It’s a brave, new world. At the British Secret Intelligence Service MI 6, once a mostly all-male bastion, the aged woman boss M routinely chides her most effective male agent. “I knew it was too early to promote you”. “That slimy bugger”. “Any thug can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation.” (Casino Royale, 2006)

A barely-out-of-college quartermaster quips he can do more damage on his laptop sitting in his pyjamas before his first cup of Earl Grey than an experienced agent can do in a year in the field. (Skyfall,2012)

And the most coveted 00 status has now been handed over to a strapping, young black woman. “I am not just any 00. I am 007.” (No Time to Die, 2021)

It is this world that Daniel Craig’s James Bond has both survived in and saved for 15 long years since Casino Royale was released (Craig’s first outing as Bond). And it is this world that he leaves behind as he becomes Bond for the last time in No Time to Die. The film is a fitting tribute to everything that has gone in between. For an actor who once said he would rather slash his wrist than play Bond again, Craig owns Bond with such aplomb in No Time To Die that when the final scene ends and the credits roll out, you feel a deep disquiet knowing Craig will no longer be Bond.

This is a film set on a grand scale. A bio-weapon has been unleashed by a madman (Rami Malek) and it can damage the world in ways we cannot even begin to fathom. Bond has retired and is living the quiet life somewhere far where it is a tradition to write out your past peeves on a piece of paper and then burn it to bury the old and bring in the new. But can you really bury the past? Blofeld (the brilliant Christoph Waltz), though incarcerated, is still in the game. Bond’s love Dr Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) has secrets of her own that she chooses not to tell Bond. And M (Ralph Fiennes) has royally messed it up while trying to make the world a safer place. Bond is called back into action. Not as 007, no, that status has been passed on to a younger, more enthusiastic woman agent (Lashana Lynch). Thanks to an old pal from the CIA Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), Bond sets out to save the world as a freelancer!

And save the world he does. Jumping off bridges, escaping from a burning vessel, dodging bullets and barbs from junior agents. In the process, he saves not just the day but a franchise he took on and rounded off with aplomb over five outings as Bond.

It would be hard to believe this now, but when Daniel Craig took over as James Bond many critics were far less than courteous. First, Craig is blonde and second, believe it or balk, some found him anything but dishy! “I’m sure a blonde could play James Bond, but not somebody who’s so ugly and uncharismatic as Daniel Craig,” wrote one.

“Let’s face it, Craig does not look like Bond, does not act like him (good actor as Mr Craig might be), does not have the gravitas, and fans and the public will not accept him as Bond. That I guarantee you,” said another.

If this wasn’t bad enough, Daniel Craig had to reset Bond to survive the age of cancel culture. His Bond couldn’t possibly have said “Oh, yes” to a woman when she had already said “Oh No” and take off her clothes like Sean Connery’s Bond did in Thunderbolt (1965). Or have a woman named Pussy Galore in a film just for the laughs (Goldfinger, 1964).

Daniel Craig was not just fighting critics who couldn’t imagine him as James Bond, he was trying to make a Neanderthal adjust to a New Age. When Ian Fleming started writing James Bond books in 1952, the world was a different place. To make Bond survive the new world, Craig toned down the toxicity while not toning down the masculinity. Craig’s Bond is both physical and emotional. He can put a knife in another’s man skull and also hold his lover’s head close to his chest while she breaks down. He falls in love, goes down a deep, dark hole when betrayed, climbs out to pick up the pieces and live another day. For generations that fawned over Sean Connery and Roger Moore, Bond was someone they wanted to be. For those who have had the pleasure to watch Craig, Bond is someone who wants to be us.

Through the last 15 years, Daniel Craig has not just saved the world, but saved James Bond himself from extinction.

In his last outing as Bond, all he wants is to walk away into the sunshine with a smile and some sadness. Can he?

Watch the film. You won’t get to see this Bond again.