Written by Mr. Mouseburger 5th Jun 2005
Renard is an insane East European who has fallen in love with his one time prisoner, Elektra King. A man will do anything to show the woman he loves how committed he is (remember those Milk Tray adverts?!). Renard is no exception and so he is preparing to cause a nuclear explosion in Istanbul by jamming a uranium fuel rod into a submarines reactor (the physics of this is beyond me).
Bond confronts him in the reactor room, and the typical couple of minutes of fisticuffs ensue, with Bond getting his ass whooped. Victorious, Renard places the rod back into the core, while Bond is imprisoned in another section of the reactor room.
Unfortunately for Renard though, he has locked Bond in the room that seems to wire up the reactor fuel cells to some high powered gas propulsion system. Bond reconnects the right wire to the corresponding cell on the reactor core, presses a button and the uranium rod is blasted out of the reactor like a bullet, straight into Renard's stomach.
I am unsure that any Navy in the world would have needed to release a fuel cell at that sort of speed, but it was certainly an original death.
I must admit to being rather disappointed by Renard's death; I was expecting the writers to have him killed in his moment of triumph, Blade-Runner-style, by the bullet in his brain...
SG
You mentioned earlier in archetype criteria discussion that a baddy (Major) is someone who needs to die in order for the plot to conclude, Bond obviously had to kill Renard. Also "Projectile" would be a valid category in this situation, don't you think Old Mr. MouseBluffer? I am not so sure about "Radiation" but this comment stands.
In response to the death itself, the screenwriters should have had Bond saying something along the lines of, "He felt that."
Mr Briggs - i have adjusted Renard to be a Baddy (Major) as Bond really needs to kill him to conclude the film. His death is not radiation as a) he does not live long enough to suffer from the exposure and b) the rods themselves are relatively stable (they must be as Bond handles one without much concern).
I do not believe that a cheesy Bond quip would have worked after his death, as just before he hits the button, he tells him "She's waiting for you", in reference of course to Elektra. I think that makes the scene somewhat more powerful.
This is not an impalement death. Impalement is when the killing object goes through the person and comes out the other side. Actually I watched the movie again last night and the rod didn't even penetrate the skin. The thing that killed Renard was internal trauma. I'm no doctor but judging by what I can grasp about science and the human body the blow just knocked the wind out of Renard so much so that he caused him to lose conciousness. Then while unconscious he died when his broken ribs (the rod would definately cause that) would stab many of his organs such as the stomach, heart and lungs ultimately killing him from that.