35% Think This Daniel Craig James Bond Moment Went Too Far
With the rollout of "No Time to Die" in October, the Daniel Craig era of the James Bond movies has officially come to a close. His five-film arc represented something of a shift for the franchise. The filmmakers that Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions hired to re-shape the world of 007 worked hard to bring Ian Fleming's iconic superspy into step with the current times.
It was Craig, though, who had to make it all work on the screen, and, for the most part, he pulled it off. As NPR's Eric Deggans wrote, "Craig's Bond has been more realistic, rebellious and introspective, befitting a world where Jason Bourne and 'Mission: Impossible's' Ethan Hunt have helped reinvent rules for the modern espionage thriller."
That said, there have been moments throughout Craig's tenure where the writers may have taken things a bit too far in their efforts to make Bond's world darker and more gritty. Conversely, his films have also taken the occasional detour into the absurd. It was never on the level of the pigeon double-take from "Moonraker," the invisible Aston-Martin in "Die Another Day" or Kananga literally becoming a human balloon in "Live and Let Die," but things still went over the top more than once.
But which of Craig's moments moved beyond the threshold? Looper went to the fandom to find out.
The scene that went too far (even for Bond)
Looper surveyed 596 people to identify which of Daniel Craig's Bond moments went too far. And while there were a handful of contenders for that distinction, one of them outpaced the field by a fairly substantial margin. Having garnered a whopping 35.74% of the vote, the infamous torture scene from the actor's 007 debuts — 2006's "Casino Royale" — was the one that respondents pointed to as his ultimate too-far moment. In the film, villain Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) captures Bond, strips him bare, and ties him to a seatless chair. He then proceeds to strike Bond's lower extremities repeatedly with the knotted end of a heavy rope — a practice known as Dutch Scratching.
The runner-up choice — as selected by 23.83% of respondents — was how Bond opted to deal with Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who was the primary antagonist in "Quantum of Solace." Rather than making good on his license to kill, Bond ultimately leaves Greene stranded in the Atacama Desert with nothing but an oil can to keep himself alive. M (Judi Dench) later informs Bond that Greene was found with two bullets in his head and motor oil in his stomach.
"Skyfall's" train chase (12.42%) and Shanghai fight (11.41%) and "Casino Royale's" parkour chase (9.06%) were next in line, capturing similar portions of the vote. Finally, the train fight scene from "Spectre" brought up the rear as the pick of just 7.55% of respondents.