Intrigue

MI6 operative James Bond (Daniel Craig) gains promotion to 00 agent status by assassinating two targets: traitorous section chief Dryden at the British Embassy in Prague and his contact, Fisher.

In Uganda, the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a liaison for an unnamed criminal organization, introduces Steven Obanno (Isaach De Bankolé), a high-ranking member of the Lord's Resistance Army, to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), an Albanian private banker to terrorists, who is a mathematical genius and expert chess player, and uses these skills when playing poker. Obanno entrusts Le Chiffre with $100 million to invest. Using knowledge of his upcoming terrorist attack on aerospace manufacturer Skyfleet, Le Chiffre shorts the company's stock.

In Madagascar, Bond chases bomb maker Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) on foot across the city, through a hair-rising chase over a high-rise construction site until causing mayhem in an embassy while capturing and then killing Mollaka. Bond recovers Mollaka's phone which had the text message "Ellipsis." Le Chiffre gets the news and is worried that the stock options expire in 36 hours.

In London in her home, the chief M (Dame Judi Dench) admonishes Bond for causing an international incident and ignoring her orders to capture Mollaka alive. Bond tracks the text message to the Bahamas to the Ocean Club. He looks at the security camera tapes and sees at the exact time Mollaka received the text, a corrupt Greek official Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian), another contractor in the international terrorist underworld and associate of Le Chiffre, based in the Bahamas, sent one from his phone.

In the Bahamas, Bond decides to have a closer look at Alex. Using M's on-line account, Bond discovers Alex is connected to Le Chiffre.

After winning his 1964 Aston Martin DB5 in a poker game and seducing his wife Solange (Caterina Murino), Bond pursues Dimitrios to Miami. He fights off an attack by Dimitrios and kills him. At the airport, Bond chases down the new bomber Dimitrios has hired. He discovers Ellipsis is a security code for airport entry, ultimately prevents the destruction of the Skyfleet airliner and fastens the bomber's fuse to his belt, blowing him up with his own bomb. With the Skyfleet stock secure, Le Chiffre loses Obanno's money. Realizing that somebody leaked the terrorist plot, Le Chiffre tortures Solange to death.

To recoup his clients' lost money with losses of $101 million, Le Chiffre organizes a high-stakes Texas hold 'em tournament at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. MI6 enters Bond, the best poker player in the agency, in the tournament, believing a defeat will force Le Chiffre to seek asylum with the British government in exchange for information on his clients. Bond is paired with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a British Treasury agent protecting the $10 million buy-in. During their train ride, they assess and make sly guesses about each other. She is guesses Bond had a good education, did not come from money originally, and was orphaned young. In Montenegro, they meet their contact René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini).

Bond seems to gain the upper hand, deducing Le Chiffre's "tell." During a one-hour break after playing for four hours, Le Chiffre retires to his suite, where Obanno ambushes and threatens him, but allows him to continue playing to win back the money. Bond and Vesper follow Le Chiffre to his floor but Obanno's bodyguard spot Bond's earpiece, giving him away as an agent. Bond kills him and a machete-wielding Obanno in the stairwell. In his room, he changes his blood-stained shirt, and returns to the game. That night, he returns to the suite he shares with Vesper, who is sitting fully clothed under the shower, and he comforts her. But later, he loses his stake because Le Chiffre has been tipped off to his own tell.

Vesper then refuses to cover the $5 million Rebuy, but fellow player Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), a CIA agent, knowing he is a better player, tells him he will stake him for the game, after he stops Bond from assassinating Le Chiffre in public, in exchange for taking Le Chiffre into American custody instead.

Le Chiffre's lover Valenka (Ivana Milicevic) poisons Bond's martini with digitalis. Retrieving an antidote and defibrillator from his Aston Martin DBS V12, Bond passes out, but Vesper rescues and defibrillates him. Bond returns to the game, which culminates in a $115 million hand that Bond wins with a straight flush.

As Bond and Vesper enjoy a late dinner, she gets a cellphone message from Mathis and leaves. Betrayed by Mathis, Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre. Bond sees this happen and follows. Le Chiffre then traps Bond. He brings the captives to an abandoned ship where a naked Bond is tortured for his password to the winnings, but Bond resists, even when Le Chiffre bluffs Verper is being raped next door. Mr. White bursts in and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for betraying the trust of his organization by gambling with their money, leaving Bond and Vesper alive.

Bond wakes up in an MI6 hospital and has Mathis arrested as a traitor. After transferring the winnings back to the British Government overseen by Vesper, who had entered the account number, and Bond reveals the password to her as her first name. Bond spends time recovering with Vesper at his side, and the two fall in love.

He resigns from MI6 and they sail away to Venice. When M reveals the money was never deposited, Bond realizes Vesper has betrayed him and follows her as she withdraws the money from her own account to which she had transferred the funds. He follows her to a hand-off of the money, where gunmen take her captive as soon as they spot him. Bond shoots flotation devices on a building being renovated, causing the foundation to sink into the Grand Canal. He kills the gunmen, but Vesper is imprisoned in an elevator plunging into the rising water. Seeing Bond wishes to rescue her, she locks the door, indicating he should save himself. The elevator drops down below the waterline. Bond dives down but is still unable to free Vesper before she drowns. He brings her body to the surface, but is unable to revive her and cradles her dead body. Mr. White is seen escaping with the money.

M informs Bond the organization behind Le Chiffre threatened to kill Vesper's lover unless she became a double agent. When Bond coldly renounces Vesper as a traitor, saying "the bitch is dead," M deduces that she likely made a deal later with White, trading the money for Bond's life.

Bond returns to service. Realizing Vesper left her phone to help him take revenge, he checks and finds a message from her, with Mr. White's phone number, at an estate in Lake Como. Shooting him in the leg, 007 introduces himself: "The name's Bond. James Bond."