As the Bond who has come to define the modern era, it’s sad to see Daniel Craig go, but there are story loopholes that might have let him survive.

SUMMARY

 Craig’s Bond’s death in No Time To Die is revolutionary, breaking the franchise’s rule of keeping Bond alive. It raises the stakes for future Bonds and allows for more unpredictable storylines.
 Daniel Craig’s Bond has pushed the limits of what Bond can survive, making it likely that he’s still alive. His 007 era reinvented James Bond with action-packed films that appealed to younger demographics.
 Bond had a huge reason to live in No Time To Die: his daughter and Madeleine. While he accepted his fate, the possibility of finding a cure for the nanobots and being reunited with his family remains an incentive for Bond to survive.

This article contains descriptions of violence and death.

It’s been confirmed that Daniel Craig died in the last James Bond movie, No Time To Die, but if he were going to stay, there are plenty of canonical reasons he could have.

Throughout the franchise, Bond has been known to cheat death many times over so that the same actor can portray him in multiple movies.

Even when it comes time to pass the baton to the next Bond actor, that doesn’t mean the previous one has died, just that there’s an opening for a new actor to modernize the franchise.

Craig has become synonymous with Bond in the years that he has played him, starting with his Casino Royale adaptation in 2006. Each actor brings a new spin on the Bond archetype and pushes the boundaries of what a spy movie can be.

The fact that Craig’s Bond died in his last film is revolutionary on its own. While it’s bittersweet to see Craig go, there’s much more in store for Bond 26, and in the meantime, there’s plenty to speculate about how Craig’s Bond might have lived.

Each actor brings a new spin on the Bond archetype and pushes the boundaries of what a spy movie can be. The fact that Craig’s Bond died in his last film is revolutionary on its own.

Daniel Craig is justifiably proud of No Time To Die’s ending. Here’s why the actor is right about the powerful way his James Bond’s story concluded.

8Ian Fleming’s James Bond Could Not Die

It was a rule.

The author of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming, wrote an enormous number of novels and short stories about his iconic leading man, 007. To keep Bond alive, he went so far as to make it impossible for him to die in any of the books.

No matter what terrifying life-or-death situation he found himself in, Bond always managed to find an escape hatch or have a secret immunity to poison right in the nick of time.

Craig’s Bond’s death in No Time To Die was the first time a Bond has died in any of the films. Other actors have wanted out of the franchise in the past, but the movies always found clever ways around them dying so that the franchise could continue.

Breaking canon and letting Craig die is a revolutionary move because it opens the door for any future Bonds to die at any point in their films, raising the stakes.

However, if No Time To Die were following the rules of the franchise, there’s no way Craig would be gone.

7James Bond Has Escaped Certain-Death Multiple Times Before

Especially Daniel Craig’s Bond.

Explosions, poisoning, torture, and more have all befallen James Bond no matter what iteration, but Craig’s Bond has taken more hits than most.

Part of this is due to modern standards for how much violence is acceptable to show onscreen and how intense action movies have become. 

Daniel Craig’s 007 era reinvented James Bond because of how action-packed the films were and how they appealed to younger demographics.

This means that the limits of how much Bond can survive has never been pushed further than with Craig, making it all the more likely that he’s still out there.

6Daniel Craig’s Bond Had A Huge Reason To Live

His daughter, Mathilde, and Madeleine.

Ironically, the first time Bond has something truly important to live for is the first time the character is ever killed off. However, No Time To Die would have been even sadder if Bond had survived because the events that immediately preceded his death make it impossible for him to see Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) or Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) without killing them.

It’s a brutal blow from the antagonist Safin (Rami Malek) and leaves the audience wondering how Bond is going to reverse engineer a cure for the nanobots.

The film takes care of that loose end by having Bond accept his fate and die in the explosion that destroys the island. However, it’s not like Bond to give up so easily.

With all the advanced resources at his disposal, someone at MI6 would have found a way around the nanobots eventually so he could be reunited with his family.

Knowing that Madeleine and his daughter are out there somewhere is too big an incentive for Bond to leave them alone and unprotected.

5Could Bond Have Jumped Into The Ocean?

He’s always been a strong swimmer.

Several films throughout Craig’s Bond career have put him in situations where he has almost drowned or had to hold his breath for a superhuman amount of time.

While swimming away from an exploding island would not have been easy, there’s little that Bond isn’t physically capable of.

Since his team is so dedicated to him, and he’s such an asset to MI6, there could have been a submarine or boat waiting to whisk him away just in time before it was too late. Additionally, the water might have protected him from the major missile explosions and fire.

4Daniel Craig’s Bond Pretended To Be Dead Before

At the beginning of Skyfall.

At the start of Skyfall, it appears that Bond dies in an accident while trying to recover an important computer hard drive, but it turns out this is a ruse so he can settle down and retire.

This sets in motion the events that later cause M (Judi Dench) to die at the end of the film and be replaced with Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) as head of MI6.

A recurring theme in Bond films is that Bond wants to get out of the espionage game and have a quiet life where he’s not constantly in danger.

With Madeleine and their daughter alive at the end of No Time To Die, it makes sense that he would go to extreme measures to make it look like he’s dead.

He has tried to retire and been brought back into the fold by an emergency many times, so it would take as extreme and definitive a death as his in No Time To Die to finally escape MI6.

The events of No Time To Die take place after he’s supposed to be retired once again, and he might have done anything to get back to that peace.

Moneypenny’s accidental shot on James Bond in Skyfall’s dramatic cold open is thoroughly analyzed and dismantled by sniper expert Nicholas Irving.

3It Was A Body Double

There was someone else on the island that he switched with himself.

Many people were working on Safin’s poisonous island when Bond and his associates infiltrated to save his family, so the death toll after the missiles exploded.

While Safin was the mastermind behind this particular scheme, there were plenty of other people in the world who would be thrilled to learn of Bond’s death, including Spectre.

Using the body of someone already dead and making it look like their body was hiswould be an ingenious way for Bond to escape while still enjoying a life free from running from the bad guys.

2It Was A Dream

The nanobots made him hallucinate.

No Time To Die explored the intersection between technological advancement and bio-terrorism with Safin’s efforts to use poison and nanobots to murder and control.

Safin might have developed a toxin that infiltrates the mind and causes delusions. Early in the film, Safin tries to target Bond at a party, but he’s immune to the nanobots that are dropped.

However, at this point, Safin might have tricked him and exposed him to an entirely new type of chemical that fabricated the final events of the film. This type of mind game is on par with Safin’s style of vengeance.

1He Is The One Who Escaped

Madeleine and Mathilde are the ones who died.

Bond has lost almost all the people closest to him throughout the James Bond films, and though he would trade his life for Madeleine and Mathilde in a second, that doesn’t mean he was able to.

He sacrifices himself knowing that his loved ones are safe, but if Safin killed them, then Bond would do everything in his power to keep fighting.

The only way to keep himself going was if he deluded himself into believing that they were alive and that he died saving them. This reversal would be an incredible twist for Craig to return as Bond.