Skyfall

I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map, they aren't nations. They are individuals. And look around you - who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No, our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque! It's in the shadows - that's where we must do battle.

Skyfall is a 2012 British-American film in the James Bond series of spy films, the sequel to Quantum of Solace, and centres on Bond investigating an attack on MI6, part of a plot by former MI6 operative Raoul Silva to humiliate, discredit and ultimately kill M as revenge against her for betraying him. It was followed by 2015 sequel film, Spectre.

Directed by Sam Mendes. Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.

James Bond

[re. the porcelain bulldog on M's desk.] The whole office goes up in smoke and that bloody thing survives?
[to Silva, as British military choppers appear overhead.] The latest thing from Q Branch. It's called a radio.
Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first.
[as he prepares to leave Skyfall, his boyhood home, before it explodes.] I always hated this place.

Raoul Silva

[repeated line, onscreen text that appears on M's computer screen.] Think on your sins.
[first lines.] Hello James, welcome. Do you like the island? [chuckles.] My grandmother had an island. Nothing to boast of. You could walk along it in an hour. But still, it was - it was a paradise for us. One summer, we went for a visit and discovered the place had been infested with rats. They'd come on a fishing boat and gorged themselves on coconut. So how do you get rats off an island, hmm? My grandmother showed me. We buried an oil drum and hinged the lid. Then we wired coconut to the lid as bait, and the rats would come for the coconut, and... [imitates metallic skittering.] ...they would fall into the drum. And after a month, you've trapped all the rats. But what did you do then? Throw the drum into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it. And they begin to get hungry, and one by one... [imitates rat munching sound.] ...they will start eating each other, until there are only two left. The two survivors. And then what - do you kill them? No. You take them and release them into the trees. But now they don't eat coconut anymore. Now they only eat rat. You have changed their nature. The two survivors. This is what she made us.
[onscreen text, as his laptop breaches Q Branch's security, unlocking his holding cell.] Not such a clever boy.
[to his henchmen, about M] Everyone, listen to me! Don't you dare touch her! She's MINE!
Do you see what comes of all this running around, Mr. Bond? All this jumping and fighting, it's exhausting! Relax. You need to relax... Ah well, mother's calling. I will give her a good-bye kiss for you.

M

[To Gareth Mallory, having been told to retire from her job with dignity] Oh to hell with dignity, I'll go when the job is done.
[Addressing a parliamentary committee.] Chairman, ministers, today I've repeatedly heard how irrelevant my department has become. Why do we need agents, the 00 section? Isn't it all rather quaint? Well, I suppose I see a different world than you do, and the truth is that what I see frightens me. I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map, they aren't nations. They are individuals. And look around you - who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No, our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque! It's in the shadows - that's where we must do battle. So before you declare us irrelevant, ask yourselves - how safe do you feel? Just one more thing to say. My late husband was a great lover of poetry, and um - I suppose some of it sunk in, despite my best intentions. And here today, I remember this, I think, from Tennyson: "We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Too many people are dying because of me.
Orphans always make the best recruits.

Kincade

[showing M a concealed passage under Bond's family home.] The night I told him his parents had died, he hid in here for two days. When he did come out, he wasn't a boy anymore.
[after shooting two of Silva's men dead.] Welcome to Scotland.

Dialogue

[Bond and Patrice, an assassin, are fighting atop a train for possession of the stolen hard drive. As they emerge from a tunnel and onto a viaduct, Eve has them in the crosshairs of a rifle.]

Eve: I may have a shot. [beat.] It's not clean. Repeat, I do not have a clean shot.

[The train's whistle blares as it approach another tunnel.]

Eve: There's a tunnel ahead. I'm going to lose them.

M: Can you get into a better position?

Eve: Negative, there's no time.

M: [beat.] Take the shot.

[Eve hesitates.]

M: I said, take the shot!

Eve: I can't, I may hit Bond!

M: Take the bloody shot!

