This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.
Quantum of Solace (2008, directed by Marc Foster)
July 1, 2025
I wonder if ChatGPT could tell me which 007 movie had the most bullets fired at James Bond. I’m guessing Quantum of Solace would be in the top three. Thousands of rounds. After two dozen films and millions of bullets, I’m convinced our James has a magical forcefield around him. Is it wrong to want to see Bond shot just once? I mean, he’s shot so many people since 1962. Where is the equity?
Quantum of Solace is framed as somewhat of a sequel to Daniel Craig’s first Bond film, Casino Royale, as he seeks revenge for the killing of Vesper, who M described as “someone you loved.” But, because of the writers’ strike, it gets folded into a different film about another Elon Musk-like billionaire trying to corner the market on fresh water in South America. Directed by Marc Foster (Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner), who in 2013 would direct my favorite zombie film, World War Z, QoS is a non-stop action film. Craig trained for the role this time but still sustained multiple injuries during the film, including losing the tip of a finger.
Maybe because this film was set up as a revenge caper for the death of Vesper in the last film, the fast cracking Lothario Bond is dialed way back and replaced with the one speed demolition man. This episode’s Bond “girl” is Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko, playing Bolivian agent Camille Montes. (Future Wonder Woman Gail Gadot also auditioned for the role.) Kurylenko, who did many of her own stunts, went on to a long action film career, most recently starring as Taskmaster in 2025’s Thunderbolts*. French actor Mathieu Amalric, who plays the villainous Dominic Greene, broke the Bond mold of bad guys having some weird distinguishing characteristic. He’s just a dude.
Besides the endless hail of bullets, there are some Bond staples in QoS; Bond in a suped-up Aston Martin, Bond in a tux, Bond falling out of an airplane without a parachute, and a wide variety of exotic locations, including Haiti (with no references to voodoo!). This film is somewhat of a departure in that M, still played by Judi Dench, takes almost a co-starring role as she both helps Bond and tries to reign him in. It has a different feel because of that so let’s plug it into our matrix.
Driver of Action – James Bond movies will always be “James Bond” movies but I started to wonder if the formula of the femme fatale who was good in a fight, Camille in this picture, was tweaked to have Bond teamed up with a male crime fighter, if the film would have a different feel. With the exception of Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond’s female accomplices always seem very subordinate. QoS see the return of CIA gadfly Felix Leiter, but he’s relegated to the shadows. What’s different here is the upsized role of Judi Dench’s M. It’s almost a movie about Mom/Mum/Mam trying to discipline her wild boy. Dench was not given co-billing but it feels as much her film as it does Craig’s.
Role of Violence – 007 maximizes his license to kill in this film. Over two dozen bodies stack up, including a traitorous MI-6 agent shot after an insane rooftop chase in Sienna, Italy, a hitman killed in a knife fight in Haiti, and the main bad guy left to die in the driest desert on earth in Bolivia. Bond even instructs Camille how to kill. “Have you ever killed someone? The training will tell you that when the adrenaline kicks in you should compensate. But part of you’s not going to believe the training because this kill is personal. Take a deep breath. You only need one shot. Make it count.”
Vulnerability – QoS Bond is zipped up tight. I don’t think he even smiles once in this film. It’s re-iterated throughout the film how little he cared about Vesper, the last scene not being Bond in a boat with a woman, a flagrante delicto, but Bond throwing Vesper’s neckless into the Russian snow. Even bloodied, he’s laser-focused on the mission, whatever it is.
Sexual Potency – An hour into the film, James finally gets to unzip his pants. It’s with MI-6 underling Strawberry Fields (I’m not kidding). In an act of obligatory sexual harassment of company subordinates that’s become the most persistent cliche of the franchise, Bond gets his romp. There is no flirtation or chemistry. It seems purely contractual and you know that Ms. Fields will be dead before the end of the film. (Her naked body in a bed covered in oil, a nod to the famous scene in Goldfinger.) That’s it for the sex. He briefly kisses Camille, but it’s just sad all the way through for James.
Connection – There is one interesting bond in this Bond film, and that’s between James and M. She comes off as the strict mother, even applying face cream while she frets that her boy has gone off the rails. At the end of the film, she says, “Bond, I need you back.” To which he replies, “I never left.” Bond’s need to prove the threat of Quantum seems purely to prove the threat to M.
Toxic Masculinity Scale: 5
Summary
How can you be unhinged without appearing unhinged? QoS Bond is not a man. He’s a killing machine trying to prove a point that, ultimately, he doesn’t care about. But there’s a weird sense of balance in this film. On one side you have NONE-STOP action scenes, including classic Bond boat chases and airplane chases. On the other side, there’s the chunk of the film that is about M holding MI-6 and the entire geo-political order together. The brilliant theme song by Jack White and Alicia Keys hints at the promise of gender parity in the film, but it all goes off the rails amid the chaos. This includes the complete destruction of a hotel, that for some weird reason, is powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
It should be mentioned there is an attempted rape scene. A woman working for exiled Bolivian General Medrano attacks her on a bed but is then killed by Camille, avenging the rape and murder of her family by the general.
Despite any real plot, Quantum of Solace was a box office smash, sailing on its over the top action sequences. You can literally hear Daniel Craig’s bones break in these scenes. The filming of this Bond coincided with the rise of the opioid painkiller epidemic so QoS doubles as a direct to consumer ad for OxyContin. The absence of Q and Moneypenny is made up for in the presented mythology of the indestructibility of the “good guy.”
Quantun of Solace premiered in London on October 29, 2008 as the American financial crisis, now known as the Great Recession, was just starting to drive Americans from their homes. QoS, Madagascar 2, and Twilight would give people brief escapes while the global economy crashed into a sinkhole. But steely-eyed assassins would not rescue their hope. It would be a man named Barack Obama.
Next: Skyall (2012)
The James Bond Project #23: Casino Royale (2006)
The James Bond Project #22: Die Another Day (2002)
The James Bond Project #21: The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The James Bond Project #20: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The James Bond Project #19: GoldenEye (1995)
The James Bond Project #18: License to Kill (1989)
The James Bond Project #17: The Living Daylights (1987)
The James Bond Project #16: A View to a Kill (1985)
The James Bond Project #15: Never Say Never Again (1983)
The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy (1983)
The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)
The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)
The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)
The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)
The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)
The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)
The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)
Watching the Wheels 
Great review again Randy. But I think you’re really discounting the effect Vesper had on Bond. So much of this iteration of James Bond is a well crafted facade to protect himself from the emotions of his childhood traumas. Vesper cracks it a bit in Casino Royale but he’s able to patch it before too many people see through him, and it becomes much more apparent in Skyfall. QoS is admittedly the weakest of the Craig era, but its noteworthy that throughout the era, the only thing that ever gets through to the core and therefore authentic Bond is the soft power of femininity. And not solely in a romantic or sexual manner. M should stand for Matriarch in this era, and his tepid and abortive attempt to seduce Moneypenny quickly snaps him into the reality that she is a competent and effective colleague. Really looking forward to the Skyfall commentary.
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