Daniel Craig receives a fitting end to his James Bond arc in No Time To Die, but its action-focused opening demonstrates how 007 tradition gets in the way of breaking new ground. Over five movies, the Craig era has admirably strived to update the almost 60-year-old franchise. For the most part, Craig succeeded in reinventing Ian Fleming’s beloved spy, but certain Bond tropes impede innovation.
After five years of retirement, Bond helps the CIA and MI6 avert a bioweapon threat orchestrated by Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). The former-007 meets his replacement, Nomi (Lashana Lynch), and becomes entangled in both Safin’s vendetta against SPECTRE and the terrorist’s obsession with Bond’s ex-girlfriend, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). However, before Safin’s villain plan comes to the fore, No Time To Die opens with two separate action sequences, one via flashback depicting Safin’s murder of Madeleine’s mother, and another which shatters Bond and Madeleine’s tryst in Italy.
No Time To Die‘s Italy sequence sees Bond believe Madeleine betrayed him, resulting in their breakup before cutting five years into the present. This was arguably a mistake, revealing nothing new about the characters. The film should have opened in Jamaica, getting to the heart of the story, and illustrating the series’ desire to redefine James Bond for the 21st century. Tradition dictates Bond films open with an action set-piece, but Craig’s films wrestle with a desire to eschew convention. By removing its opening, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time To Die could have set a somber tone that more accurately reflects Bond’s reckoning with his mistrust and habit of closing himself off from others, leading to a potentially more tragic arc.
Neither of the film’s two action sequences is particularly important. Madeleine already teased Safin’s attack in Spectre, providing a reason for her resentment of guns and growing apart from her villainous father. No Time To Die didn’t need to visualize this event, as it merely slowed the narrative. She is supposedly traumatized by the childhood attack yet doesn’t even recognize Safin when they are reunited. The flashback might have been more effective had a condensed version been used during this scene – particularly Safin’s act of saving Madeleine – to refresh her memory as the horror comes flooding back. Meanwhile, the series has already made clear that Bond is haunted by Vesper Lynd’s (Eva Green) death, arguably rendering his visit to her grave in Matera superfluous. Finally accepting her passing would have helped bring his story full circle, except this plot thread is swiftly dropped to make way for traditional Bond heroics.
Bond and Madeleine’s breakup was inevitable and No Time to Die‘s opening simply prolongs this development. Had the film simply begun in Jamaica, Bond’s arc would have been more poignant. Craig’s 007 struggles to reject his violence and cynical nature, which, naturally, would have harmed his connection to Madeleine. Having SPECTRE fool Bond into believing he was betrayed provides Bond with an easy excuse to overlook his own flaws. His love for Vesper, the habit of constantly looking over his shoulder, and Madeleine’s connections to SPECTRE were each enough to destroy the relationship. Opening with an isolated Bond wasting his retirement because of his own doing could have provided a greater driving force for him to change his ways and reconsider previous mistakes like letting Madeleine go.
Immediately introducing the new 007 and a changing world would have exemplified the franchise’s desire to move forward, while propelling Bond on a journey to find a new place for himself. He needs something to live for and a subdued, action-free opening would have underscored the question of what an assassin does when their skills are no longer required. No Time To Die’s opening undermines its message about leaving the past behind by giving Bond tangible villains to kill instead of confronting his personal demons.
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