#How Skyfall Became The Biggest Bond Movie Ever

“Casino Royale” truly kicked the door open to this bold new era of Bond in high fashion. Unfortunately, the writer’s strike, among other things, put a bit of a wet blanket over the follow-up, 2008’s “Quantum of Solace.” While I personally have come to appreciate that movie quite a bit as a very direct sequel to Craig’s first go-around, it’s certainly not as much of a crowd-pleaser. To make matters more complicated, there was quite the delay between instalments, mostly due to MGM attempting to overcome bankruptcy, with a four-year gap ultimately coming between 007 and his return to the silver screen. But with director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) at the helm, and a real motivation to get it right, “Skyfall” emerged — hitting theaters in 2012 and going on to become the definition of a crowd-pleasing blockbuster, igniting the franchise in a way we hadn’t seen in years, if ever.

For much of its existence, the Bond movies have chased trends, being just a few years behind the ball, generally speaking. “Moonraker” chased “Star Wars” in 1979, for example, with gloriously campy results. In the case of “Skyfall,” the filmmakers decided to set aside, somewhat, the interconnected story of Craig’s version of the character that had dominated the first two movies in favor of sending him on a seemingly by-the-books mission involving an important list of stolen field agent identities. The mission brings him face-to-face with a former MI6 agent, Silva, played by Javier Bardem. In this case, the series was chasing the dark and gritty revamp of a beloved icon that had been so brilliantly executed by Christopher Nolan in “The Dark Knight” in 2008. To that end, we see Bond shot off a train, falling hundreds of feet to what appears to be his death in the cold open before Adele’s absolute banger “Skyfall” rings out over an outstanding credits sequence. Chef’s kiss.

Not every franchise needs dark and gritty, but Mendes and Co. managed to make it work like gangbusters in this case. For as much as this is a “Bond on a mission” story, it takes so many unique turns. The lack of a true Bond girl, with Judi Dench’s M, in some ways, filling in that role. The idea of visiting James’ past, with the whole climax taking place at his childhood home, which is what the movie’s title is in reference to. Not to mention the fact that it may be one of the best-looking movies in the series, if not one of the best-looking Blockbusters of the last decade overall, thanks in no small part to the brilliance of cinematographer Roger Deakins. It all added up to a special moment and proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime, lightning-in-a-bottle moment for a legacy franchise.