The Greatest
James Bond Girls



No Time to Die (2021)


See also Greatest Film Series Franchises: James Bond Films (illustrated)

See also James Bond Films - Summary
Greatest Bond Girls in James Bond Films
Title Screen
Film Title/Year/Director, Bond Girl (Actress)
Screenshots

No Time to Die (2021)
d. Cary Fukunaga

Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux)

In the opening pre-titles sequence, French psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann, the daughter of assassin Mr. White who worked for the criminal organization known as SPECTRE, served as James Bond's (Daniel Craig's) love interest. When she was a child living in Norway with her ailing mother, she witnessed her mother's shooting death by the film's villainous Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). He was seeking revenge against SPECTRE for the deaths of his family, ordered by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) - SPECTRE's founder and leader.

Years later, she joined Bond for love-making in a hotel room in the hilltop town of Matera, Italy. He dismissed her at a train-station when he suspected (wrongly) that she had betrayed him to SPECTRE and almost had him killed while he was visiting his ex-lover Vesper Lynd's mausoleum-gravesite in Matera.

Over five years later, Bond was informed that only one person was allowed to have access to the sole remaining SPECTRE leader Blofeld in prison at Belmarsh in London, England -- his psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann - and she was the only one he agreed to speak to.

In Madeleine's London psychotherapy office, Safin identified himself to her with his cracked and broken Noh mask from years earlier in Norway, and he attempted to coerce her, through blackmail, to finally wipe out SPECTRE's leader. He gave her a small atomizer bottle that would infect her with Heracles nanobots so that she could then pass them on to the captive Blofeld and kill him.

When Bond reunited and reacquainted himself with Madeleine in Blofeld's prison cell, she was trembling, nervous and upset as Blofeld was brought out to them. As she attempted to leave, Bond momentarily grabbed her wrist, but she pulled away from him and left the cell. He was unknowingly infected with Heracles nanobots that were programmed to attack Blofeld - and shortly later, when he touched Blofeld in anger to strangle him, the nanobots ultimately infected and poisonously killed Blofeld (with a nasty death off-screen).

Bond decided to track the missing Madeleine down at her remote childhood home in Norway. He was unclear why she had tried to kill Blofeld, and who gave her the poison to do it. He affirmed his love for her: "I have loved you, and I will love you, and I do not regret a single moment of my life that led me to you, except when I put you on that train" - and he approached to kiss her.

Suddenly, he was surprised to meet her blue-eyed 5 year-old daughter Mathilde Swann (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) sitting on the stairs, whom she claimed was not Bond's child ("She's not yours"). She showed him a photo and information in secret files collected by Madeleine's father (Mr. White) about Safin's family history and the reason for his enmity toward SPECTRE, and their own association years earlier when Safin killed her mother but saved her life.

Bond and Madeleine slept together that night. By the next morning, Safin, rogue CIA agent Ash (Billy Magnussen), and many of his cohorts now sought to capture them, so Bond fled with Madeleine and Mathilde from their Norwegian house for safety and drove off in an SUV. However, the threesome were chased on the road and pursued by numerous vehicles and motorbikes driven by Safin's assassins.

Although Bond eventually killed many of the assassins, including Ash, Safin was able to escape with two abducted hostages -- Madeleine and her daughter Mathilde, and took them via helicopter to his WWII island base (between Russia and Japan) that he had converted into a nanobot factory (or "Poison Garden"). His goal was to kill millions of people, take over the world, and create a new world order.

In the film's exciting conclusion, Bond (with Nomi) pursued Safin to his island headquarters, to save Madeleine and Mathilde. Everyone except Bond was able to escape from the island by boat, while Bond chose to remain behind to attempt to open up the island's hatch doors. The opening would enable the British Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon to initiate the launching of a missile strike on the base to destroy the nanobots. Bond gave his in-person farewell to Madeleine: "I have to finish this. For us."

During a struggle with Safin, a vial of the bio-weapon was broken and some of the DNA-coded substance came into contact with Bond's skin and face. The nanobots were specially coded and directly programmed with the genetic sequence that were intended to specifically target Madeleine and Mathilde's DNA. If he came into contact with them, he would kill them. He learned again that once exposed to the bio-weapon, the virus couldn't be cleaned off: ("It's eternal, it's permanent").

The self-sacrificing Bond spoke to Madeleine on a nearby island by walkie-talkie radio, and told her during their last words together that he loved her but he wouldn't be coming back. He urged her to move on without him ("You have all the time in the world"). She confirmed that Mathilde was his daughter in their final moments ("She does have your eyes").

