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*No Time to Die *ending explained: Unpacking Safin’s plan, Project Heracles, and that bittersweet finale

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By Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe is a timely SEO writer at **. She has been working at * *since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Distractify.

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January 28, 2026 12:30 p.m. ET

Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time to Die'. Credit:

- Daniel Craig takes his final bow as James Bond in *No Time to Die*.

- Rami Malek costars as Lyutsifer Safin, a twisted villain with a plan to wipe out SPECTRE (and millions of others).

- *No Time to Die* is currently streaming on Netflix.

After 15 years and five films, Daniel Craig hung up his tux for good in *No Time to Die*.

Cary Fukunaga's follow-up to 2015's *Spectre* hit several bumps along the way, from creative delays to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it dominated the box office upon its October 2021 release, raking in over $770 million worldwide.

*No Time to Die *was also fairly well-received by critics and fans, with ** calling it a "fond farewell: faithfully bridging the old world and the new until the last, deathless postscript."

With the *Bond* film franchise now streaming on Netflix, fans are revisiting Craig's era while others are discovering it for the first time. *No Time to Die, *in particular, has popped due to its high-stakes action, bold finale, and compelling villains, including Rami Malek's Lyutsifer Safin.

Below, we break down the ending of *No Time to Die*, from Safin's sinister plot to that tear-jerking ending.

What is *No Time to Die *about?

Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann and Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time to Die'. Nicola Dove/MGM

*No Time to Die* begins with a flashback to the childhood of Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), who debuted in *Spectre* as an agent of the titular terrorist organization who falls for Bond while helping him take it down.

Her father was Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), the high-ranking SPECTRE official (and Quantum head) we first met back in *Casino Royale* (2006). In the flashback, she sees her mother gunned down by Safin, who holds a grudge against her father.

Fast-forward to the present: Bond and Madeleine are trying to have a normal life together. She even convinces him to visit the grave of his ex-lover Vesper Lynd (*Casino Royale*'s Eva Green) to help him move on.

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While he's there, a bomb goes off. Bond escapes, but grows suspicious that Madeline betrayed him after she receives a call from the imprisoned Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), her former employer at SPECTRE. Unable to overcome his suspicions, he breaks things off.

Five years later, Bond is enjoying a quiet, lonely life away from MI6. He gets pulled back into action when the CIA's Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) recruits Bond to track down a scientist, Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), who's been kidnapped by SPECTRE.

Obruchev, we learn, was developing a bioweapon called Project Heracles that proves quite important to the events of the film.

What is Project Heracles?

Created by Obruchev on behalf of MI6, Heracles is a bioweapon consisting of nanobots that can target specific individuals via DNA inputs.

As M (Ralph Fiennes) puts it, Heracles was "designed to be the most efficient weapon in our arsenal," as it can "pass through people harmlessly before reaching its intended target." This type of weapon, M explains, could potentially reduce the risk of collateral damage when taking out targets.

The problem, as we come to learn, is that Heracles can be reprogrammed to become a weapon of mass destruction, targeting not just individuals but entire bloodlines and ethnicities. Like any virus, if enough people are infected, the *people* become the weapon.

Who is Lyutsifer Safin?

Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin in 'No Time to Die'.

Safin is the main villain in *No Time to Die*. He's a ruthless individual on a personal mission for revenge: His family was murdered years ago by SPECTRE, specifically by Mr. White, under orders from Blofeld. His weapon of choice to take out SPECTRE is Heracles. Obruchev, it's revealed, is working for him.

But Safin is not just out for revenge. He also has his own twisted plan for a new world order. He works with Obruchev to tweak Heracles, creating variants that specifically target SPECTRE and Blofeld, as well as Madeleine and her daughter, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet).

With the help of Obruchev, Safin plans to mass-produce Heracles on an island called the Poison Garden, which was once owned by his family but commandeered by SPECTRE after their murder. After eliminating the remaining members of SPECTRE via Heracles, he takes back control of the island.

What happens to Blofeld?

