After six years- a bit longer than expected-James Bond has returned, as it’s always been promised at the end of many Bond movies (including this one….although as I’ll elaborate, he might quite be the same the next time around.)
NO TIME TO DIE, unconventionally, doesn’t quite start with Bond in the middle of a mission-even the Gunbarrell forsakes it’s usual blood drip-as instead we open in 1990’s Norway, complete with Tamagotchi and Wallace and Gromit-and a somewhat spooky opening scene that introduces to Safin. The genesis of this scene is actually based on a scene from SPECTRE where Madeline recounted how a man came to her house to kill her father (Mr. White). Kind of funny how this one scene pretty much became the basic setup for this whole movie. Then again, I’m not sure anybody watching Casino Royale in 2006 would foresee that Mr. White would pretty much be the connective tissue of Craig’s entire run, arguably.
Safin kills Madeline’s mother, and Madeline uses her father’s gun to shoot him, but he survives (Probably wearing body armor) when she tries to dispose of his body in the mostly iced lake nearby. Lil’ Madeline falls under the radiply icing water, perhaps a callback to Bond’s similar predicament in Skyfall, but Safin shoots the ice to save her-although the act is not directly seen, it’s pretty much implied as we cut to adult Madeline swimming in Italy.
Here we switch to Matera, Italy. Italy itself has been a frequent location in Bond movies, although the Craig films have perhaps been there more frequently than most, especially in “Casino Royale” which made extensive use of Lake Como (Which also doubled for the planet Naboo in the Star Wars prequels) and, of course, Venice. Rome was also used for the last film, “Spectre” as well.
It’s also here where the first publicity photos for the film were taken as well.
Madeline encourages Bond to visit Vesper’s tomb nearby, especially since it’s a night where people are trying to burn their sins away. He also decides to do the same, with a “forgive me” note to her. But it turns out SPECTRE has also left a note, with their signature Octopus insignia. Uh oh.
Not only that there’s a bomb in the tomb, which goes off and disorients Bond, and the audience as well (Some during the film might wonder if there’s something up with the audio). Bond quickly finds himself pursued by SPECTRE agents, including the boy who led him to the tomb, and the new henchman, Primo, AKA Cyclops, who tells him it’s all Madeline’s doing.
After some struggle, including a spectacular leap, Bond makes it back to the hotel, where we have a bit of dialogue where the concierge says “Your wife has already prepared your luggage” (or something like that)-which makes one wonder, did Bond marry her, or was it simply the man’s assumption? Or just some kind of fake out like the fake marriage in You Only Live Twice, or Rosie Carver’s “Mrs. Bond” in Live and Let Die? Unfortunately it’s never really brought up again.
Madeline says she wants to tell Bond something, but that something is never really followed as he rushes her into his familiar DB5, she gets a phonecall from Blofeld letting her know “Her father would be proud of her” and we get a car chase where the DB5 gets to show off it’s arsenal for perhaps the most since ‘Goldfinger.” Of course other Bond cars-including other Aston Martins- have done plenty of stuff in the films since, but not quite the DB5.
There’s quite a tense scene where Bond is surrounded with Madeline begging him to do something-the bullet protection of the windshields are starting to crack-and he hesitates, perhaps trying to see how far she’s willing to go since he’s convinced he’s been portrayed again. However, eventually he relents, and lets the Gatling guns and smoke go loose. Eventually, they reach a train station. They embrace, but Bond isn’t willing to give her a chance to say this whole thing wasn’t her fault, he’s been burned before with Vesper and he isn’t going to risk that again. And after roughly half an hour, the usual Bond opening credits begin…(No Time To Die is the longest Bond pre-credits sequence, eclipsing 1999’s Brosnan film, The World Is Not Enough, by about ten minutes, give or take).
More installments to follow. I think 🙂 I’ll admit I haven’t updated things lately as much as usual.
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