With a megalomaniac bent on world domination, a gadget-laden Aston Martin enjoying globetrotting adventures, and a finale in which Bond infiltrates the villain’s secret lair, No Time to Die is a welcome throwback to the classic James Bond formula. The Daniel Craig movies have deviated from the series’ traditions, but his last outing as 007 has brought it full circle.
Still, despite the formulaic plotting of No Time to Die, it also does a few things that no Bond movie has ever done before. From giving somebody else the 007 callsign to putting Bond in a long-term relationship, No Time to Die is a Bond movie like no other.
8 Bond Isn’t 007
One of the major breaks from tradition in No Time to Die is that, throughout the movie, “007” doesn’t refer to James Bond. In half a century’s worth of Bond movies, the name Bond has been inextricably tied to his 007 code-number, but No Time to Die has confirmed that it’s “just a number” given to the seventh 00 agent in line.
Following the opening set-piece of No Time to Die, Bond retires from MI6 and his 007 callsign is given to a new 00 agent named Nomi, played brilliantly by Lashana Lynch.
7 There’s A Prologue Before The Opening Action Scene
Every Bond movie has a pre-title sequence, but No Time to Die has a pre-pre-title sequence. Before Bond contends with Spectre agents in Italy, director Cary Joji Fukunaga uses a haunting prologue to fill in the backstories of both Madeleine and Safin. Safin arrives at Madeleine’s childhood home to assassinate her father and ends up killing her mother instead.
While there’s a lot of gun-toting action in this scene, it’s closer to a horror movie than a spy thriller, thanks to its jump scares, Safin’s creepy mask, and a young Madeleine getting trapped in a frozen lake.
6 The Pre-Title Sequence Is 20 Minutes Long
Ever since 007 blew up a drug laboratory before the opening credits of Goldfinger, every Bond movie has featured a pre-title action sequence. Starting with the Union Jack parachute jump in The Spy Who Loved Me, these sequences became a showcase for mind-blowing stunts.
These sequences are usually only a few minutes long. The World is Not Enough had the longest cold open at over 14 minutes, but No Time to Die left that in its dust with an unwieldy 20-minute sequence before the opening titles.
5 Bond Is In A Relationship
Traditionally, Bond gets a new love interest in every movie. Sylvia Trench appeared in both Dr. No and From Russia with Love and 007 got married in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but he’s usually characterized as a bachelor who enjoys a new no-strings-attached fling every time he goes around the world on a covert mission.
At the beginning of No Time to Die, Bond is still in a relationship with Madeleine, his romantic interest from Spectre. They go on a five-year break when he thinks she betrayed him for Blofeld, but they eventually reunite.
4 Blofeld Is Killed On-Screen
As hard as it is to believe, the Bond series had never killed Blofeld on-screen before No Time to Die. His fate was left ambiguous in Diamonds Are Forever as he was last seen trapped in an escape pod, swinging into a control room. Roger Moore’s Bond dropped Blofeld into a chimney stack in the goofy opening sequence of For Your Eyes Only, but that’s the closest thing to an on-screen Blofeld kill.
That all changed in No Time to Die when Bond goes to interrogate Blofeld in Belmarsh while he’s unwittingly infected with the Heracles virus. He strangles Blofeld, killing him with skin-on-skin contact, making No Time to Die the first Bond film to explicitly kill off Blofeld on-screen.
3 M Is Linked To The Villain’s Plan
M doesn’t tend to have any direct involvement in the plot of a Bond movie. The traditional plot formula sees M giving Bond his mission briefing and then sending him on his way. But in No Time to Die, M is linked to the villain’s plan.
The bioweapon that Safin plans to use to establish a new world order, Heracles, was developed by M at a secret government lab in a bid to reduce collateral damage for MI6 agents.
2 Bond Has A Daughter
When Bond first meets Madeleine’s daughter and notices her blue eyes, he assumes he’s her father, which Madeleine promptly shuts down. Of course, it turns out she actually is his daughter. Throughout the twentysomething films in this series, Bond has never fathered a child before.
Giving Bond a daughter didn’t just deepen the emotional resonance of the story; it also raised the stakes of the finale as she was kidnapped by the villain. Usually, Bond just has to get into the villain’s lair, plant a bunch of explosives, and get out. But this time, he had to save his kid, too.
1 Bond Dies At The End
The biggest, boldest way that No Time to Die deviates from Bond movie tradition is that it ends with the death of James Bond. This is a character who has escaped certain death countless times before, but when he found himself stranded on a remote island with a nuclear strike on the way, he gracefully accepted his fate.
Craig was already leaving behind some huge shoes for the next Bond actor to fill, but the sense of finality in No Time to Die will make rebooting the franchise particularly challenging.
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