No Time to Die (2021): 25th Bond Movie
No Time to Die is the 25th Bond film and also the fifth and final one in which British actor Daniel Craig appears as the iconic MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The film faced numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the film's screenplay was revised multiple times.
Plot
The opening scene begins with Madeleine Swann witnessing her mother's murder by the terrorist Lucifer Safin when she was just a little girl. Madeleine's father, Mr. White, on the orders of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, killed Safin's entire family, and Safin came to seek revenge.
Young Madeleine knows where the gun is hidden in the house. She hides under the bed, but her mobile phone gives her away. When Safin approaches, she shoots him several times. However, Safin wakes up, and Madeleine flees across a frozen lake. But she falls through the ice, and Safin eventually decides to save her.
Later, Madeleine travels with James Bond to the Italian cliffside town of Matera. She persuades Bond to visit the grave of his former lover, Vesper Lynd. However, Spectre has rigged the grave with a bomb. Bond survives the explosion, but he is pursued by Spectre agents led by Primo, a mercenary with a cybernetic eye.
Bond goes to the hotel to confront Madeleine, suspecting her of betrayal. This suspicion is fueled by a phone call from Blofeld, claiming that Madeleine is a child of Spectre. Bond stops the car with Madeleine inside and lets the attackers shoot at their car for a long time, pondering whether Madeleine truly betrayed him. Eventually, they manage to escape, but Bond puts Madeleine on a train, and their paths diverge for a long time.
Five years later, Spectre agents kidnap MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev, who secretly works for Safin, from a London laboratory and steal Project Heracles, a programmable nanobot biological weapon targeting DNA developed under M's supervision.
Bond, who lives in seclusion in Jamaica, is contacted by his former ally Felix Leiter, a CIA agent, and Foreign Office agent Logan Ash. They ask Bond to help them abduct Obruchev from a party Spectre is holding in Cuba. Bond initially refuses but later agrees after M refuses to answer questions about Project Heracles. Nomi, Bond's successor as Agent 007, warns Bond not to interfere with her plan to abduct Obruchev.
Bond infiltrates the Spectre party with Paloma, a Cuban agent who assists Agent Leiter. Although Blofeld is imprisoned by MI6 at Belmarsh Prison, he oversees the party through Primo's bionic eye and greets James Bond. Blofeld disperses nanobot fog in the room, intended to kill Bond.
However, on Safin's orders, Obruchev reprograms the nanobots to instead kill all Spectre members. With the help of Paloma, Nomi outwits Bond and hands Obruchev over to Ash and Leiter on the deck of a fishing boat. However, it turns out that Ash is a double agent working for Safin, and he shoots Leiter and imprisons him with Bond below deck. Ash blows up the boat and escapes with Obruchev. Leiter succumbs to his injuries in the sinking boat, but Bond manages to escape.
Bond returns to London to try to interrogate Blofeld about Safin. Blofeld agrees and has been talking only to one psychologist for years, and that psychologist is Madeleine Swann. Safin blackmails her into killing Blofeld with a dose of nanobots. Bond meets Madeleine in Belmarsh Prison, where he unknowingly infects himself with nanobots from Madeleine. However, Madeleine is too scared to carry out Safin's demands and flees.
Blofeld reveals to Bond that he planned the explosion at Vesper's grave to make Bond think Madeleine betrayed him. Enraged, Bond momentarily strangles Blofeld, inadvertently allowing the nanobots to enter his body and kill him.
Bond tracks down Madeleine at her childhood home in Norway, where they reconcile, and he meets her five-year-old daughter, Mathilde. Madeleine claims that Mathilde is not his daughter, although Bond notices their bright blue eyes. Madeleine gives Bond information about Safin and his island, obtained from her father, Mr. White.
The next day, MI6 informs Bond that Ash is closing in on them. Bond, Madeleine, and Mathilde flee in a car, but Ash and his henchmen pursue them into a nearby forest. Bond orders Madeleine and Mathilde to hide while he confronts Ash and his cronies. He kills Ash, avenging Felix Leiter's death, but Safin kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde.
Bond and Nomi use a special glider from Q, which can submerge and sail underwater after landing, to infiltrate Safin's headquarters, a missile base in disputed territory in the Sea of Japan claimed by various powers. The base has been converted into a toxic garden and nanobot factory. Bond and Nomi set out to rescue Madeleine and Mathilde before the British warship HMS Dragon launches a missile attack on the base.
