'Black Bag' Abounds with Birds & Bond
04/15/2025
One of my favorite experts on movies and 007 is Jamie Skinner from Down Under, who keeps me abreast of things Bond. Here's his latest -- definitely worth a read.
It stars two James Bond film alumni, Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris, and two actors who have at different times been considered to play Agent 007, Michael Fassbender and Regé-Jean Page.
Doing press for the film, actress Cate Blanchett made a reference worthy of the "real" James Bond, comparing this spy movie's director, Steven Soderbergh, to a peregrine falcon because “his frame rate operates at an entirely different speed to everybody else’s.”
Interesting to note also is that the MacGuffin in Black Bag is a lethal malware called "Severus" and there is actually a species of falcon called Falco severus, perhaps more commonly known as an Oriental hobby.
Co-star Michael Fassbender also said of Soderbergh: “He is like a sharp-sighted bird. When he walks into a room, he clocks everything.” The favorite catch-phrase of his George Woodhouse character in the film, which is also his mantra, is: "I don't like liars" - but he doesn't mean Lyrebirds though.
And these aren't just the only bird references. When the film debuted, Blanchett and her co-star in the film, Tom Burke, were starring in a six-week London stage play production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" (1895-1896) at the Barbican.
In Black Bag, look out for a flying drone camera shot of an attack on a vehicle with villains in it. The camera swoops down from the sky like a bird of prey, perhaps even like a peregrine falcon or Falco severus - and it really is all seen from a view to a kill. You can see a lot of this scene in the trailer below.
So remember. The name's Bag. Black Bag.
It's still playing in theaters and is also now available to view on VOD/PVOD in the USA.
[trailer]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=