Film Plot Summary

Pre-Opening Titles-Credits Sequence

[Note: The blockbuster film's plot opened with a prologue explaining how Agent 007 James Bond's (Daniel Craig in his last outing as MI6 agent) former partner and psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) was connected to the film's new and powerful, adversarial terrorist villain: Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek).]

In the film's flashbacked prologue-opening, set in icy Norway, a young Madeleine Swann (Coline Defaud) was speaking to her ailing mother (Mathilde Bourbin), who told her about her father, Mr. White, a high-ranking SPECTRE member: "Your Papa, he kills people. Is that who you love? Murderers?" Suddenly, Madeleine watched as a figure wearing a Japanese Noh mask approached the house - terrorist leader Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). During a failed attempt to murder her father, she witnessed the shooting murder of her mother (# 1 death). Safin was seeking revenge against the criminal organization SPECTRE for the deaths of his family at the hands of assassin Mr. White. Madeleine hid under her second-floor bed and then repeatedly shot him in the chest in retribution. After dragging his body outside (when she noticed his scarred face underneath the mask), Safin sat up (and was still alive). She fled onto a nearby frozen lake, and as he ran after her across the icy lake, the ice cracked and she plunged into the frigid water. Safin chose to save her by shooting the ice around her and pulling her out - and she survived.

[Note: SPECTRE founder and leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) had been captured and imprisoned - a carry-over from the previous film Spectre (2015).]

In a flash-forward to the present day, French psychiatrist Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux as adult) was in the hilltop town of Matera, Italy with MI6 operative James Bond (Daniel Craig). As they drove into Matera to their hotel room in his Aston-Martin DB5, he assured her: "We have all the time in the world." After love-making (tryst # 1), Madeleine persuasively encouraged him to let go of the lingering memory of his former lover, HM Treasury liaison Vesper Lynd, who was buried nearby. She would do the same with her bad memories of Safin by writing "masked man" in French (L'homme masque) on a piece of paper and burning it.

Early the next morning, Bond left Madeleine in bed to walk to the nearby acropolis where the tomb of Vesper Lynd was located. His goal was to seek forgiveness and finally bring closure to her death. He was directed to her mausoleum, marked: VESPER LYND 1983 - 2006. A Latin inscription on the top of the tall mausoleum foreshadowed Bond's fate: "What you are, I once was, and what I am you will be." He had brought a piece of paper with the words "Forgive me" - that he burned. As he was about to leave, Bond spotted a SPECTRE calling card (with the Octopus symbol) nearby and picked it up - just before a bomb exploded and destroyed the tomb in front of him. He was blown backwards onto the ground.

Soon after, as Bond left the cemetery, there were attempts by SPECTRE assassins to ambush him, by running him over, firing bullets at him, and chasing him on a motorcycle. It was the film's most exciting set-piece. Bond escaped by grabbing a cable and plummeting off a stone bridge. The man on the motorcycle was identified as mercenary henchman Primo (or Cyclops) (Dali Benssalah) with a Cybernetic Eye (to allow Blofeld to remotely observe and deliver commands). Bond tackled Primo off his motorbike, disarmed him, and choked him, as he was taunted: "Blofeld sends his regards. You know, Madeleine, she is a daughter of SPECTRE." After knocking Primo out, Bond stole his bike and raced back to the hotel room, suspecting that Madeleine had set him up to be killed. Madeleine vowed that she hadn't betrayed him.

The two were forced to avoid the assassins by pealing away in Bond's silver Aston-Martin DB5 (outfitted with high-tech gadgets), and a high-speed chase ensued between the DB5 and numerous other vehicles through the city of Matera. Bond activated the car's mini-mine dispenser (explosive jacks), killing two SPECTRE killers in one of the cars (# 2-3 deaths, # 1-2 Bond kills). After a crash into an SUV, the two found themselves cornered and surrounded in the middle of a plaza and being shot at by machine-gun fire, although protected by the bullet-proof body and glass windows.

In the midst of all the gunfire, Bond felt that Madeleine had betrayed him to the organization. Madeleine pleaded with him that she was telling the truth and hadn't double-crossed him. Finally, Bond flipped a switch to activate his car's mini-gatling guns (in the headlights), and sprayed gunfire as he spun the car around, and then spewed dense smoke from the tailpipe. Many of the SPECTRE agents were killed by the gunfire (# 4-9 deaths, # 3-8 Bond kills), except for Primo. They were able to escape down a cobblestone road, as Bond drove them to the train station, and then on one of the platforms, he pushed her onto a departing train and affirmed to her: "This is it....You'll never see me again."

