BONDBO OUT – W BA

LOVE, TRUST, BETRAYAL, REVENGE... AND THE MOST SPECTACULAR SET-PIECES YET – DANIEL CRAIG AND THE CAST OF NO TIME TO DIE ON HIS FINAL 007 OUTING. BY NICOLE LAMPERT

here’s a house built on a frozen lake, the biggest explosion in cinema history, a trawler that spectacularly rolls over before it sinks and, of course, beautiful cars, stunning women and Bond, James Bond, shaken but never stirred.

Few films have a cultural impact over and above a simple screening in the cinema, but Bond is the British movie franchise that’s always been an event. Nearly 60 years after this series of films produced by EON began, and in a big screen landscape dominated by superhero fantasy films, only Bond can compete in box office takings and the feverish excitement of a new instalment.

And none more so than No Time To Die. It’s not only the final Daniel Craig film and the 25th in the franchise – both huge milestones – but its release later this week, after being rescheduled three times because of Covid, marks what is hoped will be the mass return of customers to the cinema after a horrendous 18 months for the industry.

The film has not been without its issues. The loss of director Danny Boyle over creative tensions, Daniel sustaining a serious ankle injury early on in filming that required time off and a controlled explosion that went wrong, injuring a crew member – not to mention all those reschedules. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson came under tremendous pressure to just put the film out, but she insisted on waiting. ‘It has to be seen in cinemas,’ she says. ‘The film has to be a communal experience, at least at first.’

Everyone will be watching to see how it does when it hits the screen on Thursday – including the studios behind many other blockbusters that have been postponed during the pandemic and remain unreleased. With Daniel Craig in the role, the Bond franchise has become ever bigger – Skyfall (his third outing in 2012) is the second biggest film ever released in the UK with £103 million taken at the British box office alone – so it’s not an exaggeration to say that to some extent cinemas are depending on this film being a huge success.

And goodness knows we could all do with the glamour, excitement, escapism and cringey one-liners guaranteed in a 007 film, and No Time To Die gives us a whopping two hours and 43 minutes of it all.

‘I have always loved Bond,’ says Phoebe Waller-bridge, the awardwinning writer and actress best known for her dark comedy Fleabag, who was drafted into the film’s creative team to polish up the script as part of its thrust to remain relevant. ‘I love the character and all his complexities, but also the timeless classiness of him. I think that’s why it has lasted so long – he’s classy.

‘One of my earliest memories is when Sean Connery was Bond and he came out of the sea with a snorkel and a seagull on his head. I remember thinking that was outrageous. Up until Daniel Craig,

Bond was relentlessly on top of it and in control, he emotionally held it together. What

Daniel gave us was a peep behind the curtain. There’s a promise of learning something about this man and he gives it to us in a flash, we move on and it’s gone.’

The producers have gone all out to make No Time To

Die the biggest and most emotional Bond yet. Unlike previous Bonds Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby, whose films were complete stories, Daniel’s five outings have had an overarching narrative which will end with, it is hoped, a satisfying conclusion.

The pain of what has happened in the previous films – the betrayal by the woman he loved, Vesper Lynd, in Casino Royale, the death of his surrogate

M and Bond meeting by Hammersmith Bridge mother, M, in Skyfall, and the discovery that his mentor’s son, Blofeld, is actually an international crime boss intent on destroying the world and himself in Spectre – are all carried within him as his attempt to run off into the sunset with a new partner goes horribly wrong. ‘It’s about relationships and how those relationships affect him and how they change and steer his life,’ says Daniel. ‘Whether it’s with the villain or whether it’s the people he works with, this movie has tackled that head on. And the biggest themes are love and trust. You can’t really get much bigger than that.’

The story starts almost where the last one Spectre, which came out in 2015, ended. In that film James discovered that the megalomaniac boss

of the crime organisation intent on taking over the world for its nefarious ends – and which Bond had managed to foil over the previous films – was run by Ernst Blofeld, played by Christoph Waltz, who had a very particular reason for hating Bond.

His ski instructor father Hannes Oberhauser was given temporary custody over the then 11-year-old

Bond when his parents were both killed in a climbing accident. Blofeld –or Franz Oberhauser as he was then – became so insanely jealous of his father’s close relationship with the young Bond that he staged an avalanche which killed Hannes and left Franz presumed dead. Instead, the young Franz fled the scene, gave himself a new name and set up a vast and shadowy terrorist organisation with a sideline in hurting everyone Bond was close to.

At the end of Spectre, Bond chose not to kill Blofeld but allowed him to be arrested while he tried to start a new life with the beautiful Dr Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). Madeleine – he presumably hoped – would be the one woman who could understand him as her father, Bond enemy Mr White, was also an assassin.

The action for this new film starts in the stunning Italian hilltop city of Matera with Bond, Madeleine and his iconic Aston Martin DB5. Fans of Sean Connery’s Bond will enjoy the throwback to 1964’s Goldfinger and a car chase in 1965’s Thunderball. Bond has left MI6 and he and Madeleine are intent on a fresh future, but they quickly find they can’t escape their old lives. It soon becomes clear that Madeleine has more secrets than Bond imagined and, haunted by the betrayal by Vesper Lynd, they part ways.

The story picks up again five years later in Jamaica. Bond is still retired, he’s fishing and drinking – he’s lost everyone he loves. But he is needed. There’s a new villain in town – psychopath Safin, played by Rami Malek who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody – while Blofeld is still causing problems. The world’s in trouble, has made a bit of a mess of things and only one flawed man can save us. ‘Bond’s made a definite run for the hills,’ says Daniel. ‘He’s trying to get out. He’s trying to drag himself away from this job. That is the hardest thing he does but, as we find out, he gets dragged back in.’

And so he’s reunited with his old team, including M, played by Ralph Fiennes. ‘M is caught on the back foot, big time,’ says Ralph. ‘He’s compromised himself by developing a secret programme that he thinks will be for the good of the country. But Valdo, the scientist he’s filched from the Russians to develop it, has gone rogue and turned it into something horrific. He needs Bond’s help.’

Gadgets supremo Q, played by Ben Whishaw, is back too – and there’s a fun appearance by Bond at the science geek’s home. We also see the return of Q’s friend Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) who finds her loyalty to him tested.

Bond has to readjust to the new order in MI6 – especially with thrusting new 00 agent Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, making it clear she sees him as too old for the job. But the biggest shock of all for Bond is the return of Madeleine. Despite their years apart it’s clear their connection remains, but she also has a link to Safin which means things get rather complicated.

‘This is a real love and this film is a love story between the two of them,’ says Lea Seydoux. ‘Because of that, we see James as a character who is vulnerable and who has flaws and I think that is what audiences like. The world of Bond is not the real world but the characters feel like real people.’

But while the connections and the frailties at the heart of the story feel

almost everyday, the sets and the