Folks, it is finally here. But, wait!
No Time To Die, after more than a year of delays caused by the ongoing pandemic is finally coming to cinemas. Six years have passed since the last James Bond film, Spectre in 2015. It has been quite a while since then.
No Time to Die, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, introduces a number of new characters. They include Rami Malek, villain Lyutsifer Sfin, Lashana Lynn as British 00 agent Nomi and Ana de Armas, Cuban CIA agent Paloma. Along with Dali Benssalah and Billy Magnussen and David Dencik, Primo, Logan Ash and Valdo Obbruchev.
There will be many familiar faces back for the 25th Bond film, including Daniel Craig, who will be retiring as Bond. Craig's run included more serialized plotlines and character stories than any other franchise (even though many of the characters are the same from throughout the franchise), so it is helpful to get a sense of Bond's history with some familiar faces.
It's been so long since we last saw many of these characters. Here's a quick guide to the characters who will be returning in No Time to Die. There will be spoilers for previous Bond films but not for No Time To Die.
Eve Moneypenny
Eve (Naomie Harris), presents Bond (Daniel Craig), with a gift of ceramics from M in "Skyfall." Credit: Francois Duhamel
Naomie Harris was the first actress to play Eve Moneypenny in Skyfall. This film was also the first in which Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary, received a first name or solid backstory. It took twenty (20) years! It took 20 (twenty!) films before the longest-serving character in the franchise was given a name.
Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny for many decades in 14 films! Before Caroline Bliss assumed the role of Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights or License to Kill, Samantha Bond was her character in Pierce Brosnan films. Moneypenny, Bond, and their sexual tension has been there since childhood. They never really had any banter because of work, but the Skyfall shaving scene does.
Moneypenny is a field agent for Bond in Istanbul, as seen in the Craig films. In a chaotic chase she dodged VW Beetles and her Land Rover Defender. Bond is then accidentally shot in the shoulder by Moneypenny while he's riding on top of a moving train with Patrice. The bad guy is able to get away with a hard disk full of details about undercover NATO agents which villain Raoul Silva, Javier Bardem, publishes on YouTube. Moneypenny was temporarily removed from field work due to "something to kill 007", though Bond worked with her again in Macau after M's death.
She is the secretary to Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), and a strong ally of Bond at all hours and times.
Dr. Madeleine Swann
Dr. Madeleine Swann (La Seydoux) returns in "No Time to Die." Credit: NICOLA DOVE 2021 DANJAQ LLC AND MGM
After Bond schedules a psychiatric evaluation, La Seydoux was first seen as Dr. Madeleine Swann on Spectre in 2015. Bond's research shows that Swann studied at Oxford and the Sorbonne and was a consultant. She also spent two years working with Mdecins Sans Frontires. Bond discovers that she runs a clinic on the Austrian Alps' highest peak.
This tip was given to him by her father, Mr White (Jesper Christiansen), who was a prominent member of SPECTRE, Quantum of Solace and Spectre. They were the ones who interrogated Vesperlynd [Eva Green] at Casino Royale. She made a deal with Bond to save Bond's life for Le Chiffre's money that he lost in the card game. This was the same group that brought Vesper's death to an end. It's quite a lot!
Bond tracked White to his cabin in Austria where he was hiding as a SPECTRE defector and made a deal with Swann to protect him. Swann and Bond travel to L'American, a Tangier hotel that White and his ex-wife used to frequent. A mouse was found (!) Bond was shown a secret room in which Swann's parents kept their secret SPECTRE shit (including where Blofeld's lair) by some mysterious means. Bond and Swann became close and had sex on a train to Morocco with Hinx (Dave Bautista), his SPECTRE crew, and then Bond. Ah!
Swann and Bond then met Blofeld at Blofeld's desert lair. Blofeld showed Swann a clip of her father's suicide death and told Swann that he had once visited White's house and met Swann as a child. Swann confessed that she loved Bond while Bond was being tortured. However, she flees to London when she realizes she can no longer live with the spy life. Blofeld captures Swann and Bond rescues her in the end. After a big, cheesy kiss on the Westminster Bridge, they drive off in an Aston Martin DB5 into London's political heart.
Q
Q (Ben Whishaw), in "Skyfall". Credit: Danjaq / Eon Productions / Kobal / Shutterstock
John Cleese took over Desmond Llewelyn's long-running role at MI6 as Q, quartermaster of gadgets, after he had been promoted from his assistant position in The World Is Not Enough). Then Ben Whishaw was promoted to Skyfall Q did not appear in Quantum of Solace or Casino Royale, nor did many gadgets.
Whishaw's Q first meets Bond in front of Turner's painting in London's National Gallery. He tells Bond that he can do more damage to his laptop while he's in his pyjamas than you can in a year on the field. Whishaw is the modern Q. He actively throws the exploding pens from Brosnan's days into the bin, allowing for a more online approach to Q than the Aston Martin DB10 in Spectre. Whishaw continues to express Bond's frustration over Bond's dependence on guns and inability to keep expensive equipment intact while sipping his Scrabble mug.
