OCTOBER 2022
BOND VOYAGE…
No Time To Die culminates the end of the Craig Bond era with the fifth and final film in Daniel Craig’s reign as James Bond. There is much to be said about his time as 007, starting with the official announcement back in 2005 seen as a ‘train wreck’ of bad press right down to the life jacket Craig wore while arriving by boat to officially kick-off the production of Casino Royale accompanied by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson for the announcement. The British press was brutal to Craig following the announcement of him being tapped for the role of the dapper British spy. They left nothing off the table, right down to the criticism of the life jacket, thinking the real Bond would never wear one and therefore deeming him not believable in the famous role before he had even made his first film. They also were not sure the world was ready for what they called ‘A Blonde Bond’. But Daniel went on to prove them all wrong and, in this recommendation, I will take a look back at Daniel Criag’s long tumultuous journey as James Bond and how he defied all odds to cement himself in film history.
THE CRAIG ERA: A BLONDE BOND FOR THE 21ST CENTURY…
To understand how Daniel Craig became Bond is to understand the new direction that producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, were taking in casting the mostly unknown, classically trained actor who preferred starring in independent films over blockbuster films. James Bond 007 is knowingly adapted from Ian Fleming’s novel series about a British agent of MI6’s 00 program who’s a borderline sadist, with a long list of discarded women across the globe, where his missions took him to gorgeous locations that included sex, drinking in excess, and smoking constantly. As the films progressed over the years, the original concept of the character fell increasingly out of touch with the times when the 20th century the films were started in became the 21st century they were continued in. The films began to have an array of problems for Bond fans, the craziness of the continuity from one film due to a new actor taking over the role from time to time and not knowing if the films had any shared history. This was made more difficult to comprehend when some of the supporting cast remained consistent while the main character was replaced. It seemed that before Daniel Craig’s arrival, the Bond films had lost all sense to viewers.
RETROSPECTIVELY SPEAKING…
Daniel Craig was thought to be a bold choice to usher James Bond into the 21st century, but Barbara Broccoli thought he was the only choice when casting the new 007. She first had to get him to agree to do it, along with convincing Eon Productions, which holds the rights to the Bond novels and films, that Daniel Craig was the only choice to introduce the world to a new, better Bond. The new hardback book, Being Bond, A Daniel Craig Retrospective is a 256-page book that includes everything from on-set photography, concept art, costume designs, stunt breakdowns, and is accompanied by cast and crew interviews detailing Craig’s film journey from 2006 to 2021.
Below is an extracted quote from the book where Barbara Broccoli discusses the casting of Daniel Craig as James Bond 007:
“We wanted to do a twenty-first-century Bond and redefine what a classic male hero should be,” says Broccoli. “Casino Royale gave us the opportunity to get into Bond’s inner life. It tells you why he became the man he became, so we wanted an actor who could be an iconic image of the twenty-first-century man and who had the acting chops to be able to deliver the emotional inner life without a lot of dialogue because Bond is a very internal character. It was a very, very tall order, and there were hundreds of people being discussed.”
– Barbara Broccoli – Being Bond, A Daniel Craig Restrospective
DOORS OPEN AND SKY’S FALL…
It was not an out-of-place thought to finally let viewers see the inner life of James Bond, if fans of the films were also readers of the novels, they knew Bond’s personal life had already been laid out in the novels and left off the screen due to the nature of the film stories being told. A decision had been made to not get that into depth with Bond’s personal life because future scripts might be obligated to continue the back story and the main focus of the films had always been on Bond’s mission and never how he became who he was as a person and an agent of the British MI6. That all changed with the idea to cast Craig as 007. The task of finding the new Bond was up to casting director Debbie Williams, who had been associated with the series since Roger Moore had played the dapper secret agent. She had been involved with casting Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan and knew that the new films were going to look at how James became Bond, and that meant they needed an actor younger than both, but not too young that the story wouldn’t work. But McWilliams had her doubts about casting Craig, and it had nothing to do with his ability to play Bond, but rather his avoiding such high-profile roles as James Bond. She felt based on his career up until that point, Craig would have no desire to step into the role and sign a multi-year contract committing to future films.
