No Time To Die – A Most Complex of Endings
Of all James Bond movies, the No Time To Die ending is one that throws up most confusion among Bond fans. It was the final outing for Daniel Craig, the rebooted version of the world’s most sophisticated spy.
A deeply personal chapter for James Bond, the movie Bond 25 presents a narrative both engaging and poignant. The plot thickens when the Lyutsifer Safin abducts Madeleine Swann and her daughter Mathilde, drawing Bond into a desperate mission to save them.
Teaming up with Nomi, they mount an attack on Safin’s fortress, a chilling vestige of World War Two, and the stage is set for an explosive, emotion-filled climax, and one of the most poignant endings to any Bond movie.
How The Ending Plays Out…
After Safin has kidnapped Madeleine Swann and Mathilde. Safin uses them as leverage, hoping to manipulate Bond to come to his island fortress.
With Agent 007, Nomi, Bond storms the fortress, and they take out a few of Safin’s lackeys before Madeleine breaks free. Bond then helps Nomi, Madeleine and Mathilde onto a boat and sees them off to safety.
Bond stays on the island to help destroy it with the help of Q, who’s operating things from up in the air. Bond opens the doors so Q can take out the the lab, but Safin manages to infect Bond with the nanobot that will infect and kill Madeleine and her daughter if Bond touches them.
Bond then kills Safin but, knowing that he will infect Madeleine and ultimately kill them both he decides to stay on the island and ensure it’s destroyed, knowing full well it will be too late for him to escape.
Bond then connects with Madeleine via a radio. She pleads with him to leave the island, but Bond knows he can’t, telling her he’s been poisoned. She still pleads asking for more time, but Bond tells her he will stay on the island for their safety.
Watch the No Time To Dies Ending Scene
Madeleine let’s Bond know Mathilde is his daughter, but he already knew. She pleads for more time together, but Bond refuses, and tells her, she has “all the time in the world,” which is a throwback to what Bond said to his murdered wife, Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
The missiles then reign down and hit their mark, taking out Safin’s lair and with it killing James Bond.
Afterwards, MI6 toasts to their fallen comrade. M recites a quote attributed to author Jack London:
“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
Ian Fleming used these words in an obituary for Bond when 007 was presumed dead in the 1964 novel You Only Live Twice.
The movie ends with Madeleine driving off in Bond’s Aston Martin Vantage V8 into the sunset with Mathilde, Louis Armstrong’s We Have All the Time in the World playing over the credits.
No Time To Die Ending
The No Time To Die ending presents a poignant departure from the typical Bond formula, leaving an indelible mark on the franchise. It challenges the norms we’ve come to associate with the character, as dd pretty much everything under the rebooted version of Bond.
In this final act, Bond’s decision to take his life for Madeleine and Mathilde underscores his evolution from a cold operative to a caring father and lover. It may not have sat well with everyone, with some ‘asking why?‘ But it was an ending that offered a touching farewell to Daniel Craig.
And as we bid adieu to one chapter, we can’t help but look forward with anticipation and curiosity to where the series will take us next. Bond’s story may have ended, but as we all know, Bond, James Bond will be back.
