Spectre 2015: Cast, Plot, Ending and Where to Watch

Spectre (2015), directed by Sam Mendes, follows James Bond as he chases a secret organization that links his past enemies together, starting from a final message left by the previous M. The film opens in Mexico City during the Day of the Dead festival, where Bond stops a bombing plot and takes a ring bearing an octopus design from a dead attacker. That ring is the first clue tying the attack to a hidden network.

Back in London, the current M suspends Bond for going off the books. At the same time, a rival named C pushes for a merger of the intelligence services and a global surveillance scheme, which puts the future of the 00 section in doubt. Bond ignores the suspension and, with quiet help from Moneypenny and Q, follows the trail to Rome. Everything after that point is covered in the full plot summary, which carries a spoiler warning.

In Spectre (2015), Bond follows a dead M's final message from Mexico City to Rome, Austria, Tangier and the Sahara, learns that the organization Spectre is led by his adoptive brother Franz Oberhauser, who now calls himself Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and stops the Nine Eyes surveillance scheme in London. In Mexico City he prevents a bombing during the Day of the Dead parade and takes the octopus ring from the attacker, Marco Sciarra. The current M suspends him, while C, the head of a newly merged intelligence service, pushes the Nine Eyes surveillance program and wants the 00 section closed.

Bond goes rogue and attends Sciarra's funeral in Rome, where he rescues the widow, Lucia Sciarra, from assassins. She tells him that Sciarra worked for a network run by Franz Oberhauser, a man believed dead for twenty years. Wearing the ring, Bond sneaks into a secret meeting of Spectre in Rome, is spotted, and escapes in an Aston Martin DB10 with the assassin Hinx chasing him.

Moneypenny helps Bond find Mr. White, a former Quantum member who is dying of poison in Austria. Mr. White asks Bond to protect his daughter, Madeleine Swann, and then takes his own life. Bond saves Madeleine Swann from Hinx's men, and she explains that the organization is called Spectre and that it was behind Bond's earlier enemies. She leads him to a hotel in Tangier, where a hidden room points to a base in the Sahara.

After they beat Hinx on the way, Oberhauser tells Bond that he is his adoptive brother, that he has taken the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and that he has used C to control Nine Eyes. Bond and Madeleine Swann escape and destroy the base, then return to London to stop the surveillance scheme. Q shuts Nine Eyes down, and C dies in a struggle with M. Bond is lured to the ruined old MI6 building, rescues Madeleine Swann as it collapses, and brings down Blofeld's helicopter, and M arrests Blofeld.

Spectre had its UK premiere on October 26, 2015, at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The UK release was also October 26, 2015, the US release followed on November 6, 2015, and the Australian release on November 13, 2015. All three release dates are reported rather than confirmed by a studio announcement. According to Euronews, the London event was the first Bond premiere to coincide with a nationwide opening in the UK and Ireland on the same day.

A regional premiere was also held in Mexico City, timed to the Day of the Dead holiday that the opening sequence is built around. The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia, with a runtime of 148 minutes.

On the numbers, Spectre earned $200 million domestic and $679 million international, for $879 million worldwide. That is about 3.6 times its $245 million budget. For the series comparison, see James Bond box office.

At the end of Spectre, M arrests Ernst Stavro Blofeld after his helicopter crashes, and Bond drives away from MI6 with Madeleine Swann in the restored Aston Martin DB5. Nine Eyes is stopped before it can go live, C is dead, and the plan to merge the services falls apart.

The sequence runs in a clear order. Q shuts Nine Eyes down from inside MI6, and C dies in a struggle with M, so the surveillance scheme is dismantled before Bond reaches the finale. Blofeld then lures Bond to the ruined old MI6 building. Bond rescues Madeleine as it collapses, then brings down Blofeld's helicopter over the Thames, the stretch near Westminster Bridge where the production shot its boat and helicopter scenes. Blofeld survives the crash, and M makes the arrest. Bond, who spent most of the film suspended and acting without orders, ends it by handing the villain to the service rather than killing him.

The closing choice is set up much earlier. In Austria, the dying Mr. White, a former Quantum member, asks Bond to protect his daughter, Madeleine Swann, and then takes his own life. Madeleine later tells Bond that Spectre stood behind his earlier enemies, which is how the film recasts the Quantum material from the preceding Daniel Craig films as one organization's work. When Bond walks away with her at the end, he honors that request and leaves a spy life that began, for this story, with a dead M's final message.

Was Spectre meant to be the last Bond film? No. No Time to Die followed as the 25th EON film. In my opinion, the ending reads as a farewell to Bond's old life rather than a promise of a final film: Blofeld in custody, not dead, leaves Spectre's leader alive and the organization a loose thread.

A comparison inside the series shows the choice. Among the 24 EON films before this one, Spectre is built around a villain who is captured instead of destroyed, and the film itself says that Spectre's leader is in custody rather than gone for good. The scale of the work behind the finale is documented: principal photography ran from December 2014 to July 2015 over 128 days, with the London river scenes among the last major locations in the schedule of English work alongside Pinewood Studios.

Spectre was filmed across Mexico, Italy, Austria, Morocco and England. The opening Day of the Dead sequence was shot in Mexico City around the Zócalo in March 2015.

In Rome, the crew filmed the funeral, the Tiber river car chase and scenes at the Roman Forum. Austria supplied the glacier, mountain and clinic scenes at Sölden and Lake Altaussee. In Morocco, the production used Oujda, Tangier and Erfoud. The Sahara base was shot at Gara Medouar, the train scenes were shot in Morocco, and the record explosion was staged in Erfoud.

London provided the Thames boat and helicopter scenes near Westminster Bridge. Studio work was done at Pinewood Studios.

Spectre was recognized by Guinness World Records for the largest film stunt explosion. It was staged in Erfoud, Morocco, with about 2,224 gallons of kerosene, according to NBC News.