Bond’s Death Would Be Better Without This No Time To Die Scene
Dorah #Dorah
No Time to Die is a fitting end to Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond, but his death scene could have considerably more impact without one particular scene. The 2021 movie was Craig’s swan song, as it cleverly ties all the previous movies together and elevates the character to more than just an invincible, charming, British spy. There are more stakes in the movie than in any previous James Bond release, as Bond sacrifices himself for the greater good, saying goodbye to Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and never getting to see his daughter, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) again.
No Time to Die’s ending sees M launch a missile strike to successfully destroy the whole island and erase the Heracles virus from existence, and Bond opens the doors of Lyutsifer Safin’s (Rami Malek) island so he can escape. When Bond opens the doors, Safin reappears, closes the doors, and infects Bond with Heracles, the programmable DNA-targeting nanobot. Bond then shoots Safin dead, reopens the silo doors, and reaches the top of the island where he has his last words with Madeleine and sacrifices himself when the missiles hit. However, because of his final interaction with Safin, Bond’s sacrifice doesn’t make total sense.
No Time To Die Muddles Bond’s Sacrifice Motivations
The scene of Bond encountering Safin ultimately cancels out the following scene of the spy trying to escape, and the movie only needed one of those scenes to clearly define Bond’s sacrifice. In the final scene between Safin and Bond, Safin closes the silo doors so that Bond can’t escape, but he also infects him with the virus. But there’s no point in trying to keep Bond from escaping once he’s been infected by Heracles. And it makes even less sense that Bond reopens the doors and continues onto the roof of the building. It creates a huge plot hole in the most emotional Bond moment yet.
Bond sacrificed himself so that Madeleine and Mathilde would be safe, but he still tried escaping after he was infected by Heracles. It would have played much better if Bond’s final scene with Safin was completely removed. James Bond dies when the missiles hit, as he only had nine minutes to get off the island from when M called in the missile strike, so due to the lack of time to escape, he was always going to die regardless. Bond’s death could have played out the same way and have been more impactful without the previous scene.
Bond’s Sacrifice Highlights No Time To Die’s Villain Problem
If the entire scene with Safin was removed, Bond’s death would have worked much better for the movie, and it’d simply be down to not having enough time to get off the island. However, this would create another major problem for the movie, as Safin wouldn’t have been a key factor in Bond’s death. That would be the case whether or not the scene is removed. Even though Bond was infected with Heracles, he would have died anyway. Safin’s plan makes no sense and was clearly shoehorned into the narrative and Bond’s story arc. As a result, No Time to Die continues a long-running trend in Craig’s Bond movies, which is underwhelming villains with nonsensical plans.