IGN: The Secrets of Quantum of Solace
- ️Thu Apr 03 2008
IGN journeys to Chile for the lowdown on 007's next adventure.
April 4, 2008 - IGN Movies was among the select international media outlets invited last week to visit the Chilean set of the forthcoming James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. The Marc Forster-directed film finds 007 (once again played by Daniel Craig) on a quest to uncover the shadowy terrorist organization behind the events depicted in 2006's Casino Royale, the long-running franchise's most successful entry.
Filming took place at the Residencia of the Paranal Observatory located in the arid, Martian-like Atacama desert, a two-hour bus ride from the coastal city of Antofagasta. At over 8000 feet above sea level, the air is thin at the Residencia and the sky is so clear that the moon is already visible at 11 a.m. The sun is hotter than it feels there; one could suffer a nasty sunburn in no time, even though the temperature feels like a deceptively mild California climate. For full coverage of our set visit, check out our fellow Fox Interactive Media sites Rotten Tomatoes and MySpaceTV. The following report will provide you with a wealth of juicy details about Quantum of Solace that we learned while in Chile, so be advised that there's more than a quantum of SPOILERS ahead.
Quantum of Solace finds Bond on the trail of businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a key member of the shadowy organization that 007 has been investigating. Producer Michael G. Wilson revealed to us that this shadowy network is called Quantum; Greene even sports a silver "Q" lapel pin. To the public, Greene is an eco-friendly tycoon, the head of the Greene Planet corporation who's out to help save the world. But this public persona conceals a wolf in sheep's clothing. Although the filmmakers were quick to point out that Quantum of Solace is not a political film but pure Bondian escapist entertainment, the villain's scheme revolves around several timely ideas, such as the issue of regime change.
- Karen Ballard/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Mathieu Amalric is the villainous Dominic Greene.
Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world's most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in Bolivia (locations in Chile and Panama are standing in for there), giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land. Bond and the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who has her own vendetta, team-up to throw a wrench in Greene's machine.
"In this film we're getting a little peek at the organization," Wilson explained. When it comes to coming up with villains and plots for the Bond films, "we're always trying to think in contemporary terms. What are the real issues that are coming up? I guess what we see in the future is a fight over natural resources, and the people that can control them will be bigger than governments or states. Our particular man here is someone who is controlling the water in various countries and if you remember in Chinatown, if you control the water you control the whole development of the country. I think it's true. Right now it appears to be oil, but there's a lot of other resources that we don't think about too much but are all essential and they're very limited and every country needs it. Because every country knows that raising the standard of living -- and populations are getting bigger -- is the way we're all going. So that's the way we look at it."
Greene has "found a way to inhibit the delivery of the water system without people knowing about it. What he wants to do is get control of the distribution system so then he'll provide the water," Wilson said. "Fresh water is a pretty scarce resource. I just got back from the Galapagos and out here [in Chile] you can tell. They have to bring it in, the water."
007 himself, actor Daniel Craig, told us that the Quantum organization is "looking at places that are potentially weak politically. Let's say like Haiti. A destabilized place. The idea is that our bad guys, whatever nationality that [organization] is, are taking advantage of that. So we're maybe using an old idea, but there's a history of instability in South America that may or may not have something to do with larger organizations and we're using that as part of our storyline. The bad guys are doing what they've kind of always done, and they're trying to sort of mess around with countries and with states for their own benefit. For their own individual benefit as opposed to for the people." Bond will not serve as some cliché Great White Savior single-handedly rescuing the native population, but he is, according to Craig, "single-handedly enabling" them to rid themselves of those who would do them harm.