James Bond is Dead.
Long Live James Bond.
30 November 2023 08:12
Travel back in time with us to late 2021. No Time To Die is out in cinemas worldwide. You’re finally sitting in your seat with popcorn in hand, having waited six long years for this very moment. You’ve got a wide grin on your face as does every other Bond fan sitting in the packed room. The lights dim and the James Bond theme starts playing as Daniel Craig enters the frame. Bond fires his PPK and the gunbarrel goes… white?
That should have told us something. The gunbarrel has always turned to red in every previous film. This time was different: Bond wasn’t facing an enemy per se… he was facing death itself. Sure enough 2 hours and 34 minutes later Bond meets his end by a barrage of missiles in a bright flash of white.
The finality of it was as clear as day. Fukunaga and the editors chose to have the camera linger on the incoming wave of explosions which we see completely envelop Bond. However, this didn’t stop some Bond fans from assuming he had narrowly escaped in those last milliseconds via a deus ex machina plot device. Lazy writing aside, who could blame anyone for thinking this? Bond’s ability to evade certain death had always been one of the character’s most defining tropes.
So there you were in 2021 walking out of the cinema along with millions of other Bond fans, having witnessed what we previously thought was the unthinkable: James Bond's death. While most fans applauded the bold decision, others rejected it entirely. All of this discourse led to some valid questions… Firstly, why did the filmmakers decide to do it? Secondly, how can James Bond possibly return now that he’s dead, which we’ll explore in PART II of our series.
To predict how the producers will move forward it’s important to understand the reason for killing off Daniel Craig’s Bond in the first place. The seed was planted as early as 2006 at the Berlin premiere for Casino Royale. As they left the red carpet event they could tell from the excitement that they had a hit on their hands. So Craig turned to producer Barbara Broccoli and asked how many more they’d be making together to which she answered four. Craig then replied, “Okay. Then can I kill him off?” Barbara said yes without hesitating.
While it may seem far-fetched that they’d been planning his death all along, it does ring true with the new direction the filmmakers wanted to go starting with Casino Royale. They wanted to drop the old clichés and instead reinvent the concept of a Bond film. Killing Bond can therefore be viewed as the ultimate end point of such a reinvention.
In other words, if they were going out of their way to reimagine the character then it makes sense to go the whole way. This reinvention was the reason Craig was drawn to taking the role in the first place. They found the status quo stale and irrelevant in a post-9/11 world. Their priority for all five of his films was to always bring something fresh to the table. So in hindsight his death was the inevitable conclusion because it was the only unexplored avenue that was left.
A minority of fans predicted that Bond would meet his end in No Time To Die. The earliest suspicions actually began before SPECTRE when it was thought Bond would die in that film. This was partly due to the narrative that neatly wrapped together all previous storylines and partly due to Daniel Craig’s negative comments in the press, which were albeit blown out of proportion.
This was mostly forgotten until Bond 25 entered pre-production. Prior to the press conference in Jamaica there was a tentative title: A Reason To Die. According to MI6 HQ the title was pulled last minute after a discussion between the producers and the studio. The verdict was that it was “weak” and “not Bond enough.” Although perhaps it was scrapped for being too on the nose. They then pivoted in the other direction with the rather ironic title No Time To Die.
Even with the new title’s misdirection some fans remained sceptical throughout the marketing campaign as it was teased as “the mission that changes everything” and the era’s conclusion. In interviews Daniel Craig openly stated it would be his last but remained coy on the details.
It wasn’t until a while after the film’s release that Craig was allowed to openly discuss the character’s death. He gave two main reasons why it was important to bookend his run with Bond’s death. The first reason is that he understood the franchise was going to be rebooted regardless and this allows the filmmakers to reset more cleanly. To “go find another Bond and go find another story” without having fans question what Craig’s Bond is currently up to.
The second reason was personal – after more than 15 years of inhabiting the role Craig felt it was time to move on and never return. The death forces the producers to go with another actor. It was essentially a guarantee from both sides that No Time To Die had to be the end of his tenure.
How exactly James Bond should die was a daunting task for the filmmakers. The death was already a certainty in the earliest script but it wasn’t until they brought on director Cary Joji Fukunaga at the end of 2018 that they began having conversations about the best way to go about it.
There were many iterations for his death such as blowing him up inside a rocket ship or being hit by a stray “anonymous bullet” during a shootout. However, the filmmakers knew that it had to be something bigger and more meaningful. A quick, random incident wouldn’t have the same weight to it and therefore wouldn’t resonate emotionally.
So they brainstormed elaborate ideas that would place him in an impossible situation where there’s simply no option for survival. In Craig’s own words it required a “situation of tragedy” which is appropriate considering every previous mission has involved some form of tragedy. (Looking back at his filmography one could argue his whole arc from start to finish is the story of a tragedy.)
Craig also said the death required a “greater force” which became Safin’s bioweapon. The infection means he would kill Madeleine or Mathilde with the slightest touch. All he wants at this point in his life is to be with those he loves and since that’s no longer a possibility there’s nothing worth living for. Particularly since he realises that his survival perpetually endangers their lives.
So in the end Bond chose the noble, selfless route. And just like Bond, Daniel Craig seems to be at peace with the death, saying: “the sacrifice that he makes in the movie was for love and there’s no greater sacrifice. So it seemed like a good thing to end on.” Barbara Broccoli called it “the ultimate sacrifice” and added that it was “very appropriate because people in this line of work put themselves at risk all the time.”
This also brings up a rather poetic undertone to his death, since the missile strike was not only Bond’s own idea but it was then ordered by M and fired by the British Navy. In other words, it was death by friendly fire. His profession, his boss and his country killed him. It’s as if the universe finally caught on to the fact that Bond had outlived his life expectancy as a double-O and had him pay the price for every decision in his life leading up to that moment.
Whether or not you agree with the filmmakers’ decision to kill Bond, one has to admit that it was a very bold creative decision which is rare for films these days. Studios have been playing it safe with existing IPs to ensure that they can be milked for eternity. Thankfully the Broccolis continue to have full creative control over the James Bond franchise and were able to take such a daring risk. After all, killing the main hero could’ve harmed its box office potential. Yet despite this leap of faith No Time To Die exceeded expectations and will forever be remembered in cinema history.