So on William Martell’s script secret site, he posted about Casino Royale. Some of what he says makes sense, but I’m going to dispute him on the need to be more clear and precise about the villain’s plan.
First up, I think this goes hand-in-hand with the idea of a more “realistic” Bond. You can’t very well have the villain hold Bond captive to give a powerpoint presentation about where the money will be spent.
Second, information is power. If MI6 knew what the money would be spent on, they would have two possible targets to attack. Martell says it himself, that Bond could either get back the money or cut the wires on the nuke, but misses the implication that having two options makes the money less important. As long as the villain’s plan for the money is nebulous, the money is Bond’s only hope of stopping him.
Third, the ending worked better for me than it did for him. When Le Chiffe’s employers come in and shoot him, it’s so pat and anti-climactic that I knew that wasn’t the end of it. Bond had spent so much of this movie being beaten down that during the scenes where he’s lounging around in a terrycloth robe, I was anticipating the other shoe to drop. Also, it served as a clear reminder that there are people that Le Chiffre was scared of. It was like the Final Fantasy moment where you kill the boss, only to have an uber-boss spring from his corpse.