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Skyfall: Representation of the Bond Franchise

08 March 2020

Tina Kramer-Merriken 

The James Bond film series is the most extended, continually running film series. The British spy films are based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, “007”, who originally appeared in a series of novels by Ian Fleming. The design allegiances connecting the Ian Fleming novels to the various Bond Series directors and screenwriters have helped make the franchise a prominent transmedia presence. Translating the storylines from book form to a movie allows for visual effects to enhance the symbolism of the storyline. James Bond films take place in a realistic world with lots of action, stunts, unique gadgets, and intrigue; the 23rd film, Skyfall, is a good example. Skyfall starts with the mystery introduction and then takes us through an action-filled change of events to the climactic final scene taking place at Bond’s childhood home. 

Daniel Kleinman, who has designed every title sequence for the James Bond series of films since GoldenEye, in an interview with Movieline, said, “At the beginning of the film there is always an amazing action sequence, in Skyfall the introduction ends with Bond being shot” (Radatz), which takes place mostly underwater in an unearthly and dark sequence. The lighting after he is submerged in the water was from above and dissolved to dark, “which signifies that all is not what it should be” (Barnwell, 131). When the light returns a life-size female hand, which becomes massive grabs Bond’s foot; he then goes into a black hole, and the screen goes dark, when the lighting returns, he is in a surreal dimension below the surface. This dimension shows Bond as target practice cutouts floating around in the water with blood seeping from the bullet hole in his chest. The camera then travels through the bullet hole, and a female figure appears floating angelically through the water. Guns and knives begin to drop from the top of the screen and land in the sand; then, the audience travels through a graveyard into a red haze. The camera zooms through his iris, which symbolizes everything you just saw was what was going on internally through his mind. Kleinman said his intention was to set up an atmosphere that gives you little clues, little hints, but is not too specific (Radatz). 

After the introduction, everyone presumes Bond is dead, but he is just retired. He comes back to England to visit his boss/mother figure, M, who prematurely clears Bond for active duty when he wasn’t physically or mentally fit. M wants him to find the person who was hacking into MI6’s computers. Bond tracks the man in China but kills him before he can find out his employer. A casino chip in the thief’s pocket leads him to Raoul Silva, on a deserted island, holding the hard drive with the names of the undercover agents. Silva reveals that he is a former MI6 agent, betrayed by M, and was using Bond to find M to kill her. He and M must make a final stand against Silva, which takes place at James Bond’s Ancestral Skyfall Lodge designed by Art Director Dean Clegg in six months. The home was built at Hankley Common, Surrey England, to resemble weathered stone buildings of the Glen Coe, Scottish Highlands (Scene Therapy). It was a good representation of what these homes would have looked like during the period of his childhood. Bond had not visited Skyfall since his parents’ death, and the only resident is the gamekeeper Kincade. The lodge symbolizes family for Bond and M is all he has since his parents died years ago, which makes it appropriate that he and M, his mother figure, would go here to hide from the villain. Props such as the Lodge interior and exterior can be symbolic devices that reference themes that exist in the narrative and enhance notions of character and concept. (Barnwell 181).

The exterior of the lodge looked like an ordinary lodge sitting in the middle of acres of land, with a long driveway with stone columns at the beginning of it that says, Skyfall, the name of the estate (figure 1). A blueprint of the lodge was designed and laid out using Vectorworks, a 2D drafting, 3D modeling software. Dean Clegg said Vectorworks allowed him to quickly sketch a blast layout schematic for the various weapons were going to destroy the lodge, share the composite (figure 2) with production, and easily make alterations where necessary (Vectorworks). While this is good for tight timelines, it can start to become overdesigned, meaning there are too many unnecessary details that may untimely take up the film’s time or budget.

The interior scene was shot on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios and highlights all of the classic features of an ancestral British country lodge (Scene Therapy). Since the home has not been lived in for many years, it is very dusty with antique furniture, beautiful wood paneling, hardwood floors, oil paintings, grandfather clocks, stone fireplaces, stag-themed choochkies, rolled up carpeting, and boxes (figure 3&4). The interior lighting in the first part of the lodge scene uses natural sunlight that shines through windows during the day hours. However, once nighttime starts to come, the house gets dark, which symbolizes all hell is about to break loose. 

