Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead For No Time To Die
Rami Malek’s Safin may not be the only villain in release date delays, No Time To Die finally arrived in September 2021. The final outing for Daniel Craig’s grounded iteration of 007, his fifth outing has upended what is expected from Bond movies and broken many unspoken rules of the franchise.
By far the biggest break from the 007 formula found in No Time To Die comes in the form of the movie’s ending. In the climax, Craig’s James Bond dies saving the lives of innocent civilians, his love interest, and his young child. However, that’s not the only major Bond movie rule that No Time To Die’s shocking ending breaks.
Depending on how viewers read the ending's events, it can be argued that Craig’s last outing as 007 ends with Rami Malek’s Bond villain Safin winning and pulling off his evil plan successfully, despite the spy’s sacrifice. Although the terrorist claims he wants to release his experimental nanobots on the world’s population and thus kill untold numbers of civilians in the process, this goal comes second to the character’s single-minded quest for revenge throughout the rest of the story. If viewers assume that Safin is willing to sacrifice his nanobot plan and his life to get revenge on Madeleine—a vengeance-fueled mindset not unheard of in a Bond villain—then there is another reading of his evil scheme's true nature. Namely, Safin's nanobot plot may have failed because keeping Bond and Madeleine apart was a more important victory for the villain.
Safin’s No Time To Die Plan Explained
Safin’s plan begins long before the story of Daniel Craig’s Bond to his hideaway in No Time To Die’s dramatic ending.
Safin Killed Blofeld and Destroyed SPECTRE
Safin (via Obruchev) uses the nanobots to kill almost every SPECTRE operative in one fell swoop, accidentally saving Bond’s life in the process. He soon blackmails Madeleine into infecting Blofeld with the same nanobots, proving that at this point in the story—even after offing every other SPECTRE operative—his primary interest is revenge, and the world-threatening scheme is secondary to this end. Although Blofeld is instead killed by Bond unintentionally infecting him rather than Madeleine, the net result is the same—the villain dies, his organization is permanently destroyed and Safin’s vengeance against SPECTRE and Mr. White is secured. Blofeld (revealed to be Bond’s foster brother in Spectre’s silliest twist) ends up being Safin’s true nemesis more so than 007’s and dies because of a revenge plot in which Bond is little more than a pawn. This fan theory argues, however, that even Bond’s demise plays into Safin’s plan.
Releasing The Nanobots Was Never Safin’s Main Goal
Although he threatens to flood the world with his nanobots and kill millions, Safin’s main aim until this point is retribution and he secures it by killing Madeleine and Mathilde's fathers. Safin's face-off with Bond in his island hideout sees Bond save millions of civilians, but it still leaves Madeleine’s daughter without a father and Madeleine without her love, thus completing Safin's revenge against Mr. White. Many traditional Bond villains like A View To A Kill’s Max Zorin had zany schemes that involving threatening much of the world, but few have had such a close connection with Bond as Safin. Rami Malek’s villain is less concerned with Bond himself and more interested in the fact Bond is Mathilde’s father and Madeleine’s Love interest, thus meaning Mr. White's daughter could still have a full life that the villain himself never had. In the end, Safin’s plan succeeds despite never releasing the nanobots because, despite his stereotypical Bond villain's hopes of world domination, Safin's main vendetta is against Mr. White, and Bond's death ensures it will now last another generation.
Safin’s Aim Was Revenge On Madeleine
Safin let Madeleine live so that he could ensure that, not only would she know the pain of losing her parents as he had, but she would know the pain of losing her love, too. 007’s emotional connection to Madeleine made her more of a threat to Bond than Blofeld or Safin, neither of whom the spy would have been willing to sacrifice his life for. However, all it took was Safin infecting Bond with nanobots designed to kill Mathilde and Madeleine for 007 to kill himself and ensure that Mathilde lost her father, solidifying Safin’s planned revenge on her family. Granted, Safin was only able to kill Bond and not Madeleine as well, but Madeleine is left thoroughly heartbroken and Safin has already killed Blofeld and destroyed SPECTRE by this stage. Thus, his revenge plot is solidly secured.
As a result, killing even one of Mathilde's parents was essentially a victory lap for this rare Bond villain who (almost completely) wins in the end. Like Silva’s Skyfall plan, Safin’s gambit in No Time To Die is a case of the movie’s Bond villain being less connected to 007 and more connected to a character from his personal life. While this may result in the villain’s death at 007’s hands, it also means that No Time To Die’s Safin still ultimately won, giving up on his nanobots and instead focusing on ensuring his vengeance against his parent's killers lasted another generation. It may have meant ending the lives of both men, but Safin's plan was still a success in the villain's twisted since it kept Madeleine and Bond apart (although he may have preferred to see Madeleine's love survive, but be unable to ever touch her again).
