SPOILER WARNING: In this essay I discuss spoilers for No Time to Die & the other Daniel Craig Bond films. Watch the movie(s) first.

“Daniel, have you been injured a lot while filming these movies? Which is the worst injury?” Daniel Craig reads off a card during a Q&A video for GQ. “In here,” he responds, fist clenched over his heart. The video was part of the press run promoting his fifth and final entry in the James Bond universe, No Time to Die. There are many accolades Craig has earned during his term as Bond; the longest tenure, box office records, the first “Blond Bond” (Surprisingly controversial in ’05!) – but more important than anything, Craig was our Sad Boy Bond.

The character had to evolve for a number of reasons. As Judi Dench’s M told Pierce Brosnan’s 007 in his Goldeneye debut, “I think you’re a sexist, misogynist, dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War.” She was right – in the 21^st century it felt ridiculous to think that Bond’s actions don’t result in real consequences, both for the world at large and him personally. While other actors in the franchise like George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton probed this, Craig’s run truly explored it for the first time.

Casino Royale came out the year after Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, when the fairytale optimism of the 90’s gave way to grittier, darker takes on our heroes. Make no mistake; James Bond is a superhero, arguably the most esteemed in cinema history. Casino Royale is his origin story, and Daniel Craig broke the mold from the beginning. Physical traits aside, his weathered, rough-edged personality informed the character. His initiation as a ‘00’ agent takes form as a brutal black-and-white fight scene resulting in him drowning a man in a bathroom sink. During the opening chase sequence, his target effortlessly freeruns through a construction site, shimmying up scaffolding and flipping through windows. Bond bulldozes structures and crashes through walls like the Kool-Aid Man. Eva Green’s Vesper wrote him off as all “easy smiles and expensive watches”; a fair criticism of his predecessors, but Craig was much more. He has said that the line in Casino Royale’s script that made him sign on came when he orders a drink after losing all his money to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen).

“Vodka Martini.”
“Shaken or stirred?”
“Do I look like I give a damn?”

He wasn’t a cool, composed drinker, he had a drinking problem – seen just before downing glasses of scotch after choking a man to death (Studies show Craig’s Bond is by far the heaviest drinker of them all). Craig himself suggested they take the sexual tension out of the following scene, instead joining Vesper in the shower fully clothed, trying to wash the blood from her hands.

Bond and Vesper’s tragic love story is the heart of his sad boy arc throughout these films, their continuous narrative yet another departure from 007 tradition. The classic Bond veneer of silver-tongued indifference was cracked open by the third act. “I have no armor left. You stripped it from me. Whatever is left of me… whatever I am, I’m yours,” he told Vesper. Casino Royale’s ending was heartbreaking; along with watching Vesper drown in excruciating detail, the combination of ex-boyfriends, perceived betrayals, and stolen money their relationship ended with was fit for a Drake song.

Quantum of Solace is the dud of the group for multiple reasons. The writer’s strike of 2007-2008 left them with a half-baked script, finished by Craig himself and director Marc Forster after filming had already begun. A direct sequel to Casino Royale, the movie is essentially a 106-minute long resolution of Bond’s post-Vesper depression. Did I mention Olga Kurylenko in brownface? Quantum of Solace is the shortest ever Bond outing, and the most violent, with the water-hoarding plot not really mattering as much as Bond making peace with Vesper’s death and returning to service. Sad boys need employment too!

Skyfall is the crown jewel of modern Bond films. It’s the best combination of the classics and the more intimate human elements, and the only real standalone Craig movie. Stalwarts Q and Moneypenny were introduced, albeit with a modern twist. “Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don’t really go in for that anymore,” the young gadget master told Craig.

Skyfall’s theme song is worthy of it’s own discussion. It’s the best of the bunch, and fully embraces Bond’s tonal shift. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace’s alt-rock anthems progressively gave way to orchestral R&B ballads from Adele and Sam Smith. No Time to Die taps Gen Z sad girl superstar Billie Eilish – If Craig stayed on for one more film, Yung Lean may have gotten a call.

They say a Bond film is only as good as it’s villain; in Skyfall, Javier Bardem portrayed one of the best. But Craig’s iteration is not limited to a smug straight man for colorful antagonists to rail against. The heart of the film is Bond’s relationship with M, and his decaying trust in queen and country. “She’s Mum. It’s as simple as that,” Craig said of their on-screen relationship. “He loves her as much as he has loved anybody.” In today’s world, patriotism and morality rarely go hand-in-hand; and these fights, betrayals, and heartbreak don’t just roll off his back. Skyfall found Bond hiding out as a scraggly-bearded sot, nursing a slug in his shoulder, physically and mentally ravaged from years of service.

It’s not just the character. Craig, famous for doing his own stunts, sustained several injuries over the course of these movies. He broke his leg on Spectre and finished the film without delay, continuing to do stunt work in a brace. The fourth film unites all the previous villain plotlines under iconic Bond arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It’s no Skyfall, and at times feels the glut of carrying 4 films of baggage; they were never able to find a love interest that matched the on-screen chemistry between Bond and Vesper. Flimsy love story with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann notwithstanding, Spectre was a serviceable ending point. In a now infamous interview with Time Out two days after filming wrapped, Craig said he’d rather ‘slash his wrists’ than do another Bond movie.

So, No Time to Die wasn’t exactly a no-pressure finale. Craig broke his ankle, there was an errant explosion on set, and script rewrites saw the exit of director Danny Boyle. Oh, and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the release back three times over the next year and a half.

That being said, No Time to Die is solid. From visiting Vesper’s grave to Blofeld’s death to one last job with Jeffery Wright’s Felix Leiter, Craig and the audience get to reminisce on the 15 year run. The rollercoaster Madeleine romance is still unconvincing (despite the #GirlDad addition), but Cary Fukunaga’s stellar direction and change-of-pace roles by Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas keep things fresh and fun.

Rami Malek’s Lucifer Satan – ahem, Lyutsifer Safin – falls a bit flat. Beyond a first act revenge plot against Spectre, his aspirations to infect the world with viral nanobots is so underdeveloped you have to wonder if it was partially redacted due to COVID-19 conspiracies (Kyrie as the next Bond, anyone?). But, like with Blofeld, Silva, and the other Craig-Bond adversaries before him, the movie isn’t really about the world-ending plot. The doomsday device itself is the ultimate sad boy MacGuffin; having finally found a loving family he can fully trust, Bond learns his survival will spell out their doom. And so, Craig adds one last accolade to his reign; he becomes the first Bond to die.

“Everybody needs a hobby,” Bond said to Silva in Skyfall.
“So what’s yours?”
“Resurrection.”

In retrospect, it’s hard to see Craig’s series ending another way. Bond actors rarely exit the franchise well; Sean Connery’s Never Say Never Again, Roger Moore’s A View to a Kill, and Brosnan’s Die Another Day are hardly their best. It doesn’t really matter, because we always know ‘James Bond Will Return’ to pick up where they left off. But this time around, Bond is a tragic hero, and to end well his story had to end permanently. Bond will return, of course – but Craig has changed the character so indelibly that it’s hard to imagine what that could possibly look like.

So pour out a vodka martini – shaken, stirred, he doesn’t give a damn – for Daniel Craig, our sad boy Bond.