No Time to Die marks Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond and gives him an emotional send-off. Spoiler alert for those who haven’t watched the film yet because James Bond literally dies in No Time to Die. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga recently spoke to Empire about the film’s bold ending. Fukunaga revealed that No Time to Die’s ending was decided beforehand, and the story was developed around it. “In my first meeting with Daniel and the producers, they said that’s how they wanted the story. They felt that was an ending. I was like, ‘Well, it’s a result of an ending, but we don’t know what happens. It has to be earned,’” Fukunaga said.
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Daniel Craig also confirmed last month that his iteration of James Bond was always going to die. Before joining Casino Royale, Craig insisted that his Bond be killed off when he’s ready to retire. The issue was also speculated to be the reason behind Danny Boyle’s departure from No Time to Die. Boyle and co-writer John Hodge refused to kill James Bond, which caused a rift with the producers. But it’s just a rumor.
Ultimately, Bond ends up dying, as after being poisoned by Saffin (Rami Malek), he sacrifices himself to save his family – Madeline (Lea Seydoux) and daughter Mathilde. Fukunaga further revealed that he didn’t want Bond’s death to feel generic. It had to be fully fleshed out and satisfying, otherwise it would have only angered the fans. Interestingly, Fukunaga and the writing team were still working on the specifics of Bond’s demise when filming on No Time to Die commenced – which explains the extensive reshoots and the lengthy runtime. “I was really struggling, because it couldn’t be conventional action. It couldn’t just be a demonic device, it had to be tied into the central theme of the story,” Fukunaga said.
No Time to Die ended up being the longest Bond movie ever, clocking in at 163 minutes. It has been called bloated and tonally conflictive, but even so, the additional character development aided in making Craig’s swan song more emotional. Plus, the cast’s performance, combined with Hans Zimmer’s score, makes Bond’s send-off in No Time to Die a real tear-jerker, even though he gets bombed to death. Speaking of which, Fukunaga said that he didn’t want the ending to be ambiguous.
A little ambiguity could have come in handy to explain the origins of the next James Bond. The producers have confirmed that Bond will return. But how? We’ll find out when the next James Bond is announced. For now, make sure to check out No Time to Die. The film stars Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, and Ana de Armas. As of December 21, No Time to Die has grossed $774 million worldwide and is available on home media as well as on streaming.
I wasn’t trying to be obtuse with it. I wanted to be clear with it. But I wanted it to be tasteful. We didn’t want that shot in Terminator 2 where you see Sarah Connor turning into bones. But we wanted to show that he wasn’t going to jump down a sewer at the last second. So that wider shot of the island being pummelled was a mixture of macro and micro. The full effect is, ‘Yes, he’s gone, but he succeeded in making sure none of that weapons would go on into the future.’
