![]() ![]() The main motivation of the film is revenge, but when Mathis (a companion to him and Vesper in Casino Royale, believed to have betrayed Bond but revealed to be an ally), Mathis tells him to forgive Vesper – and himself. Unusually for the franchise, it’s a direct sequel – thus setting the tone for an overarching continuity in Craig’s portrayal. ![]() That takes us on to Quantum of Solace, two years after Casino Royale and now widely considered a bloated flop. In Casino Royale, the film, however, Bond is so tortured by fury at her betrayal – “the bitch is dead” – and his guilt over failing to save her life, that he embarks on a journey to capture Mr White and deal with his organisation: Quantum. When he is poisoned in Goldfinger, he frets over how to tell Vesper – when he meets her in heaven – about his new lover. In the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it is revealed that Bond visits her grave every year. In his 1993 book The Life of Ian Fleming, journalist Donald McCormick claimed that Vesper was based on a real Polish special ops agent named Krystyna Skarbek. But in Ian Fleming’s original universe, the character is more deeply realised. The appeal of Vesper in the film franchise is so bound up in Green’s delicate portrayal, her emotional nuance and her Gallic glamour – not to mention her scorching chemistry with Craig, unsurpassed by any Bond girl since. Bond had noticed her Albanian love-knot necklace, but was lulled into a false sense of security when she removed it, saying, “It was time.” So excruciating, for Bond, to learn that the woman he loved betrayed him for the man that she loved, that he barely notices when M suggests Vesper traded the money to save his life. She was, according to M, “very much in love” with an Albanian boyfriend whom Mr White’s organisation threatened to kill. It is only afterwards that we discover her motivations. But Vesper holds his hand to her face, kissing it, lets go, and drowns. Bond dives down after her, rattling the bars impotently under the water. Bond tries to get her out of the old metal elevator, but she simply says, “I’m sorry, James.” She locks the door from inside the cage, and it falls down the shaft into the water. The money will prove her undoing, when Bond follows her to the bank and ends up in a shooting match that causes the building to sink into Venice’s Grand Canal. As the unknown man – whom we later discover to be Mr White – says when he bursts in on Le Chiffre torturing Bond: “Money isn’t as valuable to our organisation as knowing who to trust.” Of course we later discover how ominous her first words were, when Bond’s £150-million winnings from the poker game fail to turn up in government coffers, and he realises that she has betrayed him. So great is his passion that he resigns from MI6 and promises they will travel the world together. But despite the brevity of their romance, Bond still manages to tell her: “I love you.” Notice, she does not say it back. At 2 hours 24 minutes, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for shenanigans. In fact, their relationship isn’t even consummated until two hours into the film. She controls the cash that buys into the critical poker game, represents the government (technically speaking, Bond’s employers) and refuses to succumb to Bond’s seductive charms. One sympathises.” Unusually for a so-called “Bond girl” – and if you read my last piece, you’ll know what I think of that term – she is presented as his superior. When she asks Bond how his lamb was, he replies: “Skewered. Across an elegant dining tray, Vesper engages in flirtatious verbal fencing with Bond and indisputably comes out on top. In Casino Royale, Vesper first introduces herself on a train to Montenegro as “the money”, to which Bond replies: “Every penny of it.” And although her appearance is an hour into the film, it feels like the start. If you’ve forgotten some of the details – and god knows it feels like a lifetime ago – let’s recap. That’s his longest mission to date – not to mention the longest running time, at 2 hours 43 minutes. Indeed, he pursues the truth of her betrayal and the organisation she worked for through four subsequent films. Ironic, really, considering she chides Bond in their first conversation for treating women as “disposable pleasures rather than meaningful pursuits”, that Bond proves unable to let go of her memory. Her betrayal of James Bond in Craig’s debut, Casino Royale – and Bond’s doomed attempt to save her life – is what sets off his arc of redemptive vengeance that, 14 years later, has finally reached its climax. Vesper, played to perfection with beautiful duplicitousness by Eva Green, has been the real star of Craig’s tenure. Four films since we met her, we say goodbye to Vesper Lynd. In No Time To Die, the audience bids farewell to someone they’ve known and loved since 2006. ![]()
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