Warning: This article contains spoilers for No Time to Die.
After over a year of COVID-related delays, James Bond’s latest adventure No Time to Die has finally hit theaters. Audiences have flocked to the latest 007 outing and, thankfully, director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s visceral, visually stunning action sequences are worth the wait. As much fun as the one-liners and the exotic filming locations and Bond himself can be, the action is really what audiences come to these movies to see.
The latest Bond movie has a wide variety of set-pieces, ranging from fistfights to shootouts to car chases to nuclear explosions. Daniel Craig’s gentleman spy went out in style with a series of mind-blowing action scenes.
Obruchev Is Kidnapped
Before the time jump catches up with Bond’s retirement following the opening credits of No Time to Die, MI6 scientist Obruchev is abducted from his secret government lab by Spectre. The sequence opens with a dizzying upside-down shot of henchmen in tactical gear walking down the side of a skyscraper. Unfortunately, despite this exciting opening, it’s a pretty unmemorable sequence.
Hugh Dennis’ cameo was a delightful surprise, but the henchmen just break into the lab, grab Obruchev, take the bioweapon, and disappear. The gadgets in Bond movies are always ludicrous, but the elevator shaft magnets that the Spectre goons use to escape are a little beyond the pale.
Logan Ash’s Betrayal
Billy Magnussen’s incessant smiling made Felix Leiter’s new sidekick Logan Ash seem like a harmless, unthreatening presence, so his betrayal comes as a real surprise. He was introduced as goofy comic relief, so his sinister turn packs a real punch – and Magnussen carries the character’s villainous edge with gusto. Bond’s final moments with his CIA contact provide a suitably heartbreaking death scene for Jeffrey Wright’s Leiter.
The ship sinking offers an interesting obstacle for Bond, but the only real reason for his escape from the wreckage is his plot armor. He manages to open the door, holds his breath long enough to get to the surface, and conveniently finds a nearby lifeboat just because he needs to survive to the next scene.
Bond And Paloma Interrupt A Spectre Meeting
Ana de Armas’ role in No Time to Die was a lot smaller than expected, as she only really appears in one sequence, but Craig’s Knives Out co-star makes a memorable impression with just that one sequence. Bond and de Armas’ CIA agent Paloma infiltrate a Spectre meeting being held in honor of Blofeld’s birthday, where the Heracles virus is unexpectedly used to wipe out the entire organization.
As Bond and Paloma shoot their way out of the building, this set-piece exemplifies Bond’s coolness under fire. He frisbees a waiter’s tray at the perp’s head and knocks back the drink he took from the tray before apprehending him. This sequence also provides a prime opportunity for Lashana Lynch’s Nomi to prove her mettle as the new 007.
Safin Sends A Private Army After Bond, Madeleine, And Mathilde
When Nomi’s pursuit of Ash leads her right to Bond’s location in Norway, he realizes Safin is coming after Madeleine and Mathilde. They rush out to the car and speed down the road, where they see a convoy of Land Rovers coming toward them. Bond veers off into the neighboring forest and runs the Land Rovers off the side of the road. But, as it turns out, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
Safin has sent a whole private army after Bond and his family, including more Land Rovers, a bunch of motorcycles, and a helicopter. 007 uses some nifty tricks to fend off the henchmen, like wrapping a thick cable around a few trees to trip up the bikers and pushing a crashed car onto an injured Ash, but the sequence ends in tragedy as he fails to save Madeleine and Mathilde from being captured. The look of despair in his eyes as Safin’s helicopter departs with the two loves of his life is a perfect example of Craig’s impeccable acting in this movie.
Bond Flees From Spectre Assassins
Fukunaga kicks off No Time to Die with an appropriately spectacular opening action scene. It initially seems to be the Bond franchise’s first action-free opening, as 007 visits his ex-lover Vesper’s tomb for some solemn mourning, but the anticipated spectacle soon rears its head when the tomb explodes and he’s promptly chased by gun-toting Spectre assassins. Bond makes his initial escape on one of the assassins’ motorcycles, making some impressive jumps along the way, before swapping it out for his own souped-up Aston Martin.
Bond’s antics in the Aston Martin are a welcome return to the franchise’s classic vehicular gadgets. 007 drops exploding spikes on the road and takes out a legion of henchmen by doing donuts while firing the machine guns that poke out of his headlights. Suffice to say, this sequence starts off the movie in style, with all the fun, thrills, and excitement that fans have come to expect.
Bond And Nomi Infiltrate Safin’s Headquarters
After the strange detour into serialized storytelling in Spectre, No Time to Die offers a welcome revival of the familiar episodic structure of traditional Bond movies. As usual, 007 tracks down the villain’s covert lair – in this case, an old WWII base on a remote island between Japan and Russia – and infiltrates it just in time to put a stop to their plans and kill them. Nomi deals with the nanobot factory while Bond and Madeleine seek to liberate Mathilde from Safin’s clutches.
The epic scale and explosive action beats of Bond and Nomi’s infiltration of Safin’s headquarters is a fitting finale for both No Time to Die and Craig’s entire tenure in the role of 007. It’s easily the biggest action sequence of the movie, as the climactic set-piece should be, and tops everything that came before. The sequence culminates in a stunning development never before seen in this franchise: Bond’s demise. It’s rare that a Bond movie tugs at the audience’s heartstrings, but No Time to Die manages it with 007’s emotionally charged final moments.