In Billie Eilish's No Time to Die the (always) moody, tremulousness and tension filled songstress interlaces the romantic context of the film...surely singing to Bond's reuniting with Dr. Madeleine Swann.
"Fool me once, fool me twice, Are you death or paradise?
Now you'll never see me cry, There's just no time to die"
Reviewing the opening sequences of the Craig era of Bond, we likewise have dark and moody, but have run the gamut of different styles. I suggest that NTTD will take on the 'grander' sequences it has been building up on - after all this is Craig's last time around innit?
- Casino Royale (2002) - definitively setting up the tone and Craig as the new Bond, this movie hits all the right Bond notes and introduces a more 'hands on' Bond, the ending is reminiscent of 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
- Quantum of Solace (2006) - with the world established, the next film builds on wider conspiracies, with a plot to control water in Bolivia with a shadow organization apparently wielding wider power.
- Skyfall (2012) - the past and new politics catches up with M, who trusts Bond to save her from a past agent bent on publicly repudiating M and M-16. The ending puts Bond at the mercy of the new regime.
- Spectre (2015) - M gives Bond a mission in Mexico City, but uncovers a wider plot from a shadow organization known as 'Spectre'. This pulls in threads of his past, leading back to Blofeld, his nemesis. Spectre has infiltrated M-16 to its core and Bond must figure out a way to undo it.
Quick addition: while finding which production companies worked on Spectre's title sequence (Rattling Stick and Framestore), came across the https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/spectre/ site. Even more to dig into and enjoy the composites within the sequence.
- No Time to Die (2021) - we know that Bond is pulled back into action after attempting to stay off the radar in Jamaica, especially after the mess left from Spectre's infiltration. Speculating here that the past would catch up with Bond and a new series of characters may take the mantle...so an 'explosive' end to the series?
No Time to Die comes out on October 8th in the US.
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Here's a few sweet posters - the stylistic one is from Displate and the Bond strolling Whitehall from prints4u.
