For my inaugural posts on Building Worlds, I’m going to discuss the thoroughly entertaining, yet developmentally flawed film, No Time to Die, featuring everyone’s favorite British spy, James Bond. The legendary 007. Be warned, there will be spoilers. Many, many spoilers. 

In fact, I’m going to be spoiling stuff almost straight off the bat, so if you haven’t seen the movie and want to do so without knowing what’s coming, then perhaps wait to read any further until you’ve hit your local theater.

You’ve been warned…

Alright, let’s get to it.

We’re going to talk about the force of antagonism in this post, which features prominently in several key steps along the Hero’s Journey. If you don’t set it up right, the story won’t feel right, and the payoff in the climax isn’t nearly as satisfying.

This past weekend I watched No Time to Die in the theater. Daniel Craig’s final turn as the incomparable James Bond. Now I haven’t gone back and watched all the 007 films since becoming an acolyte of the Hero’s Journey (yes, a teacher actually called me that), but even with my hazy memory, I can say with complete certainty that none of the Bond films are perfect examples of the Journey. Some are good to great (Casino Royale), others not so much (Quantum of Solace). No Time to Die probably falls in the latter category.

But, don’t fret! Like all Bond movies, No Time to Die is still a wild, entertaining ride. In fact, in Craig’s final spin through Bondland, they made some very fun nods to previous entries in the films, including possibly my most favorite 007 moment ever when during a very tense moment, they snuck in the theme music from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (an instrumental track), which is one of my favorite opening pieces of the entire bunch. They also made use of my favorite Aston Martin, the ’87 Vantage.

Have you ever read a book, or listened to one, or watched a movie and somewhere between a third to halfway through something doesn’t feel right? Kinda hard to put your finger on, but something’s missing? Well, I got that feeling in No Time to Die, but there was no confusion why. 

The relationship between the hero and the antagonistic force (the villain) has to be well established early on, so that the stakes the hero is fighting for matter to the hero in the end. Optimally, this is done at both an external (save the world) and internal (overcome some personal problem) level.

While Spectre (the film) was probably my least favorite of the five Craig Bonds (still good), the internal and external connections to the force of antagonism (Blofeld) are well established. Spectre wants to control the world, and Bond has a personal history with Blofeld. However halfway through No Time to Die, the external antagonist is nebulous (to Bond), and the internal antagonist is practically non-existent. Part of this is, I think, intentional as the writers pull a number of bait-and-switch moves on the audience. Probably to keep us surprised and guessing, but the result isn’t as satisfying as I suspect they had hoped.

Major spoilers ahead. Seriously, last chance.

Early on in the movie, the threat of evil organization Spectre looms. Bond is summoned out of retirement by old friend and CIA agent Felix Leiter (the great Jeffrey Wright) to case a party of Spectre big wigs. Turns out it was a trap to lure Bond to his death (via a DNA-linked form of smallpox macguffin), but the tables are turned and the DNA weapon targets every Spectre agent instead. In moments, the huge evil organization that has clouded the entirety of Craig’s 007 run, as well as a number of older Bond films, is wiped out. In seconds. Yeah, they did that. Shock value: high. Story structure development: net negative.

The only remaining Spectre agent alive is Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) himself, still in the max security prison that Bond put him in at the end of Spectre (the film). He’s had a bionic eye implanted and was using that to spy on the proceedings at the party. Okay, so Blofeld is the big baddie, right? And him wiping out his Spectre buddies is just more example of his evil genius, right? No. Blofeld is soon killed via the same DNA weapon (accidentally by Bond) and is out of the picture. Well now what? Somewhere out there is a nameless, unknown uber-villain, evidently worse and more evil than the legendary Blofeld and Spectre. Surely Bond and MI6 know who it is, right?

Nope.

Ambiguity is fine when the clues are fairly presented and it is part of the character’s development that they haven’t figured things out yet. But the intelligence agency is left scratching their heads with only one nonsensical lead from the Spectre massacre. It feels off, because the audience already knows who the big bad is (by process of elimination, side-character scenes, and order of names in the opening credits), and by this point, a third of the way through, the hero should too. It is Remi Malek’s Safin, with whom Bond has absolutely zero connection. Who does? Bond’s ex, Madeleine (Lea Seydoux). Her father (a Spectre agent) killed Safin’s family when she was a child. Safin comes back for revenge, kills the mother and is about to off Madeleine (via drowning in a frozen river), but decides to save her instead. Traumatic past sounds like the great makings of an internal antagonist, right?

