There have been rumours that 007 may be about to bite the dust – but is there any truth to this? **WARNING: MAJOR NO TIME TO DIE SPOILERS**
Of all the rumours that have been doing the rounds prior to No Time To Die‘s release, there’s no doubting the most dramatic: the suggestion that James Bond himself might bite the dust.
The rumours first began when The Sun reported that original director Danny Boyle had wanted to kill off the iconic 00 agent before departing the project, while the title of the film itself led some to believe that his demise was inevitable.
Well, now that the film is out we can stop speculating and reveal if the movie really does include the most shocking of all character deaths – read on if you want to know more, and beware that there are obvious spoilers for No Time To Die below.
Does James Bond die in No Time To Die?
Incredibly, the rumours were true! As outlandish as the suggestion might have originally sounded, the film does indeed end with Bond being pretty unambiguously killed – by an MI6 missile strike, no less.
Bond’s death occurs on Safin’s island, where he had travelled to save Madeleine Swann and his surprise daughter Mathilde from the villain’s clutches, and also to destroy Safin’s base entirely before he can enact his plan of world domination.
This plan involves using nanobots to infect millions of people around the world, exploiting technology that had previously been developed by M to target people based specifically on their DNA, with the intention having originally been to create a weapon that ruled out collateral damage.
After fighting off an impressive number of Safin’s henchman, Bond is able to open the large missile silos that will allow MI6’s missiles to destroy the base, and it seems like his work is done. But alas, it is not so simple.
Safin reemerges and shoots at Bond and, although 007 is able to overpower the villain, in his dying words Safin reveals an awful truth: he has infected Bond with new nanobots that mean he will kill Madeleine and Mathilde if he so much as touches them.
After realising his fate, he ignores Q’s demands to get off the island and instead asks him to let him speak to Madeleine. They speak about their love and their daughter, just before the missiles are launched straight into the island – presumably killing him instantly.
The film ends with two separate scenes paying tribute to Bond – one in which his MI6 colleagues raise a toast, and one in which Madeleine begins to tell their daughter about his story. “I want to tell you about a man,” she says. “His name was Bond, James Bond.”
Who else dies in No Time To Die?
Bond himself isn’t the only major character to kick the bucket during the film. As you might expect, several villains are despatched with – including Safin and fellow new characters Logan Ash (Billy Magnuson) and Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik). Perhaps most memorably of all, Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is killed after Bond unwittingly passes on a fatal nanobot to him.
The first major death in the film, though, is Bond’s long-term ally Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) who is killed by Logan Ash after the latter reveals himself to be a traitor on board a boat. Despite Bond’s best attempts to save the CIA agent, nothing can be done to prevent his death – with the ship rapidly sinking after an explosion was set off by Ash.