Raoul Silva : They would fall into the drum. And after a month, you have trapped all the rats, but what do you do then? Throw the drum into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it and they begin to get hungry. And one by one...
Profiler: Gun Bond: Shot Profiler: Heart Bond: Target Profiler: M Bond: Bitch Profiler: Sunlight Bond: Swim Profiler: Moonlight Bond: Dance Profiler: Murder Bond: Employment Profiler: Skyfall... [pause] Skyfall Bond: Done... Mallory: Well, this is going well.
007 Sky Fall Script.pdf
"Skyfall" is a song recorded by English singer Adele for the James Bond film of the same name. It was written by Adele and producer Paul Epworth and features orchestration by J. A. C. Redford. British film production company Eon Productions invited the singer to work on the theme song in early 2011, a task that Adele accepted after reading the film's script. While composing the song, Adele and Epworth aimed to capture the mood and style of the other Bond themes, including dark and moody lyrics descriptive of the film's plot. "Skyfall" was released at 0:07 BST on 5 October 2012 as part of the Global James Bond Day, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film.
"Skyfall" received universal acclaim, with praise for its lyrics, production and Adele's vocal performance, with numerous music critics and publications ranking it amongst the best Bond themes. The song was a global success, topping the charts in eleven countries and reaching the top five in various other regions. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100. With sales of 7.2 million copies worldwide, "Skyfall" is one of the best selling digital singles of all time.
"Skyfall" received various accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, Brit Award for British Single, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, thus making it the first Bond theme to win all the aforementioned awards. During the 85th Academy Awards, Adele performed the song live for the first time.
In early 2011, Sony Pictures President of Music Lia Vollack suggested to the James Bond film producers at Eon Productions that they ask Adele to record a theme song for their next Bond film, later revealed to be titled Skyfall.[1] Vollack thought that Adele would be a good choice to ask to record a Bond theme song because her music had a "soulful, haunting, evocative quality", which Vollack considered would bring back the "classic Shirley Bassey feel" associated with several early Bond films.[2]
Adele, who had just released her second album, 21, admitted that initially she was a "little hesitant" about agreeing to write a Bond theme song.[3] On meeting with the Skyfall film crew, the singer had told Skyfall director Sam Mendes that she felt as though she was not the person they were looking for because "my songs are personal, I write from the heart".[4] Mendes simply replied "just write a personal song", telling her to use Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me as an inspiration.[5] Adele left the meeting with the script of Skyfall and upon reading it, decided that it was a "no-brainer", as she "fell in love" with the film's plot. Producer Paul Epworth, who had worked with Adele on 21, was brought in to help her write the song.[3][4] Adele stated that she enjoyed working to a brief and set of guidelines, even though it was something she had never done before.[6]
Production of "Skyfall", from the first contact with Adele to the song's release, took 18 months to complete. Vollack stated that the reason for this was "fine-tuning" the song, as Adele and Epworth wanted to ensure that they "were getting it right".[7] The first cut of the song was completed in October 2011. During an interview at their post-Academy Award for Best Original Song win in February 2013, Adele revealed that the first draft of the song was written in 10 minutes.[8][9] After Adele underwent throat microsurgery for vocal problems, she recorded a demo of the track and sent it to Mendes, who was doing the principal photography of Skyfall. The director in turn played the demo for film producer Barbara Broccoli and Bond actor Daniel Craig, both of whom "shed a tear".[4] Adele stated that the final cut of the song lasted two studio sessions at Abbey Road Studios in London.[8] It features a 77-piece orchestra conducted by J. A. C. Redford.[10]
"Skyfall" is an orchestral pop song with a duration of four minutes and 46 seconds.[6][11] Epworth stated that although "Skyfall" is an original composition, he and Adele had worked to capture "the James Bond feeling" of previous theme songs. The song intentionally references Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" after the first chorus.[3] Norman said that the song had his seal of approval and that including the leitmotif he wrote for the Bond character was "a pretty sensible thing to do, if you want to feel the 'James Bond quality' of the music".[3] Epworth said that while "Skyfall" was his first experience writing film music, he had been involved with the production of James Bond music before: while Epworth was a tape operator at AIR Studios, he recorded some film soundtracks including David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies.[12][13]
