Bond #25: NO TIME TO DIE

i guess what i'm saying is that actually i DO think this part worked because it shows bond as a flawed character willing to give in to suspicions planted by baddies; his 'trust no one' past can't really ever be shaken off etc. i do think he is being very dim here and hot-headed (even for bond) but that's okay, it fits the plot and his character and the movie gives this misunderstanding the weight it deserves

other seismic events just slide by

Blofeld didn't know though! when Bond is interviewing him, he said he just knew by instinct that Bond would eventually visit her grave. and he apparently was paying his stooges to be on standby in case he ever showed up.

After the bomb explodes, Bond goes into the building next to the cemetery, finds the employee who helped him to Vesper's grave no longer there, with the phone off the hook, and the young boy that showed him to the grave smiles at him knowingly, as he's in on it too (he knows the cars are about to come up the hill, I am guessing). So presumably the cemetery employee called SPECTRE's local stooges as soon as Bond showed up, then ran away to avoid being caught up in a shootout.

Of course it's farfetched but not within the Bond world - that's very much in line with other Bond films, SPECTRE has people on standby who can show up in minutes to gun down Bond as soon as someone calls to alert them.

listen, blofeld’s plot in ohmss, the best bond movie ever, is silly and doesn’t make any sense

comes with the territory

Of course it's farfetched but not within the Bond world - that's very much in line with other Bond films

definitely. but bond blames his wife

otoh I agree that think Safin's plans weren't all that clear - what is obvious is that his list has millions of people on it, to target with the killer nanobots, so he does plan to kill/subjugate millions of people, but for what purpose is unclear. the Wikipedia summary surmised it as "create a New World Order", but I suspect he's just sociopathic based on his whole family being killed rather than having plans to create a one government planet in which he is the ruler.

xpost because in his mind, Blofeld (who is new in this universe, and not a long-established nemesis) was less likely to be angry/bored enough to pay people to live near a cemetery in Italy in case Bond ever showed up as opposed to Occam's Razor saying his wife sold him out. esp since his previous girlfriend practically did the same thing (although not so much getting him killed, she just absconded with the money and pretended to be in love with him).

this movie probably did have the best 'bond. james bond' moment ever tbf

i guess i can talk in detail about this movie now, one of the things i really loved is the opening shot bringing to mind the severnaya levels of goldeneye 007

also whenever the action got roger moore ott, that was my shit

Did the movie explain how Safin could afford to build the secret base and have an army of henchmen (who didn't bleed when shot because PG-13)? I must have glazed over when that bit of exposition happened, in whichever movie it occurred.

he was an early investor in Bitcoin

One thing I've been turning over in my mind would be comparing the reactions in the alternate universe between the 'engineered plague is unleashed out of East Asia' plot between if this had been the last big movie out before worldwide lockdown -- which it almost was by just a couple of weeks -- versus now.

yeah the “accidentally killing someone by touching them” thing vibrated weirdly

i was like damn they filmed this two years before covid and it’s got intense covid themes

SPECTRE is now out, so they will be replaced in next film by the Socialist Humanist Autonomist Radical Troops

4th film: ... a division of SPECTRE Enterprises

Nah it'll be some sort terror plot via radioactive NFTs.

Anyway my favorite 'where the fuck IS this' moment was the first shot of the coastal island highway and then when the film revealed it was Norway I was all "Oh...that makes sense."

yeah that highway was wild

i wanna ride it
oh my fjord

the one downside to Billy Magnusson being in any movie is you always know if he's playing a good guy he's going to wind up being an actual bad guy.

007 is a black woman? bond is fighting AGAINST her?

Actually, Commander Bond gave her the lead, sir

that was a CIA vs MI6 thing and Bond only took the CIA's side because he was appalled at M allowing the development of the nanobot techonlogy

i know. but in the film it’s just a plot mechanic. seems like it would merit more “wtf”ness, deal-making, atonement… something

something else about these (that i'm sure i'm not the first to mention) is that they nearly always seem to want to put about 5 movies worth of location and circumstance into the same movie. the boat, the red lights, the short, ugly fight, felix... all that was beautiful and incredible. santiago, the vibe there, the federales, the rooftop escape, ana de armas.. man i would have liked a whole movie of that.

the running bit of every female spy going “no, I am NOT trying to seduce you, Bond!” was subtle enough that it played, imo

the running bit of how we should care what his agent number is was dreadful

so dumb. especially the "I bet you thought they'd retire it." uhh yeah he thought he was so great that they would permanently reduce their entire workforce by 11% in order to... make up for not having him anymore?

cute enough 1 time but they returned to it a bunch of times lol

idk i feel like there are plenty of numbers xp

it's not necessarily 11% there's an 0012 mentioned in one of the books

tho, ngl, i was annoyed not to know Bond's new, temporary number

0069

oh hell yeah

“No fade” is a great nickname for that guy xp

ty mark - turns out this was 0011, in Moonraker

I hated this but loved Ana De Armas

do they ever determine if there was any time to die?

Around 2:45pm EST

big doings are just barely acknowledged. 007 is a black woman? bond is fighting AGAINST her? the bioweapon was actually developed by MI6? bond finally gets the baddie? (several times?) any of these things could have been the organising principle for great moments of high leverage and difficult choices but they just.... happen.

i couldn't disagree with this more. i hate it when movies dwell on big doings, i really appreciated how they just kept this one moving along like its nbd

yeah same. especially in Bond

lol guys i’m not talking about making everything weepy and “meaningful” like skyfall i’m talking about basic dramatic techniques for generating suspense and interest

nope sorry yr overruled

lol

I saw this last night and really enjoyed it. My first theater experience since Invisible Man. I rank it just below CR in the Craig Bond canon.

I do have some nitpicks to mention:

- The ineffective bomb followed by the ineffective assassins -- another of Blofeld's harebrained schemes I guess. Too similar to the random hotel assassins they added to the Connery/Moore movies for my taste.

- Lucifer Boat's plan changing from the thematic targeting of families, to being a standard Bond villain.

- Bond conveniently running into a dangerous place instead of spending a few extra seconds to walk around it.

- The movie saying it's really Bond's child around 3 times, and expecting it to be a big reveal the third time.

i forgot to mention another thing my 12-yo said that i had to stifle a laugh at. at the beginning where we see lea seydoux and bond in the water, at the beach, we pull out for a wide shot and he goes “wow, great colour grading”

Another nitpick: the Swann/Safin connection didn't amount to anything. Bond already had the Foxdie in him from the birthday party.

i thought that was a different strain cooked up by obruchev on safin’s orders that just killed spectre agents (not sure how the dna part of that is supposed to work unless spectre is all related to each other…)

Foxdie

Thank you I was thinking about this the whole time

looking forward to watching this on my phone and complaining about the dialogue