Below is an extracted quote from the book where Debbie McWilliams discusses the casting of Daniel Craig as James Bond 007:
“I thought he probably wouldn’t be that interested, because he was a rather serious actor and did independent films and had never seemed to venture into the commercial side of things, apart from Layer Cake,” she reveals. “He’d been classically trained, and it was hard to categorize him, although the stuff he’d done showed how versatile he was. We got in touch with his agent, and she was rather doubtful as well but mentioned to him what we were up to. He immediately went out and bought a copy of Casino Royale, and within about twenty-four hours was in the office at Eon, which confirmed his interest.”
– Debbie McWilliams – Being Bond, A Daniel Craig Retrospective
DESTINED FOR BONDNESS…
But Barbara Broccoli, whose father, Albert R. Broccoli, and his partner, Harry Saltzman bought the screen rights to the novels of Ian Fleming and turned his character of James Bond into a household name through 17 Bond films with a reported $1 billion in earnings, had Daniel Craig at the top of her list from the very beginning of the idea to update Bond for the new millennium. Craig is a graduate of the National Youth Theatre and Guildhall School of Music and Drama and had been on Broccoli’s radar long before going on to prove his versatility in a succession of acclaimed roles that included the films, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, Road to Perdition, Sylvia, and Munich. And while most critics came to know Craig from his role in the 2004 independent film, Layer Cake, Broccoli remembers first seeing Craig in his breakthrough TV role in the BBC serial drama, Our Friends in the North in 1996, but knew he was the new Bond in 1998 when he appeared in the Shekhar Kapur period drama, Elizabeth, as Jesuit priest John Ballard that determined he was the future of James Bond.
Below is an extracted quote from the book where Barbara Broccoli discusses when she knew Daniel Craig was meant to play James Bond 007:
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, he’s the guy,’ when he was in Elizabeth, walking down the corridor. I know that sounds crazy, but that was the moment I felt it in my gut. When your whole life is James Bond, some part of you is always looking for, Who could play the role? Daniel just eats up the screen. He’s a truly remarkable actor.”
– Barbara Broccoli – Being Bond, A Daniel Craig Retrospective
BONDED FOR LIFE…
Craig had been a fan of Bond since his father took him to see Live And Let Die in 1973 when he was five years old, but when he got the call from McWilliams that Broccoli wanted a meeting with him, he didn’t take it all that seriously and figured he was on the bottom of a very long list of actors more qualified to play the part. And it wasn’t that Craig thought he was above the role, it was quite the opposite, he thought there was no way he had done enough with his independent films to give him the slightest competing chance among the list that Broccoli probably had considered. It became more real to him that he was being considered for the role when Broccoli sent the script to him requesting his thoughts on the new direction, they were taking James Bond in.
Craig remembers receiving the script in the following Being Bond quote:
“At a certain point it was, ‘We’ve got a script,’” he remembers. “I was like, ‘Okay, great,’ because I thought, I’m going to read it and go, ‘Thanks very much. It was lovely, but I can’t do this,’ and that’ll be the end of it. We all move on. Very nice. Then I read the script and was blown away. It was everything I would have wanted it to be. It was a resetting. It was witty. It was thrilling. It was dangerous. It ticked all the boxes I thought needed to be ticked if you were going to do James Bond. The line that made me want to do the bloody film was, ‘Can I get a vodka martini?’ ‘Shaken or stirred?’ ‘Do I look like I give a damn?’ which in the script was, ‘Do I look like I give a f*ck?’” he continues. “I was like, That’s the reason I want to do the part. That was it because that meant they were trying to break from a tradition. They were trying to disconnect and reset, and as far as I was concerned that meant resetting everything: resetting the toughness, resetting the gags, resetting the gadgets, starting again, reinventing it. I was like, ‘If we can do that, I’m f*cking in.’”
