Daniel Craig’s James Bond – Analysis: Redefining a New 007 Era

We are currently updating this article to include No Time To Die.

This article contains spoilers for all of Daniel Craig’s Bond Films

When I see James Bond, I see the definition of class personified in one man. A man full of elegance, charm & toughness, that knows exactly his place in the room and how to end up in a better position than he was before. A man with a license to kill and a keen taste of fashion, women & cocktails.

Ian Flemming introduced 007 to the world in 1953 with his book Casino Royale and first brought to the silver screen in 1962 with the late Sean Connery and his iconic performance in Dr. No, even though at first, Flemming was not in complete agreement about the casting choice, as he thought that Connery lacked the finesse needed to play Bond. However, after Connery’s performances, he was proven wrong and couldn’t picture Bond being played by any other. The man who Flemming originally envisioned for the role was David Niven, who actually ended up playing 007 in the first ‘Casino Royale’ film in 1967.

The 007 films have become one of the most iconic franchises in the film industry, and with good cause. It became an idealized version of the alpha male that many men aspire to be in their deepest fantasies: an elegant & good-looking man that charms even the most beautiful girls, drives the most expensive cars, and is the best agent in the world. I mean who wouldn’t want to be that cool? (yeah, I know he also tends to be a more amoral playboy with egotistic tendencies, but those are character flaws, not something that myself or other men look up to while idolizing the character).

Now, with the upcoming ending of Daniel Craig’s era as Bond, I wanted to create a retrospective about the journey & character growth of the iconic MI6 agent through the course of its films in this era and what each of them meant for the character. I’ll also explore what made him different than his predecessors, while at the same time being the one that reflects Ian Flemmings’s character from the books the most. His is a Bond which was received by severe criticism when first announced but then intensely praised after the release of Casino Royale, as it showed a side of Bond never seen before (we will get to that in the upcoming Casino Royale section).

I was originally planning on finishing this article before the original release date of No Time To Die but COVID-19 and all the rescheduling made me throw this out to the draft pile. However, the film’s release is closer (at least much closer than when I initially started this piece in February), and now it’s time to head back and finish this damn thing and become more hyped for Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond, James Bond.

For other great articles on character development, be sure to click out this link.

CASINO ROYALE: Defining a New Bond Era

Casino Royale had a challenging task ahead of itself: it needed to reinvent James Bond and sell him to newer audiences and long-time fans alike. The first installment of Daniel Craig’s Bond was a breath of fresh air to the character that introduced us to a different Bond, while still maintaining many of the same characteristics of the genre that the Bond movies defined through the decades.

While maintaining Bond’s characteristic elegance & vigor, Daniel Craig’s Bond has some complexity behind his persona that previous iterations lacked in a more three dimensional way: he had emotional depth. He’s a man that has notably plenty of scars behind him and actually follows a growth path set within each film and the overarching series. Also, for the first time, Bond gets dirty from all his recklessness. This is a James Bond you can actually see severely injured both physically & emotionally. You see him bleeding, with ragged clothes and totaling his Aston Martin, more than once.

The foot chase in the first minutes defines everything you need to know about this new Bond in terms of how he deals with his missions. He is reckless, fearful & and brutally physical. Also, ego appears to be of the utmost importance to him, rather than the mission, as seen at the end of this sequence (he kills the guy he needed alive & explodes the embassy, sacrificing the mission). The scene sets up who he is and establishes the journey he needs to go through for his arc to be complete.

The first 25 minutes (the noir introduction & the foot chase) are one of the best defining character sequences that have been made. It’s the textbook definition of using action & dialogue to establish a story & its characters. In Casino Royale, these first minutes showed the movie’s stakes & it’s conflict while defining Bond’s new character with the flaws that define him in this universe. We see him as experienced, yet young and arrogant, intelligent, yet not self-aware. We see him capable of up thinking his rivals that have more physical and acrobatic prowess than him, by how he adapts to his environment.

Ultimately, it established Craig’s new Bond with utter precision and made him an interesting lead. It set up Bond as a man with no regard for the consequences that needs to set his ego aside & allow himself to objectively follow & finish a mission, without his emotions making him choose wrongfully or put others at risk.

