It’s a classic scene. The broken lift, the sinking building, water rushing in to drown the trapped heroine.. The brave, almost superhuman spy dives in to save her, he tries to force the lift gate open, he shakes the bars, she reaches out to him but breathes in water, she drifts back. The gate finally gives, and the spy grabs her. He takes her to the surface and pulls her out of the water. He pumps on her chest twice, then goes to do mouth-to-mouth. It turns into a long, lingering, tear-filled kiss.
This is, of course, the tragic scene that concludes the action in Casino Royale, the first James Bond film I ever saw. It’s a touching moment to round off a classic spy romp, with dramatic torture, betrayal, poisonings, gadgets and a classic baddie (easily visible because of his medical problems, of course). It’s surprisingly emotional actually, especially taking into account the, um... numbness that often accompanies the character.
But something bothers me about this scene, the death of Vesper despite Bond trying to save her. She sends the lift down into the water, Bond is unable to break through in time to save her, and she drowns. Her guilt, coupled with the waters of Venice, kill her.
Or do they?
I think another, much stronger force is at play here. I’m going to break down this scene, and explain why the single thing most responsible for Vesper’s death is...
Bond himself.
I know, stick with me.
Let’s begin.
0:00 The lift hits the water, Vesper is submerged.
0:06 Bond dives in (a perfect swallow dive is very difficult to do, especially when you’re jumping head first in a swirling pool of broken metal and rubble. Don’t they teach “how to not smash your head in” in spy school?). Then, he swims to the lift, managing to avoid the rubble. Oh well, I suppose there can’t be that much really. Just a building worth.
0:13 Bond reaches the lift, which has stopped going down. How nice of it.
0:20 Vesper is shown to be staring defiantly at Bond from the other side of the lift. With her eyes wide open. Mine sting in sympathy. Like, if you’re dying, at least don’t die with your eyes glowing a painful red.
0:24 Bond is shaking the bars. I wonder if he’s ever tried opening one of those lifts. “shaking back and forth” is not the accepted technique. I normally place one hand on handle, and pull to the side, and I’ve never had any problems.
0:28 Vesper floats over and puts her hands over Bond’s. He stops trying to open the life. They stare into each other’s eyes (again, how they manage this without crying out in pain I don’t know)
0:39 Vesper “screams” (though no bubbles come out of her mouth) and is pulled by mysterious forces away from Bond.
0:41 Bond has gone back to “shouting and shaking” technique. They probably didn’t teach the whole “when under water, hold breath” thing in spy school either.
0:45 Vesper has now choked up the last of the air in her lungs. She goes back to screaming staring lovingly at Bond, shaking her head.
0:55 Vesper’s eyes close. She appears to lose consciousness
1:02 Bond realises that sliding doors slide sideways when force is applied, and the gate gives way. But not all the way, because drama.
1:19 Bond and Vesper emerge at the surface. Not quite sure whether he managed to figure out how gates worked, or if some of these mysterious “we’re underwater so anything goes” physics threw Vesper into his grasp. Also, notably Bond takes his first breath since being submerged at this point. Vesper does not.
1:25 Vesper and Bond are on land.
1:29 Bond looks for a pulse in Vesper’s throat. This is a big no in an emergency situation by the way, if someone isn’t breathing, you start CPR straight away, don’t waste time searching for pulses. 10 seconds to hear breaths, or they’re not breathing, and if their heart is beating now, it soon won’t be.
1:30 Bond puts his hands on Vesper’s chest. I won’t call what he is doing CPR, because he does it very, very wrong. If you want to know how to do CPR, google it. The first thing that comes up is a 2 minute Saint John ambulance video that shows you how to do it. Even better, get on a course if you can. If you have done this, you would know that when treating children or drowning victims, you always start with 5 rescue breaths. Bond clearly knows nothing about first aid at all.
So, he does 4 mediocre chest compressions, then two breaths. The only thing he does do right it look down at her chest to see if it’s rising and falling. 10 more compressions, this time the rescue breaths devolve into a long kiss.
But hey, CPR is always badly portrayed in films. So why does this one bother me so much?
Because, however I cut it, I’m pretty sure Vesper is very much alive when she is pulled out of the water.
Now, you could argue that I can’t know that, that editing and cuts make it impossible to tell exactly how long they were underwater. And I agree, it was shown as a little over one minute, but it could have been five.
Except.
Bond dived in 6 seconds after Vesper. Bond doesn’t come up for breath until Vesper does. If Vesper drowned, Bond must have too.
In the film, they make it clear that Vesper breathes in water pretty early on, and this is their explanation of this fact. But. They. Are. Wrong.
Let us assume that the instant Vesper hits the water, her heart stops. We know this doesn’t happen, even if she breathes in water her heart can carry on beating for a little while, but anyway. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
So the question is, how long can Vesper’s brain survive without any oxygen?
6 minutes.
6. minutes.
6 bloody...
No I’m sorry. Vesper was still alive when she was pulled out of the water. Her brain, the important bit, was still working. Well, either she was still alive or Bond should be dead, especially as he was expending much more oxygen than her trying to open the lift.
And normally, I wouldn’t care. But in this case, the death of Vesper becomes a major plot point in another film. Possibly the worst Bond film of all time. Yes, if Bond knew how to do CPR, we would have been spared the terror that is “quantum of solace”.
And that’s why all spies should be taught first aid.
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