The use of interior and exterior scenery in Skyfall aligns with the James Bond Franchise. The introduction is a perfect example of how all Bond films start, with a fantastic action sequence. Skyfall gives us information about the main character’s personal story, which is something we had never seen previously in a James Bond movie. As time passes, the franchise tweaks things to appeal to the audience but still keeps its principles. The 25th film, entitled No Time to Die, comes out in theaters November 2020. The trailer for it seems to follow the same action-packed thriller that the James Bond Franchise always promises.

BY TINA KRAMER-MERRIKEN | OCTOBER 14, 2019

For years my sister-in-law said how much she wanted to start traveling the world. She was ecstatic when my wife and I gave her money to get her passport for Christmas. About six months later, we were all at my in-law’s local beach house when she received the phone call from her doctor, whom she had just seen due to experiencing a lot of pain over the previous 2 months. That day she was diagnosed with a rare form of germ cell cancer. Soon after returning home, she started to receive chemotherapy treatments, but the cancer kept growing; it had spread to most of her body, and she was given a few months to live.

I remember my wife, her brother, and myself sitting night after night with her in her small quiet hospital room. She would say, “Cancer sucks…I am not ready…it is not my time,” so we tried to buy her more time. The three of us drove her and her oxygen tank to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, hoping they would have a solution. As days went by, more weight was lost, her breathing got harder, and her hope was fading. In her last few breaths, my wife and I promised to take her around the world with us.  ​​​​​​​

A little over a year after Sarah passed, we planned a trip, over Thanksgiving break, to Iceland with my brother-in-law. It was the first trip he took after losing his wife. We spent lots of hours at the local sporting goods store buying hiking bags, boots, coats, warm gloves, and pretty much everything imaginable for the freezing temperature in Iceland. This would a special first international trip for Sarah. We found a three-day tour that explored the Golden Circle and South Coast, Northern Lights, Ice Cave, and Glacier Hiking, all amazing places to show Sarah. We were especially excited about the possibility of seeing the Northern lights. What a better way to brighten up the sad year we had watching her fade away. 

We removed the small yellow urn from our bookshelf and packed some of her ashes in a plastic baggie mixed with artificial sweetener packets so that we would not have an issue on the plane and placed them in our carry-on; no one should travel in the cargo portion of the aircraft. We packed our hiking packs with four days’ worth of items we had purchased the trip. When we went to check-in at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, my wife’s passport was denied- we were in shock. A person’s passport must be valid no less than 6 months from departure date and my wife’s expired in 5.5 months. The travel agent who booked our tour never mentioned this to us.  We were so disappointed that Sarah would not see Iceland. 

 The $10,000 spent on flights, tours, and gear did not matter because we were going to take her somewhere else she would love, even if it was within the United States. We only had backpacks with hiking clothing for frigid temperatures, so our options were limited. We asked a few airline attendants for suggestions but had no luck, so we decided to do some research on our phones over lunch at the airport. We decided on a perfect location that the three of us have never been and would require the gear we had packed. Within an hour of being denied our trip to Iceland, we booked a new flight on a different airline to Denver, Colorado, and decided on a hotel on the plane. 

We enjoyed time together, a few days hiking the clay hills of Red Rocks, capturing breathtaking photos, visiting the Denver Science and Nature museum, and even having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with a local friend. The three of us were so excited for our trip to Estes Park, which was about two hours away from our hotel. We booked a snow-covered off-road tour up a mountain to look out at Rocky Mountain National Park; we figured this was as close as we could get to the Icelandic experience. As we were driving there the temperatures got colder and it started to snow. After the long drive, we finally made it to the visitor center to relax and use the bathroom. 

At the Visitor Center, we overheard people saying something about a mansion close by. I didn’t really think anything of it, since I was looking forward to the off-road tour. We got in the car and headed into the town of Estes Park. While driving, my brother-in-law points out this big mansion everyone must have been talking about. Once we got closer, we realized it was the Stanley Hotel, which was in The Shining, the Stephen King movie. Mark said, “Sarah loved Stephen King, hand me Sarah.” It was the most perfect spot to take her on her first trip. Far more spectacular than anywhere we could have taken her to in Iceland.

My heart feels joy at how everything turned out. This unexpected journey led to a remarkable place for Sarah. I think she was guiding us along the way and enjoyed the trip. Perhaps she will get to travel to Iceland in the future. By far, this turned into the best trip we had ever taken. I couldn’t have imagined spending it any other way. I will take her on another vacation soon, but I can’t promise her it will be better than this adventure was.