The Daniel Craig James Bond movies are rather hit or miss. Two are considered modern-day Bond classics - Casino Royale and Skyfall. The other two - Quantum of Solace and Spectre - were considered huge disappointments following critically acclaimed predecessors. Much of the praise has gone towards the stories, personal character development of Bond, smart introspection towards the Bond series itself, and filmmaking.
With that said, the stories are filled with some questionable plot material. Whether it be a full-on plot hole that doesn't make any sense or a bizarre bit that had viewers raising their eyebrows, these plot points were more than a little confounding.
Most Of The Poker Stuff In Casino Royale
For a movie centered around a poker game, Casino Royale sure does get a lot of stuff wrong about the game. While most of the errors are done for dramatic effect, they remain errors nonetheless.
The final hand in particular is rife with errors - there are no side pots, Bond cannot go all-in as he is the chip leader, and Bond reveals last when he should be revealing first (as he made the aggressive bet and Le Chiffre called). Furthermore, Bond gives the dealer a meaningless tip, as tournament poker chips don't represent cash in the same way that cash games do.
How Did They Know It Was MI6?
The Madagascar sequence in Casino Royale is brilliant, and it depicts Bond as a gung-ho novice with no regard to secrecy or MI6's reputation. He is rightly chastised by M after returning to London, and she shows him a newspaper decrying MI6's involvement in the embassy shootout.
But how did anyone know this random man was a secret agent working for MI6? For all they know, it was just some man who had a grudge against a bomb maker and pursued him through an embassy. It's not like Bond talked to anyone while he was there.
Bond's Horrible CPR
Casino Royale ends in tragedy, as Vesper essentially dies by suicide by locking herself inside the collapsing elevator. The elevator plunges into the water, and despite Bond's best efforts, Vesper drowns inside. Bond takes Vesper's body to the surface and performs a painfully brief bit of CPR before giving up and accepting her fate.
Bond should have tipped Vesper onto her side to help purge her lungs of water, and why did he give up after all of twenty seconds? Bond is certainly trained in CPR, and if he tried just a little bit harder, he could have possibly saved Vesper's life.
Le Chiffre Leaves Vesper In The Road
So a ticked-off Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, ties her up, and leaves her smack dab in the middle of the road for...reasons. Le Chiffre needs both Vesper and Bond alive to access the money, as Vesper controls the account and Bond has the password.
So his best plan involves leaving Vesper in the middle of the road, with the very real possibility that Bond will accidentally run her over. Barring that, Bond will swerve to avoid her (which he does) and possibly die in the resulting car crash. It's pure luck that both Vesper and Bond happened to survive Le Chiffre's incredibly dumb plan.
Mr. White's Miraculous Healing
Mr. White went through the wringer throughout Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. At the end of Casino Royale, White is shot in the leg by Bond and left crawling on the ground, unable to get up. He is then placed in the trunk of a car and left banging against its sides during Quantum's opening car chase, and he is later shot in the shoulder.
Yet despite all these horrible injuries, White is able to easily escape an MI6 interrogation room and re-appear at the opera. There's just no way.
The Mathis Timeline Doesn't Match Up
Casino Royale ends in a rather ambiguous fashion, with Bond telling M to keep torturing Mathis for information, as he suspects that Mathis is a mole. However, he is left unsure of the situation following the reveal that Vesper was the true mole. As M states, "You don't trust anyone, do you?"
And yet when Quantum begins, Mathis has been cleared by MI6 and set up in a fancy Italian villa, comfortably enjoying retirement. The timeline doesn't add up. Mathis should still be in MI6's custody.
Hydrogen Cyanide
Silva's entire plan boils down to revenge. Years ago, he was betrayed by M and left to die in the hands of the Chinese government. Rather than face torture, Silva decided to end his life with a hidden hydrogen cyanide capsule. However, this pill failed to work and only resulted in his horrible injury.
Unfortunately, hydrogen cyanide fails to do almost everything Silva said it did. Hydrogen cyanide is not used in suicide capsules, and it does not burn with caustic properties. Therefore, it would not melt Silva's face. It would have deprived his body of oxygen. Furthermore, ingestion of the compound is a guaranteed death, so even if it was made in pill form, there's no way Silva would have survived.
Connecting Silva's Computer To MI6's Network
The entire plot of Skyfall falls apart following Silva's capture and return to MI6. It is Silva's plan for MI6 to find his laptop and connect it to their servers so he can infiltrate their high-security network. But "high security" this is not.
Q, who is supposedly a computer whiz, would never connect a suspicious laptop like Silva's to MI6's main network. It would be tested in complete and secure isolation to avoid exactly what happened in the movie.
How Did Bond Even Survive?
A certain suspension of disbelief is required for all Bond films. But the opening segment of Skyfall really pushes the limits. Moneypenny accidentally shoots Bond in the shoulder, causing him to fall hundreds of feet into the water below.
Falling from that kind of height is a guaranteed death, as it's like falling onto pavement. So even if the multiple gunshots didn't kill him, there's absolutely no way he would have survived that type of fall.
What Was With The Needles?
Spectre tells quite a dark story, and it involves a creepy sequence in which Bond is tortured with needles. Blofeld informs Bond that these needles will both interfere with his balance and make him forget people. Yet after the needles are injected, Bond still remembers Madeleine and easily escapes the facility, his balance working perfectly fine.
So, what the heck was up with those needles? Was Blofeld bluffing about their effects? Did they just not take for whatever reason? There's no answer.