– Daniel Craig – Being Bond, A Daniel Craig Retrospective
BONDING WITH CONTINUITY…
Martin Campbell, who directed GoldenEye, returned to direct Casino Royale and thought Craig was exactly what Ian Fleming wanted for Bond, that Daniel inhabited the Bond that Fleming had in mind when he wrote the novels, rather than the film version Bond’s he saw through the 1960s and 1970s in Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Craig’s Bond leaned heavily into the toughness of the character as well as the emotional toll of the job he had, rather than portraying Bond as a globe-hopping bachelor playboy agent in love with danger. Casino Royale would also deal with the continuity issues of the past bond films by telling a larger multifaceted story with a distinct beginning that starts in Casino Royale, a middle that continues with Quantum Of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre, and has a definitive end with No Time To Die.
A BLONDE BOND BLOCKBUSTER…
When Broccoli began this bold rebranding of the Bond character, critics let her know every day that she was risking a lot with Craig, he would either be a huge success for the franchise, or he would seal the fate of its end, critics saw the addition of Craig as Bond, going one of the two ways and doubted the fans need for an updated less cringy misogynist unsympathetic Bond from the 20th century. The critics would be proven wrong and Bond fans were grateful at the box office when Casino Royale was released in 2006, and the 21st Bond film went on to become the most successful film series in cinematic history, until 2012, when Skyfall, Craig’s third installment film as Bond was released and shattered the records of his previous film. Casino Royale proved that Broccoli had made the right choice in realigning Bond’s character to fit the times as well as casting Daniel Craig to lead the charge.
STRIKING SOLACE THROUGH BONDING…
The second film in the Craig Bond era, Quantum Of Solace, would prove to be an unexpected challenge after the success of Casino Royale, due to the 2007-08 Writer’s Guild of America strike, the sequel would start shooting without a script, which is seen as unheard of in Hollywood, but they also believe the show must go on, and so it did. The production of the film would continue to shoot through the 2008 strike with the fear that at any given moment the set could be shut down and the production halted, due to the possible strike of the Screen Actors Guild, which was rumored for weeks to be joining the W.G.A in unison on the picket lines. While a W.G.A strike didn’t shut down the production entirely, the film underwhelmed audiences due to an underdeveloped script, they got lucky even with a strike, a S.A.G strike would have crippled the film industry and sent the film into hiatus with no actors or actresses to direct in the production.
BOND OF A BURDEN…
As a result, the production issues with the second film in Craig’s run as Bond were not his fault and he doesn’t have to carry the burden of it being the least favorite film with him as 007. The W.G.A. strike left the film with less of a story and a confusing script that was still in development when the production began shooting. They made do with what they already had and worked to the best of their abilities all things considered. The film became less of the original arc to Casino Royale, that it was intended to be and instead became a Bond film with the least amount of dialogue one can recall in the series, but is packed full of some really great action sequences and interactions between Craig and the villains of this film.
ANOTHER WAY TO BOND…
This film was also the first time two different musicians, Jack White, and Alicia Keys, were teamed together to perform the Bond theme of the film as a duet, “Another Way to Die”, in the past one artist has been at the helm of the original song produced for the Bond films. And I assume to make up for any production value lost in the W.G.A. strike, Quantum Of Solace, had an accompanied video game that was released the same week as the film and based its story on both Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, titled “007: Quantum of Solace”. Quantum Of Solace, no doubt due to the writers’ strike and an underdeveloped script, is considered the shortest film in the series with a runtime of 106 minutes, replacing 1964’s Goldfinger, which had a runtime of 110 minutes.
SKY’S FALL FOR RECORD BREAKING BONDS…
If Quantum Of Solace is considered the lowest point in Daniel Craig’s reign as James Bond 007, then his next and third installment to the series, Skyfall, would be considered the highest point in his reign. Released in 2012, the 23rd James Bond film in the series is often considered to be the best Bond movie of all time. And this is still the case when you factor in No Time to Die, Skyfall had finally achieved what producer Barbara Broccoli had set out to do from the beginning, change the perception of the James Bond character and update him for the new century and make him more likable and less cringe-worthy surrounded by women stereotypes and a misogynist’s dream come true. For some fans, their love of Sean Connery, who represented James Bond in pop culture more than any other actor that shared the role, was replaced by Daniel Craig after the arrival of Skyfall.