[Note: This film featured the longest pre-titles sequence in the official James Bond film series - a length of about 24 minutes before the opening titles began.]

The Title Credits (accompanied by Billie Eilish's singing of "No Time to Die")

FIVE YEARS LATER: In London, England, an armed tactical team (led by Primo) rappelled down cables on the side of a tall skyscraper with reflective panels, and entered an opening after laser-cutting a large square piece of glass. The group of SPECTRE assassins were being directed on a radio by Safin, to infiltrate the MI6 laboratory. Russian scientist Dr. Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) was ostensibly and secretly employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to develop a new and devastating bio-weapon.

[Background: Obruchev had developed "Project Heracles", a DNA-targeting assassination nanotechnology. The nanoweapon involved nanobots that spread and infected like a virus with skin-to-skin contact. The weapon was coded to an individual's specific DNA strands, rendering it dangerous and lethal only to the programmed target's genetic code but harmless to others.]

Safin phoned Obruchev to alert him to the raid, and ordered him to copy encrypted files onto a flash drive, and then enter the Bio-Security area to remove the weapon from the deep-freeze. A guard in a secure area was shot dead. (# 10 death). The SPECTRE agents blew off the doors of the bio-weapons lab area, and another man was gunned down in the hallway (# 11 death). Primo ordered Obruchev to enter the secure deep-freeze area with help from his assistant Dr. Hardy (Hugh Dennis) for double-authentication. Two other lab worker-assistants were murdered: Dr. Symes (Priyanga Burford) and another unidentified individual (# 12-13 deaths). Wearing biohazard suits, Hardy and Obruchev removed from the deep-freeze a cylindrical container holding sample vials. Once Primo acquired the vial he wanted, he shot Hardy dead - point-blank (# 14 death).

To successfully exit the building and abduct chief scientist Obruchev, the SPECTRE assassins dropped a stubby-sized missile down the building's elevator shaft that dispersed glowing-green (GO) electromagnets at the top of the shaft, and red (STOP) electrically-charged magnets at the bottom of the shaft. With magnetic belts strapped on their waists and green-glowing magnets on their body-suits, they were able to safely 'parachute' down the shaft and stop at the bottom. The single floor where the lab was located was then destroyed by detonated explosives (# many deaths, uncountable).

M's sassy secretary Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) reported the attack to M (Ralph Fiennes), Bond's superior and the Head of MI6, who acknowledged that Project Heracles and the lab weren't "on the books," and that the explosion that caused casualties was only a gas leak. He implied that Agent 007 should be located and assigned to the case, by asking: "Where's 007?"

Elsewhere, ex-Agent 007 Bond had retired for a tranquil and idyllic self-sufficient life in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and had been out of service for years. He was contacted by his old friend CIA field agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who was accompanied by an American State Department agent-colleague named Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen). In one of the city's nightclub (XXV - the 25th film!), Leiter and Ash told Bond about a possible mission to Santiago de Cuba, and that scientist Valdo Obruchev had been abducted three days earlier from a secret MI6 lab in London and taken there. They hinted that SPECTRE was involved. Bond declined their request to help track down Obruchev, and privately voiced his suspicions about the always-smiling Ash to Leiter.

As Bond left the nightclub bar, Bond found that his open-air Jeep was inoperative. He was greeted by a large black female named Nomi (Lashana Lynch), who helpfully offered him a ride on her motor-scooter to his place. She claimed she was a Jamaican diver searching for old wrecks. After arriving at his place, in his bungalow bedroom, she removed her wig and spoke with a British accent to reveal that she was a fellow MI6 operative for two years who had succeeded him as the new "007." She hinted that she was sent from M, who had commissioned the nanobot project, and was informing him about her search for Obruchev in Cuba, separate from the CIA's interest.

