Casino Royale is the 21st James Bond film produced by EON Productions and the first to star Daniel Craig as British Secret Service agent James Bond. Based on the 1953 novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis and directed by Martin Campbell, director of the 1995 Bond film, GoldenEye. Despite initial controversy over Craig’s casting, his performance and the film received rave reviews.

This film marks the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, which was previously produced as a 1954 television episode and a 1967 film spoof. However, the 2006 release will be the only official EON Productions adaptation of Fleming’s novel. Casino Royale is the first official Bond film to be co-produced by Columbia Pictures, which had produced and originally distributed the 1967 non-canonical film version; this is the result of the 2005 Sony/Comcast consortium’s acquisition of MGM, parent company of Bond film series rights co-owner United Artists.

Plot summary: In Prague, James Bond earns his 00 status when he corners and kills corrupt MI6 section chief Dryden and his underground contact Fisher. In Uganda, Mr White arranges a meeting between a banker, Le Chiffre, and Steven Obanno, the leader of a guerrilla group seeking a safe haven for his funds. Le Chiffre assures the leader that there is “no risk in the portfolio”, but his investments actually involve considerable risk: he short sells successful companies and then profits by engineering terrorist attacks to sink their stock values.

In his first mission, Bond pursues an international bomb-maker Mollaka in Madagascar. After a parkour chase across the city to the Nambutu embassy, Bond kills his target and blows up a part of the embassy to enable his escape. He obtains Mollaka’s mobile phone and discovers that it has received an SMS from Alex Dimitrios, an associate of Le Chiffre in the Bahamas. Bond travels there, wins Dimitrios’s Aston Martin DB5 in a poker game, and seduces his wife, Solange Dimitrios, who reveals that her husband is flying to Miami on business. Bond travels there, kills Dimitrios, and foils Le Chiffre’s plan to destroy the prototype Skyfleet airliner. This leaves the banker with a major financial loss, since he had shorted and bought put options on Skyfleet stock, which then expired worthless.

Now under pressure to recoup his clients’ money, Le Chiffre sets up a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Hoping that a defeat would force Le Chiffre to aid the British government in exchange for protection from his creditors, MI6 enters Bond into the tournament. He meets up with René Mathis, his ally in Montenegro, and Vesper Lynd, an agent from HM Treasury, who is assigned to look after his handling of the government’s $10 million buy-in. As the tournament progresses, Le Chiffre tricks Bond into believing he is bluffing; when Bond goes all-in, he loses his initial stake. Vesper, who says his bet was reckless, refuses to give Bond additional funds to buy back into the tournament.

Distraught over his failure, Bond prepares to assassinate Le Chiffre when he is intercepted by one of the other players, who introduces himself as CIA officer Felix Leiter. Also out to get Le Chiffre, Leiter believes Bond has a better chance to win than himself and offers to supply him with enough funds to re-enter the tournament in exchange for allowing the CIA custody of Le Chiffre. In an effort to secure his win, Le Chiffre has Bond poisoned, and the spy goes into cardiac arrest. Vesper manages to save his life, and he goes back to the game.

Eva Green, Daniel Craig, and Caterina Murino.

Bond rapidly recoups his losses and wins the tournament with an inside draw to a straight flush. Following her celebratory dinner with Bond, Vesper is abducted by Le Chiffre, who uses her to lure Bond into a near-fatal car chase and ultimate capture. Le Chiffre strips Bond naked, ties his hands and feet to a chair, and tortures him for the access code to the game’s winnings by lashing his testicles. When it becomes clear that Bond will not yield, Le Chiffre prepares to castrate him. At that moment Mr White enters and executes Le Chiffre and his associates for their failure. Bond and Vesper are left alive.

Bond awakens in a hospital on Lake Como and orders the arrest of Mathis, who Le Chiffre said was a double agent. Bond admits his love for Vesper and vows to quit the service before it strips him of his humanity. Accordingly, he posts his resignation to M and goes on a romantic holiday in Venice with Vesper. However, Bond soon learns that his poker winnings were never deposited into the Treasury’s account. Realising that Vesper has stolen them, he pursues her into a building under renovation where she meets members of her organization. Bond shoots the flotation devices supporting the structure to gain access to the building, but as he does so the foundation starts to slowly collapse into the Grand Canal.

After killing the henchmen in the building, Bond finds Vesper imprisoned in a lift. Apologising to him tearfully, she locks herself inside as the lift plunges under the rising waters, where Vesper purposefully takes in water in an effort to drown more quickly. Bond dives in, breaks into the lift and pulls Vesper’s body onto the roof of the collapsed building, where Bond’s attempts to resuscitate her are in vain. Mr White, watching from a balcony, walks away with the money, somehow retrieved from the bottom of the canal.

M tells Bond that Vesper had a French-Algerian boyfriend who was abducted and held for ransom by the organization behind Le Chiffre and White. Bond learns that she agreed to deliver the ransom money (his winnings) only if they would consent to let Bond live. James discovers that Vesper has left Mr White’s name and number in her mobile phone for him to find. White, arriving at a palatial estate near Lake Como, receives a phone call. As he asks the identity of the caller, he is shot in the leg. Bond approaches, with a silenced UMP in hand, and replies, “The name’s Bond. James Bond.”

See also:

• Casino Royale: Film - Cast
• Casino Royale: Film - Crew
• Casino Royale: Film - Goofups
• Casino Royale: Film - Locations
• Casino Royale: Film - Soundtrack
• Casino Royale: Film - Trivia