No Time To Die Ending Explained - What's Next For James Bond?

5. M's Obituary

Just to really hammer home that yes, James Bond, the Double O Seven with a Licence To Kill has finally met his end, M and his closest confidants at MI6 gather to remember the super spy. For many, they were surely expecting Bond to walk in on the dower bunch, but it never happens.

Ralph Fiennes' M reads out some all to familiar words at this gathering to remember Bond, and the following words are actually lifted from the Ian Fleming book - You Only Live Twice.

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, ever atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Not only does it bring some of Bond’s exploited full circle, but these words become so much more powerful, when we know Bond is actually gone, rather than being read to fake out the spies passing in a previous tale. And this would be what Bond would want, a brief service rather than a glorious sendoff.