No Time to Die
No Time to Die is a 2021 spy thriller film directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay he co-wrote with Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on a story conceived by Purvis, Wade and Fukunaga. The sequel to Spectre, it is the twenty-fifth film in the James Bond series and the fifth and final film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional British MI6 agent James Bond. In addition to Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, and Rory Kinnear reprise their roles from previous films, with Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah appearing in new roles. The story follows Bond, who, after leaving active service with MI6, is recruited by the CIA to find a kidnapped scientist. He eventually confronts a powerful and vengeful adversary armed with a weapon capable of killing millions.
Development on the film began in 2016. Danny Boyle was originally attached to direct and co-write the screenplay with John Hodge. Both left in August 2018 due to creative differences, and Fukunaga was announced as Boyle's replacement one month later. Most of the cast had signed on by April 2019. Principal photography took place from April to October 2019. No Time to Die is the only James Bond film starring Daniel Craig that was not co-produced by Columbia Pictures, due to the expiration of a deal between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony. It is also the only Bond film to be distributed by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures. Billie Eilish performed the theme song "No Time to Die," with Hans Zimmer composing the score and Steve Mazzaro serving as the score producer.
After being delayed by Boyle's departure and later by the COVID-19 pandemic, No Time to Die premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 28 September 2021, and was released in the United Kingdom on 30 September and in the United States on 8 October. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $774 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2021 and the third-highest grossing Bond film. In addition, it earned several other box-office record achievements, including becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time in the UK. The film was nominated for three awards at the 94th Academy Awards, winning Best Original Song, and received numerous other accolades.
On 20 February 2025, Amazon MGM Studios announced that it had gained full creative control of the James Bond franchise from Eon Productions, making No Time to Die the final film in the series to be produced under the custodianship of Albert R. Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson or Barbara Broccoli.
Plot
An adolescent Madeleine Swann witnesses her mother's murder by Lyutsifer Safin, whose family was murdered by Madeleine's father, Mr. White, under orders from Ernst Stavro Blofeld. After wounding Safin, Madeleine falls into a frozen lake, but Safin rescues her.In the present day, about a year after Blofeld's arrest, Madeleine travels to Matera with James Bond and persuades him to visit his ex-lover Vesper Lynd's grave to help Bond get over her. When Bond visits the tomb, it explodes, and he is attacked by SPECTRE operatives led by Primo, a mercenary with a bionic eye. While fleeing with Bond, Madeleine receives a congratulatory phone call from Blofeld. Bond accuses Madeleine of betraying him and sends her away, saying they will never meet again.
Five years later, SPECTRE agents infiltrate an MI6 laboratory and kidnap the scientist Valdo Obruchev, who secretly works for Safin. They steal Project Heracles, a programmable DNA-targeting nanobot bioweapon developed under M. Now living in Jamaica, Bond is asked by his CIA ally Felix Leiter to extract Obruchev from a SPECTRE party in Cuba. Nomi, Bond's successor as Agent 007, warns him not to interfere with her own extraction of Obruchev. She puts him in contact with M, who refuses to explain Heracles, and soon after Bond accepts Felix's offer.
Bond infiltrates the party with Leiter's Cuban agent Paloma. Blofeld, overseeing the party from Belmarsh prison through his own bionic eye, deploys a nanobot mist to kill Bond, but the mist kills the Spectre members because Obruchev had secretly reprogrammed the nanobots to target them. Bond takes Obruchev aboard a trawler, where Leiter and his associate Logan Ash are waiting. As Bond questions Obruchev about Heracles and Blofeld, Obruchev looks to Ash, exposing him as a co-conspirator. Ash shoots Leiter and traps him with Bond below deck, then triggers explosives to sink the ship as he flees with Obruchev. Bond escapes, but Leiter dies.
Bond seeks to interrogate Blofeld but learns he will only speak to Madeleine, his psychiatrist. Safin coerces Madeleine into infecting herself with a nanobot dose to assassinate Blofeld. MI6 allows Bond to visit Belmarsh with Madeleine, but she is too distressed to face Blofeld. Bond touches Madeleine before she leaves, unknowingly infecting himself with the nanobots. During the interrogation, Blofeld reveals to Bond that he planned the ambush at Vesper's grave to make Bond believe that Madeleine betrayed him. Enraged, Bond briefly strangles Blofeld, who dies shortly afterward from exposure to the nanobots carried by Bond.
