The following article contains spoilers for No Time to Die.
No Time to Die may have failed its mission to clear the billion dollar milestone on a worldwide scale, but those shortcomings at the box office didn’t stop the Daniel Craig film from blowing up a few records set by James Bond himself, as seen in a recent video.
No Time to Die was Craig's swan song as James Bond, having finally landed at cinemas last fall after nearly two years of delays and widely going on to be considered a fitting end to the actor’s tenure in the role. However, No Time to Die's story is not free of controversial decisions, as the movie features an explosive finale unlike anything ever told in the history of the franchise, and it turns out that particular scene was special in more ways than one.
This behind-the-scenes footage posted on the official James Bond YouTube channel takes a closer look at No Time to Die's climax scene. In the video, the film’s special effects coordinator Chris Corbould explains just how big the explosion in Safin’s base was. According to Corbould, the record “most hush explosives in a single shot” stood at a staggering 65 kilograms of explosives, a measly figure when compared to the 140Kg it took to blow up the villain's compound in No Time to Die.
The record goes along nicely with another feat achieved during the Craig era, as 2015’s Spectre saw the crew use 2223 gallons of fuel and 32.6Kg of explosives for the scene where Ernst Stavro Blofeld's desert base is torched. Of course, this one encompasses the entire scene instead of just a single shot. While 007 may be the undisputed king of explosives, No Time to Die's $774 million worldwide box office did fall short of expectations for both the studio and analysts.
Without adjusting for inflation, No Time to Die will go down as Bond’s third highest-grossing film of all-time, right below the aforementioned Spectre ($879.6 million) and Skyfall ($1.111 billion), which has raised some question about how profitable the film really was. Besides a couple of Chinese blockbusters, only Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to beat James Bond in terms of cinema revenue last year, and yet the promotional and financing costs for the movie are said to have reached levels where that figure might have not been enough for it to turn green on MGM's balances.
In any case, the record-setting scene proves that Craig's James Bond went out with a bang, with no less than the most explosive movie shot ever being required to take out 007 for good. For now, fan speculation will center around who will be the next 007, with Henry Cavill even tossing his name into contention like the good British man he is.
No Time to Die is now available on digital platforms.
Source: James Bond 007 | YouTube