With 'Casino Royale,' we get to the obligatory concluding lovey-dovey on the tropical sands, and then the movie pulls a screeching U-turn and starts up again with the most sensational scene I have ever seen set in Venice, or most other places. It's a movie that keeps on giving. After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, Secret Agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes.

Casino Royale Genre
Casino Royale Movie 1967
Casino Royale Genre

Casino Royale (2006)
d. Martin Campbell, 144 minutes

Opening Credits, Title Sequence

The film opened with a black and white action pre title-credits sequence that then led to a black/white, stylized, markedly-different gun-barrel sequence. This was the first time in the Bond series that the gun-barrel wasn't at the very start of the film. Bond (Craig) was filmed in a white-tiled bathroom, where he abruptly turned and fired, rather than walking into the space. The film then turned slowly to color after the blood washed down, as the title credits appeared.
This was also the first Bond film without images of women in the title sequence.
Main Title Sequence: Designed by Daniel Kleinman
Title Song: 'You Know My Name' (sung by Chris Cornell)

Film Plot Summary

After a black/white MGM logo, the B/W pre-title credits sequence began - the setting was Prague (Czech Republic), where James Bond (Daniel Craig) was introduced as an agent before he was granted a license to kill and only elevated to double-0 status after completing two kills. The first of his kills occurred late at night as corrupt MI6 section chief John Dryden (Malcolm Sinclair) entered his 6th floor office and noticed his opened safe behind a picture. From behind, a seated Bond confronted Dryden and told him he shouldn't be 'selling secrets' to an unknown source. When Dryden reached for a gun in his desk drawer, he mentioned: 'Shame. We barely got to know each other,' but his gun clicked empty - it had been emptied of bullets by Bond. The agent then described how he had already made his first kill - Dryden's underworld contact Fisher (Daud Shah). Fisher's death by drowning in a washroom sink and by gunshot was seen in flashback sequences during their hand-to-hand combat (# 1 death, # 1 Bond kill). Dryden was mid-sentence about how easy the second kill would be easier ('Made you feel it, did he? Well, you needn't worry. The second is...') when Bond shot him dead and added: 'Yes. Considerably.' (# 2 death, # 2 Bond kill) [Note: the killing of Fisher in the washroom signaled the start of the gun-barrel sequence.]

The film then opened in Mbale, Uganda in the midst of a civil war and during a torrential rainstorm at a large army camp, where 'freedom-fighting' terrorist mercenary Steven Obanno (Isaach De Bankole) briefly spoke with international mastermind Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) who had arranged for an introductory meeting before the arrival of scheming financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) (with a bleeding cut over and through his left eye). The villainous Le Chiffre, using a benzedrine inhaler, was there to provide illegal banking services - he promised to keep suitcases full of cash safe for Obanno. After the deal, which Le Chiffre assured was 'no risk,' he phoned one of his stock market operatives and instructed a bet (with Obanno's funds) against the Skyfleet company - a short sale with the purchase of put options: 'Short another million shares of Skyfleet stock...Just do it.' [His evil intent was to bankrupt the Skyfleet company by blowing up their prototype jet-plane, thereby profiting by making millions.]

The next sequence was set in the African-island nation of Madagascar at a crowded local mongoose-cobra fight, where Bond (and a second junior agent Carter (Joseph Millson)) were tracking a scar-faced, freelance terrorist bomb-maker named Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). Bond's assignment was to fight the funding of terrorism. When the suspect received a text message ('Ellipsis'), Mollaka became suspicious after Carter kept touching his earpiece and blew their cover, and he made a run for it. During a long, spectacular foot chase sequence through jungle and into an ocean-side construction site, Bond hotly pursued Mollaka - at one point commandeering a large New Holland bulldozer-tractor. As both scaled steel girders high in the sky, three individuals lost their lives (one construction worker was pushed and two police guards were shot by Mollaka (# 3-5 deaths)). Both of them scaled cables on towering cranes and fought precariously before jumping to the ground and free-running through other buildings under construction.

The chase ended at the Nambutu Embassy (Mollaka was an employee there), where security alarms sounded and Bond found himself under-fire and breaching diplomatic protocol. He grabbed Mollaka as a hostage and used him as a human shield, as Mollaka was shot in the leg (number of other deaths unknown). Bond threw his hostage out a second-floor office window into a courtyard, and then, when cornered and surrounded by troops, he surrendered and dropped his weapon, but quickly drew a second gun from his belt, killed Mollaka (# 6 death, # 3 Bond kill), and shot at a gas tank-canister to cause a massive explosion and cover his escape (number of deaths unknown). He fled with Mollaka's backpack containing a bomb and cell phone (later, he used the text message to trace his next target to the Bahamas).

Le Chiffre's yacht was moored somewhere in the Bahamas, where his blonde partner Valenka (Ivana Milicevic), in a deep V-necked blue one-piece suit, climbed up a ladder from the water and strolled past his card-game table. The ruthless, calculating villain explained his eye ailment to his gaming opponent: 'Weeping blood comes merely from a derangement of the tear duct....Nothing sinister.' After winning the game, he was summoned to a computer to read the news regarding an article about Bond's murder of Mollaka: 'British government agent kills unarmed prisoner.'

In London, England after a parliament meeting, Bond's superior M (Judi Dench) complained to personal assistant Villiers (Tobias Menzies) about her 'stupid' agent's 'deranged' and 'embarrassing' recent actions that were caught on the Embassy's security CCTV, and became front-page news. She regretted his new status: 'I give him double-0 status, and he celebrates by shooting up an embassy.'

Bond removed the memory card from Mollaka's cell-phone, and with a MI6 computer scanner was able to trace the location of the 'Ellipsis' call to the Bahamas (Paradise Island, the Ocean Club). When M returned to her penthouse apartment, she found Bond in her living room (he had broken in and was using her computer for decoding), and reprimanded him in person for his 'over-developed trigger finger' and for invading the foreign embassy ('We wanted to question him, not to kill him!...We're trying to find out how an entire network of terrorist groups is financed and you give us one bomb-maker'). When he said he knew her real name, she threatened to have him killed if he uttered it. She regretted his premature promotion, although he assured her that his life-expectancy and her mistake would be 'short-lived.' She cautioned him about being arrogant and therefore not self-aware - he responded: 'So you want me to be half-monk, half hit-man?' She replied: 'Any thug can kill. I want you to take your ego out of the equation and to judge the situation dispassionately.' Since she didn't trust him, she ordered him out of her sight: 'Go and stick your head in the sand somewhere and think about your future.' Fed up with her agent, she said that she was 'seriously considering feeding' him to the bad guys.

The next scene was set in Nassau (the Bahamas), where Bond landed and viewed a luxurious and sleek yacht (Le Chiffre's) on the water. He drove along the coast in a Ford Mondeo vehicle, using his Sony Ericsson cellphone's GPS to lead him to the Ocean Club. As he noted security cameras around the facility, he was mistaken for the valet when a guest tossed his Range Rover keys to him. Bond purposely crashed the vehicle in the hotel's parking lot to cause a security distraction. In the vacated security office, he fou

Casino Royale Genre