Skyfall 2012

Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Director: Sam Mendes

Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Cast:

• Daniel Craig as James Bond, agent 007. Director Sam Mendes described Bond as experiencing a "combination of lassitude, boredom, depression [and] difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living."
• Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva (Tiago Rodriguez). the film's main antagonist. Silva is a former MI6 agent turned cyberterrorist who is seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for betraying him. Bardem described Silva as "more than a villain", while Craig stated that Bond has a "very important relationship" to Silva. In casting the role, director Sam Mendes admitted that he lobbied hard for Bardem to accept the part. Mendes saw the potential for the character to be recognised as one of the most memorable characters in the franchise and wanted to create "something [the audience] may consider to have been absent from the Bond movies for a long time". He felt that Bardem was one of the few actors up to the task of becoming "colourless" and existing within the world of the film as something more than a function of the plot. In preparing for the role, Bardem had the script translated into his native Spanish in order to better understand his character, which Mendes cited as being a sign of the actor's commitment to the film. Bardem dyed his hair blond for the role after brainstorming ideas with Mendes to come up with a distinct visual look for the character.
• Judi Dench as M, the head of MI6 and Bond's commanding officer. Skyfall is Dench's seventh and final appearance in the role.
• Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, a former lieutenant colonel in the British Army and now the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, His position gives him the authority to regulate MI6. Fiennes stated that he could not say anything specific about the role other than that it was a "really interesting part which is really quite fun.

• Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny Harris' role was initially presented as that of Eve, an MI6 field agent who works closely with Bond. Despite ongoing speculation in the media that Harris had been cast as Miss Moneypenny, this was not confirmed by anyone involved in production of the film, with Harris herself even going so far as to dismiss claims that Eve was in fact Moneypenny, stating that "Eve is not remotely office-bound". According to Harris, Eve "[believes] she is Bond's equal, but she is really his junior".
• Ben Whishaw as Q, the MI6 quartermaster.
• Bérénice Lim Marlohe as Sévérine Marlohe described her character as being "glamorous and enigmatic" and that she drew inspiration from GoldenEye villain Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen) in playing Sévérine.
• Albert Finney as Kincade, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall estate. Sean Connery was almost approached to play the role in nod for it being the 50th anniversary of the film series.
• Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, the MI6 Chief of Staff.
• Helen McCrory as Clair Dowar, a British minister. McCrory joined the cast after Sam Mendes contacted her personally and offered her the part.
• Ola Rapace as Patrice, a French mercenary who "is a man of few words" and "loves violence".

Production:

Production of Skyfall was suspended throughout 2010 because of MGM's financial troubles. They resumed pre-production following MGM's exit from bankruptcy on 21 December 2010 and in January 2011 the film was officially given a release date of 9 November 2012 by MGM and the Broccoli family, with production scheduled to start in late 2011. Since then, MGM and Sony Pictures announced that the UK and Ireland release date would be brought forward to 26 October 2012, two weeks ahead of the US release date, which was 9 November 2012. The film's budget is estimated to be between US$150 million and $200 million, compared to the $200 million spent on Quantum of Solace. 

Skyfall is part of year-long celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Dr. No and the Bond film series. According to producer Michael G. Wilson, a documentary crew is scheduled to follow production of the film to celebrate the anniversary. Skyfall was also the first James Bond film to be released in Imax venues.

 

Title

In August 2011, several news websites reposted a rumour that originally appeared in Serbian newspaper Blic stating that Bond 23 would be entitled Carte Blanche and would be an adaptation of the recent continuation novel by Jeffery Deaver. On 30 August, Eon Productions officially denied any link between Bond 23 and Carte Blanche, stating that "the new film is not going to be called Carte Blanche and will have nothing to do with the Jeffery Deaver book." On 3 October 2011, fifteen domain names including 'jamesbond-skyfall.com' and 'skyfallthefilm.com' were reported to have been registered on behalf of MGM and Sony Pictures by Internet brand-protection service MarkMonitor. This led to supposition in media that the film had been given the name "Skyfall". These reports were not confirmed at the time by Eon Productions, Sony or MGM. Skyfall was later confirmed as the title at the November press conference, during which co-producer Barbara Broccoli said that the title "has some emotional context which will be revealed in the film". The title refers to the Skyfall Lodge, Bond's childhood home and the setting for the film's finale. 

Plot:

MI6 agents James Bond and Eve assist on a mission in Turkey to recover a computer hard drive stolen from a murdered MI6 agent that contains details of almost all undercover NATO agents in terrorist organisations. Bond and Eve chase the killer, mercenary Patrice, and attempt to recover the disk. During the chase, Bond is shot in the shoulder. While fighting Patrice, Bond is accidentally shot by Eve and is later considered "missing, presumed killed".

