Raoul Silva monologue from Skyfall

Raoul Silva’s monologue

Silva compares himself and Bond to two rats that have been forced into a corner, explaining his hatred for M and MI6.

as Bond is tied to a chair, an elevator lowers in front of him, and Silva appears and walks toward him

Hello, James. Welcome. Do you like the island? My grandmother had an island. Nothing to boast of. You could walk around it in an hour, but still it was, it was a paradise for us. One summer, we went for a visit and discovered the place had been infested with rats! They'd come on a fishing boat and gorged themselves on coconut. So how do you get rats off an island? Hmm? My grandmother showed me. We buried an oil drum and hinged the lid. Then we wired coconut to the lid as bait and the rats would come for the coconut, and…(imitates metallic scuttering)

They would fall into the drum. And after a month, you have trapped all the rats, but what do you do then? Throw the drum into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it and they begin to get hungry. And one by one…(mimics rat munching sound)

They start eating each other, until there are only two left. The two survivors. And then what? Do you kill them? No. You take them and release them into the trees, but now they don't eat coconut anymore. Now, they only eat rat. You have changed their nature. The two survivors. This is what she made us.

If you wanted, you could pick your own secret missions. As I do. Name it, name it. Destabilize a multinational by manipulating stocks. Bip. Easy. Interrupt transmissions from a spy satellite over Kabul… done. Hmm. Rig an election in Uganda. All to the highest bidder.

James Bond: Or a gas explosion in London.

Mm-hm. Just point and click.

James Bond: Well, everybody needs a hobby.

So what's yours?

James Bond: Resurrection.

(Silva goes to the desk, accessing Bond's debriefing results from his computer) Medical evaluation: fail. Physical evaluation: fail. Psychological evaluation, alcohol and substance addiction indicated. Ooh! Pathological rejection of authority based on unresolved childhood trauma.

glances to Bond then back to the computer

Subject is not approved for field duty and immediate suspension for service advised.

rises from the desk, going to Bond

What is this if not betrayal? She

Excerpt for study and audition practice. Read the full play for context.