It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
LTK at the time didn't feel like a Bond film, but the script felt very much like it belonged in Fleming's gangster world. Kamen's score, the lack of UK locations, the 80's high concept action movie trend, and Dalton not dressing up in the traditional sense made it feel more like a generic Miami Vice action flick at times.
But once the Craig era came in, particularly with CR featuring a humourless Bond, bloodied, dirty, more in casual clothing, then LTK isn't too far removed from this world.
And yes, LTK is far closer to what a Bond film should be (IMO) than the majority of the films from the Craig era, particularly NTTD.
The promise of more stories is part of the magic of what makes Bond great. His death compounded a disappointing film in my opinion
Unfortunately for NTTD, the ending outweighs the other two and half hours of the film
NTTD is a very odd film when it comes to plot. It spends so much time relaying contrived details about nanobots and Blofeld creating this elaborate plan to trick Bond into thinking Madeline is a SPECTRE agent and yet more minor details turn out to be irrelevant. Another example is Mathilde during the beginning of the car chase blabbering on about being bitten by a mosquito: the tone/music is so tense - has she been poisoned or infected? What is this trying to tell us etc. It all turns out to be nothing, and it's rather baffling so much of it was included.
The fact that the island is mentioned being near Japan and Russia at least twice, most likely means early versions of the script were daring to adapt the ending to YOLT (both these locations are significant to that ending). Yet in the final version this means nothing. The island could be anywhere.
The mosquito line foreshadows what eventually happens to Bond.
Bond picking up Doudou is an acknowledgment that Bond has changed, that he would have looked after Mathilde had he survived.
Me too. After seeing The Batman, this is the direction they should have gone in.
Absolutely!
1. Another one about the Nanobots, we saw how the Spectre agents died in Cuba, they're bleeding and gasping or hard to breathe, but why Blofeld didn't died that way. He should be bleeding and hard to breathe, like what happened to his SPECTRE agents. But instead, it's like he fell asleep.
2. Even Madeleine denying that Mathilde was Bond's child, the "she's not yours" line is a bit of a headscratcher for me.
3. For someone (like me) who remembers the plane turned submarine that Nomi and Bond used to get to the island, when Bond was having his escape, why he didn't use that? Where is that plane turned submarine, they left it there all of a sudden? Bond should escape using that.
That's not foreshadowing. That's symbolism at best. It's the sort of thing that goes over people's heads if done badly (much like the 'she's not yours' line that someone else mentioned).
The whole ending felt rushed. The garden from YOLT would have been great to see adapted. Safin's whole thing is that he's trying to preserve the family garden (their memory if you like) so why not have all these lush, poisonous plants inside cold looking domes or something? Lots of potential for weird shapes and unique set design. Incorporate his love of Japanese culture in there too with the surroundings, perhaps have his men dress up in the noh masks etc. Show how lethal the garden can be by having him throw someone in there for whatever reason (perhaps Obruchev - he outlives his usefulness as a character by this time). But no, we got a more or less lifted version of some of the Dr. No sets, no personality or creativity. Very unfortunate, very boring. Doesn't help that the writers don't seem to know what Safin's actual motivations or plans are.
I've written this before but I'd have preferred Bond's 'death' to have been going through the garden to get to the shutter switch, have his fight with Safin and in the process come into contact with the plants. Safin dies, but Bond opens the shutters and has his goodbye with Madeline. Heart rate flatlines as the missiles land. We have the memorial, Madeline goes off into the sunset, but we get a final moment with Q staring at Bond's vitals in his lab. Perhaps Moneypenny comes in, they have a little conversation about Bond, and they leave. Bond theme starts slowly. We move towards the screen. A single beep on Bond's heart rate. End.
Safin shot him many times, that's enough, he will lose blood and get weak. But to have him infected with Nanobots and got pulverized by missiles? That's too much, they overkilled Bond in my opinion.
No Time To Die also exaggerates Madeleine's backstory that she told in the train, I didn't mind it when I'm watching SPECTRE, it's just a little detail for me, like yes every Bond girl has a backstory, that's fine, but here they made it big.
They made things so complicated.
Too many plot contrivances, like Bond's line before he killed Logan Ash, "I have a brother he's name is Felix Leiter", so they killed Felix Leiter just for Bond to say that line? it reminds me of that Christmas Joke line at the end of TWINE.
Wasn't the man who visited Madeline meant to be Blofeld in SP? And didn't White also say his wife left years ago? Creative license I guess. I don't mind Safin's backstory for what it's worth.
Ironically I don't think Leiter's death even added anything to the story until he kills Logan. Could have easily been badly wounded similar to the LALD novel and it would have exactly the same impact. No cringey 'he was my brother' moment either. Would have been poignant to have seen Leiter reappear at Bond's memorial too.
This. Absolutely mate
I think the ambiguous death would have been more satisfying (Bond returning to the shadows) than watching him pretty much give up.
The only thing I can praise about it, is the heroic shot of Bond, as the camera pans out and you seem him stood there defiantly
Yeah, when the camera pans from down to up as he stands, it makes him look heroic. One other thing that makes it easier to bear, is the chat he has with Q, leading to his death. It just gets to show the chemistry Craig and Whishaw share.