[Eve fires. Bond, hit, falls backwards from the train into the river below. Eve sees Patrice, still holding the hard drive, disappear into the tunnel. Back at MI6, there is a long silence.]

Eve: [on speaker-phone, solemn.] Agent down.

[M comes into her apartment. As she opens a bottle of alcohol, she notices that Bond is also in the room. She turns around to see him in the dark.]

M: Where the hell have you been?

James Bond: Enjoying death. 007 reporting for duty.

[M turns on the light to reveal Bond. He is drinking some alcohol.]

M: Why didn't you call?

James Bond: You didn't get the postcard? You should try it sometime. Get away from it all. It really lends perspective.

M: Ran out of drink where you were, did they?

James Bond: What was it you said? Take the bloody shot.

M: I made a judgment call.

James Bond: You should have trusted me to finish the job.

M: It was a possibility of losing you or the certainty of losing all those other agents. I made the only decision I could and you know it.

James Bond: I think you lost your nerve.

M: What are you expecting? A bloody apology? You know the rules of the game. You've been playing it long enough. We both have.

James Bond: Maybe too long.

M: Speak for yourself.

James Bond: Ronson didn't make it, did he?

M: No.

James Bond: So this is it. We're both played out.

M: If you believed that, why did you come back?

James Bond: [sarcastically] Good question.

M: Because we're under attack. And you know we need you.

[Bond enters the interrogation room to take his psychological test]

Doctor Hall: I'd like to start with some simple word associations. Just tell me the first word that pops into your head. For example, I say, "Day" and you might say…

James Bond: Wasted.

Doctor Hall: All right. Gun?

James Bond: Shot.

Doctor Hall: Agent.

James Bond: Provocateur.

Doctor Hall: Woman?

James Bond: Provocatrix.

Doctor Hall: Heart?

James Bond: Target.

Doctor Hall: Bird?

James Bond: Sky.

Doctor Hall: M.

James Bond: Bitch.

[quick cut to M in the observation room, not amused]

Doctor Hall: Sunlight?

James Bond: Swim.

Doctor Hall: Moonlight?

James Bond: Dance.

Doctor Hall: Murder.

James Bond: Employment.

Doctor Hall: Country.

James Bond: England.

Doctor Hall: Skyfall. [Bond says nothing] Skyfall.

James Bond: Done. [walks out]

[M is not impressed.]

Gareth Mallory: [to M; sarcastically] This is going well.

[Bond and Eve meet for the first time since she accidentally shot him]

James Bond: I am sorry, but we have met before?

Eve: I am the one who should say sorry.

James Bond: It was only four ribs; some of the less vital organs. Nothing major. [he and Eve walk into a big room of the building.] Not enough excitement in Istanbul?

Eve: I've been reassigned. Temporary suspension from field work.

James Bond: Really?

Eve: Mm. Something to do with killing 007.

James Bond: Well, you gave it your best shot.

Eve: It was hardly my best shot.

James Bond: I'm not sure I can survive your best.

Eve: Doubt you'll get the chance.

Bond: Well, do me a favor, will you. If they do ever let you back out there, warn me first.

Eve: I'm assisting Gareth Mallory in the transition and then I'll be back in the field.

James Bond: It's what you want?

Eve: Yes, of course.

James Bond: It's not for everyone.

[Bill Tanner comes into the big room.]

Bill Tanner: [directing Bond into M's office] Ah, 007. It's this way.

James Bond: [to Eve.] In your defense, a moving target is much harder to hit.

Eve: Then you'd better keep moving.

[At the National Gallery, Bond is sitting on an empty bench, looking at The Fighting Temeraire. A scruffy-haired young man wearing glasses (Q, though Bond doesn't know this yet) approaches and sits right next to him. Bond looks at him in annoyance.]

Q: It always makes me feel a little melancholy - a grand old war ship, being ignominiously hauled away to scrap. The inevitability of time, don't you think? What do you see?

James Bond: A bloody big ship. Excuse me. [rising to leave.]