Meanwhile, back at MI6 headquarters, M and M's Chief of Staff Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) talked to Q or "Quartermaster" (Ben Whishaw), the head of the Q Branch (the R&D division of the British SS), about retrieving the files stolen by Obruchev from the lab. Bond contacted M by phone and angrily reproached him for keeping Obruchev on the MI6 payroll, since it involved SPECTRE. After Bond's call, M instructed Tanner to observe (via a live feed) Bond's arch-enemy and foster brother, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who was incarcerated by MI6 at Belmarsh. They noticed Blofeld was babbling about a "crowning day" and a surprise party. [Note: The "mad as a bag of bees" Blofeld would only speak to his psychiatrist (Dr. Madeleine Swann).] Slightly reluctantly, Bond phoned Leiter and agreed to his request for help ("I'm in").

Following leads about Obruchev's whereabouts, Bond sailed on his own yacht to Santiago de Cuba (in Southeastern Cuba). When he arrived at the marina, he noticed Nomi's separate arrival on a seaplane at an adjacent harbor dock. Later that night in the El Nido cafe-bar, he met sexy Cuban intelligence operative Paloma (Ana de Armas), a CIA agent, who was allied with Felix Leiter (but with only three weeks' training). She was wearing a black evening dress with a low-cut back and front. She quickly scolded him: "You're late!" before dragging him by the hand to a downstairs wine cellar where she urged him to change into a tuxedo. Then, the two crossed the street and entered an aging building with pillars to infiltrate a formal SPECTRE party (a celebration of Blofeld's birthday) with the aim of retrieving Obruchev. Bond ordered "Two vodka martinis, shaken, not stirred." In her lipstick container, she removed two concealed earpieces for them to wear (to facilitate communication between them).

In preparation for the party, Obruchev - who was actually working for Safin, was instructed to gather Bond's DNA from his toothbrush in order to target him. But then he unpredictably reprogrammed (or re-engineered with switched flash drives) the Heracles nanobots to now be weaponized to bypass Bond and attack and kill the entire group of SPECTRE members, and destroy the organization.

To observe the party, Blofeld was using a disembodied "bionic eye" (similar to Primo's cybernetic eye) carried on a velvet pillow, in order to see, communicate and participate in the party while still in custody and imprisoned. Bond and Paloma didn't realize that they had walked into Blofeld's trap set up to kill Bond with the virus. The captive Obruchev had been ordered by Blofeld's men to inflict harm on Bond by releasing the poisonous Heracles bio-weapon virus or nanobots as a fine mist sprayed into the room.

To Bond's and Blofeld's shock, the Heracles weapon caused boils to erupt on the faces of the entire gathering of SPECTRE agent-operatives before they dropped dead (# many deaths), while Bond and Paloma were unaffected. The two agents faced off against multiple gunmen, including Primo, as they attempted to apprehend Obruchev. Paloma shot a gunman dead on the stairs (# 15 death), and Bond shot a gunman who was arriving as they fled to the street (# 16 death, # 9 Bond kill). Paloma shot another man pursuing them (# 17 death). Suddenly, Nomi dropped down on a cable from a shattered glass dome above them, grabbed Obruchev, and extracted him to the rooftop. Bond shot two more agents dead (# 18-19 deaths, # 10-11 Bond kills). Bond watched as Nomi and her hostage Obruchev rappelled over to an adjacent building from the rooftop, while Paloma killed another agent firing at her behind a car parked outside (# 20 death). From her 2nd floor vantage point, Nomi shot an agent (# 21 death). Meanwhile, Bond killed two agents on the balcony as they attempted to fire at Nomi across the street (# 22-23 deaths, # 12-13 Bond kills). Nomi took out another agent on the opposite balcony (# 24 death). Then, Paloma killed three additional bad guys after using impressive karate moves on them (# 25-27 deaths). Meanwhile, Nomi took out another agent across the street (# 28 death). As Bond left the building, he shot and killed two agents above him (# 29-30 deaths, # 14-15 Bond kills), as Nomi aided him by shooting a third agent on a balcony (# 31 death).

After taking possession of the dead agents' abandoned car in the street, Paloma pursued the fleeing Obruchev on the second floor and propelled him to the street level by crashing into the scaffolding he was standing on. Bond joined Paloma to extract Obruchev, as he yelled to Nomi that he was borrowing her seaplane. Nomi was able to escape and avoid detention by arriving police officers by firing a grenade at an electrical pole that collapsed onto them. Bond parted ways with Paloma, and led Obruchev to the harbor to board Nomi's rickety old seaplane.

