Warning: This article contains spoilers for No Time to Die.
Daniel Craig’s critically acclaimed tenure as James Bond has come to a wildly satisfying end with the long-delayed arrival of No Time to Die. Unlike the last movies of all the other Bond actors, Craig’s final outing as 007 has the feel of a true finale, bringing his ongoing narrative threads to a close and definitively concluding his journey.
As with any great Bond movie, No Time to Die packs more than a few surprising twists and turns. There are double-crossing agents and shocking death scenes along the way, and in its final act, No Time to Die does something no other Bond movie has ever dared to do before.
Blofeld’s Anticlimactic Death
Bond fans always expected Christoph Waltz’s role as a returning Blofeld in No Time to Die to be relatively small. Waltz’s Blofeld had already been the villain of the previous movie and Rami Malek was cast as No Time to Die’s main villain, so it seemed likely that Blofeld’s arc would be wrapped up pretty quickly.
During an interrogation, Blofeld goads Bond into strangling him and the contact kills him because Bond has been infected with the Heracles virus. This was a surprisingly anticlimactic death scene for the big bad of the Bond franchise. It’s like if Iron Man managed to accidentally kill Thanos halfway through Infinity War.
Ana De Armas’ Role Is Essentially A Cameo
Since Ana de Armas is one of the most popular rising movie stars in the world and previously appeared alongside Craig in Knives Out, a lot of fans assumed she’d have a major role in No Time to Die. But her role as CIA agent Paloma is essentially a cameo appearance, showing up in just one sequence.
Despite her limited screen time, de Armas still makes a lasting impression in the movie. Paloma is nowhere near as suave or collected as Bond; she’s reckless and inexperienced. De Armas nails the comedic nature of this role.
Felix Dies Early On
Along with M and Q and Moneypenny, Felix Leiter is a recurring character from all eras of the Bond franchise. He’s Bond’s CIA contact who provides him with crucial information. After Jeffrey Wright’s Felix was absent from both Skyfall and Spectre, 007 fans were excited for his reunion with Craig’s Bond in No Time to Die.
While it was great to see Wright’s Felix again, he’s killed off pretty early. He tracks down a retired Bond and gives him a new mission, then promptly gets killed by his own double-crossing sidekick. Thanks to Wright’s chemistry with Craig, the emotions of Felix’s death ring true.
M Is Responsible For The Villain’s Bioweapon
When Ralph Fiennes’ Mallory took over from Judi Dench’s fan-favorite incarnation of M in Spectre, he was established as a more morally ambiguous superior for Bond to answer to. In No Time to Die, M is revealed to be responsible for the villain’s bioweapon. He narrow-mindedly thought that if he coded weapons to his enemies’ DNA, it would reduce collateral damage for MI6 agents.
He’s not an evil mastermind or anything – he had good intentions with the weapon – but it was an interesting twist for Bond to have to clean up a mess made by M.
Billy Magnussen’s Goofy, Smiling CIA Agent Is A Bad Guy
Logan Ash, played by Billy Magnussen, is initially introduced as the comic relief in No Time to Die. He’s a far less suave counterpoint to Bond and Felix who smiles too much. Thanks to Magnussen’s goofy, likable charms, audiences are tricked into trusting Ash. He doesn’t seem smart or cunning enough to double-cross anybody.
And then, when Bond retrieves the human MacGuffin, Ash murders Felix and reveals himself to be in cahoots with the villain. Magnussen nails the character’s more sadistic edge once the twist is revealed and he becomes a full-blown baddie.
Bond Has A Daughter
Léa Seydoux reprises her role from Spectre as Dr. Madeleine Swann in No Time to Die, making her a rare Bond girl to appear in more than one movie. In the opening sequence, believing Madeleine has betrayed him to Blofeld, Bond breaks things off with her and the movie jumps forward a few years.
When the plot reconnects him with Madeleine, Bond learns that she has a blue-eyed daughter, Mathilde, who he strongly suspects of being his own child. In the eleventh hour, when Bond’s fate is sealed, Madeleine finally reveals that he is indeed Mathilde’s father. Giving Bond a daughter was certainly a bold move by the filmmakers – being a childless bachelor is usually crucial to his character.
Bond Dies At The End
Without a doubt, the biggest surprise in No Time to Die is that it kills off Bond. This has been a popular fan theory about the movie for a while, since it was widely publicized as Craig’s final Bond film, but it seemed highly unlikely that Eon would actually go through with it. In more than half a century, those producers have never dared to kill off Bond on-screen.
A character who has escaped certain doom as many times as James Bond needs to go out in style, and thankfully, in No Time to Die, he does. He doesn’t get shot or stabbed or something equally anticlimactic; he gets infected with a deadly flesh-eating virus, then he’s obliterated by a nuclear strike large enough to wipe out an entire island. Craig plays the scene gracefully, as Bond solemnly accepts his fate.