19 Things You Never Knew About 'Skyfall'

"Skyfall" changed everything for James Bond. 007's 23rd official mission not only celebrated the franchise's 50th anniversary with an all-timer of a blockbuster hit, it also elevated the series to "Dark Knight" levels with its very serious (and very gut-punch emotional) story about Bond shooting/punching/detonating everything in his path to overcome a past plagued by family demons in order to pave a future for more martinis, girls, and guns. Five years since its release (Nov. 9, 2012), we still feel and talk about its impact. Here are a few secrets you never knew about Bond's best movie. 

1. "Skyfall" is the first Bond movie ever with a two-syllable title. 

2. Co-writer Robert Wade is responsible for the film's scary-good title -- which came out of one late night of writing. As he told the Empire Podcast, he and long-time Bond writing partner Neal Purvis were looking for the name of Bond's family home (something akin to Manderley in the Hitchcock film "Rebecca"). "It was two o’clock in the morning," Wade said, and the script had to go off, and I typed ‘Skyfall’. So it sort of fell out of the sky, actually. And I never thought that that would end up as the title of the movie. But it obviously struck a chord." The writers had no idea the name of Bond's childhood home would become an Adele song. 

3. Director Sam Mendes intended to open his first Bond movie with the traditional gun barrel opening. But upon screening an early cut of the film, the filmmaker realized the shot following the gun barrel sequence -- that of Bond standing in silhouette  against a white background, gun drawn, and slowly walking into camera and into focus -- would seem redundant. So, for the second time in Bond movie history, they moved the fan-favorite opening sequence to the end of the film. 

4. The idea of Bond getting a shave with a straight razor originated back when Purvis and Wade were working on "Die Another Day." The production opted to go with an electric razor instead as a company that made them offered significant product placement bucks for Bond to use their product.  

5. When Daniel Craig first heard Adele's theme song, the actor said he cried legit tears. According to ShortList: "From the opening bars I knew immediately, then the voice kicked in and it was exactly what I'd wanted from the beginning. It just got better and better because it fit the movie. In fact, the more of the movie we made, the more it fit it."

6. For a hot minute, the production discussed the idea of Sean Connery playing Kincade, Bond's caretaker and father figure. That would have blown fans' minds, and made a mess in theaters worldwide, so the filmmakers did us a favor there. 

7. Select online press outlets were invited to the Istanbul set to watch Craig film the iconic opening scene where Bond -- are you sitting down? -- leaps onto the back of a moving train by way of motorcycle and proceeds to the fight the bad guy after using a steam shovel to do, well, see the image here.  That tug on Bond's cuff? Daniel Craig improvised that on set.

8. In addition to being the franchise's first billion dollar grosser, and the biggest Bond movie in the U.S., it is also the most Oscar-nominated Bond film. It scored five noms, and won two Oscars: Best Sound Editing and Best Original Song.

9. The writers originally planned on killing M (Judi Dench) in an early draft of "Quantum of Solace." Her death, according to Purvis and Wade, would have occurred around the halfway point of that film. Thankfully, they kept her around for the 50th anniversary movies. 

10. Thanks to the all-important China box office, the film required some weapons-grade censorship prior to its release in the Middle Kingdom. The violent murder of a Shanghai skyscraper's security guard had to be cut, as did any dialogue bits referencing Silva's torture at the hands of Chinese intelligence. 

11. Speaking of Silva, his unique bleach-blonde hairstyle was Javier Bardem's idea -- but it was approved by the director. 

12. Following M's death, Bond is bequeathed her Royal Doulton bulldog from her desk -- and, on the inscription, fans were able to spot M's real name: "From the Estate of Olivia Mansfield." 

13. The pre-credits teaser was originally planned to be shot in India. The production hit a snag with Indian officials, however, when their permissions to close down railways for eight hours a day for up to a week were denied. Womp womp. 

14. Ben Whishaw only the third actor to play Q, and he is the first Quartermaster to be younger than Bond. 

15. "Skyfall" marks only the second time in Bond's history that he drinks beer onscreen. 

16. A deleted scene, which featured bad-Bond-girl-gone-good, Sévérine (left), and Patrice was used in early trailers/marketing materials for the film. It featured the soon-to-be-killed woman, on an airport escalator, handing off a case to the assassin that contained his sniper rifle. 

17. Fans appropriately went "WTF?!" when Sony/MGM released the image you see here as the first still from the film. It was originally intended to be a print-only image for long-lead pieces that was released online mistakenly. The production quickly released a much more Bondian pic of Craig's 007's rocking a stubbly beard and his gun of choice on the Shanghai skyscraper set. 

18. This was the first James Bond movie to receive an IMAX release. 

19. "Skyfall" marks the first time ever that the eff word is uttered in a Bond film. (PG-13 movies allow one instance of the cuss word.)