Bond pursues Safin, who is fleeing with Mathilde, but later releases her, while Madeleine outwits Primo and reunites with Bond and Mathilde. Nomi kills Obruchev by kicking him into a vat of acid, then takes Madeleine and Mathilde away from the island.
Bond kills the remaining men of Safin and opens the entrance doors for the missiles from HMS Dragon to effectively destroy the base. Bond notices that the doors are starting to close again. He rushes to reopen them, but Safin attacks him and infects him with a vial of nanobots designed to kill Madeleine and Mathilde if he ever touches them. Bond shoots Safin, reopens the doors, and decides to stay on the island and die to protect Madeleine and Mathilde.
Bond bids farewell to Madeleine via a transmitter, confessing his love for her and Mathilde. Madeleine confirms that Mathilde is his daughter. The missile attack destroys the base, and Bond dies in the process.
Later at MI6, M, Moneypenny, Nomi, Q, and Bill Tanner raise a toast to the memory of James Bond. Madeleine takes Mathilde to Matera and tells her about a man named Bond, James Bond, on the way.
Cast
| Role | Actor | Role Description |
|---|---|---|
| James Bond | Daniel Craig | British secret agent 007, the main protagonist. |
| Madeleine Swann | Léa Seydoux | A psychologist and Bond's partner with a complicated past connected to a criminal. |
| Safin | Rami Malek | The main antagonist, a dangerous terrorist with his own dark motives. |
| Ernst Stavro Blofeld | Christoph Waltz | The head of the criminal organization SPECTRE, a long-time enemy of James Bond. |
| Nomi | Lashana Lynch | An MI6 agent who inherits James Bond's former code name, 007. |
| M / Gareth Mallory | Ralph Fiennes | The head of the British Secret Service MI6. |
| Q | Ben Whishaw | An MI6 technical expert responsible for producing and distributing special inventions for Agent 007. |
| Felix Leiter | Jeffrey Wright | A CIA agent and friend of James Bond. |
| Logan Ash | Billy Magnussen | An agent of the US Department of State, a traitor. |
| David Dencik | Valdo Obruchev | A scientist working on Project Heracles. |
| Bill Tanner | Rory Kinnear | A member of the MI6 team providing support to James Bond. |
| Paloma | Ana de Armas | A Cuban companion of James Bond on a mission. |
| Primo | Dali Benssalah | A member of SPECTRE and an ally of the main villain who stands in the way of Agent 007. |
| Mathilde | Lisa-Dorah Sonnet | The daughter of Madeleine Swann and James Bond. |
Bond Song
The title song for the film No Time to Die was performed by Billie Eilish. It captures themes of love, betrayal, and sacrifice. Eilish's haunting vocals and emotional lyrics add depth to the film's emotional resonance. Billie Eilish became the youngest performer of a Bond song at the age of 18. The previous youngest performer was 22-year-old Sheena Easton with the song For Your Eyes Only from the Bond film For Your Eyes Only released in 1981.
Trivia
- No Time to Die marks Daniel Craig's final appearance as James Bond, bringing his tenure as the iconic spy to a close.
- The film features groundbreaking action sequences and state-of-the-art special effects.
- The character of Lashana Lynch's Nomi is the first black female 00 agent in the James Bond series.
- The cliffside town is named Matera and is located in Italy.
- No Time to Die has the longest pre-title sequence of any Bond film, over twenty minutes, with the title of the film appearing only at the 24-minute mark, and at a length of 163 minutes, it is the longest Bond film to date.
Controversial Ending
The decision to kill off James Bond, one of the most iconic and longest-serving film characters in cinema history, was a highly controversial one. It sparked much emotion and debate among fans and critics alike.
On one hand, some argue that it was a fitting and dramatic conclusion to Daniel Craig's era as James Bond, allowing for a fresh start for the film franchise.
On the other hand, there are those who believe that killing off such a beloved character was unnecessary and even disrespectful to the legacy of James Bond. Some fans would have certainly preferred a more traditional ending that would have allowed Bond to ride off into the sunset and continue his adventures in future films.
Whether it was a good idea or not is subjective and depends on individual preferences. What is certain is that the decision will have a significant impact on this film franchise and will be seen as a pivotal moment in the history of Bond films.
You Might Be Also Interested
- 24th Bond Movie: Spectre (2015);
- Bond Films: Stories of James Bond, Agent 007;
- Bond Songs: All Title Songs, Videos, Lyrics.
Based on the original Czech article: Není čas zemřít (2021) – 25. bondovka.