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James Bond, welcome to the real world.
A world where there is no absolute good or evil, a world full of grays, a world where even the country you so fervently serve and its allies can turn on you at the drop of a pin. In other words, a world more akin to John LeCarre’s spy novels than Ian Fleming’s…except with more explosions, fight scenes and sexy women.
 "Quantum of Solace” continues the drastic reboot of the 007 franchise begun by “Casino Royale” and the casting of Daniel Craig as a more dangerous take on the legendary spy with a “license to kill”. Gone are the colorful gadgets and villains that have been so characteristic of the franchise. Back is that sense of realpolitik that turned “Dr. No” and “From Russia with Love” into instant classics.
“Question of Solace” is also the first actual sequel in the Bond franchise. It picks up where “Casino Royale” left off, with Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) in the trunk of Bond’s Alpha Romeo on his way to a secret location to be interrogated. Mr. White reveals that Quantum, the organization which blackmailed Vesper (Bond’s lover in “Casino Royale”), has its tentacles wrapped around every single worldwide government agency, including Britain’s MI6. Bond’s inquiries lead him to Haiti where he meets Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric), a mayor player within Quantum, and Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who has her own agenda.
Greene plans to gain control of a valuable natural resource in Bolivia by overthrowing its actual left-wing government and installing a friendlier military regime with the help of the CIA and the British government. This places Bond at odds with his employer and its allies. Whom can he trust? And will his desire to revenge Vesper’s death get on the way of accomplishing his mission?
“I wanted the audience to have that sense of moral ambiguity to the character,” explained Daniel Craig during a recent visit to Chicago. “And it’s not because I want to make a deep, meaningful drama. It’s a James Bond movie [after all]. But I want people to be affected by the movie and think about what they are watching and think about the judgments that are being made by the characters on screen.”
“It brings to mind what is patriotism,” added Jeffrey Wright who plays Felix Leiter, Bond’s contact at the CIA. “Is it to wear a large flag pin or to do what’s right for your fellow countrymen? What I think is exciting about this movie, and what is exciting about the previous movie, is that it matches the contemporary complexity of the day. Audiences are more sophisticated, we have more information available to us about the contemporary landscape.”
In an effort to anchor the film even further in this contemporary landscape, director Marc Forster (“The Kite Runner”, “Stranger than Fiction”) decided to shoot most of “Quantum of Solace” in actual locations. The film was shot in Panama City and Colon, Panama; Baja California, Mexico; northern Chile, Italy and Austria as well as London.
“Locations are important to me because they are iconic in Bond films,” explained Forster. “I think they are characters in themselves. As the world gets smaller, we felt we needed to go places we haven’t seen before.
“The nice thing about making a Bond film is that you have a huge crew and a huge support system,” Forster continued. “We were shooting in Colon and the city is sort of divided in several structures dominated by gangs. The production team made the deal with them that they would build a soccer field and a playground and help them shape the city in structural ways so that they would leave us on our own.”
Colon in fact holds a special place in Daniel Craig’s heart. “The people in Colon were the friendliest, nicest human beings you could ever hope to meet and they were just so thrilled with us being there. Even though we went to Chile, which was amazing, Colon will be the place I will always carry with me.”
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