By "No time to die" 007 laments, rolling his eyes as he waits for his tea to brew in the kitchen at MI6. "Overtime's been an absolute killer."
This may or may not be the explanation behind the title for Bond 25, which was yesterday revealed as No Time To Die, along with a confirmed release date of 3 April 2020 in the UK and 8 April 2020 in the US.
The plot, as per Sony, is as follows:
In NO TIME TO DIE, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
So not A Reason To Die, or Shatterhand, or any of the other titles that have been bandied about over the past few months, but a more dramatic and mysterious moniker which has left everyone asking: what does it mean?
Given that it looks very likely this is Daniel Craig's last outing as the besuited assassin, there's a good chance the title alludes to the fact we may see his on-screen death. If that were the case then Time To Die would make more sense, but that might be a touch too literal for the brainstorming suits at Sony.
There's also the possibility that the death could be in relation to another character. Perhaps Bond tells the rumoured new female 007, Lashana Lynch's Nomi, that "this is no time to die" as she stares down the barrel of a gun.
Or as we said, it could be an ironic statement about how busy Bond is, which would have a certain Phoebe Waller-Bridge twang to it (especially if issued with a turn to camera).
However, given that the screenwriter has been at pains to say it's not her script, plus the fact that 007 moaning about his iCal schedule for 104 minutes might not make for the most gripping of dramas, we can probably rule that out.
The urgency and time-sensitivity in the title could well be in relation to the dangerous new technology which Bond is trying to wrestle out the hands of a villain to save the world. There's no time to die when Rami Malek's evil-doer has unearthed everyone's shamefully earnest MySpace pages and intends to republish them!
It's the fourth Bond title thus far which contains the word die, following on from Live and Let Die, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Die Another Day. There might be a link between the journey Bond goes on in these films, but it's more likely that No Time To Die is the latest result from the Bond title generator, which has little meaning but sounds hazardous and cool.
No time to die!
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