No Time To Die Could Have Undone Spectre’s Worst Twist

[peekaboo]

No Time To Die had a chance to undo the revelation that Blofeld is actually 007's adopted brother, making the character scarier in the process.

No Time To Die spells an end to Daniel Craig’s time as 007, but the upcoming blockbuster should undo the worst twist of its predecessor Spectre. Repeatedly delayed due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, No Time to Die is Craig’s fifth and final movie playing suave super-spy James Bond, and the much-anticipated Cary Joji Fukunaga film could also spell an end to the tonal reinvention the franchise underwent during Craig's era. Critics have been largely wowed by his Bond tenure, despite the imperfections of his second outing in the role, 2008’s Quantum of Solace.

Craig’s debut with 2006’s Casino Royale offered a dark and grounded backstory for his version of Bond, while his third outing Skyfall saw Craig’s 007 movies increase their focus on backstory and franchise lore. During Craig’s era, viewers have learned the backstory of Moneypenny, seen Bond’s ancestral home, and even witnessed one M actor killed in action and replaced by another, all of which were firsts for the long-running franchise. However, 007’s long-time nemesis Blofeld revealing he was in fact Bond’s secret adopted brother was a reveal that went too far for most viewers.

However, No Time To Die should have undone this unintentionally goofy twist by revealing Blofeld was just making up their shared history to psychologically torture Bond (while also literally physically torturing him). This reversal would have been a far better twist, giving Blofeld back his shadowy unknowable villain status and making the character’s origins a mystery once more. The revelation that Blofeld would appear in No Time To Die, alongside the movie’s new villain, Rami Malek’s Safin, came as a surprise to few fans of the franchise. But No Time to Die didn't undo the reveal of Blofeld being Bond's adopted brother, with M telling the spy that it's "lucky he's not really your brother," keeping that little fact a part of the narrative. It's a reveal that also played a role in Bond's confrontation with Blofeld in No Time to Die. And while the film could have changed it so that Blofeld was messing with Bond, the film doubled down on the reveal instead of offering another twist.

Christoph Waltz’s version of the character is an important figure in the Craig Bond movies with Spectre revealing he had a hand in empowering every villain this 007 faced in earlier films. It’s an effective reveal, but the added twist that Blofeld was actually Bond’s secret (and jealous) adopted brother was a moment that fell flat, and not only because the revelation was borrowed from the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember, which saw Austin and his longtime nemesis, Dr. Evil, revealed as brothers who were separated as children. The reveal that Bond didn’t discover Blofeld’s identity earlier served less to make the criminal seem ingenious and more to make Craig’s 007 seem incompetent, especially since he had been hunting this Blofeld for years without recognizing him. Granted, the villain faked his death and changed his identity, but Bond was meant to be one of the best spies in the business, so the fact that he missed this information completely made it all the more underwhelming.

Moreover, the atmosphere of Craig’s Bond movies has owed more to the edgy, relatively realistic Bourne franchise than the over-the-top antics of Roger Moore’s comical 007, so the campiness of the twist didn’t fit with the franchise’s more serious tone. For Waltz’s Blofeld to be scary once more, and for him to be able to face off against another Bond after Craig's departure, his personal connection to the character should have been revealed to be a cruel mind game all along, with similar psychologically devastating results had Blofeld actually been Bond's brother. Doing that within the story of No Time to Die would have undone the silly Spectre twist altogether. At the very least, Blofeld and Bond's final confrontation was intense, even though Craig's final film as 007 opted to maintain Blofeld's identity.

[Silent Watcher]

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