Full spoilers ahead for No Time to Die!
Daniel Craig’s James Bond literally goes out with a bang in No Time to Die, the 25th Bond movie and the fifth and final one starring Craig.
And while the finality of Craig’s Bond is not in question, some of the hows and whys of No Time to Die may have left some scratching their heads. After all, there were a lot of plot machinations for viewers to keep straight and pseudo-science being tossed around throughout the film.
So let’s break down how and why James Bond met his fate in No Time to Die.
Much of the final act of No Time to Die is spent on Bond and his fellow 00 Agent Nomi’s (Lashana Lynch) infiltration of the headquarters of villainous Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). Located on an island in disputed waters between Russia and Japan, Safin’s lair is a former missile silo and submarine docking base (that boasts some old school, large-scale, Ken Adam-style production design). Bond and Nomi have three objectives: rescue Bond’s flame Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) and their little daughter, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonne); destroy Project Heracles; and kill Safin.
After a series of brutal firefights and encounters, Bond rescues Madeleine and Mathilde, Nomi executes turncoat scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), and Safin seemingly flees his lair as the British navy prepares to risk an international incident just to destroy the island and Heracles. But in order for the missile strike to be effective, the base’s blast doors must be opened and that means someone has to get to the control room to open them.
Bond initially succeeds in doing that until they get word that the doors are somehow closing again. That means someone has to go back up there to get them open. Bond asks Nomi to get Madeleine and Mathilde out of there by boat while he deals with the blast doors, promising them all he’ll escape in time. But as Bond rushes through the Garden of Death to reach the blast doors, he’s shot multiple times by Safin, who did not flee the island after all …
James Bond Death Scene
As we saw in the sequence where Heracles was used to kill SPECTRE members but spare everyone else, Safin’s able to engineer the Heracles nanobots to kill people that share specific DNA. MI6 witnessed family members who made contact with deceased SPECTRE operatives who then died themselves because Heracles was targeted to kill those sharing specific DNA. And the nanobots, as Q (Ben Whishaw) makes clear, are permanent and can’t be removed from one’s system.
Safin got a sample of Madeline’s DNA from a strand of her hair while he held her and Mathilde hostage. During their brawl, Safin scratched Bond, infecting him with nanobots genetically encoded to Madeleine, and therefore also to her child’s DNA. This means Bond, the biogenetic weapon’s carrier, would cause their deaths if he ever returned to them. Possibly already mortally wounded by Safin’s gunfire, Bond kills Safin and hauls himself back up to the control room to reopen the blast doors shielding the lair.
Bond’s imminent self-sacrifice becomes clear to Q, who is in a plane flying nearby, as well as to M (Ralph Fiennes), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), and Tanner (Rory Kinnear) tracking the events from back at MI6 headquarters in London. Having reopened the blast doors so that the British navy’s missile strike can succeed, Bond calls Madeleine to say goodbye. She, Nomi and Mathilde had made it to shore and can see the island from their position.
Bond thanks Madeleine for the gift she’s given him with their daughter and tells her he loves her. As the missiles rain down on the island, Bond stares out at the sun over the ocean as he is obliterated in the explosion. Madeline sobs as the island is destroyed in the missile strike and Nomi realizes Bond is dead.
Later, back at M’s office, Bond’s work-family — M, Moneypenny, Q, Nomi, and Tanner — raise a toast to him, with a glass of whisky set aside for Bond in his honor. M reads a passage from author Jack London: “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
The film’s final scene shows Madeline and Matilde driving along the Italian coast, a similar view from the movie’s opening moments, five years earlier, where she and Bond were on a romantic getaway. Madeline tells Matilde a story about a man. “His name was Bond. James Bond …”
Will There Be Another James Bond?
Yes, although the producers say the search for the next Bond won’t begin until 2022. Given the amount of closure in this film, it seems the franchise will be rebooted again and with a whole new cast. But despite the finality of No Time to Die, the last words on-screen are the same last four words that have graced many past 007 films: “James Bond will return.”
Did James Bond’s death scene leave you shaken or stirred? What did you think of No Time to Die overall? Let us know in the comments. And for more on James Bond, check out our No Time to Die review and look back at the “next James Bond actors” that never actually got the role.