MI6 agents James Bond
and Eve attempt to recover a stolen computer hard drive containing
details of agents placed undercover in terrorist organisations by NATO
states. As they chase the mercenary Patrice, who killed MI6 agents to
steal the drive, Patrice shoots Bond in the shoulder. As the two men
fight, Eve accidentally shoots Bond, allowing Patrice to escape. Bond
goes missing, presumed dead.
The head of MI6, M, comes under political pressure to retire during a meeting with the Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory. On her return from the meeting, MI6's servers are breached and the offices
are blown up, killing a number of employees; the service relocates to
its emergency offices underground. Bond, having used his supposed death
to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London.
As a condition of
his return to active duty, Bond must pass a series of physical and
psychological examinations. He fails, but M approves his return to the
field regardless. Shrapnel taken from a shoulder wound helps identify Patrice, and Bond tracks the mercenary to Shanghai, where Patrice is planning an assassination. After Patrice kills his target, he and Bond fight. Patrice falls to
his death before Bond can learn of his employer.
Searching Patrice's
equipment, Bond finds a gambling chip intended as payment for the assassination, which leads him to a casino in Macau.
Sévérine, whom Bond witnessed as part of the assassination, warns him
that he is about to be killed, but promises to help him if he will kill
her employer. Bond beats his attackers and joins Sévérine on her boat.
They travel to an abandoned island, where they are taken prisoner by the
crew and delivered to Sévérine's employer, Raoul Silva. A former MI6
agent who had previously worked under M, Silva holds her responsible for
his torture and imprisonment by Chinese security forces. Silva kills
Sévérine, but Bond overpowers his guards and captures Silva for
extraction to Britain.
Back at MI6's underground headquarters, Q
attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop, but inadvertently enables it to
access the MI6 systems, allowing Silva to escape. Pursued by Bond, he
uses the tunnel system under London—including part of the London Underground—as part of his plan to kill M as revenge for betraying him to the Chinese. Silva attacks M during a public inquiry
into her handling of the stolen hard drive. Bond arrives to join
Mallory and Eve in beating off Silva's attack, and M is hurried from the
building by her aide, Bill Tanner.
Bond drives M away from the scene and takes her to Skyfall, his
childhood home in Scotland. He instructs Q to leave an electronic trail
for Silva to follow, a decision supported by Mallory. Bond and M are met by Kincade, the gamekeeper to the Bond family estate. The trio are only lightly armed, but they improvise a series of booby traps
throughout the house. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M and Kincade
fight off the first assault, although M is wounded. Silva arrives by
helicopter with a second wave, and Bond sends M and Kincade off through a
secret tunnel at the back of a priest hole to a chapel on the grounds. The second assault uses firepower from the helicopter, and Silva throws incendiary grenades
into the building. Bond detonates two gas canisters with a stick of
dynamite and retreats down the same tunnel as M and Kincade. The
resulting blast causes the helicopter to crash, destroying the house and
killing most of Silva's men. Silva spots Kincade's torch beam and
follows, meeting Bond on a frozen lake. Bond fights Silva's sole
remaining follower, and the two fall through the ice, where Bond kills
him. Silva meanwhile makes his way to the chapel and forces his gun into
M's hand where he begs her to kill them both. Bond arrives and kills
Silva, but M collapses from her earlier wound and dies.
Mallory becomes
the new head of MI6 and assumes the title of M, while Eve—introducing
herself as Eve Moneypenny—decides not to return to the field as an agent, but to work as M's secretary.
