Summary
-
Casino Royale
failed to accurately portray poker gameplay, with illogical and unrealistic scenes throughout the game. - Mr. White’s unrealistic endurance in
Quantum of Solace
raises questions about the believability of Bond villains’ abilities. -
No Time to Die
left holes in Bond’s journey back to London and his sacrifice at the end, leading to some inconsistencies.
This article contains spoilers for all Daniel Craig James Bond movies.Daniel Craig has been an outstanding James Bond over the years, but there are some things about his James Bond movies that make no sense. Since joining the long list of Bonds in director Martin Campbell’s 2006 movie Casino Royale, Craig has delivered style and substance in his role as 007 in Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. However, the movies still fell victim to some of the continuity errors, plot holes, and logical fallacies common in action movies.
While Craig saw off his version of James Bond in No Time to Die with a rather definitive ending for his popular character, the movie ended with the traditional “James Bond will return” messaging. This confirms that, as Craig takes his place among the pantheon of historical James Bond actors, another reboot is already in the works. The franchise can rely on reinvention to take its next version somewhere relevant and current, and possibly even learn from some of the more illogical aspects of the Daniel Craig era.
Related Why James Bond Started Using A Walther PPK Gun Explained
Before James Bond started carrying a Walther PPK firearm, he used to carry another weapon that was deemed not worthy of what a spy would use.
10 No One Knows How To Play Poker In Casino Royale
Casino Royale Doesn’t Follow The Rules
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For a movie based on poker, the EON Productions business behind Casino Royale didn’t put much emphasis on the realities of betting. Casino Royale inevitably made creative decisions based on furthering the narrative when it came to portraying gameplay, and these took the on-screen representation of the game away from real Texas Hold ’em. For one, Bond was seen giving the dealer chips as a tip, which was effectively meaningless.
The red chips represented one million and the blue were worth half of that. However, the game was a tournament and all money bet was in the prize. Chips only represented a player’s stake in the game, making Bond’s gesture completely empty. Also, Le Chiffre called and Bond made an aggressive bet – Bond should have revealed first, not last. What’s more, Bond couldn’t have gone all in, being chip leader. There were also no side pots in this sketchy imitation of a poker game.
Casino Royale PG-13ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch
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The twenty-first film in Eon’s James Bond franchise, Casino Royale, stars Daniel Craig as secret agent 007. Introducing Craig to the role with an origin story, Casino Royale shows Bond earning his MI6 codename before being tasked with infiltrating a casino in Montenegro in order to bankrupt a terrorist financier known as Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). However, Bond’s assignment is more complicated than it seems, as Le Chiffre seems to have inside knowledge of the MI6 agent’s plan.
Cast Daniel Craig , Eva Green , Mads Mikkelsen , judi dench , Jeffrey Wright , Giancarlo Giannini Director Martin Campbell Release Date November 14, 2006 Studio(s) Sony Distributor(s) Sony Writers Neal Purvis , Robert Wade , Paul Haggis , Ian Fleming Runtime 144 minutes Expand
9 Mr. White Demands Serious Suspension Of Disbelief
The Bond Villain Can’t Have Been Human
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In the 2008 movie Quantum of Solace, Mr. White made a fairly unbelievable escape from his MI6 interrogation by James Bond and M. As a major antagonist in the movie, his ability to be a match for Bond was a prerequisite. However, Mr. White was operating with some serious injuries that would have left most people bleeding to death or incapacitated.
In Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, Mr. White was first seen in
Casino Royale
and last seen in
No Time to Die
.
Mr. White was shot numerous times before his escape. Firstly, James Bond shot him in the leg near the end of Casino Royale, and Mr. White was later shot in the shoulder. Between these injuries, he was being flung around in the boot of a car. Considering these incidents, Mr. White’s physical trauma made his endurance in Quantum of Solace a stretch.
Quantum of Solace PG-13AdventureThrillerAction Where to Watch
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The twenty-second film in Eon’s James Bond movie franchise, Quantum of Solace immediately follows the events of Casino Royale. After catching up to the mysterious Mr. White, Bond (Daniel Craig) learns of a shadowy organization known as Quantum. This puts 007 on the path to uncovering a plot to exploit the entire nation of Bolivia to steal its natural resources.
Cast judi dench , Olga Kurylenko , Daniel Craig , Jeffrey Wright , Giancarlo Giannini , Gemma Arterton , Mathieu Amalric Director Marc Forster Release Date November 14, 2008 Studio(s) Sony Distributor(s) Columbia Pictures , Sony Writers Paul Haggis , Robert Wade , Neal Purvis Runtime 106 minutes Expand
8 Blofeld’s Needles Have No Effect In Spectre
The Weapon Used On Bond Doesn’t Work
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The notorious James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld bound James Bond in Spectre and promised to alter his memory, sight, hearing, and balance with his sinister backstreet surgery, but Bond didn’t appear to be affected. Blofeld’s bizarre torture method involved needles penetrating Bond’s brain. Blofeld’s contraption looked quite surgically proficient, but it’s a mystery what effect it actually had.
