50 Fun Facts About No Time to Die

No Time to Die is which numbered entry in the Eon James Bond film series?

Twenty-fifth: the film was known for years only as Bond 25, and its real title was not revealed until August 2019, months after the cameras had started rolling.

Which film began the run as James Bond that Daniel Craig ended with No Time to Die?

Casino Royale introduced Craig's Bond in 2006. After his fourth film he said he would rather slash his wrists than play the part again, then came back for a fifth to finish the story.

Who directed No Time to Die?

Cary Joji Fukunaga became the first American to direct an Eon Bond film. He was hired in a hurry, with the release date said to hang on finding a director within sixty days.

Which director quit No Time to Die in August 2018 over creative differences?

Danny Boyle and his writer John Hodge walked away months before shooting, after producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson lost confidence in the story he had pitched.

Who plays the villain Lyutsifer Safin in No Time to Die?

Rami Malek, fresh from his Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody, said Safin does not see himself as a villain at all: he considers himself a hero, 'almost in the same way that Bond is a hero'.

In No Time to Die, what is the DNA-targeting nanobot weapon developed in secret by MI6 called?

Project Heracles was M's own secret programme, designed to kill one chosen target by DNA; in Safin's hands the same nanobots could be set to wipe out a victim's whole family.

In No Time to Die, which agent holds the 007 number while Bond is retired?

Nomi is played by Lashana Lynch, who wanted 'a human spin' on a franchise that had been slick for years: an agent who deals with anxiety and is figuring it out on her toes.

In No Time to Die, which actress plays Paloma, the CIA agent who helps Bond in Cuba?

Ana de Armas had just starred opposite Daniel Craig in Knives Out. In the first script Paloma was only a contact, until the director asked for more and the part was built up for her.

In No Time to Die, which country is the retired Bond living in when Felix Leiter recruits him?

Jamaica is where Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels and where the series began on screen with Dr. No, and the producers went back to the island to unveil this film's cast in 2019.

In No Time to Die, which character turns traitor, shooting Felix Leiter and sinking the trawler?

Logan Ash, Billy Magnussen's eager State Department man, arrives as Leiter's ally and turns out to be a double agent for Safin, escaping with the kidnapped scientist.

In No Time to Die, from which London prison does Blofeld watch the SPECTRE party in Cuba?

Belmarsh is the high-security jail where Blofeld sits, still running his organisation from a cell; the attack he orders on Bond at the party kills his own followers instead.

In No Time to Die, what is the name of Madeleine's daughter, whom Bond learns is his own?

Mathilde is five when Bond meets her. Madeleine insists the girl is not his, but he points to her blue eyes, and Madeleine admits the truth in their final call.

In No Time to Die, whose grave in southern Italy explodes when Bond visits it?

Vesper Lynd was the lost love of Craig's first Bond film. Madeleine urges him to visit her tomb and let go, and the bomb waiting there convinces him that Madeleine has betrayed him too.

What finally kills James Bond at the end of No Time to Die?

A missile strike that Bond stays to guide in: he opens the island's blast doors for the Navy's missiles and remains, because the nanobots in his blood would kill his family at a touch.

Which actor plays M, Bond's boss at MI6, in No Time to Die?

Ralph Fiennes has played M since Skyfall. Here his spymaster is the one at fault, having secretly commissioned the weapon that is stolen from an MI6 laboratory.

Which screenwriter did Daniel Craig bring in to polish the script of No Time to Die?

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator of Fleabag, was Craig's own suggestion, and the producers 'leapt at the opportunity'; she became only the second woman credited as a writer on a Bond film.

Who performed the title song of No Time to Die?

Billie Eilish was four when Daniel Craig first played Bond. At 18 she wrote his farewell theme with her brother Finneas, the youngest artist ever to write and record one.

Which composer replaced Dan Romer on the score of No Time to Die in early 2020?

Hans Zimmer was hired at the last minute, with the film already in post-production, after creative differences ended Romer's stint; no Bond composer had been replaced so late before.

Which earlier Bond film supplied No Time to Die's refrain 'We Have All the Time in the World'?

On Her Majesty's Secret Service ends with Bond cradling his murdered bride and saying they have all the time in the world, so when Craig's Bond repeats the line it sounds like a warning.

In which southern Italian city was No Time to Die's Aston Martin DB5 chase filmed?

Matera's cave-cut old town, carved into a hillside in Basilicata, had served as a set for Biblical epics such as The Passion of the Christ before Bond's DB5 came sliding through its squares.

Which Norwegian route, hopping between small islands on arched bridges, hosts a car chase in No Time to Die?

The Atlantic Ocean Road, opened in 1989, is a favourite of carmakers, who shoot adverts on its swooping bridges; here Range Rovers chase Bond across them.

Which archipelago supplied the exteriors of Safin's island lair in No Time to Die?

The Faroe Islands made their Bond debut here: the lair is set on the cliffs of Kalsoy, with the villain's base added to the bare island digitally.

Which body part did Daniel Craig injure while filming No Time to Die in the Caribbean, needing surgery?

Ankle surgery kept Craig off the set for two weeks; the producers carried on shooting without him and insisted the release date would hold.

What was damaged at Pinewood Studios in 2019 when a controlled explosion for No Time to Die went wrong?

The 007 Stage, built for The Spy Who Loved Me's supertanker set, had already burned down in 1984; this time the blast damaged its exterior and slightly injured a crew member standing outside.

No Time to Die was the first Bond film to shoot some sequences with which kind of camera?

