This one might be a bit thin, but even though he’s patently absolutely furrrrrrrrrious with her, Bond still opens the DB5 door for Dr Swann. My dear Colonel Bouvard/Bouvar/Boitier/BooBoo, you shouldn’t have opened that car door yourself.
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This film oozes classic Bond from every pore. It has clearly been made with love and expertise and imo the result is exquisite. The hate for this or that aspect is borne of ignorance and a misguided sense of entitlement to own the direction in which Bond should be taken. Over the 5 DC films there have been things I loved (the opera scene of QoS) and things that weren’t for me (the family Blofeld connection), but I applaud the courage of everyone involved in the series for bringing us to this finale.
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A bit harsh, no?
Glad to be of help, @Surrie - though I have to confess I saw that gesture to the tummy as a pregnancy sign, I only connected the line about having to tell him in retrospect.
But from Madeleine’s point of view it makes perfect sense:
She suspects she’s pregnant and relives her own traumatic experience as a child. While Bond is at the cemetery she gets confirmation and it’s the first thing she wants to share with him - until she sees the state he’s in.
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Something I’ve put together that I think is quite interesting. The beginning of Casino Royale and the ending of No Time To Die both have an MI6 agent being killed leaving behind their family, a mother and daughter.
With Casino Royale Bond was the one doing the killing, with No Time To Die he’s the one being killed.
I’m sure this was unintentional but it works very nicely as bookends for the Craig era.
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Some of the skylights in Safin’s lair looked almost identical to the skylight in the famous “spider room” in Dr. No. Yet another DN reference.
When Bond choked Blofeld (and said “Die Blofeld!”) that was taken straight from the death of Blofeld/Shatterhand in YOLT the book. Or are we doing movie easter eggs only?
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Book Easter eggs count too!
This movie is chock full of book Easter eggs.
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Consider this from Fleming’s Moonraker, the chapter ’ Zero Minus’:
"Come on Gala, said Bond roughly. “What the Hell does it matter. It’s a bloody miracle we have got the chance.” He moved away from her. He walked to the doors leading out into the shaft.
“And then,” he said, and he held up the precious light in his right hand, “I shall walk out of here and shut the doors and go and light a last cigarette under the tail of the Moonraker.”
“God,” she whispered. “What are you saying? You’re mad.”
She looked at him with through eyes wide with horror.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bond said impatiently. “What the hell is there else to do? The explosion will be so terrific that one won’t feel anything. And it’s bound to work with all that fuel vapour hanging around. It’s me or a million people in London. The warhead won’t go off. Atom bombs don’t explode like that. It’ll be melted probably. There’s just a chance you may get away. Most of the explosion will take the line of least resistance through the roof - and down the exhaust pit, if I can work the machinery that opens up the floor”.
He smiled. “Cheer up,” he said, walking over to her and taking one of her hands. “The boy stood on the burning deck. I’ve wanted to copy him since I was five.”
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It was only my 3rd viewing that I picked up on these potential hints of Madeleine’s pregnancy 
Nevertheless, I do believe now that she intended to tell Bond when he arrived back at the hotel, then she panic’s in the DB5 about having to tell him something. Finally, the grip of the stomach - she can’t get her words out. Subtle, but it’s there.
Further to this, Fukunaga posted on IG in early October some BTS spoiler photos from the making of NTTD. The last image he posts is his ‘improv’ script of when Bond places Madeleine on the train… conveniently he cuts the photo off at the point I would expect him to write about Madeleine’s body language/NVC’s.
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Not sure if there is a reference here or not, but Madeleine passing down the story of James Bond to her daughter, Mathilde, seems to mirror Cubby Broccoli passing down the James Bond legacy to his daughter, Barbara.
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Someone is clearly paying attention
Impressive.
I feel like the final confrontation between Scaramanga and Bond in 1965’s The Man With The Golden Gun is somewhat reminiscent of Safin and Bond’s last scene together: Scaramanga laying down on the mud, wounded, lulls Bond off-guard and shoots him with a golden derringer hidden in his palm, with a bullet “dipped in enough poison to kill a horse.” Bond is hit but returns fire and shoots Scaramanga several times, killing him. Before this, an exhausted Bond thought “it wouldn’t be long before he lay down himself, right there on the hard cracked mud, just to rest.”
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Casino Royale ends with Mr. White being introduced to a man with the words “the name’s Bond…James Bond”
No Time To Die ends with Mr White’s daughter telling her child about “a man named Bond…James Bond”
Summary
“For the sake of future relationships you may have, most people don’t kneecap your parent on first meeting, it’s just that your dad and your grandad had an odd relationship.”
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I also noticed here, whether purposefully or not, Madeleine says “I’m going to tell you a story about a man named Bond, James Bond”. Referencing his novel beginnings?
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“We are the last two rats, we either eat each other, or we eat everyone else”
Has a different weight with NTTD’s ending.
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You Only Live Twice, from the chapter The Lovesome Spot:
Why didn’t the Japanese air-force come and bomb this place to eternity, set the castle and the poison garden ablaze with napalm? How could this man continue to have protection from a bunch of botanists and scientists?
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Now having actually seen the movie, this is a list I’ve compiled:
Radiation suits: Dr No
Coloured dots during title sequence: Dr No
Music and dialogue: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Blofeld’s voice over speakers: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Lift rafts: Thunderball and You Only Live Twice
Vehicle converting into submarine – The Spy Who Loved Me
Using a car to kill someone: For Your Eyes Only
Aston Martin Vantage: The Living Daylights
Villain facial scarring: Goldeneye
Delectado cigars: Die Another Day
Bond left dead – Fleming’s From Russia With Love
Villain shot in chest and surviving – Fleming’s Dr No
Visiting Vesper’s grave – Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Poison garden: Fleming’s You Only Live Twice
“Die Blofeld, die!” – Fleming’s You Only Live Twice
Bond having a child – Fleming’s You Only Live Twice
Jack London quote – Fleming’s You Only Live Twice
Cybernetic eye – Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
Nanobots – Everything or Nothing
Walking out of M’s office, Bond takes off his visitor badge and throws it flippantly into Moneypenny’s bin without looking, evoking the spirit of the hat toss from earlier movies.
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The MTS also contains a bevy of references to main title sequences past: Dr. No, Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Goldeneye, Quantum of Solace, to name a few. I think, with this film, the references were done right. I never got the feeling that it was just embarrassing fan service (cough cough looking at you Abrams). There were also numerous references to the Metal Gear Solid series, most notably with the Heracles virus basically being FoxDie and the final ascent with the ladder being reminiscent of the ladder scene in MGS3.
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