First, many thanks for the great responses. They are all much appreciated.
Broke out the 4K disc to check the scene, and it appears to me like a decision not to shoot, and not an inability to do so. The small movements around Bond’s mouth are what I am looking at, and the expression seems like the making and accepting of a decision, more than a realization of an inability.
Bond is haunted by many things, and this dysfunctional relationship of his youth is one of them. This relationship (on a narrative level) is the author of Bond’s pain, as he replicates the dysfunction when forming/trying to form new intimate relationships. It is the only model he has, and Dench-M takes advantage of this (why orphans are best). On the plot level, this aspect of narrative is mirrored by Blofeld-as-villain authoring problems/dangers for Bond-as-hero.
But the totem undergoes a transformation/rebuilding. In SF, the car is demolished during the final assault. All that is brought back to Q is one piece–a hollow shell-akin to RobotBond, who is a human shell programmed to follow orders and kill–bereft of any autonomous inner life.
The movie is rife with callbacks–Bond movie past haunts the film, as character past haunts CraigBond. And two Bond totems (callbacks on steroids)–the DB5 and the vodka martini, shaken not stirred–undergo transformations. The DB5 is rebuilt, and the vodka martini, shaken not stirred becomes a vodka martini, dirty. Bond follows Madeleine in this choice of drink, and does so happily. A small instance of Bond coming to life, and shaking off a burdening/accumulated past (both franchise-wise and plot-wise) that has been dictating his actions. On the train he gets a new cocktail, and at the end of the film, he gets a new DB5.
But the Aston that Bond drives away is not the Aston of past films–that one was gutted in the conflagration at Skyfall. This car has been rebuilt by Q (analogous to the totemic martini being remade by Madeleine). The two current iterations of these totems seem much like their predecessors, but they are changed.
When Bond comes to reclaim his car/totem, does he look/act like a man who has stopped by to pick up his trauma? In his final shot, the look on Bond’s face is one of supreme confidence–a man no longer hollow, but possessed of an inner knowledge/certainty that has replaced his previous programming. Cut to the DB5 driving away, and the Bond Theme swelling, and I see a moment of triumph.
I take your reading Dustin: Bond’s need to claim as a last act the totemic DB5 indicates that he will always be tethered to his past and its traumas. He cannot/will not give them up.
For me though, the mise en scene and Craig’s performance do not support this reading (though it is made more plausible by a) the decision to make NTTD; and b) that film’s choice to resurrect Bond’s traumas to give its plot a starting point).
With all proper and due deference to Jim, I propose a SPECTRE Sideswipe:
Voting closes when Bond 26 is released.