ETERNALLY BONDED IN POP CULTURE…
While Casino Royale did the job of setting the path to 007’s new age of enlightenment and resetting the character development through the theory of “out with the old, and in with the new”, Skyfall more than made up for what Quantum Of Solace was restricted from doing, Skyfall impressed upon fans that the rough around the edges Bond we were introduced to in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig was the James Bond he was always supposed to be. Skyfall more than proved that Craig’s nuanced performance was more than just a debonair man and was much less entitled than the previous films had made him out to be that he can be ruthless and cold but also emotionally vulnerable and that the inner life of Bond was just as interesting and exciting as the missions that previous films solely focused on, and that he could be this regardless of what dapper suit he was or was not wearing.
BONDED RESURRECTION…
Skyfall is a fitting arc in the development of the character, and was seen as a resurrection of the intended idea to rebrand the character after the hiccup of the writers’ Guild strike and the path that Quantum Of Solace was supposed to continue in that rebranding. The film’s overarching theme is death and resurrection, and this can be supported by the opening scene alone. We see not only one of the best cold opens in the series, but we also see Bond die, or so were led to believe, by Bond being shot by a fellow agent on the calculated instruction of no other than ‘M’. And as for the fellow agent who shot him, we didn’t know yet in the cold open scene that it was Moneypenny. I think it was one of the greatest reintroductions of a supporting character in the series.
SECRETARY BONDING…
Barbara Broccoli set out to rebrand the character and series, with the addition of Craig, which included throwing out all the usual tropes of Bond Films. That rebrand included doing away with some of the supporting characters we had come to know in the film series and novels. The most noticeable absence from Casino Royale, was the presence of Moneypenny, M’s most trusted secretary at MI6, and the constant victim to James Bond’s sexual innuendos and outright workplace sexual harassment for most of the previous films. While the later films always had Moneypenny give it out just as hard as she was taking it from Bond. This made for some often memorable banter and comments on behalf of the two characters dancing around their sexual attraction in the workplace. The rebranding looked to address the long-standing issue on glorifying sexual harassment and unwanted advances in the workplace by removing Moneypenny from the equation, or so we thought, with Skyfall, Moneypenny Returns.
ALL ABOUT EVE…
While we only know the fellow agent is named Eve in the first scene, as Bond learns when he resurfaces from death, alive and almost well enough to help aid in an attack on MI6 that has targeted ‘M’, by the last scene in the film, we learn that her full name is in fact, Eve Moneypenny. They also remove the government agent workplace trope of women only being qualified to be a secretary in such environments and not being built for fieldwork. The new Moneypenny was not a secretary from the start, being a secretary is what Eve chooses after the trauma of shooting Bond in the field. She is a woman who knows her limitations and decides that she can better serve MI6 by helping in the transition of Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes. The new Moneypenny has one last field mission with James in Macau, before she ultimately concludes that she is better suited to a desk job than to living life on the edge of a straight razor in the hands of another. This was perfectly demonstrated in the Macau scene of Moneypenny shaving Bond while explaining the irony of it all with just enough sexual tension to show Moneypenny was in full control of the flirting and not James this time around.
BONDING SONG…
Not only did Skyfall break the record in 2012, set by Casino Royale in 2006, for being the most successful film series in cinematic history, “Skyfall“, the original song performed by Adele, and the theme of the film, became the first Bond film theme to be nominated for the Oscars in 30 years and the first nominated song to ever win. The themes of both Spectre and No Time to Die would also continue this trend and be nominated and win the Oscar. Spectre‘s theme was “Writing’s on the Wall“, performed by Sam Smith, and No Time to Die‘s theme was “No Time to Die“, performed by Billie Eilish. Bond films have always been about the title song just as much as it was about 007, Skyfall just tied it so perfectly to the opening scene that it seemed like no other title sequence we had seen in the series.
