Casino Royale recap

British agent James Bond is sent to Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt Le Chiffre, who has gambled Soviet funds on a failed criminal venture and is trying to recover them at baccarat. Supported by French agent René Mathis, CIA officer Felix Leiter, and Treasury representative Vesper Lynd, Bond survives attempts to disrupt the mission, loses his original stake, receives emergency backing from Leiter, and finally wins Le Chiffre's fortune. Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper and captures Bond during the pursuit, then tortures him for the money. A SMERSH executioner kills Le Chiffre but spares Bond. While recovering, Bond falls in love with Vesper and considers resigning. Vesper later takes her own life and leaves a confession: SMERSH blackmailed her into betraying the operation and helping deliver Bond to Le Chiffre. Devastated, Bond rejects his earlier doubts and dedicates himself to opposing SMERSH.

James Bond, a British Secret Service agent, begins an assignment at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux, France. His target is Le Chiffre, who controls funds for a Soviet-backed trade union. Le Chiffre secretly invested a large part of that money in brothels, but new French laws destroyed the venture and left him desperate to replace what he lost. British intelligence plans to exploit that weakness by having Bond defeat him at baccarat, which would ruin Le Chiffre financially and expose him to his Soviet employers. M chooses Bond for his gambling skill and authorizes a substantial stake. In France, Bond works under cover with assistance from the French intelligence officer René Mathis, aware that enemy observers may already be testing his identity.

Vesper Lynd arrives from the British Treasury to supervise the mission's money. Bond is attracted to her but resents having a partner he believes may complicate fieldwork. CIA officer Felix Leiter also joins the allied effort and quickly becomes Bond's friend. Le Chiffre's organization attempts to eliminate Bond with an explosive device, but the attack fails. At the casino, Bond enters the high-stakes baccarat game against Le Chiffre. The contest swings violently: Bond first gains ground, then suffers a disastrous loss that exhausts his authorized funds. Just as the operation appears finished, Leiter discreetly supplies additional American money, allowing Bond to remain at the table for another decisive round.

Using the money provided by Leiter, Bond returns to the baccarat table and wagers on one final, enormous contest. He defeats Le Chiffre and wins enough to complete the financial objective of the mission. The victory leaves Le Chiffre unable to restore the Soviet funds he misused. A concealed attacker then tries to force Bond to surrender the winnings, but Bond survives and the money remains protected. He and Vesper celebrate at a nightclub, their earlier tension giving way to mutual interest. The official operation seems successful, but Le Chiffre remains at large and has urgent reasons to recover the money before SMERSH deals with his failure.

Vesper is lured outside and abducted. Bond pursues the kidnappers at high speed, but a trap in the road causes him to crash, and Le Chiffre's men capture him. In a secluded villa, Le Chiffre tortures Bond to learn where the casino winnings have been hidden. Bond refuses to give up the information even as he expects to die. Before Le Chiffre can finish, a SMERSH executioner arrives. The Soviet organization has condemned Le Chiffre for losing its money; the agent kills him and his associate. Bond is spared because his death is not part of the executioner's orders, though the agent marks him as an enemy. Severely injured, Bond is left alive until Mathis and the authorities find him.

Bond recovers in a hospital while Vesper and Mathis remain nearby. The torture and the chance nature of his survival make him question the moral simplicity of his profession; he considers resigning rather than continuing to kill people labeled as enemies by an institution. Vesper visits and admits that she was captured after accepting what appeared to be a message from Mathis. Bond does not blame her for the trap. As his health improves, his feelings for her deepen, and he begins to imagine a private future outside the Service. Once he can travel, he and Vesper leave Royale-les-Eaux together for a quiet coastal hotel.

At the coast, Bond and Vesper become lovers, and he decides he will resign and marry her. Her behavior suddenly changes after she sees a one-eyed man called Gettler. She becomes secretive and frightened, then takes a fatal dose of sleeping pills. In a letter, Vesper confesses that she was a double agent controlled by SMERSH, which had threatened a former lover held captive. She passed information during the casino operation and helped create the circumstances of Bond's capture. Le Chiffre's death did not free her; Gettler's appearance showed that SMERSH was still watching. Bond reacts to the loss by suppressing his tenderness and returning to the identity of an intelligence officer. He reports that Vesper was an enemy agent who is now dead and resolves to direct his anger against SMERSH.

After recovering from Le Chiffre's torture, Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd and imagines leaving the Service to build a life with her. At a coastal hotel she becomes frightened by a one-eyed man named Gettler, withdraws emotionally, and then kills herself with sleeping pills. Her letter explains that she had been forced to spy for the Soviet organization SMERSH because it held a former lover captive. She had helped arrange Bond's capture and remained under pressure even after Le Chiffre's death; seeing Gettler convinced her that escape was impossible. Bond's grief hardens into anger. He abandons thoughts of resignation, informs headquarters that Vesper was an enemy agent and is dead, and commits himself to fighting the organization that controlled her.