Q: 007. [Bond reacts and sits back down.] I'm your new Quartermaster.

James Bond: You must be joking.

Q: Why, because I'm not wearing a lab coat?

James Bond: Because you still have spots.

Q: My complexion is hardly relevant.

James Bond: Your competence is.

Q: Age is no guarantee of efficiency.

James Bond: And youth is no guarantee of innovation.

Q: I'll hazard I can do more damage on my laptop sitting in my pyjamas before my first cup of Earl Grey than you can do in a year in the field.

James Bond: Oh, so why do you need me?

Q: Every now and then, a trigger has to be pulled.

James Bond: Or not pulled. It's hard to know which in your pyjamas. [Beat] Q. [offers his hand.]

Q: [shakes his hand.] 007.

James Bond: [on receiving his equipment from Q.] A gun and a radio. It's not exactly Christmas, is it?

Q: Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore.

Eve: [watches Bond shave] Cut-throat razor. How very traditional.

James Bond: [suggestively] Well, I like to do some things the old-fashioned way.

Eve: [smiles] Sometimes the old ways are the best.

Sévérine: It's not too late. We could turn back now.

James Bond: [eyes armed guards standing behind them menacingly] I wouldn't be so sure.

Raoul Silva: Just look at you, barely held together by your pills and your drink.

James Bond: Don't forget my pathetic love of country.

Raoul Silva: You're still clinging to your faith in that old woman, when all she does is lie to you.

James Bond: She never lied to me.

Raoul Silva: No?

James Bond: No.

Raoul Silva: What did you score on your marksmanship evaluation?

James Bond: Seventy.

Raoul Silva: [laughs mockingly] Forty. Did she tell you the psychologist cleared you for duty?

James Bond: Yes.

Raoul Silva: No. No. [sighs, reads test results from a laptop] "Medical evaluation: Failed. Physical evaluation: Failed. Psychological evaluation: Alcohol and substance addiction indicated." Ooh! "Pathological rejection of authority based on unresolved childhood trauma. Subject is not approved for field duty and immediate suspension from service advised." What is this if not betrayal? She sent you after me, knowing you were not ready, knowing you would likely die. Mommy was very bad. Hmm? [he unbuttons Bond's shirt, inspecting the scar on his shoulder. Winces.] Ooh. See what she's done to you?

James Bond: Well, she never tied me to a chair.

Raoul Silva: [deadpan] Her loss. [he continues to probe at Bond's chest, suggestively.]

James Bond: [dubious] Are you sure this is about M?

Raoul Silva: It's about her. And you, and me. You see, we are the last two rats. We can either eat each other… [suggestive look] Or eat everyone else. Ah, you're trying to remember your training now - what's the regulation to cover this? [rests his hands on Bond's legs.] Well, first time for everything, yes?

James Bond: [unmoved] What makes you think this is my first time?

Raoul Silva: [playful] Oh, Mr. Bond!

[Silva is in isolation at MI6 headquarters]

Raoul Silva: [seeing M for the first time after years] You're smaller then I remember.

M: Whereas I barely remember you at all.

Raoul Silva: It's strange; for me, it just feels like yesterday. Are you surprised?

M: Not particularly, but then you always were a slippery one.

Raoul Silva: Maybe that's why you liked me so much.

M: You flatter yourself.

Raoul Silva: No remorse. Just as I had imagined.

M: Regret is unprofessional.

Raoul Silva: [laughs] "Regret is unprofessional?" They kept me for five months in a room with no air. They tortured me and I protected your secrets. I protected you. But they made me suffer and suffer [beat.] and suffer. Until I realized, it was you who betrayed me. You betrayed me. So I had only one thing left: my cyanide capsule in my back left molar. You remember, don't you? So, I broke the tooth and bit into the capsule. It burned all of my insides, but I didn't die. Life clung to me like a disease. And then I understood why I had survived. I needed to look into your eyes one last time.

