Eve Moneypenny’s accidental sniper shot in Skyfall has been debunked by sniper expert Nicholas Irving. The third installment for Daniel Craig’s incarnation of James Bond saw 007 take on former MI6 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who holds a long-held grudge against Judi Dench’s M. In the movie’s cold open, Bond and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) chase a mercenary across Istanbul, where a dramatic fistfight on a moving train seemingly leads to Bond’s death when Moneypenny is pressured by M to take the shot.
While Skyfall‘s action-packed, dramatic Moneypenny introduction sequence is thrilling, sniper expert Irving opens up to Insider about how the climactic shot of the cold open doesn’t hold up to his own experiences. The expert not only states that Moneypenny’s weapon of choice and the terminology she used did not fit the scene’s situation, but also explained how the choice of location for Bond’s fistfight played a part in how successful the shot would have been. Check out Irving’s full breakdown below:
Absolutely not. She’s offhand, like there’s no support, it’s all muscling it in to make that shot. And that gun, the Olympic Arms K23B is what it is, that weapon is, like, literally accurate for like 50 meters. That distance looks like it’s about at most a couple of hundred yards, put it back in the case and go back and get a different one.
Yeah, I don’t think she had a clean shot at all. In the military, a clean shot would be- you’re not gonna wound or kill or injure something you don’t intend to. If her target is one of those two men, that bullet- y’know it’s a 5.56, it’s gonna zip right through the bad guy and potentially wound or kill the guy she’s trying to help out or save.
If I was forced to take the shot, I’ll pull the trigger but I’m not going to guarantee you anything. Luckily, the train does kind of like come towards her as opposed to moving left-to-right. That takes out so much more of the mathematics behind making a shot, when its moving close or away from you, it’s all about just aiming above the target or a little bit below the target as opposed to aiming in front of it, and having that individual essentially run into the bullet.
I would grade it a 1, like it’s just not happening at all.
Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny Is A Welcome Expansion On A Key James Bond Character
In a role that expanded on previous versions in other James Bond adventures, Harris’ Moneypenny plays a more active role this Bond’s story. While her failure in Istanbul sees her temporarily suspended from acting as a field officer, reassigning her to desk duty, she proves herself in combat once more when Silva launches an attack on M’s public inquiry by helping fight off the attackers. However, Moneypenny would once more take on a secretarial role under Ralph Fiennes’ new M later on.
Despite now working directly under M following Skyfall, Moneypenny remains a close confidant and ally to Bond throughout the remainder of Craig’s time in the role. Not only would Monneypenny disobey M’s orders to aid Bond, but she would ultimately join Q (Ben Whishaw), Nomi (Lashana Lynch), and Tanner (Rory Kinnear) in a final drink when Craig’s Bond meets his fate in No Time to Die, paying their respects to their fallen friend. As such, Harris’ Moneypenny is a welcome expansion on the character.
Despite Craig’s James Bond saga often being heralded as a more grounded take on 007, Irving’s step-by-step dismantling of one of Skyfall‘s most impactful moments shows that there were still liberties being taken. While the sequence provided higher stakes and set the tone of the 2012 sequel, the expert’s in-depth exploration is an informative insight into how a realistic approach to the sequence could be handled. Nevertheless, while it does bring Skyfall‘s potential realism into doubt, it is clear that the scene being selected for such an analysis highlights how iconic the moment has become.