The head of MI6, M, comes under political pressure to retire during a meeting with the Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory. On her return from the meeting, MI6 is hacked and an explosion occurs in the offices, killing a number of MI6 employees; the service relocates to its emergency offices underground. Bond, having used his supposed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London. Shrapnel taken from his earlier shoulder wound helps identify Patrice, and Bond tracks the mercenary to Shanghai.

Meanwhile, three NATO agents are killed after their identities are exposed, and further releases are threatened. After Patrice assassinates a target, he and Bond fight. Patrice falls to his death before Bond can learn of his employer. Searching Patrice's equipment, Bond finds a gambling chip which leads him to a casino in Macau. Sévérine, whom Bond saw earlier during the assassination, warns him that he is about to be killed, but promises to help him if he will kill her employer. Bond beats his attackers and joins Sévérine on her boat. They travel to an island, where they are taken prisoner by the crew and delivered to Sévérine's employer, Raoul Silva. A former MI6 agent who worked under M, Silva holds her responsible for his torture and imprisonment by the Chinese. Silva kills Sévérine, but Bond overpowers his guards and captures Silva for extraction to the UK.

Back at MI6's underground headquarters Q attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop, but inadvertently enables it to hack the MI6 systems, allowing Silva to escape. Pursued by Bond, he uses the tunnel system under London, including part of the London Underground, as part of his plan. Silva disguises himself as a policeman and attacks M during a public inquiry into her handling of the stolen hard drive. Bond arrives to join Mallory and Eve in beating off Silva's attack, and M is hurried from the building by her aide, Bill Tanner. Bond drives M away from the scene and takes her to his empty and remote childhood home in Scotland: Skyfall. He instructs Q to leave an electronic trail for Silva to follow, a decision supported by Mallory.

At Skyfall, Bond and M are met by Kincade, the gamekeeper to the Bond family estate. The trio are only lightly armed, but they improvise a series of booby traps. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M and Kincade fight off the first assault, although M is wounded. Silva arrives by helicopter with a second wave, and Bond sends M and Kincade off through a secret tunnel at the back of a priest hole to a chapel on the grounds. The second assault uses firepower from the helicopter, and Silva throws incendiary grenades into the building. Bond detonates two gas canisters with a stick of dynamite and retreats down the same tunnel as M and Kincade. The resulting blast causes the helicopter to crash, killing a number of Silva's men. Silva sees Kincade's torch beam, follows, and arrives at a frozen lake ahead of Bond. Bond fights Silva's sole remaining follower, and the two fall through the ice, where Bond kills him. Silva meanwhile makes his way to the chapel and forces his gun into M's hand where he begs her to kill them both. Bond arrives and kills Silva, but M collapses from her earlier wound and dies. Mallory becomes the new head of MI6, while Eve—introducing herself as Eve Moneypenny—decides not to return to the field as an agent, but to work as M's secretary.

 

Argo (2012)

A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. 

Director: Ben Affleck

Writers: Chris Terrio (screenplay), Joshuah Bearman (article)

Cast:

• Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez
• Bryan Cranston as Jack O'Donnell
• Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel
• John Goodman as John Chambers
• Clea DuVall as Cora Lijek
• Kyle Chandler as Hamilton Jordan
• Victor Garber as Ken Taylor
• Tate Donovan as Bob Anders
• Michael Parks as Jack Kirby
• Tom Lenk as Rodd
• Christopher Stanley as Tom Ahern
• Taylor Schilling as Christine Mendez
• Ashley Wood as Beauty
• Sheila Vand as Sahar
• Chris Messina as Malinov
• Richard Kind as Max Klein
• Titus Welliver as Jon Bates
• Rory Cochrane as Lee Schatz
• Devansh Mehta as Matt Sanders
• Omid Abtahi as Reza
• Scoot McNairy as Joe Stafford
• Kerry Bishé as Kathy Stafford
• Christopher Denham as Mark Lijek
• Karina Logue as Elizabeth Ann Swift
• Bob Gunton as Cyrus Vance (United States Secretary of State)
• Philip Baker Hall as Warren Christopher (United States Deputy Secretary of State) (uncredited)
• Adrienne Barbeau as Nina
• Fouad Hajji as Komiteh

Production: 

Argo is based on the Canadian Caper that took place during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980. Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on the 2007 Wired article "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran" by Joshuah Bearman. Producers George Clooney, Grant Heslov and David Klawans set up a project based on the article in the same year, and Affleck's attachment to the project was announced in February 2011. The following June, Alan Arkin was the first person cast in the film. After the rest of the roles were cast, filming began in Los Angeles, California, in August 2011. Additional filming also took place in McLean, VA, Washington, D.C., and Istanbul.

