Why, why, why would you think that? Do you not think that James Bond will return…?
For a minute, I wasn’t sure. Hence why I asked.
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EON almost always has ambiguity after a big change. Connery acts like he’s not been widowed in DAF so much so that it could work as a prequel as much as a sequel. GoldenEye’s PTS is set in 1986, almost negating, or at least ignoring, the Dalton years (which NTTD then embraces with the Aston Martin V8 and Robert Brown’s M portrait.) FYEO has Bond dispatching a Blofeld lookalike in its PTS but it’s never clear. So ambiguity becomes yet another trope EON subverts with this ending. CR cast the same actress as M as Brosnan had.
You could have also had Nomi make the sacrifice and let Bond motor off in the boat with Madeleine and Mathilde, like Black Widow sacrificing herself for Hawkeye’s family. Nomi even has to give Bond the detonator. But that wouldn’t work narratively, critically, or publicly. Besides we saw that before when May Day sacrifices herself in AVTAK yelling “Get Zorin for me!”
And after watching it a third time, Q explains nanobots are bio robots, not electrical, so the EMP watch wouldn’t work either. Neither could Bond continue working with MI6 as one of them would have contact with Madeleine through her work or an intermediary. Heracles would find a way to her, just as any virus does.
And the fact that he has a daughter makes it all the more poignant. The five year gap since the last film gave EON a once in a franchise opportunity to tell this story. And it’s a better ending than the happy retirement Connery Bond gets in NSNA. Besides, what stories do you think Madeleine will tell Mathilde about Bond, James Bond if not the other EON films?
Just as CR showed us a never before beginning chapter, NTTD shows us a never seen before concluding chapter. It fits, it works, and it’s consistent with the arc of Craig canon.
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Saw the movie again tonight. It absolutely improves on a second viewing. Funnily enough I think my ticket had the more spoilery alternate title printed on it:
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New reference! No Time to Die Another Day
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I like that the film embraces its choices right to the end, making it a film of real consequence. This should be compared to The Rise of Skywalker, which featured no less than seven death fake outs, which negated character sacrifice and the emotion accompanied with it.
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And unlike TROS, EON owned everything in Spectre, even the heavily criticized bits. They didn’t spend 90% of No Time To Die trying retcon the previous film out of existence.
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And this worked to Lea Seydoux’s benefit. She really turned in a great performance in this movie
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One quick note on a style choice in NTTD. There’s a few edits that stand out (I counted three) that were either done simply to cut down on screen time or just because they were fun. When the DB5 pulls out of the tunnel and heads toward Matera, the camera continues to pan in toward the village, and the car goes from having just left the frame to the right to being down the hill and entering the village a few seconds later. The same sort of thing happens with the reveal of the V8, as Bond yanks the tarp off the car and as the camera moves along the back of the vehicle, he’s seen getting into the car a second later, seemingly having moved from one side of the car to the other in no time at all. The last time this happens is in Safin’s lair at the end as Bond goes from being on an elevated catwalk to walking along the acid river down below in a matter of seconds. I just thought it was a cool way to move things along.
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Peter Hunt would be proud.
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Good points, all.
Now that I have let the film marinate for a little over week, my thoughts are slightly different. I still disagree with the artistic decision to kill Bond, but I can appreciate the overall picture they were trying to paint.
In some ways, NTTD presents the other side of a dialectic whose first half was painted in SF. That film was a celebration of all that is great about Bond: his fortitude, courage, and embodiment of the “old ways” in an increasingly strange, ever altering world. At the film’s conclusion, we are reassured that Bond will continue flying the flag of these qualities.
NTTD confronts and (hopefully) puts to rest the negative in Bond. This requires, in the view of the filmmakers, Bond’s demise. We see that his maleness is not required in a world that contains the likes of Paloma and Nomi. The misogyny and racism that have plagued the series are symbolically blown up with Bond in the destruction of the rotting Cold War base. Does this redeem Fleming and other Bond creatives for past misogyny and racism? Probably not, but it nevertheless needs to be addressed for the franchise to continue and for us to enjoy Bond, including problematic past entries, with a slightly clearer conscience. I likewise commend Horowitz for having Pussy Galore leave Bond for another woman.
I think the message could have been conveyed without killing Bond. His transformation into a family man would have been just as effective and you can still blow the base to smithereens while making a less depressing film. But alas, it is what it is. With the passage of time I can appreciate the aspects of the film I enjoyed more (anyone else think Logan Ash is one of the best minor bad guys of the series?)
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Let the past die, kill it if you have to. Once again, The Last Jedi proves its worth.
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I also picked up on the decision to have Bond blown up on a relic of the Second World War. Pretty on the nose with what they were trying to convey.
Like I enthusiastically yelled at a friend while discussing the film, SO MANY LAYERS!
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I spent too long going down the rabbit hole on youtube this morning. So many “reviews” that are just hate-baiting for the clicks. I completely understand this film not being for everyone, but I refuse to entertain opinions that are just railing against the “SJWs” and blame PWB for all of the film’s issues, because you know, women.
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I stopped watching youtubers’ reviews very quickly. One of the allegedly spoiler-free reviews there even confirmed my suspicion of Bond having a child.
It makes CBn all the more enjoyable!
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I never even started watching Youtube reviews. When I want a Bond review, I go to a place of which I can be certain that people who post there understood and know their Bond – CBn.
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So when a grown man negatively whines about NTTD and you see his Star Wars action figures in the back of his mom’s basement, there’s your clue not to watch it.
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Yes, I think I need to get more sleep. Usually I can spot that. 
This one’s not a review, but does have spoilers and is hilarious.
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