The debut teaser trailer for Spectre has been released, giving us a minute and a half’s glimpse into the 24th official Bond movie, which will see Daniel Craig starring as 007 for the fourth time. Director Sam Mendes also returns after the $1 billion (Dh3.7 billion) success of 2012’s Skyfall, along with Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw as the new M, Moneypenny and Q respectively, and there are debuts for double Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux.
Here’s what we made of the new footage.
The tone is dark, not camp
This is a teaser trailer, so we should probably expect a little sombre scene-setting. But there’s no suggestion yet that Spectre will continue along the path to the old school Bond antics that Mendes set out on Skyfall, which reintroduced traditionally comic characters such as Moneypenny and Q. There’s not so much as a sniff of a one-liner, and 007 is strictly on his best behaviour with M’s assistant. This teaser suggests Bond may be too busy fighting for survival this time around to ramp up the arch-eyebrowed insouciance.
Prepare for evil organisation overload
Remember Quantum, the nefarious entity introduced in Casino Royale largely because Bond production company Eon did not (then) have the rights to Spectre, the evil organisation from 007’s ’60s adventures? Well Sam Mendes does, and it looks like he plans to use the new film to connect Skyfall to earlier Daniel Craig efforts. While the middling Quantum of Solace (which continued the Quantum storyline) made few fans’ all-time Bond top 10 lists, we do deserve to find out what happened to the titular crime syndicate after shadowy boss Mr White (Jesper Christensen) escaped at the end of the 2008 film. And there he is in the new trailer, popping up to tell Bond the proverbial (expletive) is about to hit the fan all over again. Does this mean Quantum and Spectre are one and the same, or will they be drawing lots to see who gets to dangle 007 over the shark tank this time around?
Mendes isn’t done with Bond’s past
The denouement of Skyfall borrowed heavily from 007 creator Ian Fleming’s novel You Only Live Twice, which is a very different kettle of fish from the uber-camp Roald Dahl-penned 1967 film. We discovered that Bond is an orphan who may have developed that steely exterior after both his parents died when he was still a young boy. In this Spectre teaser, Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny reveals that “personal effects” were recovered from the ruins of the secret agent’s childhood home in the highlands of Scotland (following the events of Skyfall) as she shows 007 a photograph of two adults and a child. Might it be Bond and his parents? And how does 007’s sad childhood history connect to his present?
Christoph Waltz has a touch of the Blofelds
By adopting a tantalising title, Bond producers have deliberately set up an is he/isn’t he dynamic around the identity of Waltz’s (most likely) villainous Oberhauser. After all, if he’s not Blofeld, then why call the movie Spectre? We don’t get to see much of Oberhauser in the trailer, but it’s clear he’s not bald (as in many of the films) and doesn’t appear to be stroking a feline. But the way Waltz’s shadowy outline is presented, front on and one hand poised on the table in front of him, specifically recalls a number of big screen Blofeld incarnations.
Spectre might be masquerading under a religious disguise
Spectre was shot in Rome, London, Mexico and the Austrian Alps, but it’s 007’s scenes in the eternal city that the teaser seems to be showcasing. The setting for Bond’s meeting with Oberhauser has the look of an ornate religious building, suggesting there may be something Da Vinci Code-like to this new incarnation of the evil organisation. And what’s Monica Bellucci doing at a funeral in another elegant church? Who’s betting against that priest whipping off his clerical apparel and making with the bullets once Bond appears on the scene?