No Time To Die has poignant homages to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Daniel Craig’s 007 reverses George Lazenby’s Bond tragedy into one of hope.
One of the most famous quotes from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is perfectly flipped by No Time To Die and given new meaning.
Daniel Craig’s final film as James Bond deals with 007’s relationship with Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). Bond and Madeleine rode off together at the end of Spectre, which echoed George Lazenby’s only film as 007.
Longtime Bond fans suspected a similar fate for Madeleine that befell Tracy Bond (Diana Rigg), James bride in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but No Time To Die cleverly and poignantly subverted expectations.
In the original James Bond canon, 007 fell in love with Tracy Di Vincenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond soon discovered that Tracy was the daughter of international crime lord Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), who asked 007 to “tame” the wild child Tracy.
But James and Tracy really did fall for each other, and she helped him take down the latest plot by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas).
At the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Bond married Tracy. As they rode off to their honeymoon in his Aston Martin DB5, James promised his bride that “We have all the time in the world.”
However, Blofeld and his henchwoman, Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat), ambushed the couple and murdered Tracy by gunfire. As a distraught Bond cradled Tracy’s body, he still whispered that they have “all the time in the world.”
No Time To Die contains reverential nods to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, including the famous quote Lazenby’s 007 promised Tracy.
At the start of No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s James Bond is on holiday with Madeleine Swann and he promises her that, “We have all the time in the world,” which is is a bad omen that terrible things are about to happen.
Indeed, Spectre agents soon attack 007, who believed that Madeleine betrayed him because her father, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), was a Spectre assassin.
However, No Time To Die swerved fans by Madeleine surviving. Instead of having all the time in the world to be in love, Bond broke up with Swann (who was innocent) and James didn’t see her again for five years when they were reunited to interrogate Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz).
At the end of No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s James Bond repeats George Lazenby’s famous quote as he says goodbye to Madeleine for the last time.
Bond now knows Madeleine genuinely loves him and James is the father of her daughter, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet).
Unfortunately for 007, the villain, Safin (Rami Malek), infected Bond with nanobots that are lethal to Madeleine and Mathilde if he comes into contact with them.
Seriously injured, Bond knows he can’t escape Safin’s island before missiles destroy it and he promises Madeleine, “You have all the time in the world.”
Bond’s farewell brilliantly subverts the tragedy of Lazenby’s 007 losing Tracy at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service into one of hope for Mathilde and Madeleine. Instead, it’s Bond who chooses to give up his life for his daughter’s future.
Because of the nature of the James Bond movies, 007 shrugged off Tracy’s death by the next film, Diamonds Are Forever. T
he returning Bond, Sean Connery, never even mentioned Tracy’s name. But Daniel Craig’s James does something no Bond has ever done by giving up his time on Earth so Madeleine and their daughter can have more, and it’s a first for the franchise since James Bond has never canonically had a child before.
No Time To Die ends with James Bond making the ultimate sacrifice for love in a touching reversal of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service‘s climax where 007 loses the love of his life but soldiers on.
Indeed, Madeleine closes out No Time To Die by telling Mathilde about her father, giving James Bond a new kind of legacy.
In addition, composer Hans Zimmer cleverly weaves On Her Majesty’s Secret Service‘s score by John Barry throughout No Time To Die.
These homages link the two 007 movies and the two eras of James Bond as reflections of each other, but No Time To Die improves upon On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by showing James Bond making the ultimate sacrifice for love.