Except it’s not Bond’s! Madeleine suffers greatly from this wound, and if she was the one to triumph over Safin in the end (while Bond stops the weapons from deploying), it would have been immensely gratifying for her (underdeveloped) character arc, and the audience. But, she’s sent off to safety while Bond fights both internal and external fights. His triumph over Safin in the end (because of course, he wins) does save the world, but it provides exactly zero satisfaction of the internal character arc because Bond wasn’t ever connected to Safin except through Madeleine (which she only loosely explains to Bond about two hours in). It doesn’t change Bond, it doesn’t help him grow or get over something he was lacking. It certainly motivates him to defeat Safin, but that’s external, and he already had saving the world as motivation. If he does that, Madeleine gets saved too, so no extra credit there.

And they were so close! Right at the beginning of the film, Bond and Madeleine are enjoying life together, and she’s experiencing nightmarish flashbacks of Safin. Instead of sharing their trauma (Bond still struggling to get past Vesper from Casino Royale), they play coy with their secrets (setting up a lack of trust for Bond ultimately ending their relationship after Spectre blows up Vesper’s tomb when Bond visits). Insead, if Madeleine’s trauma had been revealed and shared, Bond could have gone through the longing for Madeleine (despite dumping her, he never gets over her and they get back together later on for a bit), filtered with analysis of her trauma from Safin. It could have become much more personal for him and would have healed the internal relationship wound he inflicted upon himself in the opening vignette of the film. This would have been even more impactful if Safin had been the one to blow up Vesper’s tomb, providing some personal connection to Bond as well. 

So let’s talk antagonists in general for a second. Well-done stories include character arcs for the villain too. The very best will have an arc that nearly mirrors the hero’s, but ultimately results in a different choice being made and a villainous downfall as the hero triumphs. In Madeleine’s flashback, we are informed that Safin’s family is killed by Spectre. He wants revenge. We first see him already in this state. This is telling, not showing. It is telling the audience the antagonist’s motivation, and it’s done in mere seconds. Within the early minutes of the movie, the villain’s growth is done. From the point where he saves Madeleine from drowning in the icy river onward, he’s the same one-note creepy bad dude.

And sure, good triumphs over evil in the end. We’re glad he loses. But it could have been so much better.

Let’s go back to blowing up the tomb. As presented, it would have made no sense for Safin to have been the person to perpetrate that. But let’s make it make sense, and improve his connection to Bond. What if Safin never knew who killed his family? This eliminates his connection to Madeleine, but honestly we don’t need that. Safin can antagonize Madeleine and her daughter later on in the film, and it would still make sense for his relationship to Bond.

How to build a better villain? Make us sympathize with them a little! After his family was killed by Spectre, Safin could have been adopted by Spectre (jerks, right?) and unwittingly indoctrinated by his family’s murderers. His development as an uber-villain under the auspices of Spectre would make sense, and seem ‘connected’ to the Bondiverse. While in Spectre he would be aware of Bond’s threat and have 007 on his radar. He could have been jealous of Blofeld having a pseudo-brother in Bond. He could have been competitive with Blofeld. Safin, in his own professional dealings as an adult, could have uncovered Spectre’s involvement in killing his family, and thus begins plotting his exit from Spectre and future horrible revenge. Now if he’s the one blowing up Vesper’s tomb (because it is the first step in his grand scheme to bring down Spectre), it connects him to Bond, and opens an internal wound for Bond to close when he blames Madeleine for luring him to Spectre’s trap and it was later revealed to be Safin’s solo work.

Now in fairness, doing all of that would probably take upwards of 10-15 minutes of screen time to accomplish, add a handful of additional actors, speaking roles, sets, and locations, and at 2 hrs 43 mins, the movie is already very long. I can easily see why the studio might give the villain less attention. But I argue that spending that time in the opening moments developing the actual villain, instead of investing it in a thrilling (but developmentally unimpactful) Italian rooftop motorcycle chase (and ultimately leading the audience down the path of a false quest), would have made for a much more satisfying conclusion to the Craig Bond era.

Come back next time when I discuss killing off side characters. Thanks for reading! M