Skyfall
10th Anniversary 2012-2022

The first footage from Skyfall was seen in the teaser trailer released on May 21, 2012. A shot of Bond running through a London park did not make it into the finished film. The teaser trailer gave the first indication that Skyfall was going to be something different to earlier Bond films. Although there were spectacular shots of Shanghai and Istanbul, it was clear that London was going to feature heavily in the film.

The nation’s capital would become the focus of world attention as the city hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony took place on the evening of Friday July 27, 2012, in the Olympic Stadium, where the Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. In a spectacular four-hour opening ceremony televised live across the globe to an estimated 900-million viewers, the focus on everything great about Great Britain was showcased in a pageant directed by Academy Award-winning British film maker Danny Boyle. In a 6-minute filmed segment entitled ‘Happy & Glorious’ the character of James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) is seen entering the front gates of Buckingham Palace in a black London taxi cab. Bond is escorted to meet Queen Elizabeth II (who played herself), acknowledging him with the words, “Good evening, Mr Bond” - apparently included by the Monarch herself. The pair then appear to climb into a waiting helicopter and fly across London, with shots of cheering crowds on The Mall, Trafalgar Square, the Palace of Westminster (with an animated Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square), and over the Thames past the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral, and the financial district the City of London. The helicopter then passes through Tower Bridge with the whole sequence accompanied by ‘The Dambusters March’ in a blatant display of British patriotism.

The film finishes with Bond and the Queen apparently jumping from a real helicopter live above the stadium, accompanied by the ‘James Bond Theme’, both with Union Jack parachutes identical to the one seen in the pre-credit sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - 1977 was the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. By the time The Spy Who Loved Me was released, the country was already in the grip of national patriotism on a scale not seen since the end of World War II, and a similar feeling was now awaiting the release of Skyfall.

The title song ‘Skyfall’ (co-written by Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth) performed by Adele, was released on Friday October 5th at 0:07 BST/London time. The day had been designated ‘Global James Bond Day’, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the first James Bond film Dr. No in London. ‘Skyfall’ ultimately reached number 2 in the UK singles chart to become the highest charting song of the series (along with ‘A View To A Kill’ by Duran Duran) to that date. October 5, 2012 also saw the release of the documentary film Everything Or Nothing: The Untold Story of James Bond in selected ODEON cinemas in the UK. The 98-minute documentary was a refreshingly candid account of the history of the world's greatest film franchise, and featured exclusive new interviews with James Bond actors George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig - as well as unprecedented access to EON Productions’ extensive archive of behind-the-scenes material. Sean Connery appeared in archive footage.

Skyfall had its Royal World Charity Premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday October 23, 2012. With the exception of Albert Finney (who plays Kincade), all the leading players in Skyfall attended the premiere. Like Die Another Day, which also had its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall a decade earlier, Skyfall was similarly graced with the presence of a number of James Bond alumni including Sir Christopher Lee (Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun), Colin Salmon (Charles Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day), Minnie Driver (Irina in GoldenEye), five-time James Bond director John Glen, Stunt co-ordinator & 2nd Unit Director Vic Armstrong, and Special Effects supervisor Chris Corbould. In addition to the behind-the-scenes talent in attendance were four-time Miss Moneypenny, Samantha Bond, and a quartet of former Bond Girls dating back to the very first James Bond film. Eunice Gayson (Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia With Love), Shirley Eaton (Jill Masterson in Goldfinger), Maryam d'Abo (Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights) and Caterina Murino (Solange in Casino Royale) all appeared on the red carpet before joining the 5000+ attendees inside the historic concert hall in South Kensington. Skyfall then transferred to the ODEON Leicester Square (below right) from Wednesday October 24, 2012, where it played for six weeks. Skyfall then opened at 587 cinemas across the country on Friday October 26th, going on to take a staggering £102-million at the box office to then become the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK.

On February 23, 2013, Adele won the Oscar for Best Original Song for ‘Skyfall’, the first Academy Award presented to a James Bond film in 47 years. Skyfall was also joint winner in the sound editing category (a rare tie shared with Zero Dark Thirty), with the award being presented to Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers. Since its release Skyfall has gone on to take over $1.1 billion at the global box-office, making it the most commercially successful film of the franchise when not adjusted for inflation - Thunderball (1965) still holds that record.

Skyfall consolidated Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond after Quantum of Solace (2008), and was followed by the equally disappointing Spectre (2015). Skyfall befitted from having an excellent script, a talented ensemble cast, and an overall feel that has not been replicated in the 10 years since its release. With Craig’s final Bond film No Time To Die (2021) dividing fans and critics alike, Skyfall was generally well-received and brought a whole new audience to a franchise that was then half-a-century old, but also benefitting greatly by being released during Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, and capturing the zeitgeist of the nation at the time, with its mood of nostalgia and re-invention.

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