No Time To Die: 007 things that have us hyped for the new James Bond movie
By Josh Hill
James Bond is back in No Time To Die, and there’s a lot to unpack from our first look at the trailer.
For the 25th time, James Bond is back with a new adventure. Daniel Craig is returning, True Detective‘s Cary Joji Fukunaga is directing (buckle up for the longest tracking shot in Bond history), Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote the script, and transition is once again the theme of the day.
Unless something happens, this will be Craig’s swan song as Bond, which means No Time To Die will be the last movie before we hit the reset button on one of cinema’s most timeless characters. We will soon have a new actor playing Bond and a new direction for the franchise as it prepares to enter its sixth decade of pop culture relevance.
Let’s not gaze too far into the future, though, as the first trailer for the 25th Bond film dropped and we have a lot to talk about.
The Trailer
Oh my god, oh my god, OH MY GOD.
Daniel Craig is SO game
After Skyfall came out, Craig infamously said he’d rather slash his wrists than play Bond for the fourth time. Well, he’s back for his fifth (and final) turn as 007 and he looks as game as he’s ever been and it’s a perfect full circle performance.
Maybe it’s the senioritis, but Craig is oozing Casino Royale level swagger in No Time To Die. Tapping back into the enthusiasm he had the first time around not only makes us buy-in from the jump but it’s a nice way to bring his incarnation of Bond full circle as he bids farewell to the role.
FELIX LEITER!
Westworld helped propel Jeffrey Wright into the mainstream conversation, but before he was building (and then helping destroy) a theme park he was the ace up Bond’s sleeve. Leiter has been a staple in the Bond novels and films over the years, but we haven’t seen Wright in the role since his brief appearance in Quantum of Solace back in 2008.
Considering he was instrumental in the creation of this version of Bond back in Casino Royale, Wright returning as Leiter is a nice tribute to how much he’s done with so little.
Halle Berry’s Jinx died so Lashana Lynch could own this movie
Die Another Day is not a good Bond film. It’s objectively bad and lacks the charming camp of the worst Roger Moore outings. One of the greatest tragedies to come out of this was how wasted Halle Berry was as Bond’s counterpart, Jinx.
(Sidebar: There was a whole plan to make a Jinx spinoff franchise but that was scrapped when Die Another Day was destroyed by basically everyone who saw it.)
Lashana Lynch is here to erase that sin. We only get about 10 seconds of her in the trailer for No Time To Die but she owns every single second.
Let’s not overthink whether or not Lynch will take over the Bond role after Craig exits — which is the rumor. Instead, how about we just enjoy her. Bond has never had a mirror image of himself like this, even in characters like Alec Trevelyan or Raoul Silva who were both Double-0 agents that rivaled Bond.
Trevelyan and Silva were both more masterminds in Goldeneye and Skyfall though than physical equals to Bond. Lynch’s character not only seems to be that but his physical superior.
Also, speaking of Bond swagger:
Rami Malek is already a Top 15 Bond villain
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but Rami Malek’s 5-ish seconds in the No Time To Die have already launched him into the Top 15 of all-time Bond villains.
To be fair, it’s a top-heavy list and the fact that he can already be a great Bond villain after merely a trailer tells you all how bad sharp the dropoff in that list is. But Malek, who was rumored to be in the role the day after he won an Oscar for lip-synching, looks like he’s mastering a balancing act between hamming it up and trying to play his villain seriously.
That’s the razor’s edge that all Bond villains exist on, and even the finest actors in the world haven’t been able to navigate those waters. Christopher Walkern went full ham in A View To A Kill as did Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies. Meanwhile, Mathieu Amalric and Robert Carlyle both went too serious and subdued in Quantum of Solace and The World Is Not Enough, respectively. Even Christoph Waltz was roasted a little for his turn as Blofeld in Spectre.
Being a Bond villain is fun, but it’s not easy. Malek has our curiosity but now he needs to grab our attention.
BLOFELD!!
Speaking of Christoph Waltz, he’s back!
Blofeld’s fate was left open-ended in Spectre and he’s returning in No Time To Die doing his best Hannibal Lecter impression. He’s Bond’s greatest foe (and, sigh, his adoptive brother) and having him back is at the very least intriguing. Waltz is too good an actor and Blofeld too important a character to have whatever they did with both in Spectre to be our lasting memory.
Aston Martin x Gadgets
No commentary needed.
Ana de Armas is everything
Learn her name, and learn it well. The Cuban actress arrived with Blade Runner 2049, stole the show in Knives Out, and is about blow up as a superstar after No Time To Die.
Her progression as a capital-S Star started with an unexpectedly touching and heartbreaking performance as Joi, the downloaded love of Ryan Gossling’s life in Blade Runner 2049. Her dialed-back and muted performance as Joi made it impossible to not notice the depth of acting talent de Armas possesses. That talent came to the forefront (and to the true mainstream) in Knives Out, with a role that has garnered critical acclaim and award nominations.
Now she adds action star to her trifecta of accomplishments. We don’t know how much de Armas will be featured in No Time To Kill but if what we briefly saw of her is any indication of A) her role and B) her skill as an action star, we’d all better buckle up.
If you don’t want to melt that down and inject it directly into your brainstem, what you’re saying is you’ve never seen an action movie before. Or a Bond movie. Or anything good.
No Time To Die comes out next year and already the wait is way too long.