Quantum of Solace (2008): The film continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale with Bond driving from Lake Como to Siena, Italy. With the captured Mr. White in the luggage compartment of his car, Bond is attacked by chasing henchmen. After evading his pursuers, Bond and M interrogate White regarding his organisation, Quantum. M's bodyguard, Mitchell, is revealed as a double agent and a traitor, attacking M and allowing White to escape; Bond chases Mitchell across Siena and kills him. Following a forensic investigation into Mitchell's apartment back in London, Bond heads to Haiti to track down and kill Mitchell's contact, Edmund Slate. In carrying out his objective, Bond learns that Slate was sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, Dominic Greene, the chairman of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. While observing her meeting with Greene, Bond learns that Greene is helping the Bolivian general Medrano – who murdered Camille's family – overthrow his government in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert. Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano's boat to "sweeten" their deal, but Bond rescues her. Bond then follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to a performance of Tosca at Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the opera, and a gunfight ensues in a restaurant. A bodyguard of Guy Haines, an advisor to the British Prime Minister, is killed, and M, assuming Bond is the killer, has his passports and credit cards revoked. Bond travels to Talamone, small Italian town in Maremma, to reunite with his old ally René Mathis, whom he convinces to accompany him to La Paz. They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate, who demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight. Bond disobeys and seduces her in their hotel suite. Bond meets Camille again at a fund-raiser being held by Greene, and they leave hastily together, but are pulled over by the Bolivian police. Not knowing that their chief was working with Medrano, the policemen beat up Mathis and put him in the trunk of Bond's car. The police order Bond to open the luggage compartment of his vehicle, revealing a bloodied Mathis. As Bond lifts Mathis out of the vehicle, the policemen open fire and fatally wound Mathis, who dies in Bond's arms. After Bond subdues the police and deposits Mathis's body in a waste container, Bond and Camille drive to Greene's intended land acquisition and survey the area in a Douglas DC-3 plane. They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF.260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. They escape from the crippled plane by parachuting, landing in a sinkhole. While escaping the cave, Bond and Camille discover Quantum is blockading Bolivia's supply of fresh water, normally flowing in subterranean rivers, by damming it to double the price of water. The duo return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and learns Quantum murdered Fields by drowning her in crude oil. Believing that Bond has become a threat to both friend and foe, M orders him to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia, but he defies her and escapes. Bond meets CIA agent Felix Leiter at a local bar, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet at an eco-hotel in the Bolivian desert. Tipped off by Leiter, Bond evades American special forces attempting to kill him. Bond then sets out to the hotel where Greene and Medrano make the change in the Bolivian leadership. Bond kills the departing Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions in the hotel when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. Camille kills Medrano, and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where they kiss before she departs. Bond goes to Kazan, Russia, where he confronts Vesper Lynd's former lover, Yusef Kabira. Yusef is a member of Quantum who seduces high-ranking women with valuable connections, getting them to give up government assets as ransom for himself in fake kidnappings where he is supposedly held hostage. He is attempting to do the same with Canadian agent Corinne Veneau, even giving her the same kind of necklace he gave Vesper. Surprising them at Yusef's apartment, Bond tells Corinne about Vesper and advises her to alert the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. As Bond is leaving Yusef's apartment he is confronted by M, who is surprised that Bond did not kill Yusef, but rather left him alive for questioning. M reveals that Leiter has been promoted by the CIA, replacing Beam, and that Greene was found in the desert, shot dead with 2 bullet holes in his head and with motor oil in his stomach. Bond doesn't volunteer any information on Greene, but tells M that she was right about Vesper. M then tells Bond that MI6 needs him back and fully reinstates him as an agent. Bond walks off into the night telling M that he never left. As he leaves, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.
By Richard Moody
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