Bond reconciles with Madeleine at her childhood home in Norway and meets her young daughter Mathilde, who Madeleine insists is not Bond's child, despite their resemblance. After Madeleine shares intelligence that her father gathered about Safin and his family's island, Bond realises that Ash is approaching the house. Ash and his thugs pursue Bond, Mathilde, and Madeleine into a forest, and Bond orders Madeleine and Mathilde to hide. Bond kills Ash and his men, but Safin kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde.
Q provides Bond and Nomi with a submersible glider to infiltrate Safin's nanobot factory headquarters, from which Safin and Obruchev plan to distribute the nanobots worldwide, potentially killing millions and establishing a new world order. Bond confronts Safin and kills his bodyguards, and Safin flees with Mathilde. Madeleine escapes from Primo and reunites with Bond. The pair find Mathilde, whom Safin abandoned. Nomi kills Obruchev and escorts Madeleine and Mathilde off the island. Bond convinces M to authorise a missile strike on the island, then kills Primo and Safin's remaining men. Safin reappears, shoots Bond repeatedly, and infects him and himself with nanobots programmed to kill Madeleine and Mathilde. Bond shoots Safin dead and opens the facility's blast doors to allow the missiles to penetrate it. Seriously wounded and knowing he can never touch Madeleine or Mathilde, Bond radios Madeleine to say goodbye and express his love for her and Mathilde. Madeleine confirms that Mathilde is his daughter, and Bond assures her that he knew all along. Bond is killed as the missiles destroy the facility.
At MI6, M, Moneypenny, Nomi, Q, and Bill Tanner drink to Bond's memory. Driving Mathilde to Matera, Madeleine begins to tell her about her father, James Bond.
Cast
- Daniel Craig as James Bond: Former MI6 agent 007, retired for five years. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga compared Bond to a "wounded animal" and described his state of mind as "struggling to deal with his role as a '00 agent'. The world's changed. The rules of engagement aren't what they used to be. The rules of espionage are darker in this era of asymmetric warfare". Craig stated that the film is "about relationships and family".
- Léa Seydoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann: Psychotherapist daughter of Mr. White, and Bond's love interest who assisted him in the film Spectre. Fukunaga underscored Madeleine's importance in exploring Bond's unresolved trauma from the death of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. Seydoux said: "There's a lot of emotion in this Bond. It's very moving. I bet you're going to cry. When I watched it, I cried, which is weird because I am in it."
- Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin: Bioterrorist and scientist on a revenge mission against Spectre who becomes Bond's adversary. Producer Barbara Broccoli described the character as "the one that really gets under Bond's skin. He's a nasty piece of work"; Malek as someone who considers himself "a hero almost in the same way that Bond is a hero"; and Fukunaga as "more dangerous than anyone ever encountered", a "hyper-intelligent and worthy adversary".
- Lashana Lynch as Nomi: A new agent, assigned the 007 number. Lynch hoped that her character would bring a new layer of relatability to the world of espionage, saying "When you're dealing with a franchise that has been slick for so many years, I wanted to throw a human spin on it—to deal with anxiety and be someone who's figuring it out, completely on her toes".
- Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory / M: Head of MI6 and Bond's superior officer.
- Ben Whishaw as Q: MI6's Quartermaster who outfits "00" agents with field equipment. Q is revealed to be gay. Whishaw said: "I think I'm done now. I've done the three that I was... contracted to do. So I think that might be it for me."
- Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny: M's secretary and Bond's ally. Harris says since Spectre, "Moneypenny has grown up somewhat. I think she still has her soft spot for Bond though, that's never going to go. But she's an independent woman with her own life".
- Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter: Bond's friend and a CIA field officer. While Wright was surprised not to be asked to return in Skyfall and Spectre, he felt Felix's return in No Time to Die is given "more weight" by his prior absence. He said the film establishes the core brotherhood of Bond and Felix's relationship.
- Billy Magnussen as Logan Ash: a State Department agent assigned by Leiter to support Bond in finding Obruchev.
- Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Bond's arch-enemy and foster brother, founder and head of the criminal syndicate Spectre and now in MI6 custody. Fukunaga said: "Blofeld is an iconic character in all the Bond films. He's in prison, but he certainly can't be done yet, right? So what could he be doing from in there and what nefarious, sadistic things does he have planned for James Bond and the rest of the world?"
- David Dencik as Dr. Valdo Obruchev: a corrupt scientist and creator of Project Heracles.
- Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner: M's chief of staff
- Ana de Armas as Paloma: A CIA agent. De Armas described her character as "irresponsible" and "bubbly" and playing a key role in Bond's mission.
- Dali Benssalah as Primo: a mercenary
- Lisa-Dorah Sonnet as Mathilde: The five-year-old daughter of James Bond and Madeleine Swann