M: Well, I hope it was worth it. Mr. Silva, you're going to be transferred to Belmarsh Prison, where you will be remanded in custody, until the Crown Prosecution Service deem you fit to stand trial-

Raoul Silva: [interrupts.] Say my name. Say it. My real name. I know you remember it.

M: Your name is on the memorial wall of the very building you attacked. I will have it struck off. Soon, your past will be as non-existent as your future. I'll never see you again.

[She and Bond begin to leave]

Raoul Silva: Do you know what it does to you? [They stop] Hydrogen cyanide? [he goes down on one knee, and removes a dental prosthesis from his upper palate, causing his left cheek to sag and revealing a gaunt, misshapen face and a row of rotted teeth.] Look upon your work, mother.

[M and Bond leave the room. Silva puts his dental prosthesis back into his mouth and he laughs hysterically at the look on M's face.]

[Bond is pursuing an escaped Silva through London's underground train tunnels. Q is tracking him from MI6's reserve headquarters and communicating by radio.]

Q: If you're through that door, you should be in the Tube.

James Bond: [deadpan] I'm in the Tube.

Q: Bond, this isn't an escape, this was years in the planning. He wanted us to capture him, he wanted us to access his computer. It was all planned - blowing up HQ, knowing all the emergency protocols, knowing we'd retreat down here.

James Bond: I got all that. It's what he's got planned next that worries me.

Q: District line is the closest. There should be a service door on your left.

James Bond: Got it. [he tries the door handle] It won't open.

Q: Of course it will, put your back into it.

James Bond: Why don't you come down here and put your back into it?! [he tries again.] No, it's stuck. [a rumble is heard, and Bond looks along the tracks] Oh good. There's a train coming.

Q: Hmm. That's vexing.

[Bond tries to barge the door multiple times but will not open. He uses a pistol to shoot the door handle. The door opens and Bond slips into it.]

James Bond: I'm through.

Q: Told you. We've alerted security. Police are on their way.

[Bond continues to find Silva.]

[Bond is on a crowded platform at Temple Tube station, looking for Silva.]

James Bond: There's too many people, I can't see him.

Q: Welcome to rush hour on the Tube. Not something you'd know much about.

[Q spots something on one of the CCTV footage monitors - a policeman getting onto the Tube train.]

James Bond: The train's leaving. Do I get on the train?

Q: [hesitant.] Don't get on the train, I'm not sure he's on it. Give us a minute.

[Q enhances the footage he was just watching. The train starts to pull away, Bond still on the platform.]

James Bond: [impatient.] Do I get on the train?

[Q freezes the footage of the policeman turning to face the camera. It is Silva in disguise.]

Q: Bond?

James Bond: What?

Q: Get on the train.

[Bond chases after and jumps onto the end of the tube train, clinging onto the outer door. He runs past an old-looking man who is standing with his wife.]

Man at Tube Station: He's keen to get home.

James Bond: [to female train conductor.] Open the door, please!

[The conductor just stares at him, baffled.]

James Bond: Open. The door!

[The conductor finally opens the door. Bond steps on board.]

James Bond: Health and Safety. Carry on.

Q: Where are you?

James Bond: [moving through the carriages.] Take a wild guess, Q.

Q: He's in disguise now. He's dressed as a policeman.

James Bond: [sarcastic.] Of course he is.

Q: [tracking the train's path, muttering.] Where's he going? Where's he going?

[Bond spots the route map on the inside wall of one of the carriages. The route leads to Westminster.]

James Bond: [realising.] He's going for M. Tell Tanner - get her out of there.

[Having absconded with M, Bond has pulled over at a back-alley garage.]

M: Well I'm not hiding in there, if that's your brilliant plan.

James Bond: We're changing vehicles. The problem with company cars is they have trackers.

[He opens the garage door and turns on the lights, revealing his classic Aston Martin DB5.]

M: [sarcastic.] Well, I suppose that's completely inconspicuous.

James Bond: Get in.

[Bond and M drive off in the Aston Martin.]

M: It's not very comfortable, is it?

