This article contains spoilers for No Time To Die.The previous James Bond film, 2015’s Spectre, was a noticeable step down from its immediate predecessor Skyfall — despite sharing a director in Sam Mendes, Spectre was criticized by both critics and fans for its sloppy writing, disappointing action, and weak characters. However, despite all its faults, the film still managed to lay the foundation for a far superior follow-up in the form of the newly released No Time To Die.
After all the negative reception Spectre earned, the easy thing to do would have been to just ignore it altogether and create a completely unrelated story for Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond. However, No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga instead decided to embrace the previous film’s story, and endeavored to improve on its mistakes instead of pretending they never happened. And this approach is particularly noticeable in regards to one specific character: Bond’s primary love interest Madeleine Swann, played by Death Stranding star Léa Seydoux.
Madeleine Swann is introduced partway through Spectre as the daughter of Bond’s old nemesis Mr. White, who previously appeared in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace as a member of the mysterious Quantum organization, now revealed to have ties to SPECTRE. Following Mr. White’s death, Madeleine quickly becomes embroiled in the conspiracy around SPECTRE, forcing her to reluctantly team up with Bond to save both their lives. At first, Madeleine is presented as James’ equal — a brilliant, strong-willed woman who’s been trained in combat as a result of her upbringing as the daughter of a criminal mastermind. In many ways, she seems to be a female version of Bond, opening the possibility of a Bond Girl who’s a true equal to James instead of just another damsel in distress to be protected, seduced, and ultimately abandoned.
However, this ended up proving to not be the case — at least not in Spectre. Despite the unique and compelling backstory of being the daughter of one of Bond’s enemies, this backstory is barely even elaborated on in the film. And though Swann claims to be a trained killer in her own right, she never gets the chance to show her skills in a fight. Instead, she’s shown to be practically helpless without Bond to protect her, just like nearly every love interest before her. And of course, despite her initial dismissal of Bond’s attempts to seduce her, Madeleine ends up falling for him not long after for unclear reasons.
All in all, the Madeleine Swann presented in Spectre just isn’t a particularly compelling character. She has the capacity to be Bond’s equal, and perhaps the greatest love interest in the series’ long history, not to mention all the potential offered by her backstory. But in the final product, she’s a two-dimensional character who barely has any impact on the plot. The most that can be said of her is that Léa Seydoux does her best with the material she’s given, and that Madeleine at least doesn’t get killed off like Vesper Lynd and Sévérine before her. But because she and Bond are still together when he retires from MI6 at the end of the film, the door is opened for her to return as one of the rare long-term love interests in the series. And in No Time To Die, Fukunaga definitely makes the most of this opportunity.
The Madeleine who appears in No Time To Die may as well be a completely different character than the one in Spectre. Her backstory as Mr. White’s daughter is a crucial aspect of the plot from the very first scene, as it makes her a major target of the film’s villain Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), who seeks to avenge his family by killing their murderer Mr. White’s own family. And unlike in Spectre, Madeleine now has complete agency over her actions in the plot, acting as a fully-realized, three-dimensional character with her own goals and motives instead of just another damsel in distress to fawn over Bond. In fact, Madeleine and Bond’s relationship is in conflict for most of the film — not forced, gratuitous conflict like in most Hollywood romances, but genuine and believable conflict that results from the duo’s respective baggage and clashing personalities.
However, that isn’t to say that Bond and Madeleine don’t love each other. They absolutely do, which is more than can be said for James and most of the series’ Bond Girls. Madeleine isn’t some disposable sex object, she’s the single most important person in Bond’s life, and his character arc in this film is all about opening up to her and letting himself love again. Bond finds strength not through cold stoicism, but through emotion and vulnerability, finally recovering from the trauma he’s carried with him since Vesper’s death in Casino Royale. All this development is the result of his relationship with Madeleine, and it wouldn’t hit nearly as hard if she wasn’t a more fleshed-out character this time around.
And of course, it’d be a shame not to mention the fact that Madeleine finally gets to hold her own in combat this time around, expertly gunning down Safin’s henchmen as she fights alongside Bond. Sure, she isn’t as much of a powerhouse as Ana de Armas’ Paloma or Lashana Lynch’s Nomi, but she’s definitely no helpless damsel in distress. And while she may not be Bond’s equal on the battlefield, she’s certainly his equal in their relationship, which is arguably even more important. Not only is Madeleine’s depiction in No Time To Die a major improvement over her role in Spectre, it’s a massive leap forward for the portrayal of female characters in James Bond movies. Needless to say, Léa Seydoux and Cary Joji Fukunaga have redefined what it means to be a Bond Girl.