Christoph Waltz as Blofeld and Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time to Die'. Nicola Dove/MGM

After Bond extracts Obruchev, he digs for information about Heracles and Blofeld's involvement. Things quickly spiral out of control when secrets are exposed and guns start blazing. Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen), Leiter and Bond's ally-turned-foe, kills Leiter and tries to take out Bond, but the spy manages to escape because, as Billie Eilish sings in the theme song, there's just no time to die.

Bond sets his sights on confronting Blofeld, who refuses to speak to anyone but Madeline, his psychiatrist. What neither Bond nor Blofeld know, though, is that Safin has already intercepted Madeline, infecting her with a Heracles variant that is harmless to her but fatal to Blofeld. All she needs to do is touch him to pass it along.

Madeleine and Bond reunite in the prison where Blofeld is being held, but she can't go through with her secret mission. As she leaves, Bond touches her and unwittingly infects himself.

Later, when he finally faces Blofeld, the villain reveals he orchestrated the Vesper grave ambush to make Bond doubt Madeleine. Bond chokes Blofeld, who quickly dies from the virus.

Does Bond thwart Safin’s plan?

Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin in 'No Time to Die'.

Bond travels to Madeleine's childhood home, where he reconciles with her and meets Mathilde, who he suspects to be his daughter (despite Madeleine's protestations). Their domestic bliss is cut short, however, when Safin's men arrive on the scene. Bond holds his own in the fight, killing Ash and several others, but the villains escape with Madeleine and Mathlide, taking them to the Poison Garden.

Bond tracks them down and confronts Safin, while Nomi (Lashana Lynch), Bond's replacement and the new 007, kills Obruchev and gets Madeleine and Mathilde to safety. Bond fights through Safin's remaining forces and convinces M to authorize a missile strike on the island to prevent the spread of Heracles.

During their final confrontation, Safin shoots Bond several times, grievously wounding him. More tragically, he infects Bond with a Heracles variant designed to target Madeleine and Mathilde. Since the nanobots can't be extracted from the body, Bond knows he can never again come in contact with them.

After finishing off Safin, a bleeding Bond prepares for the missiles to hit the island, knowing it could also spell his own demise.

Does James Bond die?

Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time to Die'.

Yes, James Bond meets his end — something no other 007 has done before. Gravely injured and knowing he can never be with Madeleine or Mathlide, he makes one final call to say goodbye and tell them he loves them.

Madeleine confirms Mathilde is his, and Bond smiles before letting her know that he always knew. Moments later, the missiles strike the island, and Bond sacrifices himself to save the people he cares about most.

Some fans weren't convinced Craig's 007 was truly gone, but the actor put those rumors to rest on a November 2024 episode of the *Awards Chatter* podcast. "He’s dead! How many times do I have to blow him up?" he said. "He’s in teeny-weeny little pieces."

He continued, "He's full of a virus that would kill his family, so there's no way he can come back."

Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time to Die'.

At one point, Craig thought *Spectre *would be his last Bond film. But after taking an extended break, he returned to finish the story in *No Time to Die*.

"It was five years, and we had an idea, an idea that I'd had on *Casino Royale*," he explained to EW. "I spoke to Barbara [Broccoli, Bond franchise producer] about it, and she said, 'Yeah, go for it.' We expanded that idea, and that became the plot or became at least what we were aiming for, and I'm very, very, very happy we did."

Looking back, Craig is grateful for his stint as the iconic spy. "Apart from Marvel movies, there aren't movies that are as big as this," he said. "I've had the privilege of being involved in it. ... It was there before me, and it will be there after me. But I've had a chance to be part of all of this, and if you can't get it up for a Bond movie as an actor, what can you get it up for? So, yeah, I'll miss it a lot."

What happens at the end of No Time to Die?

Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann and Lisa-Dorah Sonnet as Mathilde in 'No Time to Die'.

In an epilogue, Nomi heads back to MI6, where M pulls her aside with Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Tanner (Rory Kinnear), and Q (Ben Whishaw) for a heartfelt toast to Bond.

Then we cut to Italy, where Madeleine is driving with Mathilde. She tells her daughter, "Mathilde, I'm going to tell you a story about a man. His name was Bond, James Bond."

Where can I watch No Time to Die?

*No Time to Die *is currently available to stream on Netflix.

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