No Time to Die [SPOILERS]

[Jonathan101]

"It's not the years but the mileage."

I don't actually have a problem with Bond's reaction because its established in Casino Royale that Craig Bond has the decidedly un-Bond-like quality of not liking to kill people. He realized being a 007 wasn't for him with Vesper and was already having second thoughts after his first kill. Which is an interesting take.

This Bond was never suitable for being a black ops agent but just managed it for awhile.

Bond never enjoyed killing people. He made quips to distance himself from what he was doing, and maybe a couple of particularly loathsome individuals gave him satisfactory deaths, but the idea that he actually likes killing people is brought up in the classic movies a few times and Bond ALWAYS shot it down, or otherwise indicated that he found killing distasteful if sometimes necessary.

Casino Royale doesn't establish that Craig is averse to killing; it establishes his problem is that he is too detached from his emotions that killing doesn't bother him. He's one of the more cold-blooded Bonds honestly.

[CharlesPhipps]

"It's not the years but the mileage."

I don't actually have a problem with Bond's reaction because its established in Casino Royale that Craig Bond has the decidedly un-Bond-like quality of not liking to kill people. He realized being a 007 wasn't for him with Vesper and was already having second thoughts after his first kill. Which is an interesting take.

This Bond was never suitable for being a black ops agent but just managed it for awhile.

Bond never enjoyed killing people. He made quips to distance himself from what he was doing, and maybe a couple of particularly loathsome individuals gave him satisfactory deaths, but the idea that he actually likes killing people is brought up in the classic movies a few times and Bond ALWAYS shot it down, or otherwise indicated that he found killing distasteful if sometimes necessary.

Casino Royale doesn't establish that Craig is averse to killing; it establishes his problem is that he is too detached from his emotions that killing doesn't bother him. He's one of the more cold-blooded Bonds honestly.

That is incredibly not Craig's Bond. He is the least cold blooded as every scene he's in shows him miserable and struggling with it.

1. "Made you feel it, did he." (First Scene)
2. Horrified Solange was murdered because of him
3. Ditto Strawberry
4. The whole desire to retire with Vesper
5. The fact he did retire after being shot as a chance to fake his death
6. The fact he almost COMMITTED SUICIDE with Olga Kurlenko's character

I mean, this Bond is a depressed miserable pile of regrets

Many Bonds loved killing. But its okay because they were psychotic evil assholes. When Bond girls were murdered, they were not filled with regret but furious anger.

[Makeshift Python]

Here’s the first few paragraphs from the first chapter of GOLDFINGER (titled “Reflections in a Double Bourbon) that really sums up Bond’s attitude towards his profession and how it impacts him to the core:

JAMES BOND, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.

It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare double-O prefix - the licence to kill in the Secret Service - it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional - worse, it was death-watch beetle in the soul.

And yet there had been something curiously impressive about the death of the Mexican. It wasn't that he hadn't deserved to die. He was an evil man, a man they call in Mexico a capungo. A capungo is a bandit who will kill for as little as forty pesos, which is about twenty-five shillings -though probably he had been paid more to attempt the killing of Bond - and, from the look of him, he had been an instrument of pain and misery all his life. Yes, it had certainly been time for him to die; but when Bond had killed him, less than twenty-four hours before, life had gone out of the body so quickly, so utterly, that Bond had almost seen it come out of his mouth as it does, in the shape of a bird, in Haitian primitives.

What an extraordinary difference there was between a body full of person and a body that was empty! Now there is someone, now there is no one. This had been a Mexican with a name and an address, an employment card and perhaps a driving licence. Then something had gone out of him, out of the envelope of flesh and cheap clothes, and had left him an empty paper bag waiting for the dustcart. And the difference, the thing that had gone out of the stinking Mexican bandit, was greater than all Mexico.

Bond looked down at the weapon that had done it. The cutting edge of his right hand was red and swollen. It would soon show a bruise. Bond flexed the hand, kneading it with his left. He had been doing the same thing at intervals through the quick plane trip that had got him away. It was a painful process, but if he kept the circulation moving the hand would heal more quickly. One couldn't tell how soon the weapon would be needed again. Cynicism gathered at the corners of Bond's mouth.

IMO, Craig nails that aspect. Bond is practically a doomed character that can never truly find a peaceful life for himself. That’s why Fleming refers to him as a “blunt instrument”.

[Beastro]

Many Bonds loved killing. But its okay because they were psychotic evil assholes. When Bond girls were murdered, they were not filled with regret but furious anger.

They're more split between two camps.

1: The stereotypical Bond that was too cool to let the nastiness of killing get to him as well as the whole spy game. He wasn't cold-blooded, it was just "a bit too much" for him to take seriously. It was a means to an end for him to live his teenage boy's fantasy lifestyle.

It was this that most people grew up knowing and loving and why Roger Ebert hated Timothy Dalton's version. This was epitomized in Moore, but most people know of it through Connery despite his Bond having good moments of consciousness when he'd screw up (realizing his promiscuity and asshole goading of Goldfinger got a woman killed) despite being the most flippant (Moore was always the most consistent doing it, though. He was a cartoon character).

2: The on the outside cold-blooded killer who looked like he had no regard for life but was torment and possessed a quiet, British volatility and grief about himself. This was Craig and Dalton, and while I've never read the books, I've heard is more in keeping with the original Bond.

There's also Brosnan which danced more between the two and was able to have moments to show #2, but that was mostly in Goldeneye and he became pretty much entirely #1 after it.