James Bond: [flips up the cap on the gearstick to reveal the ejector seat button underneath.] You gonna complain all the way?

M: Oh, go on then, eject me. See if I care.

[Bond closes the cap.]

M: Where are we going?

James Bond: Back in time. Somewhere we'll have the advantage.

[at Q Branch, Q and Tanner try to create a false trail to lure Silva]

Q: It's a fine line. Make the breadcrumb too small, and he might miss it. Too big, and Silva will smell a rat.

Bill Tanner: Yes, but you'd think even Silva will be able to spot that.

Q: He's the only one who could.

[Tanner turns to see Mallory, his arm in a sling]

Tanner: Sir?

Q: Oh...

Gareth Mallory: What are you doing?

Q: We're just... monitoring.

Mallory: Creating a false tracking signal for Silva to follow.

Tanner: Well, sir, um...

Q: Well, no...

Mallory: Excellent thinking. Get him isolated. Send him on the A9, it's a direct route. You can monitor his progress more accurately and confirm it with the traffic cameras.

Tanner: But, uh... what if the PM finds out?

Mallory: Then we're all buggered. Carry on.

[Bond is practising hitting targets with his father's rifle with Kincade, the gamekeeper of Skyfall, the Bond family estate. Kincade does not know of Bond's employment or firearms training.]

Kincade: So who are we supposed to be fighting?

James Bond: No "we" in it, Kincade. This is not your fight.

Kincade: Try and stop me, you jumped-up little shit. Now remember what I taught you. Don't let it pull to the left.

James Bond: [deadpan] I'll do my best.

[Bond takes aim and fires twice. The targets, a pair of china teacups on a tree branch, are blown to smithereens. Bond pops the spent cartridges from the rifle.]

Kincade: What did you say you did for a living?

[Bond, M and Kincade are waiting for Silva and his men to arrive.]

M: I fucked this up, didn't I?

James Bond: No. You did your job. [beat] I read your obituary of me.

M: And?

James Bond: Appalling.

M: Yeah, I knew you'd hate it. I did call you an exemplar of British fortitude.

James Bond: Oh, that bit was alright.

[The dogs start barking. Bond rises, alert]

James Bond: Are you ready?

Kincade: I was ready before you were born, son.

Raoul Silva: [on seeing that M is wounded, panicked] You're hurt. You're hurt! What have they done to you? What have they done to you? [puts his gun in her hand, and presses it to her head, and rests his head against hers, directly in the path of the gun] Free us both. With the same bullet. Do it. Do it. Only you can do it. Now do it. [he screams as Bond lobs a knife into his back. He turns and glares at Bond, groaning with impotent rage. He kneels onto the floor.]

James Bond: Last rat standing.

[Silva keels over dead]

M: 007, what took you so long?

James Bond: Well, I got into some deep water.

[M, succumbing to her wound, topples over. Bond cradles her in his arms]

M: I suppose it's too late to make a run for it?

James Bond: Well, I'm game if you are.

M: I did get one thing right.

[M dies. Bond embraces her corpse and Kincade, with despair, takes off his hat.]

James Bond: You know, we've never been formally introduced.

Eve: Oh. Well, my name's Eve... Eve Moneypenny.

James Bond: I look forward to our time together, Miss Moneypenny.

Eve: Me, too. I'm sure we'll have one or two close shaves.

Gareth Mallory: [now promoted to become the new head of MI6 as the new M] So, 007… [gives Bond his next assignment] Lots to be done. Are you ready to get back to work?

James Bond: With pleasure, M. With pleasure.

Cast

Daniel Craig as James Bond
Dame Judi Dench as M as Olivia Mansfield/M
Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva
Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory/M
Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny
Bérénice Lim Marlohe as Sévérine
Albert Finney as Kincade
Ben Whishaw as Q
Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner

Taglines

The victories of yesterday become the losses of today.

External links

Wikipedia

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Skyfall

Skyfall quotes at the Internet Movie Database
Skyfall at Rotten Tomatoes