Epworth stated that the producers' request was for "a dramatic ballad", so he and Adele tried to "do something that was simultaneously dark and final, like a funeral, and to try and turn it into something that was not final. A sense of death and rebirth".[9] Epworth watched the first thirteen Bond films seeking the "musical code" of the songs, "whatever the modal structure or the chord that always seemed to unify those songs" and contributed to the mood and "that kind of '60s jazzy quality". Epworth identified as a uniting factor "a minor ninth as the harmonic code ... the Bond songs, they have that elaboration to it" and wrote what would become the instrumental part of "Skyfall".[9] He described it as "a bit of a 'Eureka!' moment".[9][14]
"Skyfall" was composed in the key of C minor using common time at 75 beats per minute (Adagietto).[15] Adele's vocal range spans over one octave, from the low note of G3 to the high note of C5, on the song.[15] Heavily pregnant at the time of recording, Adele has commented that this was the reason for the song's low range, and has often struggled to perform the song live due to the lower register.[16] The lyrics closely follow the plot of the film rather than focusing on romanticism.[3][8] According to Epworth, the song is about "death and rebirth", saying "It's like, when the world ends and everything comes down around your ears, if you've got each other's back, you can conquer anything. From death to triumph, that was definitely something we set out to try and capture".[2] The Daily Telegraph writer Neil McCormick described the lyrics as "slightly sinister" and containing references to a number of Bond tropes and motifs.[17]
The theme song, and the identity of its singer, was kept secret, but rumours of Adele's involvement still emerged. Adele first mentioned recording a "special project" in September 2011 in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, leading to speculation in the media that she was recording a Bond theme.[18] In an interview with NRJ in April 2012, the singer stated that she intended to release a new single by the end of the year; however, it would not be preceding a new album.[19] The song's title was originally rumoured to be "Let the Sky Fall".[20] In September 2012, OneRepublic vocalist Ryan Tedder posted a message on Twitter claiming he had heard the title track and that it was "the best James Bond theme in his lifetime". Adele's publicist, Paul Moss, mentioned the song on his Twitter feed; both later deleted their messages.[21] The artwork for the song was leaked online,[22] but Adele's involvement in the project was not officially confirmed until 1 October.[23] "Skyfall" was released at 0:07 BST on 5 October 2012 as part of the "Global James Bond Day", celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film.[24] A 12-inch single featuring unofficial remixes of the song was sold in Germany to promote the song.[25][26]
The song was not included on the soundtrack album, marking the second time in the Bond series that the theme song was split from the soundtrack album, following "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale in 2006.[27] Wilson and Broccoli still asked composer Thomas Newman to include a reference to "Skyfall" in the film's score "so that it didn't appear as a kind of 'one off' at the top of the movie". Newman opted to include an interpolation in the track "Komodo Dragon", used in a scene where Bond enters a casino in Macau. According to Newman, the scene had "a real moment of 'Bond' swagger", and the music fit the scene accordingly.[28][29] Epworth was visited by Newman for advice, and Redford, who was already doing the score's orchestration, was requested to arrange "Komodo Dragon"; Newman was unable to do the arrangement because he felt that his task "was already so huge and daunting".[28]
"Skyfall" received widespread critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly wrote that there is "finally" a great James Bond theme.[30] The Huffington Post described the song as a "brassy and soulful tune [that] fits perfectly alongside the work of Shirley Bassey in the oeuvre of James Bond title tracks".[31] RedEye gave the song four out of four stars and declared that it "is a return to form, and if it doesn't get you hyped for the movie, you're not a Bond fan".[32] The Daily Record named "Skyfall" its "Single of the Week" and gave the song five stars out of five.[33] PopCrush gave the song four-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "wholly satisfying and worth the wait".[34] Idolator wrote that "during the song's final third, Adele does, in fact, make the sky fall, in typical Adele fashion".[35] Consequence of Sound commented that "rousing instrumentation elevates the vocals to soaring heights",[36] while HitFix called the song a "majestic ballad" and a "classic James Bond theme".[37] Newsday was also very positive, writing that "Skyfall" is "unlike anything else she's done in her young career. It's self-assured and grand, drawing inspiration from Dame Shirley Bassey, while adding her own powerful phrasing to make it her own. Adele's style so far has been to downplay her massive voice with lyrics that are questioning and self-deprecating. On 'Skyfall,' though, it sounds like the diva point of view suits her, too".[38] 2ff7e9595c
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