That same night, Bond delivered Obruchev to Felix Leiter and Ash already out at sea in a fishing boat. During Obruchev's interrogation by Bond about the purpose of Heracles and how he had reversed its target to kill SPECTRE attendees, the nervous and anxious Ash ordered Obruchcev to stop talking. Bond quickly surmised that Ash had informed Blofeld that he would be at the SPECTRE party, and that he was a rogue agent. Ash revealed himself to be an undercover mole (double-agent) working with the same mysterious terrorist villain Safin. As Bond and Ash grappled for his gun, Ash lethally shot his partner Leiter in the abdomen, and then locked Bond below deck with the ailing Leiter. Ash set an explosive charge on the side of the boat to destroy it, before escaping with Obruchev (via the seaplane that Bond had arrived in). Bond was unable to save Leiter (# 32 death) who died of his injury in Bond's arms as he attempted to save him in the flooded boat. Bond found a way to escape from a partially-opened hatch, and was later rescued in his life-raft by a passing ship.

Bond returned to MI6 headquarters in London, England (driving in a late model black Aston-Martin), desperate to seek revenge for Blofeld's hijacked attempt to kill him, and to stop the bioweapon from ever being used again. He passed by Nomi who asked: "Where's Obruchev?" He confronted M in his office for authorizing the DNA-targeting bio-weapon ("This was your mess...Why didn't you shut Heracles down?"). M refused Bond's request to visit and speak to Blofeld at Belmarsh prison, and harshly dismissed him. After Bond left, M ordered his replacement 007 agent Nomi to have all communications and everything associated with Blofeld scanned.

Moneypenny offered to help Bond and took him to meet unofficially with Q in his home (where he was planning to have dinner with his gay boyfriend, and tended to his two Hairless Egyptian Sphynx cats).They looked at the recovered files on Obruchev's flash drive, that included a database of DNA samples of multiple individuals. A hidden file contained the names of all the deceased SPECTRE members, and a larger series of thousands of databases catalogued the DNA of people from around the world. Q informed Bond that only one person had been allowed access to the sole remaining SPECTRE leader Blofeld in prison at Belmarsh -- Dr. Madeleine Swann - and she was the only one Blofeld agreed to speak to.

Meanwhile elsewhere in London, Safin visited with Madeleine Swann in her psychotherapy office, and obliquely mentioned that he felt connected to the life of a person he had saved years earlier (he was referring to saving her from drowning on the icy lake). He had brought a memory box and initially identified himself with his cracked and broken Noh mask. He told her: "You owe me," although she replied: "You murdered my mother." He one-upped her: "And your father killed my entire family." He coerced her to do his bidding, forcing her through blackmail to take part in his vengeful scheme to finally wipe out SPECTRE's leader. He gave her a small atomizer bottle that would harmlessly infect her with Heracles nanobots so that she could then pass them on to the captive Blofeld and kill him.

Bond met with M again by the Thames River, who justified why he had approved the "off the books" Project Heracles. He explained how the poisonous Heracles virus was designed to save lives and prevent collateral damage to agents, since it was meant to only target specific individuals through direct contact. Bond cautioned that it was a much more dangerous bioweapon and could be weaponized to seek out all kinds of targets - world leaders, civilians, and more. Back at MI6, Bond met with the team (Nomi, Moneypenny, Q, Tanner, and M) and was reinstated as a 00 agent. Q described how the nanobots could be programmed with DNA to target specific individuals, and could enter an individual's system as microscopic bio-robots through the slightest skin contact. M added it was "the most efficient weapon in our arsenal, passing through people harmlessly before reaching its intended target." However, Obruchev had destructively modified the nanobots so that they could infect anyone related to the target (i.e., related families, or certain genetic traits, or even whole ethnicities). Bond concluded that after a number of people were infected, "the people become the weapon" - in other words, it had become a weapon of mass destruction. Bond was approved to meet with and visit the incarcerated Blofeld (still in prison), to try to find out where the "cockroach" Obruchev had been taken with the nanobots.

