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Does NO TIME TO DIE have the best ending in the franchise?
The ending is perfectly in tune with the sentiment established by Ian Fleming: Bond lives in the shadows and has resigned himself with the knowledge that men like him do not get normal lives. Often Bond would dream about being normal, but know that he had to play the role expected of him. The tragedy for Bond in NTTD, is that he starts as a man without a reason to live and ends with a family worth dying for. The film cruelly reminds Bond that he cannot have a normal life. It's truly heartbreaking. The Louis Armstrong song perfectly adds some honey to that brutal ending.
I think the tragedy of NTTD is that unlike say Logan or the Last Jedi which are built around the hero's death being an inevitability, NTTD teases Bond with the chance of a happy ending. Bond really wants to live, however, he is unable to. It's v sad. I'm not surprised NTTD will prove a divisive film. I think it'll reach OHMSS levels in years to come.
I'm the type of fan who enjoys the subversion. If you like 'more of the same' from your Bond films, you're a staunch traditionalist, etc. Then I think this film will polarise you. I actually think the sentiment that this is both Craig's silliest and most serious film is very accurate.
I think the tragedy of NTTD is that unlike say Logan or the Last Jedi which are built around the hero's death being an inevitability, NTTD teases Bond with the chance of a happy ending. Bond really wants to live, however, he is unable to. It's v sad. I'm not surprised NTTD will prove a divisive film. I think it'll reach OHMSS levels in years to come.
I'm the type of fan who enjoys the subversion. If you like 'more of the same' from your Bond films, you're a staunch traditionalist, etc. Then I think this film will polarise you. I actually think the sentiment that this is both Craig's silliest and most serious film is very accurate.
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Comments
Personally, it doesn't do much for me on an emotional level. I think this is because I don't feel it's an ending that's earned. The Logan comparison is interesting, and I agree with you, but Wolverine's death in that film works for me because it's framed as a redemption. The character in that film is a man who openly shuns being the hero he once was. Over the course of the film he has to make the decision to protect Laura and help her get to Eden. He learns that the remaining mutants essentially idolise him from the comics written of him and the other X-Men, which is itself a fictional image he'll never be able to live up to fully. By sacrificing himself at the end to make sure the gang can get over the border, he lives up to that ideal as best he can. It's a very poignant ending and says a lot about the nature of heroism and how we view it.
NTTD plays with this idea somewhat. At the end of the film, Bond lives on through the stories Madeline tells to Mathilde. Much like the comic books featured in Logan, Bond has essentially become this mythical hero, at least to this little girl. He's a man who saved the world and sacrificed himself doing so. The problem is NTTD's story doesn't have anything to do with redemption, or even necessarily the idea of James Bond as a hero. Yes, he breaks off his relationship with Madeline but it's because he's tricked by Blofeld into believing Madeline is a SPECTRE agent. A contrived and (for me anyway) un-believable plot point, but it's a decision that's not framed as being a flawed one for Bond to make per say. Again, just a tragic one.
At no point are Bond's heroism nor his decisions as a man questioned, which would be interesting given the controversies with the character over the years. Without this NTTD relies instead on that element of tragedy. The film sets up Bond's demise by constantly giving us laboured exposition about nanobots, contrived plot points with Blofeld, a villain who seems to change motive by the very end for no obvious reason. Sure, Bond's a Byronic Hero who saves the world one last time, but so what? For me, because the film is so overstuffed with plot designed to lead up to that moment it kills any impact of Bond's death. Much of the film fails in this sense because none of it feels plausible, much less organic to the story being told. It's just tragedy for tragedy's sake.
If it works for others, fair play. But for me I have a tough time with it and don't feel it's the best way they could have depicted the character's death. Like I said, it's a controversial ending in this sense.
Completely agree. The film is so laboured, overlong and nonsensical, I simply didn't care when Bond (finally) met his end. I'll also add that, in general, I believe that any long-running movie series that has to kill off its main character and recycle another entry's theme song from literally decades ago ("We Have All the Time in the World") to generate pathos has run out of ideas.
