No Time to Die on France 2: Why Did the Ending of the Last James Bond with Daniel Craig Divide Fans So Much?

No Time to Die, airing tonight on France 2, surprised fans upon its theatrical release in 2021 due to its... bold conclusion. A look back at the end of the Daniel Craig era, which did not please everyone.

In 2021, Daniel Craig hung up the tuxedo and Walther PPK of James Bond after a final outing in No Time to Die. While the film offered its share of effective and thrilling action scenes, its conclusion did not achieve unanimous approval among many in the franchise.

A Powerful Final Act

After a confrontation with the main villain Safin, portrayed by Rami Malek, the secret agent, infected by a deadly virus, sacrifices himself. 007 is obliterated by missiles that destroy the island serving as the bad guy's lair.

In an emotional sequence, James Bond bids farewell to Madeleine Swann and his daughter before awaiting his grim fate, resigned. For the first time since the character's creation in 1953 by Ian Fleming, and after 25 official films, the team behind No Time to Die dared to kill off their iconic hero.

Guillaume Evin, a leading expert on the James Bond universe, reacted to this bold choice in the columns of the Huffington Post. "Never has this been done! There have been a total of 6 actors in the James Bond role and thus 5 actor transitions, and it has always gone well," stated the author of the book James Bond is Eternal.

Indeed, even Ian Fleming, the father of 007, never killed off his super spy. He had considered it at one point "weary of the hold his fictional hero had on his life." The author had thus left him for dead at the end of From Russia with Love, "only to resurrect him in the next novel by administering an antidote, under pressure from his publisher."

Killing Bond, a Sacrilege?

"They wanted to make a strong statement, but they went too far. Killing James Bond is sacrilege," insisted Guillaume Evin. "This death of 007, with a sacrificial notion, is really not possible! Bond is reckless, but not suicidal. They strayed too far from the character, which is a shame," lamented the saga specialist.

According to Guillaume Evin, during his viewing of the film in theaters, "80 to 90% of people were disappointed, shocked, or even downright angry. I think it’s a good thriller, but a bad Bond. In trying to break the mold, they somewhat broke the toy," concluded the author.

At the time of the release, many internet users also criticized this ending on social media, forcing director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Daniel Craig to speak out to calm the debates. "During my first meeting with Daniel and the producers, they told me this was how they wanted the story to end. They felt it had to be a real ending," he indicated to Empire.

"It couldn’t be a conventional action thing… it also couldn’t be some demonic thing out of nowhere; it had to connect with the central theme of the story. I didn’t try to leave any doubt. I wanted to be very clear. But I also wanted to do it without bad taste," Cary Joji Fukunaga justified.

"We didn’t want to do the same kind of shot as in Terminator 2, where Sarah Connor turns into a skeleton. But we also didn’t want to leave it to believe he would jump into a sewer at the last moment. So we composed a wide shot of the island being bombarded, to mix the grand scale and the small scale," he explained.

EON

A Death Planned from the Start?

For his part, Daniel Craig revealed that Bond's death was planned almost from the time he took on the role in Casino Royale. "I’m going to tell a story here, whether everyone remembers it or agrees with it. But it was in 2006. Barbara Broccoli and I were sitting in the back of a car leaving the premiere of Casino Royale in Berlin. Everything was going well. People liked the film. And it seemed I was going to have the chance to do at least one more film," he stated to Variety.

"I asked Barbara: How many of these films do I have to make? Because I don’t really look at contracts or that kind of thing. She replied: Four, and I said: Oh, okay. Can I kill him in the last one? And she didn’t pause. She said: Yes."

"So I made a deal with her at the time and said: This is how I’d like it to go. For me, it was the only way to end it all and make it my last term; someone else could come in and take over," revealed the actor.

For producer Michael G Wilson, this ending also makes sense. "I think it’s the appropriate way to handle a situation where a person risks their life all the time. The odds eventually catch up with you. I think Fleming knew that, and I suppose we ended up realizing it too. It’s also very important, emotionally, to understand the risks that people like Bond take," stated the long-time producer of the franchise.

That said, Her Majesty's secret agent will return to the big screen soon, under the direction of a certain Denis Villeneuve. But with what face? We will surely find out very soon!