SPECTRE – FIRST ACT – PART 1 (MEXICO & LONDON)
James Bond (Daniel Craig) goes to Mexico City during the Day of Death festival to pursue an Italian contract assassin named Marco Sciarra. This is all done without his boss, Mallory's (Ralph Fiennes) authority and at this point, nobody but him knows what he's exactly doing. Sciarra is plotting to explode a crowded stadium with a bomb hidden in his briefcase. Bond has however devised a plan to snipe Sciarra, but he misses his target and shoots the briefcase instead, exploding half a block.
Sciarra emerges from the ruins alive and rushes to the city square to escape via a helicopter. Bond chases him through the crowded streets and jumps into the helicopter. He engages in an intense hand-to-hand combat with Sciarra inside a hovering helicopter and manages to throw out the Italian and the helicopter's driver to their death. As he steers the helicopter away from the crowd, he smirks contently as he analyzes the ring that he steals from Sciarra's hand. The ring has a unique octopus insignia on it. Bond hasn't seen it before but it seems like a really great clue to few mysteries that have been haunting him.
Back in London, his rogue 'mission' is of course not appreciated at all by Mallory. It turns out Bond's actions Bond is unwilling to tell the truth to Mallory and evades his boss' questioning. Mallory, feeling that Bond has breached his authority and not respected him, declare that Bond is grounded. 007 can't care less. On his way out of the office, he is also introduced to the new head of the Joint Secret Service, Max Denbigh aka 'C' (Andrew Scott). C briefly explains his plan to bring British secret service 'out of the Dark Ages', much to Mallory's displeasure.
Mallory's secretary, Moneypenny (Naomi Harris), visits Bond at his apartment that night to deliver a package, personal effects left from the ruins of Skyfall Lodge. Bond shows her a video recording of the former M, instructing Bond to kill Marco Sciarra and attend his funeral. Moneypenny is left stunned, asking Bond why the deceased M would order such thing. Bond explains that M and he had secretly discovered a potential link between the cyber terrorism attack on MI6 (Skyfall) and the Quantum organization (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace). Marco Sciarra is a known associate of Raoul Silva (the antagonist of Skyfall) and a middleman between Silva and the institutions that funded his terrorist attacks. The deceased M figured out that killing Sciarra would provoke a reaction among his bosses and give Bond a chance to infiltrate.
This explanation convinces Moneypenny to help Bond in his investigation, but Bond refuses to tell Moneypenny further about what speculations he has from the ring. The secretary leaves the apartment, and Bond is left alone with the package. He opens a half-burnt envelope revealing an Order of Temporary Guardianship letter and a damaged photo. Bond recognizes the happy blue-eyed face there and smiles. Next to that blue-eyed face is a tall figure, somebody that Bond has always acknowledged as his 'second father'. There is a third person whose face is cut out since the photo is half burnt. Bond decides not to think further about this and goes to sleep.
The next morning, Bond and MI6's Chief-of-Staff, Bill Tanner (Rory Kinear) is heading towards the MI6 Quartermaster office on boat. Throughout their cruise on Thames, Tanner explains how there is a major political shift among British intelligence with the emergence of C and his global intelligence plan. C campaigns for a privately-funded, joint international intelligence body relying on global surveillance scheme and drones, which the old-fashioned Mallory sees as 'Orwellian'. Moreover, Bond's reckless actions in Mexico don't help Mallory to help his cause. Tanner informs Bond that Mallory is occupied with a Tokyo conference in next few days, where major powers will vote whether they support C's scheme. Recent terrorist attacks in Madrid and Tunisia have prompted these countries to seriously consider global surveillance to combat terrorism. The two looks grimly at the old MI6 headquarter, derelict since Silva's attack, and the brand new C's headquarter.
At the Quartermaster office, Bond is greeted by the quartermaster Q (Ben Whishaw), a young computer genius who is constantly stressed by Bond's actions. Q plants a nano tracking device inside Bond's body without telling the secret agent so that MI6 can track his movement 'as a part of Mexico insurance policy'. The quartermaster adds more to Bond's frown when he displays his new project, the lavish Aston Martin DB10 'with all the usual tricks' only to tell Bond that the car has been reassigned to 009. Bond can only grumble when he receives a new Omega watch as his only 'present' from Q. 'The alarm is rather loud, if you know what I mean,' quips Q.
Nonetheless, Bond is not Bond without taking a bold gambit against the authority. He implores Q to make him 'disappear' because he has a very important lead that can discover who's behind Silva. 'Let's say, we can make the score even between you two,' Bond remarks with a straight face, while showing the octopus ring to Q. Q, who was outwitted by Silva during the Skyfall episode, can't help but feeling provoked and curious. He takes the ring to a fingerprint scanning device and notices that there are many identified prints. Bond asks Q to identify these prints immediately. Seeing that Bond is indeed really into something big, Q relents. In front of Tanner, Q suddenly says loudly that the tracking device is still in development and it may not function well in the first 48 hours. Bond nods acknowledgingly, takes the octopus ring from the table and mentions 'I'll send you a postcard'. Q, with a worried face, flatly states, 'Please don't.'
The very next day, Moneypenny receives a present, a new smartphone with a note simply saying, 'Thank you, J'. Q checks into his office only to see the Aston Martin DB10 missing. There's only a bottle of brandy in the garage. The young quartermaster simply mutters, 'Shit'.