Bond stood up and died - staring out at the ocean as the missiles from the warship rained down on the island and obliterated the nanobot factory and the virus.



With Bond in Matera, Italy


As Psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann in London


In her Remote Norway Village Home

A Passionate Kiss

Mathilde Swann (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet)


The Next Morning

Their Farewell Goodbye

No Time to Die (2021)
d. Cary Fukunaga

Nomi (Lashana Lynch)

Bond had retired for five years to a tranquil and idyllic self-sufficient life in Port Antonio, Jamaica, but one night, after Bond found that his open-air Jeep was inoperative, he was greeted by a large black female named Nomi (Lashana Lynch). She helpfully offered him a ride on her motor-scooter to his place. She initially claimed that she was a Jamaican diver interested in old wrecks.

After arriving at his place, in his bungalow bedroom, she removed her wig and spoke with a British accent to reveal that she was a fellow MI6 operative for two years who had succeeded him as the new "007". She hinted she was sent from M (Ralph Fiennes), Bond's ex-superior, to inform him about her search for abducted Russian scientist Valdo Obruchev (working for MI6) in Cuba, separate from the CIA's interest in the missing scientist. It was a competitive race between Bond (and the CIA) and his replacement 007 agent (at MI6) to locate Obruchev and stop his deadly Project Heracles bioweapon authorized by M.

During the chaos following Blofeld's party, when the SPECTRE agents were unpredictably targeted and killed with Obruchev's nanobots (leaving Bond safe), Nomi suddenly dropped down on a cable from a shattered glass dome above them, grabbed Obruchev, and extracted him to the rooftop. She helped to kill off some of the SPECTRE agents that were threatening all of them. However, Paloma and Bond were able to seize Obruchev before Nomi, and she was left to defend herself against arriving police officers. She escaped from being captured by firing a grenade at an electrical pole that collapsed onto them.

For the remainder of the film, Nomi was supportive of Bond. She joined him to pursue Safin at his island headquarters (to kill Obruchev and Safin), to save Madeleine and Mathilde, and to confirm the presence of Heracles. Nomi's request that Bond be reinstated with the 007 title was granted, as she graciously relinquished it from herself: ("It's just a number").




No Time to Die (2021)
d. Cary Fukunaga

Paloma (Ana de Armas)

During Bond's search for kidnapped Russian scientist Valdo Obruchev in Santiago de Cuba, he met sexy Cuban intelligence operative Paloma (Ana de Armas), a CIA agent, who was allied with Felix Leiter (but with only three weeks' training). She was wearing a black evening dress with a low-cut back and front. She quickly scolded him: "You're late!" before dragging him by the hand to a downstairs wine cellar where she urged him to change into a tuxedo. Then, the two crossed the street and entered an aging building with pillars to infiltrate a formal SPECTRE party (a celebration of Blofeld's birthday) with the aim of retrieving Obruchev.

The head of SPECTRE, Blofeld was using a disembodied "bionic eye" carried on a velvet pillow, in order to see, communicate and participate in the party while still in custody and imprisoned. Bond and Paloma didn't realize that they had walked into Blofeld's trap set up to kill Bond with the virus. The captive Obruchev had been ordered by Blofeld's men to inflict harm on Bond by releasing the poisonous Heracles bio-weapon virus or nanobots as a fine mist sprayed into the room. To Bond's and Blofeld's shock, the Heracles weapon caused boils to erupt on the faces of the entire gathering of SPECTRE agent-operatives before they dropped dead, while Bond and Paloma were unaffected. Obruchev had unpredictably reprogrammed (or re-engineered with switched flash drives) the Heracles nanobots to now be weaponized to bypass Bond and attack and kill the entire group of SPECTRE members, and destroy the organization.

The two agents faced off against and killed multiple gunmen as they attempted to leave the party and apprehend Obruchev. After many shoot-outs and confrontations with deadly agents, the two successfully apprehended Obruchev. Bond parted ways with Paloma, and led Obruchev to the harbor to board Nomi's rickety old seaplane.







Greatest Bond Girls in James Bond Films
(chronological, each Bond film a separate page)
Introduction | Dr. No (1962) | From Russia With Love (1963) | Goldfinger (1964) | Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967) | On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) | Diamonds are Forever (1971) | Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Moonraker (1979) | For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983) | A View to a Kill (1985) | The Living Daylights (1987) | Licence to Kill (1989)
GoldenEye (1995) | Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) | The World is Not Enough (1999) | Die Another Day (2002)
Casino Royale (2006) | Quantum of Solace (2008) | Skyfall (2012) | Spectre (2015) | No Time to Die (2021) | Unofficial Never Say Never Again (1983)

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