CASINO ROYALE 2006
Hit & run
Is there a single better set-piece from the Craig era (to date) than the one that started it all: Casino Royale’s high impact parkour chase? Fast, ferocious and thrillingly physical, it was the moment that separated Craig’s Bond from all before him. “The very first thought that we had for Casino Royale, was the idea behind that whole freerunning sequence,” says Casino writer Robert Wade. “That is: he isn’t as good as the guy he’s up against, but he’s going to keep going anyway. So you saw a different kind of James Bond. He’s not the very best, but he’ll keep going.” In the Madagascar-set sequence, Bond is forced to pursue bomb-maker Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan) on foot after a fellow agent’s cover is blown. Only Mollaka possesses superhuman athleticism, and Bond is a blunt object. Stripped of gadgets, glamour and obvious CGI, according to Wade, “It was a way of saying, ‘This is a different kind of James Bond.’ And with that, goes a certain level of being slightly more down-to-earth, which definitely has been easier to do with Daniel as Bond, because he does bring a realistic feel to it.” Sure, it may owe a debt to Bourne, but nobody does it better than Bond.
Money train
This story is from the March 2020 edition of Total Film.
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This story is from the March 2020 edition of Total Film.
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