What the hell does "Quantum of Solace" mean?

[SoxFan]

Are they just picking cool-sounding words at random?

"The Icebound Vector"

"Night Voyage to Cydonia"

[MrScorpio]

1. Quantum, meaning the smallest possible measure

I would imagine that Bond is near inconsolable over the death of Vesper... and he's ready to KICK ASS!

[Bryan]

2. It's a figure of speech taken from an Ian Fleming short story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_of_Solace_(short_story)#.22Quantum_of_Solace.22

The Governor paused and looked reflectively over at Bond. He said, "You're not married, but I think it's the same with all relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn't care if the other is alive or dead, then it's just no good. That particular insult to the ego-worse, to the instinct of self-preservation-can never be forgiven. I've noticed this in hundreds of marriages. I've seen flagrant infidelities patched up, I've seen crimes and even murder forgiven by the other party, let alone bankruptcy and every other form of social crime. Incurable disease, blindness, disaster-all these can be overcome. But never the death of common humanity in one of the partners. I've thought about this and I've invented a rather high-sounding title for this basic factor in human relations. I have called it the Law of the Quantum of Solace."

What that has to do with the movie, I don't know. But they're almost run out of cool-sounding titles, and I guess this one will have to do. You might want to try pitching to them, though, because The Icebound Vector is a kick-ass title.

[SoxFan]

9. Got it!

Thank you!

You know, I saw this just after reading a thread over in GDP about whether John McCain is a figure to be pittied. After reading this excerpt about death of basic common humanity, I can see where it can come into play beyond the realm of the traditional male-female relationship.

[jobycom]

30. What it has to do with the movie...

Bond is looking for a quantum of solace over his grief for Vesper. But for him, "quantum" will be an understatement, as he will go James Bond trying to get revenge. There will also likely be a tension between his need for solace--for Bond, revenge--and his duty. The previews have already set up that tension.

I think it's a brilliant use of a Fleming title I never thought they could use.

[Schema Thing]

33. I think after Nov. 4, Bond will turn peaceful and forgiving.

[jobycom]

38. I want to see him team up with Kucinich instead.

"Mr. Bond, our Congress will not act. We must extricate George Bush and Dick Cheney from Paraguay, and deliver them in chains to the Hague, but we cannot be seen to do so. We cannot ask you to help. But here is a map of his compound, and a bunch of weapons, and there's a transport plane that just might happen to fly near the area..."

James Bond, in "Quantum of Kick Ass Revenge Against the Dumbass Chimperator." It's a working title.

[DS1]

3. see post 2

[Random_Australian]

4. Apparently solace can only be given in discrete amounts.

Which is kinda funny, as it implies you can construct a bijection between it and the integers. :) (Assuming those amounts are seperated by a finite amount, because if they weren't, they wouldn't be fucking quantised but you could still biject to the reals, or part of the reals or something but I shouldn't keep raving as the joke is already over, assuming that at some point it began)

[TZ]

6. Raise your hand if you don't understand physics nerd humor...

That would be me...:hi:
Somehow I don't think you are quite ready for Saturday Night Live yet...
(good to see you in the Lounge though..):)

[SoxFan]

8. I think he's talking about the flux capacitors

Not sure, though. I majored in Poli Sci and minored in History, so I'm the wrong one to ask!

[Pierre.Suave]

10. ROFL

:rofl:

[Random_Australian]

13. Glad to see someone gets the joke!

Cheers!

:)

[realisticphish]

20. haha

i hate it when people misuse the word "quantum," even outside woo, but i was willing to give it a pass on this until i see the movie :)

[TZ]

23. You got the joke?

You are a better skeptic than me..still waiting for an explanation for us "normals".....

[realisticphish]

24. lol ok

a quantum is the unit of energy required to make an electron move into a "higher" energy level. Electrons (which are arranged in clouds around the nucleus) can be agitated by energy of certain wavelengths, and those wavelengths only. When they jump to a ring father away from the nucleas, they release photons, producing color. So, a quantum can only be at discreet levels of energy, that is, specific amounts (kind of like how a neuron fires if it reaches a certain amount of electrical potential).

A red object's electrons therefore have different discreet amounts of energy required to agitate it than a blue object

Hopefully that helps, and keep in mind that I'm no physicist, so RA can correct me if i'm wrong :D

[Random_Australian]

25. 1/2 right 1/2 wrong.

