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When Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, Bond chases after them in his car and ends up crashing in order to avoid running over Vesper (who has been left lying in the middle of the road).

Bond is injured (almost certainly concussed) and is subsequently captured.
Le-Chiffre then tries to torture the bank account password out of him.

Now I thought it was a pretty big gambit on Le Chiffre's part to expect Bond to crash his car and just end up incapacitated. If Bond had managed to avoid the crash, he almost certainly would have rescued Vesper and gotten away. On the other hand, if Bond had been fatally injured in the crash, the password would have been lost to Le Chiffre.

What made Le Chiffre so sure his plan would work?

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  • 3
    Really? Overcomplicated plans that make no sense is entirely Bond-like. – Paulie_D Dec 14 '16 at 14:48
  • Did his plan really work? I'm sure no. – A J♦ Dec 14 '16 at 15:06
  • @Paulie_D: Yeah, well, maybe I am trying to apply order to chaos here =) – Raad Dec 15 '16 at 10:38
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Le Chiffre is a mathematical genius. That’s why, when the new aircraft was not destroyed, he was able to calculate his loss at $102 million to the penny – in his head. That’s why he is a pretty good at poker, because he can continually calculate odds – exactly. Of course he is beatable there, because in poker you play your opponent and not just the cards.

He is also an extraordinary risk taker. He essentially bet that his man would destroy the plane. Most rational people would consider that a BIG bet. But he took it. He lost. Then he took his next BIG bet: win at poker with high stakes. He lost. He grew increasingly desperate as time went on.

His plan to “almost cleanly” capture Bond was his last BIG gamble before being executed by the people he double crossed. He was able to calculate his odds pretty exactly. He gambled Vesper’s life, but that was not his life. Please note that all these bets would have worked had it not been for a ‘00’ agent being on hand (and in particular James Bond). Le Chiffre, in accordance with his personality, never really considered this a big threat. Of course he paid for that.

Please note that if Bond had managed to stop without hitting Vesper and not being hurt, Le Chiffre had plenty of people on hand to make sure that Bond would be captured. The only way Bond would have escaped is if he did not stop, and that was something Le Chiffre knew he would not do.

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  • Ok John, you've sold me your answer =) I guess Le Chiffre was getting pretty desperate by that stage and he probably knew he had one last shot at getting the money, even if it was a long one. – Raad Dec 15 '16 at 10:41

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