TITLE BONDS…
The title credits of Bond films have always been a production within themselves getting longer and more elaborate as CGI provided an option that was not available to the earlier films in the series franchise. The title sequences alone have consumed about 15 minutes of the film and can be stunning to watch with the technology available today, but Adele’s unforgettable and melancholic voice cueing up the Skyfall theme as Bond hits the water in the opening scene after being shot and following James’ sinking body under the water as she sings of Sky’s falling, was the first time you felt emotionally effected by a Bond title sequence while having no idea she was singing of the named birthplace of Bond, that would serve as the climactic point in the films end as well as allowing us to see another inner part of the secret agent’s life that we were never privy to in the previous films.
BONDED DIRECTLY…
If you felt like Skyfall had a different feel and look to it, you’re probably right in assuming so. Casino Royale was directed by Martin Campbell, who had previously directed Pierce Brosnan in his Bond debut, GoldenEye. This time around the director was at the request of Craig, rather than the studio. Sam Mendes directed Craig in the 2002 film, Road to Perdition and recommended him for Skyfall after running into him at the Christmas party of their mutual friend, Hugh Jackman, and discussing that he was about to begin work on his next Bond film but that they were still looking for a director. Directing Skyfall was not in the realm of work that Mendes had been directing over the years. The British film director is mainly known for his dramatic direction of films such as American Beauty, Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road. He had never dealt with an espionage thriller that hangs on the action of the film, rather than the dialogue driven films of his past work. Mendes had also never directed a film of this magnitude before where he is already coming into a franchise with 22 films already in the can and being obligated to the history of James Bond in the previous films as well as its source material, the Ian Fleming novels. The stage director, producer, and screenwriter had no problem with adapting to the genre he was now working in. Along with Mendes’s ability to dramatize emotions, he has this amazing ability in directing that connects the emotions of the characters visually with some of the best cinematography in the business.
PHOTOGRAPY BONDING…
Skyfall’s cinematographer, Roger Deakins received an Oscar nomination for his work in the film and it was well deserved. Skyfall is visually stunning, and the background shots are breathtaking between and during action sequences. The cinematography of the film is fabulously stimulating to the eyes, and this is due to Deakin’s cinematography along with Sam Mendes and his talent for visual direction. You felt the difference of the new James Bond in Skyfall, it was still the grit and realistic tone of the new direction Bond was taken in with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but the producers felt that fans were now comfortable in this Craig Bond that it was time to reintroduce some of the panache and fun of the signature Bond films in the 60s and 70s. Broccoli and Wilson thought fans could handle the two ideas at once, and it was safe to bring back Moneypenny and ‘Q’ and still keep the tone set in 2006. They also felt it was time to reward fans for their commitment at the box office to this new idea of Bond and brought back the fan-favorite elements of Bond’s cool gadgets, which saw the reintroduction to ‘Q’ and Ben Whishaw’s version of the head of “Q Branch” and responsible for building the cool gadgets and adapting the gadget clad vehicles James is known for in the films and novels. In Skyfall, we were introduced to a younger, nerdy ‘Q’ at the same time as James, in the gallery scene. You feel as James does when Whishaw first appears on screen and introduces himself to 007. Fans of the films and novels know ‘Q’ has been the older and wiser of co-workers James has had in his orbit, so this new, younger, and smarter ‘Q’ was just as much a shock to fans as it was to Bond.
BONDED BADDIES…
Going with the theme of resurrection in Skyfall, the producers thought it was also a good time to reintroduce the signature Bond-worthy villain with Javier Bardem’s chill-worthy performance as Raoul Silva, who is an ex-MI6 agent left out in the cold by ‘M’ when his use of a Cyanide capsule that didn’t kill him as intended and he’s captured and tortured, and as result of the incarnation from capture he manages to become resentful of ‘M’ to a menacing and unnerving degree that leads to him to an elaborate plan of global domination masking a sinister plan for revenge against the woman he feels is responsible for disfiguring and abandoning him. As unbelievable as Bond villains can be, Bardem held his own and is considered one of the best villains in the series history.