Setting aside the amazing foot-chase, it’s lovely how Casino Royale actually starts with a flashback scene homaging 60s filmmaking and honoring the source material by Ian Flemming from 1953 of the same name as the film. This introduction includes great visual cues that imply not only how this Bond will become a change of pace from the previous incarnation but also hints at his cool-headed confidence when in control.

The noir-like opening sequence establishes the fact that this universe does have consequences for its actions, many in the form of how these same actions mentally affect the people that do experience them. This is shown multiple times later in the film, the best example being how Vesper handles her first experience with death after the staircase fight scene. This moment leaves her devastated and horrified in the shower, still in her purple dress and submerged between tears and water. Bond’s comforting gestures start humanizing his previous actions and it’s the first time we see him show any real empathy during the film.

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This is not only Daniel Craig’s Bond’s first film, but also his very own origin story. The writers even made few changes to the story to display a Bond with a newly appointed 00 status, which is assigned to him in his first scene with M. As the origin story it has to be, we are shown how James is talented and capable, but also shows the usual “rookie” behavior.

Casino Royale shows how Bond was designed by the events of this film to shed off the blunt instrument persona and capable of not trusting, not opening up, and being a more intelligent asset to the MI6. He was broken and lost because of his “rookie” mistakes. He trusted the wrong people, and actually lost on a personal level.

Yeah, James Bond actually loses in this film.

Perhaps his loss was not about his actual mission, because on the surface he did accomplish it, but personally & emotionally, he got crossed and lost the woman she loved for easing off from his instincts and driving himself by emotion. From a thematical standpoint, he really did lose and was proven that he has to live by a different set of rules if he wants to be 007. During his mission, he was saved by sheer luck and the mercy of other people, but not by his own actions, and all of this is going to be imprinted in himself for future films.

QUANTUM SOLACE: Setting Things Straight

First off, in Quantum Solace, James now takes action with smooth & effortless moves that create a great juxtaposition between his ruggedness & elegance, since he is still a bit reckless (at least on his disregard for life) and still isn’t afraid of tocking a ragged & dirty tuxedo in the middle of a mission.

What’s really different emotionally though, is that after the severe personal loss inflicted on him during Casino Royale, we meet James in a sort of depressed state, but with a more mature look regarding his job as he now has tunnel vision for his mission. He heavily drinks at night but also becomes an unstoppable machine that “is blinded by inconsolable rage that doesn’t care who he hurts”, as M clearly says to him.

Daniel Craig’s Bond needs closure, and for achieving it, he is focused on getting his revenge, but in doing so, he’s involving other innocents that end up hurt or dead from his mistakes. After freezing his emotions after Vesper’s death, his tunnel vision killing spree and recklessness start to carry an emotional burden of responsibility. By not really knowing who to trust except for M (thanks to his experiences in Casino Royale), Bond indirectly causes the death of not one, but two of his friends (Rene Mathis & Strawberry Fields), both of which have a true impact on Bond on the 3rd act of this film and the subsequent entries. The poor office girl (Strawberry) who suffered a terrible death by being soaked in crude oil was the drop that spilled the cup for him and made him become more tactical and respectful for life.

However, Quantum Solace‘s theme is not only about consequences, death and its impact on people, but it’s also about forgiveness. Forgiveness within Bond himself and towards Vesper’s actions in Casino Royale, after he finally learns the truth behind her motives at the end of this film. This dual-theme serves as a solid character arc for Bond that impacts him on a personal & professional level.

His arc for this story came full circle when meeting Vesper’s ex-boyfriend, the link that connected her to the unknown terrorist world that force her to trade lives and money for Bond’s life, all for love. In the end, Bond finally accepted the fact that Vesper’s act came from love and that she was cornered out to do what she did. The betrayal that Bond considered her worst action, became a desperate attempt to free him from any link to that organization. This realization only makes Vesper’s death all the more tragic.

Vesper knew that there was no real escape for her and that’s why she locked herself to drown, with a final kiss goodbye for Bond, and not because she didn’t want to face Bond. From her point of view, she felt that this was the only possible outcome to free herself from the terrorist group she had meddled with. She knew that only death awaited her by the hands of the unknown organization that Bond is now chasing in Quantum Solace. The millionaire pay-off at the end of Casino Royale was an attempt from Vesper to somehow keep Bond away from them and in the shadows, but she should’ve known better. She should’ve known that Bond wouldn’t be capable of letting something like this go.

