Skyfall’s inspiration
Before home video, James Bond fans enjoyed double features of re-released 007 movies.
In 2013, thanks to said home video, you can create your own double and triple features. One appropriate double bill is 2008’s The Dark Knight and 2012’s Skyfall, which is available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download in the U.S.
First of all, Skyfall director Sam Mendes has said The Dark Knight was an inspiration in Skyfall’s development and he spoke admirably about director Christopher Nolan’s work on the 2008 film. Watching the two films back to back, Mendes certainly wasn’t kidding. While the two movies aren’t clones of each other, there are certainly a number of similarities:
The Dark Knight: The Joker has a complicated plan that relies on him being captured.
Skyfall: Villain Silva has a complicated plan that relies on him being captured.
The Dark Knight: A Hong Kong sequence has a darkly photographed action sequence in the foreground contrasted with bright exterior lights in the background as Batman (Christain Bale) captures a Chinese businessman-criminal who is laundering money for Gotham City’s mobs.
Skyfall: A Shanghai sequence has a darkly photographed action sequence in the foreground contrasted with bright exterior lights in the background as Bond (Daniel Craig) fights with an assassin.
The Dark Knight: The score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard is often dark and foreboding, matching much of the mood of the film.
Skyfall: The score by Thomas Newman is often dark and foreboding, matching much of the mood of the film.
Silva attacks Wayne Skyfall Manor Lodge
The Dark Knight: Harvey Dent, transformed by the Joker into Two Face, considers committing suicide.
Skyfall: Silva considers committee suicide. In his case, he wants M (Judi Dench) to pull the trigger so they both die.
The Dark Knight: The Joker at times has a tenuous, at best, hold on reality.
Skyfall: Silva at times has a tenuous, at best, hold on reality.
The Dark Knight: Two Face has a facial deformity.
Skyfall: Silva has a facial deformity, though his is disguised most of the time.
It should be noted that Nolan evokes an early Bond movie in his 2008 movie. In the aforementioned Hong Kong action scene, Batman makes his escape with his prisoner by being reeled into a plane, similar to the way Bond and Domino were hoisted into an aircraft at the end of 1965’s Thunderball. Nolan even reworks the idea in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, except villain Bane is reeled into a plane after abducting a scientist.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 23, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Daniel Craig, Hans Zimmer, Heath Ledger, James Bond Films, James Newton Howard, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Sam Mendes, Silva, Silva's similarities to the Joker and Two Face, Skyfall, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Joker, Thomas Newman, Thunderball, Two Face |
The Spy Command 
The DKR sequence you describe is more like LTK pre-credits on a larger scale. The TB, DK and The Green Berets sequences are based upon the Fulton Surface to Air Recovery system, which was also known as Skyhook. I view both sequences in the new Batman films as homages to Bond, for which Nolan has expressed admiration.
[…] The story is less that definitive. There’s a later line that says, “But as one of my Bond experts commented: ‘It does no harm for Broccoli and Wilson to talk with Nolan, even if nothing happens this time round.’” Still, Skyfall director Sam Mendes commented how his 007 film was inspired by Nolan’s 2008 The Dark Knight and there are similarities between the two films. […]
[…] Skyfall was Nolan-lite: Mendes, during Skyfall’s production, acknowledged The Dark Knight (the second of Nolan’s trilogy) was an inspiration for Skyfall. As a result, there are a number of similarities. […]