Make three changes to make a Bond movies better
Number24
NorwayPosts: 21,806MI6 Agent
The title pretty much explains it. List three changes that would make a specific Bond movie better than it is. Please don't be too general. "Better script" is both a boring and unhelpful answer.
I'll start with AVTAK:
1) Cast Dalton or Brosnan.
2) No "California girls"
3) Car racing (Formula 1?) instead of horse racing.
Comments
Spectre
1) Replace Thomas Newman with David Arnold
2) Rewrite the last section, starting from the torture sequence, to leave out going to London
3) And in doing that remove the entire "brother" angle
4) Drop the "Nine Eyes" subplo... Oh sorry, you said three
QoS
1) Less frantic editing especially in the first half hour or so. A slightly slower pace and longer scenes would improve the admittedly slim storyline
2) More developed characters. Goes with the slim storyline.
3) Change that song!!!! (@Sir Miles was waiting for that one)
DAF
1) Don't edit out most of Plenty's scenes, thus making the plot less confusing (why is she in Tiffany's pool?)
2) Don't have Blofeld dress in drag to escape Felix and his men. Surely a good writer could think of a better way
3) Don't stop with the rather weak oil rig battle. There were other options available.
@Barbel , I’m shocked it took you so long 🤣
Timing! Keep 'em waiting for the punchline!
NTTD
1) CHANGE
2) THE
3) ENDING
TMWTGG
1) Remove Sheriff JW Pepper. He improved the previous film, he weakened this one
2) Don't cut out the beach scenes during the duel, as can be glimpsed in the trailer
3) Rewrite Bond's initial scene with Andrea. You can almost hear Sir Rog gritting his teeth as he beats her up. " Awfully sorry about this, Maud darling, but this is what it says in the script"
Let me try again, a bit more seriously
1) Increase Paloma's part. More scenes, more dialogue. Obviously this has to come at someone else's expense, so
2) Cut down or even drop Nomi. She was only ever a gimmick anyway (She's female! She's of colour! She's 007!)
3) If we absolutely must have that ending then at least add a sliver of ambiguity
DAD
1) Find out how much Martin Campbell wants to direct this. Give him it.
2) Find out how much Madonna wants to come nowhere near this project. Give her it.
3) Extend the plot so that the film ends before Bond goes to Iceland.
MOONRAKER:
LICENSE TO KILL:
Paloma's fun but doesn't need to be in it any more than she is I think. I'd beef up Nomi's part and work out what they want to say with her: bookending the run of films which began with Bond getting his 00 in CR with a plot where a new agent becomes 007 and Bond helps her to avoid the pitfalls he fell into etc. could actually have been interesting.
Nomi/Latasha Lynch was fine. I would not mind seeing Latasha playing another spy type role in another franchise as she's a very solid actor and has great presence/charisma. I particularly admire her work in THE WOMAN KING.
Each to his own, guys. I like Paloma cos she's fun (in a film which needs a large injection of fun) while I find Nomi heavy going, but I can understand others thinking differently.
Keep an eye out for The Day of the Jackal then! Fingers crossed it's good.
TLD
1) Make Whitaker more villainous and more of a physical threath. Maybe a bit of a sadist.
2) Use the scripted scene where Bond and Kara land the cargo plane on an aircraft carrier.
3) In the PTS when Bond chases the car, 007 should judo-tackle one of the soldiers on guard. Bond says: "The exercise is terminated. This is for real!". Sort of a mission statement for the whole movie.
LTK
1) Have Ridley Scott direct
2) Change the hair and costume department. I considered simply "A bigger budget", but I guess that's cheating.
3) The telephone call at the end is between Bond and M. Bond says Leiter is doing better "given the circumstances".
Just kill Felix; maybe don't fridge Della. I'm not sure why Felix survives.
This. So many times this.
And there's no way that Felix should be that chipper at the end of the film considering his wife has died and he's missing a leg. He's displaying all of the sadness of someone who has lost a game of backgammon.
A minor change: have Tony Scott direct. If Ridley had made LTK, that would mean that he would not have made BLACK RAIN, a film that I personally love. For Tony, it would have interrupted filming on REVENGE, and I think the world would have survived that loss.
That's the main reason I wanted M to be on the line and not Felix. He was gmfar too happy, but an emotionally realistic conversation with Felix would set the wrong tone for the end of the movie.
Fun excercise because the level of difficulty limiting it to three things just shows which are the better movies (all subjective of course) 😅
CR (06):
1) maybe shorten the miami airport scenes by a few seconds
2) ever so slightly less cringey dialogue with Vesper in some places
3) Idk - Herr Mendel should have brought chocolates? This movie doesn't need fixing.
QoS:
1) Make the reconciliation with Mathis a bit clearer (why did they have to "forgive each other" if he was innocent in CR?)
2) Less of the shaky cam
3) Resolve the Guy Haines subplot (maybe with more runtime)
SF:
1) No "getting old" references straight after the origin story
2) Another Bond girl that is not M
3) No Heineken
Spectre:
1) Re-Cast Madeleine
2) NO stepbrother nonsense
3) NO retconning nonsense
((4) maybe include a skiing sequence)
No Time to Die:
1) CHANGE
2) EVERYTHING
3) Keep Paloma.
"- That is something to be afraid of."
Alright, just for fun I'm gonna pick a random film out of a hat and make three changes to that. Here we go...
EDIT: Ah, damn it, it's FRWL! It had to be that one, didn't it? Ugh, damn. Okay, three changes - let's do it.
1) Um, well the first change I'd probably make is the uh, um... no wait-- that's perfect as it is. How about we switch the-- no no, that's perfect too. Hang on, what if-- Ah, screw it, I quit!
The bits on Spectre island could probably look a little less home counties, maybe. And I'd ditch the dodgy bits of Monty Norman score, maybe let John Barry write the theme song too (not that I don't like it). Maybe I'd add a little tweak to the 'stealing the Lecktor' plot - in that Bond should have left a dummy damaged one behind so that the Russians don't know it's been stolen, something like that - but that really is minimal and doesn't matter.
GF
Make the soldiers falling down more realistic.
Edit the countdown sequence so it becomes sensible in a realistic time frame.
Edit the Goldfinger fight scene so we know who and what happens to the other person on the plane.
GF
Edit away the scene where the car and gangster is being crushed. Just keep the scene where the cars leave and the scenes where the remains of the car is dumped in front of Goldfinger's house.
Edit the countdown scene.
Remove the "duck" on 007's head in the PTS.
DAF (These are major changes)
Keep Lazenby as Bond
Change the plot to be about Bond getting revenge. The planned ending in a salt dessert could be used.
Make Hunt the director
I think I'd change the direction of Blackman's performance to give a hint of Pussy softening to Bond slightly before the stable scene, and make her more willing to Bond's seduction - I'm not keen on the rapeyness of that bit.
Or maybe have it that Goldfinger betrays her and that's why she switches sides - a bit like May Day in the remake. Although I guess that then would mean that Bond does pretty much nothing at all proactive to foil Goldfinger's plan!
Interesting topic this. Thanks @Number24
I'll pick TWINE;
1) Re-cast Christmas Jones
2) Improve the Submarine scene - It's quite one-dimensional, there's little tension, looks low budget, improve dialogue and acting.
3) Edit the Parahawk sequence - shorten, and for continuity, film the scenes with the same weather.
Many of us seem to align on what three things we would like to change in the single films listed so far. I wonder what if we could change just three things over the entire 25 films? What would they be? Mine would be;
1) NTTD - Don't kill Bond
2) NTTD - Don't have Daddy Bond
3) SP - Don't have Bond/Blofeld as 'brothers'