Check Out IN SERVICE OF NOTHING, The Saddest James Bond Fan Film Ever

In “The Mark Of Batman,” Alan Moore’s great introduction to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Moore made some canny observations about myths and legends. Specifically, he got into “that element without which all true legends are incomplete and yet which for some reason hardly seems to exist in the world depicted in the average comic book, and that element is time. All of our best and oldest legends recognize that time passes and that people grow old and die. The legend of Robin Hood would not be complete without the final blind arrow shot to determine the site of his grave. The Norse Legends would lose much of their power were it not for the knowledge of an eventual Ragnarok, as would the story of Davy Crockett without the existence of an Alamo.”

True enough. So here comes producer Adi Shankar (Dredd), hot on the heels of his Joseph Kahn-directed Power Rangers fan film/reboot/commentary, giving us the closest approximation to a finale for James Bond as we’re ever likely to see. And man, is it a bummer. In Service Of Nothing finds Sean Connery’s 007 as a man out of time, an octogenarian trying to apply his anachronistic skillset to a world that has left him behind. Far from a tongue-in-cheek Rip Van Winkle riff, though, the short feels like a weird, downer cross between Sin City, Harry Brown and that From Russia With Love PlayStation game voiced by Connery a few years back.

I don't know. Do we have to kill everything we've made into legends? Can't Connery's 007 stay forever virile and locked in the Cold War? I was too old for the Power Rangers the first time around, so I skipped the "gritty reboot" thing last week. Is this more commentary from Shankar's camp? For a Bond dork like me, In Service Of Nothing is a fascinating bit of pre-viz to watch, but ultimately it left me feeling kinda gross and sad. More so than usual.

Update: Don't fuck with the Lion. MGM has had the video pulled with a ferocious speed. It's a different world, as old-ass 007 lamented in the actionable short. All that remains is these images, yanked from the video itself.