Bond 25 Title Reveal: No Time To Die

'No Time To Die' clearly tells audiences Bond 25 is Craig's curtain call as 007, yet hints at a predictability that beckons us to be cautious

Daniel Craig as 007 in 'No Time To Die' (CREDIT: EON Productions/MGM/Universal)

by Jack Linsdell

This afternoon, we all received confirmation that the 25th James Bond film, and Daniel Craig's fifth and (supposedly) final outing as 007 will be called No Time To Die. Back in April when most of the cast, locations and those penning the screenplay were revealed at Ian Fleming's Goldeneye house in Jamaica, there was an uproar (mainly from Bond fans) that no title had been revealed. As par the course with most James Bond film announcements, a title is often revealed at these events. But, not this time. And, we all know that No Time To Die has not been a usual production (except for Quantum of Solace) for a Bond movie, suffering delays, endless rewrites, on-set fires, directors walking away and a scandal of someone putting a camera in the Pinewood Studio toilets (twice!) to name but a few.

But, at long last, fans, general audiences and critics alike can all now breath in a sigh of relief. The title has been revealed, and this suggests that a teaser trailer may be imminent within the next few weeks. I say that because with a deluge of big movies entering cinemas like It: Chapter 2, Joker, Charlie's Angels and Angel Has Fallen, and only a little under two months of shooting left (they've moved to Matera, Italy now to film the opening scene and other large chunks of the film), a teaser trailer alongside a title reveal makes sense. Yes, everyone (fan or not) knows that No Time To Die is happening, as Bond is always headline news across the world. However, a teaser would allow greater coverage in the media and from word of mouth that focusses on the films quality and content, rather than behind the scenes scandals and drama, which can't be making general audiences (let alone fans like myself) too confident in the movie. 

Still, No Time To Die is not an excellent title (like Quantum of Solace, The Living Daylights) or a terrible one (Octopussy), so that's something. If anything, the title is the most Bond-y one out of all the other ones rumoured like Shatterhand and Genome of a Women, going on the theme of death and joining Die Another Day, Licence to Kill, You Only Live Twice and Tomorrow Never Dies to feature it in it's title. Not to mention countless Bond books with death used as title inspiration including the Young Bond book series with Double or Die. On the one hand, it's a safe bet as it sounds to most like a Bond title and may make the movie appeal better to general audiences as sounding like a 007 adventure. Indeed, if this is Craig's last film, and the rumours about Madeline Swann's death (played by Lea Seydoux, whose returning from Spectre) are correct, then the theme of death will be ever so relevant. 

However, it would have better in my view (as an avid and long-time fan of the series and character), to choose something that stood out a little more. I mean, Skyfall for all it's flaws, was an original title that not even fans could guess what it stood for until we say some trailer footage. It stood out amongst every other action film that has ever been made and was coming out alongside it concurrently, meaning that it felt a little different. Nothing about death, guns or the villain. Rather, Bond's childhood home. It's too early to say, and this is pure speculation, but considering this is such a same-same title for the series, maybe this suggests that No Time To Die will be another generic Bond instalment, one that plays predictable and leaves us fans (and maybe general audiences) feeling disappointed. When Bond and Swann drove off together into the sunset at the end of Spectre, we all knew that in the next film she would be killed off in opening sequence and Bond would avenge her death. Yes, we've only got immense speculation and rumours (which by the way have been spot on for every cast, crew, location and title rumour so far) to go on, but it seems Bond and Swann will get into a car chase in the DB5 in Bond 25's opening sequence which will lead to her death. We are all predicting this to be the case, as history (just see On Her Majesty's Secret Service/Diamonds Are Forever or Craig's debut Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace storylines) tell us. 

As regular readers know, I've long said that Spectre's excellent marketing campaign had us all fooled so that when the credits rolled at the end of the film, we were left gravely disappointed and felt cheated. So, going into No Time To Die feeling that it will be a predictable, let-down (despite any of it's potentional entertainment value) is probably a safe bet as if it's much better than we all believe (and fear), then we leave feeling much better about life. Yes, we can only take so much from the title announcement, and only after we've seen the film will we know it's relevance (or not) to the storyline. However, it's predictability and generic-ness does hint that this one won't give Craig the swansong he and we want him to have. 

No Time To Die features a stacked cast and comes courtesy of writer-director Cary Fukunaga on 10th April 2020 in cinemas near you. As ever folks, we'll see.