Introduction: 

Casino Royale (2006) is the 21st film in the James Bond series and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis and directed by Martin Campbell. It is the third screen adaptation of the Casino Royale novel, which was previously produced as a 1954 television episode and a 1967 satirical film. However, the 2006 film is the only EON Productions adaptation of Fleming’s novel. It is a reboot of the Bond franchise, establishing a new timeline and narrative framework not meant to precede any previous film. This not only frees the Bond franchise from more than forty years of continuity to maintain, but allows the film to show a less experienced and more vulnerable Bond. The film is set at the beginning of James Bond’s career as Agent 007, having earned his license to kill. After preventing a terrorist attack at the Miami Airport, Bond falls for Vesper Lynd, the treasury agent assigned to provide the money he needs to foil a high-stakes poker tournament organized by Le Chiffre.

In the opening sequence, James Bond is on a mission that, if successful, will qualify him for double-0 status. He goes to Prague and kills an MI6 section chief, Dryden, who has leaked classified information, and his ally, Fisher. Elsewhere, Mr. White serves as a middleman introducing a banker, Le Chiffre, to a guerrilla group seeking a safe haven for its funds. Le Chiffre assures them that there is “no risk in the portfolio”, but his investments actually involve considerable risk: he buys shorts on successful companies and then engineers terrorist attacks to sink their stock values.