No Time to Die has started rolling out in theaters across the globe, and all eyes are on how Daniel Craig's tenure as 007 ends. James Bond has never died on screen, but occasionally receives what some might describe as a happy ending.
A lot has changed since the days a new actor could be swapped out with no attention paid to continuity, especially as that's something audiences do expect now (you can probably blame the MCU for that). These films have all connected in more meaningful ways than those before Craig boarded the series, so No Time to Die is definitely the grand finale it's been billed as.
With that in mind, we're breaking down how things wrap up for James Bond - SPOILERS follow!
First, A Little Background
When No Time to Die begins, Bond has retired and is living a happy life with Madeleine Swann. However, he's led to believe she's betrayed him, and five years pass before they're reunited.
It's then he learns that Spectre villain Blofeld orchestrated the entire thing, and Madeleine never really turned on the former 007. After tracking her down, Bond discovers that his former love has a child (as chance would have it, the girl happens to have his eyes). They're pursued by Safin, who kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde, leaving the spy to race into action in order to save them both.
However, he also needs to destroy a DNA-targeted virus codenamed "Heracles" that can kill specific individuals despite being airborne. Anyone can be a carrier, and once it enters someone's bloodstream, it will kill whoever it's been programmed to target when that carrier (who won't be harmed in any way) makes physical contact with them or gets too close.
How It All Ends
After sending Madeleine and Mathilde to safety alongside the new 007 (Lashana Lynch's Nomi), Bond races into action to open the blast doors of Safin's base so the Navy can destroy the virus. However, the doors begin to close as he confronts the villain, taking quite a few bullets in the process.
During their scuffle, the injured secret agent is cut by a vial Safin revealed to Madeleine a little earlier in the film. That contains her DNA, meaning that if Bond gets too close to his lover and daughter, he'll kill them both. He can't risk ever seeing them again, and with the missiles incoming, time is limited.
Mortally wounded, Bond guns Safin down and reopens the blast doors. Learning that they got to safety, 007 shares an emotional farewell with the woman he loves ("You have all the time in the world") before being killed by the missiles that rain down on the base. This is a definitive death for the hero, and the first time James Bond has died in one of these movies.
What does this mean for the franchise? Well...
Where Do We Go From Here?
No Time to Die spends a lot of time establishing Nomi as the new 007, so it's possible the plan is to continue the franchise with Lynch as the new lead (Felix Leiter doesn't survive, but M, Q, and Moneypenny do; there's also more story to be told with Ana de Armas' Paloma).
There's a chance this film was meant to close the door on James Bond for a while, with the series heading in a new direction thanks to a female lead; however, it's hard to imagine that film being the same box office draw as Bond's previous adventures - the iconic Ian Fleming creation is ultimately who the majority want to see as 007 - so a spinoff for Nomi seems far more likely.
They may simply decide to start over, with a new actor as James Bond and perhaps a fresh cast from top to bottom. We could see a new version with the same supporting actors, but that would muddy the waters. Another possibility, of course, is that "James Bond" is just a codename, and a new spy will pick up where the last one left off. We're not keen on that idea, though!