Before Bond escaped Blofeld’s strangely unsecured surgical chair, Blofeld managed to carry out at least part of his operation on Bond. However, not only did Bond recognize Madeleine, he also ran away without much issue. Perhaps none of Blofeld’s needles reached the right tissue – Blofeld did express a degree of uncertainty about the device’s effect. But for none of Blofeld’s promised brain damage to transpire seemed like a real stroke of luck for James Bond.
Spectre PG-13ThrillerActionAdventure Where to Watch
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The twenty-fourth installment in Eon’s James Bond series, Spectre follows Bond (Daniel Craig) as he encounters a new threat to global security. After a mission goes wrong, Bond ends up on the trail of a shadowy organization with ties to countless governments and influential figures. With MI6 compromised by those working toward an unknown goal, Bond must rely on his instincts as an agent to root out the truth.
Cast Ben Whishaw , Lea Seydoux , Ralph Fiennes , Monica Bellucci , Christoph Waltz , Daniel Craig , Andrew Scott , Dave Bautista Director Sam Mendes Release Date November 6, 2015 Studio(s) Sony Distributor(s) Sony Writers John Logan , Robert Wade , Neal Purvis Runtime 158 Minutes Expand
7 The Skyfall Cyber Security Plot Hole
There Is No Basic Cyber Security In Skyfall
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Ben Whishaw’s Q wasn’t doing a terrible job of seeming like the tech genius he was supposed to be until the hacking scene in the Bond movie Skyfall. The incarcerated villain Raoul Silva managed to one up Q even from behind bars after Q’s IT faux pas. This would never have happened in any medium-sized business, let alone an intelligence agency.
In attempting to reap intel from Silva’s laptop, Q appeared to connect it to his organization’s WI-FI, intranet, server, or all three. This gave Silva access to the internal security system, allowing him to hack the doors and escape. Even a small business would have tested this laptop in complete isolation and would never have connected it to its own machines or systems. Q, however, was seen pulling cables out of the laptop manically, indicating his rookie error.
Skyfall PG-13ActionThrillerDrama Where to Watch
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The twenty-third entry in Eon’s James Bond franchise, Skyfall follows Bond (Daniel Craig) as he investigates a series of attacks on the MI6 agency. His investigation puts him in the sights of the villainous Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), an ex-MI6 operative who has since turned to a life of cyberterror. With his own personal axe to grind, Bond must stop Silva before he destroys MI6 entirely.
Cast judi dench , Ralph Fiennes , Naomie Harris , Helen McCrory , Javier Bardem , Daniel Craig , Ben Whishaw Director Sam Mendes Release Date November 9, 2012 Studio(s) Sony Distributor(s) Sony Writers John Logan , Robert Wade , Neal Purvis Runtime 2h 23m Expand
Related James Bond and Raoul Silva Were Originally Going to Team Up In Skyfall
Director Sam Mendes reveals that early drafts of Skyfall’s script featured Daniel Craig’s James Bond teaming up with Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva.
6 James Bond Doesn’t Know Basic First Aid
Bond Skipped First Aid Training
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James Bond’s love story with Vesper in Casino Royale was a highlight of the Craig era, which made his failure to resuscitate Vesper after her accident even sillier. Although anyone hard-pressed and under stress may botch CPR, it seems like an agent of Bond’s caliber would be capable of this basic act of first aid. After Vesper’s suicidal locking of herself in an elevator, it was all downhill from there for her.
Daniel Craig’s
Casino Royale
was the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel,
Casino Royale
.
Vesper sunk into the water in the elevator, and despite Bond rescuing her from the elevator, he failed to follow through on his heroics. If Vesper wasn’t breathing, Bond should have given her rescue breaths first and followed up with 30 chest compressions, and then gone back to rescue breaths. This should have been repeated for a while – there’s a chance of reviving casualties through CPR without brain damage, even five minutes after they stopped breathing.
5 The SPECTRE Retcon Involving Quantum
Quantum Makes More Sense Without SPECTRE
Quantum of Solace explored the shadowy criminal organization Quantum, which all made far less sense after the huge Quantum retcon in Spectre. Quantum worked well enough in Quantum of Solace on its own merit, especially having been built up in Casino Royale. Between these first two Bond movies in Craig’s set, Quantum provided a strong antagonist.
However, Quantum’s continuity wasn’t to be. After EON Productions had safely acquired the legal rights to use the SPECTRE and Blofeld names in its movies, it wasted no time in including them as much as possible. Powerful criminal organization SPECTRE was revealed to own Quantum, as one of its subsidiaries. This reveal in Spectre stretched the imagination, implying that all the perfectly explained villainy of previous movies had somehow all been a part of Blofeld’s plan.
Related Quantum Of Solace’s Original Ending Would’ve Totally Changed Craig’s 007
The underlying themes of Daniel Craig’s Bond era may have never been fully realized if not for an important change to the Quantum of Solace ending.