When Bond reunited and reacquainted himself with Swann in Blofeld's maximum-security prison cell, she was trembling, nervous and upset as Blofeld was brought out to them. Earlier, she had sprayed the substance from Safin's atomizer onto her wrists to become infected. As she attempted to abort the meeting and leave, Bond momentarily grabbed her wrist, but she pulled away from him and left the cell after telling him: "You don't know what this is. Don't make me do this." He had unknowingly infected himself with Heracles nanobots that had been programmed to attack Blofeld. During Bond's interrogation of Blofeld, he learned from Blofeld's confessions that the earlier ambush at Vesper's tomb in Matera, Italy was staged to make it appear as if Madeleine had betrayed him (Blofeld: "It was all me"). Blofeld claimed he had ruined their relationship and left him living in an "empty world." Enraged by the revelation, Bond was taunted to react - he grabbed the fiendish Blofeld to strangle him. The attack caused the nanobots to infect and poisonously kill Blofeld (who later suffered a nasty death) (# 33 death, off-screen, # 16 Bond kill), thus accomplishing Safin's devious plan.

Madeleine couldn't be located at her home's apartment in London, so Bond decided to track her down at her remote childhood home in Norway. He was unclear why she had tried to kill Blofeld, and who gave her the poison to do it. He affirmed his love for her: "I have loved you, and I will love you, and I do not regret a single moment of my life that led me to you, except when I put you on that train" - and he approached to kiss her. Suddenly, he was surprised to meet her blue-eyed 5 year-old daughter Mathilde Swann (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) sitting on the stairs, whom she claimed was not Bond's child ("She's not yours").

Madeleine showed Bond a photo and information in secret files collected by her father (Mr. White) about Safin's family history and the reason for his enmity toward SPECTRE. When the villainous Lyutsifer Safin was a young boy, Blofeld had ordered her father to assassinate Safin's Russian family (of Tatar descent from Kazan, headed by rich, drug-empire patriarch Gostan who dealt in pharmaceuticals) - the entire Safin family was poisoned with Dioxin. The young boy Safin was the only survivor, yet his face was left scarred and disfigured. She explained how Safin had visited her Norway home when she was younger to kill her father, but ended up killing her mother instead and sparing her life. Safin inherited his family's island ("The Poison Garden"). Bond briefly phoned Q with his new findings and requested a plane to take him to the island.

By the next morning, after Bond and Madeleine slept together in bed (tryst # 2), he became acquainted over breakfast with the cute 5 year-old. During a conference call with MI6 being led by Q, Bond learned that Safin's island was located in the Sea of Okhotsk (disputed waters) between Japan and Russia. On the island was a chemical plant with suspicious activity, where Safin had set up his base of operations. He had created a "Poison Garden" to grow poisonous plants (such as foxglove), as part of his life-long plan to seek revenge on Blofeld and SPECTRE. During the call, Bond heard from Moneypenny that Nomi's search to kill rogue agent Logan Ash had led her to Norway - meaning that he was nearby and closing in on Bond's trail.

Bond realized that Safin, Ash, and his many cohorts were about to capture them, so they fled from her Norwegian home for safety by driving off in a cream-colored Ford SUV. The threesome were passed by two silver Range Rovers on a bridge road speeding in the opposite direction - but then were immediately pursued by the same two vehicles (Safin's assassins) onto a narrow coastal road. Bond was able to kill several of Safin's men when both cars were pushed off the narrow road and overturned (# 34-37 deaths, # 17-20 Bond kills). The chase wasn't over - a helicopter appeared and then 3 more SUVs and three motorcycles roared over a hillside toward and behind them. Bond steered his vehicle down a steep bank and across a shallow river to avoid a collision. Again, he forced one pursuing vehicle up an incline that caused it to overturn and crash (# 38-39 deaths, # 21-22 Bond kills).

Afterwards, Bond entered a misty forest to prevent the helicopter from tracking him. One motorcyclist continued to stealthily follow behind, as Bond pulled into deep foliage to hide. The three left the vehicle and proceeded on foot to a clearing in the forest. When a sole motorcyclist pulled up in front of Bond (who was carrying Mathilde), Madeleine defended him by shooting and killing the biker (# 40 death). Bond left Madeleine and Mathilde in a hunting blind structure to go out and hunt down the attackers, after taking the dead biker's grenade launcher. He used it to down another SUV, and then fired directly at the driver to kill him (# 41 death, # 23 Bond kill). He stretched the downed SUV's winch cable between two tree trunks to "clothesline" and kill a motorbiker (# 42 death, # 24 Bond kill). He then lured the third SUV holding a driver and Ash to run over an uprooted tree, flip end over end, and crash. The car was supported and precariously-perched mid-way in the air by a weakened tree trunk, with Ash injured on the ground just below. Bond sought revenge for Leiter's death by deliberately pushing down on the vehicle just above the surviving Ash to crush him (# 43-44 deaths, # 25-26 Bond kills). In the hunting blind, Madeleine defended herself by shooting another attacker (# 45 death), but then she and her daughter were abducted and taken hostage by Safin.

