By this point, it’s beating a long dead horse to bring up the revenge is bad argument. Madeleine is a mother and her priority is protecting her daughter. She will do what she has to do to keep her safe. She clearly had unresolved trauma related to Safin. But it didn’t matter to her anymore. She did what she did to protect Matilde.
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The moment when they’re attacked in the car and Madeline immediately got in the back to make sure Matilde was safe was that in a nutshell (also my partners favourite part)
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Bond also did this once he realised he had a daughter and still loved Madeleine. Safin offered Matilde to Bond to leave the island. To me it looked like Bond would have taken him up on that offer if it included Madeleine. In that moment it was clear that Bond would put his family in front of the mission.
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After he rescued them, Bond could’ve left with Madeleine and Mathilde on the boat right then and there, but he saw the destruction of the base as an essential part of their future as a family, along with the survival of the human race itself.
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That is true. Well, at least for a moment I’m sure that Bond was ready to leave with his family if Madeleine was included in the offer by Safin. I’ll need to see it again but that’s what stuck me in that scene on first viewing (and honestly, is an idea that I like, that for a moment Bond thought to hell with the world and the mission, I’m just going to save those closest to me).
Yeah, I have the song stuck in my head, too… 
Yes Bond literally died saving the world. This is the only good part of the character’s death, for me.
Another thing that has been bugging me. Madeleine and Bond were only a couple for a matter of weeks, right? 2 months at most. How can she tell her daughter the story of a man named Bond, James Bond, when she hardly knows anything about him?
Well, she obviously knows about Spectre and the mission in NTTD. Since she knows about Vesper, she knows Casino Royale. Presumably, she saw the Vesper VHS tape at L’American after Bond rejected her and put her on the train. So that’s at least half the missions we saw that she knows about. She probably knows of Quantum and Greene from going through her father’s many secret rooms, one of which was at her home. “She’s very smart and very good at keeping secrets.” Skyfall and Sylva is maybe the only mission she doesn’t know about.
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NTTD definitely embraces an identity of foreboding.
These quotes, for example:
M: “We thought you were dead.”
Q: So you’re not dead?”
Blofeld: “When her secret finds its way out, it’ll be the death of you.”
Bond: “You live long enough.”
Obruchev: “You will never leave this island alive.”
Bond: “If I don’t come back, blow it all to sh**.”
For a time Bond seems happy to embrace the gunfire while inside the DB5, and the Cuba SPECTRE meeting was certain death if not for the interference from Obruchev. And I have to say, swabbing Bond’s toothbrush is one of the creepiest things in the franchise. Very predatory.
The explosions also seem to carry a heavier payload this time. The blast at Vesper’s tomb, the explosion on board the boat and the bombs inside Safin’s lair all knock Bond off his feet and all could’ve been fatal. The way they depict the sense of disorientation gives a greater sense of realism.
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In the cinema I was in, there were actually a few chuckles at the “you’ll never leave this island alive!” line… they weren’t laughing 30 minutes later!
I did think the sound editing was excellent - the sense of disorientation from the bombs and grenades, the engines in the fog in the forrest and the impact of the final missiles at the end really stood out.
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Agreed. Casino Royale’s is amazing but they have gone downhill from there IMO.
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The Forrest scene was particularly superb.
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I’m afraid I must disagree. SPECTRE aside, I’ve been happy with Kleinman’s work in the CR era. He didn’t do QOS. SF introduced a new element in moving the camera in swoops and changing angles (down at the sea floor, through tunnels, falling into a grave, etc) that worked very well IMO and supported the song. Eilish’s song has grown on me and I liked the titles overall, my only criticism being that they were a bit busy and I didn’t always know what I was supposed to be focusing on.
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I rewatched NTTD last night and arguably my favorite scene was the long tracking sequence with Bond killing off the endless amount of Safin’s goons near the film’s climax. I was so in the moment the first time I watched it as I joked that Fukunaga’s love of Call of Duty had so much influence in the scene. The second time around I realized the long take had a sense of familiarity to another TV show/movie. I had forgotten that Fukunaga had directed the episode of True Detective with Cohle going through the same close-quarters combat similarly to Bond. It’s really one of the best action sequences in the Bond film franchise.
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He directed the entire first season, didn’t he? There are a lot of video game references in No Time To Die. CJF is self professed video game fanatic. I honestly wonder what kind of job he could do adapting a video game to a movie. Seems a huge missed opportunity to not him direct Uncharted.
Watched it again, just noticed the club in Jamaica Bond takes Felix and Ash to is called XXV Roman numerals for 25 
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Honestly, at the beginning of this sequence, I was really surprised that she did not sit in the back with the child from the beginning. It’s always been a golden rule in my family, as far as I can remember, that any ‘spare’ (non-driving) adult has to sit in the back next to the child. This is so deeply hardwired in me, there is no way I would think of not sitting in the back next to a child (any child not just mine), if I were the spare adult.
I always assumed it was a universal rule, but I guess I’ll have to add this one to the list of weird family traditions 
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I find myself nodding at this article by British writer/comedian David Mitchell…(contains spoilers)
I disagree. He’s just banging the same old tired drum: „the next film can only be a prequel, it was conventional but I did not get my expectations satisfied because it was so… unconventional“.
I understand the initial disappointment. I was shocked at first, too - before having seen the film. But it’s more than a month later now. And putting that article in a newspaper is just catering to the „things may never change“-crowd.
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I saw the movie again today. My mother loves Craig as Bond and cried at the end. But she agreed this finale suited him, and is now ready for another actor to take on the role. My impression also remains the same, and I have to say the cinemas are full here. On a surface level I’m sure people are enjoying the movie just fine. But knowledge of literary themes and references gives the fanbase a deeper level of appreciation. I really approve of what the filmmakers have achieved here.
I really love it, and the tactical outfit is one of my favourites too. I think it’s going to be remembered as one of the Bond costumes, especially considering the significance of what he does in it.
“Letting go is hard” also seems like a commentary on Craig’s exit from the franchise.
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