Spectre (2015)

Spectre is the twenty-fourth James Bond film produced by Eon Productions. It features Daniel Craig in his fourth performance as James Bond, and Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, with the film marking the character's re-introduction into the series. It was directed by Sam Mendes as his second James Bond film following Skyfall, with a screenplay written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth. It is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures. With a budget around $245 million, it is the most expensive Bond film and one of the most expensive films ever made.

The story sees Bond pitted against the global criminal organisation Spectre and against their leader; Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is revealed to be Bond's stepbrother as he attempts to thwart his plan to launch a global surveillance network, and discovers Spectre and Blofeld were behind the events of the previous three films. The film marks Spectre's first appearance in an Eon Productions film since 1971's Diamonds Are Forever,^{[N 2]} with Christoph Waltzplaying the organisation's leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Several recurring James Bond characters, including M, Q and Eve Moneypenny return, with the new additions of Léa Seydoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann, Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx, Andrew Scott as Max Denbigh and Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra. Spectre was filmed from December 2014 to July 2015, with locations in Austria, the United Kingdom, Italy, Morocco and Mexico.

The film was released on 26 October 2015 in the United Kingdom on the same night as the world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London, followed by a worldwide release which included IMAX screenings. It was released in the United States one week later, on 6 November. Upon its release, the film received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences, its style, suspenseful atmosphere and acting, with both Waltz and Bautista received widespread acclaim for their performances as Blofeld and Hinx respectively, but found the script and theme song lacking. The theme song, "Writing's on the Wall", won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the corresponding Golden Globe. Spectre grossed over a total of $880 million worldwide, the second largest unadjustedincome for the series after its predecessor Skyfall.

Following Gareth Mallory's promotion to M, James Bond takes leave from MI6. Receiving a posthumous message from the previous M, Bond carries out an unauthorised mission in Mexico City, killing three men plotting a terrorist bombing on a stadium, before giving chase to their leader, Marco Sciarra. In the ensuing struggle, Bond steals his ring, which is emblazoned with a stylised octopus. Bond then kicks Sciarra out of a helicopter causing him to fall to his death. Upon returning to London, Bond is indefinitely suspended from field duty by M. Parallel to this, M is in the midst of a power struggle with Max Denbigh (whom Bond dubs "C"), the head of a privately-backed agency, the Joint Intelligence Service. C campaigns for Britain to form "Nine Eyes", a global surveillance and intelligence co-operation initiative and uses his influence to close down the '00' section as he believes it to be outdated.

Bond disobeys M's order and travels to Rome to attend Sciarra's funeral. That evening he seduces Sciarra's widow Lucia, who tells him about Spectre, an organisation of businessmen with criminal and terrorist connections to which her husband belonged. Bond uses Sciarra's ring to infiltrate a Spectre meeting, where he identifies the leader, Franz Oberhauser. When Oberhauser addresses Bond by name, he is pursued across the city by Spectre's assassin, Mr. Hinx. Moneypenny informs Bond that the information he collected leads to Mr. White, a former member of Quantum—a subsidiary of Spectre—who has fallen afoul of Oberhauser and has been marked for assassination. Bond asks her to investigate Oberhauser, who was presumed dead years earlier.

Bond locates White in Austria, where he learns that White is dying of thallium poisoning. He admits to growing disenchantment with Quantum and tells Bond to find and protect his daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann, who will take him to L'Américain; this will in turn lead him to Spectre. White then commits suicide. Bond approaches Swann, and after rescuing her from Hinx, the two meet Q. Through Sciarra's ring, Q forensically links Oberhauser to Bond's previous missions, identifying Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene and Raoul Silva as Spectre agents. Swann reveals that L'Américain is a hotel in Tangier.

The two travel to the hotel and discover White left evidence directing them to Oberhauser's operations base in the desert. After an encounter with Hinx that sees the assassin killed, Bond and Swann are escorted to Oberhauser's base. There, Oberhauser reveals that Spectre has been funding the Joint Intelligence Service while staging terrorist attacks around the world, creating a need for the Nine Eyes programme. In return C will give Spectre unlimited access to intelligence gathered by Nine Eyes, allowing them to anticipate and counter-act investigations into their operations. Bond is tortured as Oberhauser discusses their shared history: after the younger Bond was orphaned, Oberhauser's father, Hannes, became his temporary guardian. Believing that Bond supplanted his role as son, Oberhauser killed his father and staged his own death, subsequently adopting the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld and going on to form Spectre. Bond and Swann overpower him and escape, destroying the base in an explosion and leaving Blofeld to die.

As the Moroccan facility was one node in a wider network, Bond and Swann return to London where they meet M, Bill Tanner, Q, and Moneypenny with the intention of arresting C and stopping Nine Eyes from being activated. Swann and Bond are abducted separately, while the rest of the group proceed with the plan. After Q succeeds in preventing the Nine Eyes from going online, a brief struggle between M and C ends with C falling to his death. Meanwhile, Bond is taken to the old MI6 building, which is scheduled for demolition. Moving throughout a ruined labyrinth, he encounters a disfigured Blofeld, who tells him that he has a choice between escaping the building before explosives are detonated or die trying to save Swann. Bond finds Swann and the two escape by boat as the building collapses.

Later Bond manages to shoot down Blofeld's helicopter, which crashes onto Westminster Bridge. As Blofeld crawls away from the wreckage, Bond confronts him, but, instead of killing him, he leaves him to be arrested by M before leaving the bridge with Swann.