Young Madeleine Swann (Coline Defaud) witnesses the murder of her mother by Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), whose family was killed by her father Mister White under orders by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). Young Madeleine shoots Safin and flees but falls into an icy lake and Safin impulsively rescues her. In the present, Swann (Léa Seydoux) is taken to Matera, Italy, with James Bond (Daniel Craig). She talks Bond into visiting the grave of his lost love, Vesper Lynd. When he is nearly killed by SPECTRE assassins led by Primo (Dali Benssalah), Bond escapes with Swann but believes she betrayed him and leaves her.
Five years later, SPECTRE agents remove an MI-6 scientist named Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), who is secretly working for Safin in a London laboratory. They steal Project Hercules, a nanobot weapon developed by MI-6. Bond is retired to Jamaica but is contacted by the CIA’s Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and U.S. State Department agent Logan Ash (Billy Magnusson), who ask for Bond’s help extracting Obruchev from a SPECTRE prison in Cuba. He declines, but Nomi (Lashana Lynch), the new 007, warns him not to interfere and he is intrigued.
He infiltrates a party with CIA agent Paloma (Ana de Armas). Blofeld, watching through Primo’s bionic eye, unleashes a nanobot mist to kill Bond, but Obruchev had reprogrammed it to kill SPECTRE members. With Paloma’s help, Bond brings Obruchev to Ash and Leiter aboard a trawler. Ash is a double agent and shoots Leiter and sinks the ship. Leiter dies but Bond escapes.
Bond returns to London, hoping to interrogate Blofeld in prison, but Blofeld will only speak to his psychiatrist, Madeleine Swann. Safin infects her with nanobots to infect Blofeld. Bond touches her, infecting himself. She will not speak to Blofeld, who confesses to Bond that he arranged the attack at Vesper’s grave. Bond unknowingly introduces the nanobots to Blofeld, killing him. He tracks Swann to her childhood home and they reconcile. He meets her five-year-old daughter Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet), who is Bond’s child through Swann denies it. Swann gives Bond information about Safin and his family’s island. The next day, MI-6 warns that Ash is coming. Bond defeats his thugs after a chase, but Safin abducts Swann and Mathilde.
Q (Ben Whishaw) gives Bond and Nomi a submersible glider and they infiltrate Safin’s Japanese nanobot factory. Bond confronts Safin. Swann escapes and joins up with Bond and Mathilde. Nomi kills Obruchev and removes Swann and Mathilde from the island. Bond kills Primo and other goons, then opens the doors for missiles from the HMS Dragon. Safin infects him with nanobots. He kills Safin but remains on the island to keep Swann and Mathilde safe. He is killed when the facility is destroyed. M (Ralph Fiennes), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Nomi, Q, and Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) drink to Bond’s memory. Swann tells Mathilde about her father, James Bond.
The film was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by himself, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It was the first Bond film to be distributed by Universal Pictures. Hans Zimmer scored the film and Billie Eilish wrote the song “No Time to Die”, which won a Grammy. It received positive reviews and became the third-highest grossing Bond Film. It was nominated for three Oscars and won for best song. Paloma wore a navy Michael Lo Sordo gown chosen by costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb so she could kick-box in a long, split, elegant gown next to Bond in his tux. She was charming and magnificent. Daniel Craig picked her to play Paloma after working with her on Knives Out (2019). In the film, she says, “I’ve trained for three weeks,” which was true.
A Delectado cigar appears in the film. The first time it was mentioned was in Die Another Day, when Pierce Brosnan asked for one. It did not exist then but it does now. Cameramen had to scramble to film scenes when a set began to sink into a lake after global warming caused the ice to melt. The film was released soon after the passing of Sir Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore. Q is revealed to be gay, as is Ben Wishaw. The RAF Globemaster C17 in the film was the same plane that flew Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from Scotland to London for her funeral. Daniel Craig’s five Bond films cover Bond’s entire career from his achievement of 00 status to his death.