65mm IMAX film cameras shot part of the picture, a first for the series; the director and his cinematographer had pushed to shoot on film rather than digitally for the look it gives.

Which Scottish national park hosted filming for No Time to Die in July 2019?

Cairngorms filming was run from Aviemore, a town inside the park, where temporary accommodation was put up to house the crew.

Which actress returns as Eve Moneypenny in No Time to Die?

Naomie Harris first played Moneypenny in Skyfall as a field agent who shot Bond by mistake, and only afterwards took the desk outside M's office.

Safin's mask in No Time to Die was redesigned to be based on which Japanese theatrical tradition?

Noh, Japan's masked classical theatre, replaced the costume designer's first idea: a mask modelled on the armour of Siberian bear hunters, dropped when the scene was rewritten.

Which director, who turned down No Time to Die in 2017, was named in 2025 to direct the next Bond film?

Denis Villeneuve said he would have loved to make it but would let nothing get in the way of Dune; eight years on, the series' new owners chose him for the next film.

No Time to Die's cast was unveiled in 2019 at Ian Fleming's former home, which shares its name with which Bond film?

GoldenEye, the 1995 film, borrowed the name of the estate where Fleming wrote his Bond stories, beginning with the first in 1952; the house is now a hotel.

Which actor, back in No Time to Die, became the first to play Felix Leiter three times?

Jeffrey Wright played Leiter in Craig's first two Bond films and was then left out of the next two, to his own surprise, before coming back for a third and final turn.

What did Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann become the first female lead in the Bond series to do?

Return for the next film: the last Bond woman to come back for a second mission was Sylvia Trench in 1963, and she was never the lead, whereas Madeleine carries the story of two films.

Where was No Time to Die's world premiere held on 28 September 2021?

The Royal Albert Hall had been booked for the premiere back in spring 2020; after the pandemic delays, the film finally opened there about eighteen months late.

Who published an open letter urging No Time to Die's makers to delay it, days before the March 2020 postponement?

Bond fan sites led by MI6-HQ asked the studios to 'put public health above marketing release schedules'; two days later the film was pushed back from April to November 2020.

Which cinema chain shut its doors in October 2020, calling No Time to Die's second delay 'the last straw'?

Cineworld had resolved to keep its cinemas open for six more weeks until Bond arrived; when the film moved again, its chief said, there was nothing left worth staying open for.

Which 2021 release was the only Hollywood film to out-gross No Time to Die worldwide that year?

Spider-Man: No Way Home overtook it in December. With about $774 million, Bond still finished fourth for the year, because two Chinese blockbusters also passed it.

Which record among Bond films does No Time to Die hold?

The longest running time: at 2 hours 43 minutes it outlasts every earlier Bond, long enough that cinemas could fit in fewer showings a day than for shorter rivals.

Which Academy Award did No Time to Die win?

Best Original Song went to a Bond theme for the third film running, after Skyfall and Spectre; before Skyfall, no Bond song had ever won the award.

Why could No Time to Die's theme win a Grammy before the film opened?

The single came out in 2020, that February, timed for an April premiere the pandemic then wiped out; it won Best Song Written for Visual Media six months before the film reached cinemas.

Which studio took over No Time to Die's international release after Sony's Bond deal ended?

Universal Pictures won a contest that drew nearly every major studio. MGM kept North America for itself, so its own logo led a Bond release for the first time in nearly two decades.

Which company acquired MGM on 17 March 2022, making No Time to Die the last Bond film before the takeover?

Amazon paid about $8.5 billion for MGM. In 2025 it went a step further and took creative control of Bond from the Broccoli family's Eon, which had steered the films since 1962.

A casting sheet leaked in 2018, before No Time to Die changed directors, sought what kind of lead villain?

A 'cold and charismatic Russian' was what the sheet asked for, with actors from the Balkans also welcome; the idea went out with the first director, and the villain was rewritten as Safin.

Which singer's 'We Have All the Time in the World' plays over the end credits of No Time to Die?

Louis Armstrong's recording was ignored when it came out and never charted; a quarter of a century later a beer advert sent it to number three in Britain.

Which Bond novelist objected to No Time to Die's ending, telling The Times that 'Bond is for ever'?

Anthony Horowitz admitted he had been tempted to kill Bond in his own novel With a Mind to Kill, but decided it would be 'impertinent' to finish off a character he had not created.

Which French singer's 'Dans la ville endormie' is heard in No Time to Die?

Dalida, who died in 1987, recorded the song in 1968; French reporters who spotted it in the film said its haunting melody could pass for a Bond title theme.

In No Time to Die's opening flashback, what does the masked Safin do when young Madeleine falls through the ice?

Pulls her to safety: he has just shot her mother in revenge for the murder of his own family, yet he spares the child who tried to stop him.

Which reveal about Q is made in No Time to Die?

He is gay: when Bond and Moneypenny turn up unannounced, Q is laying the table for a romantic dinner for two and protests, 'He'll be here in 20 minutes!'

Which actor plays Q, MI6's gadget master, in No Time to Die?

Ben Whishaw's Q is pulled into the plot off the books: the retired Bond and Moneypenny arrive at his flat uninvited and talk him into digging up information for them.

What fictional name is the Italian town of Sapri given on screen in No Time to Die?

Civita Lucana is the name that went up on the signs at Sapri's railway station, redressed for the scene in which Bond puts Madeleine on a train and walks away.

Despite its ending, which familiar promise still appears after the credits of No Time to Die?

James Bond will return, the closing credits say as usual; Daniel Craig pointed to the line himself when asked how the series could kill its hero and carry on.