Archival TV news footage from the era was used throughout the film as in-story exposition. Reflecting the time period of the film, the opening credits use the rolling W Warner Bros. logo that was used by the company from 1972 to 1984 instead of the contemporary "WB" shield logo.

Plot: 

On November 4, 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, a group of young Iranian revolutionaries storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran. This is in retaliation for American support of the recently-deposed Shah. Although most of the Embassy staff are taken hostage, six evade capture. They find sanctuary in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).

With the escapees' situation kept secret from the world, the U.S. State Department begins to explore options for "exfiltrating" them from Iran. CIA specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), brought in for consultation, points out the fundamental weaknesses in all of the proposals for how to do so, but is at a loss to suggest an alternative until he gets an idea while watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes on TV with his son: create a cover story that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, scouting "exotic" locations in Iran for a similar film.

Mendez, and his supervisor Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston), contact John Chambers (John Goodman), a Hollywood make-up artist who has previously crafted disguises for the CIA (in addition to his work in the Apes film series). Chambers introduces Mendez to film producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin).

Chambers and Seigel create "Studio Six Productions", and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy" in the style of Star Wars. They accrue credibility to the cover story with trade-journal publicity, casting calls, script development, storyboard development, and script read-throughs for the trade press.

The situation in Tehran becomes more tense as the months pass. The American escapees become more and more frantic inside the Canadian ambassador's residence, sometimes having to hide under the floorboards. The Taylor's Iranian housekeeper witnesses a summary execution of a scared civilian by the Revolutionary Guard. Shredded documentation from the U.S. Embassy is being reassembled by child laborers, providing the revolutionaries with evidence that there are embassy personnel unaccounted for.

Mendez enters Iran under an alias and travelling on a Canadian passport. He acquires documentation legitimizing the purported purpose of his visit as a producer for Argo. Mendez meets Taylor at the Embassy of Canada in Tehran. They proceed to the ambassador's home and Mendez explains his plan to the six escapees.

The six Americans are provided genuine Canadian passports sent from Ottawa via diplomatic pouch, having been issued in secrecy by the Government of Canada at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency, and imprinted with false Iranian visas by the CIA. Mendez also provides extensive, CIA-contrived information about their false identities, to help them convincingly bluff their way through security at the Tehran airport.

Although they are afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly agree to go along with it, knowing that Mendez is risking his own life too, and convinced that it is their only option. A "scouting" visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story goes somewhat poorly, but Mendez manages to extricate them from the suspicious crowd.

O'Donnell tells Mendez that the operation has been cancelled by the White House to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. Mendez pushes ahead nevertheless, forcing O'Donnell to hastily demand of his superiors to reactivate logistical support. At the airport there is tension as the escapees' flight reservations are only confirmed at the last minute, a call to the supposed studio in Hollywood at first goes unanswered, and revolutionaries who have uncovered their ruse rush to stop them. But the "Canadians" successfully board the plane, which takes off with revolutionary forces in close pursuit.

Taylor instructs the Canadian Embassy's military attache to destroy encrypted communication equipment and closes the Embassy. Taylor and his wife escape Iran under their own credentials as the operation was underway, as their involvement at that point remained unknown to the Revolutionary Guard. Their Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans, escapes to Iraq.

To protect the hostages remaining in Tehran from further retaliation, all U.S. involvement in the operation is suppressed. Full credit is given to the Canadian government and its ambassador. Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the classified nature of the mission, he is not be able to keep the medal until the mission is declassified and the details made public in 1997.

All the hostages are later freed after 444 days in captivity on January 20, 1981, as Carter leaves office. The film ends with U.S. President Jimmy Carter giving a speech about the events, with screenshots from the film being compared with images of the actual people and events during the crisis upon which the film is based, in order to demonstrate its fidelity to actual history.

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and a suburban family witness strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in. 

Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Writers: Christopher Landon (screenplay), Chad Feehan

Cast:

• Kathryn Newton as Alex Nelson
• Matt Shively as Ben
• Brady Allen as Robbie Featherston
• Aiden Lovekamp as Wyatt Nelson
• Alexondra Lee as Holly Nelson
• Stephen Dunham as Doug Nelson
• Katie Featherston as Katie Featherston

Production:

Paramount Pictures announced on January 2, 2012 that Paranormal Activity 4 was in the works. Information on the characters had been rare, stating that Brady Allen was set to play a character named Robbie. Katie Featherston reprised her role as Katie, who was still possessed from the ending of the first two films. Other cast and characters that appeared in the film had been kept extremely tightly under wraps in order for fans to not know the plot. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman returned to direct the film.

