My ideal Bond cast...

OK so get this. In the upcoming James Bond, Daniel Craig’s Bond dies (somehow) or retires. MI6 needs a replacement for Bond, and M (Ralph Fiennes as it has been announced) is scouting potential replacements during a training demonstration somewhere remote in Central England. This would act as the opening scene (not the titles yet), paying homage to the action-packed openings of the classic Bond films. A large amount of prospective 00 agents are shown in various exercises. Suddenly, something goes wrong. An extremely well trained group of armed, masked soldiers storm the location (they were shown cracking the security codes but blended in with the rest of the training scene shots). All of the prospective 00 agents are killed. The apparent leader of the attackers holds M at gunpoint and motions to one of the soldiers, who has a video camera. The leader executes M in front of the camera, and the footage is sent to every computer at MI6 command.

            Chaos ensues at command. M’s second in command (Hugh Laurie?) is no-where to be found and feared dead. Seeing leadership is desperately needed, no matter the rank, a member of the intelligence processing division (not a 00 agent) steps up and takes charge. The temporary M (Emma Watson) begins to organize intelligence efforts and a response to the attack. M is also aware that there is a mole somewhere within command: how else would the attackers know the training location?  She asks what agents are available to pursue the soldiers, who are escaping, since the training locale was remote and classified (so there is no police response). Her answer is not a good one—all of the agents currently located in Britain were taking part in the exercise, except one trainee, who hasn’t passed a qualification in the 00 regimen. M makes a quick decision to allow the trainee to trail the soldiers, passing along strict orders not to engage—only track. M sends several male staff members to retrieve and give orders to the trainee. She also equips them with pistols, worried that even the trainee has been targeted, like the 00 agents.

            We cut to the trainee’s room. The staff knocks, and with no response, barges into the small living quarters. The shower is on, so they head towards the bathroom. A blur of precisely placed punches and kicks from behind quickly disables the staff. They are ordered to stand up at gunpoint (specifically two pistols, one in each hand). As they turn around, the trainee (Natalie Dormer) who is only in a towel (not revealing though) demands an explanation. Once they explain the situation and whom they are, she accepts the mission and tells them to turn back around so she can get dressed. They do, but one tries to peak, and is quickly met with the towel to his face followed by a knockout punch.

            Bond (the trainee will soon become “Bond’) makes her way after the attackers using a car stolen from the MI6 parking lot (it appears she picks it on purpose). She fails to catch them before they escape from northern England (perhaps Sunderland) in what appears to be a submarine. Bond attempts to follow the ship along the coast, but is spotted and fired upon while the sub is still above water. A tire is shot and Bond crashes off a cliff, but uses the eject button, opens the seats parachute, and glides towards the water. M contacts her and asks for a report, to which Bond replies, “I think I’ll go for a swim instead” and falls into the North Sea. This leads to a seamless transition into a water themed title sequence, in which bubbles are the dots that lead to the gun barrel and men are the dancers instead of women. This obviously varies from the norm, where the gun barrel is shown first, but in order to keep the Bond reveal a surprise, it needs to happen after the “first act” so to say.

            Once Bond gets back to command, more bad news is coming in. 00 agents around the world are being targeted. Bond goes to meet M, and is greeted by Moneypenny (Ryan Gosling). Moneypenny flirts (“I didn’t know Bond wore lipstick so well”) but is shut down by Bond.

M approves the trainee’s 00 status and gives Bond orders to track down one of the final 00 agents left in the field, who checked in just one day ago. They cannot contact him again and think (but aren’t sure) he has “vital” information that needs to be returned to command before his is killed by the attackers, who have been identified as a terror cell out of Estonia—but nothing more. M asks Bond why she wasn’t at the training exercise. She admitted she was on probation while it was being investigated if she cheated on a mathematics test, which she denies. M tests her with a trick word problem, and Bond quickly answers (I’m bad at math so I’d have to look one up).  

Before she leaves, M tells Bond that Q has requested to speak with her immediately. When she meets Q (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), he demands an apology for stealing his car. She retorts, “You should try making a security alarm” or something witty like that. He gives her some cool gadgets: a lipstick dart gun, heels with a knife blade, ect ect. She declines some of them and takes what she pleases, including another car.

Bond travels to Beijing, where it becomes clear that the general state of the world is not good, as there appears that there is a global food crisis. There she finds evidence of 004 (Idris Elba) being kidnapped. She uses her attractiveness and wit to her advantage and tricks many people into helping her track down the kidnappers.

To Bond’s surprise, the kidnappers aren’t the terrorists, but another group that seem like CIA agents. Before Bond can intervene, the terrorists kidnap 004 from the CIA agents. Bond is on their trail, but is intercepted by the KGB, whom also appear to want 004.

Eventually the trail leads to the terrorist hideout in Estonia, where 004 is being held. Bond is captured despite slipping past most of the security. The villain (Norman Reedus) explains to Bond that the current famine in his home country of Estonia is the direct result of MI6 assassinating his brother, who was working on progressive research on sustainable agriculture. Here we see Reedus cry because he’s so good at acting like he’s crying. He’s seeking revenge, but didn’t know 004’s secret until after the attack in England. It turns out 004 was the assassin, and looked at some of the research before escaping the scene—this is why he is sought after. The villain is desperate to retreieve the information, which will make his suffering country wealthy and feed his people. Bond and 004 escape and report all of this back to M, who finds it to be true. The original M didn’t give the order, and it is discovered that the second in command M (Laurie) gave the order, whom is still missing, but was assumed dead.

That’s all I have as of now. But yeah to say the least I was inspired tonight. I don’t know the Bond universe well enough to know if this would fit or not.