DAME JUDI BONDS…
The vulnerability of James Bond is peak level in Skyfall, and this is due to the most effective character development of the new Bond Era merged with something of the old Bond Era. Judi Dench as ‘M’ and her dynamic with James Bond. By the end of Pierce Bresnan’s reign as Bond, we have seen on screen, the progression of her relationship with Bond into one of genuine care for the well-being of each other. When you think back to her introductory scene to the series as ‘M’ in GoldenEye, she didn’t care much for Bond’s way of doing things and felt he was a relic of the past and expendable at all costs, but by The World Is Not Enough, Bond is on a mission to save ‘M’ who had been captured by Elektra King. The fan base’s love for Judi Dench was so strong that she was rare save in a reboot and rebranding of the series that saw everything we knew about the films previously erased into the new era. Judi may actually have added to the success of the new era of Bond just as much as Craig, and that is due to the relationship between Bond and ‘M’ this time around being well-developed and dynamically more emotionally driven.
THE TIES THAT BOND…
Judi Dench had already informed Broccoli and Wilson that Skyfall would be her last film as ‘M’ due to her taking on fewer acting roles with large commitments as she gets older. The producers felt she was deserving of the proper send-off and goodbye because she is more than just a character in the James Bond films, Dench was the consistency that fans ached for and embraced fully in a world of so many Bond‘s and villains. And Mendes does a great job of displaying Bond’s vulnerability through his relationship with ‘M’ making him more real than any of the Bond‘s before him. Skyfall took Dench’s character from a two-dimensional storyline and made her possibly more complicated than Bond, therefore showing how the two relate on an even more personal emotionally driven level. ‘M’ has appeared to be more ruthless and morally ambiguous than James if Silva is to be believed. Silva believes that James is actually a product of ‘M’ and was made in her image to be exactly like her by her taking such an interest in James after his parents died and recruiting him to MI6. Silva in a way sees Bond as the newer version of him and feels that ‘M’ replaced Silva with Bond, but Silva also resented Bond for the closeness he can see in their relationship and believes James robbed him of that with ‘M’ as well.
FINAL BONDED BOW…
It is not until the climax of Skyfall, that saying goodbye to Judi is made real. It had seemed by the addition of Ralph Fiennes to the cast as Gareth Mallory, ‘M’’s replacement after the failed mission at the beginning of the film that resulted in James Bond being shot and classified information being out in the open, that Dench’s ‘M’ was being forced into retirement and would walk out the door by the end of the film having said her goodbyes and completing the mission. We never expected that when she asks Mallory to complete the mission before leaving, it would end in her death at the birthplace and home of James Bond, Skyfall. Judy Dench will be a legend for what she brought to the character of ‘M’ and her final scene was as emotional for me as it was for James. She was the closest thing Bond had to a mother and Sam Mendes displays that epically in Skyfall. Mendes returns in 2015 to direct the sequel to Skyfall and the 24th film in the series, Spectre. Spectre also deals with Bond’s grief of losing ‘M’ as well as what she left undone with her untimely demise. We also get reintroduced to a Bond villain we have met before but is made new again in the Craig Bond era.
STORIED BONDING…
Up to the point of Skyfall the decision by the producers to rebrand Bond and connect him to fans in ways he hadn’t been connected before had worked out, including one consistent story that continues for the duration of Craig’s timeline as James Bond and is character is developed over that time. We had not seen this done in the previous films, there was no connection from one movie to the next outside of the characters with returning actors to play the role. The films were always driven by the action and not the story. But with Casino Royale, we saw the ideology of the Bond films reset and Quantum Of Solace’s opening scene starting 10 minutes after the end of Casino Royale showed an intent to connect the story from one film to the next. By the time we have gotten to Spectre in 2015, we had three movies with Daniel Craig and James has been through a lot and lost just as much by doing the job he does. By the end of Skyfall, James Bond has been resurrected from his premature death and lived through ‘M’’s death and Gareth Mallory’s transition and we see him officially meet Eve Moneypenny and walk into Mallory’s office, who is now known as the new ‘M’ and is ready for his next mission. The screen fades and we await James Bond’s return.
