“Die can wait”: what if we (finally) talked about the end of the last James Bond?

If you are not one of the 4 million French spectators who bought a ticket for To die can wait, do not read this article. It’s understood ? The others, you have the right to stay.

For the first time since the film’s release last October, Daniel Craig, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and the producers of the James Bond saga have agreed to answer questions from Variety about this famous ending. The one where Agent 007 decides to die under the avalanche of bombs falling on the island where Safin (Rami Malek), the villain, injected him with a virus that will prevent him from ever approaching Madeleine Swan (Léa Seydoux) and their daughter.

Since James Bond 007 vs. Dr No by Terence Young with Sean Connery, in 1962, no one had dared to kill the character born from the imagination of the writer Ian Fleming. Imagine that it was Daniel Craig himself who requested it from producer Barbara Broccoli in 2006, after a much applauded preview of Casino Royale in Berlin. “How many films should I make?“, asked the actor, in the back of a car.”She answered four and I said ‘okay, can I kill him in the last one?‘”.

It remains that at the end of their fourth collaboration with Spectrum, in 2015, James Bond was still alive. Once Daniel Craig is convinced to shoot a fifth film, his initial idea will come back to the fore. “It’s the ultimate sacrifice“, says Barbara Broccoli.”Because people who do this kind of job put their lives in danger all the time. “His partner Michael G. Wilson, recalls, for his part, that Ian Fleming himself had almost killed 007 in the novels Good Kisses from Russia and We only live twice.

It was still necessary to find the ideal solution to do it in the cinema. Before the end as tragic as it will be filming, Cary Joji Fukanaga says that an initial version of the script predicted that James Bond died from a simple gun bullet. “It seemed to us that using a conventional weapon was not appropriate, considering all that he had done so far to get by.“, admits the filmmaker. Hence the idea of ​​the poison flowing in the veins of 007 …

At the origin of this never-before-seen scriptwriting coup, Daniel Craig adds: “Safin’s gun kills the only thing Bond wants in life, which is to be with the people he loves. And when he realizes he won’t be able to, he has no more reason to live (…) There had to be a weight, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. Without that, we wouldn’t have done it. And we would have found another way to end. “

Given the success of the film, the producers were right to take this risk a little inflated on paper. “What’s amazing is that the public has managed to keep it a secret“, relishes Barbara Broccoli.”Which is proof that Bond fans didn’t want to spoil other people’s fun by telling them the end of the story.. “Result: the third biggest success in franchise history, with $ 770 million in revenue behind Sky Fall (1.1 billion) and Spectrum (879 million). Almost a feat during a pandemic.

It remains to be seen how the succession of Daniel Craig will be managed. “If you stay until the end of the credits it says ‘James Bond will return’“, underlines the actor. But it will be without him. According to the English bookmakers, it is Richard Madden, the star of the series Bodyguard, who currently holds the rope, even if Barbara Broccoli ensures that no decision will be taken before 2022. Suffice to say that the countdown has already started.