Whether or not James Bond was betrayed by René Mathis in Casino Royale has been a cause of some confusion ever since the movie was released in 2006. As the first of the Daniel Craig Bond movies, Casino Royale laid much of the groundwork for the long-form story that would play out over the next fifteen years in Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. Through those movies, Daniel Craig’s James Bond had an extensive character arc that effectively saw him move from being a cold-blooded killer to an emotionally engaged man who was prepared to sacrifice his life for the sake of the people he loved.
In Casino Royale, James Bond gained an ally and friend in the form of René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini). He, along with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), assisted Bond in beating the terrorist banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) in a high-stakes poker tournament in Montenegro. Le Chiffre needed to pay back his terrorist backers, but with Bond having won the tournament he kidnapped Vesper Lynd to trap and torture him into revealing the password to the tournament’s winnings. It was during this time that Le Chiffre told Bond that Mathis had betrayed him.
Was Mathis A Traitor In Casino Royale?
Given Le Chiffre’s claim, the continued confusion about whether Mathis had really worked against James Bond, 007 was understandable. Nevertheless, the truth was that Mathis was always Bond’s ally and friend, and never betrayed him. Vesper Lynd was the one who informed Le Chiffre that Bond had recognized his tell when bluffing during the game. This was because she had been blackmailed by the organization behind Le Chiffre into becoming a double agent in order to save her lover. However, as M (Judi Dench) suggested, Vesper had made a deal to trade the winnings of the poker tournament with Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) in exchange for saving Bond’s life. This was backed by the fact that she had left her phone behind for Bond to help him track down Mr. White, despite knowing she was likely to die at the money handover.
Why Quantum Of Solace Killed Off Mathis
In Quantum of Solace, James Bond searched for the organization behind the villainous Mr. White. Initially, this was revealed as Quantum before the events of Spectre proved that Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s (Christoph Waltz) Spectre organization had been pulling the strings all along. In doing this, Bond enlisted the help of a retired Mathis and the two of them traveled to Bolivia to track down Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). In La Paz, Mathis was betrayed by his supposed friend the Colonel of the Bolivian Police Department (Fernando Guillen Cuervo). After being shot by police officers, Mathis’ final words were to tell Bond to forgive himself and to forgive Vesper Lynd.
The importance of this scene and James Bond’s actions afterward should not be understated. Although the scene itself was tender, with Bond cradling Mathis in his arms, it was immediately juxtaposed with Bond dumping his lifeless body in a dumpster and taking his wallet. This illustrated the dichotomy at the heart of Daniel Craig’s James Bond. The cold way in which he disposed of his friend’s body reflected the more traditional characterization of James Bond in Ian Fleming’s books. At the same time, trying to make Mathis’ final moments comfortable and then killing the Colonel of the Bolivian Police while telling him, “You and I had a mutual friend,” hinted at the greater emotionality that would reach full fruition in No Time to Die.
In Quantum of Solace, James Bond was still in the process of evolving into a more loving and emotional character. As such, his disposal of Mathis’ body could be viewed as an attempt to distance himself from the pain of losing his friend along with confronting the need to forgive Vesper Lynd and himself. Assuming that this was the case, in the context of Daniel Craig’s James Bond story arc, this deed would certainly be more justifiable in signaling the importance René Mathis had as a faithful friend and ally to the spy in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.