It was bold to make Vesper die. Not even the source material went this way. This type of storytelling decision subverts the usual expectations of the viewer and adds weight that solidifies character development. This is the weakest movie from the bunch. but it was necessary for Bond’s development. Vesper’s death is the foundation for James’s journey through the next films after Casino Royale, and Quantum Solace set things straight.

SKYFALL: The Road Not Taken

Enters Skyfall, arguably the best film in Daniel Craig’s Bond era (I personally like Casino Royale more, but I appreciate the importance of Skyfall for Bond, its great story & technical superiority).

Remember about the character arc in Quantum Solace that we just talked about? Well, just two minutes pass and we get to see a newly reformed and mature Bond as he stubbornly insists on stabilizing his fellow agent instead of running and catch the bad guy, even as M kept ordering him to continue the chase. This brief scene was enough to hint at us that he isn’t morally the same guy we watched in the previous film. Now, he values life. At least a little bit more…

The first scene is excellent and subverts most tropes for lead agents in film hat never get shot or gravely hurt. In this one, Bond gets shot with not only one, but two bullets, which were almost fatal & made him fall 100 meters to a river to his presumed death.

This bullet wound will become much more important for Bond’s progress, which is hinted at by the magnificent opening sequences with the beautiful voice of Adele. This wound is important, because, in this film, Bond’s limitations stop being emotional ones, and become physical. His age and injuries start to become a factor.

Since we have a more mature Bond, M’s judgment call lingers on Bond’s mind. His time off gave him perspective of the situation and assess how his work has affected him personally. Only a direct attack on his surrogate mother M made him come back, even as he had the perfect getaway for an agent in the form of being officially dead, after the events of the opening sequence.

The true test for James comes in the form of Silva as Javier Bardem proves to be a better-fit match to Daniel Craig’s Bond (both as a thematical threat and as a masterful performance, Bardem never misses). Great villains, amongst other things, need to resemble one of the following things for it to become memorable: Either, parallel the protagonist as a proven match with a derived sense of morality, be the entire opposite of what the protagonist represents or pursue the same goal as the protagonist (at least abstractly) but with a different purpose.

Silva is actually a combination of this as he comes from the same background as Daniel Craig’s Bond, both being M’s favorite asset in their own glory days. The thing is, Silva’s cunning and recklessness forced M to trade him up, but things didn’t go as planned. In a way, you can say that Silva & Bond are the same person, only if James would’ve turned rouge after a hellishly bad day. You can say that Silva is Bond’s road not taken… for now.

More than the traditional arc of character development, Skyfall focuses on Bond’s past and how it ties with the possibility of a future where he is the villain. Bond sees himself in Silva, as he does in Bond. Each one is the opposite side of the same coin. So the challenge for Bond is defining a clear path in his head and allow himself to shield himself from future corruption.

The past is essential in many ways in this film, it’s the dual-threat surrounding the film’s theme about the past & future, and for Daniel Craig’s Bond, is the key to remember who he really is so he maintains his set of values. As the movie progresses, we are confirmed that Skyfall is the actual Bond residence, and with it, we start to find out some things about Bond’s childhood. We learn that Bond is an orphan which became the necessary childhood trauma that led him into becoming a spy.

Bond says that he likes the old ways, and his Chekov’s knife used to later kill Silva, together with how he uses his old house as a weapon to even the odds against Silva, who turned out to not only be as skilled as Bond in terms of being an agent but also have the technological savvy of Q, making him be a deadly opponent. These ‘old ways’ evened the odds against Silva and in a sense, reinforced the power behind Bond’s past to define his future.

In the end, M’s “sins” (Silva) come back and haunt her, leaving Bond to deal with the living repercussions of it all. M’s death even after the mission was barely successful symbolizes that her life has finally become full circle, and that, in a job like hers, where a nation’s security and the lesser evil are two sides of the same choice, one is bound to create deadly enemies.