THE BONDED ERA..
Spectre continues the attempt to connect the films together by making the largest leap of all and connecting all the films up until that point through the reintroduction of the most famous Bond villain in the series with the casting of Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The character was kept away from the new ideation of Bond due to legal disputes over the rights to the character in future films, right up until Spectre, when he was revealed to be the author of all James’ pain, as Blofeld so cryptically puts it to Bond as he reveals that he is the mastermind behind all that has come to James before: Mr. White, Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, Raoul Silva killing ‘M’, and most importantly, Vesper Lynd. The woman responsible for turning James into the man he becomes was the result of a grudge that Blofeld had against Bond being adopted by his father after his parents died and Blofeld’s father adoring Bond and preferring him to Blofeld. It was an ambitious idea but for some the reveal fell flat and didn’t have the punch of say, Javier Bardem’s reveal as Silva. The idea that he was connected to every mission we had seen Bond partake in was somehow too much for some fans to fathom. It seemed like the idea was overreaching and could have narrowed the field of his revenge plan involving Bond.
FATHERLY BONDS…
Mendes returned to direct Spectre, which is seen as the sequel to Skyfall due to the story elements involving M’s death and James’ grieving process through accepting it, as well as the unfinished business she apparently left behind and had left in the hand of James to finish. The opening scene is thrilling against the backdrop of Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City and includes a risky helicopter fight scene above the celebration involving James Bond and the SPECTRE baddie he is after. As with Skyfall, Spectre is visually stunning in scenes and this is a result of Mendes directing again along with director of photography, Hoyte van Hoytema creating the visual splendor onscreen. The ending is the most intriguing part of the film due to it possibly being the last film that Craig would appear in as James Bond. At the time of production, Daniel Craig had not signed on to do another installment and was sure he was ready to leave the role and move on to other things, so in the event that it was, James Bond was seen at the end of the film heading off to a different future with his new love, Madeline Swann, the daughter of Mr. White, who James promises Mr. White in Spectre that he will protect Madeline from the organization known as SPECTRE.
BONDS OF LOVE…
Over the course of the film, James and Madeleine Swann develop a relationship, much like how his relationship with Vesper came to be, and the psychiatrist in her convinces James he doesn’t have to continue doing the work he does if he’s alone and never happy. Bond decides the job has cost him enough, and he and Swann leave in Bond’s Aston Martin DB5. Off Screen, Broccoli and Wilson would convince Daniel Craig to return for one more installment and promise it will be his last film as James Bond and they will write the script as such and give Craig’s Bond a proper goodbye as well as a sendoff that fans of his reign would appreciate and bring closure to Craig’s time as James Bond while also resetting the franchise for yet another actor to step in and pick up the reigns of the most famous dapper British secret agent known as 007. There would be No Time to Die for James in the final installment film of Daniel Criag’s Bond era.
NO TIME TO BOND…
After 15 years and five films playing James Bond, No Time to Die is Daniel Craig’s swan song. No Time to Die follows Quantum of Solace and picks up after the events in the previous film Spectre, and continues the continuity of this Bond era. The opening scene of the film in No Time to Die returns to where it all started for Craig’s Bond, Casino Royale, and Vesper Lynd. At Madeleine’s insistence, Bond visits Vesper’s grave to finally find closure and begin his life anew, and her grave site just happens to be where Swann and Bond took off to live their lives espionage free. It wouldn’t be a James Bond film if his solemn visit to say a final goodbye didn’t go according to plan, James notices someone else has visited Vesper’s grave and immediately recognizes the octopus of SPECTRE in the note left on her grave, within seconds her gravesite blows to smithereens. This leads James to believe he has been betrayed by Madeleine and confirms his instinct all along to never form close relationships with anyone in his life and that he is better off and safer being alone in the last part of his life. The opening sequence ends after a thrilling car chase involving James Bond’s historic Aston Martin DB5, with James putting Madeleine Swann on a train and vowing to never see her again.