1) 'quantum' is a word which means, for all scientific uses of the term, 'a single, indivisible unit'. For instance, the light packets (photons) that excite electrons must be accepted *whole*. You can't absorb half of one. Half of one doesn't even exist.

Sure, you can have a whole one half the size, but it is still whole.

It doesn't have to be photons though. Plenty of other stuff carries the same property.

2) When electrons jump to a state closer to the nucleus, they release a photon. When they jump farther out, they absorb one.

[realisticphish]

26. see

that's why we keep you around :D

i didn't do TOO bad, seeing as it's been 5 or 6 years since i last had physics

[TZ]

28. Well that and for the entertainment value

of mentioning ...you know ..butt candles....;)

[realisticphish]

29. what was that?

oh, sorry you'll have to speak up. I thought you said BUTT CANDLES!!!!!!

[coyotespaw]

5. After seeing Daniel Craig in Casino Royale

I assume they've given up on the franchise

[Pierre.Suave]

35. IMHO

you are dead wrong.

[coyotespaw]

37. IMHO

Daniel Craig is better suited playing a Geico caveman than he is playing a suave sophisticate like James Bond. The whole point of the James Bond character is that he shakes off insufferable pain; both physical and emotional, and finds a way to not just survive, but to win the good fight. Daniel Craig's version of James Bond was a whiner who only made it through the end of the movie because he could manage to float.

[DarkTirade]

7. I think this explains it pretty well.

http://www.theaterhopper.com/?date=20080128

[geomon666]

11. Who cares?

They could call it "Bond Shoots Shit Up" and I'd still watch it cause it looks badass.

[old mark]

12. Right! I have been waiting for this Bond movie ever since I saw the last one.

I don't care what they call it.

mark

[jobycom]

31. Next to post 2, yours is the most correct response.

:rofl:

[Initech]

14. It sounds like the name of a satanic themed board game.

[Orrex]

15. Probably the worst name for a Bond film after 'Octopussy'

Yes, yes. It comes from the pen of the original author. But it's still a hopelessly pretentious sounding title.

[Ivan Sputnik]

16. It does seem like an odd title

for a Bond film. But I guess it's better than "A Little Bit of Consolation".

Can you imagine Shirley Bassey singing "Quantum of Solaaacceee...."?

[mainegreen]

17. You can put it in a box and it will be both solace and not solace until you open the box again.

Or something like that.

[Iggo]

22. .

:rofl:

[Ikonoklast]

18. It means that another shitty James Bond movie is coming out.

With a crappy plot and crappier acting.

[Sebastian Doyle]

19. Theorizing that one could time-travel within his own lifetime.....

....Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert, to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the Quantum Accelerator, and vanished.



He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own.
Fortunately, contact with his own time was maintained through brain-wave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram, that only Dr. Beckett can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. Assignment 69: Octopussy Revisited...

:yoiks:

[Pierre.Suave]

36. I think that

you may have a second career in movie titling if this nursing gig doesn't work out...

:rofl:

[Fire Walk With Me]

27. Quantum of Solace, Dingle of Berries, who cares.

Is it going to be a good or bad movie? That's what I want to know.

[pokerfan]

39. It's going to be good

Early reviews are in...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/18/jamesbond1

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/movie_reviews/article1730883.ece

[jobycom]

32. It's a clever title that non-English speakers may have trouble grasping.

:P

Post 2 explains how Fleming used it in a Bond short story (though the story wasn't really about Bond).

What it implies is that Bond is looking for some measure of solace over Vesper's death. In Bond's case, "solace" is somewhat ironic, since we know he means revenge, and "quantum" is equally ironic, since it implies a small measure. So while the title says Bond is looking for a small measure of comfort, what it implies is that he's going to blow the Hell out of everything he can find to get revenge.

Get it?

Also, the previews show M chastising him for putting his vendetta ahead of his duty, so there will be a tension between his need for "solace" and duty.

It's a very clever title if one thinks a bit.

[Pierre.Suave]

34. It makes more sense than...

"The Icebound Vector"

Sseriously, I think that is nigh impossible...

[pokerfan]

40. Craig was on Leno last week

with his right arm in a sling (he had some screws put into his shoulder) and talking about how he had to have some plastic surgery after he got kicked in the face. He said Bond films are grueling to film.