No Time to Die isn’t just a great Bond movie, it’s a great movie. Period. Cary Joji Fukunaga has managed to bring together all of the disparate elements that make up James Bond and string them together with spectacular style. The result is a movie that breaks from tradition and actually bids farewell to Daniel Craig in what is his strongest outing as the character. (Sorry Skyfall!)
The James Bond franchise is a unique one in the history of cinema in that audiences seemingly want more of the same with every new movie. So much so that there is something of a checklist by which we judge these movies. The girls. The gadgets. The cars. Does the villain have a cool lair? What was the pre-credits sequence like? Can you sing the theme song in the shower? Is the henchman sufficiently loathsome? The good Bond movies do all of that very well. The great ones do it with feeling.
Once More, With Feeling
When we last left our hero, he had walked away from MI6, choosing Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) over a life of duty to Queen and country. His escape, however, is short-lived. And in a mirror to what happens in Casino Royale, Bond is once again made patently aware that there are no happily ever afters for men like him.
And then, when a secret weapon with world ending potential is stolen, Bond is reluctantly called out of retirement and dragged into a revenge play with ties to both his and Madeleine’s sordid histories. This time it’s personal. (Kinda like it was in Skyfall. And Spectre. Only more so. Okay, this time it’s really, really personal.) And the way Fukunaga blends the romantic, sensitive, and all-too-human Bond with the globe trotting, Action Man, superhero Bond is absolutely masterful.
Oh, please, James! Spare me the Freud. I might as well ask you if all the vodka martinis ever silence the screams of all the men you’ve killed. Or if you find forgiveness in the arms of all those willing women for all the dead ones you failed to protect.
Alec Trevelyan, GoldenEye
The Craig movies have always concerned themselves with plumbing the depths of the character’s emotional life. It is a thread that began in Licence to Kill, was alluded to briefly in GoldenEye, before becoming the primary concern of this era. This Bond has never been afraid to show his feelings. He may be a cad, but he is no misogynist. And he keeps falling in love, no matter how hard he tries not to.
It is a welcome addition to the franchise, a side of Bond we’ve never before seen, and an arc that this movie completes with finesse, and just a little bit of surprise to boot.
In case you were wondering…
A little bit of history on how we got here.
After the lukewarm response towards Spectre, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson decided to shake things up by bringing in Danny Boyle and John Hodge to take on the reins for James Bond’s landmark 25th movie. Now Boyle had never directed a major blockbuster before, but his brief take on Bond during the opening ceremony for the London Olympics may have planted the seeds that this was a creative collaboration that could work. “Creative differences” caused a split (Boyle’s version was apparently too full of “crazy madcap ideas”), which lead to the the return of Craig stalwarts Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and the hiring of director Cary Joji Fukunaga (best known for directing Beasts of No Nation and his work on True Detective). Phoebe Waller Bridge would also later be hired to “punch up” the script.
Production delays and pandemic lockdowns meant that this would be the longest gap between Bond movies since Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. The movie, which was supposed to premiere in April 2020, was then shifted to November, and again to April 2021, before finally landing in U.K. cinemas on September 30.
Rewind, Review, and Retcon
Every Bond movie, for better or for worse, is a response to the last one. The slow burn that was From Russia with Love would give us Goldfinger. The Roger Moore movies seem to be trying to either make up for the insanity of Moonraker or recreate the magic of The Spy Who Loved Me. And Brosnan’s Bond just kept escalating to the point of ridiculousness. (People seem to really get a kick out of that remote controlled BMW, so let’s have an invisible Aston Martin Vanquish!)
In that vein, No Time to Die is very much a response to the overwrought and clumsy mess that was Spectre. In trying to build out the mythology of James Bond, that movie, while ambitious in scope, made some utterly stupid decisions with regards to the character’s motivations. It is something that this movie cleverly walks back in order to give us a far more focussed story. (There was zero mention of Blofeld and Bond being long lost “brothers.” Thank God.)
Even the way Fukunaga frames Craig reflects this. Where Connery and Moore swagger, Craig stalks. The way the camera follows Bond through the movie’s various action set pieces is both graceful and poetic. From the breathtaking opening sequence, to a balletic gunfight in Cuba (with both Craig and Ana de Armas beautifully in sync), and a brutal jungle showdown, Fukunaga doesn’t just go for visceral thrills but uses it to build character and motivation. Here, Bond isn’t being constantly told that what he is. And neither are we. Instead, we see all of it play out. We witness his drive, his devotion, his ruthlessness, and his ability to love.
But the reason this movie stands out over the 24 that have come before is because there is real danger here. The one thing that has been missing from almost every previous Bond movie is a genuine threat. We fear for James in No Time to Die. Watching this, we have no idea if everything will be okay in the end. Which made this experience all the more thrilling. Fukunaga’s greatest feat might be that he’s given us a Bond movie with real stakes.
Shaken and Stirred
All of this is further enhanced by some incredible performances. Rami Malek is pitch perfect as the magnificently named Lyutsifer Safin. He is quietly menacing. He is absolutely terrifying. Ana de Armas is gorgeous, and witty, and in it all too briefly. And I’d totally watch a spinoff with Lashana Lynch’s Nomi.
And then there’s the returning crew of Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Whishaw, and Naomie Harris. All of whom are bright, and energetic, and so insanely watchable.
It is, however, Daniel Craig’s commitment to the part that makes this movie sing. Bond may be colder and wearier, but you can still see the spark in Craig’s eyes. He looks and feels familiar, but he still manages to bring a freshness to his portrayal. Especially in that third act.
God knows I’m going to miss him.
Thank You, Next
Change is something that has always been built into the James Bond franchise. Ever since Roger Moore’s drastically different take on the character, these movies have always evolved to reflect the times and the trends. Moonraker was a direct response to Star Wars. Real world geopolitics have seen villains shift from the Russians, to the Chinese, to corporate megalomaniacs. And Timothy Dalton’s celibacy was due to the AIDS epidemic at the time.
It’s why the franchise continues to survive and thrive. It is why these movies remain one of a handful of non-Marvel, non-superhero offerings that still get the world talking.
No Time to Die is a movie that arrived with quite the burden. Besides having to save cinemas and moviegoing as we know it, the movie is also saddled with the responsibility of setting up a new era of Bond movies. And I don’t mean that in an MCU-everything-is-connected sort of way. I mean that it will influence what happens next. The way the awful campness of A View to a Kill lead to a more dour take by Timothy Dalton. The way the sheer excess of Die Another Day resulted in Casino Royale stripping Bond down to its bare essentials.
With No Time to Die Cary Joji Fukunaga has made a movie that is very aware of what it is and what it needs to be. It is big and worldly. It is exciting. It is funny. But most of all, it understands that these movies weren’t cool because they were great. They were great because they were cool.
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