Skyfall director Sam Mendes says that early versions of the script featured a team-up between Daniel Craig's James Bond and villain Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem. Marking his third outing as 007, 2012's Skyfall features Craig's iconic British superspy taking on Silva, a former MI6 agent hellbent on revenge against Judi Dench's M. The film was a hit critically and commercially, marking the first and only time a Bond film has surpassed $1 billion at the global box office. Skyfall remains a highlight of the franchise as a whole, with particular praise levied at Bardem's chilling performance as Silva and the unique chemistry he shares with Craig's hero.
In a recent interview with THR, director Sam Mendes reveals that, at one point, the Skyfall script from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan saw James Bond and Raoul Silva team up midway through the movie. The director explains that the team-up ultimately didn't work because of the lone-wolf essence of 007, particularly when it came to a team-up with a character who was, in a sense, Bond's equal. Check out Mendes' full comment below:
“They teamed up in the middle of the movie, in a kind of uneasy truce. And it didn’t work because Bond works alone. Yes, he might have a woman at his side or partner with one along the way [in some of the other Bond movies], but it didn’t feel right to be paired with another alpha male. [Bond] needs someone to fight against, and those scenes lasted for as long as it took to write them. And I read it and thought: ‘No, that doesn’t work.’”
Why Bond And Silva Worked Well As Enemies
Bond and Silva are, in many ways, opposite sides of the same coin. As Silva reveals in Skyfall, he was once a British agent just like Bond, who is eventually captured and tortured. The villain then uses his cyanide capsule in a failed effort to kill himself, which leaves his mouth and face horribly disfigured. Feeling abandoned by his country, Silva embarks on a quest for revenge in Skyfall against MI6, M, and the nation that he considers to have failed him. Part of the reason why Bardem's villain is so fondly remembered is that he's a darker version of Bond, in a sense, shaped by a series of traumatic experiences.
Of course, Bond and Silva's shared experiences make their inevitable meeting and confrontation all the more satisfying. Under a veneer of charm, Silva and Bond get to know each other, with Skyfall even hinting that Bardem's villain may be sexually attracted to 007. After their first meeting, the two characters are pitted firmly against each other, with Bond and Silva each attempting to stay one step of the other, their shared experiences making them perfect adversaries. A staple of the James Bond franchise, Dench's M plays a crucial role in the fight between the two characters, with 007 working to protect what Silva so passionately wants to destroy.
Like many movies, the Bond franchise films live or die by the quality of their villains. Skyfall features a compelling story about Bond figuring out his place in the new, technologically-advanced world, but it's Silva's villain that ultimately tests him like never before and makes his journey so compelling. Now consisting of 25 official EON films in total, the Bond franchise features a number of standout entries, but Skyfall remains a highlight for many fans due in large part to Bardem's Silva. While it's interesting to think about how Skyfall may have been different had it featured a team-up between Bond and Silva, Mendes was evidently right to keep the two characters firmly opposed.
Source: THR