[Makeshift Python]

I'd say Brosnan switched throughout all four films. I think that's part of why he said that he felt he never nailed the part.

[CharlesPhipps]

I'd say Brosnan switched throughout all four films. I think that's part of why he said that he felt he never nailed the part.

I like Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough Bond. He's completely different from Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day Bond who feel like Brosnan is in a Bond parody. I'd also argue he's the only Bond where the video game performances are recognizable expressions of the character.

[clearspira]

I'd say Brosnan switched throughout all four films. I think that's part of why he said that he felt he never nailed the part.

I like Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough Bond. He's completely different from Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day Bond who feel like Brosnan is in a Bond parody. I'd also argue he's the only Bond where the video game performances are recognizable expressions of the character.

Brosnan started as Connery and ended up as Moore.
Die Another Day was one step away from becoming Moonraker.

[Jonathan101]

That is incredibly not Craig's Bond. He is the least cold blooded as every scene he's in shows him miserable and struggling with it.

1. "Made you feel it, did he." (First Scene)
2. Horrified Solange was murdered because of him
3. Ditto Strawberry
4. The whole desire to retire with Vesper
5. The fact he did retire after being shot as a chance to fake his death
6. The fact he almost COMMITTED SUICIDE with Olga Kurlenko's character

I mean, this Bond is a depressed miserable pile of regrets

Many Bonds loved killing. But its okay because they were psychotic evil assholes. When Bond girls were murdered, they were not filled with regret but furious anger.

The "made you feel it" was the first time he had killed someone; he shoots the guy saying that with a smirk on his face and makes a quip about it being a lot easier, implying he was cavalier about the next killing. The first kill was also hard not just because he had never assassinated someone before but because the guy put up such a fight.

He wasn't horrified that Solange died; M even implies that if anything he is TOO detached about it and he basically agrees.

He was shocked that Strawberry died but that was probably one of the least expected deaths; he had quite brutally killed a corrupt cop shortly before after he killed Matthas.

He desired to retire with Vesper less because he hated his job or hated killing and more just because he was falling in love with her- you don't need to overthink that.

He didn't retire in Skyfall because getting shot gave him a chance to; he retired because M said "take the bloody shot!" and he felt insulted that she didn't trust him to get the job done. He came back anyway of his own volition.

He didn't almost commit suicide with Olga; it's just that he and her honestly thought for a moment that there was no way out of that burning building and were resigning themselves to what they thought was inevitable death, and he wanted to comfort her in her final moments as he could see she was terrified.

Being miserable and depressed doesn't mean he hates killing any more than any other Bond; he seems to be carrying that over from his pre-00 life. There are lots of times Craig's Bond kills people AGAINST the orders of M, and other times that he just stands back and watches a bad guy commit a murder, something the other Bond's NEVER did.

Regret and furious anger are not mutually exclusive, and every Bond- Craig included- felt both when a Bond girl died. He was FURIOUS when Vesper killed herself right in front of him and spent the whole of the next movie hunting down her killer- he showed restraint in making sure the guy was arrested rather than killed but he was clearly righteously angry at the guy, and his treatment of Dominic Greene was one of the cruelest fates that any Bond has inflicted on any bad guy ever.

What Bond's do you think are "evil psychotic assholes"? Because NONE of them are the sadistic bastards you seem to think they are, while Craig is very much intended to be the most ice-cold and ruthless of them all.

Not a single Bond enjoys killing unless it is someone particularly nasty.

[Makeshift Python]

Concerning Solange. When Bond arrives on the scene there’s a brief moment where he looks concerned when he finds Solange’s body, but only for that one moment before he pulls himself together and emotionally detaches himself. It’s a nice subtle bit of Craig’s acting to show Bond recognizing he left her to the sharks but has to accept it as the nature of his profession.

This is one of many reasons he finds salvation in Vesper, as he sees her as a chance to live a peaceful life and not participate in the destruction of other people’s lives. But once that’s taken away from him he can’t see any other path for him and embraces his role as it’s the only way for him to cope.

One thing the film does different is that when Bond is fully formed at the end it’s treated as a glorious moment. In the novel it’s much more bitter and tragic, ending with Bond telling HQ “the bitch is dead”. But EON didn’t feel ending on a down note for Craig’s first film was right. They’ve already done that for OHMSS, and it looks like they’ve felt it was right to do it again with NTTD.

[Jonathan101]

I don't think NTTD ended on quite as downer a note as OHMSS. In NTTD, Bond still kills the bad guy and gets a heroic death, and his loved ones survive. In OHMSS, the bad guy survives to kill his wife and get away.

I don't think that he saw Vesper as a chance to escape the life; I think he just fell in love with her. I never saw him as a guy who hated his job to the point he is looking for reasons to quit, just someone who thinks it is frustrating but necessary.

I think Bond is a guy who lives in the moment and doesn't really know what he wants out of life one way or the other; I don't think he really wants a peaceful life or that he is too bothered with death and destruction in the general sense, but at the same time that doesn't mean he can't be shaken by particularly nasty killings especially of people he knows personally.

I think he's a guy who craves excitement and love at the same time. I think the only problem he has with his job is that the missions HE is sent on sometimes get particularly dark even for a Double-0, such as getting his balls bashed in.

But I never saw him and Vesper as Bond escaping. I think that's a disservice to his feelings for her. Madeliene on the other hand...by the time he meets HER he might be thinking that kind of thing, but that's only after years of stress and betrayal.