia Fuel example).
  • What the Hell, Hero?: M calls Bond out on killing every lead he finds (to the point that he's blamed for the death of a henchman who was killed by The Dragon, not Bond). At the end of the film, Bond finally shows some restraint when he leaves Vesper's boyfriend alive to be interrogated.
    • Camille drops this on Bond when he throws Mathis' body into a dumpster, having just cradled him during his dying moments.
    • M also calls Bond out on indirectly killing Fields due to his actions, and orders him handcuffed and escorted away by MI 6 agents. Not that it stops him from escaping, though.
  • Wicked Cultured: Quantum higher-ups love their Tosca.
    • Though Mr White is the only one to stick around for the whole thing. Seeing his companions leave in droves (and thus get caught on camera), he quips "Tosca isn't for everyone".
  • Word Salad Title: Subverted. Even though the title seems meaningless, it actually means "A little bit of comfort" (possibly referring to Bond's movie length Roaring Rampage of Revenge) as well as making it a Pun-Based Title.
  1. ↑ the first that actually continues directly from the previous film, not just having recurring characters like Big Bad Blofeld or The Dragon Jaws
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.