Skyfall

Mendes was approached to direct after the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008. Development of the film was suspended throughout 2010 after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which caused screenwriter Peter Morgan to leave the project. Production resumed in December 2010 after Purvis, Wade, and Logan were hired and a November 2012 release date was announced in January 2011.^[5] Principal photography began that November after the film's title was revealed and lasted until March 2012, with filming locations including London, Shanghai, Istanbul, and Scotland.


Skyfall premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 October 2012, and was released theatrically in conventional and IMAX formats in the United Kingdom three days later and in the United States on 9 November, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962). Skyfall received positive reviews, with praise for Mendes's direction, cast performances, action sequences, cinematography, and musical score. The film was nominated for five awards at the 85th Academy Awards, winning two, and received numerous other accolades. Skyfall grossed $1 billion worldwide, the fourteenth film to do so, and became the then-seventh-highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing James Bond film of all time, the second-highest-grossing film of 2012, the then-highest-grossing film released by Sony, and the highest-grossing film released by MGM. The next film in the series, Spectre, was released in 2015.

Plot[edit]

In Istanbul, MI6 agents James Bond and Eve Moneypenny pursue mercenary Patrice, who has stolen a hard drive containing details of undercover agents. As Bond and Patrice fight atop a moving train, M orders Moneypenny to shoot Patrice, despite not having a clear shot; Moneypenny inadvertently hits Bond, who falls into a river. Bond is presumed dead and Patrice escapes with the hard drive.


Three months later, due to a public inquiry into M's handling of the stolen hard drive, she is pressured to retire by Gareth Mallory, the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and a former SAS officer. Although she says she is still useful, MI6's servers are hacked, and M receives a taunting computer message moments before the MI6 building explodes. Bond, who used his presumed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to service in London. He fails a series of physical, medical, and psychological examinations, but M approves his return to the field, ordering him to identify Patrice's employer, recover the hard drive, and kill Patrice. He meets Q, MI6's new quartermaster, who gives him a radio beacon and a Walther PPK pistol.


In Shanghai, Bond follows Patrice and witnesses him killing a target. The two fight and Patrice falls to his death before Bond can learn his employer's identity. Moneypenny joins Bond in his investigation on Mallory's orders. Bond finds a casino token Patrice intended to cash in for the assassination, leading him to a casino in Macau. There, Bond is approached by Sévérine, Patrice's accomplice. Recognising her tattoo, he concludes she was a sex slave "rescued" by a criminal who now employs her, a man Bond wishes to meet. She warns him he is targeted by her bodyguards, but promises to help if Bond kills her employer. Bond thwarts the attack and joins Sévérine on her yacht, the Chimera. They travel to an abandoned island off the coast of Macau, where the crew captures and delivers them to Sévérine's employer, Raoul Silva. Silva, a former MI6 agent, turned to cyberterrorism and orchestrated the attack on MI6. Silva kills Sévérine, but Bond alerts MI6 reinforcements who capture Silva for rendition to Britain.


At MI6's new underground headquarters, Q attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop, but inadvertently gives it access to the MI6 servers, allowing Silva to escape. Q concludes Silva wanted to be captured as part of a plan to kill M, whom he hates for disavowing and betraying him to the Chinese government during the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, leaving him to be tortured and disfigured by a suicide attempt by cyanide pill. Silva escapes his cell and Bond chases him through the London Underground and thwarts Silva's attack at a Parliament inquiry where M is present.


Instructing Q and Bill Tanner to leave an electronic trail for Silva to follow, Bond uses his Aston Martin DB5 to take M to Skyfall, his childhood home in the Scottish Highlands. They meet Skyfall's gamekeeper Kincade, and the trio rigs the house with booby traps. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M, and Kincade kill most of them, but M is wounded. Silva arrives by helicopter with more men and heavy weapons, so Bond sends M and Kincade through a priest hole to hide in a nearby chapel, and rigs propane tanks to explode. As the house and the helicopter are destroyed, Bond escapes down the same tunnel.


Silva survives the destruction of the house, following Kincade and M to the chapel. Confronting M, Silva forces his gun into her hand and presses his temple to hers, begging her to kill them both. Bond arrives and kills Silva by throwing a knife into his back. M then succumbs to her wounds and dies in Bond's arms.


Following M's funeral, Moneypenny formally introduces herself to Bond and tells him she is retiring from fieldwork to become secretary for Mallory, the newly appointed M. Bond meets Mallory, and tells him he is ready to get back to work.