FRIENDSHIP BONDING…
James retreats to a tropical paradise to live out his retirement alone and brooding when he’s contacted by Felix Leiter, the CIA agent he initially met in Casino Royale, but who has become over the five films the closest thing James had to a brother and someone he has trusted completely. Jeffrey Wright’s Felix Leiter is another character from the novels and previous films that also had a rebranding in this Bond era and a more emotional and character driven story was formed over the course of the five films this time around when it pertained to the Bond and Leiter relationship. Bond’s loyalty to Leiter and his service and sense of duty to Queen and country, despite his retirement, along with his desire for revenge brings him back into the fold of the world of espionage. But by films end, without revealing too much, the relationship of Leiter and Bond will reach its emotional climatic end with closure for the Craig Bond Era. When Fiennes’ ‘M’ becomes aware that Bond is lurking around with Leiter on a case mission, he sends 007 to the tropical paradise to find Bond and figure out what he knows and what he is up to. But Bond is 007 and now your confused. Since Bond left the service and retired to start his life anew, his 00 status was passed on to a new agent worthy of the 7, Nomi, a female agent of the British secret service, played by Lashana Lynch, has stepped into his 007 status and explains as much when she reveals herself to Bond.
CLOSING THE BOND…
No Time to Die attempts to pack a lot into the final film to bring closure to the era of Daniel Craig, but the film can seem at times to be all over the place along with James who right from the beginning of the film is whisked from location to location before the first hour of the film has been reached. No Time to Die never quite reaches the fever pitch of Casino Royale or Skyfall, but definitely has a better high than that of Quantum of Solace and Spectre, and with so much going on in this installment it was clear that Daniel Craig was key to the continuity of the story being told over the five films. And as chaotic as the film story may get, it was clear the producers succeeded in rebranding James Bond as a more emotionally driven character and not just as a secret agent on a mission who loves more than the occasional roll in the hay with a pretty lady. Craig has played Bond as a man of few words but driven deeply by his emotions this era’s James Bond and producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, have let rise to the surface and at times overcome James to a paralyzing degree. In the final acts of the film, No Time to Die had the willingness to take surprisingly bold risks to bring closure to Daniel Craig and the story he told as James Bond, with the Bond villain of this film being Lyutsifer Safin, a global terrorist with ties to Madeleine Swann and her childhood, but in what seems like a less than explosive and rather bland performance by Rami Malek as the big baddie with the Phantom of the Opera face scars, and if you blink you might miss Ana de Armas as an agent helping Bond when his mission and SPECTRE leads him to Cuba.
A BONDING EXPERIENCE…
No Time to Die was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and it was the first time in the history of Bond films, that an American director was chosen. And Fukunaga manages to direct a 007 film that shocks you at the same time it is revealing something to you giving you that state of feeling overwhelmed emotionally with it all coming down to a world-endangering threat that only James Bond can save everyone from, and that reaches its climax in the classic Bond film way, with a film ending fight that takes place at a remote, sophisticated supervillain lair. the final scenes of the film encompass the history of the franchise and the Daniel Craig era boldly ending on being explosive in final moments that will be talked about for years in the film world. With the era of Daniel Craig now finished and the rebranding of the Bond film series complete, it is safe to say that despite the issues the producers faced along the way in making this era of films and some of them not being quite as good as the previous films, we needed to see Bond in a deeply connected and chaotically all over the place narrative to get to this glorious end of an era. The 15-year journey that Daniel Craig, Barbara Broccoli, and Michael G. Wilson took us on this time around was ultimately worth the trip to experience one of the Best Bond eras we have seen in 60 years and 25 James Bond films.
To that I say, Bond Voyage, Daniel Craig, thanks for the memories it’s been one hell of a record-breaking ride…
“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.
-Jack London
All of Daniel Craig’s Bond films, as well as the other 20 Bond films in the franchise series, are available to stream on your preferred platform.