This is a stretch, but Bond driving Madeleine’s yellow Toyota feels a bit like Bond driving the yellow Citroen in FYEO with Bond having to use his wits and driving skills without gadgets to evade and vanquish the bad guys
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Even though I would’ve liked to have seen the Vantage in an action scene I understand the necessity of the Land Cruiser. It is more appropriate for the terrain and equals product placement dollars. And leaving the Vantage behind gives the film its final moment involving Bond’s remaining physical legacies - his daughter and car.
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Bond makes Matilde an omelette, definitely a reference to A View To A Kill - though this time it actually is an omelette, he ended up making a quiche in AVTAK
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When Bond is singled out by the spotlight in NO TIME TO DIE he’s standing on a star-like ornament in the dancing room floor. Now this is probably a coincidence it looks distinctly different but it nonetheless strongly reminds me of that - less artistic, less intricate - ornament on the dancing floor where Bond and Domino tango in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.
EDIT:
And since I’m just watching this for the second time: Doesn’t it sound significant that Logan Ash, certainly the most disgusting character in the film, points out what a big fan of Bond’s he was? Maybe unintentional but it strikes me as an example how toxic fandom sometimes can turn. Not a reference per se, more a commentary.
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There’s two instances of golden light enveloping the screen in No Time To Die and I believe it makes the final segment stand alone in importance, almost like a movie within a movie. As Madeleine and Mathilde move away from Bond in the boat, and the transition to the clouds to conclude the island segment. I think first and foremost it’s to create a dreamlike quality, showing his idealised perfect family fading away from him. Death is something that hasn’t ever happened to Bond, shouldn’t have happened, but did. The transition to the London skies does a lot to soothe the pain and almost suggests Bond is at peace, now overlooking the city he loved so much.
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Almost all the scenes with Madeleine are awash in yellows and whites. She’s wearing white in the PTS indicating both a bridal status and her innocence. Matera echoes yellows perfectly. Note also Bond wears blue, like his eyes, beneath a beige suit. She’s wearing darker colors and blacks when Safin meets her in her office and when she goes to see Blofeld, but can’t go through with it. When Bond visits her Norway home her house is filmed in sunlight yellows and golds, and she’s wearing white again. Her Toyota is yellow. She’s wearing a darker earthy colored shirt when she shoots Safin’s thugs in the woods, but white pants, symbolizing maternal protection for her child. The filmmakers were quite deliberate in their costuming and cinematography. It’s a beautiful film. I hope the Academy is paying attention.
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Another thought, Melina seeking revenge for her parents in FYEO and Madeleine just trying to move on after her mother’s murder. Madeleine is a far stronger Bond woman than she gets credit for.
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I think it’s largely because she’s a poorly written character. Much of what goes on with her in Spectre makes little sense. For all those that criticized Casino Royale for the rushed development of Bond and Vesper’s romance (and there is some merit to that discussion), it feels like they really took their time on that one compared to what we see in Spectre with Madeleine and Bond. Her character is given a very shaky foundation in Spectre that was always going to hinder her as a character in No Time to Die.
That said, the reason the character works is because of Lea Seydoux. She manufactures the emotion that the character is supposed to bring to both Bond and the audience almost completely on her own because the script in neither of the two films is doing her any favors whatsoever.
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Reading through Dynamite Comics’ Black Box (2017) again recently, an arc I really enjoy by the way, and noticed quite a number of similarities to NTTD. Such as:
An opening involving an ice lake cabin, with a man arriving to kill someone.
A villain who wears a white death mask.
Bond being stalked in a forest.
A villain who wears cybernetic goggles.
The finale set in a subterranean base of circular tunnels, off the coast of Japan.
Bond’s signal being blocked due to thick walls.
Bond machine gunning his way through the base.
Bond given an EMP watch, which he uses at the end.
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Wow! Well noticed! This can hardly be a coincidence, these are a lot of similarities in a row.
Quite too obvious where they got their ideas, unfortunately.
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I think it would be a big deal, especially given how minimal continuation novel references can be. Could we be looking at other media, comics and even video games - especially if IO’s series becomes popular, widening the scope for film ideas going forward? Some of these Black Box examples are inverted - eg. the henchman wears the mask rather than the main villain, and it’s Bond stalking the lake cabin instead of the villain. But the core ideas remain. Which makes me eager to see the question asked of the NTTD creative team sometime.
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This seems quite similar to opening the blast doors, the Blood and Thunder chapter from YOLT.
“He picked up Blofeld’s sword and sleep walked down the stone passage to the torture room. He glanced up to the clock. Five minutes to midnight. And there was the wooden box, mud sputtered, down beside the throne on which he had sat, days, years before. He went to it and hacked it open with one stroke of the sword. Yes, there was the big wheel he had expected! He knelt down and twisted and twisted until it was finally closed. What would happen now? The end of the world?”
A weakened Bond using a wheel or lever to open or close an object, causing an explosion.
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So many ways that Sp and NTTD movies riff on OHMSS and YOLT novels, but done in a way that doesn’t feel rehashed/cliched. For all the stick the writers receive on this forum, I personally doff my cap to all involved.
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Didn’t know or forgot. But not too surprising:
https://twitter.com/007/status/1655497768331526147?s=61&t=TkZJAUxgWqJKF9kqgeErjw
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I saw that on twitter too and wondered about the person who has the job of cataloguing all this stuff for EON. Moreover, having to do so in a manner where it can be retrieved when thinking about a new project.
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