JC’s Weekend Digest: James Bond’s Quantum Leap

James Clayton’s weekend digest takes a look at a movie development of the week with a bigger spotlight than the original news article probably allowed. This week’s article takes a look at the new title for the 22nd James Bond movie, and what implications the name QUANTUM OF SOLACE will have on the feature.

In order to stave off spoilers and keep fans gagging in anticipation, developments behind-the-scenes on the latest 007 movie have been kept super top secret. It was surprising therefore that the cast and crew of the upcoming blockbuster emerged from behind the clandestine Iron Curtain of Pinewood Studios this week and opened up to provide some exclusive insight into the ongoing production. Little nuggets about plot narrative, particular characters and screenings of early rushes for assembled critics were all very exciting, but the big buzz centred on the unveiling of the film’s title. Drum roll please. The next 007 caper will be called: QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

And what an excellent title that is, especially considering that other contenders included THE HILDEBRAND RARITY (sounds like a brand of cigar) and THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (more appropriate either for a foppish period drama or a high society porn flick). QUANTUM OF SOLACE is edgy and cool and comes from an Ian Fleming short story so in a way channels the Bond tradition by harking back to the spy’s original creator. Yet QUANTUM OF SOLACE is also very suggestive of the future. On face value there’s a certain fantastical, sci-fi ring to the new name and it isn’t inconceivable to think of it as something that could be attached to a STAR TREK or HARRY POTTER movie. There’s a sense of deep intellectual promise in those fifteen letters. Oh naysayers who have knee-jerked into instant negative dismissal of this moniker: take note of how truly terrific this title is.

The name is also futuristic in that it points to a distinctive shift in the franchise - something essential to keep Bond alive and important as a cinematic institution. Just as the Pierce Brosnan pictures revitalised the formula for a post-Cold War world, Daniel Craig’s first few 007 features need to develop the spy series and, whilst keeping the ultimate base blueprint, add a few fresh ingredients and adapt to the present day. Craig’s portrayal of a grittier Bond was one such reinvigorating aspect on display in CASINO ROYALE, and with QUANTUM OF SOLACE the creative re-imagining of 007 appears set to continue. Now, thanks to the newly-announced title, we can guess a bit more about how everyone’s favourite MI:6 agent grows as a character in the next film.

The phrase “Quantum of Solace” immediately calls to mind the Fortress of Solitude that served Christopher Reeve’s titular hero so well in SUPERMAN. Images of knowledge-bearing crystals and Marlon Brando’s hologrammed head emerge, and so it is that I can imagine James Bond encountering a similar scenario in the 22nd film of the spy series. Though undoubtedly already forming his deft touch and cool detachment, CASINO ROYALE closed with our protagonist devastated at the death of lover Vesper Lynd and still not the definitive finished article of a double-0 agent. To develop and truly graduate to the status of being the world’s best man in the field of international espionage, Bond needs to get beyond his bereavement, find closure and learn those final lessons before he can become the untouchable absolute hero.

Though it’s nice to fantasise about, I don’t think that QUANTUM OF SOLACE will contain any scenes of Craig’s superspy fondling crystals that contain the secrets of the universe or listening to the tuition provided by a recording of his wig-wearing dead dad. I can however, if I allow myself to get spectacularly carried away, picture the film taking Bond to a place - a Fortress of Solitude - where he gains that crucial wisdom: the essential aura that completes his transformation from man to myth and from human being to legend.

In religious lore, many prominent figures have had to pass through a period of isolated exile before rising to their righteous destiny. Alone, Moses went up a mountain to talk to the burning bush and take possession of the Ten Commandments. Buddha meditated under the Bodhi tree until he found enlightenment. Jesus cast himself out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights and faced the Devil while he was there. Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad retreated to a wilderness cave to receive the revelations of the Angel Gabriel. To take up his position as the alpha-idol of espionage cinema, a similar spiritual solo journey is necessary for James Bond. To transcend the limitations of the average human and attain indestructibility and invincibility - in effect becoming the indivisible entity (for indeed, that is what the word “quantum” means in physics-speak) - 007 needs to complete the trajectory that will take him to becoming the complete hero. This, in accordance with the theological narratives noted above, can be achieved through a transcendental excursion away from the world.

If the filmmakers are feeling really radical, such a journey could be cinematically realised as an epic trip through purgatory as Bond confronts and faces the demons of his past alongside a whole host of other hellish abominations. Putting the man’s soul through the deepest recesses of despair would certainly give us a bit of a deviation from the well-worn formula. Likewise, the filmmakers could look to Bond’s mythological rite of passage as a sort of initiation procedure as practised by the secret societies and occult groups that are rumoured to hold so much influence in the higher echelons of global power and in such intelligence organisations as the CIA. Though Bond has already completed all the MI:6 training courses, lost the love of his life and had his testicles bashed in by Le Chiffre in CASINO ROYALE, such hardships will likely be nothing compared to the utter horrors said to be inflicted upon those who seek to join the exclusive elite of secret societies.

Would such mystical musings and psychological, philosophical themes work for Bond or would it veer too wildly from the straight-up “man from MI:6 saves the world and shags the token floozy before teatime” narrative that we’re familiar with? It worked for BATMAN BEGINS as Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne took to Tibet and underwent the tutelage of the League of Shadows to become more than a man - to become a legend. Even if such imaginings of 007 traversing psychic, supernatural realms of anguish in order to attain enlightenment are delusional pipe-dreams on my part, it’s certain that QUANTUM OF SOLACE will focus on the character development of Bond by picking the story straight up where CASINO ROYALE left off. It’s this focusing on back-story, alongside the fresh injection of energy provided by Daniel Craig that has helped the spy series become something intriguing, urgent and important again.

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