On June 23, 2012, it was confirmed that the fourth film had begun filming. A trailer debuted on August 3 in front of Total Recall. The first theatrical trailer was released for the film on August 1, 2012. The trailer showed that the film is a sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, following the story of possessed Katie and kidnapped Hunter after their disappearance at the end of the second film. The movie also featured a new scare technique, of footage being shown from a laptop in a video chat, that the directors felt would rival the 'fan cam' from the previous movie and that because of it being familiar technology it was "built for a horror movie". The movie also featured the Kinect, a Macbook, smart phones and a Cannon XA10. After Katie is suddenly taken to a hospital, Alex's mom takes Robbie into their home, which leads to strange phenomena occurring inside the house.

 

Plot:

In 2011, Alex (Kathryn Newton) films her younger brother Wyatt's soccer match. At Alex's house, she shows her boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) the treehouse in the garden. Here they discover Robbie, the neighbor's child. Puzzled as to why he is there, she takes him back to his own house across the street. In the early hours of the next morning, Alex hears an ambulance outside at Robbie's house. That day, Robbie turns up at the house after Alex's mom Holly (Alexondra Lee) offered to look after him for a few days, while Robbie's mother is admitted to hospital. Later on, Alex finds Wyatt and Robbie in her treehouse talking to Robbie's invisible friend.

In the evening Wyatt plays multi-player on the Kinect by himself, while Robbie sits on the sofa. Ben asks who Wyatt is playing with and Robbie answers that it's the invisible friend from the tree house. Ben turns the lights off and shows Wyatt the infra-red tracking dots. As Alex, Ben and Wyatt dance in the dark, Robbie sits on the sofa, where the camera detects an unknown figure moving next to him.

The next day Ben reveals to Alex that his computer automatically records their webcam chats, and in the middle of the night while Alex was sleeping, Robbie came in and slept next to her. Baffled by his odd behavior, Ben offers to install laptops around the house to record any other strange occurrences. Over the next couple of days, the computer records strange events around the house, including Robbie waking up in the middle of the night to talk to the TV, and Robbie and Wyatt chasing the silhouette of a small child figure throughout the house. Robbie draws a strange symbol on Wyatt's back, which Alex later finds to be part of an old cult (first appeared in Paranormal Activity 3).

Late one night Alex notices several black cars outside Robbie's house across the street; upon investigating, she discovers several women in black garb entering the house. She is confronted by one of these women and flees the scene. The next day Alex is home alone, and after hearing noises, follows them to the hallway, where the chandelier falls from the ceiling and smashes into the floor, almost striking her. Although her father Doug (Stephen Dunham) blames the light fitters, Alex is suspicious of Robbie.

The following day, Alex sees Robbie and Wyatt entering Robbie's house across the street. Alex follows them to discover that Robbie's mother Katie (Katie Featherston) is actually home, and shows no sign of illness. Wyatt tells Alex that Katie told him he was adopted, like Robbie. Alex questions her parents about Wyatt's real parents but they refuse to say anything. Later that night, Wyatt begins talking to an invisible figure, insisting that his name isn't Hunter. During this conversation a figure approaches him, but is interrupted when Doug enters the room.

One night during Wyatt's bath, Holly leaves the room to answer the phone, leaving Wyatt in the tub. He is violently pulled underwater by an unseen force, where he remains for a long time. He reemerges moments later, but is unnaturally calm and sedate, thereafter referring to himself as Hunter. That night, he appears in Alex's room, where she levitates off the bed while sleeping.

The next day, Holly is alone, and begins to hear strange noises. A possessed Katie enters the house undetected, and heads upstairs. When Holly enters the lounge an unseen entity suddenly picks her up and violently throws her against the walls, before dropping her on the floor. Katie returns to drag her body away. Ben later arrives to discover no one is home. He goes to view the footage in Alex's bedroom but Katie appears and snaps his neck.

Alex and her father arrive, and he thinks he sees Alex's mother with Wyatt walking to Katie's house. As he goes to explore Alex goes home to discover Ben's body. She runs out of the house and over to Katie's house to warn her dad, but witnesses him being dragged violently through the house by the unseen entity. She runs to a bedroom at the far end of the house but can't find his body. As she turns around to head back out Katie appears who storms forwards, demonically screaming to Alex. Alex quickly runs and climbs out of the window where she discovers Wyatt standing outside. She pleads with him to run away with her, but he stands there, blank faced and unmoved, just as numerous blank-faced people appear in Katie's garden. Alex turns the other way only to be attacked by a screaming Katie before the camera cuts out.