Q combines some nifty science and gadgetry in Spectre. This includes his "smart" nanotechnology that allows him to track Bond’s movements. He's also a great ally. Q lied to Bond to hide his location when he was tracking Blofeld in Austria. Bond even met him at Dr. Swann’s clinic to assist with the investigation and helped Bond finally stop Blofeld.
Felix Leiter
Bond (Daniel Craig), and Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), in 'Casino Royale. Jay Maidment
Felix Leiter is a long-standing ally to Bonds. He first appeared in Dr. No in 1962 as he helped Sean Connery. Jack Lord wore the most amazing sunglasses and played him. Leiter is a CIA agent that always helps Bond out of trouble. The pair also often trade intelligence. Jeffrey Wright assumed the role of Casino Royale in 2006. He first met Bond at the crucial baccarat game with Le Chiffre, Mads Mikkelsen.
Leiter appears in Quantum of Solace, working with Gregg Beam, the South American head of the CIA (David Harbour). He was not in Bond films! ), and he struck a bad oil deal (Mathieu amalric) with Dominic Greene. Beam was replaced by Leiter at the end.
Leiter isn’t in Spectre but Bond calls him to rescue Lucia Sciarra after she provides him with information about SPECTRE, where her husband was an assassin.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), in "No Time to Die": Lifelong adversaries Credit: NICOLA DOVE 2021 DANJAQ LLC AND MGM
Bond's cat-petting arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld made his appearance in the Craig era of Spectre. Blofeld was Bond's enemy mainly throughout the Sean Connery films, played by four different actors (notably including Donald Pleasence and Charles Gray) leading the organisation known as SPECTRE Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. They are the ones wearing the octopus rings. Blofeld made his first appearance in 1963's From Russia with Love. He wasn't named and he is supposedly dead in 1981's For Your Eyes Only. In a sequence in which Roger Moore's Bond drops a man who looks like Blofeld into a smokestack with a helicopter, this sequence shows Bond's Bond dropping Blofeld into a pipe.
Blofeld, who was the puppetmaster behind Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene and Raoul Silva's acts in Quantum of Solace during the Craig era, was seen alive and active. Blofeld is first seen at Marco Sciarra's funeral in Mexico City. Then Blofeld is revealed to us in a SPECTRE meeting.
Blofeld revealed that Blofeld was the alias of Franz Oberhauser. He was the son of Hannes Oberhauser who was a foster father to Bond and taught him how to hunt and ski as a child. Franz murdered his father. He said, "It was all mine, James," and literally supported this by torturing Bond.
After Bond and Swann destroyed Blofeld's lair, the pair met up in the MI6 headquarters to fight Blofeld. Blofeld had set up a maze trap with...printouts. Of Le Chiffre et al? Bond chased Blofeld's helicopter down on the Thames. The helicopter crashed onto Westminster Bridge. The SPECTRE boss was then captured by MI6.
M
M (Ralph Fiennes), Moneypenny, (Naomie Harris), and Tanner (Rory Kinnear). In 'No Time to Die. Credit: NICOLA DOVE 2021 DANJAQ LLC AND MGM
Judi Dench was the Head of MI6 and she took on the role M in the Brosnan Era. She made memorable remarks like calling 007 "sexist, misogynist dinosaur" In Skyfall's final showdown, she was tragically killed by Raoul Silva.
Ralph Fiennes starred in Skyfall's Bond films as Gareth Mallory. He was the new chairman for the Intelligence and Security Committee, reporting to the prime minster. After the disastrous opening mission in Skyfall, he basically fired M. He responded with a brilliant "To hell with dignity." Mallory said, "I'll leave when it's finished." Mallory took a bullet from Silva in the hearing room for M to make this moment up to her.
Mallory was promoted as head of MI6 after M's passing. Fiennes brings the same uptight bureaucratic energy as Bernard Lee who played M in most Bond films of the '60s to '70s. Mallory wasn't content to live his life in office. He was lieutenant colonel of Northern Ireland, Hereford Regiment and spent three months in custody by the IRA.
M was a victim of Spectre. After putting up with a lot of crap, he was replaced by Max Denbigh, the corrupt director general of the Joint Security Service (Andrew Scott), who planned to create the Nine Eyes global Intelligence committee. This would have allowed them to share a lot of data from nine intelligence agencies around the world (MI6 included). But, C with SPECTRE C turned to be working for them and M confronted him.
Bill Tanner
Rory Kinnear plays Bill Tanner as MI6's Chief Of Staff. He is the man who keeps the British espionage apparatus running. He reports directly to M, briefs agents, runs field operations, and generally keeps track of Bond's activities and whereabouts. Tanner appeared in a number of Bond films prior to Craig's, beginning with The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), but it was not until Quantum of Solace where we would see Kinnear play the role. After the terrorist attack at Skyfall headquarters, Tanner set up the new MI6 and protected M from Silva's attacks in his hearing room. He's still in charge of the new HQ and assists Bond with Blofeld's fall.
You're all set. No Time to Die will be shown in cinemas in the UK starting Sept. 30, and everywhere else beginning Oct. 8.