Yep.When Safin shot him that badly it was pretty clear he was going to die anyway.He was bleeding out and barely able to climb the ladder to where he meets his fate.Even if he wanted to escape there was no way he was going to get clear of the blast radius in time due to his weakened condition.So it’s not so much Bond sacrificing himself as him just giving up.
It’s the complete opposite of why Tony Starks death works so well in Endgame.He literally saves EVERYONE by putting on that gauntlet and snapping his fingers even though he knows he will die doing so.And at least he got five years with his new family unlike Bond.
> 2. Even Madeleine denying that Mathilde was Bond's child, the "she's not yours" line is a bit of a headscratcher for me.
Barbara Broccoli talks about this in one of the FYC videos, and it's the same conclusion I came to after seeing the film. Basically, he was a selfish prick in Matera and he hasn't "earned" the title of father — so then the film going forward after that point is him "earning" that title, which she gives him in the ending of the film.
As for the mosquito bit, again it's getting at this idea that is strung throughout all the Craig films (which was in the best of the Fleming novels): Bond only lives via killing people and that's no way to live. He is, in a sense, a mosquito who lives off sucking the blood from others. So he has to figure out how to transform into something else (just as M tells him in Casino Royale lol) and he does just that. Becomes a "creator" instead of a "destroyer".
I adore how the final film wrapped the entire era up; Fukunaga is a Master of tension (something that was very lacking in Spectre), and; to me, he nailed a genuine romance that was absent in the previous film.
There were clear goals, urgency, and a ticking clock.
Craig-Bond very much feels like the aged, jaded lion who started his MI6 career back in CR as the young, head-strong and ego-driven novice agent. Time and experience and a wounded soul finds him by himself in Jamaica....
And the ending? I can't watch it without spilling tears (shrugs); I can't hide or deny what affect this film had/has on me. On a personal note we are dealing with a medical issue inside of our family... We are watching this person slowly being taken from us, and I find that NTTD has a very strong theme coursing through its veins, teaching us that life is precious and not to waste time behind stubborn emotional walls, or digging heels just because one thinks they're "right"... This often hangs heavy over me as I spend time with this loved one..... Bond wasting five years of his life, turning inwards, is a very human trait in some of us. Thankfully at the end, he was able to share love one last time, and his legacy is that he gave his partner and child, "All the time in the world"...
Well, in OHMSS it is exactly that. Bunt simply shoots Tracy and that is it. It comes across as much more natural. It is a silent, sad and understated death scene. M's death in Skyfall or even Felix death scene in NTTD were also very emotional because these were quiet and understated moments.
For my tatse, Vesper's death scene in CR has already been exaggerated and filled with too much pathos. It felt more like the typical Hollywood ending in which the emotions are forced by too many effects. In NTTD they even went further and overkilled Bond. He cannot just die he must be overkilled by guns and missiles and additionally be infected by the nanobots. It is just too much, therefore felt unnatural and left me cold.
The deaths of Tracy, M, and Severine were all poignant because it's done in a realistic fashion of killing.
Even Madeleine's mother, I felt sad when Safin shot her, very poignant, to be honest I found that to be the saddest scene in NTTD, especially when Madeleine saw how her mother was killed, it gets to me. And the actress playing the young Madeleine Corinne Defaud, she's great in that scene.
When it comes to Vesper's death, I prefer her silent but realistic death in the novel, yes in the film, it's too exaggerated, there's an action scene, then sinking house, hollywood type of killing.
And considering that Safin shot him many times, he can still walk and climb a stairs and ladder to get to the rooftop?
Bond's death was unrealistic and an overkill.
I felt sad at Wolverine's (Logan) death, it's sad because it's not done in an exaggerated type of killing, they didn't overkill him.
But ultimately, I think that is why NTTD will never be higher than a midfield film for me personally. When watching the film, I get pulled along with it and the ending gets an emotional reaction out of me, so all good there, but when spending some time thinking about it, there just is too much that doesn't stand up to scrutiny and those moments now pop up while watching it, which spoils it a little. Plus, the ending is so sad, that I really am not that often in the mood to rewatch it.
In my opinion, yes, atleast it's not an overkill.
Person A) Why didn't Bond just escape the island? He was injured but it seems like he could have made it out... why not just isolate himself and have the film end with him having Mathilde and Madeline believe he's dead?
Person B) Because he would have passed the nanobots onto them. The film said so.
Person A) But it's tech... could Q Branch not have tried something to nullify them? Maybe use that EMP technology in Bond's gadget they pointed out... Like I said it seems like he could have made it out... I'm just not sure Bond would do this.
Person B) No, the film says once you have the nanobots you have them for life. Bond had to die as he could have passed them on.
Person A) ...
Person B) ...
Person A) But... what about the EMP watch?
Person B) Irrelevant.
I kind of get both sides. It's strictly speaking air tight in terms of logic but it all hinges on whether you as a viewer believe this logic, or haven't been confused by all the information the film is giving you (like I said a lot of it seems like foreshadowing when there is none). The script is a bit overcooked in that sense.