4 James Bond Having A Personal Connection To Blofeld
Blofeld Was Better Off Before The Bond Reveal
Classic Bond villain Blofeld was a key inclusion in Craig’s Bond movies, but the rebooted series of movies brought a new meaning to the villain that made other stories featuring Blofeld make less sense. Blofeld brought in vital lore from the world of Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books in the ’50s. The reboot made one big retcon to Blofeld’s character that caused numerous inconsistencies and confusion throughout the world of Bond stories.
In Spectre, Blofeld revealed himself as James Bond’s adopted brother. Blofeld cited this personal connection as his motivation for carrying out all his heinous acts to date, claiming that his father’s favoritism for Bond caused deep resentment. This made Bond an indirect cause of all the plots he was fighting against, removing Blofeld’s own individuality and mystery as a villain, and calling into question all previous Spectre schemes.
3 Bond’s Mysterious Journey From The Caribbean to London
This Time Skip Is Never Explained
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The final movie including Daniel Craig as James Bond, the 2021 movie No Time to Die, found James Bond on a mission in the Caribbean, then making his way very easily back to London after a disastrous boat trip. Bond survived after Logan sunk the boat, but he would have faced a whole adventure trying to get back to London. Worth its own movie alone, this journey would have involved numerous steps.
Bond managed to find a life raft to escape from the boat, which was fair enough. However, there were only medium odds of being found by a freight tanker and being rescued, as was the way in No Time to Die. The suspicious circumstances of Bond’s rescue at sea probably would have landed him in some kind of difficulty with the tanker crew or on shore, and how he managed to get himself to London with limited resources is also a mystery.
No Time to Die PG-13ActionAdventureThriller Where to Watch
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The famed agent James Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. However, his peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
Cast Daniel Craig , Rami Malek , Lea Seydoux , Ralph Fiennes , Lashana Lynch , Jeffrey Wright , Billy Magnussen , Dali Benssalah , Naomie Harris , Rory Kinnear , Ben Whishaw , Ana De Armas , David Dencik Director Cary Fukunaga Release Date October 8, 2021 Studio(s) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributor(s) Universal Pictures Writers Cary Fukunaga , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Robert Wade , Scott Z. Burns , Neal Purvis Runtime 163 Minutes Expand
2 James Bond Finding Time To Die In No Time To Die
Bond Could Have Found A Way To Live
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James Bond’s demise in No Time to Die was a good end to the rebooted movie series, but the execution lacked a degree of credibility. Bond opted to sacrifice himself to save Madeleine and her daughter at the end of the movie by losing his life in an explosion which also toppled the dangerous facility. But the movie gave the impression that there would have been other ways for Bond to navigate the fatal scenario of Project Heracles.
No Time to Die
is based on the Ian Fleming novel
You Only Live Twice
.
They wouldn’t have been quite as dramatic, so this can be forgiven. However, the question of curing the virus remained. The scientific accuracy of targeted nanobots meant to kill certain people is questionable, but the more significant plot hole seemed to be that there were numerous ways Bond could have kept the virus away from its targets. Bond could have hidden somewhere remote while his team worked on neutralizing the bioweapons, thereby not needing to die at the end of the movie.
1 Silva’s Hydrogen Cyanide Pill Wouldn’t Work In Real Life
Hydrogen Cyanide Works Differently
The disfigured villain Raoul Silva provided some gory backstory which made no sense. In Skyfall, Silva’s facial injuries were due to a bungled suicide attempt via hydrogen cyanide. Silva was betrayed by M and left to be tortured. After some time, he opted to bite into the hydrogen cyanide pill hidden in his molar to end his suffering, but this went horribly wrong in an incredibly unrealistic way.
Silva’s pill failed to kill him and instead left him with a sunken eye socket, a misshapen jaw, and decayed teeth. It is unlikely that cyanide wouldn’t have killed, but it’s yet more unlikely that a hydrogen cyanide pill would have been offered as a suicide pill. Potassium cyanide would have been a more likely compound, and even then it wouldn’t have resulted in the tissue necrosis seen in the movie. Ultimately, Silva’s suicide pill makes for one of the most illogical scenes in the recent James Bond movies.
James Bond
The James Bond franchise follows the adventures of British secret agent 007 as he combats global threats. With a license to kill, Bond faces off against various villains and criminal organizations, employing high-tech gadgets, espionage, and charm. The series spans multiple films, featuring exotic locations, thrilling action sequences, and memorable characters. Bond’s mission to protect the world and uphold justice remains central, making the franchise an enduring icon in the spy genre.
Created by Ian Fleming , Albert R. Broccoli First Film Dr. No Latest Film No Time to Die Upcoming Films James Bond 26 First TV Show Fleming: The Man Who Would be Bond First Episode Air Date January 29, 2014 Cast Sean Connery , George Lazenby , Roger Moore , Timothy Dalton , Pierce Brosnan , Daniel Craig Expand