Spectre might be my least favourite of the Daniel Craig Bond flicks. Despite Christoph Waltz’s fantastic turn as Blofeld and Dave Bautista’s ominous villain, Spectre feels like a movie waiting for a final act that just never arrives. No Time To Die is that final act, and c🥂hanges Spec💟tre’s position in the James Bond canon.
It’s rare for Bond films to have full blown sequels. Prior to Craig, the films were typically based on actual Fleming stories, which themselves were usually stan൩dalone. The Craig era has brought four original stories with it, but even then, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre were all their own thing, even if threads ran through them. No Time To Die is Spectre 2, only much better - and so good it elevates Spectre itself.
Major spoilers follow for No Time To Die
No Time To Die is the first Craig film to be about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:James Bond and not 007. Of course, he gets pulled back into the usual plots for world domination and super secret spy business, but ultimately, it’s a film about a man rather than a spy. It&rsqꦇuo;s because of this that the themes revolve around moving on and letting go. While all of the Craig Bond films prior to No Time To Die were largely standalone affairs, Spectre retroactively connects them by explaining that every villain he has faced is a part of Spectre. Despite being introduced four films into his five film run as the character, this makes Spectre Bond’s only major nemesis. After taking down Blofeld in Spectre, No Time To Die se🌱es the deaths of every Spectre member, drawing a line under the saga for good.
Only one of these deaths is actually at Bond’s hands - Blofeld - and even then, it’s an accidental ﷽death caused by the nanobots in Madeline’s perfume. Still, Spectrꦯe is dead. By the end of No Time To Die, so is Bond.
It’s unclear where the series goes from here. That Bond keeps his name even in his new life away from 007 throws out the idea that Bond is a codename, readily assigned to the top 00 agent. Despite Lashana Lynch 🔥shining as the new 007, this series cannot exist without a James Bond - not to mention the credits say ‘James Bond will return’. After a fitting death and Craig angling for an exit since Skyfall, it’s clear that Bond himself gets recast. But everyone else involved is so wrapped up in Craig’s version of the character, so wrapped up in the Spectre arc, it seems like a hard reboot is needed.
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That likely means a new M, a new Q, a new Moneypenny, and a new Felix. Lashana Lynch’s 007 will likely be ditched in the shakeup, as will Lea Seadoux’s Madeleine Swan and Ana de Armas’ Paloma. That’s especially a shame for the latter, who stole the show in her single scene while teasing a return. She’s the least tied to Craig and Spectre, so could yet return, but it feels as though Spectre and No Time To Die were part of a long goodbye not just to Daniel Craig, but to everything James Bond has done since Casino Royale. Bond 2024 will likely be a completely new direction for the series, not just 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a recast to Daniel Kaluuya, Idris Elba, or whoever else.
Thematically, Spectre is very different from No Time To Die. The former focuses on hyper surveillance, while the latter is about loss, redemption, and humanity’s obsession with oblivion. Spectre is about a battle to keep the 00 program alive, specifically because Bond, frust😼rating as he is, gets results. No Time To Die is about 00 life after Bond. In some ways, it’s an ending that feels like a beginning. If Bond himself weren’t such an irreplaceably iconic lead, it would feel as though No Time To Die was setting up a future arc where Lynch and de Armas were the stars. But he is, and he will return, so No Time To Die is unequivocally an ending. More than anything else, it’s an ending to Spect﷽re.
With different directors and scriptwriters involved in Spectre and No Time T♓o Die, not to mention the six years between their releases and the fac💛t Craig was expected to leave after Spectre, it does not seem as though Spectre was written to have a direct sequel. It wasn’t until I watched No Time To Die that I realised it needed one.
No Time To Die changes Spectre’s place in Craig’s legacy. Once a decent Bond movie with a spectacular villain but bloated pacing and not much eꦉlse, it’s now the perfect set up to the last, hardest, and best goodbye. No Time To📖 Die isn’t Spectre 2, but it makes Spectre so much better just by existing.