Film
Bond, she's not going to wake up.
- Tracy's death, of course, which happens mere minutes after Bond married her. It's perhaps the single most heartbreaking moment of the original continuity and the most notorious Kick the Dog moment in the entire franchise, made even more heartbreaking when a police officer arrives at the scene and Bond is in shock and denial at Tracy being dead.Bond: It's alright. It's quite alright, really. She's having a rest. We'll be going on soon. There's no hurry, you see. We have all the time in the world.
- The original draft had them drive happily off into the sunset and then have her die in the pretitles of the next film. The way it turned out makes it even more stark.
- It's even worse if you pay attention in later films, and realize she's the (Watsonian) reason there's a different Bond girl every film: he can't get over her. (The Doylist explanation, of course, being the financial practicalities of having non-recurring Bond Girls.)
- What makes it even worse somehow is the way the soundtrack switches from a sad reprise of "We Have All the Time in the World" to this off-kilter, borderline manic version of the James Bond theme, and it just sounds really, really off. All while focused on the lone bullet hole in the windshield...
- It's almost as if the movie is saying, "The bitch is dead now."
- To make the impact all the more shocking, the entire scene up until the final seconds takes place without any music. As the gun goes off and Bond suddenly sees that his new wife isn't speaking, it's completely silent. Nothing but Bond and his wife...
- Perhaps the worst part is the very end when we hear Bond quietly sobbing right before the credits roll. Seeing James Bond, the secret agent and Royal Navy officer who will never give up, go into flat out denial about her death... that really hits you. No other Bond movie has that kind of expression, so it's surprising.
- Even knowing it's going to happen doesn't lessen the impact when it does. Every time the two share a nice or awesome moment, you perk up... and then realise that the film can't change itself on subsequent viewings and she's still going to die at the end of the film.
- In the revised 5.1 sound mix, you can hear exactly which bullet killed her, as it can be heard piercing the windscreen. This little detail makes the scene even worse, as it was the penultimate shot. She was so close to surviving the attack.
- Just about any time the tragic loss of Tracy is referenced in subsequent films is really downright gut-wrenching. Former 00-agent turned enemy Alec Trevelyan even rubs it in Bond's face.
- Tracy's backstory, which includes teenage rebellion, infidelity, dead child, dead husband, suicide attempts (Bond saves her from one)...
- Somehow, Bond's wedding manages to be this regarding Miss Moneypenny and Q. Moneypenny crying at Bond's wedding is one of the saddest things of all time, and it follows the only time that Q calls Bond "James" instead of the usual "007" or "Bond" ever in the series.
Novel
- Try reading You Only Live Twice after you've finished this one. Even though 8 months have passed, Bond's still broken by Tracy's death and can barely keep his job, stumbling around London in a drunken haze, blowing assignments, gambling his pay away and looking forward to his next hangover. And even as he goes back to normal, it's very clear that he will never get over his greatest loss.
- The ending has a traumatised Bond quietly cradling the bullet-ridden body of his dead wife, muttering "We have all the time in the world" repeatedly.
- Even worse is when he goes into denial. Unlike the film, he doesn't weep. He sits in the wreckage while covered in blood and calmly insists to a horrified traffic cop that Tracy's not dead, over and over.