Safin escaped with his two abducted hostages - Madeleine and her daughter Mathilde, and took them via helicopter to his WWII island base that he had converted into a nanobot factory (or garden).

Later, Bond was picked up by Nomi driving a sports car on a dirt road, and the two drove to a military base, where a large troop C-17 transport plane was parked. Onboard, the group of MI6ers, including Q, Nomi, and Bond, video-conferenced with M who ordered them on a new mission -- to pursue Safin at his island headquarters (and kill Obruchev and Safin), save Madeleine and Mathilde, and confirm the presence of Heracles. Nomi's request that Bond be reinstated with the 007 title was granted, as she graciously relinquished it from herself: ("It's just a number"). Q presented Bond with an Omega Watch with a limited-radius EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse). Nomi was given a Q-DAR tracking device to map space while moving through it, and both Bond and Nomi received an injection of "Smart" Blood to track their vitals.

On the island, Safin threateningly showed Madeleine a vial of nanobot "insurance" - DNA derived from one of her fallen hairs in her London psychotherapy office. With Mathilde in his arms, he took her for a stroll through his "toxic (poison) garden" inherited from his father.

Nomi and Bond flew in the deployed, sleek "Stealthy Bird" glider plane with retractable wings and approached Safin's island headquarters. The submersible craft retracted its wings, submerged under the water, and was propelled into a large concrete structure (an abandoned WWII-era submarine pen) on the West side of the island. Bond deactivated the area's security-camera system with his Omega watch, and Q-DAR mapped the areas surrounding them. The schematic maps were relayed to Q and M to help orient them, as they ascended a spiral staircase within a dome. On a catwalk, Nomi shot and killed a guard (# 46 death). Within a long tunnel chamber as they proceeded down the catwalk, they observed below them a group of men in pink bio-hazards suits in knee-high water within a rectangular pool where vertical glowing rods were sticking up. Above them were two enormous blast doors, signifying that they were in a missile silo.

In the facility's laboratory at the far end of the tunnel, Bond entered and ordered the lab-workers and scientists to be corralled. Obruchev fled but was captured and taken hostage by Nomi. Explosive charges were placed throughout the lab area by Bond and Nomi. The two MI6 agents realized Safin had created a "farm" and a "factory." After accomplishing his goal of killing off Blofeld and the SPECTRE members, Safin's rampage, with Obruchcev's help, ontinued from the base. He was scheming to use millions of Obruchev's harvested nanobots as a biological weapon of mass destruction to be distributed and unleashed upon the globe ("They're not just attacking individuals. They're going to kill millions").

Bond split from Nomi and sought to find Safin (who had taken young Mathilde as his hostage), while in a separate room, Safin's henchman Primo held Madeleine captive. Madeleine was able to thwart Primo by throwing hot tea in his face. She escaped from the room with his security badge after locking him inside. Meanwhile, Bond located Safin in a large concrete room and begged that Safin wouldn't hurt Mathilde. He gave up two of his weapons, and then listened as Safin ranted on about creating "oblivion" for the subservient masses and acting as the world's "invisible god." Safin's goal was to take over the world, and create a new world order ("We both eradicate people to make the world a better place"). Bond insulted Safin by calling him an unhappy tyrant ("All you're really doing is standing in a very long line of angry little men"). As Bond supplicated himself before Safin and begged to apologize, he covertly grabbed a third concealed weapon and killed Safin's three guards (# 47-49 deaths, # 27-29 Bond kills), as Safin evaded him by escaping with Mathilde through a floor hatch.

While escorted by his guards, young Mathilde bit Safin's hand for losing her stuffed animal (Dou Dou), and he allowed her to be released. Safin was anticipating the arrival of buyers on two suspicious high-speed transports, due to arrive in 20 minutes. While escorting the annoying Obruchev on a catwalk, Nomi shot and killed two guards (# 50-51 deaths). One of the dead gunmen fell into the pool of knee-high water and his body began to sizzle in the liquid vat of nanobots. To silence Obruchev's continued threats, she pushed him off the catwalk into the pool of nanobots, where he dissolved in a gruesome and shocking death scene (# 52 death). She then traded fire with gunmen, and killed one on the catwalk (# 53 death).

