The cold way in which he disposed of his friend’s body reflected the more traditional characterization of James Bond in Ian Fleming’s books. This illustrated the dichotomy at the heart of Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Although the scene itself was tender, with Bond cradling Mathis in his arms, it was immediately juxtaposed with Bond dumping his lifeless body in a dumpster and taking his wallet.
The importance of this scene and James Bond’s actions afterward should not be understated. After being shot by police officers, Mathis’ final words were to tell Bond to forgive himself and to forgive Vesper Lynd. In La Paz, Mathis was betrayed by his supposed friend the Colonel of the Bolivian Police Department (Fernando Guillen Cuervo). In doing this, Bond enlisted the help of a retired Mathis and the two of them traveled to Bolivia to track down Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Initially, this was revealed as Quantum before the events of Spectre proved that Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s (Christoph Waltz) Spectre organization had been pulling the strings all along. In Quantum of Solace, James Bond searched for the organization behind the villainous Mr.
