MI6 agents James Bond and Eve Moneypenny pursue mercenary Patrice, who has stolen a hard drive containing details of undercover agents. As Bond and Patrice fight atop a train, M orders Moneypenny to shoot Patrice from long range. Moneypenny misses and inadvertently hits Bond, who falls into a river. Bond is presumed dead and Patrice escapes.

Three months later M comes under pressure from Gareth Mallory, the chairman of the British parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, to retire. MI6's servers are hacked and M receives a taunting computer message moments before the MI6 headquarters explode. Bond, who used his presumed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London. Although he fails a series of physical and psychological examinations, M approves his return to the field. Bond is ordered to identify Patrice's employer, recover the stolen hard drive, and kill Patrice. He meets Q, MI6's new quartermaster, who gives him a radio beacon and a Walther PPK pistol.

In Shanghai, Bond follows Patrice into a skyscraper but is unable to prevent him from killing a target. The two fight, but Patrice falls to his death before Bond can learn his employer's identity. Bond finds a casino token in Patrice's rifle case, which leads him to a casino in Macau. Bond is approached by Sévérine, Patrice's accomplice, and he asks to meet her employer. She warns him that he is about to be killed by her bodyguards, but promises to help Bond if he will kill her employer. Bond thwarts the attack and joins Sévérine on her yacht, where they have sex. They travel to an abandoned island off the coast of Macau where they are taken prisoner by the crew and delivered to Sévérine's employer, Raoul Silva. Silva, once an MI6 agent, has now turned to cyberterrorism and orchestrated the attack on MI6. Silva kills Sévérine, but Bond captures Silva for rendition to Britain.

At MI6's new underground headquarters, Q attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop. Q inadvertently gives the laptop access to the MI6 servers, which allows Silva to escape. Bond deduces that Silva wanted to be captured as part of a plan to kill M, whom he resents for disavowing him. Bond gives chase through the London Underground but loses Silva after a train crash. Silva attacks M during a public inquiry into her handling of the stolen hard drive but Bond arrives in time to repel the attack. M is saved from a bullet by Mallory and ends up in a car with Bond.

Bond and M travel to Skyfall, the Bond family estate in the Scottish Highlands. Bond instructs Q and Bill Tanner to leave an electronic trail for Silva to follow. Bond and M meet up with Skyfall's gamekeeper Kincade, and together the trio set up a series of booby traps throughout the house. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M, and Kincade manage to kill most of them. M is wounded, but conceals it from Bond and Kincade. Silva himself arrives by helicopter with more men and heavy weapons, so Bond sends M and Kincade off through a priest hole to a chapel on the grounds. As the house is destroyed Bond escapes down the same tunnel and heads toward the chapel.

Silva survives the destruction of the house and follows Kincade and M to the chapel. He forces his gun into M's hand and presses his temple to hers, begging her to kill them both. Bond arrives and kills Silva by throwing a knife into his back, but M succumbs to her wounds and dies in Bond's arms. Following M's funeral, Moneypenny formally introduces herself to Bond and tells him she is retiring from field work to become secretary for the newly appointed M. Bond is summoned to M's office and finds that Mallory is his new boss.

• Daniel Craig as James Bond, agent 007.
• Judi Dench as M, the head of MI6 and Bond's superior.
• Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva (born Tiago Rodriguez), an ex-MI6 operative-turned-cyberterrorist.
• Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee and former SAS Lieutenant Colonel.
• Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, an MI6 field agent.
• Bérénice Lim Marlohe as Sévérine, Raoul Silva's associate and mistress.
• Albert Finney as Kincade, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall estate.
• Ben Whishaw as Q, the MI6 quartermaster.
• Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, the MI6 Chief of Staff.
• Ola Rapace as Patrice, a mercenary under Silva's command.
• Helen McCrory as Clair Dowar, a British Member of Parliament (MP).
• Nicholas Woodeson as Doctor Hall, a psychologist of the MI6.

Development

Production of Skyfall was suspended throughout 2010 because of MGM's financial troubles. Preproduction resumed following MGM's exit from bankruptcy on 21 December 2010; in January 2011, the film was officially given a release date of 9 November 2012 by MGM and the Broccoli family, with production scheduled to start in late 2011. Subsequently, MGM and Sony Pictures announced that the UK release date would be brought forward to 26 October 2012, two weeks ahead of the US release date, which remained scheduled for 9 November 2012. The film's budget is estimated to have been between US$150 million and $200 million, compared to the $200 million spent on Quantum of Solace. Skyfall was part of year-long celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Dr. No and the Bond film series. According to producer Michael G. Wilson, a documentary crew was scheduled to follow production of the film to celebrate the anniversary.

Pre-production

After the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008, producer Barbara Broccoli commented that Skyfall, untitled at the time, may continue the plot of the Quantum organisation, introduced in Casino Royale and continued in Quantum of Solace.

In August 2011 the Serbian newspaper Blic stated that Bond 23 would be entitled Carte Blanche and would be an adaptation of the recent continuation novel by Jeffery Deaver. On 30 August Eon Productions officially denied any link between Bond 23 and Carte Blanche, stating that "the new film is not going to be called Carte Blanche and will have nothing to do with the Jeffery Deaver book". On 3 October 2011 15 domain names including 'jamesbond-skyfall.com' and 'skyfallthefilm.com' were reported to have been registered on behalf of MGM and Sony Pictures by Internet brand-protection service MarkMonitor. This led to supposition in the media that the film had been given the name "Skyfall". These reports were not confirmed at the time by Eon Productions, Sony or MGM. Skyfall was later confirmed as the title at a press conference on 3 November 2011, during which co-producer Barbara Broccoli said that the title "has some emotional context which will be revealed in the film". The title refers to the name of Bond's childhood home "Skyfall", and the setting for the film's finale.

Casting

The main cast of Skyfall was officially announced at a press conference held at the Corinthia Hotel in London on 3 November 2011, 50 years to the day after Sean Connery was announced to play James Bond in the film Dr. No. Daniel Craig returned as James Bond for the third time, saying he felt lucky to have the chance to appear as 007. Director Sam Mendes described Bond as experiencing a "combination of lassitude, boredom, depression difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living". Judi Dench returned as M for her seventh and final appearance in the role. Over the course of the film, M's ability to run MI6 is repeatedly called into question, culminating in a public inquiry into her running of the service.

Javier Bardem was cast as the film's principal villain, Raoul Silva, a cyberterrorist who is seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for betraying him. Bardem described Silva as "more than a villain", while Craig stated that Bond has a "very important relationship" to Silva. In casting the role, director Sam Mendes admitted that he lobbied hard for Bardem to accept the part. Mendes saw the potential for the character to be recognised as one of the most memorable characters in the series and wanted to create "something may consider to have been absent from the Bond movies for a long time". He felt that Bardem was one of the few actors up to the task of becoming "colourless" and existing within the world of the film as something more than a function of the plot. In preparing for the role, Bardem had the script translated into his native Spanish to better understand his character, which Mendes cited as being a sign of the actor's commitment to the film. Bardem dyed his hair blond for the role after brainstorming ideas with Mendes to come up with a distinct visual look for the character, which led some commentators to observe a similarity between the character and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Bérénice Marlohe was cast as Séverine, a character who had been saved from the Macau sex trade by Silva and now works as his representative. Marlohe described her character as being "glamorous and enigmatic", and that she drew inspiration from GoldenEye villain Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen) in playing Séverine.

Ralph Fiennes was cast as Gareth Mallory, a former lieutenant colonel in the British Army and now the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee,