Warning: Spoilers ahead for No Time To Die
No Time To Die has numerous nods and references to previous James Bond movies, but one actually remakes the opening from Roger Moore’s 1981 adventure, For Your Eyes Only. Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond primarily takes inspiration from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in its story, themes and even music. Notwithstanding this, there are also easter eggs sprinkled throughout the film to the series’ near 60-year history.
In For Your Eyes Only opening, Bond visits the grave of his wife, Tracy. In the closing moments of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, she was killed by SPECTRE in a drive-by shooting on the way to their honeymoon. The grave is even dated 1969 – the year Majesty’s was released – and the dedication says “We have all the time in the World.” Placing flowers on her grave, Bond is called away to a helicopter, allegedly from MI6. However, it is an elaborate assassination attempt by “Blofeld” (the rights to use Blofeld and Spectre were tied up in lawsuits at the time, but the implication it’s him is clear). Blofeld takes over the helicopter by remote control and attempts to kill Bond. Moore gets the upper hand and manages to regain control, killing Blofeld in the process by dropping him from the helicopter down a chimney stack.
No Time to Die uses the same concept for its pre-title sequence. Bond visits the tomb of his first love, Vesper Lynn. Vesper was forced to betray Bond in Casino Royale and drowns in a sinking Venetian building despite Bond’s efforts to save her. He’s persuaded to go to her grave by current love, Madeleine Swann, to make peace with his past. At the tomb, he confesses he misses Vesper and asks to be forgiven, but then notices flowers with the SPECTRE insignia and the tomb explodes. Incorrectly concluding Madeleine betrayed him just as Vesper did, he’s ambushed by gunmen, setting in motion a chase through the streets of Matera. Blofeld later reveals to Bond he staged the attack to make it appear that Madeleine had betrayed him, to deny Bond any kind of happiness.
For Your Eyes Only pre-title sequence was originally intended to introduce audiences to a new James Bond actor. Moore’s contract was up and it wasn’t certain he’d return. Establishing a connection to previous installments with Tracy’s grave and Blofeld would have made it clear audiences were still watching the same character as played by different actors (unlike Craig’s movies, which soft rebooted the franchise). Moore did return, but the scene was kept as written. Reaction to the sequence is divisive, with some consider it to be a nice callback to the earlier films, while others feel it gets very silly and feels totally out of place with the moe grounded feel of the rest of the story.
While For Your Eyes Only is arguably Moore’s best Bond, No Time To Die‘s graveyard scene certainly carries more emotional weight and is connected to the main plot (whereas Roger Moore’s version is a standalone mini-adventure). Both have Bond trying to have a quiet moment of contemplation with a lost love – only for Blofeld to launch a surprise attack. It’s also not the only call-back in No Time To Die to For Your Eyes Only. Craig’s Bond kills the traitor Logan Ash by coldly dropping a car on top of him, which is reminiscent of Bond kicking the villainous Locque’s crashed car (with him in it) over a cliff, in Roger Moore’s darkest kill as 007.