Meanwhile, Bond and the freed Madeleine had been reunited - and they also joined up with Madeleine who had been in hiding. The C-17 transport plane hovering above (where Q was monitoring the situation) was buzzed by two Russian MIG jet fighters. Nomi killed two more guards (# 54-55 deaths) before meeting up with Bond and the freed Madeleine (and Mathilde). Bond communicated with Q and requested that the nearby British Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon initiate the launching of a missile strike on the base to destroy the manufacturing plant for Heracles nanobots.

Everyone except Bond was able to escape from the island by boat, while Bond chose to remain behind to attempt to open up the island's hatch doors. Bond said his farewells to Madeleine - and kissed her: "I have to finish this. For us. I'll just be a minute."

During his continuing search for Safin, Bond killed six more of Safin's remaining guards (# 56-61 deaths, # 30-35 Bond kills). He also used the detonator to explosively blast the charges previously set there, killing at least six guards there (# 62-67 deaths, # 36-41 Bond kills). In the tunnel as he approached the missile silo doors, he killed another guard (# 68 death, # 42 Bond kills). Then, in thick grenade smoke as he ascended stairs, he shot two other guards (# 69-70 deaths, # 43-44 Bond kills). Two more guards who emerged from behind a door were also shot dead (# 71-72 deaths, # 45-46 Bond kills) as well as eight others on three different stairwells (# 73-80 deaths, # 47-54 Bond kills). When Bond was assaulted by Primo, Bond was able to direct Q's EMP beam with his watch toward Primo's 'Cybernetic Eye' and blow his head up (# 81 death, # 55 Bond kills). He joked with Q: "I just showed someone your watch. Really blew their mind."

Bond was finally able to enter the vacant control room and open the silo's blast doors by himself without listening to Q's help. M ordered the Admiral on the HMS Dragon to launch the missiles, due to hit in 9 minutes. When Safin closed the silo doors, Bond attempted to open them again, but was attacked and shot several times by an awaiting Safin in the "Poison Garden" area, and he fell into shallow water. The two engaged in a fist-fight in the garden pool while the missiles were in the air, and a vial of the bio-weapon was sprayed at Bond's head, and his face was scratched. Bond retaliated by breaking Safin's forearm. As they laid injured in the pool of water, Safin uttered: "Now we are both poisoned with heartbreak. Two heroes in a tragedy of our own making. Anyone we touch, we are their curse. A stroke to their cheek, a kiss would kill them instantly." The nanobots were specially coded and directly programmed with the genetic sequence that were intended to specifically target Madeleine (and Mathilde's) DNA. If Bond were to come into contact with them, he would kill them. Earlier, Q had told Bond: "Once Heracles is in your system, it's there forever."

Despite his serious injuries, Bond shot Safin dead (# 82 death, # 56 Bond kills), and then managed to re-open the missile silo's hatch doors. Communicating with Q, he learned again that once exposed to the bio-weapon, the virus couldn't be cleaned off: ("It's eternal, it's permanent"), and he realized that he couldn't leave the island without infecting Madeleine and Mathilde.

The self-sacrificing Bond spoke to Madeleine by walkie-talkie radio for a few final words together while dying atop the control room roof-platform. He told her that he wouldn't be coming back ("I'm not gonna make it"), while she urged him to get off the island ("I know you can do this. Everything's good now. There's no one left to hurt us"), but then realized he had been poisoned by the vial. She wished for more time between them: "If we only had more time." He answered that she should move on with her life without him: ("You have all the time in the world"). They confirmed that they loved each other as the missiles approached, and then Madeleine admitted that Mathilde was his daughter in their final moments ("She does have your eyes"). Bond stood up and died (# 83 death), answering "I know" - staring out at the ocean as the missiles from the warship rained down on the island and obliterated the nanobot factory and the virus.

