With No Time to Die sporting a cast of new and familiar faces, it's a fitting swan song for the Daniel Craig era.
In No Time to Die, James Bond faces his greatest challenge yet. He's no longer part of MI6 and is hoping to live a relatively quiet life with his love, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). But his past catches up to him in the form of old friend and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who asks James to track down a Russian scientist, Obruchev (David Dencik), who has gone missing with a highly dangerous technology. The Americans want it, the Brits want it, and so does a mysterious new adversary by the name of Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek).
Soon, Bond is pulled back into the world of intrigue and espionage when they learn that the technology is even more dangerous than they initially thought. With the help of the MI6 team of Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw), and M (Ralph Fiennes) and new, brash 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch), James Bond must use all of his skills and resources to stop one of the most dangerous adversaries he's ever faced. Here are the biggest spoilers for No Time to Die.
Safin Killed Madeleine's Mother (But Let Madeleine Live)
Madeleine Swann has always been a bit of an enigma. It was revealed in 2015's Spectre that she was the daughter of Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a longtime high-ranking member of the villainous SPECTRE organization. During the time he was an assassin, SPECTRE ordered him to wipe out an entire family of toxicologists and Mr. White does, with only the little boy surviving but becoming permanently scarred and disfigured from the horrifically painful nerve agent Mr. White used against the family.
That little boy grew up to be No Time to Die's villain Lyutsifer Safin – who definitely isn't Dr. No, despite some theorizing that he might be. He later exacts his revenge against White by tracking down White's wife and a young Madeleine in their safehouse in Norway when White is off on another mission. After murdering her mother and attempting to kill Madeleine, young Madeleine turns the tables and shoots Safin point-blank, seemingly killing him. While dragging his body toward the frozen lake to dispose of it, Safin comes to and chases Madeline until she falls through the ice. Rather than killing her, however, Safin feels a moment of connection with the little girl and saves her, instead, before disappearing again.
Safin's Technology Is A Nanobot Virus
It's initially unclear who Obruchev is working for and who owns the lab, but it quickly becomes apparent that Obruchev has turned traitor in No Time to Die and is willing to sell out to Safin and give him the dangerous technology. It's discovered that what he's working on is a sort of poison virus, but it's not biological. Instead, it's made of nanobots that are programmed to a specific person's genetic code. The technology has gone awry, however. Instead of just targeting that individual, the nanobots went rogue and instead target everyone in that person's genetic line, as well, should they become infected, and infection only needs a fleeting touch. Once the nanobot virus is in a person's blood, it can never be gotten rid of, so a person can carry it for years and never be harmed, provided the nanobots aren't targeted for their DNA.
SPECTRE Is Destroyed By The Virus
In a shocking twist, the entirety of SPECTRE's upper ranks are wiped out by Safin and his nanotech virus. Bond, Nomi, and a CIA agent ally, Paloma (Ana de Armas) are there to bear witness after infiltrating a giant SPECTRE gala in Havana, Cuba. Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) had been working behind the scenes and knew Bond would be there, and ordered Obruchev to program the nanobots to target Bond, killing him. But Safin betrays Blofeld, his superior, and instead orders Obruchev to reprogram the nanobots to kill all the high-ranking SPECTRE in the room. They die horribly and quickly, but Bond is spared. Suddenly, Safin is a free agent and now the most powerful villain in the world, and Blofeld is the last remaining member of SPECTRE.
James Bond Finally Kills Blofeld (Accidentally)
Blofeld surviving, however, does not last for much longer. As it turns out, Madeleine Swann is the only psychologist that Blofeld will agree to meet with. However, just before Madeleine leaves to meet with Blofeld for their session, Safin corners her in her office and reveals who he is. He instructs Madeleine to spray a perfume he gives her on herself before meeting Blofeld and to make sure to touch him during their session, threatening the life of James Bond, whom she still loves, if she doesn't. Bond notices how nervous Madeline seems while waiting for Blofeld to be taken out of his cell and transported to the meeting area. Suddenly, Madeleine panics and James grabs her wrist as she turns to run before letting her go.
