No Time to Die Review – Craig's Bold Finale, Held Back by Its Plot

🕶️ This review is part of the The James Bond Multiverse – explore how 007 First Light ties into the Bond films.

When No Time to Die (2021) finally arrived after a year of pandemic delays, it carried the weight of an entire era on its shoulders. This was Daniel Craig’s farewell after 15 years, and it had to do something no Bond film in nearly six decades had dared. I’ll give it full marks for courage: it takes the single bravest swing in franchise history, and the emotional landing genuinely got me. I just wish the two-and-a-half hours of plot leading there were as strong as the destination.

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No Time to Die 4K Ultra HD (opens in a new tab)

Craig's farewell in 4K — the Matera opening and the island finale are the visual high points. The closing chapter of the era worth owning for the send-off.

That’s the central tension of Craig’s send-off. As an ending, it’s daring and moving and unlike anything the series has done. As a thriller, it runs on a frustratingly vague nanobot superweapon and a villain whose plan I still can’t fully explain. For a series that asks to be taken seriously, the machinery matters — and here it’s the weakest link in an otherwise heartfelt finale. A bold, flawed 7/10.

The ambition is everywhere. So, unfortunately, is the bloat — and a script that never quite figures out its villain.

Narrative Architecture: A Farewell Worth the Risk

The emotional engine is, for the first time, genuinely domestic. This is a Bond film about a man trying to leave the life behind — for Madeleine, and for something the franchise has never let Bond have. That’s a brave, resonant idea, and it’s where the film earns its keep.

The plot itself is where things fray. A retired Bond is pulled back in when a bioweapon called Heracles — nanobots coded to individual DNA — falls into the hands of Safin, a scarred terrorist with a grudge against Spectre and vague designs on mass death. The weapon is a clever hook in theory and a hand-wave in practice; the more the film explains Heracles, the less it makes sense. And Safin’s actual goal never crystallizes beyond “menace.”

But the personal story lands. As a dad, the final act hit me harder than I expected — it reframes Bond’s entire arc around what a person will sacrifice for the people they love. Without spoiling it: the film breaks the franchise’s most sacred rule, and that courage is the single best decision it makes. The destination is worth the trip, even when the trip drags.

What the contrast reveals: No Time to Die is a film whose emotional ambitions outrun its plotting. The heart is in the right place; the spy mechanics around it are the shakiest of the era.

The Craft: Ambition on a Grand Scale

Fukunaga was a bold hire, and his visual ambition shows. The film looks expensive and moves with real confidence, even when the script meanders.

It delivers two genuinely great action sequences:

1. The Matera opening: A pre-titles chase through an Italian hill town, climaxing with the Aston Martin DB5 unloading its gatling guns in a 360-degree spin. A franchise highlight.
2. The stairwell long take: A continuous-feeling shootout up through Safin’s lair, fluid and tense — Fukunaga’s True Detective instincts on full display.
3. The misty forest ambush: A moodier, atmospheric set piece that shows range beyond the bombast.

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When the film leans on craft over plot, it soars. The problem is the connective tissue — and a villain who never gives that craft a worthy target.

The Format Benchmark: A Commit-the-Evening Watch

At 163 minutes, this is not a casual weeknight Bond. It’s the one that asks for the whole evening — and rewards a proper setup if you give it one.

• 4K showcase: The Matera chase and the island finale are visual high points in 4K HDR.
• Sound: Hans Zimmer’s swelling score and the explosive climax give a home cinema real work to do.
• Dad Alert: Block out the full evening and watch the final act in the dark. The emotional ending lands far harder without a phone in your hand or a kid wandering in.

For the send-off it represents, it’s worth the commitment — just know you’re committing.

The Sonic Signature: Billie Eilish and a Returning Maestro

Hans Zimmer takes over scoring and leans into the franchise’s history, while the title song became a record-breaker.

• “No Time to Die”: Billie Eilish’s hushed, melancholy theme made her the youngest artist to record a Bond song, and it won the Oscar — a moody, fitting overture for a farewell.
• Zimmer’s score: He weaves in Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All the Time in the World” from 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a deep-cut callback that pays off beautifully in the finale.
• Emotional engineering: The score does heavy lifting in the final act, and it’s where the film’s music is at its most effective.

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Legacy and Where It Ranks

The hardest question about No Time to Die isn’t whether it’s good — it’s whether its ending earns forgiveness for everything around it. Because that finale is the boldest decision in sixty years of Bond, and it genuinely recontextualizes Craig’s entire run. Start at Casino Royale and watch all five in order, and No Time to Die stops being a standalone thriller and becomes the closing chapter of one continuous story about a man learning, finally, what he’s willing to lose for love. On those terms, the send-off is unimpeachable.

The trouble is the 163 minutes you sit through to reach it. Strip the ending away and you have the era’s shakiest spy plot: a villain whose plan I genuinely cannot summarize, a superweapon that dissolves under any scrutiny, and a mid-film stretch that sags under its own runtime. Where Casino Royale’s plot was load-bearing, No Time to Die’s is scaffolding — there only to get you to the emotional payoff. It works because of its destination, not its journey, and that’s a fragile kind of success.

So where does it rank? For me, comfortably in the middle of the era: above the overstretched Spectre, below the tighter Skyfall, and well behind the two films that bookended Craig’s debut. As a piece of franchise courage, though, it stands alone — no other Bond film would dare what this one does in its final act. If you’ve followed Craig’s Bond from the beginning, that bravery makes it essential, flaws and all. Just don’t go in expecting the plot to honor the seriousness the ending so clearly takes for granted. It’s a great farewell wearing a mediocre thriller, and your mileage will depend on how much the farewell means to you.

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Is No Time to Die worth watching?

Yes, especially as the close of Daniel Craig’s era. At 7/10 it takes the bravest swing in franchise history and delivers a genuinely moving farewell. It’s held back by a vague villain and a hand-wavy nanobot weapon, plus a long 163-minute runtime, but the emotional payoff is real.

How does No Time to Die end?

Without spoiling specifics: it breaks a rule the franchise had never broken in nearly 60 years, giving Craig’s Bond a final act of sacrifice. It’s the boldest ending in series history and the main reason the film is worth seeing, even if the plot getting there is shaky.

Who is the villain in No Time to Die?

Rami Malek plays Lyutsifer Safin, a scarred terrorist wielding a nanobot bioweapon called Heracles. Malek is a strong actor, but the character is underwritten — his motivation and master plan stay frustratingly vague, which is the film’s biggest weakness.

Who directed No Time to Die?

Cary Joji Fukunaga, known for True Detective season one and Beasts of No Nation — the first American director of a Bond film. He brings real visual ambition and a couple of standout long-take action sequences.

Is No Time to Die suitable for kids?

It’s PG-13 for espionage violence and is emotionally heavy, particularly its ending. Suitable for older teens, but the finale is genuinely affecting — not a light family watch. Save it for an adults-only evening.