Quantum of Solace

Another Way To Die!!!

Quantum of Solace, the first James Bond-movie I saw in cinema and that was back in 2008 when I was in the US. So maybe I'm blinded by nostalgic feelings, but I think this is the best Daniel Craig Bond-movie. First off, best song and soundtrack for Craig. Everyone else seems to hate the song Another Way To Die, but I love it. It's the only Bond track I got on my iPod after the Dalton-movies. They even used parts of the song in the actual soundtrack.

Story-wise it follows the last movie with Bond taking mr White to M for questioning, but a double agent set him free and is later killed by 007 who chased after him. Looking into the double agent 007 gets to Haiti to look into a contact for the agent, Bond kills him and is picked up by a woman who leads him to Dominic Greene, the head of an environmental organisation. Turns out the organisation is a front for Quantum, the organisation that mr White worked for. Greene is staging coups in Latin America and is looking into Bolivia at the time where a general is after the power. Meanwhile the CIA is striking a deal with Greene for the oil that Greene would be getting his hands on.

007 gets stranded by the MI6 after he gets framed by Quantum for killing a body guard to an adviser to the British government that are part of Quantum so he gets help from the agent he suspected double crossed him in Casino Royale so he gets to Bolivia. MI6 sends another agent to look over him. Both agents gets killed by Quantum, but Leiter slips him information about Greene's deal with the general so 007 and some Bolivian woman who's family was killed by the general go to the desert. Turns out that Quantum isn't after oil, but water. They dammed up the water in the area and are about to get control of most of Bolivia's water supply and are to resell it to Bolivia as a monopoly provider, fooling both the general and the CIA. 007 blows them up and the dam giving water back to the people. And then the movie ends with Bond confronting the agent that lured Vesper Lynd to betray him in Casino Royale and taking him alive.

I like this story. It's smart enough to get that oil isn't fought over more, but water is a new conflict resource, and people needs water. I might find it interesting since I studied American Foreign Policy in the US and it was brought up, conflict due to natural resources like water. Is the Israel-Palestinian conflict still religious, or is it due to who controls the water of the Jordan river? What happens when Sudan decides that it will block the Nile for their own electrical consumption that will make the Nile canal in Egypt worthless? Climate change, Scandinavium stands to be winner with a bit better warmer climate, but we already notice that we might have to think about conserving water since the changed weather patterns creates droughts (even in my own region). Might also be fun in that it pokes fun on the Americans, not only that they are so focused on oil that they miss the water, the bad guys take everything in euros since the dollar isn't what it used to be. That's a reference that the dollar plummeted in value probably around 2006 to be able to make it into the movie until the economic crash of 2008 in September. I mean, you could get a $ 1 for almost less than 6 SEK, it hasn't been that low since 1992 when the Krona was pegged to 5 SEK per dollar (we got used to at least 10 SEK per $ before and now it hovers around 8-9 SEK per $). It was a really great time being in the US with that dollar, but people was a bit scarred when it suddenly rushed up after the crash.

I still like it, it has forward looking plot, a shadowy organisation behind it all and it works rather well.