Q: You infect enough people...
Bond: And the people become the weapon.
Bond: And the people become the weapon.
— The unnerving explanation of Heracles.
As the darkest Bond film of all time, No Time To Die brings some new terror and Paranoia Fuel into the James Bond franchise.
All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
- The opening scene, depicting Safin killing Madeleine's mother and hunting her down in the middle of a frozen lake. By Cary Fukunaga's own admission
, it was "like [he] brought back It in the first five minutes of Bond" (he co-wrote the script of the 2017 film adaptation). Safin's portrayal also recalls Michael Myers, given that he shows up behind a window in a sudden jump-scare, wearing an eerie white Noh theatre mask. Safin's Vader Breath under the mask and the Japanese flute equivalent of Scare Chord for the soundtrack after he kills the mother really don't help.- After shooting Safin, young Madeleine drags his body outside, thinking he's dead. He's not, and he's seemingly Made of Iron as he survived both the shooting (he probably wore a Bulletproof Vest, but still) and the fall from the first floor, and keeps going after her. Madeleine only owes her survival to him eventually showing mercy to her.
- Bond shaking Madeleine and yelling at her about how Spectre could have found them. For a few seconds she—and the viewer—seem legitimately terrified that he's going to hit her and all she can do is babble that she didn't do anything.
- Later, he essentially tortures her by stopping the car in the middle of the chase and doing nothing but giving her an absolutely bone-chilling Death Glare while it's bombarded with bullets, even as she screams hysterically and begs him to do something.
- Based off of the timeline and Mathilde's age, it is possible that Madeleine already knew she was pregnant. Which makes it that much worse.
- Obruchev’s inspiration, Boris, was villainous and yet funny at times. Obruchev, on the other hand, is introduced having his lunch stolen by his co-workers, and threatening that he will put Ebola in theirs, and watch as they bleed through every orifice. He plays the mad scientist completely seriously.
- The effects of the Heracles nanomachines — near-instant death, accompanied by gruesome lesions on the face—are also unsettling, especially since they're described as easily transmissible, and capable of being coded to kill entire families and even entire ethnic groups.
- Even the implications of Heracles are horrifying. Once a nanobot coded to kill you is put into the population, You Are Already Dead - it spreads by touch, makes everyone not you an Asymptomatic Carrier, and doesn't expire. By simple hand gestures, Heracles will spread throughout the world's population. It doesn't matter how long it takes, eventually you will unknowingly touch something that another infected human has already touched, and at that point you die. And this was Heracles intended use - a weapon that, once approved, permeates the world with anti-you nanobots. It doesn't just kill you, it makes the world hostile to you.
- The movie was conceived and filmed before the COVID-19 Pandemic, but still, that it was released while most of the world isn't done with it yet resonates quite eerily with the film's own virus due to that "asymptomatic carrier" aspect.
- The way that Spectre gets hit with The Worf Effect is pretty horrifying. The seemingly omnipotent organization behind all of the last four movies gets killed off in one disastrous party. In the middle of gloating about their plan, they all get horrible lesions and die. Really hammers in that nobody is safe from Safin's machinations as soon as he gains control of Heracles.
- Bond's interrogation with Blofeld quickly goes south, since the Spectre mastermind rubs in Bond's face that he staged the attack on Bond and Madeleine in Matera, framing her in the process. You can see the muscles in Bond's face tense up as he processes this, subtly letting the audience know that he's not taking this revelation well and the anger is boiling up inside. And what does he do afterwards? He begins to strangle Blofeld, while the audience sees anger in his eyes. This version of Bond has been brutal before, especially in Quantum of Solace. But here? It's true hatred personified.Bond: (leaning in towards Blofeld to whisper in his ear) Die....
Blofeld: Hmm?
Bond: (immediately begins suffocating Blofeld) Die, Blofeld!! DIE!!! - Safin carrying Mathilde around the Poison Garden and holding her near various presumably-deadly plants also taps into some very potent parental worries.
- The sight of 007, for the first time in the film series' history, falling to his knees and begging for Safin's forgiveness so Mathilde would not be strangled by the mad poisoner. This is somewhat mitigated as it was a ruse for Bond so he can secretly reach for his hidden gun. Even then, it shows how any parent would react when a madman threatens their child.
- The Heracles farm doubles as an Acid Pool as Nomi finds out when a guard's body falls in it (also the reason why the workers wear Hazmat Suits in it). One stupid genocidal suggestion by Dr. Obruchev later, and Obruchev gets a gruesome and deadly bath in it.
- At one point in the final battle, Bond is stunned by an explosion. It takes so long for him to recover that the viewer begins to fear that he won't. Even worse, you can sense that he himself is feeling that same fear.
- Just how completely calm Safin is most of the time. Most Bond villains are openly malevolent, but Safin never betrays any emotion except when Bond breaks his arm during the final battle, and even then he quickly quiets down, delivers a final monologue, and chooses to Face Death with Dignity. All this further exemplifies how Safin does not play by the rules.
- Safin shooting Bond multiple times. In 25 films, it's the first time we've ever seen him genuinely hurt and the trail of blood that he leaves behind him drives home just how serious his injuries are. It's truly rattling.Safin: Quite a mess you've made. Like an animal!
