Quantum of Confusion

Mike and I just returned from watching the latest James Bond movie called 'Quantum of Solace'. Spoiler alert: Please do not read further if you do not want to know what happened in the movie as I try to describe what occurred. You will have to excuse me, though, because I get a little confused by all the dialogue and action in any such movie.

The opening sequence begins with a fantastic car chase between black, expensive cars crashing into each other on a narrow, winding Italian roadway. Bond ends up under some horse track and we see him open up the trunk and someone who is supposed to be familiar to us comes out. His hostage is questioned, but then the hostage gets away because one of the Bond MI6 secret service agents helps the hostage to get away.

Bond ends up getting the traitor agent in a fight among church bells and they somehow end up chasing and shooting each other on the horse track. Bond gets the guy, much to his boss 'M's' anger, because he was not supposed to kill him. But Bond proceeds to anger M many, many times throughout the movie by killing people he shouldn't. So it turns out that the traitor agent was carrying some strange $100 bill (maybe it was a $5 or a $20 bill) and through technical wizardry and out-of-this-world computer screen holograms, they somehow trace the bill to somebody in Haiti.

Off Bond goes to Haiti to track down another guy who has the same kind of dollars, and he ends up killing him, but then he intercepts this now dead guy's briefcase and decides to walk on the street outside the hotel and see what happens. Out of nowhere a gal pulls up and tells Bond to get in. He does so, but she thinks he's really the dead guy (a geologist). And then Bond realizes he (or the dead guy) was going to kill this gal because of what is in the briefcase, and of course she finds out and gets understandably mad. But then she goes to her boyfriend while Bond waits on the other side of a fishing dock. Through some other technical sleight of hand and a GPS phone he is able to trace where he is.

Then the gal goes on a boat because her boyfriend send her off with some military bigwig from South America, but then Bond rescues her. We find out the boyfriend is some environmental guy trying to take over the world or something.

Then Bond leaves the gal behind and flies off to somewhere in Europe to a fancy black tie opera affair (I believe it was 'Tosca'), and somehow he retrieves this super secret headset and overhears the onlookers, including Mr. Environmental and some talking to each other from various spots in the audience (they have high levels of concentration) about the top secret plot while they watch the opera. Bond breaks their conversation, and as the men panic, Bond takes their pictures as they rise from their seats. Again, through the magic of technical stuff, sha-zam!, the MI6 get all the photos and discover who the men are.

Lots of flying back and forth between the two continents occurs and then Bond meets up with the girlfriend from Haiti, only this time they meet up Mr. Environmental in South America.

This is where I got really lost. It seems that Mr. Environmental wants seemingly barren desert lands in exchange for helping to prop up powerful men, and in those desert lands we find he and his cohorts are sucking up all the water. That's right, he's trapping the water like a beaver! And so all the poor will prop up the dictator that somehow Mr. Environmental is helping to prop up- what does it mean to 'prop up' anyway?- but I don't really think they know why he wants that desert land to himself. Bond finds out during an airplane chase with the bad guys when he crash lands near a huge dammed up lake. And then at some point there are two American CIA agents in the mix, but I am not sure what they are doing -- it seems it was implied that the Americans were there to prop up somebody like what usually happens. But the bad guys no longer want dollars, and they want everything in Euros! Then the mean military junta guy we met in Haiti is made to sign a contract with Mr. Environmental stating that 60% of the utilities of the country will come from Mr. Environmental's company.

In the meantime, 'M' is mad at Bond because he keeps killing guys (he calls them 'dead ends') and she thinks he is trying to get revenge (something having to do with the previous movie and a love interest, I think). So at one point she cuts off his credit card and passport, and somehow the consulate is notified. It seems M does not trust Bond at this point. Then Bond has an old enemy-buddy help him back to South America to get to Mr. Environmental.

I hate it when I lose my concentration in such a movie...you miss one line in an action movie and you've missed a crucial part. I knew not to ask Mike what was going on as I noticed his confused pondering slouch in his seat. I do not even know if I could have better understood this movie if there had been English subtitles. I do not know if I could have understood this movie if there had been English subtitles and American accents. The action and music were really fine, though. I'll take the movie and action of a Bond film any day.

My confusion was the same in such movies as 'Pirates of the Carribean' and 'Mission Impossible'. I walked out of the movie knowing that I had been entertained, but not understanding the plot. It's sort of like taking a roller coaster ride, I guess. I think I've been entertained, but then I wonder why the heck I was when all I wanted to do was vomit over the side of the car and squeeze my eyes shut the whole time.

Yaya and Grandpa stayed with the boys and they ate pizza.