M saying to Bond “I did get one thing right.” as her last words as she evidently suggests that she means that she was right about choosing & trusting him, where the reassuring piece that erased any lingering doubts that Bond could have about himself. Bond lost his surrogate mother in M, but like all great agents, he needs to wipe his tears and report back to duty, more knowledgeable than ever.

Before we continue to Spectre, let me just add how the Shanghai setpiece is completely electric and such innovative action for a Bond film. Plus the blue color pallet made possible with just the lighting was brilliant. We can thank Roger Deakins for that. It made for an aesthetic action sequence. The jellyfish swimming in the back screen as backlight were clever and made the action look great, while also adding some mystery over who is who during the fight.

SPECTRE: Glimpse of a New Beginning

After Skyfall was a side mission to explore who Bond could become if something went deeply wrong in his life and chose the wrong path, now Spectre puts him back on track to personally grow once more. Skyfall was a mission that needed to remind him of his past and reinforce his morals, and now Spectre will put them to a test.

We can’t talk about Spectre without mentioning its opening sequence surrounding the Day of the Dead (Mexico’s most iconic tradition), which was all done in a single shot and plainly beautiful. It was so great that it actually inspired the Mexican Government into starting a huge annual parade for the festivity, which traditionally was celebrated in different ways.

But now, let’s return to the core of this article, let’s see what this film means for Bond’s overarching character arc.

First off we get a lot of insight into Bond’s troubles from a quote from Moneypenny as she says to Bond: “It’s called life, you should try it sometime.” This directly calls out loud what will be going through Bond’s mind during the rest of the film. Bond is afraid of any other reality that doesn’t involve him being a covert agent; an assassin.

He has never known anything else and has had few moments of true happiness ever since he was an orphan. He tried to stop this life before, with Vesper, but that went wrong. Now the man who denied him of that life and who’s been Bond’s target ever since, challenges him to actually question himself & his life after he learns that he isn’t the head behind his real terrors, but someone else, more omnipresent & darker, who has puppeteered the world to his benefit, including all those past Bond villains. This man is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the classic Bond archnemesis, and leader of SPECTRE.

In this film, however, it is revealed that his original name was Franz Oberhauser and that he was in fact, Bond’s foster brother. So now, Bond’s past comes back to haunt him, as Franz is aiming to destroy Bond by taking matters into his own hands, after his previous attempts with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), and Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) failed. This severe grudge against Bond is born from the fact that Bond became his father’s favorite. After his childhood with Bond, Franz proceeded to kill his father, fake his own death, and then founded SPECTRE.

After watching how this organization went from stock manipulations, surgical murders and other means to their goals, to actual massive terrorism, Mr. White grew a ‘conscience’ and wanted nothing to do with SPECTRE. It all went too far. So now, he isolated himself to live out his remaining time quietly.

His isolation made him unable to care for his daughter, who is the only person in the world he loves, and now his final wish is for her to be safe. Kowing about James’s morals, Mr. White asks him to look out for her. Here, it’s notable how far Bond has matured. The Bond from a film prior or two would’ve shot Mr. White at sight, but now Bond understands the complexity of the world and even respects the sincere regret from Mr. White’s words because these words not only made him see his reality but Bond’s as well. In this key conversation in the cabin, Bond calmly understands that Mr. White is a pawn and he doesn’t even kill him for the sake of his vendetta. He hands him a gun, showing trust and mercy, and lets Mr. White end his life by himself after hearing Bond’s promise.

It’s ironic how the girl that challenges Bond’s lie about the possibility of a life beside the one of an agent is in fact the daughter of the same man he has followed for years to kill. Now, Daniel Craig’s Bond sees in Madeleine not only the key for solving his mission in Spectre, but a person to love and an opportunity to retire. A thing which, at least from the trailers of No Time To Die was briefly possible.

NO TIME TO DIE

We can only speculate and guess which is going to be Daniel Craig’s Bond actual closure with this film. Will it become the happy ending he craves with Madeline? or with it be just another tragic chapter in Bond’s life?

Billie Eilish’s song ‘No Time To Die’, as her predecesors before her did, can actually hint us at what will Bond face during the culminating entry on Bond’s story, but we’ll get to that on another article soon enough.

This article will be updated once we see No Time To Die.