This is movie #25, No Time To Die. Shouldn’t confetti be raining from the ceiling and party horns going off?! I started this James Bond movie watching journey in the summer of 2022 and at last I’ve now watched all twenty-five James Bond films!
For a non-Bond fan to watch all films, whew what a feat. Early on, somewhere between the latter part of Sean Connery’s era and the middle of Roger Moore’s era, I wasn’t sure I’d make it. But I kept going.
I started this journey because I wanted to know if James Bond remains a misogynistic man throughout his entire existence. I’ve been documenting his progress (or lack thereof) in each film. Here are my thoughts on Bond’s evolution in No Time To Die.
James Bond and Women in No Time To Die
Bond is retired and living in Jamaica at the start of this film. He’s asked to come back to help get a bad guy only to discover a woman agent named Nomi (played by Lashana Lynch) has been given his 007 title.
In this film, Bond is in love with Madeleine Swann, whom he met in movie #24, Spectre. He drove off into the sunset with her and everything ended well. In this movie, No Time To Die, he believes she’s betrayed him, and they spend five years apart, with him never wanting to see her again. But the pursuit of a villain brings them back together.
Madeleine is the only woman Bond sleeps with in No Time to Die. This is huge for Bond. He averages two women per film. However with Daniel Craig as Bond, that number has gone down. He also only slept with one woman in Spectre.
Bond discovers he is the father of Madeleine’s young daughter in this movie. Uh, James Bond a dad?!
Here’s another huge development. When Bond works with a beautiful female agent they end up in bed together at some point. In this film he briefly joins a female Cuban agent named Paloma, to get one of the bad guys. She’s gorgeous, donning a low cut long flowing backless black gown, and not once does Bond flirt with her.
They share an over-the-top fighting scene, and after they capture the bad guy, she says goodbye to Bond and is never seen again in the film. There’s no sexual interaction between them at all. Had that been a previous Bond, they’d have been in bed together with the bad guy tied up in another room.
The disrespect towards women in the Sean Connery era seems like a hundred years ago watching this film.
Moneypenny the secretary (I’m not even sure that’s her title anymore) was in this film but there’s no sexual harassment or any type of sexual interaction between her and James Bond.
It’s refreshing to no longer see women disrespected in Bond films. On the other hand, it makes me question who James Bond is. The womanizing James Bond is so different than the Daniel Craig Bond. It sounds strange but I’d like to see some of the old Bond return. Not the misogynist Bond but just other parts of him that made Bond who he is. Maybe show him struggling with the temptation to be misogynistic.
James Bond’s Evolution in No Time To Die
I started this Bond movie watching journey to see if James Bond would ever evolve into something more than a one dimentional superhero who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. After watching Sean Connery and Roger Moore as Bond I wasn’t so sure.
James Bond’s come a long way since Sean Connery stepped on the screen as Bond in 1962. He came across as God’s gift to women and took every advantage of that. Daniel Craig’s Bond is far removed from the womanizing image of James Bond.
A major shift happened when Pierce Brosnan took the role in 1995, in GoldenEye. Bond got a female boss, and she confronted him about his misogynistic ways. That didn’t end his misogyny, but having a female boss was progress. Looking back I like that the Brosnan Bond still struggled with misogyny because no one changes overnight.
OTHER
No Time To Die came out in the U.S. in October 2021 so it’s been over two years since Daniel Craig ended his run as Bond with No Time To Die. There’s no new Bond. And according to Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, they’re taking their time. The longest span between Bond films was with Licence to Kill, 1989 and GoldenEye 1995. That was due to legal issues.
I predicted that the actor Tom Hughes would be the next James Bond. I haven’t seen him in anything since 2022. Maybe he’s preparing for the role of Bond.
Just because I finished watching all the movies, my Bond journey’s not over. I’ll be writing more about my journey and more about Tom Hughes and why I predicted him as the next Bond.
If you’d like to know why I, a non-Bond fan, am watching all 25 James Bond movies you can read about it in detail here: Who Is The Next James Bond? A Non-Bond Fan Makes Her Prediction.