The only thing that really frustrated me personally was afterwards. Everything after his death felt so abrupt. I know the film was long enough already but still.
The abruptness of the aftermath really helps it's rewatchability I think. They don't belabor it.
It definitely felt like the origin point of the film was "Bond dies", and then pretty much everything was contrived to put Bond in a situation where it was impossible for him to decide to try and live. I liked the film a lot still, I feel Craig was firing on all cylinders, and it's possible I suppose for people to come away from the film confused about what happens but it follows it's own internal logic just fine.
But I'm also sure that EoN will give us a "James Bond Coming Back" moment within the next three years, and starting from scratch (I hope).
Unnecessary, contrived, derivative of comic-book movies and not even well staged in a movie that featured Moore-ear comic moments from other characters.
A mess.
James Bond deserved better.
Disagree completely. Just for the record.
+1
Yeah, actually, CR probably takes Best Ending for me as well.
That's cool too!
Do you expect me to die, no we expect you to talk :-SS
. Wil producers fool us again, but this time other way around of Die Another Day. One of biggest quistions about Bond 26.
True. The CR ending is pretty cool. The only thing that annoys me about OHMSS is the fact that they decide to have the Bond theme blare at the end over the bullet shattered glass. Presumably with Tracy's corpse slumped just offscreen.
But that's actually a minor quibble. My favourite ending is SF personally. It manages to be simultaneously a cynical, quite ambiguous ending while still having something weirdly upbeat about it.
I'd probably go with SF as the one that caps off everything, both narratively and thematically, the best. It's really damn good.
I think that Bond theme flaring on it would have made sense had they followed it with the revenge sequel.
Like when Bond theme was played at the end, we all expect to have Bond gone berserk and show his killer side, like "yeah, Bond's coming after you!" kind of thing.
I have no problem with it, it decreased the depressing mood, so for it not to be too much of a downer.
Though that ending would have worked as a PTS for the next film though.
I agree about Casino Royale too, but would it make more sense had they moved the ending at the beginning of Quantum of Solace?
I suspect that's the reason they decided to put that music at the end of OHMSS - because it was deemed too depressing otherwise. Like I said it's a minor complaint, and the ending works in the sense that it feels tragic but oddly right. The film has built up the relationship between these characters naturally so the impact of Tracy's death can be felt. It's sombre but it needs to be. I don't think it would have worked as a PTS to the next film even if Lazenby had stayed. The audience needed to feel that impact at the end of the film.
No, I don't think the ending of CR would have benefited from being at the beginning of QOS. It's an organically more upbeat ending that doesn't feel shoehorned in, gives Craig his first "Bond, James Bond" and makes us feel pumped for the sequel.
Both CR and SF have quite unusual endings. They're both rather tragic endings taken on a simple plot basis, and yet they both reaffirm James Bond as the character we know.
They refer to OHMSS so much, you’d expect they studied how to make a heartbreaking ending elegantly, without the on-the-nose dialogue / music.
For me, OHMSS is absolute perfection, CR and QOS also have great endings though.
"I know, I know"......
Lol. Nice. Craig's acting is always spot on, though. It's just that for a tragic Bond film, the uneven tone is almost palpable.
Best ending in the series? CR. An absolute triumph. Probably literally could not have been done any better.
In terms of triumphant ending, it's Skyfall for me.
Bond returned to protect England again.
Better make that two.
I know it's the trendy thing to go after fans for questioning choices they feel are disrespectful (though I am not suggesting EON have done this), but that was absolutely the single worst decision EON have made in 60 years. And it's not just the act of killing Bond off, but the ridiculous way it was done. If he was going to die by being shot, why does he need poisoning? Any drama that might be wrung from Bond not being able to have contact with his loved ones, is made void. They might as well had Bond shot, poisoned, stabbed, dropped from a great height, flattened and then blown up. I was going to suggest his ashes be blown away on the wind, but that might be a step too far.
My mixed feeling on SP aside, that should have been the ending to the Craig era.