Back at MI6 in London in his office, M gathered Moneypenny, Q, Tanner, and Nomi to assemble and drink an emotional toast in Bond's honor. M read a quote from author Jack London: "The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Elsewhere, Madeleine drove Mathilde on the winding road in Bond's black sportscar to Matera, Italy to continue their lives, and to tell her the truth about her father ("Mathilde, I'm going to tell you a story about a man. His name was Bond, James Bond"). The film concluded with Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" - echoing its previous use in the sixth Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). After the end credits, a title screen announced: "James Bond will return."

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

This was the 25th Bond film - and the final installment of the rebooted James Bond series.

At 163 minutes, it was the longest Bond film, beating its previous film and record holder Spectre (2015) at 148 minutes.

It marked Daniel Craig's fifth and final appearance as 007. Craig had the longest tenure as the actor playing James Bond in the official series than any other Bond actor - a total of 15 years since Casino Royale (2006).

Cary Fukunaga was the first American director to make a James Bond film, in the official series.

It was the first Bond film distributed by Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures had acquired the international distribution rights following the expiration of Sony Pictures' contract after the release of Spectre (2015).

There were multiple release dates for the film due to a change in directors and the COVID pandemic: originally it was scheduled for November 8, 2019, but then pushed back to February 14, 2020, then slightly delayed until April, 2020, and then moved to November of 2020. However, there were two more dates until its ultimate release: April 2, 2021, and finally September 30, 2021 (in the UK) and October 8, 2021 (in the US).

It was almost six years between the release of the previous film Spectre (2015) (on October 26, 2015) and this film (on Sept. 30, 2021). It was the second longest gap between films of the James Bond franchise. The longest gap was 6 and a half years between Licence to Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995).

This was the first James Bond film to be shot with IMAX cameras.

The film received three Academy Award Oscar nominations, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and one Oscar win for Best Original Song (performed by Billie Eilish: "No Time to Die"). It was the second-highest tally of nominations for a Bond film, after Skyfall (2012) that received five nominations (and two Oscars). The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) also received three nominations (but no wins).

Its Oscar win was the third consecutive series 'Theme Song' in a Daniel Craig-Bond film to win that category after Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). It was also the only Daniel Craig-Bond film to not start the end credits with the James Bond Theme.

This was the seventh Bond film to reference life and/or death in its title -- You Only Live Twice (1967), Live and Let Die (1973), A View to a Kill (1985), Licence to Kill (1989), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and Die Another Day (2002).

This was the first Bond film to end with the death of James Bond himself.

With a production budget of $250-301 million (the most expensive Bond film to date), and gross revenue of $160.9 million (domestic) and $774.2 billion (worldwide).

Set-pieces: the frenetic ambush and chase after Bond through the hilltop city of Matera, Italy; Bond's, Nomi's and Paloma's shoot-out at the end of the SPECTRE party in Cuba for Blofeld; the car chase from Madeleine's childhood Norway home; the tense missile-launching finale

Bond Villains: terrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), CIA mole-double agent Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen), rogue scientist Dr. Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), SPECTRE's founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), and mercenary henchman Primo (or Cyclops) (Dali Benssalah) with a Cybernetic Eye

Bond Girls: Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), Nomi (Lashana Lynch), Paloma (Ana de Armas)

Number of Love-Making Encounters: 2

Film Locales: Langevann Lake in Nittedal, Norway; Matera, Italy; Port Antonio, Jamaica; London, England; Santiago de Cuba, the remote Kalsoy Island in the Faroe Islands (Safin's island base)

Gadgets: Aston Martin DB5 (LED number plate, M134 mini-gatling guns in headlights, enhanced smoke screen from tailpipe, mini-mine dispenser (explosive jacks), re-configured control panel, bulletproof body and glass); laser cutters; Heracles DNA Targeting Weapon - the Nanobot Virus; Magnetic Bodysuit Parachutes; Earpiece Transmitters; Blofeld's Bionic-Prosthetic Eyeball Walkie Talkie; Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Watch with a Limited Radius EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse); Q-DAR Tracking Device; "Smart" Blood; Puck Bomb; the "Stealthy Bird" Submersible Flying Glider With Retractable Wings

Vehicles: 1964 Silver-Birch Aston Martin DB5 (gadget car), 1985 Gray Aston Martin V8 Vantage Mark IV, and 2020 Aston Martin Valhalla; and Nomi's new model Aston Martin DBS Superleggera coupe; also Bond's Spirit 46 Sailing Yacht, and Nomi's Seaplane

Number of Deaths (Bond Kills): 83 (56)