Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas have been working on the theme tune to No Time to Die for some time now. The announcement of their involvement was hugely exciting, compounded by their history-making Grammy wins that followed. But now the theme song has been released, what does it reveal about the plot of No Time to Die?
Needless to say, this song was always going to be a smash hit, and the vibe is perfect mixture of Eilish’s unique style and James Bond themes of old.
There is drama, subtlety, and potential some spoilers lurking in the lyrics.
It begins with some beautiful piano, as synthesised strings rise to bring some foreboding and drama to the music.
Then, Eilish comes in, singing the words: “I should have known I’d leave alone, just goes to show that the blood you bleed is just the blood you owe.”
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From here, Billie sings: ‘We were a pair, but I saw you there. Too much to bear, you were my life but life is far away from fair.”
So far, this certainly speaks to a plotline we have heard about already – Madeleine Swann’s betrayal.
As Spectre ended, James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) retired, taking his lover Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) away with him where, as we learned in the No Time to Die trailer, they settled abroad.
However, the trailer has also suggested she has betrayed him, with some of his arch enemies like Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and his new enemy, Safin (Rami Malek) both taunting him about her bad deeds.
In the bacground to Billie’s vocals, stabs from the main Bond theme tune are heard, and as the chorus begins, the striking Bond-style guitar comes in, linking this strongly with the franchise.
The pre-chorus lyrics continue: “Was I stupid to love you? Was I reckless to help? Was it obvious to everybody else?”
From here, Billie sings the chorus, which also names the song.
She sings: “That I’ve fallen for a lie, you were never on my side. Fool me once, fool me twice, are you death or paradise?
“Now you’ll never see me cry. There’s just no time to die.”
The brass and strings come in, turning this truly into a Bond theme and giving it its epic feel.
But these lyrics, from the chorus, certainly add a potential new storyline.
In asking whether you are “death or paradise” is interesting, as it suggests, if the song is about Madeleine, that she could inadvertently be the death of Bond.
It may be that because of her misdeeds, he is in the firing line and, this may signal his end due to her actions.
The lyrics continue: “I let it burn, you’re no longer my concern. Faces from my past return, another lesson yet to learn.”
This lyrics is a mahor giveaway – we know one face returns in Blofeld, as Bond is forced to confront him in prison.
But could this face also be someone else – perhaps Madeleine and Safin know one another from the past?
As Billie sings these lines, the song continues in a Bond style, adding further strings and a beat which makes it more similar to Bond themes.
Billie Eilish reveals there is “no time to die,” multiple times, but what is this referring to?
Could this be that Bond’s love for Madeleine will not get in the way of his continuing his mission, or could this actually mean that he will not allow her betrayal to literally kill him?
One theory which has been sweeping the fan sites is a theory that Madeleine is closely connected to Spectre, and did not reveal this to her boyfriend before their time away.
In one of the trailers, Madeleine cries over a mask, which was worn by many of the Spectre members and is identical to one worn by Safin later on in the same trailer.
Of course, the most exciting thing to consider is what the “face from my past” could be, and how this could either aid or hurt Bond’s chances.
Could someone we know from a previous movie return, and come to help Bond face his strongest enemy?
Another theory which has been going round is that Safin is in fact Dr No, so could the face from the past be Safin’s as the first ever film villain for Bond comes back in a new form?
There are so many questions posed by this theme, but fans need only wait a couple more months to find out.
No Time to Die is out in cinemas on April 2
