'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.
There's been no time to fly for a new Bond movie since 2021 and one not expected until about 2027, but there is a new English spy film out recently called Black Bag.
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.
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=