Inevitably, as one might have anticipated, Blofeld gets into Bond's head and Bond grabs him by the throat, choking him–but lets go well before he does any lasting damage. However, just a moment after Bond leaves and is debriefing with Tanner (Rory Kinnear) in the outer observation room, they look through the glass to see that Blofeld is dead, and seemingly of the same nanobot tech that had killed most of SPECTRE in Havana. With Blofeld's No Time to Die death (only the second time in the Bond franchise), SPECTRE is officially wiped out. It's then that James Bond realizes that Madeleine must have been wearing the nanotech virus programmed for Blofeld, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
"Project Heracles" Was Initiated By M
After pressure mounts, M reveals that the Russian scientist Obruchev had been working for him, and the secret lab one of MI6's. The nanobot technology was something M had first greenlit under the codename Project Heracles, so named for the greatest of Greek heroes as it was meant to be the greatest of MI6's weapons. M's intentions with it were noble, if shortsighted. By utilizing nanobot technology and programming it to focus on a single target, Ralph Fiennes' M envisioned a world in which MI6 agents could neutralize and eliminate dangerous despots, criminal overlords, arms dealers, and other bad actors without the risk of collateral damage in the form of innocent civilians or MI6 agents losing their own lives. Once Safin made with Obruchev and infiltrated the project, however, the nanobots were then programmed to wipe out entire lines of shared DNA, a horrific turn of events that M had never anticipated–though he should have.
Felix Leiter Is Betrayed & Killed
In a shocking turn of events, Felix Leiter, James Bond's longtime friend and ally, is killed for the first time ever in the James Bond franchise. He came close to death in 1989's License to Kill after being mauled by a shark, but survived. But the loyal Felix finally meets his end in No Time to Die. Leiter is first paired up with State Department liaison, new character Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen) in order to track down the missing Obruchev and his tech. Once Bond and Paloma successfully snag the scientist and his weapon at the SPECTRE gala in Havana, they rendezvous with Felix and Ash aboard a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. But Ash betrays them and reveals he's in league with Safin. He kidnaps Obruchev and his technology, shoots Felix during the ensuing fight, shuts him and Bond in the hold, then blows up the boat, which quickly begins to sink. Knowing he's dying from the gut shot, Felix implores his best friend to leave him and make his death count, and Bond manages to escape, albeit with an incredibly heavy heart.
No Time To Die Confirms Q Is LGBTQ+
In a sweet moment that brought a welcome bit of lightness to the movie, No Time to Die confirmed that this version of James Bond's Q is LGBTQ+. Actor Ben Whishaw is openly gay, and Q was also revealed to be in a moment that was smartly without fanfare. James Bond and Moneypenny visit Q at his home without M's knowledge in order to ask Q to hack the flash drive that Bond had managed to take from Obruchev. Unfortunately, they barge in on poor Q without invitation, and the frazzled quartermaster initially refuses to get involved as he has a date who is soon to arrive, saying "he'll" be there within a half-hour. Of course, the ever-inquisitive Q is too tempted by the puzzle of the flash drive to say no, and thoughts of his date are soon set aside. But it's a nice nod to Whishaw and the LGTBQ+ community as a whole to make Q canonically gay/bisexual in the Craig era while at the same time offering a glimpse into the personal life of the brilliant tech whiz, something rarely offered to audiences of James Bond movies.
Nomi Gives Bond The 007 Code Number Back
A major point of contention Daniel Craig's James Bond would go out as 007 will be pleased.
James Bond & Madeleine Swann Have A Daughter
In what is perhaps the most surprising twist in No Time to Die, it's revealed that James Bond has a daughter with Madeleine he never knew about. Bond tracks Madeleine down at her father's old cabin in Norway and the two have a heated conversation that ends in an equally heated kiss as they realize they still love one another. Their moment is interrupted by the arrival of a little girl walking down the stairs–Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet), Madeleine's 5-year-old daughter. Bond is rightfully gobsmacked, and it's clear he believes Mathilde has to be his, prompting Madeleine to snap at him, "She's not yours." She says it again even more emphatically when James points out the little girl has the same piercing blue eyes that he does, and the matter is seemingly settled.
James Bond Dies For Madeleine And Mathilde
In a movie full of surprises and enormous new entries into James Bond lore, James Bond himself dies. Rather, he sacrifices himself. Safin has located his headquarters and laboratory inside an abandoned World War II compound, complete with heavy steel doors that protect against all manner of artillery. When M calls in an airstrike to devastated the island and Safin's nanobot farm, Bond realizes that he'll have to go to the control room and open the doors himself in order for the missiles to have any impact. After seeing Madeleine and Mathilde off safely with Nomi, Bond promises to be right behind him as soon as he opens the doors and has M call in the airstrike. However, there's a problem with the doors and Bond has to race back to reopen them as the clock ticks down and the missiles due to land at any moment.
It's then that he runs into Safin. The two fight in Safin's poison garden, and, in the cruelest twist of fate, Safin smashes a glass vial of nanobots across Bond's face before being killed–nanobots that are programmed with Madeleine's DNA. In an utterly heartbreaking moment, Daniel Craig era of James Bond. It's hard to imagine the next James Bond going out in a way just as meaningful.
