even though the chip is worth nothing now that the game has ended. In a generous gesture, Bond casually slides a plastic chip worth $500,000 over to the dealer as a courtesy tip. One such cool moment occurs after the poker match has ended, and Bond has won the prize money. That was the secret.'ĭespite Campbell's determination to make the game as authentic as possible, at the end of the day they were making an action movie, which needed some cool moments. It's also two guys eye-f***ing one another, basically. What you realize is, it's not just the card games - it's the stakes. 'I think the sequence was pretty convincing.

For Campbell, Bond's ability to operate under immense pressure and even push back is what makes the whole sequence so memorable.

Even when caught unawares, and literally poisoned in the middle of the match, Bond is able to leave, stave off a heart attack, and return to the game nonchalantly sipping his drink. He takes huge risks, bluffs expertly, and is almost always one step ahead of the competition. Throughout the game, audiences get to watch Daniel Craig display many of the qualities that made his Bond such a fan-favorite. The almost 30-minute sequence was constructed as a microcosm of the rest of the movie and its leading character. Despite its reputation for being one of the best action movies of the past two decades, a large chunk of Casino Royale is dedicated to showing James James Bond playing a high-stakes game of poker against the main villain, Le Chiffre.Īfter weeks of research and preparation, Martin Campbell finally hit upon a method of doing something that had rarely been achieved before: make a long session of card-playing interesting to the audience.

Casino royale james bond poker scene